Elasticity

One of the reasons why babies learn fast the way they do is because of the nature of the exposure and the elasticity of their minds. Right? Neurologists please correct, basing this only on my own reasoning lol.

They are exposed to many beginner level, novice stage, simple stuff. So it's like a big thing when a baby takes his first steps. From crawling to walking, the improvement is so vast, and the knowledge gained so much, so wide, but it ain't deep.

Same for many things. It's easy to learn the beginner stage and simple stuff first because our mind picks it up quickly and learns faster by practice. On the contrary, for the difficult stuff, you need to practice more. It's definitely harder for Usain Bolt to shave a second off his PB, than it is for me to accomplish the same.

For bboying, learning the beginnings of a windmill, nike, 6 step, indian step, handstand, or even flare, is alot easier than perfecting a flare. It is partially because of the nature of the move and the elasticity of the mind. When we first started bboying, we explored our style, know nothing about knowledge, and just want to form the first set as quick as possible. But as our style develops, we construct better sentences for our sets and replies, and our dance starts to make sense.

Then comes the difficult part. This is when improvement will slow. It's no longer so easy to get a move in one day. Our styles and tendencies make us, but sometimes also limit us. It becomes hard to make more minisets. Sometimes creating new stuff requires brainstorming.

But when you watch videos, you suddenly gain inspiration and have new ideas. Not so much of biting ideas, but the movement of another person opens up a little channel in your mind. More often than not you go like "that's fresh! why haven't I explored it?!" than "wtf was that shit?". The fact that you responded well means that there is a certain thing in his movement that you can make sense of. And the sense you made turned up to be something beautiful. All these is because of an exposure to another movement or idea, thought, interpretation.

But that's not all. we can go deeper. What does that imply? What does being inspired by an external idea mean? What can we conclude from this in the end?

To be inspired means that your mind, or your soul is receptive enough to an external stimulus to be influenced positively. Why this happens is because of 2 reasons:
1. The external stimuli and the person himself have a somewhat understandable understanding field.
2. The person himself has enough brain elasticity to capture and understand the stimuli, even if the difference between the stimuli and the person's mind are very far apart.

Reason 1:
Let's say if I'm going to teach a stranger bboying. And I start by teaching him 1990s straight up by telling him to go on 1 hand and spin like a top. Compare that with breaking down the steps, teaching him to go to handstand in a circular motion, then followed by a whip, then the lean. Why teaching step by step is alot more helpful is this: I convey my information in a way that the student understands and can connect with. To a passer by, seeing Cico do 32 1990s is like "WTF JUST HAPPENED". But to Boy, it may be something like "Oh so he sat in for more spin, that's all I need to do to sqweeze 15 rounds more?". 2 totally different reactions, because of the extreme discrepancies in knowledge and understanding ability.

Reason 2:
There was a period of time earlier this year when I was trying rainbows. I could not understand and feel the motion of the hollowback cartwheel, although I can do it. I just.. couldn't feel it! Until one day I went esplanade and ask Gilbert from FTC. He gave me a tip to reach far out with my second hard for the ground. When I did it, he told me to reach a little more backwards. Boom here comes the rainbow. AND I CAN FEEL IT (Thanks Gilbert, again). This is how I got reverse halo in 2 days. I was thinking that if I grub and place my nonstabbing hand down, my body will unwind, so all I need to do is to pull my left hand to encourage the CCW spin (thanks XF for that inspiration), and boom i spun, but didn't catch. The next day I caught so I got it!. This is how many of you suddenly got a move you didn't know you can. Apart from natural body tendencies granted to you since the Sperm fused with the Egg, your style and movements outside of bboying play a big role in your natural tendencies too. The trick here is, keeping your mind open and mouldable to new ideas, knowledge, perspectives. Things get a little different when you rephrase the question. Instead of "How should I surprise my girlfriend", you can explore the possibilities of startling your mom. Ok that's poor. Sorry I'm thinking of dinner and bboying later...

So long as your mind is mouldable and receptive to new ideas, you are able, physically, to do something new, because you are mentally ready for it. Learning a backflip on matress and road are 2 different things not because the mattress is easier. (FYI the difficulty of a backflip is influenced by how high you jump and how fast you spin, so matress consperm more difficult) But that we are mentally prepared to fall, so that frees up a large part of the brain. Just like jumping off a building won't kill you. But the 100mph impact with solid ground probably will.

Keep it elastic, keep bending it. Im not talking about your dick. But your mind, the key to unlock likes in the receptiveness of ideas, perspectives and discovery of your own.