Navigational Tango

Dances:  Tango
Part:  Lead
Workout:  Legs at the gym.
Happy Hour:  Pho Hoa - Pho Tai, Nam, Gau, Gan, Sach
Gym Patron Stink Rating Today - 1 (Bed of Roses) --- 10 (VX Poison Gas):  7

Leg day is always a love/hate day for me.  On one hand I think the exercises are easy to do.  Sure they burn like crazy when you do them right, but you're getting a hell of a workout.  What's more is that it's a quick day on the weights.  On the other hand, going into practice right after is tough.  My first few natural turns are always shaky (literally), my first heel turns off balance, and my calves protesting the very essence of rise and fall.  Overall it leads to a shortened attention span when practicing.  But Sarah and I continue with the regime as we've both felt the results of the leg weight training.  It's worth the one day sacrifice.

Practice today was short again.  I'm not too worried about it.  We've been focusing more on the infrastructure of our partnership rather than the product itself.  In order to build great products you need great tools.  I believe it will yield great results.  That being said, we did practice.  Tango was the subject of debate this evening, specifically the first long side.  It consists of a deadly combination of Fallaway Reverse and Slip Pivots, Reverse Outside Swivel, and Oversway.  Aside from the technical difficulties of the amalgamation, it has always posed a threat to me in the floor crafting department.  The combination is supposed to travel more or less in a straight line down the long side of the floor.  Problem with that is I need to predict where the other couples are going to end up after our first short side since it places us where our long side will begin with little room for adjustment.  Once we take off down the long end, stopping is definitely not ideal.  Lots of momentum not to mention phrasing issues.  Being a musical person, it drives me nuts when we're not on phrase.  Tonight I worked on getting a bit more rotation throughout the whole Fallaway Reverse and Slip Pivot sections.  That helped keep us on track down the floor.  I'm also thinking it'll increase the amount of flexibility I have depending on the current traffic conditions.  I can either rotate more or less based on the imminent situation at hand.

Sarah and I noticed a pleasant change to that part of our tango tonight.  We were dancing it quite slowly and for the first time after any pivot we weren't falling over.  I would stop after each step and the pivots ended on balance with little difficulty.  For sure step in the right direction.  Sarah has always had issues with the Reverse Outside Swivel.  Somehow she either over rotates, gets left behind, falls over, or any other number if issues.  At least she feels that's the case.  We ran it a few times and it all feels within normal limits to me.  Luckily we both agree the section is improving overall.  Definitely night and day difference from when we first started three months ago.