Men's gymnastics was always cool. There was power, flexibility, balance, and grace. In the 70s and 80s, men's pommel horse had really neat leg flairs, and, when the men started doing leg flairs on the floor exercise, it was really cool.
With all of that in mind, I have to say that I don't like all sports. I've never liked half-pipe skateboarding and snowboarding. These two sports always seemed so sloppy and undisciplined that I could never enjoy them. The sport and the attitude was a major turn-off for me. The fact that they could plan to do a 360 turn and then easily turn it into a 180 seemed to allow them to be sloppy. The baggy pants and the hats-on-backwards just seemed to be part of that slovenly "sports" attitude.
So...imagine my surprise when I was flipping through the channels on my new big screen tv and I came across the Red Bull B Boy competition. I've always loved the grace and discipline of ballet and I've seen enough sloppy breakdancing (guys rolling around on the floor and doing sloppy, undisciplined dancing) that I almost immediately changed channels; however, I paused briefly ---- and was amazed. A lot of the moves that gymnasts do on the floor were there - to a musical beat - combined with a strength and flexibility that was awesome. The guys still wear baggy pants and hats on backwards, but the moves they were laying down were truly amazing. I work out quite a bit and I did martial arts for quite a few years, but the b boys were balancing on one hand, whipping their legs around in the air, twisting them like pretzels, and then doing one-arm presses. In my wildest dreams, I could not even come close to the strength and balance of these guys. Now I realize that these guys were at the top of their 'sport' and there are probably a lot of sloppy, undisciplined b boys, but these guys were extremely cool. I would definitely consider going to a b boy competition.
4 comments:
I did martial arts AND gymnastics in the 70's too. Never heard of "B Boys" before. I appreciate a lot of how gymnastics has become integrated into "modern dance", ooh, and cheerleading too. Was this "B Boys" competetion televised in Korea where you live?
Yeah, it was on tv in Seoul. "B boys" comes from break dancing, I guess. It seems to be a noun and a verb. You can b boy. I guess you could say, "I will b boy tonight" or "I b boyed yesterday." I'm assuming it's a regular verb. :-)
If you loved that, watch the movie "You got served". It's a pretty recent movie, and a must to watch, as far as seeing how extreme these street styles 'battles' can get.
Thanks for the tip. I'll check it out.
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