Monday, April 7, 2014

Defining success

"Be careful with the way you measure success." This quote was a very powerful one and it has stuck with me for a while. I heard it during football practice one day while a retired football player was giving a speech. He learned this his first year playing for Michigan. The year before he was one of the best running backs in the country. He was used to getting the ball every play and showing what he could do. But when he got to College they wanted him to be the full back witch makes the hole for the running back. After his first game he was really disappointed because he only got a few carries and a few yards. He thought that he had failed because he wasn't getting the yards. This changed when he got to the film room and play after play the coach said his name and how well his blocks were. This is when he realized that he hadn't failed at all, but completely succeeded. This is why I like this quote. Instead of seeing the downside of what happened, think about where you started and how far you've made it and decide if that was a success for you.
     Throughout my high school career I believe I was successful in school and my sports.In school i could say that I failed because i got one B. But i look at it as the class that i got a B in wasn't required and i choose to test myself in so i call that B+ a success. Also it wasn't like it was a low B, it was a 89 something. I also believe i was successful in football. In middle school i barely saw the field and now I'm playing football at Trine University next fall. Looking at things from the successful side can help motivate you and drive your success even more.

Successssssssssss

I define success as something you work for. The more hard work you put in to something, the more successful you will end up being. Putting in the hard work in sports is one thing. Say you want to play a college sport as in football, baseball, basketball, etc. You are going to need a good amount of athletic ability to reach that level. You are going to have to be successful in the weight room, and on the field/court. 


Some areas in my life that I have been successful is on the baseball field and in school. I have maintained a good grade point average all throughout high school, and I will be playing college baseball next year at Adrian.

I have achieved this success by putting in time on the baseball field every day up until baseball season is over. I will get up in the morning and come up to the high school and taking batting practice and get a lot of reps in before a game. I also play on a couple of teams over the course of the summer, which helps with my overall game. In school I put in the work studying.....sometimes. And of course doing my homework 24/7.................... 

The picture below is of a college football player being drafted in the NFL draft. He worked for this moment and now he will become a successful NFL football player.


http://ftw.usatoday.com/2013/04/the-best-dressed-picks-of-the-nfl-draft/

Failure to me is when you don't reach a goal you want to achieve or you aren't successful at what you are doing.

Some of the areas in my life that I have failed at is not having above a 3.5 GPA in high school. A 3.4 is not that far away, but I know for a fact that if I put more time in to homework and studying I would achieve a better grade point than a 3.4. But who does homework....

Laziness has led to not having a GPA that is above 3.4. I get so caught up with video games and TV and naps and relaxing that I don't ever feel like doing homework. I am to blame for that but the laziness will go away as soon as college hits. I am expecting a rude awakening when it comes.

http://fatdaddy2fitdaddy.com/2013/05/09/have-you-ever-failed/


Success and failure both motivate me to do better. When I am successful, I want to keep being successful. It's a good feeling knowing that you are successful and you want to keep on doing it. When you are failing, you obviously want to stop failing. You work hard to get past the failure to become successful.

Genius hour has been a breeze. It is pretty simple looking for interesting or popular dances to study/learn/go over, etc. There hasn't really been any areas that me and Rourke have failed at during this genius hour with finding the dances and posting about the dances. One thing I would change maybe about this genius hour is making the blogs a little bit longer. Other than that i wouldn't change anything about it. If we have all of our requirements and the right amount of blogs at the end of the project, I will know that me and rourke have achieved our goal with this genius hour.








Monday, March 24, 2014

Cupid Shuffel

Cupid Shuffel


This is a fun song played at almost every high school dance. It gives everyone a chance to dance even if you ain't got rythym.

1) Step 4 times to the right.
2) Step 4 times to the right.
3) Kick your right leg up to the heel and then your left repeat twice.
4) During the walk it by yourself part just walk in place and turn to the left. 
 
While doing this dance you really just have to listen to the words of the song and do what it tells you. The step by step will just give you a better idea of the song.

Cha Cha Slide

THE CHA CHA SLIDE

The cha cha slide, to me, is one of the most fun, simplest dances someone can learn. All you have to do is listen to the words of the song that the one guy is singing and follow along.

A link to this dance is right below what I have written here.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZv62ShoStY



It is very simple. Try it out sometime on your own. If any of you would even do that.

Monday, March 17, 2014

Shaking up todays blog

Arms

For todays blog im taking you out of the dance room and into the weight room. If your going to be a good dancer haveing big arms definatly helps. They both atract attention and make some dance moves and holds easier. 

Arnold has a lot to say about arms and you can definatly tell why.

He was all about seeing yourself the way you want it to be as you lift. He bleieved that you had to have a lot of positive self talk to lift the way you wanted to.This quote from Arnold is a perfect example of how he did what he did.

 "In my mind I saw my biceps as mountains, enormously huge, and I pictured myself lifting tremendous amounts of weight with these superhuman masses of muscle."

    A lot of people think "curls for the girls" but arms are a lot more than just your bicepts. He talks about how your bicept is 1/3 of your arm while your tricept is 2/3 of it. Its very important to develop your arms equally and remember to work the tris. 
      Another problem with lifting your arms is that they get used to the excersise very quickly and pretty soon it wont help you improve. The way to overcome this is by "shocking" the arms with changes and variations in your lift. Some ways to do this is by switching up weight amounts, adding reps and sets, speeding up training so as to lift more forcefully, decreasing rest between sets, performing unfamiliar exercises, and doing your normal exercises in an unfamiliar order.
    While doing curls or tricepts you have to use perfect form so you can isolate the muscle. Even though he praises perfect form he also says its a good thing to cheat. Its not the same cheating you think of though. After you cant do anymore reps with perfect form you cheat by using your body to get the bar up. This helps wear the bicepts out part the point where they cant go anymore.


    Some perfered exercises of Arnold are "concentrarion curls" and "arnold curls."

Monday, March 10, 2014

Break Dancing

Breaking it down


Break dancing is also known as B-boying or breaking. Its a style of street dance that was first originated from young Black and Puerto Rican  youths in New York City during the 1970s. After this the dance spread across the world especially through South Korea, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Russia, and Japan.

This dance is very versatile and can be changed and modified in many ways. Their are 4 main kinds of movements: Toprock, Downrock, Power moves, and freezes. While break-dancing you usually dance to hip-hop, funk or break-beats.
 

A nickname for someone that break dances is a Breaker.
Break dancing takes lots of strength in your core and small muscle groups and joints.
Good workouts for break dancing are pull-ups, inverse push-ups, and ab roll-outs.

The best way to get better at this dance is practice and learn in a class. Its hard to do it based on pictures or guidelines. Its best to learn by doing with this dance.



Nae Naeeeee

NAE NAE

The Nae Nae, one of the most weirdest dances I have ever witnessed. If you have never seen what it looks like, take a look at this wonderful gif image I have pulled off of google images.

If you have trouble sounding out the name of the dance, just think of a horse. (Naaaaaayyyy)

Just another reason why this dance is really pointless and makes you look like a complete idiot. Just look at this football coach.

This "dance" just makes no sense to me.



Monday, March 3, 2014

Twerk Some Girl

Twerk

Pronunciation  /twÉ™rk
 
verb
[no object]informal
  • Dance to popular music in a sexually provocative manner involving thrusting hip movements and a low, squatting stance:
The famous twerker now-a-day is Miley Cyrus. You can see her twerking in almost any video she has. She also twerked at the MMAs like most of you have probably seen.
You can also see some twerking if you come to a Jackson High dance. 

Another type of twerking is wall twerking. This type is very dangerous and many girls are injured while trying it. To do it you do a hand stand and put your feet on the wall. Then you twerk like you normally would, just upside down.

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Soulja Boy


  • Soulja Boy
  • Have you ever watched someone do the Soulja Boy and wondered how they remember all those moves so fast. A lot of it is practice but it really helps to have a step by step guide.If you can match your moves with the rythme you can eld up with a really nice Soulja Boy. 
  • 1) Start with your feet at shoulder width and your knees slightly bent.
  • 2) Jump and land with your legs crossed
  • 3) Jump again and land with your feet back at shoulder width.
  • 4) Lift your left foot behind your right leg and slap the sole of your left foot with your right hand.
  • 5) Return to the starting position.
  • 6) Twist your body slightly to the right and shimmy your shoulders to the right and then to the left.
  • 7) Dip your body at the knees and tap your left foot on the ground to the left .
  • 8) Take your right foot and tap it on the floor in front of your left foot, then move it towards the left and tap it again.
  • 9) Raise your right knee and tap it with your right hand.
  • 10) Turn to the left and extend your hands in front of you with your palms together as if praying.
  • 11) As you lean forward on your left foot, raise your right leg behind you and turn your palms, which are still in a prayer position, outward. Pull your arms backward toward your sides as if you're swimming. This is the "Superman."
  • 12) Hop three times to the left while extending your arms across your body to the right in a hula-like pose.
  • 13) Hop three times back to the right while extending your arms across your body the left.


  • 14) Repeat the three hops to the left and then to the right.
  • 15) Now repeat all the steps you just did in reverse so if you kicked your left foot and smacked it with right food, do the opposite.
  • 16) To help with your timing you have to do the Superman maneuver as the song mentions Superman and you should be hopping with your arms extended as the song says, "Yuuuuuaaaa!".
  • Thriller

    MICHAEL JACKSON THRILLER DANCE

    The Michael Jackson thriller dance is a famous dance by a famous artist who has a famous song who wears famous clothes with a famous white glove with a famous pair a shoes and he is known for his famous albums and famous dance moves. Here are some directions on how to do the famous thriller dance.

    THRILLER DANCE DIRECTIONS

    The first step is to take four steps forward starting with your right foot first. Then take four steps back with your right foot first. Repeat it.

    The second step is to nod your head to one side on beat 1 and skip on 2 and again on beat 3 and 4. This part should begin right when MJ starts to sing.

    The third step is to turn to the side and stick your arms out straight, one if front and one behind and bend your knees. Stick your butt out and wiggle it up and down. Then take a step forward and wiggle.

    The fourth step is to stick your hands out like claws and pull like your ripping through a bush or something. Do that two times then switch sides you're pulling at

    The fifth step is to throw your head back and lean back a bit with one leg out in front. Then take two hops forward. You start in the MJ pose,knees bent slightly, one leg out, the other to the side and stick your hand on your belt NOT your crotch!! The other hand will be out straight to your side.

    The 6th step is to go down with your whole body.

    The 7th step is to bring your hands up and clap your hands right over your head. Bring them down slowly and drag your feet to one side. Shrug your shoulders and turn your head to one side and repeat the move going the other way.

    The 8th step is there will be an 8 count pause where you just go zombie crazy for a second. Next shake your hands in front of you and do a kind of disco pose with one hand up and one down.

    The 9th step is to have claws up, out to the side start walking forward 3 counts then turn to the other side then back then back and now you should be walking the direction you came from first and go 3 counts.

    The 10th step is to Jump and then bend over and basically touch your toes two times. Look cool for 4 counts then turn around and look cool for 4 counts then come back around and throw one hand over your head and come back down to the air guitar position. Swivel your feet a beat and then bring your arm back up and bring it down but this time it should stop and take 5 counts to make it down. Grab the air on one side of you then punch it four times on your other side.

    The final step.... turn your head 4 times then turn your body around with 6 steps until you are facing the other direction. Look behind you and slap your leg then take 10 steps backwards. You're trying to time this to exactly before he starts the chorus for the second time in the song because that is where your next step comes in. So go slower or faster depending on how close you are.

    AND THAT IS THE THRILLER DANCE.

    Monday, February 3, 2014

    The Waltz

    The Waltz
    This one is Tyler's personal favorite dance.
    The waltz is really a simple dance with extra moves added onto to it to change it up and keep it interesting. Once you know the core steps and beat of the dance you can add spins and dips as you please. After you learn this you wont have to worry about not knowing how to professionally dance for weddings or high class balls.

    The core steps you take makes a square. From this square movement you can add your dips and spins as you want. The picture is kind of confusing so I'll talk about it.

    1) Start with you feet together.
    2) Take a step back with your right foot.
    3) Move your left foot back and to the left.
    4) Take your right foot and move it over to your left foot so they are together again.
    5) Now that your feet are together again move your left foot forward.
    6) Now move your right foot forward and to the right.
    7) Lastly move your left foot to the right so your feet are together again.

    .Dance the Waltz Step 1.jpg
    Thanks to wiki I have a picture of the basic footwork. It helps to have both pictures and words.

    This dance is always done with a partner. The guy holds one hand with the lady and have the other hand on  the girls waste. The girl holds one hand and has her free arm over the guys and on his shoulder.
    Its easy to keep the beat for this dance to just remember 1-2-3--1-2-3

    The Macarena

    The Macarena
    The macarena was a dance that you typically don't have a rhythm to. Many people looked like fools dancing to this song.


    dance (4803) Animated Gif on Giphy





    •   The macarena involves a lot of different hand motions and moving of your hips with the beat of the song. It's a quick and easy dance to learn.To do the dance correctly, there are certain beats you have to listen to to get the correct hand motions and hip movements to go along with the beats.
    • Here are a list of instructions that might help learn the dance quicker and at a faster pace to master it. 
    • Instructions
      On beat 1 put your right arm straight out, in front of you, palm down

      On beat 2 put your left arm straight out, in front of you, palm down

      On beat 3 put your right arm straight out, in front of you, palm up

      On beat 4 put your left arm straight out, in front of you, palm up

      On the 5th beat make sure your right hand grasps the inside of your left arm, at the elbow

      On the 6th beat make sure your hand grasps the inside of the right arm, at the elbow

      On beat 7 put your right hand behind the right back of neck

      On beat 8 put your left hand behind the left back of neck

      On the 9th beat put your right hand on your left front pants pocket

      On the 10th beat put your left hand on your right front pants pocket

      On the 11th beat put your right hand on your right back pants pocket

      On the 12th beat put your left hand on your left back pants pocket

      On the 13th beat move your hips to the left

      On the 14th beat move your hips to the right

      On the 15th beat move your hips to the left

      On the 16th beat clap and turn 90 degrees to the right

    Monday, January 13, 2014

    Tyler, Seth, Mike, Jussi, and I make an interpretive dance to Treasure by Bruno Mars in our morph suits. Check out our pictures, listen to the song, and see the lyrics here:   .http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sds5SpNd1Mw



    Tyler is in the yellow fat suit.
    Seth is in the blue tuxedo suit.
    Jussi is in the red tuxedo suit.
    Mike is in the orange tuxedo suit.
    Rourke is in the pink tuxedo suit.