Last week we discussed and experimented with control. This week is all about Precision. This is one of the most difficult concept to teach because of the misconception about what precise footwork really is.
In order for your footwork to be precise you have to be willing to NOT put your foot in the exact same place every time…What? Yes you read that right…Your foot does NOT land in the same place on the floor at the same spot in the pattern every time you execute the same pattern. If it did we would be line dancing and not leading or following.
I learned this lesson the hard way when I first learned how to ride a wheelie on my dirt bike. It was a warm and sunny afternoon at about 2pm. Like most things that I am into I was about 3 hours into practicing wheelies on a quiet side road that one of my DJs lives on. We started in 1st gear and got it so that we could ride for about 30 feet on the rear tire before maxing out the engine which caused the front wheel to come crashing down. Timing is everything with wheelies so you have to feel out when to punch the throttle and when to back off.
Being the fierce competitor that I am I wasted no time in accepting a $20 wager for the longest wheelie. After about 4 turns back and forth I got the idea to try and do the wheelie in 2nd gear. If you don’t know about dirt bike gearing the higher the gear number the less torque but the further you can go with the same amount of gas. To get the front end up in 2nd gear I had to really push the throttle hard and before I knew what had happened I was sliding on my knees across the pavement. I had dumped my bike because I treated 2nd gear like it was 1st gear…the same mistake a dancer might make by treating every left side pass just like the one before it.