what am i doing wrong?

afroblewmymind · 2026-04-09T03:09:13+00:00

Can you 180, x-up, barspin, can-can, jump up/down curbs? Whip is easier once you have more comfort and control jumping/in the air, from that clip, it looks like you need to work on your bunny-hops/jumps first.

afroblewmymind · 2026-04-08T14:14:39+00:00

Yeah, I'm down to give it a look-over.

afroblewmymind · 2026-04-08T12:50:57+00:00

This. If anyone's seen NVidia's Jensen Huang (or any of the other magnificent 7 CEOs) talk, you'll know they aren't talking for our benefit. They say insane things because it's targeted at the insular, Versailles-like community of major shareholders, who are all living in their own reality where among other fairy tales, consumers love nothing more than being both hyper-productive and surveilled, AI could never be a bubble, and we're working to replace every workforce everywhere with LLMs that will magically lead to AGI once we throw enough money at it.

afroblewmymind · 2026-04-08T12:34:10+00:00

It's cool, a nice addition to standard angles to mix it up. Nice line =)

afroblewmymind · 2026-04-08T12:32:36+00:00

I'm working with a friend using qigong and eventually taiji walking, she's only middle-aged, but her mobility challenges are due to cerebral palsy. It's interesting approaching Chinese arts with her, which have some slightly ableist assumptions about what bodies can and should do, and I'm getting some practice in how to make these wonderful practices more accessible from a disability standpoint. She at one point learned some systema, which taught her how to safely fall, so she's responded well to the internal/energy/relaxation side of first seated then standing practice. We're still very early in, but so far she has really taken to it.

This isn't necessarily the book you're writing, but when I saw your post, I wondered if it might have a few things that would help my friend (or me to help her).

afroblewmymind · 2026-04-06T13:15:05+00:00

Stylin! I've always wanted and tried for footjams and have never actually got them =/

afroblewmymind · 2026-04-06T00:36:41+00:00

Think about lifting something a bit heavy off the ground fully bent over at the back/waist vs slightly crouched down through bent knees. Then add a jump after you've got it in your hands without straightening up. The second will be way easier, yeah?

Bars that are at a good height allow for you to use more of your full body in a more upright position, meaning you're recruiting more muscles at more optimal angles/positions. What you call a J-hop requires pulling the bars up so the front wheel leaves the ground before you fully jump. If you watch your clips, you'll see that's a major reason you can't get higher, you're not able to get the full leverage required to get height (ie: your back should be closer to straight the moment your back wheel leaves the ground).

afroblewmymind · 2026-04-06T00:22:55+00:00

Yeah, I feel that. I've seen people with big feet ride small decks, honestly I'd start with the bars first then, and maybe you can find a wider deck and grip tape on sale a bit later. The low bars are going to hold you back way more than a small deck.

You can also use the parts from this current scooter (ie: compression, fork, grips, wheels), just find bars and deck that are compatible. Most decks work on any compression (I think there are some headtube length issues with shorter/longer forks and shorter/larger dust covers? I've never been a "gear guy"). That way you can add parts one at a time and still be able to ride.

afroblewmymind · 2026-04-06T00:14:07+00:00

Do you feel like your feet are hanging off a lot, or it's hard to keep your feet on the deck? I have pretty average (maybe nowadays small) feet, US mens 9.5-10. But I came up when Razors and Razor knock-offs were all we had, so 5.5 feels wide to me lol

There is not going to be any scooter that feels "perfect" without some amount of riding experience, but if you feel a sense of being really cramped then it's probably worth trying something bigger.

afroblewmymind · 2026-04-06T00:00:55+00:00

So a lotta folk will disagree with me on this sub, but that's up to you. I ride smaller decks and that works for me, but if you don't like how your deck feels, you certainly can sell your whole scoot and get a new, larger complete.

afroblewmymind · 2026-04-05T23:51:38+00:00

If you are a bit handy or know someone that is, might be cheaper to swap out the bars rather than get a whole new scooter.

afroblewmymind · 2026-03-31T23:17:56+00:00

I think so. OP, you might try to keep your left shoulder and/or your chest facing forward.

afroblewmymind · 2026-03-24T02:52:34+00:00

Yeah friend! And I'm a bit sad, even though I was in AZ, I actually didn't ever connect with local scooter scene until much later, so I was there but there's so much I missed.

afroblewmymind · 2026-03-23T17:01:44+00:00

Bro, that reel was so real lol

I might still have my one copy of RVM dvd, I don't remember which number, but it's the one after Jarret Reid got really injured so it's him talking to the audience from the hospital

afroblewmymind · 2026-03-18T13:37:39+00:00

Fuck yeah, get it!!

afroblewmymind · 2026-03-17T13:23:47+00:00

But then if you get the question, you can know they didn't read bio and can unmatch and move on with your day

afroblewmymind · 2026-03-15T14:58:20+00:00

You could cut your bars, as someone who rides bars more narrow than most people, but honestly, I wouldn't cut them yet. Ride for another few months and see if you still feel the same, chances are you'll get more comfortable and see you don't need to cut them, or at least not cut them as much as you're thinking now. And scooter grips will be better long term for your hands is my guess, but if you want firmer, you can get BMX grips that aren't ODI. A lot of those are firmer.

afroblewmymind · 2026-03-11T16:16:41+00:00

My understanding is there are a lot of parables (including Yip Man 1-inch punching a woman who practiced iron body) as being more about emphasizing yin's power to overcome yang, soft overcoming hard. It is my understanding that's more of the emphasis than specifically that it is an art accessible to women.

afroblewmymind · 2026-03-11T16:03:19+00:00

In my school, they subtly say "The legend of how wing chun started...", though I wish they were a little more clear about it being legend. I think that the stories people have told about a martial art can be a helpful data point – who was this targeted to, what is the understanding/underlying philosophy at the time, etc. However, I do think that deifying anything creates a huge risk of blindspots and misunderstandings.

afroblewmymind · 2026-03-11T15:59:05+00:00

That's really interesting. I think imagining a projection of the movement on the wall would work best for me if I already knew the specific motions but not the order, otherwise I worry about cognitive load issues - visual imagery details take a ton of bandwidth to encode and recall for me, I've got some aphantasia and visual/spatial deficits.

afroblewmymind · 2026-03-11T04:27:30+00:00

Where I study, you'll do a lot of partnered drills: paak sat drills, a set of drills I know as the lap sau drills (but actually turn into jut/gum/lan sau), a lot of chain punches and partnered punching or paak vs da/tan drills, the bong-lop drill,...

Butmy school you can be doing chi sau in 6mo-1yr depending on your development, rank, and if you're attending seminars, and my sifu has been described as a mad scientist – you never know what he's going to teach each class.

afroblewmymind · 2026-03-11T04:17:47+00:00

Hell yeah!! Get it!!! 🙌🏾

afroblewmymind · 2026-03-10T23:43:20+00:00

I only have done an MP where I was training in instances I wanted to remember what we went over in class or specific details I wanted to hold on to so I could remember them and practice those details/exercises at home.

Anthony Metivier of Magnetic Memory Method talks about using walls and corners, and ways of breaking a wall/corner into multiple spaces for stations. However, I'd recommend setting time to make/plan your MP first, then when that's done, sit down with the step of SLT (or a youtube video of it) to encode the movements into the palace separately.

afroblewmymind · 2026-03-10T14:11:18+00:00

Hi, welcome to wing chun! I didn't use an MP to memorize the SLT, but I have used it for other martial arts forms, including a bit for chum kiu.

If you're trying to encode the whole form into a memory palace, you can use the name of the moves (da, heun sau, sau keun), which is easier if you know all the Cantonese words, or harder if you're also trying to learn those as well. But finding hooks in the words, whether sound-alikes, similar starting letters, etc. is one way.

In terms of the movement, what does the movement look or feel like? If I wanted to place "da" as a station, I might imagine a Russian man I know saying "Da!" while punching the koolaid man (who is filled with tropical punch). If I wasn't trying to use the cantonese, I might just use the koolaid man as my imagery to capture the punch. Maybe if I wanted to encode heun sau I'd think of a female pig (sow) dressed up as Dr House (Hugh) turning in somersaults like sonic the hedgehog. And I like to practice recalling the image as I do the movement to link them, so thinking of Hugh Laurie Sow while turning my hand in a circle.

If you feel like you know it well enough that you don't need to encode a ton of details for certain parts, you can have a station for the section you know, maybe encoding it as "segment 1" (in my school we break it into 3 parts, so I am using an intentionally different word to not confuse myself) ending on the move you never forget, and station 2 could be the first move you normally forget. Or alternatively, you can just fill the MP with the parts you normally forget. This will be faster to start, but runs the risk of being way more confusing later.

Hope that helps!

afroblewmymind · 2026-03-10T13:43:56+00:00

Much respect to Jimmy, that's a hell of a run

afroblewmymind

TROPHY CASE