2 Jul
2013
2 Jul
'13
6:26 a.m.
On Mon, Jul 01, 2013, Martha Wild wrote:
I agree fully with Erik Hoffman. I can't fathom the no thumb
allemande. How the heck do you get any connection with it? Two flat
surfaces and only friction - you might as well just walk around the
other person, it's worse than a noodle arm. The way most people do get
connection is to bend the wrist to provide some contact for shared
weight - and that hurts my wrist horribly. So if someone gives me
a no thumb allemande, I comply, desperately trying not to have my
wrist bent, and if it is someone who doesn't bend the wrist, then
there is no connection, no "shared weight" and no chance if it's a
1 1/2 allemande to get around in time. Erik has always taught the
allemande hold as being a "hook", with the curled fingers providing
the connection, and I have stolen that description from him and use
it myself. The thumb is along for the ride but should not do any
squeezing or gripping, in fact, it can even lie flat next to the
curled fingers and not intersect the other thumb, as he mentions in
describing the star hold. Connection without thumb pain. Thanks, Erik.
It sounds like people are using "no thumbs allemande" to describe two
different holds. When I use the term, I'm referring to what you're
calling a hook, not the wrist grip. But all too often, people try to pry
my thumb up for an interleaved thumb grip, and that's what I'm decrying
when I call for "no thumbs". (It makes no sense to me to refer to the
wrist grip as "no thumbs" because there's no thumb anywhere near to use.)
The thumb grip is particularly pernicious because standard contra
practice is to use the same hold for allemande and wave (unlike MWSD,
which uses a forearm grip for allemande), and a trapped thumb in a wave
is IMO extremely dangerous when you're doing the common spin flourish
for sashay (for that matter, I often do a spin flourish from allemande,
spinning to my partner for a swing, but that runs less risk of jammed
thumbs).
Side note: that last bit suggest a good reason for men mostly doing left
allemande (at least before a swing), because that makes it easier to
scoop the right hand behind your partner's back (although it does mean
changing turn direction -- I still think it's a net win).
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