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Let’s look at organized and judged battles this week. Is it better to go out first or wait for your opponent to start?
We’ve all seen the stare down happen where neither one wants to start. Most of the time it’s based on two things: bad strategy or fear. People start spinning bottles, sometimes the host starts a pointing backspin or maybe even the judges start throwing down, because neither side of the battle wants to start.
This makes no sense at all. It truly brings down the energy and the vibe of the whole battle. The dj is blessing the dancer with his selection and findings. If neither one wants to get down that’s a straight disrespect to the dj, waste of kicks and snares and djs precious time. That’s disrespecting the audience too for making it out to support. If neither side doesn’t want to start in a high level competition if it was up to me I’d disqualify both sides.
So does the one who goes out second get an advantage? Yes and no. When judging round for round there’s a slight advantage when one can see what happens on the first round and respond. Yet I love it when battlers react and respond to what’s happening on the floor no matter the side. Most of the dancers just go through their sets anyway so most of the times there’s no connection between the rounds of the battle.
But then again the first one to go out gets an enormous advantage on the element of surprise. He / she will set the level of the battle, it’s up to this round how high the bar is set.
The first one to go out gets to rock the music first. If the connection is found it’s a lot harder for the opponent to find a new approach on the same track and still surprise people. “The same magic never works twice”.
If the music is right you’ll have a hard time holding me back from starting the battle! I can’t wait to do my thing and rock it out. That’s the responsibility of the dj too but that’s a whole other story.
Take a stand, if you’re there to battle then show it. Stop the stare down game and take that step.
-Focus / bboydojo.com
If the music is right you’ll have a hard time holding me back from starting the battle! Footage by Oli Films and Stance.
