Turtle
Also known as the Float.
This is move is a float, not a spin. You move your hands on the floor to rotate your body, rather than spinning on your hands. Think of it like you're walking on your hands.
1) Start in a kneeling position with both of your knees on the ground, and your thighs apart. Your legs should be spread a little and bent up a the knee to help maintain balance.
2) Lift your body with your hands. Keep your elbows bent at a 90 degree angle and under your body. Your hands go straight from your chest to the ground.
3) Keep your elbows on your hips not in your stomach or at your side. Keep your hands far apart.
4) You move by "walking" on your hands in pattern like a figure-eight on the floor as you spin.
5) The spin is continued by shifting your weight from one hand to the next as you rotate and move your hands under your body.
You can practice just balancing on your hands in the Turtle position before you attempt the spin. This will help with balance and build up your strength.
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Another description:
1) Get into turtle position: get on all fours, place both of your hands down in from of your knees about 1 and 1/2 inches apart from each other, fingers pointing away from each other, keeping your elbows as close as you can- lower your body onto your elbows-your body should touch your elbows right around your belly button, now- spread your knees until they come off the ground.
2) Once in position, learn to balance first- (note: your head should face the floor at all times-and it remains stationary) this is done with your legs: if your forehead keeps touching the ground, your feet need to be a little further away from your ass, if your legs keep touching the ground, your feet need to be closer to your ass.
3) Once balance can be established with ease- and maintained for a while, its time to learn how to walk. IMPORTANT NOTE: THROUGHOUT THIS MOVEMENT, ONCE INITIAL TURTLE POSITION HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED, THE ELBOWS NEVER BECOME UNGLUED FROM THE BODY- NEVER this applies to circular walks, forward walks and backward walks. now, to learn how to walk you needed to learn how to crawl, so this is how I teach how to crawl (and it
would behove you to learn in the order I teach these steps as I know what the hell I'm talking about) what your gonna do is simply rock from one hand to the other( with no intention of walking in circles or straight lines for that matter) at first your legs may scrape the ground- or your head, but in short order, one learns how to maintain balance (by doing this, you will learn how to keep from crashing when doing your turtle walks - in any direction!) important good habits to acquire while doing this exercise: keep your elbows glued to your body- no matter what!- also keep your head stationary and in line with your body.
4) You may have noticed that while doing exercise number three, you already started walking in circles, this is normal (and also part of the reason for doing number three before number four) what you are going to do now, is activate your wrist muscles to gain momentum- lets say you are turtling clockwise: you first get on all fours, place hands down fingers pointing away, lower body onto elbows- then start rocking- Now to go clockwise, rock first onto your left wrist- once all your weight is on that wrist you are going to rotate your left hand in a counter clockwise direction- this will propel your body in a clockwise direction now, at the same time while your still on just your left hand you are going to rotate your right HAND in a clockwise direction (you'll see why once you do it) - land on your right hand and reverse the process ( put all weight on r hand, rotate r hind in c.clockwise direction while rotating l hand in clockwise direction.
TIPS: the above set of directions is for turtles, walking in circles, if one wishes to walk in straight lines, all the above steps should be fairly mastered as straight lines require more balance -( if one were to walk forward, using the right hand first, this would be the procedure: 1 get into turtle position 2 simultaneously: shift weight to left hand while raising right hip and walking right hand forward (remember to keep elbow glued to body) AND extending left foot slightly away from your butt (about an inch or so, still parallel to ground)for balance- NOTE straight walks require no rotation of the wrists 3 repeat for the opposite side (reverse the words left and right for step 2 above) 4 in order to walk backwards (much easier) follow the above directions, but instead of walking your hand forwards, you walk it backwards!
- another tip, once walking in circles is mastered, following the above steps- the way to truly fast turtles is to learn how to go into them from a standing position!- it would take too damn long to describe and it doesn't take that long to learn how with some practice (hint- swing your body and place your hands on the ground so that you can "set" your body down onto your elbows) but once you can do that, swing into your turtles the pull your legs in a little bit closer to your body than your used to (once balance has been established) and you'll fly!!
another tip- some people think this looks bad, but try it for yourself and see if you like it: for added speed, you can "swing" your hips from side to side as you float (that's what we called 'em back in the day when I learned 'em - 1983!!) so if you were turtling clock wise,as you stepped with your right hand, it would be as if your upper body moved while your lower body stayed stationary until you stepped with your left hand- then after your left hand set down (during that brief moment both hands are on the ground) your lower body would swing over to your left side- then repeat etc... work with it if you like- don't use it if you think it looks bad- just know that it works for extra speed.
I know this is a kick ass set of directions, so if anybody wants to copy it or use it on any other site feel free!
