Gatlin. 100 and 200 winner in the sprints at Helsinki says . The secret to my success is, Technique. Control and Confidance. Doesn't this also apply to Dancesport. What is technique. One part is the foot positions. Stand on a floor board, feet together, with the weight on one foot. In this case the RF. Everything is now coming from the RF, that's our marker. Step forward then step back. After coming back to position one. Step to the side, you must be on the same floorboard. Now step to the side and slightly forward. Then to the side and slightly back. From there point the toe on a diagnal. It doesn't matter where you are in the ballroom your standing foot is the one we work off. So for the first three of a Natural Turn, lets follow the book.
RF forward. Step to the side LF across the LOD and so on. That doesn't mean slightly back or slightly forward It means what it says, to the side.Both feet pointing in the same direction. Now figure out how much turn there is on the RF to be able to step to the side, and when does it take place, that is the turning on the RF. Untill this was explained to me my feet used to more often than not , pass, This was caused mainly by stepping to the side and slightly forward as I am sure many of us out there do. So if you want to go to the British just check your technique. If you can't get those foot together don't bother going.

Hi Don
"The secret of my success is Technique....". Jesse Owen's technique was very different from Michael Johnson's. Remember all those high jumpers working on their "western roll" technique until the 1968 olympics (was it 1968?) when a certain Dick Fosbury stepped up to the bar? And Rod Laver, one of the greatest tennis players ever, wouldn't recognise the racket grips used by modern players.
My point is that while some fundamentals are unchanged (and thank goodness for that - i only embrace change if i can see that it's for the better), many things - even technique - change over the years. It's just that in dancing, the technique book hasn't been updated for years. In most other disciplines, new technique or reference books are written every year and a small fraction of them help move things forward.
It is my belief that modern ballroom dancing at the higher levels departs from the technique book.
For the natural turn you mention, even at my level i can see that turning my body early so that my left foot plant is "to the side" simply restricts my flight. And flight is important in dancing. To be honest, i feel that my second step with my left foot is forward. By the time my weight is on it, it IS indeed to the side of my new body alignment.
It's a pity that top dancers don't have the time (i'm sure they have the confidence!)to write their own technique "books" (written and visual) to pass on their versions of how to dance.

The point is Phil, that technique should be taught by a teacher and not from a book. Only a teacher knows when the student is ready to learn a new technique. The worst students are those who try to learn from a book instead of having confidence in their teacher to teach them to dance ,which is what we pay them for. If we lack confidence in our teacher we should find someone else. Doug

Turning the body during step one as the the book suggests only restricts your flight if you haven't yet learned how to initiate swing with the action of the standing foot. Swing is a foot action before it is a body action - learn to generate it in the feet and only finish it in the body, and then you won't have to delay the body turn to create it. Execute the book footwork for step one (heel and then toe, not heel flat) before the end of step one and then simply continue that pickup to develop the left side up into step two without further body rotation.

This will also fix your outside partner natural - if you are depending on bringing the side through late to create swing, this step would be dead since you commence already having a side lead that will become the CBMP. But if you create the swing from the foot you can make the natural big from either commencing position.

Phil. If the right foot does not turn as the weight is placed on it. We have something that differs from the technique book. First, I have been looking at a IDSF tape of a grand final. In it six couples performed a solo Waltz. Only one used the technique which I think you suggested. He started with a Natural facing diag to centre, then swung it along the LOD just as we would a V. Waltz. He only did it once and that was at the very beginning. I would like to see that after a syncopated chasse taken on a normal alignment. The other five were as my technique book. Very clearly seen. One more thing. Originaly I was trying to point out that the technique is consistant. Take the chart of a Natural Turn for the man. Hold it to a mirror. You will find that you now appear to be looking at a Reverse Turn. The difference is minimal and the technique remains the same. The guy who took the V.Waltz alignment was an exceptionally tall person.

Phil. If both feet are pointing in the same direction you won't be too far wrong. You will find that this has never altered and never will. On video I would like to see a overhead shot of the teaching. Especially in the Rumba. In the Waltz whichever way you choose to do this step, a flexing and use of the standing leg will give all the power needed to swing onto the second step. Another if. If you can on your closure be high on your toes and both feet absolutely in line and are able to freeze right there, stay there. If you find that you need to take the fourth step to stay balanced, then there is something wrong. The technique needs to be looked at. If your Natural Spin Turn on the first four resembles a Tipple Chasse trying stay on balance. There again we have a technique problem. Over the years I have been there and done that. One way coaches cover up bad basics is to give a couple all open steps, and to use a lot of syncopation. Latin is the most offended. I saw a couple, where the man did not do one basic either forward or backward. The lady did , she danced all around him. He stood there in the middle going from one shape to another with the minimum of movement through the feet. Sometimes I think that some of the adjudicators need to go back to school, because this couple actually were placed.

Annon. Your description of the first two steps of the natural is Excellent,but Geoffry Hearn in his latest book on technique does say that when the heal touches the floor on ONE the the foot will immediately flick down to being flat.

I'm not sure I'd say immediately flat, but fairly promptly.

That wasn't my concern though. The issue is that the foot must not stop or even pause at flat, it needs to go right on through to the toe, with the heel lifted by the end of the step which is when the left foot draws even with it. If you keep the heel down as you move into step two, you don't use the foot to generate a pickup and send the hips into the swing. Without the hip leading, the swing will be be broken and lead by one or both of the left foot or upper body instead. The common way to make a broken swing like this feel full is to save a lot of the rotation for the early part of step 2 - a mistake, since the action is CBM on 1, not body rotation on 2. Get the heel up to generate an aligned, hip-lead full body swing, and on time rotation doesn't rob anything from the step the way it does when the full footwork of step one is neglected.

Yes , this is why we say " swing the hips forward and up" to the lady. The left knee is leading the body and comes along side of right leg before weight is fully on right toe,the left foot arriving as you said. But of course there is further body rotation after step two, we are still turning slightly as we draw the right foot along side of left foot and complete the turn as we lower between (three )and (three and), and correcting the sway at the same time.

Originally it is the left hip that is leading in the CBM. Then the left knee will start to draw forward, with the foot still behind. You want to use the pickup of the right heel to get the hips swinging, but you want to swing the body first, with the free left leg unfolding slowly, so it only catches up with the line made by the left side of the body as you place the 2nd step.