Zack, the face of collapse, the new Olympic sport

eTo break is a dance style that grew up in The United States in the seventies, and more specifically in the New York borough Bronx. It comes from culture Hip Hop It is based on dance battles. Today, this art is a culture in itself that thousands of young people around the world participate in. The International Olympic Committee is no stranger to this and included it in Paris 2024 and Los Angeles 2028 Games. Like surfing, skateboarding, or climbing, breaking is part of a new group of Olympic disciplines aimed at attracting new audiences.

In Spain, Cordopes Bey Boy zach I just stayed Fifth in the World Cup It was disputed in Paris. They made it to the quarter-finals against the top candidate, American Victor. In the competition, all cutters use his stage name, but outside the same 35-year-old Xak Juan de la Torre. The Andalusian dancer introduces himself to this art that not many people know.

Zach, B Boy is the Spaniard who finished fifth in the last World Cup in Paris.Photos: Nigel Rivero

Debt limit broken

“We call it a break. Brick dance is a term that came up in the press in the ’80s, and it was popularized and it didn’t bother us, but really the method, discipline and What we feel is breaking words. What’s totally wrong is breaking the dance, Zack explains.

Olympic sport?

Since its inclusion in the Olympic program, there has been debate about whether breaking it should be a part of it, because many do not even recognize it as an athletic discipline. “I am very practical. According to the dictionary, sport is a structured activity. In the competitive form, fracking is a sport. We can make a comparison with martial arts, like judo. Its essence is not athletic but artisticLike wrecking, but in this competitive context, it has all the characteristics that define it as a sport, whether we like it or not,” he explains, emphasizing: “We weren’t surprised when it was announced that it was going to be an Olympic. We’ve already been exposed to competition and this is a new platform.”

Futuro Olimpico del Brecrec

Xak has no doubts about it: “I think I know because it’s something very visible, very easy to see, and it gets attention. There are more frequent sports, and if you don’t like it it’s hard to see it all, but It’s very easy for a viewer to sympathize with someone because people dance completely differently. It is very likely that it will continue after these two games because there are already many young people who are practicing it, who love it, as well as the lifestyle behind it, the appearance, the attitude, the confidence, the presence…”.

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Today Xak devotes body and soul to shattering, a method he began practicing when he was 15 years old in Lucena (Córdoba). One of his colleagues showed him what this kind of dance was and his reaction was ‘Love at first sight’. “He put on the music and started dancing. It sounded crazy to me. I said, ‘I don’t know what to do, but show me.'” “

Juan de la Torre began to study both culture and movements, and little by little he was winning competitions. “I went to study law in Granada and later settled in Cordoba to work in a family office. I was getting very good results, but both worlds required a lot of time and energy. I chose to take a break and dance because the office could come back, but the bodies are gone,” Bee Boy recalls.

Xak, who is sponsored by Red Bull and sports shoe brand Algorishoes, revealed to MARCA that his stage name corresponded to some letters randomly picked at an internet cafe many years ago, and it later led to his competitive life, where no one would own one. same.

Where do you know?

The professionalism that Olympic sport brings will make the fracture perhaps lose some of its essence. In Xak’s case, this was his training: “I wasn’t educated in a school and I wasn’t just a self-taught teacher. You can access information by asking, there is a lot of word of mouth and back to previous generations. You yourself begin to develop your critical judgment, record yourself on video, and rely on other people who know you and know where you want to go. This is how we evolve and evolve our style.”

Everything is there to know the practice of breaking

exercise

B-Boy practically lives for his passion, where he must ‘water’ physical labor after knowledge, but an ordinary day is like this for a Cordoba artist and athlete: “I train from Monday to Saturday. Five days I rest and four days I do physical preparation in the gym. For example, I arrive on Monday to train and do activation, mobility, and plyometrics and then move on to the technical part of the breakdown. Eventually you’ll move on to the strength part and some days you’ll end up with cardio. In total it can be about six hours a day“According to the athlete and the Spanish fracture, “Physically it takes a lot from you.”In fact, you just have to see it in action to see the difficulty and material requirements of this art. “It requires some habits, and if you want to practice it in high competition, you have to be consistent and a lot of dedication. If you want to avoid injuries, you need very high physical maintenance.”

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exercises in competition

“I like to have a balance between prepared workouts and what is improvised, which is what you are developing at the moment according to the music and according to what your competitor is doing. The cycle usually takes approximately 45 seconds to a minuteAlthough we don’t really have a time limit, we should be able to get you back.”

Competition mode

The shape of the Olympics will be similar to that of the last World Cup, so that “all passes can have two male and female contenders, and there is a qualifying round. 32 with the best score goes into eight groups of four athletes facing each other against all in battles Dos Tours. In these rounds, no one loses or wins, but points are accumulated and whoever has the most in the group becomes part of the top 8. The tournament starts here, that is, it moves to the next round. The largest number of points. If there is a tie in the round, a third is made.”

Music

“The music you find. You have no idea what will be playing. You can only investigate the DJ or DJs who attend the competition. You can find his music or see if he likes to play more funk, rap or breaks. This way you can practice by going to that music, but you don’t know what will put you in the competition,” says Xak. Of course, B-Boy emphasizes that this section is key: “The most valuable thing is music. You can be very technical, very creative, well present or attractive, but If you miss the music, it won’t give you a good score“Everyone who starts a fight studies the rhythm as they present, to start their entry at the right moment. DJ Ros and Lady Funk are Xak’s favorite DJs.

Dictionary and basic chapter movements

referees

Xak explains that judges have a program to score many aspects, although these start with three general areas, called “Sistema Trivium”. “What the judges refer to, often summarizing because it is so complex, is over A system divided into body, mind and spirit. Basically it refers to the physical and performance part; The creative and artistic part. Part of attending and responding to what your opponent is doing. Within each of these three blocks there are subsections like aesthetics, form, fluidity…what the judges do is give us the two points and then compare them. From there comes a winner,” explains Juan de la Torre.

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clothes

In this sense, nothing is constant: Everyone dresses as he wants. There are those who like the cover more and also those who don’t because it can bother them. There are those who want the pants narrower and others wider. We have those who wear wider shoes and others who are thinner.”

Fifth in the World Cup

“I was satisfied with my performance because at first we were kinda misguided about what it would look like. When I found out, I knew I had time to get ready to get to top 8. Once I got to the top it depends on who I am going to deal with at the fork in the road. It happened in that fight. Had it not been for Victor’s turn, I think I would have had my options.”

Is it beatable? “You can defeat him but you have to come up with a long-term competition strategy. In our system, when I use a move I can’t repeat again because it will lower your score, I need a strategy to compete in many rounds, because once I use something I can’t use it again, though That some movement can be recycled. I need a multi-round strategy.”

collapse forces

“Son The United States (California and Florida), Japan, the Netherlands, and Russia. In the World Cup in Paris, an American won the boys, a Canadian second and a Russian third. For the girls, the first and second were Japanese.”

collapse key

In this sense, Xak warns that in order to become among the best, everything goes through daily work. “Perseverance is the most important thing to practice.”. If I tell you that to be good at this you need at least 10 years, someone would think twice. After 10 years you can start developing your style and personality until they start taking you into account. It’s a very technical method and you can spend a year perfecting the movement. If you don’t have perseverance, it doesn’t matter strength, flexibility, musical character… You will get bored and let go,” he warns.

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