How to remember (and use) all the patterns you’ve invested in

Something doesn't add up....

How many WCS patterns do you think you've ever learned?

Just calculate how many patterns you learn per week, then multiply that by how long you've been dancing.

Now, how many of those patterns have you actually adopted into your social or competition dancing?

Oof. That's a big difference.

That's a lot of money and time spent on patterns you never use, and don't even remember.

And if you're a beginner, you're likely to get overwhelmed with patterns real quick unless you have a system to remember them.

What if I told you you could recoup your investment, feel inspired again, and feel confident taking on more?

I'm going to give you a peek into our newly launched Swing Literacy Dancer Development Program and introduce you to a pattern organizer tool we use to help students organize patterns in their head so they can keep track of the patterns and stylings they learn, actually implement them in their social dancing, and open up their capacity to learn more.

How to remember and rescue your patterns

Step 1: Identify root patterns 

In order to organize and store patterns, let’s classify them so it’s easier to see the relationship between them and the techniques they share. Here's a tool we use with our students to help them set up a "filing system" in their brains for organizing pattern content.

We consider there to be 6 root (basic) patterns. We arrived at this number because:

• there are only 6 possible general pathways that the leader can direct the follower to move in in WCS
• there are common, universal basic patterns associated with each pathway
• every pattern in WCS is built off of one of these root pathways

Any patterns beyond these 6 could be considered "standard" patterns, but not basics.

Step 2: Plot the root patterns on a MindMap

Imagine the stickman below is the dorsal view of a leader (the leader is looking into the screen). You can see the 6 basic patterns laid out according to his orientation.  The directions indicate where the leader brings his hand after generating the follower's momentum (after count 1).

All WCS patterns originate from these root pattern pathways:

• Pushes: hand high or hand low
• Passes: Right or Left, hand high or hand low.
• Whips: hand high or hand low

What this stickman organizer tool does is create a filing system to help your brain categorize the pathways that you will be leading your partner, which makes it easier to store new patterns. As you refine and add more technique to your patterns, it will also make it easier for your brain to reference these "files".

Step 3: Identify the Variations

You can add variations on to any root pattern to create a new pattern, like building with Lego building blocks. These building blocks are small, and not necessarily assigned to a certain quantity of time or beats. Like suffixes and prefixes in grammar, each Lego block is too small to qualify as its own pattern.

Examples of Lego blocks:

Each Lego piece has techniques associated with it, which may or may not have been taught when you first learned it.

Each Lego piece is often (but not always) transplantable to other patterns. For example, you can add a double spin to any of the root patterns (one way or another)

You can also keep inserting, adding on, or layering multiple Lego blocks to make the pattern longer or more complex.

For example, let's zoom in on UnderArm Turn where we have added a few Lego pieces:

or slightly more complex:

This is a great way to learn how to invent new patterns, but that's not what we're here for today.

Step 4: Classify your own pattern collection

At this point, you might want to grab a piece of paper.

Let's start simple.

1. Draw a stickman of your own on a blank piece of paper.
2. Think about all the standard patterns you do during social dancing. Maybe even dance a little bit to brainstorm. 
3. For each pattern you do, identify its root pattern. 
4. Add it on to the appropriate corner of your stickman diagram.

Here's an example. It is intentionally incomplete so you can see how we start to build patterns:

Step 5: Analyze your map

Look for behaviour patterns

Maybe looking at your mindmap, you notice that (like the map above) you lead a lot of patterns to your right, but almost never lead left-side patterns. Or that you add rock & gos wayyyy too often. Or that most of your patterns are 12+ counts long! Now's your chance to address your imbalance and refocus on other pathways.

Look for "broken" moves

You know those patterns or moves that are inconsistent, never quite feel right, or the ones you know you fake your way through? Don't blame the whole pattern - try to identify which Lego piece is broken. These feelings are symptoms that indicate that you are missing skills for that individual Lego piece.

For example, did you know that there are at least a dozen techniques pieces involved in learning the skill of "shoulder roll"? Did you ever get taught these techniques explicitly to make your shoulder rolls effective and safe? It's very common for dancers to "learn about" a move, but not really "learn how" it really works.

The secret is to learn the skills to get really good at each Lego piece, so you can more effectively execute these sample patterns and any patterns you want. These start with Fundamental Movement Skills, and you can get all of them in the Dancer Development Program.

Look for inconsistencies

Maybe you can only lead the move successfully 20% of the time. Maybe you can do the Lego piece correctly in certain patterns, but not in others. Maybe it only works with certain followers, but not others, or to slow music, but not fast. All of these indicate missing skills that you need to prioritize to go hunt down.

Step 6: Salvage patterns and stylings you have collected but never adopted

You took notes, you recorded the recap, but the pattern still overloads your memory bank? Here are a few exercises to salvage your moves and get them into circulation:

1. Start with the root pattern: When trying to remember a complex pattern you learned in a workshop, first identify its root pattern, then determine what Lego pieces are added to it. Plot in in the map (by visualizing or literally writing it down) where it would fit in your stickman diagram.
   
   
2. Substitute Lego blocks: If you're not good at one of the Lego pieces, don't throw out the whole pattern. Substitute it with another Lego block that serves the same purpose. For example, if you can't do apple jacks, do touch-steps instead.
   
   
3. Ignore the timing: Practice the pattern shape without worrying about the pattern timing. Take your time going through the motions and figuring out how to lead and follow it authentically with a follower who isn't "helping". Don't worry about the feet until your body gets it.
   
   
4. FOLLOWERS: You can do this exact same process with your styling. Just plot in the map all your styling options as "variations".

Step 7: Put them into practice

Here are a few more exercises to practice efficiently and move these moves to long term memory:

1. Try forcing yourself to do a whole song with only one of the 6 root patterns. This gives you lots of time to think and experiment with your Lego block variations.
   
   
2. Pick a pattern to target. Practice dancing a regular social dance, but aim to retrieve and execute (remember and do) your target pattern once per phrase, or maybe twice per song.
   
   
3. Think of positions you typically get to in the middle of patterns, such as shadow position, hammerlock, sweetheart, and bow tie positions. How can you get there in other ways? Which root pattern will lead up to that position? How could you get out of it? Start adding these into your Stickman diagram.
   
   
4. In social dancing, lead the trickiest part of the pattern with intentional deceleration, then resume speed afterward. This will make the move fun to do and memorize even before it is perfected.