Order in Chaos, finding the good amongst the confusion

SO many techniques. Everybody tells u different things. Who to listen to?
I'm quite sure many who just started learning salsa will encounter the above scenario.

My answer?

There is never a really 'wrong' technique,... nor the ONLY right 'technique/way'.
Most of the time, it's just what's most effective and works best for you.

What works on one, may not work on another.

The key is being versatile, and open minded.

With such a mindset, we can improve a lot faster than those who insist on doing things his/her way, or by only one particular way.

When someone teaches you a technique, don't just learn the technique. Find out WHY does he do it that way. By doing so, you can understand it better, and adapt the technique to what you've already learnt.

When I 1st started learning salsa, I found that girls who learn from different teachers reacted differently to my lead. Thus I went about trying to find out how their teachers taught their leads. Thats was my attempt at trying to be able to lead girls who learn from different teachers.

Later I realized, that wasn't really necessary. I found a buddy and we took turns being the follow. Doing so made me understand how it feels like to be lead. With this new perspective in mind, I start to understand how my actions as a lead can affect the follow.

Firm lead, soft lead, too much or too little force, etc. etc. produces different results in different situations.

On a crowded dance floor, obviously we cannot use too much force and need to watch our space.

BUT on a stage, we need to go BIG, *SHOW* more force (while not really using that much force) in order to make the moves fit the stage and look nicer.

The above example alone shows that there is no ONE way to skin the cat.

Key is...
1) Be OPEN MINDED (do not reject anything outright from the start)
2) Be versatile
3) Understand thoroughly what is being taught in order to internalize it.
4) Adapt what you've learnt to make it work for you (while keeping those that did't work in mind, u'll never know, one day they might come in useful)

Oh... this post is not meant for NEW salsa dancers. For new salsa leads, in most cases, if you try to learn too much, you'll suffer from information overload. In my opinion, it's best to focus on building up the foundation 1st before trying to learn 'too much' :)

Lastly, given the many different ways to achieve the same objective (e.g. how to do a CBLT), it's important NOT to say somebody else's method is WRONG. What works for you might not work for them!! We must always respect others.