Learn to lead .... by following

YQ managed to learn my style of leading and leeched most of my moves simply by following.

She adopted the 'best practice' based on the various leads she had danced with and took all the techniques that worked.

Similarly, she also borrowed the worst ... and use them to help train the girls how to follow. Why so? This is to train the girls NOT to depend on the lead, and let them be able to keep their balance and poise no matter how bad the lead and how they are 'thrown around'!

When your lead is 'mature' to a level, it'll help a lot to try following. You'll be able to appreciate the girl's footwork, problems, etc. better. And thus be able to help compensate for the girl even more

But this only works... if your lead is 'mature' enough not to become confused with too many other things. There are guys whose movement became really sissy when they tried following too early, etc. etc.

Learn fast ? Pick up bad habits even faster!

Those who learn fast will need to watch out for one thing.
Due to the fact that they can pick things up very quickly, this applies to bad habits too!

As the chinese sayings goes 学好三年，学坏三天.
Thus seriously talented students must make it a point to listen to their coaches and consult them often.

Otherwise some habits will be VERY hard to correct once it's picked up.

How to add styling

When salsa dancers start learning how to style, a common issue is that they can't put what they have learnt during class into social dances.

This is often the result of being too 'greedy' and lack of planning. Planning when dancing salsa??? LOL, YES

Why greedy? Coz they tried to do EVERYTHING. It won't work (unless you are a genius). Coz most people cannot handle too many things at one go.

One technique is... PRE-SELECT a few styling moves (recommend up to 4 maximum).
PLAN how you want to use them in which moves.

Go out and use them on EVERY girl on the dance floor that night in every song.
By the end of the night, those moves you've chosen should be internalized (i.e. muscle memory).

Pick another set for the next night :)

The good thing about being a lead is that we get to choose the moves we want to do and thus has more control on the styling aspect. Make full use of this advantage.

For followers, the above method works as well. Prepare those few styling moves you want to focus and work on. Then during every dance of the night, use them whenever opportunity arise. By the end of the night, those moves should be internalized (or maybe a few nights, depending on the complexity and opportunity)

Training versus social dancing

There is a difference between a training and social dancing.

While training and practising, we will try to push ourselves beyond the comfort zone. Focus is on improvement and there will be many awkward moments where things doesn't work, etc. We'll just laugh it off and try again (while trying to figure out what went wrong)

But while social dancing, the focus is on enjoying the dance/experience. Taking care of the girl, charming her, etc. Thus we usually stay WITHIN the comfort zone and will only push the envelop if the follow enjoys that.