Advanced Sliderobics

The video is made by the people at Training Camp, who supposedly make slides comparable to Reebok's (but very expensive). The choreography is very fast paced, and thus is difficult to execute all the moves on a 6 foot slide, which is a concern for all those who own Reebok 6' slides. In fact, Training Camp's basic approach to sliding seems to be different from Reebok's. It is the pace which makes this video advanced. The pace is also what will make even the most coordinated sliders feel like klutzes. At first I thought it was because I was just learning the moves, but to be honest, I catch onto moves pretty quickly, and I still can't do the routines smoothly.

The video definitely contains a lot of creative slide choreography. One of my hopes in purchasing this tape was that the video would be interesting and fun enough to make 30-40 min. of sliding pass quickly. This video does do that. It's very fast paced and so gets my heart rate up nice and high (and I'm in very good shape). It has a lot of great ideas about how to incorporate aerobic dance steps onto the slide: The Charleston, the mashed potato, the twist, kick-ball-changes, pivot turns and lots of interesting arm motions like Egyptian arms, shampooing, swimming, downhill skiing and some funky arm movements. The toning moves (e.g. pushups with booties on the hands) are very unique. I'm sure that those who teach slide would get a lot of great ideas from this tape.

I have, however, arrived at some conclusions about slide videos. There are many absolutely terrific, well-designed, beautifully produced step videos out there, but I don't think that such a thing exists yet for slide. Until instructor Heather Day's newer slide video (CIA 9703) came out, this was the most advanced and interesting slide video on the market. Unfortunately that really isn't saying much. Heather does a decent job in this video, but lacks the authority and video experience of a Karen Voight or a Kathy Smith. Having seen her newer video (CIA 9703) I can say her style has matured a lot since this video.

It also seems as if the more interesting the slide choreography, the less true lateral motion training one gets. Advanced Sliderobics tries to do too many interesting steps. I see slide's lateral movement as a very beneficial cross training component of my program, but the more "aerobic dance" steps there are in a slide routine, the less true lateral motion. I guess the best, most-time efficient lateral motion training sessions are just basic slide/sprint intervals at a relatively high intensity. Boring, but effective. I sometimes do the Advanced Sliderobics tape up to the toning section, flip to MTV or something while I do some timed sprint intervals, then turn the tape back on for the toning, cool down, and stretch.

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