Further Practices

Changes of hand-hold will be covered in the next tutorial, but I thought we might jump the gun a little and do a little taster. You can think of it as a combination of neutral turn plus hand-change.

Follower's right in Lead's left, waist-level hand-hold, anticlockwise turn

Demonstration
View the clip:

merengue_neutral_turn_waistlevel_linr_anticlockwise.avi (5.1 Mb)

Notice that:

• the hand-hold is lowered to tailbone (coccyx) level;
• apart from movement on the vertical axis, the hand-hold remains stationary;
• changeover occurs on the midline of the lead's back;
• changeover hands are always palm upward.

Preparation
Stand facing each other with a partnership offset, follower's right hand in lead's left at waist level (as in the “HALO™ turn for Followers” tutorial).

Description

1. Follower: you should not experience any lead force through the hand-hold, and should therefore merengue on the spot.
   Lead: place the palm of your right hand over the top of your partner's right hand, fingers curled over the edge.
    
2. Lead: let go with your left hand and perform a complete turn anti-clockwise pedalling on the spot.
    
3. Lead: as you proceed through the first quarter of the turn, lower the right over right hand-hold to tail-bone (coccyx) level. Your right hand should begin rotating to the palm upward position.
    
4. Lead: as you proceed through the second quarter of the turn, bring your left hand around behind your back, to the mid-line at tail-bone level, palm upward.
    
5. Lead: transfer your partner's hand from your right to your left when your hands meet at the midline behind your back (see Learning Tips).
    
6. Lead: continue turning, adjusting and raising the hand-hold to waist level as your centrelines finally meet.

Learning Tips

The runner's baton
Lead: think of your partner's hand as a baton in a running relay; the follower's hand should be passed (not thrown) from one hand to the other, such that contact is maintained at all times.

Let the turn do the work
Lead: during the second quarter of the turn, place your left hand behind your back as early as possible. Once in position, let the turn of your body bring your left hand (which is still relative to yourself) to your right hand (which is still relative to your partner).

Common Faults

High hand change
Changing hands higher than waist level causes the elbows to protrude, increases the lead's turning radius, and muscle tension in the upper back. This increases the likelihood of the lead elbowing the follower, slows down the rate of turn, and pitches the lead's body forward (resulting in an eccentric turn) respectively. This kind of hand change should take place below the waist.

Moving hand-hold
Leads tend to let the hand-hold drift to the follower's right as they turn, which can be interpreted by the latter as a signal for a clockwise turn.
 

Extra extras
Here's something more for you to look at and figure out:

merengue_neutral_turn_waistlevel_bothdirs.avi (3.9 Mb)

Can you find a way of tidying up the hand-hold?