Breaking with Certitude

Certitude is the type of conviction that removes all doubt. It’s almost aggressively authoritative. It’s sure, confident, and earnest. What’s special about this type of conviction is that we can act in a nearly identical manner, once with conviction and once without, and what you’ll see are two actions of the most distant relationship. While perfect copies of one another (minus the conviction), they’d look and feel remarkably different. At best, they’d be distant cousins.. maybe.

Conviction matters.

This past weekend I was fortunate enough to spectate at something called Freestyle Session. It was a qualifier for a bigger, championship for the best BBoys in the world. The event was held in San Diego, where sixty-four BBoys squared off in competition. This is break dancing, people. 

While I’m too ignorant to know the moves, who’s who, and how to properly judge each effort, I did notice something. Each dancer could throw a move or they could throw a move, if you know what I mean. There were performers of a wide array of skill level and the most noticeable quality to my ignorant eye was the stark difference between a competitor executing a move with certitude and a competitor executing a move with a more measured intensity. The former came with authority. The latter always felt like an impersonation, even when comparing movement apples to apples. A head spin with conviction gives you chills, whereas a head spin without it feels like a fraud.

While I’m no BBoy, and I won’t be throwing head spins at the competition any time soon, I think there is a lesson here. The best head spins are ones that have attitude and come from certitude. If you’re going to do something, do it with conviction. Imposing a governor on your effort never comes across well, and it sure as hell doesn’t win dance battles.

 

Logan Gelbrich

@functionalcoach