Archived comment by BUBBA:
"Why, Lieutenant Dan, you've got legs! Magic legs."
---GUMP

Archived comment by Arlene:
One of the fond memories of my childhood..when the conditions were right, there had been rain & then a couple days of hard freeze, the swamp next to the nearby creek would be a nice slippery, sliding surface. So we would shoe skate; hey it's the South, who actually owns their own pair of ice skates?

Archived comment by jcharles:
The fear of being chased around your kitchen table by timber wolves while wearing socks on your newly waxed floor?

I tried to find a copy, but Larson has apparently waged a nice polite war on on-line copies of his cartoons.

Archived comment by slugbuggy:
luposlipophobia, anyone?

Archived comment by Mia:
I guess you're right in saying one could not slide on gravel. I know (from personal experience) that it is possible to slide facedown on concrete after running full out and triping over a small child. However, for purposes of the discussion we shall concede that moving one's feet along the surface of concrete, gravel, and other rough textures would indeed be impossible.

The slide I referred to earlier was a movement we did on marley. The closest idea I can conjure is that of a dog sliding on all fours across a freshly waxed floor, or even linoleum. Maybe person trying to cross ice in regular shoes? There is the same freedom of movement, but controlled in direction. In modern we slide our feet across the floor during the pelvic shift exercises. That would be using spatial intent to reach out into forward, side, back and diagonal middle while using our hamstrings for the actual thrust outward from place middle.

Did any of that make sense?

Archived comment by Saint:
If you ever want to see a really ... interesting ... movie, try and find Legend of the Rollerblade Seven. If you drop acid, it may even make sense.

Archived comment by Jon:
Mia, do you mean "slide" or "shuffle"? Slide, IMO, would imply that the person sliding does not have control of speed(perhaps direction, by orientation). Shuffle would include speed control.

...the roller disco mention in CHiPS made me think of the "Rollerball" remake. Though how I could forget, considering the 30x/hr. showing schedule of the trailer on TV...

Archived comment by Karin:
How are you sliding? A freshly waxed floor in stocking feet? Because I can think of some combos that wouldn't work. Like tennis shoes on gravel.

Also coming to mind: The freestyle "slip'n'slide" in which the guys would wet the floor between the mop room and sinks (about 30 yards), run, and slide as fast as they could into the sinks. If they failed to catch each themselves on the sinks they fell over backwards. Moral? Stay out of fast food places after hours. The employees often are letting off steam from dumb customers =)

Archived comment by Mia:
Hurree, hurrah! My first cool points. :)

To add to the thread, it is possible to slide your feet along the floor and move from point A to point B. I did this in choreography the other day. Works best if you generally have a long stride when walking.

Archived comment by Matt:
J, I think you meant "one foot on the ground." Because, to constantly maintain both feet on the ground would be called standing. I stand by what I saw, though. Having both feet off the ground at any time is a penalty. In fact, I believe the intrinsic difference between walking and running, essentially, is whether both feet leave the ground at the same time or not. Regardless, it's an inane discussion. Then again, so is "freestyle walking."

Archived comment by J:
Matt, the sport 'walking' is really just 'running in a funny way. ' Noone has done it with both feet on the ground in decades. But it's still in the rules.

Archived comment by steff:
wanking...competition? oh. my. lord. and heh, also.

i don't believe you're a bit sorry.

Archived comment by Karin:
Mia-yes it was! Cool points to you.

Archived comment by Mia:
Karin, was that quote at the beginning from "Forrest Gump"?

I hate punctuation with quotes.

Archived comment by slugbuggy:
BTW, this made me think of the show "CHiPs". Back in the days before the web and ESPN2, that was how you learned about the newest cool fad sport. It seems every week there was a sub-plot that involved Ponch and John doing motocross or skateboarding(with sails, I think) or rollerdisco or whatever.

Archived comment by slugbuggy:
You can call it "extreme" or "freestyle" or whatnot, but without a board, what these kids are doing is what any eight-year old girl will tell you is "gymnastics." (check link)

Archived comment by Karin:
never seen that one on TV...

Archived comment by Matt:
Yup. They do 15 miles, I think. The rules state that one foot must be in contact with the ground at all times, so as to prevent cheating, also called "jogging." There are judges posted all along the race course. Two years ago a Chinese woman (who was winning at the time, I think) was disqualified for having both feet off the ground three times over the course of the race. Needless to say, she didn't take it too well.

Archived comment by sg:
Just curious, but since someone mentioned Olympics, _isn't_ walking an Olympic sport? Not sure if it is freestyle or something else.

Archived comment by Montygirl:
Ok, I must admit my very first thought after reading the comment was to see supermodels in competetion. How they sashay down the runway in those heels without falling is beyond me!

Archived comment by fair_n_hite_451:
Well, lots of people tell me I'm a tool already, so we must be getting close!

Archived comment by Flyhalf:
Don't know much about.....

Previous post should have simply read increase (no "s" needed). It was a simple proofreading error. I didn't mean to drive any English majors batty.

Archived comment by Jon:
I'm still boggling over the "freestyle walking" concept, even after it has been explained. Doesn't "running up walls" require "running" and not "walking"? ...because if you can "walk up walls", I'd paid to see it.

Archived comment by Flyhalf:
fair_n_hite_451:

"Computer-assisted walking" is assuming the computer is a tool. As advancements in artificial intelligence increases, the human would actually be the tool.

Archived comment by fair_n_hite_451:
Flyhalf:

But then, that wouldn't exactly be a freestyle walking competition (and praise be to IP for opening my eyes to the existance of such a thing) but rather a "computer assisted walking" competition?

And then my brain naturally flows to this sort of thing with the Olympics coming up. Could someone design a computer that could actually improve performance? Make muscles fire faster and harder, that sort of thing?

Archived comment by Suplexia:
Nobody thought a computer would beat a human at chess, but Deep Blue proved us wrong there. Freestyle walking may be next.

Archived comment by Flyhalf:
It will not be long before we will be able to wear computers, so technically you will be able to write a program that coordinates your muscle movements into a freestyle walking sequence. In this case, the computer could actually win.

Archived comment by Karin:
I don't think my computer would win, as it is prone to system failures, but my microwave is insistent and stubborn...it'd be a shoo-in!

Archived comment by jamie:
I think it's sad how little faith he has in his computer. With that kind of attitude none of his appliances will ever achieve greatness.

Archived comment by Karin:
Because as a computer it'd get all the media attention anyway, unless the winner was a really special case. Like a blender.

Archived comment by Phil:
"Yeah, but it's very useful in winnng a freestyle wanking competition."

Sorry. You didn't just read that.

Did anyone notice that he says a computer couldn't WIN one, leaving open the possibilty that it could finish, say, a respectable fourth.

Archived comment by Melanie:
Does anyone else REALLY want to know the rest of this conversation???

Archived comment by Karin:
I think you could get it pretty decent legs if cost wasn't an issue. "Titaneum allode. Like they use in the spaceships."

Archived comment by dave:
If you would walk _this_ way, sir?

Archived comment by chelsea:
But would it have wheels or legs? Because it might be unstable having legs whereas wheels could be cheating. [And, wheels are horribly unflexible so not much room for creativity.]

Archived comment by Karin:
Actually, if you put it on a wheeled cart and created a program that let the computer "drive" the cart it could technically be considered walking of a sort.

Archived comment by umrguy:
This almost sounds like a response to the guy who wanted to teach a computer to pick root beer....

Archived comment by Xandra:
freestyle walking! yess!! One of my friends actually competes in competitions. (yes, I know that was redundant) It's pretty cool to watch, actually. They run up walls and do flips and stuff. I'm waay too uncoordinated to try it, but hey...

Archived comment by Nighthawk:
I was thinking of more of a Ministry of Silly Walks kind of thing. Actually, now that you've explained it, it sounds like freestyle walking might be sort of similar.

Archived comment by Candice:
Freestyle walking is basically... skateboarding without a skateboard. Thought it was a joke the first time I heard of it, but apparently not. Search the web, it's frightening... They sell special freestyle walking shoes...

Archived comment by Saint:
Woo-hoo! First-third comments!

Oh, yeah, should have been a period in that last one. Somewhere. Bet you can figure it out. Yeah, pretty late here.

Archived comment by Saint:
Wait--it just hit me. A freestyle walking competition How many ways are there to walk, anyway? I thought the walking class I took in college was pointless, but apparently I was actually in training. Someone should tell you these things.

Archived comment by Saint:
If this is the only think the guy could think of that a computer can't do, that is just so sad.