Which Jacket Is Best For Power Moves?

For the third episode of #AskErin, we have this question from Tony Jr:

What are the best jackets/windbreaker for breaking? Which gets you the most spin when doing power, and which are the best budget wise?

Great question.

For a lot of beginners, learning ground power sucks.

First of all, it’s hard. It’s already difficult to learn the techniques, let alone master it.

Second of all, it hurts. If you’ve ever tried to repeatedly attempt windmills after windmills after windmills during training, you would have probably experienced the legendary “windmill burn”.

Yea, those bruises on your shoulders and back.

All accumulated from shitty attempts one after the after.

So, it’s inevitable that bboys and bgirls begin to look for “protection” (no, not what you’re thinking.) They’re looking for that protection against all the burns that they are suffering from practice.

The answer?

A jacket.

But which jacket is great? Which is budget-friendly? And which jacket does Erin recommend!!

Click ‘play’ on this video to watch my answer:

The 3 jackets I recommend are the:

1. Classic Sweater
2. Windbreaker
3. Mockneck

Let’s dive in.

1.The Classic Sweater

The sweater I am wearing is primarily made of cotton. It’s actually pretty okay for spinning, quite smooth.

In my opinion, I find this slightly heavier than the mockneck and the windbreaker.

The sweater you see on me is an L size — I typically wear an M. So you might notice that, in the video, the sweater looks bigger and baggier.

Just to be perfectly honest, this is not my first choice for spinning — but I do still use it sometimes.

 

Price: $30 (cheapass) – $300 (rich dick) [NOTE: The sweater I am wearing is not available anywhere. I got it because I am a member of the Universal Zulu Nation.]

Thickness/Cushion: Depends on the sweater you bought. Typically ranges from paper-thin to wooly mammoth

Amount of Friction: Medium

Durability: Quite long

Water Absorption: High

Smelliness Retention: Passable

Spin Ability:

 

2. Windbreaker

This windbreaker you see here is from the brand Underworld. I bought this in Taiwan sometime last year when I was over there for a holiday.

(NOTE: I am not sponsored by them.)

This windbreaker looks pretty nice and it’s also quite good for spinning.

The only thing is that — you can see right here that the windbreaker has frayed at the seams around the collar.

To be fair, I’ve been using this religiously 3x a week for 3 months now so I’ve put it through some pretty good abuse.

Anyway, all in all, the windbreaker is really light and as a bonus, it also protects you from cold weather.

 

Price: About $72

Thickness/Cushion: The strong winds in Taiwan can’t touch this

Amount of Friction: Lesser than a bicycle tyre on a rainy day and wet floors

Durability: Lesser than your Converse sneakers breaking up at the sides

Water Absorption: Good

Smelliness Retention: I don’t smell wearing this, so good.

Spin Ability:

3.Mockneck

This mockneck here is primarily made of acrylic. I’ve had this mockneck for years and it has served me pretty well. I mean, the mockneck is made specially for spinning (which is why I bought it.)

What I dislike about this mockneck is that it doesn’t trap the sweat within, unlike the other two. For both the sweater and windbreaker, sweat is trapped inside the jacket, so there are no “snail trails” around the place where I practice (aka sweat stains on the floor.)

However, for the mockneck…. I am literally a snail. I leave snail trails… everywhere.

 

Price: About $50

Thickness/Cushion: I’ll still hurt my shoulders 🙁

Amount of Friction: As little friction as a couple that just fell in love

Durability: Like a couple that actually follows their wedding vows

Water Absorption: POOR

Smelliness Retention: People run away when I walk by them. (okay, to be fair, I have this mockneck since eons ago.)

Spin Ability:

 

To conclude this post, I’d like to say that the 3 jackets I showed you do help you to spin. And after all, most jackets do unless you get a jacket that’s really rough.

But I want you to know that:

The jackets are only a supplement

If you want more spins on your powermoves, it all depends on your foundation and your basic power training.

Getting smoother with your power is what you should be focusing on.

The jackets are merely supplements — the nitro to your existing speed. They WILL not get you better windmill foundations.

Anyway, I hope this clears up the question.

 

Peace,
Erin