How to Make the Breakdancing Monkey Step by Step Tutorial

📌 Introduction

The Macaco It's a dynamic movement that combines agility, coordination, and explosiveness. It resembles a flip flap, but you can actually use it for almost anything, whether it's a transition or an acrobatic move. Mastering it will allow you to string together spectacular combos in your breaking sets. This is a recommended basic movement to learn.

In this tutorial, I will explain to you How to make a Macaque step by step, what mistakes to avoid and how to improve your technique.

🔹 Step 1: Preparation and Starting Position

Before attempting the Macaco, it's crucial to warm up properly. Spend at least 10-15 minutes thoroughly warming up your shoulders, wrists, legs, and, very importantly, your back. This will help prevent injury and prepare your muscles for the effort required. The Macaco involves quick turning and leg momentum, so flexibility and strength in these areas is key.

Once you're ready, place your feet shoulder-width apart and maintain a stable posture. However, it's important to keep your head aligned with your spine to avoid unnecessary neck strain. Make sure you have enough space to perform the movement safely.

💪 Previous Exercises:

Wrist, shoulder and back stretches to avoid injuries.
Estrellas laterales para acostumbrarte a la dirección del movimiento.
Flexiones y planchas para fortalecer la parte superior del cuerpo.

Starting Position:

1️⃣ Stand up with feet shoulder-width apart.
2️⃣ Flexiona ligeramente las rodillas and get ready to boost.
3️⃣ Lleva un brazo hacia atrás (si eres diestro, usa el derecho; si eres zurdo, el izquierdo).
4️⃣ Look in the direction you will turn and keep your body relaxed.

🔹 Step 2: Throwing and Supporting the Hand

Furthermore, this is the key moment of the Macaco in Breakdancing: the push and support of the hand.

1️⃣ Push yourself up and back with the legs.
2️⃣ Put your hand on the ground firmly, aligning with the shoulder.
3️⃣ Keep your arm straight to absorb the impact.
4️⃣ Raise the second leg to complete the turn.

⚠️ Advice: The movement should be fluid, as if you were tracing an arc in the air.

🔹 Step 3: Landing and Completion

After the turn, it is important to land with control and softness.

Take the second hand to the ground to balance yourself.
Land softly on your supporting leg.
Bend your knees to absorb the impact.

💡 Bonus: Once you've mastered the Macaco, you can use it as a transition into other moves like the Backflip, and the Flip Flap. Although you can later use it for all your breaking, whether it's an explosive movement from the beginning, doing a monkey or a transition from footwork to a handstand freeze, for example.

🔥 Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Not jumping high enough with your legs: Without a good push, you'll struggle to get up. That's why you need to repeat the pre-monkey exercises a lot to gain more strength and agility.
Landing with arms bent or to the side: Keep your arm strong to avoid falls and, above all, injuries.
Not looking in the right direction: Your head guides the movement, so focus on the trajectory. This is very important because you have to look completely behind you so that your body doesn't twist to one side, which is what all beginners tend to do.

📈 Tips to Improve Faster

Practice first on mats or grass to avoid blows, or you can also practice it on a gymnastics roller that will help you arch your back more and place your hands on the floor perfectly.
Record yourself on video to analyze your technique and see the mistakes you make.
Increase the spin speed progressively to make it more fluid.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

📌 How long does it take to learn the Macaco?
It depends on your level, but with daily practice, you could master breakdancing in 2-3-4 weeks, or even less if you know how to do some agility moves.

📌 Is it necessary to know how to do backflips before?
No, the Macaco is simpler and is a good first step to learning somersaults.

📌 Does the Macaque hurt your wrists?
If you feel pain, check your technique and do wrist and shoulder strengthening exercises.

📣 What's next? Try more moves!

The Monkey is just the beginning. Once you've mastered it, try these moves:

One-handed macaque
Macaque with an elbow
Flip Flap
One-handed Flip Flap
Backflip

🎥 Check out more tutorials on my TikTok 👉

🔥 Conclusion

The Macaco It's a key breakdancing move that will help you improve your fluidity and creativity on set, but most importantly, it will help you gain agility and is one of the key foundations of acrobatics. However, with practice, patience, and the right tips, you'll master it in no time.

If you want to learn more video tutorials you can do so. here!

💬 Leave me a comment if you have any questions and tell me what other moves you'd like to learn. See you in the next tutorial! 👊🔥