Muscular Bonding: The power of dance and drill | Hacker News Reader

Muscular Bonding: The power of dance and drill

fs.blog

50 pointsfeross24 comments

>> Marching aimlessly about on the drill field, swaggering in conformity with prescribed military postures, conscious only of keeping in step so as to make the next move correctly and in time somehow felt good.

No. Modern drill is definitely not aimless, let alone fun. If done properly, it hurts. For some people at basic training it is more of a workout than the actual PT workouts. I've seen people pass out. I've seen people damage themeselves and others with bayonets as they fall (parade bayonets are not sharp). And all the foot-stomping and repetative motion leads to knee and back injuries. The one thing I took from drill was an ingrained desire to avoid it at all costs.

>>A plastic surgeon has called for a change to the way a German battalion does its rifle drill after its elite soldiers started developing breasts. Dozens of soldiers in the Wachbataillon unit (Guard Battalion), which performs drill displays at official events, have complained about over-developed breasts on their left-hand side because of the way they clasp their rifles. It is understood the repeated slapping of their rifles against their chests has stimulated hormones, causing a condition known as one-sided gynecomastia.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2267631/Germanys-Wa...

>> "There is a very significant link between the activity in the … battalion and the development of the breast on the left side," Dr. Bjorn Krapohl, director of plastic surgery at the military's main hospital in Berlin, told the Herald. "They need to change the way they drill."

https://www.livescience.com/26597-german-army-soldiers-breas...

These sorts of comments frustrate me. You seem to take objection to drill being described as "aimless", but clearly the author is using that term to describe his perception at the time before going on to show how it wasn't aimless at all. This makes me think you didn't try to understand what was being said before attacking it.

I once heard the concept of an "Iron Man Argument", being the opposite of a Straw Man. Let's take the most charitable and coherent interpretation of an argument that is presented to us and try to poke holes in that. Then we will both be better for it. Maybe this guy is dead wrong. But defeating arguments he never made will not determine that.

Sorry to be a grump. It just frustrated me that this was the top comment.

Have multiple friends/family that were at academies. Can confirm drill is hated by vast majority if not all.

It was thought by the Greeks that the Amazons had one breast removed in girlhood, to be able to better wield a bow. How ironic, then, that drilling in handling their weapons causes these German soldiers to grow boobs.

Thank you for "Tzkrieg".

I'm a competitive Dance Dance Revolution player. nothing compares to the euphoria of being perfectly synchronized with the music, the notes on screen, and in an ideal scenario, the person playing next to you.

all types of dancing and synchronized movement achieve this effect. in a lot of senses, when you perform these kinds of activities with other people, the informational content of your minds and bodies come closer together in the possible configurational space of brain states. your sensory input, mental activity, and bodily sensations all line up, creating an instant bond with another person, as you can be 100% sure that you now have common ground with each other. the psychological, social and emotional benefits are real.

watching a movie or listening to music together with someone obviously achieves the same effect, but without as many modalities involved

Thank you for this. I love music festivals, and as strange as it sounds, one or two a year put me in a much better frame of mind. I've been struggling to explain this to my significant other who accepts it, but ultimately views them as just a party. To me "the psychological, social and emotional benefits are real". Very real.

I've always felt the same way about crowded sporting events. Intellectually, I understand that sports are rather... shallow?, but there's something that just seems magical about tens of thousands of people gathered in one place for a shared purpose and being so loud.

If you were on the Dutch organized world championship years ago, I might've seen you. Not a competitive DDR player, I was part of the random audience that was there.

Also playing music together. A band or orchestra that gets in the groove is a beautiful thing to be a piece of.

Have you read much about flow state? Lots of athletes report it but there are other routes in.

yeah for sure, and that's clearly what's going on in this case. thankfully my hobby naturally facilitates/induces a flow state, so it's a great way to train getting into the zone. also very meditative

Do you play at home? I was thinking about starting to play DDR for fitness (and fun) at home but haven't done a deep dive into the setup requirements. Any tips for a newb or equipment you recommend?

I have an arcade machine for practice. but before coronavirus, serious players preferred public arcades (namely Round1 and Dave & Buster's) because those locations have the only official networked machines capable of participating in worldwide leaderboards.

if you want to start playing at home, the cheap-but-decent option is StepMania ( https://stepmania.com ) and the L-tek "Polish" pad (looks scammy but it's real): https://maty-taneczne.pl/

the serious option is the StepManiaX stage (confusingly distinct from the above project): https://stepmaniax.com/ or finding a used arcade machine on Craigslist or eBay

That sounds awesome but none of those happen for me.

Prior to the stay-home order my wife and I would go out line dancing three nights each week. Dancing in unison with dozens of other people is surprisingly invigorating. I miss it deeply.

Re: dance. My current cardio routine is improv dancing and it's definitely a lot of fun. Re: drilling. This applies in any domain, even programming. Pick small problems and do variations on them until they become second nature. It's a surprisingly effective way to learn. Gary Bernhardt has actually turned this idea into a product with Execute Program: https://www.executeprogram.com/.

I suspect there are a few untapped product ideas here for programmers still. I'd be willing to pay for a set of drills in learning the various AI frameworks. The theory is linear algebra + calculus which can be learned alongside the drills for the framework and could potentially be another set of drills.

>> This refers to a sense of euphoric connection that is sparked by performing rhythmic movements in unison to music or chanting.

I suspect this euphoria happens whenever we believe ourselves to be synchronized with others, even if we are physically doing very different things.

I’ve felt euphoric on a few occasions while performing comedy/skits for an audience before. It’s a weird sensation to feel like I understand what the crowd is thinking and can anticipate reactions to my words.

It felt very similar to dancing, minus the exercise.

Good to know the term “muscular bonding” though. I’ll look that up for more references.

This has sparked a few "connected moment" memories.

I was riding a bicycle downhill when a bird happened to fly next to me for a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity.

When my oldest child had just learned to run, and we ran across a field together for the first time, for no reason but to feel the wind, and look over at each other, moving as one.

There's definitely something about moving together that is wired to demand an emotional response.

The first somewhat-detailed description of military marching is in a 16th century dance manual.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoinot_Arbeau

"The righteous mind" speaks about this at some length, I'd highly recommend the book for anyone interested in a look at bonding individuals into groups.

I second this. Few books have affected me the way The Righteous Mind did. I read it once in 2011 and thought it was cool. On the second reading I became troubled and found myself disagreeing with much of what he said. It wasn't until the 5th reading that I understood how huge his discoveries were.

In the subjective tech tree dance is a thick branch of emotion

skateboarding!!! surfing!!! the best exercises for intellectuals

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