Mar 2003

Good Jammin' News

JAMMIN' * The following are excerpts from an interview RST conducted with Bill Butler last year.  His comments all pertain to his Jammin' technique and his teaching style. * RST  Where were you born and raised? Bill Butler (BB)  In Detroit, but now I live in New York.  I got to NY vis-a-vis the U.S. Air Force....I was in ten years and came from Anchorage Alaska.  Skating in Alaska was good - I was skating what is known as traditional roller skating but I was a rebel and was being aggressive in putting my own style together.  I started to train and teach myself and developed a technique which I now refer to as Jammin'. Jammin' is a technique I developed and teach and it stems from Detroit....I do what is called a hockey stop, approximately 16 stops, it is really eight stops but they are done on both sides of the body so it is 16.  I have perfected it to the point that I use it to stop, not as a performing thing and it takes particular wheels to do that. The wheels I skate on are rental wheels, orange in color and the reason I use that particular hardness is because my technique requires lateral movement so you need a wheel that will give you a very similar look as that they use in Detroit [Open House] but not as hard as that.  My slide is much shorter and more controlled in another way - but both moves are controlled. RST   Do you only teach advance classes or do you work with beginners? BB  As a rule I'll teach anyone that is serious, other than that I would just as soon teach children because teaching someone 20 or 30 years old who has been skating 15 years there is a tendency you have to break habits, so you first have to break the habit then you can begin to teach, possibly. Also, I'm a disciplinarian, I don't like or tolerate nonsense so I cut that off...I explain to a student first off exactly how I want things to take place and how I work because I want to maintain the sincerity of the technique with my students or I do not teach them. RST   Are most of your students children? BB  No children, my students are all adults from various walks of life.  I have been teaching 45 years and I teach 4 days a month, one day a week, three hour classes.  When I get there early, if someone shows up I start teaching because students have learned to seize the moment so they can get one-on-one tutelage. I would like to start a club and I am going to do that and I want to have 500 Jammas in the next 1 1/2 years.  In order for that to happen, we have to have camaraderie and understanding, so when I'm teaching no one else talks but me and the word gets across clearly and the language is quickly learned. Putting this club together, selling and making people aware of what I do and why they should make this a part of their lives is like a supermarket - either you want this item or you don't.  This is something for people who want to do it.  I do not advocate that you should do this, I advocate that if you are going to roller skate you should do it this way. If you use the method that I am referring to, you can do it in any style.  That eliminates me being the person to say 'this is the only way you should do it.'  I would never say that, I say the concept I use in skating  should be used in all forms of roller skating.  If you happen to do it the way I do, that is a different story, but if you use the concept that I use and the style in which you skate, you and I could skate together and I don't even have to know your name or anything about you because we have the same thing in common. RST   How many Jammas have you trained? BB  Officially under my tutelage I would say offhand 15 that I would consider a Jamma.  In order to be considered a Jamma in the real sense of the word you must be able to skate in all categories [solo, pairs, trios, quads].  It is like karate, brown belt, yellow, red, black, etc.  I am slowly creating these killer roller skaters, female and male, all capable of the same thing.  When they go anywhere with or without me, they skate with people, people don't skate with them.  That's the way I teach. The technique I speak of I saw someone else doing it and I took it to another level.  The guy who I am teaching, he is taking it to another level and after I am dead and gone, somebody else will grab that baton and do wonders with it.  I wouldn't say anyone should skate like me and no one is going to skate like me anyway, but you and I are going to be following the same set of rules.  I have put together rules and the way this should be done, how signals are given, I've got it all down.  I speak with a lot of assurance, I'm very sure of myself.  I might not do a lot of things but I do this very well. *Next issue, a closer look at the Hockey Stop*