Bill's signature headband and learning to fall professionally
You may be wondering what the above two subjects have to do with one another
but they are related as shown in this interivew RST conducted with Bill
(BB) recently. Many, who have taken note, have observed that Bill
faithfully wears a customized head band whenever he skates and even when
he is teaching his classes. Some may have assumed that he originally
began wearing the headband to add a personal, unique touch to his skating
attire but the real reason he started wearing it may come as a surprise.
His explanation about the chosen length of the headband is what led into
the discussion of falling on the skate floor and how it is advisable for
skaters to learn to fall "professionally."
(RST) - You wear a headband every time that you
skate. When did you start to wear it and when did it became
part of your whole skate.....
(BB) - My persona? Well, I've been wearing the headband
for 50 or 60 years, I guess. When I actually put it on for the first
time, I don't know exactly. I really don't know. I just know
I've been wearing it over 50 years, that's for sure. It's very simple
as to the reason that I wear it. It's to keep the sweat out of my
eyes, that's all. I never thought it was like Batman or anything
like that. The sweat was a pain and I had to come up with something
but I use a certain material that doesn't smell from the perspiration.
It's a cool headband. I get them made by a young lady in Brooklyn,
New York. She has a shop called The Melting Pot.
I found that the material doesn't smell, whatever it is, and the reason
for it, I don't know but you can wear it a long time without it – in other
words, it's not like wrist guards and I'm sure it's the material.
Wrist guards get real funky boy, you got to throw them in the washing machine.
That's what I found that was so cool about the headband that I got, but
just because you don't want to be a pig, you wash it.
(RST) - Why did you pick the length that it is?
(BB) - The length of mine, I think, is 37 inches.
You wouldn't think my head was that big but I decided to have it cut a
certain length so that when I tie it off, if I'm skating and somebody is
skating behind me and that thing is hanging down like a trailer, they grab
that thing and if they fall, it'd break my neck. So I cut it short,
just long enough so it's safe for me – somebody'd have to be really close
to me to grab it. But it's short like that.
The length was figured out with that in mind because people fall and
they grab whatever they can grab.. They don't mean it but it's just
the way we are as human beings. We're protective despite ourselves.
Like when you fall backwards, unless it's really hard and fast, the
body's designed to make the head go forward because that's when people
bang their heads. You know they done fell real good. You have
to learn how to control yourself at the last minute, that's more important
than anything, that last minute, or should I say second. It's like
a micro second that you have to know what to do. Your brain has to
click into survival mode immediately between the fall and the contact with
whatever, in most cases the floor. And boy, you're coming down hard
too so you got to get it together. I've been getting it together,
I mean, I don't fall that much but when I do fall, it's pretty. I
do it like I'm Muhammad Ali, boy I'm pretty when I fall. So I make
a joke about that. I fall professionally.
(RST) - Did you have to practice that?
(BB) - It was like the headband thing, I just figured
it out. So along with the natural part of the protection that you're
born with, I just added to it.
(RST) - So, if you know you're gonna fall, is it best
to go on and fall into it rather than try to fight it?
(BB) - Right. Danger comes in the protection of it so
the thing is to learn, it's kind of like a stunt man in Hollywood.
You have karate and these sports where the body gets slammed – you got
to know how to fall but there are people that actually practice falling,
jumping or landing where the body becomes the object of affection. (laugh)
You have to learn how to take care of it. Falling down stairs and
things like that, they practice that stuff. That's why they get paid
a lot of money. It's amazing how it works. There's always the
star that's born and then there's always somebody around that looks
like them and they do the rest with make up, camera magic, distance and
stuff like that because you have to learn how that person walks – all that
stuff.
(RST) - Like in Roll Bounce?
(BB) - Exactly. I think one of the biggest and most
important jobs in Hollywood, before the cameras roll, is I think the person
is called a casting somebody. They're casters, they're the ones who
get the actors to match the script. So I think that's the beginning
of a good or bad movie – the casting. That's where it all starts.
(RST) - Thank you.
- Posted 10/30/06 -
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