Cuban Salsa: Abajo Police – Police Down Under Turn
The Policia por Abajo turn is quite common. From the Hammerlock position, left or right, the Lead bends the Follow’s other arm and turns her “down under” using the shoulder as pivot point and the now stretched Hammerlock arm as a lever.
I have seen it in hundreds of videos with a lot of variation.
Sometimes the turn starts immediately after entering the Hammerlock. Sometimes the Follow is walked around in the Hammerlock position for an extra count or two. It is also quite common to see the Lead bend and unbend the arm several times before the turn.
I have never heard a name for the turn. And I have never seen a video trying to generalize it and refine in into a well-formed figure, easy to read, learn and replicate. Hardly any tutorials exist.
Let us name the figure
For a long time I have called the archive I use to store all these variations for “Hammerlock Exit Turns”. It catches some of what we see but it is not the best of names. The most characteristic things about the turn are:
- It starts from Hammerlock.
- The Lead bends the Follows other arm like a police grip.
- The Follows is turned down under.
It gives us the following descriptive name: “Policia por Abajo” from Hammerlock. And in English: Hammerlock Police Down Under Turn.
Short description
From a Left-Turned Hammerlock the turn is a right turn on “1-2-3”. From the Right-Turned Hammerlock the turn is a left turn on “5-6-7”.
- Police Down Under Right Turn from a Left-Turned Hammerlock.
- Police Down Under Left Turn from a Right-Turned Hammerlock.
Keep it simple
Unless you are natural dancer, you better stick to same variation again and again in order to reduce the number of failures. It can be tricky to remember when best to bend the arm and when best for the Follow to step under. Especially if you just try to improvise the turn with months in between.
Reducing the fail-rate is important because there is no easy way to recover gracefully as if nothing unforeseen has happened. When it fails it is often a disaster that can’t be hidden or explained away!
The day a Lead owns the move by heart and mostly succeed could be the time to start experimenting with some of the many variations.
The double turn
When I started developing the best possible standard version for most dancers, I soon realized that it should be a double turn. Because it contains all the information needed for all versions. Since a double figure is rather long, I also decided that the standard version should be the shortest possible double turn. No more walking than necessary. The double figure reduced to its core.
A nice thing about this refined double turn is that it in my judgement looks and feels better than any other version in most situations. You only need other variations as a Plan B if something prevented you from doing the standard version.
Recipe for Police Down Under
- Gancho Coca-Cola Left Hammerlock
- Walk in Hammerlock Position 123
- Bend arm and prepare on 567
- Down Under Right Turn Hammerlock
- Bend arm and prepare 123
- Down Under Left Turn Hammerlock 567
- Rodeo Inverso on 123 etc
I always start with the Left-Hammerlock. It can be started from the start position of open position, but it is a little weak just to do a half left turn with a pivot on “2-3”. The Left-Hammerlock is much more impressive. It has much more flow and momentum when done from the Gancho Promenade Position: Dile Que No con Coca-Cola.
I have good arguments for starting with the Left-Hammerlock. It means that you start more relaxed and that the end is more fast, a half count shorter. The last half of the turn is more difficult, so it is good that it happens from the traditional Hammerlock Position we know by heart.
Next the dancers just walk on “1-2-3” before the Lead bends the Follow’s arm and prepare her to bend down on “5-6-7”. Next the Follow walks under like a right turn on “1-2-3” and into Hammerlock on “5-6-7”. This time there is no “just walking”. The Lead must immediately bend the Follow’s arm and prepare her to go down under on “1-2-3”. Then walk down under like a left turn on “5-6-7”. The Hammerlock is continued into Rodeo Inverso on “1”.
Mostly a partner move
“Police Down Under” is not easy. It is not entirely True Social in the sense that it is unrealistic to do it right out of the box with most Follows even at advanced level. It works with training partners and with other Follows that are used to it.
But the day the Lead owns it by heart and have a lot of experience using it, he might be able to pull it off with many random advanced level Followers even if they don’t know it.
Public Domain
The Police Grip Down Under Turn from Hammerlock has always existed. At least it is most likely very old. But I do believe that the concise double version I promote in this tutorial is new or hardly ever see. Until now.
I have tried to make a generalized double figure with well-formed stepping from the point of view of Casino based on natural walking with Follow’s forward step as default.
It is of course Public Domain for anyone to use as if it is their own. That’s the nature of social dancing.
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