Revision 3

The whip is the signature 8-count pattern of West Coast Swing and the gateway to an enormous family of variations.

The shape

• 1–2: follower travels forward down the slot
• 3&4: leader steps across the slot and catches the follower's momentum in closed-ish position, redirecting them ("the coil")
• 5–6: follower travels back down the slot the way they came, leader posts
• 7&8: anchor

The follower's path is sometimes described as a "down-and-back" on a single track: the whip sends them past the leader, turns them around at the end of the slot, and brings them home. Thibault and Nicole Ramirez describe the shape as a paper clip or hairpin turn — very linear, with the leader staying "mostly the base" while the follower travels in and out to finish with a stretch.¹ It is one of the three basic families of WCS patterns: pushes, passes, and whips.²

What it teaches

Whips are where stretch becomes unavoidable: the redirection on 3&4 and the leverage on 5–6 only feel good when both partners maintain elastic connection through their bodies. Rushing count 4 is the classic whip mistake — most teachers drill "wait for the stretch." Brian B teaches followers to delay count 4 and roll through the step heel to toe: landing hard between the leader's feet kills the connection the leader needs for the exit.³

Naming

Some older curricula count the whip's second half differently or teach a "coaster" ending; the 8-count structure above is the one most commonly taught today.⁴