"The lack of language skills blocked parents from communicating with each other," Wen says.
Eloquent parents, especially, may find it hard not to use their superior verbal skills to block children's views.
Because of the rare set of skills the block requires, it is hard to find players who used chase-downs as a part of their game.
UNLIKE most hip-hop acts of the 1980's, De La Soul didn't hone its skills at block parties on the streets of New York City or Los Angeles; its members practiced on turntables set up in their suburban Long Island bedrooms.
Both have elite skills — shot-blocking for Davis, rebounding for Webber — that translate immediately into success at the N.B.A. level.
KAREN ROSENBERG ALEXANDRA BIRCKEN Gladstone Gallery 515 West 24th Street, Chelsea Through Oct. 13 Alexandra Bircken studied fashion in London, and a designer's skills — draping, blocking — inform this young German sculptor's art.
Some 80 countries in the Proliferation Security Initiative (an "activity not an organisation") exchange information and train together to sharpen skills for blocking illicit shipments of nuclear or other weapons materials.
Malnutrition, drug addiction, household instability, physical and verbal abuse, and neglect all lurked beneath the surface of the intractable apathy and abysmal study skills that blocked otherwise bright, young kids from intellectual growth.
But parents surveying those apps, or the educational titles available for every gaming console, will find little to guide them toward which (if any) offer much beyond the most basic skill-building blocks.
He also became famous for his shot-blocking skills: pundits called his blocks "Wilsonburgers", referring to the Wilson NBA basketballs he "shoved back into the faces of opposing shooters".
