Style vs. Difficulty

Zerbalicious · Post by **Zerbalicious** » 24 Dec 2002 20:41

I seen many players hit hard tricks that don't look good. As I continue to play footbag I find myself wanting to see something that looks good, as opposed to just insane difficulty. I feel that the focus of modern freestyle is mainly on difficult links and combos rather than focusing on how the body moves and looks while excecuting a move.

I am wondering what the people on this list think.
Which is more important?
What do you enjoy watching more, a really ugly hard move or a beautiful easy one?

madshred2003 · Post by **madshred2003** » 24 Dec 2002 20:51

i think it's important to look good and smooth, but i also think you should bust big then clean it up. i dunno whatever... i think i'm contridicting myself. it's very late and tomorow morning there will be lots of presants with my name on them!

Rob · Post by **Rob** » 24 Dec 2002 21:07

Zerbalicious wrote: What do you enjoy watching more, a really ugly hard move or a beautiful easy one?

A really hard beautiful move

. I think style is important, but 95% of the time the big moves require some finesse so they automatically look good to me

ToeGuiltless · Post by **ToeGuiltless** » 24 Dec 2002 21:26

i agree with rob

Zerbalicious · Post by **Zerbalicious** » 24 Dec 2002 22:59

Loco Robo wrote:A really hard beautiful move . I think style is important, but 95% of the time the big moves require some finesse so they automatically look good to me

Although difficult tricks do take a tremendous ammount of skill and precision, in my opion that doesn't necessarily mean they come off looking good.

I've seen players make even easy moves, like butterfly, osis and paradox mirage look ugly with unneccessary plants, lost balance, and other things. Whereas I've seen huge style added to anything from kicks to mobius.
Look at the way Lon Smith plays. He can do each move tons of different ways and make them all look super stylie. Whereas most players just hit a trick one way and that's it. In my opion, that's what makes Lon one of the best, if not the best, players in the world. Not only can he go huge but he also busts some of the phattest tiltless combos the world has ever seen. Sometimes I enjoy watching him do easy stuff more because it leaves room for him to add more style.
On the other hand I've seen some of the world's top shreders hammer out hein text book combos that are totally mind blowing. They have perfect form but with very little personal expression included. For them, style may lie in the links that are being hit and I respect that to the utmost. It's probably a truer expression of that individual's personality as opposed to throwing in a bunch of jumping jacks and other funky stuff. Now don't get me wrong I enjoy seeing Atomic Scorpion's Tail into Furious Swril as much as the next guy but IMO There's enough of that going around and not enough personal expression through footbag.

But who am I to say anything.

ToeGuiltless · Post by **ToeGuiltless** » 24 Dec 2002 23:03

i think shredders dont feel comfortable with their current skill level, and strive to get better moves rather than dwell on making their current ones more stylee. but then again, there are those who also take their time with footbag, not going guiltless til they have every way of doing each 2-add, etc.

Zerbalicious · Post by **Zerbalicious** » 24 Dec 2002 23:07

Excellent observaion.

Muffinman · Post by **Muffinman** » 25 Dec 2002 00:58

i think style is more important. when i was just going guiltless i couldnt stand how my butterfly looked. and having a camera really really helps. i worked on it and just filmed myself a lot. and fixed it. and conformed to how i wanted to see myself.
i dont like how my whirls look sometimes. and im working on that now. i dont care as much if i hit whirlygig for another year. as having a nice toe set whirl. both sides.

Matt · Post by **Matt** » 25 Dec 2002 09:22

Of course style is more important, but the problem is that style is a natural thing. You are gonna give someone a bad rep if they dont have a smooth style like Lon? Difficulty shows how hard you have worked. (only saying this of course because i have bad style). How did you change your butterflies chan?

dan · Post by **dan** » 25 Dec 2002 09:40

talking of style. due to not beeing able to kick a lot during the last couple of months ive lost this small bouncing hop, which makes lots of style. trying to get it back, but it seems lost forever. anybody got any tips for me please

Rob · Post by **Rob** » 25 Dec 2002 09:41

Jeff Lopes is currently going through a drastic change in style. He didn't like his old style, so he relearned the basics.

To change your style, you go through and do everything you don't like, over and over, changing things about it untill it looks the way you want it to look. Then once it looks good, you do THAT over and over and over. The repition will build foundation for the style and keep it in your muscle memory.

OneWeak · Post by **OneWeak** » 25 Dec 2002 10:14

NOooo...I loved Jeff Lopes' style from that shred zero summer open video. By the way, I need to download that again, can anybody help me out?

jonzy · Post by **jonzy** » 25 Dec 2002 10:24

Jeffs style hasnt changed all that much, its just his stepping is way cleaner, and his whirls, and watchin him yesterday, looks like his ankles were more flexible

Jonzy

PS, i got a richie for christmas!!!!!

wicked · Post by **wicked** » 25 Dec 2002 15:38

I think style is important. It helps to have people around to call your the's and stuff. I notice alot of people not calling thes sometimes. I guess cause they are scared, but It really helps a persons style.

I also think people kick above thier means sometimes trying nothing but hard stuff only doing like 5 combos, Im just like lets see a really long, smooth tiltless run. To me its more pleasing to the eye to watch someone smooth, tiltless, going long, than struggling with guiltless always less than 7 or 8 moves. I think no matter what your skill, even if your just simply kicking, always be trying to get up into the 10-20's range, contact wise.

Chris Holden · Post by **Chris Holden** » 25 Dec 2002 16:24

Just recently I "gave up" on guiltless. Like, every now and then, I'll hit a guiltless string to say "hey, wanna see a guiltless string?" But, overall, these big moves have lost a lot of value to me, and I've started going back to long tiltless runs (ie: I've started this combo: illusion > butterfly > clip-mirage > mirage > clip > bubba > legover > pixie > paradon > barrage > pickup > repeat op side). Now sure, that's not big moves, but it's 11 uniques on both sides, ends up being a 22 contact string each move it's own. Also, all of these moves are moves I can do with confidence, mostly.

The reason I went back to these moves: to rebuild my basics (you can't do this enough), competition = add hunting (hasn't really turned into this? I've never really been big on competition in the first place and used to completly push myself in this direction, but I can't blurry Symposium Whirl back to back all day, I'm techy style, techy is screwed by comp add hunting), and finally, fun (I would work so hard and push my body so far, only to lose my advances due to crunch mode at work. I'm an artist by choice of career, and I have to put that up front in my life at this point. If I had all day to shred, I'd be all over it, but I'm just here for fun RIGHT NOW. In the future, my attitude will change, I mighy go back into huge tricks again, but this is what I'm about now).

Now, to all of you kicking ass, keep it up so I have something great to watch.

QuantumBalance · Post by **QuantumBalance** » 25 Dec 2002 16:38

super guiltless means you care about style, you can be all one adds if they are stylee, just like that game one adds

What do you guys think?

Well I guess you could like that sort of thing.

Hey stud...

Wow you made me so happy to be super guiltless!

I'm sad cause my son died.

I'm mr. bat ears

WHERES MY FACE?!??!?!

so there you have it, the comitte has spoken and the resolution has been signed... you know what I REALIZED?!?!? cause i love POT or more specifically I love LSD but more to the point i love being high but i dont want to sacrifice lung capacity but VAPORIZOR!!!!!!!!! no smoke... muwawawawawa

MUWAWAWAWA

Chris Holden · Post by **Chris Holden** » 25 Dec 2002 18:36

I really don't like the sound of that, Super Guiltless, just seems arrogant, maybe it's just me, or it sounds like guiltless without butterfly/osis/paradox mirage.

BTW, QB, thanks for clearifiing that you're on drugs at the time of the post, and I agree.

ToeGuiltless · Post by **ToeGuiltless** » 25 Dec 2002 18:46

Genuine is guiltless with no bailful 3-adds.

QuantumBalance · Post by **QuantumBalance** » 25 Dec 2002 21:04

ha ha! you think that I am on drugs and yet I am not

the_lost · Post by **the_lost** » 25 Dec 2002 21:38

i dont think people should try to "make" a style, i think they should just hack and have a style. i dont think style is as important as having long strings or hitting big moves. i think a persons style is as individual as the person. just my opinion

modified

Style vs. Difficulty

Which is more important, style or difficulity?

Style vs. Difficulty

Re: Style vs. Difficulty

Re: Style vs. Difficulty