Nice Helix-stein, Jorden. Pretty sick.
I haven't watched the Clownface yet. I'm at work.
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For the last year or so I've been watching everybodys' Ripsteins especially closely. I happen to consider my own standards of what is clean and what is not a little higher than the average, especially with regards to swirling dexes. I've seen lots of Thin and The ripsteins, more often than I've seen clean. I could usually tell, but it was sometimes difficult or complicated to put into words when a ripstein was clean or the. Complicating the matter, as always, is the problem with camera angels. Ripstein as seen from the side can be particularly hard to judge, since its hard to determine depth when looking at them from the side (depth as in how high up on the foot/ankle is the bag while the foot circles it). I finally began to see clearly certain indicators that seemed to be very closely corelated with swirl/ripstein cleanliness:
In my opinion, the best indicator of cleanness, and the ideal way that ripsteins should be done in order to be clean, is to keep your foot parallel to the ground while circling the bag, just as it is parallel to the ground when you do a clipper stall. When doing a swirl or double swirl this way, the bag is obviously above the foot when you start the move (one could hardly say that the bag is not clearly above the foot when doing a clipper stall). The bag should then pass in front of the laces of the shoe or the ankle (the higher-up on the leg the better, obviously, so ankle is better than upper laces, upper laces are better than lower laces, and lower laces are better than toes), pass underneath the outside surface of the foot, pass behind the heel or ankle, and then again above the inside surface (and if its a double swirl rather than a single then of course the bag must go again in front of the laces, under the outside, behind the heel, and once more over the inside).
The most common variation away from ideal form that I have observed is for someone to turn their ankle when doing the dex such that their foot is perpendicular to the ground at some point in the dex (generally at peak of the dex) and their
sole is facing upwards and thus parallel to the ground. A swirl or double is not necessarily
the at that point, but one is wandering into more dangerous territory. The reason is because when you turn your sole up at the peak of the dex, you might be turning your foot inward towards your body, in essence shortening the length of your leg. Turn your foot inward towards the body enough and the bag is now further away from your body than your foot is; the dex can't be clean at that point.
At this point (if you've turned your sole upwards) the difference between "clean" and "the" usually comes down to which way your
toe is pointing.
If the toe of the swirling foot is pointed in the direction of the dex (toe and heel of the foot are aligned in the direction of travel of the dexing foot), your ripstein is probably "the". At the peak of the dex, your sole pointing upward and your toe pointing forward, your foot is no longer under, over, in front of, or beneath the bag. Its next to the bag. Near the bag, but not crossing the plane of travel of the bag. The.
If you're pointing your toe
out, away from your body and perpendicular to the direction of travel of the dex, there is a much better likelihood that the dex is still clean. At the peak of your dex the bag is still underneath your foot (how much of your foot can vary: is the bag closer to your toe or to your ankle?), just after the peak its still below the bag. Your heel may be closer to your body than the bag, but your toe at least is still farther from you than the bag is, thus your foot is still crossing the plane of travel of the bag.
Hmm, how to sum this all up? If your foot remains parallel to the ground (sole perpendicular to the floor) during a swirling dex, the dex is usually either entirely 'clean' or entirely 'the'. If your turn your sole up and your toes forward, your swirl dex is almost certainly 'the' at the peak of the dex. If you turn your sole up and point your toe out, your dex is likely okay but thin to some degree, depending on how close the bag is to your toe versus your ankle (very close to the ankle = so slightly thin as to barely be worth mentioning; very close to the toes = so thin as to barely be worth arguing that its "thin but not really the").
One of the benefits of looking for these particular markers is that it makes it easier to estimate the cleanness of swirl/ripstein when your angle of view is particularly unfavorable.
By my observation, Jorden's second swirl passed under his laces, right about in the middle of the foot, and thus clean. By my estimates, his form is better than average. Its the rest of you all that need to clean up your ripsteins.
[/hijack]
I'll watch the other vid after work, when I've got more time
