Jeremy wrote:Well said. I think the good thing about the current events in footbag is that they measure such different things. What is really different about what's being measured for circle competition and STP? What about STP and routines?
These are very good questions. Certainly worth thinking about. I'll add that it makes a certain amount of sense that STP and Circle might have alot in common, since they were devised by the same person. In defense of STP, you could say that its like taking all of your separate turns from the Circle Contest and combining them. In other words, splitting up the circle and having each competitor do their rounds of circle alone and basically in one turn, if not one string.
I'm not saying that I'm in support of one event or the other, just trying to think clearly about each.
Personally, I like new footbag events. (I like the old events too.) I like when somebody thinks up a new competitive format that is different from other formats. I want to try all those. I can always imagine some way that I'd like show my personal style of playing in any particular event, and all the different events allow me to show my style in a different way. Some events in particular have shaped the developement of my style. I also like trying to understand each event as best I can and trying to strategize how to maximize my score in each event. Some people have complained about how Shred30 allows/encourages people to do this, but I just don't see that as a problem. To me, its more like a puzzle of math and movement, and everybody can solve that puzzle in their own way, and then try to improve their solution or come up with a whole different solution.
I particularly like Shred30, in part because, at times, I have done pretty well in that event. I particularly like Big 3 and/or Sick 1, in part because I have occasionally done pretty well in those events too. I particularly like the 2 Minute Routines, mostly because its so personal, what with choosing your own music and all, and it allows you more time to demonstrate more of those tricks and styles that you want to demonstrate (more time for flyers, and maybe more time for trying to ham it up with some corny humor.)
I haven't really had enough opportunities to decide how I feel about the Circle Comp., but I have good ideas and am eager to try them out.
More than most of these, I'm eager to try my luck in the "Ten" contest that they have been running at the GRASS (the Greater Rochester Area Shred Symposium) for just the last two years. I believe that Mike Anello is responsible for devising that event. If you haven't heard about it yet, basically, you try to do the same move ten times in a row. You get five attempts to do this. I think they pick a winner based on the judges opinion of best trick (hardest? coolest?) done in the best style (done in good form, I guess).
I know I already used this same quote above, but I wanted to make one other point.
Jeremy wrote:Well said. I think the good thing about the current events in footbag is that they measure such different things. What is really different about what's being measured for circle competition and STP? What about STP and routines?
Besides the question of what different skills get measured by the various events, another question/issue that's been on my mind much more than that lately is: How do these various events APPEAR TO BE DIFFERENT to an audience?
I was at a medium sized event a couple years ago, and wasn't competing at the time, so I was judging instead. Aside from the fact that I was once again reminded that many other freestylers seem to have very different ideas (or, like, no idea) about what actually constitutes variety or presentation in a 2 Minute Routine, I was also struck by how most of the competitions looked very much alike. That is, we make an effort to round up an audience and say to them "here is one type of footbag competition." Then we move into the next event and say "here is a different type of competition." And, trying to see it from their point of view, I thought to myself "how are those two or three events any different. I think I basically just watched the same event twice in a row". Of course, the Big 3 stands out from that crowd, but the ones I thought looked all alike were the Shred30, the Routines (often just a Shred120) and the Most Rippin' Run (two Shred30s happening side-by-side?) So, to actually get to the question I had in mind: If an audience really matters to us, if we think appealing to spectators is an important part of our strategy to develope our sport, which events actually appear to look distinctly different from one another? Besides asking ourselves what different skills we wish to measure with different contests, I think we should also ask ourselve "how are those different skills being represented to, and perceived by, our audience?" Does it matter how we look to the audience? Well, sometimes I think it does, so I think deliberately trying to showcase several events that look distinctly different from one another is a worthy goal for how we organize our sport and run our contests.
My very short answer to that question, for now, is that Shred30 (or STP or Rippin' Run) could and should look very different from the 2-Minute Routines, but to make that happen we'd have to change how we judge Presentation in the Routines (like, really demand better synchronizing with music and/or more "acting"...), and maybe how we judge variety too (maybe mandatory categories, like requirements for flyers and unusuals, amongst other categories, because, like, the flyers and unusuals barely show up in Shred30, for obvious reasons).
Big 3, at least, already looks different. I think its obvious why -- no strings and runs, really, just a few attempts at short combos -- though keep it in mind that it doesn't really look very different from Sick 1 (again, for obvious reasons).
One of the nice things about the Circle Contest, at least, is that it certainly looks different from the other events. Again, the obvious reason -- Multiple players occupy the performance area at once and alternate taking turns with the bag.
I guess I am just a little bit against STP in this regard, since an STP and a 2 Minute Routine might appear alot alike to our audience, especially if the events were run one right after the other.
Hmm... I meant to write a nice short post. I almost always do, and this almost always happens. Sorry... Blame Jeremy. His question about the different skills we're measuring really got me thinking...
