Following up on the first and second “judge this” videos, Z Weyand chose a different flavor of freestyle for the next discussion: speedflow. Since speedflow (throw and catch) is not seen as much in competition routines, it will be interesting to trade ideas about how to judge the difficulty of this skill.
As always, the video (1.2mb, mov and 3.2mb, mp4) shows 30 seconds of freestyle. Think about the two scores you would give if you were using the current FPA judging system. Award your score when the video shows MARK.
Z’s introductory comments are in the extended (Read More) section of this article.
I finally caught up on the world rankings backlog and posted lists for November (Open | Women) and December (Open | Women). Again, I apologize for the delay in compiling these numbers.
No detailed analysis, but I noticed two things. There is a logjam in the #2, 3 and 4 positions. On the November list, Eleonora Imazio moves up to a career-high #2, but former number one Lisa Hunrichs earned some points at Arizona States that allowed her to sneak past Eleonora into #2 on the December list.
On the Open list, FPA Open Pairs champs Matt and Jake Gauthier are finally seeing a rankings payoff for their victory. By winning the Arizona States over a top-caliber field, they solidified their rankings points. Matt moves up to number 5, and Jake moves up to number 9, knocking me down to number 10 (I will have my revenge!) and bumping Dave Schiller out of the Top 10.
As always, there are lots of other stories on the rankings list. Tell some in the comments.
Due to some recent attacks by spambots, I will be manually approving all new user accounts. If you’re not a spambot, this shouldn’t really impact you. If you experience a delay in the approval of your new account, contact me.
This is probably a good time to mention the community expectations of Shrednow. Basically, do what most Shrednow-ers do – treat people decently, be constructive when arguing and whenever possible have fun. It should go without saying that if you’re posting *censored* links, you are outside the community guidelines, even if you are an automated bot with no sentience.
17 year old UK jammers John Coxhead & Joe McCrave performed a
freestyle demo at a college talent show recently, and it was captured on video. Very high execution including one gitis, a spinning osis catch and a yogi, among many other highlights. Well done!
It must seem like the world rankings have disappeared, and I apologize for that. The combination of starting a new job and an avalanche of September results delayed my updating of the lists. Last night, I spent most of a cross-country plane flight completing the October rankings (Open | Women), which include seven new tournament results (Narragansett Jam, EFC. Vola Vola, Torneo Citta Milano, Indian Summer, Versilio Cup/Viaraggio and Tennessee States).
My next step will be to tackle the October results, which should not take as long, then the November results, which should be even easier.
Enjoy the October list in the meantime, and as always let me know if you notice any errors.
2006 Arizona States
Scottsdale, AZ
November 11-12, 2006
Finals
1. Matt and Jacob Gauthier
2. Dave Lewis/Pat Marron
3. Paul Kenny/Dave Murphy
4. Lisa Hunrichs/Cindy Kruger
5. Jeff Kruger/Tom Lasher
6. Jamie Chantiles/Rico Schneider
7. Steve Hays/Mike Galloupe/Neil Toland
8. Bill Wright/Rick Sader
Prelim A
1. Dave Lewis/Pat Marron
2. Jeff Kruger/Tom Lasher
3. Jamie Chantiles/Rico Schneider
4. Steve Hays/Mike Galloupe/Neil Tolan
5. Dan Yarnell/Chris Baker
6. Harvey Brandt/Jon Freedman
7. Tita Ugalde/Beth Verish
Prelim B
1. Matt and Jacob Gauthier
2. Dave Murphy/Paul Kenny
3. Lisa Hunrichs/Cindy Kruger
4. Bill Wright/Rick Sader
5. Rick Williams/Doug Korns
6. Mary Lowry/Lori Daniels
7. Mark Horn/John Schiller
Larry Imperiale/Randy Silvey/Bill Wright (2nd place)
Chip Bell/Joel Rogers/Dave Schiller (4th place)
Rick Castiglia/Mike Reid/Jonathan Willett (6th place)
For old time’s sake (and by request), here’s a video of the winning routine from the 1997 FPA Worlds in Honolulu. This was the first of three wins in a row for Dave Murphy/Dave Lewis/Arthur Coddington and the first of five wins a row for Dave and Arthur’s co-op teams. It was the second dropless FPA Worlds in a row for Arthur and Dave.
The story behind this routine is that Bill Wright, Larry Imperiale and Randy Silvey kicked our asses twice in 1996 – once at the US Open, then a month later at FPA Worlds in New York. We went back to the drawing board and decided to not only try to up the ante with our technical skills but to also play around with the presentation element of keeping possession of both discs for the entire five minutes.
We worked our butts off to put the routine together and perfect it. When we got to Honolulu and tried to run through the routine the day before the tournament, we couldn’t complete anything. We felt like beginners. Glancing across the field, it was also clear that Bill, Larry and Randy had also been playing with multiple discs. Our rivalry would definitely continue, and we would face off against a lot of other formidable teams. We would be in trouble if we didn’t figure out a way to pull off our moves.
Our ineptness was only temporary. We remembered how to freestyle and whipped our routine back into shape. A strange thing happened in the semis, though. For whatever reason, Bill, Larry and Randy placed third in their pool, giving them the big strategic disadvantage of playing early in the finals. We won our semi and would play last.
The finals, as you can see from the flags and trees behind the action in the video, were blustery. It wasn’t about just performing the routine but also overcoming unpredictable elements. When we performed, we didn’t know how Bill, Larry and Randy played. We just focused on being a team and putting on a show. The routine is dropless but of course not without mistakes and many saves. A lot of things went our way that day – lucky breaks, mistakes that turned into exciting moments, etc.
Looking back at the video, I’m proud of three things. First, our team moved and communicated well. When things didn’t go right, we found solutions. When the wind moved one player around, the others adjusted. Second, this title was Dave Murphy’s first FPA title, and I’m proud to have been on his team and helped him in some way get the much-deserved hardware to go with his amazing game. Third, it’s a little known fact that Dave Lewis almost didn’t play the worlds that year because of a neck injury. The happy ending of a win at worlds is extra special after sticking together through injuries like that.
Ten Things About Plastic On Plastic
1. The last catch of the tournament was a quadruple spinning phlaud by Carl Dobson that might have bumped him up into 2nd place.
2. It was cold. Not Russia cold, but leave-your-sweats-on Northern California cold. SummerShred cold.
3. Special guest appearances by Steve Hubbard, Carolyn Yabe and Roger Cole were a pleasant surprise.
4. Plastic On Plastic was a turboshred event. Diff-only judging. Jams of four players. Why Plastic On Plastic? Because we were playing on a really cushy artificial turf (plastic) field…
5. The tournament was quick. After waiting for some youth soccer teams to finish warming up on "our" field, we ran the whole event in about 45 minutes. The ratio of jamtime to tournament time was probably 4/1.
6. Carolyn Yabe outscored her husband by a total of 3 points over the whole tournament. Two in the prelim and one in the final.
7. I won the A final. I was able to hit a few strong combos early then relax go for some big stuff. Had I spaunched on the big stuff, the winner would have been a toss-up, but I was fortunate to be relaxed and seal. Don’t really remember many moves except a triple spinning tumble and a quad spinning legover pull. There is no video (therefore it didn’t happen?).
8. Steve Stotter and Steve Hubbard in the same prelim pool means you’ll see a ton of quality rolling.
9. Carl Dobson and Arthur Coddington in the same jam group means a spin-o-rama.
10. Greg Riley donated a vintage Krae Van Sickle/Laura Engel 80 mold as the 1st prize.
The first “judge this” video spawned a lively discussion, so you about another? Z Weyand chose a different clip from the same 2003 FPAW Semifinals routine. Same deal this time. The video (7mb, mov) shows 30 seconds of freestyle. Think about the two scores you would give if you were using the current FPA judging system. Award your score when the video shows MARK.
