I was planning on entering my first contest this summer (MER) and I know that a good amount of people here have plenty of contest experience. I really need help under the following catagories:
1.) Body Tricks (Mainly arm and maybe a few neck tricks)
2.) (here’s a big one) Smoothness while maintaining a good speed.
3.) SSome differences and similarities between tricks you’d use while making videos and tricks you use in contest.
4.) What’s a good type of music? Techno sort of stuff or rock? (I’ve seen a lot of people use “Behind Closed Doors” by Rise Against).
5.) How do I give them the music? Do I burn it onto a CD and give it to them? How does the whole music thing and pre-contest stuff work?
6.) Everyone always brings their yoyos onto stage on some sort of tray. What should I use for that? Just any old tray or is there something special I need.
1+2) just practice. judges love body tricks and the more riskier stuff.
3) dont really understand the question
4) what ever music you think fits your rutine.
5) CD or ipod
6) you don’t need a tray. just some backup yoyos. people only use the tray when it is a hard stage and don’t want to put their yoyos directly on it incase of scratching.
By Question 3, I meant that videos tend to have less of the body tricks and those sort of things. Should I use more body tricks in MER than in videos? (probably).
I was just reading through the MER rules. The music for them must be on a CD.
Practice and get some good muscle memory so you can achieve this goal.
Relax and coordinate your routine. It’s the actual thing so go all out and have fun. A video let’s you have retakes.
Type of music depends on you and your style. Fast paced music for a lot of side style tricks, rap and hip hop for slack, and strong loud music for strength tricks that are hard hitting and take a lot of string crossing and weird mounts.
5.You must burn a CD! The will not accept music players so put the song on a CD. If it exceeds the Time limit, don’t worry because a timer stands next to the stereo. He will stop the song at exactly the time allowed so practice it to the music!
You don’t need a tray unless the rules say so.
Sure, don’t worry about winning! A contest is about meeting new people and getting the experience of a life time. Have a lot of fun up there and entertain the crowd.
PS: PM me your contest due date and I’ll make a tut on Chris Fraser’s Neck trick or a couple of body tricks I made. (Copyright Me.)
Music is a big part of our freestyle. If the judges don’t enjoy the music they won’t enjoy your routine as much and not score you full points. Pick something with a catchy beat.
just a tip in general- dont plan tricks thats you get only about 60% of the time, do tricks you are confident in, or practice the tough ones until you can get the entire routine pretty easily with minimum screw ups.
Some people believe a song with no lyrics is better because you can get a better rhythm but in actuality, lyrics can really affect a freestyle. Because:
If your tricks go with the lyrics then that goes with showmanship points:
EG: “I’m Jumping up and falling down”: Use eli hops on this part.
