This might be a little late (since CalStates was in March) but oh well. I recently watched a video and Tyler Severance said that every single time the yoyo hits the string, you earn a point. Is this true? And how do you choreograph your yoyo tricks to music? I kind of understand doing Eli-Hops with heavy bass but thats all I know. Can somebody give me a video that has good choreography? Thanks in advance.
As I understand it, it’s a point for every string hit on a trick you haven’t already done. Hiroyuki Suzuki and Gentry Stein probably have some of the best choreographed 1A freestyles.
Yuki
My goodness if it was a point for every time it hits the string I think I would only have like 2 points. I have a super flowy style and the yoyo is on the string the whole time. lol
Same here. That’s the main reason behind my dislike for the current scoring system. It heavily favors light-speed play and people just going for string hits like Mickey and Augie (not hating on these people. They’re both awesome, and some of my favorite throwers), while it punishes people like us, who prefer flow.
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If you go to the CalState YoYoContest web site, you’ll see how they score it, which is by the international guideline.
See the Rules on this page:
Go to youtube and look at Luis Enrique’s freestyle from BAC, he did a real good job to the music. Gentry’s was too.
Also Haru’s 5A routine was top rate as far as choreography.
The newer scoring system helps people who flow. It’s still not perfect and it’s hard to get judges to fully “comply” with the new rules, mostly from the perspective of “old habits are hard to break”. They are trying!!
Especially with the new criteria scoring, I think the system is no longer partial to fast play and high string hit numbers.
Consider the recent high scores for slower playing players like Harold Owens (2012 Worlds Highest scoring American, 2011 National Champion), Sebastian Brock (Worlds 2011 2nd, 2010 National Champion), Janos (EYYC 2013 Champion) and high scores for players without high string hit styles, like Anthony Rojas (BAC 4th, Nationals 2011 2nd).
In general, the system used to favor fast and simple, but that slowly began to change with Ando’s Worlds 2008 win, and now, in 2013, I think it’s simply not the case anymore.
So what you’re pretty much saying is that it’s actually not based on number string hits during the freestyle and that they’re trying to move away from that? I sure hope so because these artful and beautiful freestyles are getting shoved aside by people who are going at light speed.
And to me it seems like it’s only been all about the crazy fast play only up until very recently. These past couple of years we’ve been blown away by the amount of people trying to get the most string hits in the time allowed as possible, especially at competitions like Worlds, Japan Nats, etc.
But you would know more than I would, obviously, cause you’ve been in them. haha
More what I mean is that, especially nowadays, you can win with any style.
Technical players, speed players, innovative players, flow players and any combination of the above have all made it to the podium at major competitions recently.
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What I like about the new scoring system is it allows flow players like Guy Wright a more level playing field with the speed-demon hit-bangers. Also, I think the “need for speed” has been reduced somewhat with the new scoring system, especially now that string hits count for only 50% of the score.
Personally, after a while, the fast play makes my eyes cross and I don’t want to watch it anymore. It gets old and boring real fast. I understand WHY they are doing it, and they are being technical about it as well, but even so, it can get tiring. Despite each routine being different, it all becomes, at least from my perspective, rather repetitive.
Mind you, I do like Mickey’s performances, but he seems to know when to speed it up, slow it down, hold it, flow it and throw it, yet still works it to the music. Marcus Koh’s style has evolved a little bit to be a bit more synced to the music, but instead of slowing down or changing pace, he merely stops to catch his breathe so it seems.
I’m trying to go for a fast routine, but I also want to work some rhythm into it. I was thinking of throwing horizontally really fast when it got to the fast part of the song.
String hits have never been clicks. At least not that simply. As far back as I can remember, usually (though not always) explicitly, the rules have said something to the effect of "advanced-level elements shall be scored, including but not limited to string hits and ".
If a judge is supposed to score strictly based on a count of string hits, what do we need experienced yoyoers judging for? You can pull anyone off the street and train them to do that in ten minutes.
String hits that are especially difficult should be scored extra. String hits that aren’t consistent with advanced-level play shouldn’t be scored at all. Yeah, having more string hits in there can help your chances of landing points, but that’s far from the only way.
What about the “like a dozen other things”? Grinds, flops, transitions, slacks, regens, binds, and so on. The idea is not that the clickers show a count of how many tricks or elements you did, necessarily—it’s more of a way of counting how technically substantial (or “hard”, if you like) your freestyle was. Though admittedly you’ll get different answers and interpretations depending which judge you talk to (which is part of why we use panels of judges at contests, and not just one dude with all the power).