So i'll probably try to compete at cal states when it comes around. But for now i have a question... What kind of tricks are best for prelims? Bangers? tech? arm/body tricks? Basically what could get me to finals?
Edit: did I put this in the wrong part of the forums?
I would say something that has lots of string hits and is high-scoring if you want to make finals.
I found that arm and body tricks generally score higher than plain string hits. Make sure theyâre good quality body tricks that actually involve the body though.
Depends on your skill, if you are good at doing fast tricks skip the âtoo simpleâ ones, they are most likely not scored anyway. If you are good at doing slow tricks, try doing less binds and probably try to play slightly faster.
The simplest way to get the many points is to cram as many tricks as possible, since itâs easier doing your tricks a bit faster than learning a âbetterâ trick anyway, unless there is still time to learn a new trick and polish it⊠also try to do less âbind and throwâ, that wastes time.
If you know how the judge clicks you can adjust your tricks. For judges who tend to click less, do less risky tricks⊠because, for example your combo X normally scores 10 clicks for average judge but maybe for that particular judge itâs 6 clicks, BUT in general judges score negative clicks very similarly because each miss is one click so rarely much difference. Say you miss two times in combo X that means for average judge you score 8 (positive points) minus 2 (negative points) which is 6 (lets say itâs âvaluedâ 6/10), but for the less clicking judge itâs probably 4 minus 2 (2/6 or about 3.8/10) which is A LOT less although you only did two misses. In simpler words, negative clicks got âamplifiedâ for less clicking judges after normalization.
So for judges who tend to click less, try doing less mistakes, for judges who tend to click a lot, go all out doing the more risky ones.
Oh and definitely donât do tricks that looks so similar or repeating too many times.
I would have to disagree. While it is true that it is a good idea to throw in a few body tricks, I would suggest more techiness. You have to admit that a whole freestyle of tech tricks would be better than a whole freestyle of body tricks.
All tricks, no arm tricks/bangers. You have 1 minute, donât waste it. Donât do things youâre uncomfortable with, and do not have a lot of dead time. Make sure that you donât just do sidestyle but also frontstyle. Horizontal is optional but it doesnât score as much as a full tech combo you could replace it with.
FACT- Every year since at least 2011, the worlds prelims winners didnât do horizontal.
2014- Shinya Kido- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXWNm78Bsmo&index=1&list=PLKSgreKUG67KlOB61yv8rqWlmVtSPXqxt
2011-2013 (lol)- Ryota Ogi- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH1ds_VY8dQ&list=PLKSgreKUG67JjHOTQAwraf_UYHCUDE21_&index=1 (same prelim every year)
In the link you gave us, Shinya does a horizontal front style combo⊠???
Do what hiroyuki does
He seems to like always make it to finals
in the current scene more than half of his tricks only score points when used by himself, going through a loophole in the definition of ââoriginalââ.
As Cbeckford pointed out, you can learn a lot by watching the prelims of people that have done well at contests before you. Look at the high scorers of the prelim round at this yearâs WYYC:
1 Shinya Kido 84.3
2 Iori Yamaki 80.6
3 Peter Pong Si Yee 79.4
4 Hiroyuki Suzuki 77.9
5 Izuru Hasumi 75.4
(Iâve left these as links as to not fill up this page with videos)
If you watch their freestyleâs youâll see that theyâre all very similar in their construction and execution. Theyâre all very fast, very string-hit heavy and they all contain a mixture of sidestyle, frontstyle and horizontal.
Granted, Iori throws a couple of arm moves in at the beginning of his, but theyâre pretty much all just a flurry of string hits. Over the course of an entire 3 minute routine this might bore the judges a bit and count against them, but for the prelims where you only have a minute, you want to cram in as much as is physically possible.
So bangers/elaborate body wraps/showmanship should not be your main focus in a prelim. Just hit your moves, hit them fast and hit them clean. Zac Gormleyâs prelim had some fantastic flashy and orignal tricks, however the sloppiness of them went against him and he scored pretty low down on the rankings. By comparison, Izuru Hasumi had a fair amount of mess-ups and Mickey even had a restart, but the sheer volume of tricks in their routine helped balance that out. 
Hey guys, even though Iâm Asian it doesnât mean I do Lots of blurringly fast speed combos. And I donât do horizontal either so you donât have to worry. I like smooth, flowy, and (more recently) techish combos
You only have a minute. Make sure to be doing tricks for as much of that minute as possible.
Oh rly?
Curious which ones; noticed Anthony did one of his horizontal tricks at nationals
Nobody implied that you did⊠your question was:
⊠and the answer to this question is that a style like Mickeyâs/Shinjiâs/Ioriâs are what are âbestâ for a 1 minute prelim due to the amount they are able to fit in such a short space of time.
If your style is different to that then youâll just need to adjust accordingly. Anthony Rojas has a very chilled out, body-wrap heavy, funky kind of style, but if you see his worlds prelim it was pretty much tech-exclusive:
Since he appreciated that all the neck and body wraps were best saved for the semiâs and finals. You donât need to change your style, you just need to tweak it so that you get the most bang for your buck in that minute.
Thanks! Thatâs really helpful
Would frontstyle tricks be good for prelims?
Sure, as long as youâre still getting the string hits and tech. Those generic Mickey type fronstyle ones score a lot Iâm sure.
What about timing with music? Is that super important in prelims as it is in finals?
To an extent, as you can see prelims and finals are judged on the same criteria:
(Bear in mind, this is from WYYC so Iâm not sure if it may differ with certain regional contests.)
However obviously you only have 1 minute to get in as much Technical Execution points as possible, so you donât have quite so much freedom of expression as you would do in a 3 minute routine. If you can make your tricks time with the music where possible, then you should, but you shouldnât let it affect your tech-ex if you can help it.
I hark back to my previous post when I say that the best thing to do is to watch the winning prelims from last year. Look at their use of music and itâll give you a better idea of how to use yours. 
