A stands for arm. 1 arm, 2 arms. 3a just came without meaning because its better than 1a and 2a.
Some people don’t know that there’s a ctrl + a button.
The A designations started at the 1999 Worlds in Hawaii.
Back then two hand (looping) was considered the “better” or “harder” style so it was designated AA while one handed was designated A. Think of the A naming convention in Minor League Baseball or high school sports divisions. When two handed string stricks came into more prominence it got called AAA (mostly as a joke) since it combined A and AA and AAA would be “better” than A or AA. When offstring and counterweight became their own competition divisions at the 2003 Worlds, they were arbitrarily given the designations 4A and 5A just because all the other divisions had “A” designations. The letter A has never stood for anything and in general at this point the whole A naming system is kinda dumb.
wow thats enlightening