How Do I Watch Team Flying? Options

[SuResz]

I was at the Lincoln City festival last Saturday and had a wonderful time. One of my favorites, Team 6th Sense was there, and they flew beautifully. As I was watching them fly I wondered about a couple of things; first, how do I distinguish a good team performance from a great one? I know about the importance of flying to the music, but what moves do teams perform that might distinguish them from each other on the difficulty scale? Also, when flying individually the fliers usually practice a lot of combination tricks in their flying, yet I rarely see those types of moves done in team flying. Bill, or someone else who flies team, can you tell me what it is that keeps most routines from including more combination moves? Individual ballet seems to be increasing the incorporation of "tricks" in routines, but teams seem less likely to use a very high percent of them. True?

Thanks for the insights,

Resz

[Bill Rogers]

I was at the Lincoln City festival last Saturday and had a wonderful time. One of my favorites, Team 6th Sense was there, and they flew beautifully

Thank you very much We had a good time down there.

. As I was watching them fly I wondered about a couple of things; first, how do I distinguish a good team performance from a great one? I know about the importance of flying to the music, but what moves do teams perform that might distinguish them from each other on the difficulty scale?

Flying to the music and timing are two things that I think are critical. Watching team Cutting Edge I heard a judge comment once that they "turned as one person". We are getting closer, but are not to that point yet, although at times it feels pretty good.

Danger factor is something I would consider as more difficult too. Threads, shutters, etc. may not seem real difficult, but as you tighten up how close you get to each other during these things, you increase the danger factor and thus the difficulty level. That is something we were shooting for in our 2112 routine.

Again though, as far as from a competition standpoint, the flying to the music is the most critical thing. 60% of the score is "choreography".

Also, when flying individually the fliers usually practice a lot of combination tricks in their flying, yet I rarely see those types of moves done in team flying. Bill, or someone else who flies team, can you tell me what it is that keeps most routines from including more combination moves? Individual ballet seems to be increasing the incorporation of "tricks" in routines, but teams seem less likely to use a very high percent of them. True?

True, and a good question. There are a few reasons that we don't.

Again from a competition standpoint, a lot of people feel you need to be able to hit a trick a high percentage of time to include it in a routine. Some feel 80+%, others feel 90+%. Personally I feel at least 90% of the time, or higher. A missed or screwed up trick will hurt you more points wise than the trick would have gained you. There are no points for trying

So in team, say the three flyers can each hit a trick 80% of the time. The problem is that statistically all three of you will hit the trick at the same time only 51% of the time. If you add a fourth flyer it drops to 41% of the time. One or two people missing the trick looks as bad as an individual missing a trick. Even more so IMO.

Raise the percentage to 90% and it drops to 73% of the time that the team will hit that trick. Again, 66% for four flyers.

So for us to incorporate a trick, and want to hit it 90% of the time we have to all be able to do it 96.5% of the time. Fairly high percentage, so unless we have total confidence in hitting the trick pretty much every time, we won't put it in.

Sorry for the technobabble, but I had an engineer friend at work help me figure this out a few years back.

With our old routine we all were fairly good at 540's and side slides with the Mamba (the kite that routine was designed for), so we had those in that routine, plus some axels. I also wanted more landings so we had three landings in that routine, and some long stalls.

The problem with that was in higher wind the landings and stalls became much more difficult, the percentage of success went down, so with the new routine we only have a landing at the end, and the stall in the middle is fairly quick. Still looks cool, and fits the music, but also can still be done in high wind.

And high wind is a problem. If you can't hit the tricks in the higher wind you have to modify the routine in those places. Not always the easiest thing to do, or have to remember.

Also, even if you get past all this, if the three+ flyers don't all do the trick exactly (at least fairly close to) the same way, that will hurt you. One way to get around that is to do the tricks sequentially, but finding a spot in the music that calls for three sequential yo-yo's is tough

Sorry for the book, but I have considered this quite a bit and would really love to have a trick filled routine, but from a competition standpoint it is tough.

See ya,
Bill

[SuResz]

Thanks, Bill, that helps a lot. I figured that with your passion for trick flying that high danger factor was what kept those moves out. By the way, I can guess what "threading" is, but could you elaborate on "shuttering"?

Resz

[Bill Rogers]

Thanks, Bill, that helps a lot. I figured that with your passion for trick flying that high danger factor was what kept those moves out. By the way, I can guess what "threading" is, but could you elaborate on "shuttering"?

Resz

The shutter is when you see us all come toward the center of the window at the same time, from different directions, and then shoot back out again at a different angle, usually the angle one of the other kites came in on. This is usually repeated a few times.

We do this in the middle of the 2112 routine with a slight variation, we would do loops after every couple shutters since the music called for it

Any other questions let me know.

See ya,
Bill

[SuResz]

Thanks again, Bill. I'll keep watching.

Resz