Fractured Axel

Picking up the Rougham+Middle Wallop thread and the suggestion about dropping one element of the competition. I think that the UK could sensibly drop compulsory figures from the nationals without compromising the preparation of competitors at international level.

The reason is that compulsory figures can be practiced and honed without necessarily requring time in the arena. Precision Freestyle and Ballet routines always benefit from being flown in front of judges.

Nobody panic yet. I doubt that STACK UK will be able to just go ahead and change it. However, I would be interested to see what the feedback is.

The only downside that I can see is that competitions run this way could not be sanctioned by SIEC using their current procedure. This is not a problem in itself, but it does mean that none of the UK competitions would be eligible for international ranking points. Any wildcard entries for Eurocup etc are usually decided using the ranking point system, so in effect we would be excluding UK competitors from being considered.

I will probably bring this up at some point during the Rougham and Middle Wallop weekends. Any comments that you have now would be appreciated.

In the same way...

stackuk wrote:

The freestyle routines allow competitors to demonstrate skills that they may not be able to fit to a piece of music.

....figures test another different set of skills not demonstrated in ballet or freestyle routines... ie can you fly what we (the judges) want you to fly?

Additionally, not wanting to blow my own trumpet, but the UK also does have the current European 'precision' champions for individual and pair which was largely down to the figure scores.

Judging is another point.. if you're not flying em, you're not judging em and therefore you will not have judges gaining experience. Judging figures is _very_ different from judging freestyle or ballet. Again.. specialist skills required here too.

Don't drop the figures. They're the only bit I enjoy.

(yes I know I'm warped)

I think the figures are essential - they're the foundation for the other disciplines.

Matt B wrote:

Don't drop the figures. They're the only bit I enjoy.

(yes I know I'm warped)

Not only do I enjoy them.. they are the bits I'm best at! There are two of us who are warped

They're the bits that make access of new competitiors easiest.

I agree with Vee etc...

Okay, we'll not worry about that one then.

What? No-one shouting us down?

Oh, well, I'll just have to do it myself.
Figures are boring, they take up lots of time & they're not at all spectator friendly. The only excuse for figures is that they can be done before the competitor has chance to do a wind check.... Perhaps we could omit figures from the masters competition, cos masters have already proved they can be done?

Oh dear, I seem to agree with myself, just which opinion was that?

Vee (who has done too many night shifts)

Vee you haven't been flying enough get yourself out and fly stop the confusion:P