by Crazy Ivan
After a conversation with Bones last week, I decided to do a series of articles on the blog where I would break down all the different trick types and explain how to properly use them within a shred. I've already done the article on Traps and one on Centrifugals, but before I move on to the other ten trick types, I thought it would be a good idea to provide a post where I break down all these trick types.
This probably should have come first, but since the idea to do the series grew organically, I'd already posted the first one before the whole concept was cemented. So with apologies to anybody who was left scratching their heads over this unfamiliar nomenclature, I offer the following explanation of how trick types are categorized:
The number has changed over the years as more and more tricks are developed. By the current count there are 12 trick types, though it is often said that there are 11 (and I often say this myself) for reasons that I will explain when we get to the 12th trick type.
#1) Swaps
Definition: Tricks where the Myachi moves back and forth from a surface on the right side of the body to a surface on the left side of the body in a continuous pattern.
Examples: The Cold Fusion, The Heartbeat, The Fu, The Hot Wings, The Subterfusion
While this category contains some of the oldest tricks in the game, it's one of the newer categories. For years, Fusion moves were considered "Aerials" (see below) and Fu and Heartbeat were considered "Centrifugals" (see further below). In many ways, this category is superfluous since all the tricks could theoretically be fit into other categories.
That being said, for things like rule-making and score keeping in free style, it's important to consider these moves separately for a couple of reasons. One is that they clearly represent a different type of talent than aerials or centrifugals. After all, nobody judges your Double Wolverine by how fast you do it. It's about how well you do it. But swaps are very often judged solely by speed.
It's also important for a very technical reason. In games where a player is limited to one or two "tricks", we have to define what a trick is. Traditionally that definition restricts a single trick as beginning with the first touch (a stall or strike) and ending with the second touch (a stall or strike). That generally works perfectly for any category of tricks except swaps. By this definition, after all, a Cold Fusion would be two tricks, not one.
So in order to ensure that our definition of "trick" wouldn't leave out such fundamental moves as the Cold Fusion, the Fu and the Heartbeat (possibly the 3 most often performed tricks in all of Myachi), we created a separate category to fit those into and it has since become the primary category of moves.
#2) Aerials
Definition: Tricks in which the body moves in relation to the Myachi while the Myachi is in the air.
Examples: The 360, the Wolverine, the Turbine, the Butterfly, the Sonic
Aerials really define Myachi in a lot of ways. One of the first major challenges a new Myachi player will face is running their aerial numbers up. The 360 becomes the 720 becomes the 1080 becomes the frustrating uphill climb to the 1440. The Wolverine become the Double Wolverine, the Turbine becomes the Double Turbine and eventually you're trying to get a Wolverine, a Turbine and a Sonic all on the same throw (and if you haven't tried that combo before, you're probably standing up and grabbing your best jammer right now).
Aerials have appeared on every break down of trick types we ever assembled. Even our first clumsy attempt at shoehorning all the tricks into 4 very broad categories included Aerials. And but for the Swaps eventually earning their own ancillary grouping, the definition of this category hasn't changed at all over the years.
#3) Body Cross
Definition: Tricks in which the Myachi or the throwing or catching surface passes behind, under, or over another part of the body.
Examples: The Under the Leg, the Behind the Back, the Bandit, the Daredevil, the In-Spin
It doesn't take much more than reading the definition above to know that this is a pretty convoluted category. It's a type of trick that everybody recognizes should exist, but nobody can easily define. We all know that Under the Legs and Behind the Backs belong in the same category, but how do you break that down?
We used to call these moves "Flexibility" tricks, but that was pretty limiting. After all, there are some Behind the Back passes that aren't really about flexibility at all. A Duck doesn't require flexibility, but the Myachi clearly goes behind the head. So is this the same type of trick or a different one? What about the Daredevil? Is it the same "type" of trick as a Behind the Back even though it isn't about flexibility?
The problems with that categorization were obvious from the start. We continued to use the flawed system for a while but eventually we settled for the traditional Juggling nomenclature of "Body Cross" to more broadly define what we meant by it.
Of course, even now the definition is flawed. By the broad definition above, this would sort of include all portals, all aerials and some swaps, so I'll freely admit that this category might be tightened or redefined again in the future.
#4) Centrifugals
Definition: Tricks that use centrifugal force to keep the Myachi in place while the surface it is resting on moves.
Examples: The Half Pipe, the Snake, The Crane, the Vert, the Roller Coaster
This is a type of trick that belongs uniquely to Myachi. Aerials and swaps are used in a number of skill toys and body crosses are part of virtually all of them, but I can't think of any other that uses something like centrifugals. When we first starting categorizing Myachi tricks, this was a fairly small group that was small but important. In the first fourfold division of tricks, centrifugals stood alone as this tiny little offshoot, dwarfed by the other categories.
But over the years a number of variations have appeared that have earned this category a pretty high spot on the list of trick-types. The Drop of Death and all its variations, the continued advancement of the Roller Coaster and some of the exciting work Maverick and Animal have done with combining centrifugals into complex swap patterns have turned it into a legitimate segment of the game.
#5) Grinds
Definition: Tricks where the Myachi slides from one part of the body to another.
Examples: The Dark Slide, the 50/50, the Hurricane, the Enlightener, the Rolling Rock
In many ways, this is the smallest category of tricks in Myachi. In earlier break downs of trick types, grinds were considered off-shoots of centrifugals and were forced into the same category. The definition didn't even have to change much. They were all lumped together into a wide category that was "any trick where the Myachi never leaves the body". After all, whether it stays on the hand in a Vert or slides down the arm in a Dark Slide, it still never left the body.
In some games, the two categories are still considered together. So the pertinent question is, why divide them at all?
Once again, it comes down to the talent behind the trick. Performing a grind requires a vastly different skill set than performing a centrifugal. Learning every centrifugal in the book isn't going to get you any closer to the Hurricane Grind, but learning the Dark Slide will. Mastering the 50/50 will help you get to the Enlightener, but mastering the Reverse Roller Coaster won't help much.
Beyond that, the two types of tricks clearly look different. An observer who knew nothing at all about Myachi could see examples of one type and then the other and they would know immediately that they were seeing two different skills being exhibited.
#6) Traps
Definition: Tricks in which the Myachi is pinched or trapped between two surfaces of the body.
Examples: The Hulk, the Lotus, the Slingshot, the Long Sword, the Figure 4
In the old-school breakdowns, the Traps were usually considered in that same catch-all category that included centrifugals and grinds. After all, in a trap, the Myachi is staying put on one part of the body... well, two parts of the body, but it's still not moving around. As uncomfortable as it was to force fit traps into that category, there really wasn't room for them anywhere else and there was some debate as to whether or not they represented an important enough percentage of Myachi moves to warrant a separate category.
This debate, in fact, was the catalyst that eventually allowed the old system to fall apart. As more and more Trap tricks were created, it got to be harder and harder to justify the ever-widening category. This started to call attention to some of the other weaknesses in the system and led to it's all-out overhaul in 2006.
Traps were the first group to break away and for a brief time this was the only real compromise made to the larger system. That meant that for a while we had 3 really big categories that included Aerials, Body Crosses and Stalls and then two comparatively tiny categories for centrifugals and traps. We recognized that this would be pretty ungainly so we set out to start breaking those mega-categories down into their constituent parts. The first to get split was that broad "Stall" category.
#7) High Body Stalls
Definition: Tricks where the Myachi is caught and held on any surface above the waist except the back of the hand.
Examples: The Spiderman, the Melon Stall, the Mantis, the Parrot, the Neo
Once upon a time, stalls were all figured together in one large category. But even back then, people would differentiate. Maniacs would admit that while they were good at the arm and body stalls, they were still working on the foot stuff.
This clear demarcation in the skills required for the two trick types prompted us to split this category in half when we started rethinking our earlier system. Obviously stalling on the elbow and stalling on the foot were vastly different, not only in the type of skill required, but also in the amount of skill required. Mastering the basic arm stalls was something a committed Myachi player could do in a month or two, but master the basic foot stalls generally takes at least three times as long.
Splitting this category is also important for score keeping in freestyle. An accomplished footbagger could walk into a Myachi competition and own the "stall" category if we were considering all stalls equally. In the same way a contact juggler could probably dominate using only upper body work. A truly developed Myachi player should clearly be able to exhibit skill in both.
#8) Low Body Stalls
Definition: Tricks where the Myachi is caught and held on any surface below the waist.
Examples: The Toe Stall, the Instep Stall, the Knee Stall, the Outstep Stall, the Heel Stall
Thanks to decades of development by the footbagging community, this is one of the largest categories in Myachi. It is also, by most measures, the most difficult. Obviously, the difficulty of mastering any type of trick will largely be based on your existing skill set when you learn Myachi. For example, a lacrosse player will probably have less trouble learning centrifugals than the average person just as a soccer player or a footbagger will have less trouble learning low boy stalls. So which category of tricks is "most difficult" will vary from player to player.
That being said, the overwhelming majority of Myachi players will cite the low body stalls as the most challenging type of trick to master. They require muscles that many people have never needed to develop, they require flexibility that even flexible people have trouble with and they require insane amounts of practice. Even learning the five basic foot stalls (the Toe, Instep, Outstep, Heel and Sole) often requires more than a year of practice.
#9) Strikes
Definition: Tricks where the Myachi is hit or batted by any surface on the body
Examples: The Popper, the Instep Kick, the Trampoline, the Toe Pop, the Knee Pop
It's hard to believe that there was ever a time when Strikes didn't merit a category of their own, but if you go far enough back into Myachi history there was a time when they were against the rules. Even now, if you look at the rules printed in the booklet attached to a new Myachi you will find the words, "Do not strike or bat the Myachi".
This is obviously included to help new players. When first learning to catch a Myachi, it is important to remind a newb that they need to absorb the Myachi rather than striking it. Because of people's knowledge of Hacky Sack, a lot of people instinctively just start whacking the Myachi with the back of the hand as though the game was just about keeping the Myachi in the air. To limit that, we remind everyone that this is a game about control, not just about keeping it going.
That being said, once you've mastered the catch, you actually want to add in that chaotic strike here and there to keep things challenging. Even young players learn the Trampoline on the first day and that's clearly a strike move. Poppers and basic kicks are usually a quick addition to a new player's repertoire and I see a lot of first hour players throwing in the occasional Melon Popper as well.
Strikes were added when we overhauled the system in 2006 and at first they were broken down to High and Low Body Strikes in the same way that stalls were. We've waffled back and forth on whether or not this should be seen as two categories or one, but until high body strikes become a larger part of the game, it seems excessive to consider them as a full blown category. That being said, Monk's profound additions to the game have had us wondering a lot more lately.
#10) Flip Tricks
Definition: Tricks where the Myachi itself flips or spins in a prescribed manner.
Examples: The Kick Flip, the Pop Shove-It, the Impossible, the Tail Whip, the Tre Flip
This is a category that is essentially added to be thorough. Flip tricks are clearly a part of Myachi, but they're not a very big part of it. Every player worth their salt should have the basics mastered here, but it's not like you're going to bust out in a bunch of flip tricks in the middle of a shred. We generally learn them so that we can master catching strikes and so that we can learn to throw the Myachi properly for weird stalls and swaps, but they're hardly a defining part of Myachi.
But of course, they're a part of the game and therefore they must be classified. To be certain, I've won games of MYACH against accomplished players by throwing out an oddball flip trick that they'd never practiced, so there is some value to thinking these moves through. That being said, if I earned the title of the world's best Myachi player in the category of "Flip Tricks", I wouldn't exactly add it to my resume.
#11) Portals
Definition: Tricks where the Myachi passes through a portal that is created by multiple parts of the body.
Examples: The Musketeer, the Thinker, the Swordfish, the Wormhole, the Jumprope
This is the second most recent addition to this system. In many ways, portal tricks could either be considered as (a) aerials, (b) body-crosses or (c) a combination of the two. After all, a Swordfish fits nicely into the definition of an aerial and a Musketeer fits nicely into the definition of a body cross. So is there really any need for an additional category?
At first, we obviously answered no. The Musketeer had been around for a long time, but it was really the only move we were doing that would have fit into this category for a long time. The Wormhole was probably the next "portal" move to be created and the Thinker was likely the next. But even then, these three moves hardly merited a category of their own.
It was in 2005 when the Swordfish hit the scene that we really started to consider crafting a new classification for these types of tricks. This would be the first portal move that relied on linking the hands themselves and once we started doing that, it was as though the floodgates had opened and dozens of new tricks came pouring out.
But even after that it took several more years for us to start considering portals as a unique type of trick. At this point we had everything neatly buttoned down into ten categories and it would seem weird to have eleven. Especially when we knew that we could still force fit the portals into existing categories. Ultimately, though, we realized that it was dishonest to the spirit of classifying like with like. A Musketeer was considered a body cross but a Swordfish was an aerial. Those two tricks required too similar a skill to be sitting in separate categories and thus another revision was made.
#12) Showers
Definition: Tricks where multiple Myachis are thrown from one or multiple surfaces and then caught or struck on one or multiple surfaces.
Examples: The Horizontal Split, the Vertical Split, the Triple Split, the Firecracker, the Instep Merge
As recently as last week, I wrote a blog post where I said that there were only 11 categories of tricks and when I listed them, I left this one out. I wasn't intentionally trying to confuse people, but for the purposes of the article I was writing at the time, it didn't seem right to throw in this new, oddball category without any further explanation.
Showers represent a pretty broad category of multi-Myachi tricks that will probably eventually be broken down into yet more categories as our system of classification continues to grow with the game. They include Splits, Merges, Firecrackers and Splurges. They basically include any move where multiple Myachis are being moved around at the same time.
This is the only category of tricks that is exclusive to multi-Myachi work. In all the other categories, there are one Myachi moves in the category as well as multiple Myachi moves. If you do a Matrix, it is just a two Myachi swap. If you do a Jedi, it's just a two Myachi body cross. If you do a Double Dragon, it's a two Myachi centrifugal.
But, of course, there is no one Myachi version of a split, merge or firecracker. Until very recently there were so few such moves that it had never even occurred to us to produce a category to put them in. But as most Myachi enthusiasts agree, the most cutting edge work in Myachi is being done in this category of moves. This is where the future of the game lies and where I currently struggle to think of the five examples to give in this post, I also know that by this time next year, I'll probably be able to rattle off fifty such moves without pausing to think.
Showing posts with label creating tricks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label creating tricks. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
The Importance of Traps
by Crazy Ivan
Traditionally, there are eleven categories of tricks in Myachi; High Body Stalls, Low Body Stalls, Strikes, Aerials, Flip Tricks, Body Crosses, Grinds, Portals, Swaps, Centrifugals and Traps. While some moves combine elements of several of these categories, virtually all moves can be described using some variation of these ten broad categories.
In shreds, we usually see a lot of stalls, aerials and body-crosses. Grinds, Portals and Strikes more often show up in games of MYACH. Centrifugals pop up in both instances and are the key to Myachi Fu. Flip Tricks and Traps are often relegated to the "easy" pile and very rarely find their way into jams or skill competitions.
With flip tricks, it's clear why. These are moves that rely on the motion of the Myachi itself (such as kickflips, shove-its, hard flips, etc.) and there's no real need for those in a game of MYACH or in a shred. They're too easy for games of MYACH and they're invisible in a larger shred.
But Traps should not be dismissed so flippantly. Sure, they're illegal in Fu so you won't use them there and there are only a few traps that are legitimate scoring chances in MYACH (and most of them are primarily body-cross moves that also incorporate traps). But when it comes to a shred, traps are probably the most under utilized tricks in the game.
For those that don't know the system, a Trap is a move where you actually "trap" the Myachi between two surfaces on your body. The most common trap tricks are the Hulk, Lotus and Slingshot, but there are hundreds of possible traps using combinations of the hands, feet and body. Still, these moves aren't usually as flashy or impressive as a fast aerial or a difficult low-body stall and because of that, they are usually nowhere to be found in a jam session.
This is a real shame. Traps serve a number of purposes in a shred and they can add a lot to the overall look of the routine. Easy isn't always unimpressive and, depending on how it's framed, a Trap trick can be every bit as impressive as a much tougher foot trick or centrifugal. Let's take a look at a few of the advantages of trap moves:
#1) They Break the Action
In juggling, breaks in the action are called "applause points". These are the moments when everything stops moving for a second so that the audience can catch up and, hopefully, warm the palms of their hands with some vigorous clapping. A good juggler will litter their routine with such stop-and-go pauses so that each motion can be appreciated. It also has the added benefit of making the audience feel like they got more out of the show.
Myachi shreds are the same. If you just string all your best tricks together, the audience really doesn't have time to respond to one trick before they're being baffled by another. Sure, you could use holding pattern moves like Fusions and Fus in between the big elements of your shred, but it's far better to stop the Myachi altogether and give the audience a second to reset.
#2) They Guarantee Odd Placements
Supposing that during your routine, you want to toss in a few Fist tricks. Let's say you've got a sick Fist of Lightening to a Punsiher combo you want to use. This means that at the beginning of this part of the routine, you have to get the Myachi to your fist. There are two ways to do this; you could catch it on your fist from a throw or you could use a trap move like the Hulk and then just come out with the fist stall already in place.
Obviously, the second choice is easier, but less obvious is the fact that it's the more aesthetically pleasing idea from the audience's perspective. Think about it; the Fist of Lightening involves a Fist Catch. So even though the fist catch is more difficult, it will take away from the next trick. Your audience would much rather see two tricks, one easy and one hard, than two difficult tricks that are essentially the same.
And the decision can also be a simple one of consistency. Catching on your fist is really hard. If you have an even more difficult starting position for a trick, the knife edge of the hand, for instance, you might not be able to consistently get that catch within a jam. But you can definitely accomplish it with a Trap. By using a trap, you might actually be expanding the total number of tricks you can bring to a routine.
#3) They Look Really Cool
Odds are that if you're jamming for a crowd, most of them have never played Myachi before. They don't know which tricks are harder than others. I mean, sure, they can just look at a Toe 360 and a Hulk and tell that one is much harder than the other. But do they know that a Spiderman is a lot harder than a Lotus that ends in a Wrist stall?
One of the toughest tricks that I regularly use in freestyle is the Spidey-Sense (a Spiderman to Spiderman Daredevil). When I do it, I always start with a Lotus and do the Spidey-Sense from there. This is a bit easier than just catching a Spiderman, sure, but that's not why I use it. It simply looks cooler to do a Spidey-Sense out of a Lotus than a simple wrist catch. There's more going on. There's more to see. It looks harder even though it's easier.
#4) They Can Be Really Tough
To be sure, I'm not suggesting that you go out and start peppering every routine with a bunch of Hulk to Lotus transitions. If you throw down a Duck N Dive, you can't exactly follow it up with an Anvil to a Slingshot and think it's going to impress somebody. But you could definitely follow up a Duck N Dive with an In-Spin to an Under the Leg Hulk and get some pretty perplexed expressions.
Trap moves are only easy if you do the easy ones. An Atlas is a tough, impressive Trap move. Behind the Back Hulks (or the dreaded Hula Hulk) can be great MYACH calls, let alone Jam tricks. The Figure 4 is a spectacular foot trap. I'm sure that with only a little bit of effort, you can probably think of a tough trap trick that has never even been attempted before.
#5) Traps Are Great for 2 Sack Shreds
Most serious freestylers focus more on multiple Myachi moves than single sack shreds, but even within a 2 sack shred, it can be fun to toss in some one Myachi moves. But what do you do with the second Myachi? Sure, you can stall it on your toe or the top of your head or something just to get it out of the way, but by employing a trap move, you can actually make the dormant Myachi into part of the shred.
Traps and Portals are natural allies. Think about how much cooler a Jump Rope is if there's a second Myachi trapped in a Hulk while you do it. How much cooler is a Musketeer if the fist on the hip is trapping a Myachi? Virtually all portal moves lend themselves to trap variations, but the utility of traps isn't limited to that. Think about some high-body stall/trap combos like the Pteradon and the Headlock (Slingshot and Bodyguard simultaneously from a split).
Even low body stall work can be improved upon by adding a few simple trap variations with one sack while doing a foot shred with another. Traps and Swaps are really the only moves that can realistically be used during a foot shred, as anything else would pose some pretty super-human difficulties. But a Transformer can be executed in the middle of a River Dance without the use of any super powers.
Traditionally, there are eleven categories of tricks in Myachi; High Body Stalls, Low Body Stalls, Strikes, Aerials, Flip Tricks, Body Crosses, Grinds, Portals, Swaps, Centrifugals and Traps. While some moves combine elements of several of these categories, virtually all moves can be described using some variation of these ten broad categories.
In shreds, we usually see a lot of stalls, aerials and body-crosses. Grinds, Portals and Strikes more often show up in games of MYACH. Centrifugals pop up in both instances and are the key to Myachi Fu. Flip Tricks and Traps are often relegated to the "easy" pile and very rarely find their way into jams or skill competitions.
With flip tricks, it's clear why. These are moves that rely on the motion of the Myachi itself (such as kickflips, shove-its, hard flips, etc.) and there's no real need for those in a game of MYACH or in a shred. They're too easy for games of MYACH and they're invisible in a larger shred.
But Traps should not be dismissed so flippantly. Sure, they're illegal in Fu so you won't use them there and there are only a few traps that are legitimate scoring chances in MYACH (and most of them are primarily body-cross moves that also incorporate traps). But when it comes to a shred, traps are probably the most under utilized tricks in the game.
For those that don't know the system, a Trap is a move where you actually "trap" the Myachi between two surfaces on your body. The most common trap tricks are the Hulk, Lotus and Slingshot, but there are hundreds of possible traps using combinations of the hands, feet and body. Still, these moves aren't usually as flashy or impressive as a fast aerial or a difficult low-body stall and because of that, they are usually nowhere to be found in a jam session.
This is a real shame. Traps serve a number of purposes in a shred and they can add a lot to the overall look of the routine. Easy isn't always unimpressive and, depending on how it's framed, a Trap trick can be every bit as impressive as a much tougher foot trick or centrifugal. Let's take a look at a few of the advantages of trap moves:
#1) They Break the Action
In juggling, breaks in the action are called "applause points". These are the moments when everything stops moving for a second so that the audience can catch up and, hopefully, warm the palms of their hands with some vigorous clapping. A good juggler will litter their routine with such stop-and-go pauses so that each motion can be appreciated. It also has the added benefit of making the audience feel like they got more out of the show.
Myachi shreds are the same. If you just string all your best tricks together, the audience really doesn't have time to respond to one trick before they're being baffled by another. Sure, you could use holding pattern moves like Fusions and Fus in between the big elements of your shred, but it's far better to stop the Myachi altogether and give the audience a second to reset.
#2) They Guarantee Odd Placements
Supposing that during your routine, you want to toss in a few Fist tricks. Let's say you've got a sick Fist of Lightening to a Punsiher combo you want to use. This means that at the beginning of this part of the routine, you have to get the Myachi to your fist. There are two ways to do this; you could catch it on your fist from a throw or you could use a trap move like the Hulk and then just come out with the fist stall already in place.
Obviously, the second choice is easier, but less obvious is the fact that it's the more aesthetically pleasing idea from the audience's perspective. Think about it; the Fist of Lightening involves a Fist Catch. So even though the fist catch is more difficult, it will take away from the next trick. Your audience would much rather see two tricks, one easy and one hard, than two difficult tricks that are essentially the same.
And the decision can also be a simple one of consistency. Catching on your fist is really hard. If you have an even more difficult starting position for a trick, the knife edge of the hand, for instance, you might not be able to consistently get that catch within a jam. But you can definitely accomplish it with a Trap. By using a trap, you might actually be expanding the total number of tricks you can bring to a routine.
#3) They Look Really Cool
Odds are that if you're jamming for a crowd, most of them have never played Myachi before. They don't know which tricks are harder than others. I mean, sure, they can just look at a Toe 360 and a Hulk and tell that one is much harder than the other. But do they know that a Spiderman is a lot harder than a Lotus that ends in a Wrist stall?
One of the toughest tricks that I regularly use in freestyle is the Spidey-Sense (a Spiderman to Spiderman Daredevil). When I do it, I always start with a Lotus and do the Spidey-Sense from there. This is a bit easier than just catching a Spiderman, sure, but that's not why I use it. It simply looks cooler to do a Spidey-Sense out of a Lotus than a simple wrist catch. There's more going on. There's more to see. It looks harder even though it's easier.
#4) They Can Be Really Tough
To be sure, I'm not suggesting that you go out and start peppering every routine with a bunch of Hulk to Lotus transitions. If you throw down a Duck N Dive, you can't exactly follow it up with an Anvil to a Slingshot and think it's going to impress somebody. But you could definitely follow up a Duck N Dive with an In-Spin to an Under the Leg Hulk and get some pretty perplexed expressions.
Trap moves are only easy if you do the easy ones. An Atlas is a tough, impressive Trap move. Behind the Back Hulks (or the dreaded Hula Hulk) can be great MYACH calls, let alone Jam tricks. The Figure 4 is a spectacular foot trap. I'm sure that with only a little bit of effort, you can probably think of a tough trap trick that has never even been attempted before.
#5) Traps Are Great for 2 Sack Shreds
Most serious freestylers focus more on multiple Myachi moves than single sack shreds, but even within a 2 sack shred, it can be fun to toss in some one Myachi moves. But what do you do with the second Myachi? Sure, you can stall it on your toe or the top of your head or something just to get it out of the way, but by employing a trap move, you can actually make the dormant Myachi into part of the shred.
Traps and Portals are natural allies. Think about how much cooler a Jump Rope is if there's a second Myachi trapped in a Hulk while you do it. How much cooler is a Musketeer if the fist on the hip is trapping a Myachi? Virtually all portal moves lend themselves to trap variations, but the utility of traps isn't limited to that. Think about some high-body stall/trap combos like the Pteradon and the Headlock (Slingshot and Bodyguard simultaneously from a split).
Even low body stall work can be improved upon by adding a few simple trap variations with one sack while doing a foot shred with another. Traps and Swaps are really the only moves that can realistically be used during a foot shred, as anything else would pose some pretty super-human difficulties. But a Transformer can be executed in the middle of a River Dance without the use of any super powers.
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In summary, every type of Myachi Move has its place. If you're not using a lot of trap moves in your shreds, it might be fun to start rethinking that. I'll be highlighting the rest of the trick types over the next few weeks, but I really felt that the most under-rated type of trick deserved top billing on this little countdown. Look for a post highlighting Centrifugals coming soon...
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
The Birth of a Challenge
by Crazy Ivan
Of all the fringe benefits of my job, I suppose my favorite is living in the House of Skills. For most people, the idea of having 6 roommates would be pretty frightening, but when all 6 of those roommates are (a) your best friends and (b) into all the same weird stuff you're into, it's quite a plus. You just never know when you're going to walk in on an intense MYACH tournament, a 2 ball foosball match or a kendama championship.
And you also never know where the next challenge is going to come from. It could pop up at any second, so you kind of have to be on your toes at all times. A perfect example occurred a couple of weeks ago when Maverick and I were playing a little Myachi in the living room.
We were tossing two Myachis back and forth and freestyling a bit. I would have one and he'd throw me a second. I'd do a few 2 Myachi tricks and then toss both back to him. He's shred a bit, toss me one, then toss the other. I'd shred a bit and then toss one and then the other back to him. We do this quite a bit and it's usually in these types of multi-person freestyles that you usually see the coolest new tricks done.
This time was no exception. Mav had both Myachis and made to send them back to me, but he did so with a pass I'd never seen before. He tossed both sacks up in a Vertical Split and then, while they were hanging in the air, he balled up his fist and punched the lower one so that it rocketed toward me and then caught the other one on the back of his hand.
As soon as I saw it, I had to try the next toughest thing. So Mav tossed the second Myachi to me, I threw a Vertical Split down and hit them both, one after the other, with quick rabbit punches. Both careened back to Mav with pretty good velocity and we shared the grin that skill toy enthusiasts wear in light of a new challenge. If I could do two on the first try, after all, it seemed reasonable that we could a do three with a few tries.
So the challenge was as follows: Toss 3 Myachis up in a Vertical Split (for those not familiar with the basic splits, check out this video). While they're in the air, you make a fist and punch all three Myachis individually. And weak punches won't do the trick here. The idea is to make each punch a pass so that another person can catch it. When we did it, Mav was about 20 feet away from me, so I was trying to get a good 20 feet of distance out of each punch.
This is extraordinarily tough to do. Your punches have to be quick and accurate. They have to have enough force to send the Myachi flying and you have to be centered enough to get the Myachi to go forward instead of spinning off to the left or right. We realized as we were doing this that it would make great practice for martial artists and pugilists looking to improve the speed of their strikes. We had a lot of time to realize this, too, since it took us a few dozen tries to finally get it right.
Before we were done, Monk and Lucky had joined the game and we'd come up with a ton of variations on the challenge. We were doing splits where you'd punch one Myachi alone and then two together. We did ones where you had to hit the first two with straight punches but the third one with an upper cut. We did pummels where you split four Myachis and then trade off, right fist, left fist, right fist, left fist. We did splits where you'd punch one then hit the other two together with both fists.
An hour and a half later, we took a break to rest our sore muscles and we did so with the certain knowledge that we'd be revisiting this challenge several more times. It was just too fun not to do.
We didn't bother coming up with a name for our new challenge. After all, it wasn't a "trick" technically speaking, since you don't actually catch the Myachis that you punch. It also wasn't a "game" technically because there was no scoring, no winner and no loser. So it didn't really occur to us to name it.
But then a few days later I was at FAO and I met a couple of really cool guys that were crazy into martial arts. I was showing them some of the martial-arts inspired moves that we'd come up with like the Fu, the Ninja and the Mantis. One guy asked if we had a move called the Bruce Lee, so I showed them that one. His friend asked if we had a move called the Chuck Norris. I joked that we did, but nobody but Chuck was skilled enough to do it. They asked if we had a move called the Tony Jaa, and strangely enough we did, so I showed them that one as well.
And then one of them asked if we had a move called the Ip Man. Now, for those that haven't seen the movie Ip Man, there are only two things you need to know. One is that you should really go watch Ip Man (it's on Netflix). The other is that the hero in Ip Man punches really fast. So before I could formulate the words, "no, no Ip Man move yet", the challenge from a few days back occurred to me and I said, "As a matter of fact, we kind of do..."
So with that, a new challenge was born and named. We've been at it quite a bit since then (video forthcoming), but we've been having so much fun with it that I felt like I had to share. I know we've got a few accomplished martial artists reading this blog and I'd love to see where they could take this challenge. After all, we haven't even started adding kicks to it...
Of all the fringe benefits of my job, I suppose my favorite is living in the House of Skills. For most people, the idea of having 6 roommates would be pretty frightening, but when all 6 of those roommates are (a) your best friends and (b) into all the same weird stuff you're into, it's quite a plus. You just never know when you're going to walk in on an intense MYACH tournament, a 2 ball foosball match or a kendama championship.
And you also never know where the next challenge is going to come from. It could pop up at any second, so you kind of have to be on your toes at all times. A perfect example occurred a couple of weeks ago when Maverick and I were playing a little Myachi in the living room.
We were tossing two Myachis back and forth and freestyling a bit. I would have one and he'd throw me a second. I'd do a few 2 Myachi tricks and then toss both back to him. He's shred a bit, toss me one, then toss the other. I'd shred a bit and then toss one and then the other back to him. We do this quite a bit and it's usually in these types of multi-person freestyles that you usually see the coolest new tricks done.
This time was no exception. Mav had both Myachis and made to send them back to me, but he did so with a pass I'd never seen before. He tossed both sacks up in a Vertical Split and then, while they were hanging in the air, he balled up his fist and punched the lower one so that it rocketed toward me and then caught the other one on the back of his hand.
As soon as I saw it, I had to try the next toughest thing. So Mav tossed the second Myachi to me, I threw a Vertical Split down and hit them both, one after the other, with quick rabbit punches. Both careened back to Mav with pretty good velocity and we shared the grin that skill toy enthusiasts wear in light of a new challenge. If I could do two on the first try, after all, it seemed reasonable that we could a do three with a few tries.
So the challenge was as follows: Toss 3 Myachis up in a Vertical Split (for those not familiar with the basic splits, check out this video). While they're in the air, you make a fist and punch all three Myachis individually. And weak punches won't do the trick here. The idea is to make each punch a pass so that another person can catch it. When we did it, Mav was about 20 feet away from me, so I was trying to get a good 20 feet of distance out of each punch.
This is extraordinarily tough to do. Your punches have to be quick and accurate. They have to have enough force to send the Myachi flying and you have to be centered enough to get the Myachi to go forward instead of spinning off to the left or right. We realized as we were doing this that it would make great practice for martial artists and pugilists looking to improve the speed of their strikes. We had a lot of time to realize this, too, since it took us a few dozen tries to finally get it right.
Before we were done, Monk and Lucky had joined the game and we'd come up with a ton of variations on the challenge. We were doing splits where you'd punch one Myachi alone and then two together. We did ones where you had to hit the first two with straight punches but the third one with an upper cut. We did pummels where you split four Myachis and then trade off, right fist, left fist, right fist, left fist. We did splits where you'd punch one then hit the other two together with both fists.
An hour and a half later, we took a break to rest our sore muscles and we did so with the certain knowledge that we'd be revisiting this challenge several more times. It was just too fun not to do.
We didn't bother coming up with a name for our new challenge. After all, it wasn't a "trick" technically speaking, since you don't actually catch the Myachis that you punch. It also wasn't a "game" technically because there was no scoring, no winner and no loser. So it didn't really occur to us to name it.
But then a few days later I was at FAO and I met a couple of really cool guys that were crazy into martial arts. I was showing them some of the martial-arts inspired moves that we'd come up with like the Fu, the Ninja and the Mantis. One guy asked if we had a move called the Bruce Lee, so I showed them that one. His friend asked if we had a move called the Chuck Norris. I joked that we did, but nobody but Chuck was skilled enough to do it. They asked if we had a move called the Tony Jaa, and strangely enough we did, so I showed them that one as well.
And then one of them asked if we had a move called the Ip Man. Now, for those that haven't seen the movie Ip Man, there are only two things you need to know. One is that you should really go watch Ip Man (it's on Netflix). The other is that the hero in Ip Man punches really fast. So before I could formulate the words, "no, no Ip Man move yet", the challenge from a few days back occurred to me and I said, "As a matter of fact, we kind of do..."
So with that, a new challenge was born and named. We've been at it quite a bit since then (video forthcoming), but we've been having so much fun with it that I felt like I had to share. I know we've got a few accomplished martial artists reading this blog and I'd love to see where they could take this challenge. After all, we haven't even started adding kicks to it...
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Matrix; Evolutions
by Crazy Ivan
There was a time when the Matrix was largely considered the toughest hand trick in Myachi. Man, that seems like a long time ago.
Since then moves like the Jedi, the Spidey Sense, the Super-Yoga, the 4 Myachi juggle and the myriad variations on the Matrix itself have long supplanted it, but the Matrix itself still holds a unique place in the pantheon of Myachi moves. Whether it's the hardest or the 113th hardest, a quick Matrix will stop most people in their tracks.
It's no wonder then that the Matrix has spawned such an enormous family of moves. Each new Myachi Master is eager to put their own personal twist on the move, to push the boundaries of what's possible, to carve their names into Myachi history by fashioning a new version of this classic move that might live in perpetuity.
Understandably, the names of these various moves have gotten unwieldy over the years. Because each move is rooted in the Matrix, and because the Matrix is such a beloved move within Myachi, the names always seek to wed themselves to the original. That worked well for the first few variations, the Matrix Reloaded and the Matrix Revolutions, and our creativity kicked in after that. Moves like the Matrix Rebooted, the Matrix Rerouted, the Matrix Unleashed and the Glitch in the Matrix joined the more vanilla names like the Behind the Back Matrix, the Under the Leg Matrix, the Bandit Matrix and the One Handed Matrix.
Soon the army of Matrix variations would swell to the point where many went unnamed. Names like the "Mantrix", the "Slingshot-Trix" and the "Wingtrix" never caught on (for understandable reasons) so there seems to be an unending supply of new Matrix variations awaiting more clever names. Every new Myachi Master tries to come up with their own take on this move so ever more complex and challenging concepts keep getting crammed into this already forbidding move.
When I announced that this week's Trick of the Day videos would be Matrix variations, the other Masters at the House of Skills got pretty fired up. I was instantly bombarded with a plethora of questions as to which variations I'd be using. Would I be using the Matrix Rerouted? How about the Matrix Recharged? Maybe the Matrix Rebuked? I was also inundated with emails (okay, maybe not inundated exactly) asking about this or that Matrix variation and whether it would be included in this week's tricks.
Of course, the answer to most of these inquiries was (by necessity) "no". There are far too many Matrix variations for me to squeeze them all into a single week. Heck, even if I did a whole month worth of Trick of the Days dedicated to the Matrix theme I would still have to leave some out (and some good ones at that).
So for those of you hoping to see this or that variation and disappointed when it doesn't show up, I can only promise that another week of Matrix variations will come again in the future. I can't promise that your favorite variation will be included that week either, of course. Heck, by the time I do another week on Matrix moves there will probably be at least 5 new variations that I'll have to leave out as well.
There was a time when the Matrix was largely considered the toughest hand trick in Myachi. Man, that seems like a long time ago.
Since then moves like the Jedi, the Spidey Sense, the Super-Yoga, the 4 Myachi juggle and the myriad variations on the Matrix itself have long supplanted it, but the Matrix itself still holds a unique place in the pantheon of Myachi moves. Whether it's the hardest or the 113th hardest, a quick Matrix will stop most people in their tracks.
It's no wonder then that the Matrix has spawned such an enormous family of moves. Each new Myachi Master is eager to put their own personal twist on the move, to push the boundaries of what's possible, to carve their names into Myachi history by fashioning a new version of this classic move that might live in perpetuity.
Understandably, the names of these various moves have gotten unwieldy over the years. Because each move is rooted in the Matrix, and because the Matrix is such a beloved move within Myachi, the names always seek to wed themselves to the original. That worked well for the first few variations, the Matrix Reloaded and the Matrix Revolutions, and our creativity kicked in after that. Moves like the Matrix Rebooted, the Matrix Rerouted, the Matrix Unleashed and the Glitch in the Matrix joined the more vanilla names like the Behind the Back Matrix, the Under the Leg Matrix, the Bandit Matrix and the One Handed Matrix.
Soon the army of Matrix variations would swell to the point where many went unnamed. Names like the "Mantrix", the "Slingshot-Trix" and the "Wingtrix" never caught on (for understandable reasons) so there seems to be an unending supply of new Matrix variations awaiting more clever names. Every new Myachi Master tries to come up with their own take on this move so ever more complex and challenging concepts keep getting crammed into this already forbidding move.
When I announced that this week's Trick of the Day videos would be Matrix variations, the other Masters at the House of Skills got pretty fired up. I was instantly bombarded with a plethora of questions as to which variations I'd be using. Would I be using the Matrix Rerouted? How about the Matrix Recharged? Maybe the Matrix Rebuked? I was also inundated with emails (okay, maybe not inundated exactly) asking about this or that Matrix variation and whether it would be included in this week's tricks.
Of course, the answer to most of these inquiries was (by necessity) "no". There are far too many Matrix variations for me to squeeze them all into a single week. Heck, even if I did a whole month worth of Trick of the Days dedicated to the Matrix theme I would still have to leave some out (and some good ones at that).
So for those of you hoping to see this or that variation and disappointed when it doesn't show up, I can only promise that another week of Matrix variations will come again in the future. I can't promise that your favorite variation will be included that week either, of course. Heck, by the time I do another week on Matrix moves there will probably be at least 5 new variations that I'll have to leave out as well.
Saturday, August 13, 2011
When a Trick isn't a Trick
by Crazy Ivan
I've talked before on this blog about the difficulty in defining what makes a "Trick", as opposed to a combo. The definition has never really been laid down to my satisfaction, so I thought I'd take a new angle on it. Rather than obsessing over what a trick is, I've decided to mention a few instances that demonstrate what a trick isn't.
First, a bit of laundry for our newer readers. When you combine tricks together, sometimes you create a new trick and sometimes you create a combo. Take as an example an Instep Kick, a Wolverine and a Trampoline. If you did an Instep Kick, do a Wolverine around the Myachi and then hit it with the Trampoline, you've done a single trick:
Strikes: (Require a Touch) Are always the beginning or end of a trick.
Aerials: (No Touch Allowed) Are never the beginning or end of a trick.
Stalls: (Require a Touch) Are always the beginning or end of a trick.
Portals: (No Touch Allowed) Are never the beginning or end of a trick.
Flips: (No Touch Allowed) Are never the beginning or end of a trick.
But with Centrifugals the Myachi never moves and with Grinds there is a long, continuous touch. That makes things pretty confusing. How does a Snake fit in? What about a Dark Slide?
Well, though it is imperfect, the standing definition has to do with the motion of the Myachi. Let's say you do a Roller Coaster and toss right into a Double Illusion. That would count as a single trick because the motion doesn't actually stop and the Myachi isn't redirected within the trick. But if you did a Double Illusion then caught the Myachi and went into a Crane, it would be two tricks (unless you're so good you can catch a Double Illusion and move straight into a Crane without interrupting the motion of the Myachi).
Like I said, the definition is pretty imperfect. It would be easy to imagine two people arguing about whether or not the motion of the Myachi actually stopped or whatever so there should be more precision there.
But for the purposes of this article, I don't want to split hairs about Grinds, but rather point out a few things that are not tricks. People often think they've invented a new trick but then when you see it, you have to break the news to them that no, sorry, they didn't actually invent a "trick" per se.
These are a few of the really common ones that I see:
It's a Combo.
This ties right into what I was talking about before. Somebody will say they've invented a new trick and then they'll do something like "Toe Stall to Trampoline to Hulk to 720". Now, that would certainly be pretty sweet, but it's a combo, not a trick.
That's not to say that you can't give it a name. Maybe the name sticks and maybe it doesn't; that will depend on how popular the combo becomes. The combo listed above is such a random string of tricks that I can't imagine it becoming anybody's go to jam, but classic combos like the Wavy Gravy have been known to earn names from time to time.
It Doesn't Involve the Myachi.
We had to draw the line on this one early. According to the officially sanctioned rules of what constitutes a trick, the trick must somehow involve the Myachi. In other words, if the "trick" is just throwing the Myachi in the air, doing some random action and then catching the Myachi, that's not a trick.
Examples of this are legion. If you toss the Myachi up, pick your nose and then catch it, that isn't a trick. If you toss it up, wipe the sweat off your brow and then catch it, that isn't a trick. If you toss it up, rub your belly while you pat your head and then catch it, that isn't a trick. If we allowed stuff like that, there would be a gazillion silly tricks and it would be silly to try to keep up with all of them.
The only exception to this rule is the "In-Spin", where you toss a Myachi up, do a full spin and then catch it. The reason this is still considered a trick is because it does involve the Myachi... you have to take your eyes off of it, spin away from it, etc. It's not just something you're doing while the Myachi is in the air, it's something that actually makes the catch harder.
It's Already a Trick.
Sometimes people do a trick where, for example, all they're really doing is a well known trick. For example, if you do an Illusion but make a Fist with the hand that goes around the Myachi, you're still just doing the Illusion. Since the "Illusion Hand" doesn't actually touch the Myachi, there's no functional difference between doing it with your hand flat or in a fist.
Another great example of this (and the one I saw that prompted me to write this article) would be the position of your hands in a Flying Fish. A Flying Fish is still a Flying Fish whether your hands are in fists, sideways, longways, or making little dinosaurs. The reason is, of course, that it makes no real difference to the move what position your hands are in when you do it. The Myachi is sitting on your leg and your hands aren't touching it.
Now, to be clear, if you do a Flying Fish and then catch the Myachi on your fist, that would be a trick that would be different from just doing a Flying Fish and then catching it on the back of your hand. What I'm talking about above is a person who was doing a Flying Fish with his hands in a weird position, but then flattening them back out for the catch.
Other?
I'm sure there are others, but it's almost one in the morning so I'm going to stop here. We're still working on cementing a meaningful and fully encompassing definition for what makes a trick a trick and when we hammer it out, you'll be the first to know.
I've talked before on this blog about the difficulty in defining what makes a "Trick", as opposed to a combo. The definition has never really been laid down to my satisfaction, so I thought I'd take a new angle on it. Rather than obsessing over what a trick is, I've decided to mention a few instances that demonstrate what a trick isn't.
First, a bit of laundry for our newer readers. When you combine tricks together, sometimes you create a new trick and sometimes you create a combo. Take as an example an Instep Kick, a Wolverine and a Trampoline. If you did an Instep Kick, do a Wolverine around the Myachi and then hit it with the Trampoline, you've done a single trick:
Instep Kick > Wolverine > Trampoline
The reason this is considered a single trick is because you only touch the Myachi twice; once when you hit it with your instep (the beginning of the trick) and once at the end when you hit it with your T-Shirt. The Wolverine is an aerial and doesn't require that you hit the Myachi at all.
Now, if you did an Instep Kick, a Trampoline and then the Wolverine, you'd have done 2 tricks:
Instep Kick > Trampoline + Wolverine
The reason is, of course, that you touch the Myachi for a second time before you did the Wolverine. You did an Instep Kick (1st touch) to start the trick and a Trampoline (2nd touch) to end the trick. The fact that you've added a Wolverine to the end doesn't count as part of the next trick because it came after the second touch. The Trampoline > Wolverine was a trick done after the Instep Kick > Trampoline.
The system becomes particularly confusing when you start figuring in grinds and centrifugals. All other trick types are pretty easy:
Traps: (Require a Touch) Are always the beginning or end of a trick.Strikes: (Require a Touch) Are always the beginning or end of a trick.
Aerials: (No Touch Allowed) Are never the beginning or end of a trick.
Stalls: (Require a Touch) Are always the beginning or end of a trick.
Portals: (No Touch Allowed) Are never the beginning or end of a trick.
Flips: (No Touch Allowed) Are never the beginning or end of a trick.
But with Centrifugals the Myachi never moves and with Grinds there is a long, continuous touch. That makes things pretty confusing. How does a Snake fit in? What about a Dark Slide?
Well, though it is imperfect, the standing definition has to do with the motion of the Myachi. Let's say you do a Roller Coaster and toss right into a Double Illusion. That would count as a single trick because the motion doesn't actually stop and the Myachi isn't redirected within the trick. But if you did a Double Illusion then caught the Myachi and went into a Crane, it would be two tricks (unless you're so good you can catch a Double Illusion and move straight into a Crane without interrupting the motion of the Myachi).
Like I said, the definition is pretty imperfect. It would be easy to imagine two people arguing about whether or not the motion of the Myachi actually stopped or whatever so there should be more precision there.
But for the purposes of this article, I don't want to split hairs about Grinds, but rather point out a few things that are not tricks. People often think they've invented a new trick but then when you see it, you have to break the news to them that no, sorry, they didn't actually invent a "trick" per se.
These are a few of the really common ones that I see:
It's a Combo.
This ties right into what I was talking about before. Somebody will say they've invented a new trick and then they'll do something like "Toe Stall to Trampoline to Hulk to 720". Now, that would certainly be pretty sweet, but it's a combo, not a trick.
That's not to say that you can't give it a name. Maybe the name sticks and maybe it doesn't; that will depend on how popular the combo becomes. The combo listed above is such a random string of tricks that I can't imagine it becoming anybody's go to jam, but classic combos like the Wavy Gravy have been known to earn names from time to time.
It Doesn't Involve the Myachi.
We had to draw the line on this one early. According to the officially sanctioned rules of what constitutes a trick, the trick must somehow involve the Myachi. In other words, if the "trick" is just throwing the Myachi in the air, doing some random action and then catching the Myachi, that's not a trick.
Examples of this are legion. If you toss the Myachi up, pick your nose and then catch it, that isn't a trick. If you toss it up, wipe the sweat off your brow and then catch it, that isn't a trick. If you toss it up, rub your belly while you pat your head and then catch it, that isn't a trick. If we allowed stuff like that, there would be a gazillion silly tricks and it would be silly to try to keep up with all of them.
The only exception to this rule is the "In-Spin", where you toss a Myachi up, do a full spin and then catch it. The reason this is still considered a trick is because it does involve the Myachi... you have to take your eyes off of it, spin away from it, etc. It's not just something you're doing while the Myachi is in the air, it's something that actually makes the catch harder.
It's Already a Trick.
Sometimes people do a trick where, for example, all they're really doing is a well known trick. For example, if you do an Illusion but make a Fist with the hand that goes around the Myachi, you're still just doing the Illusion. Since the "Illusion Hand" doesn't actually touch the Myachi, there's no functional difference between doing it with your hand flat or in a fist.
Another great example of this (and the one I saw that prompted me to write this article) would be the position of your hands in a Flying Fish. A Flying Fish is still a Flying Fish whether your hands are in fists, sideways, longways, or making little dinosaurs. The reason is, of course, that it makes no real difference to the move what position your hands are in when you do it. The Myachi is sitting on your leg and your hands aren't touching it.
Now, to be clear, if you do a Flying Fish and then catch the Myachi on your fist, that would be a trick that would be different from just doing a Flying Fish and then catching it on the back of your hand. What I'm talking about above is a person who was doing a Flying Fish with his hands in a weird position, but then flattening them back out for the catch.
Other?
I'm sure there are others, but it's almost one in the morning so I'm going to stop here. We're still working on cementing a meaningful and fully encompassing definition for what makes a trick a trick and when we hammer it out, you'll be the first to know.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Tips for Naming a Trick
by Crazy Ivan
The appeal of inventing a trick is pretty obvious. Not only is it an awesome exercise that challenges both your skills and your creativity, but it also offers you a chance to achieve a small level of Myachi immortality. In fact, a cool enough move could earn you a significant place in Myachi history.
But coming up with the trick is really only half the battle. Many great tricks have been invented without their inventors ever getting much credit for them. Now sometimes that's just because the move never got popular. Some tricks are just before their time, others are so tough that few people can do them and still others just don't look cool enough to make it worthwhile to use them in a shred.
If that's the case the best thing you can do is go back to the drawing board and try to come up with another trick while asking yourself why the other one never caught on. But there's another problem that often shows up as well. Sometimes a trick fails to gain popularity simply because it doesn't have a cool enough name.
It's very important that you not glaze over the part where you assign the trick a monicker. If you have a cool move with a lame name that's an insult to the trick. It's also a guarantee that the move, even if it does become popular and widespread, probably won't be remembered as your invention. Instead, people will more often associate it with whoever came up with a cooler name for it.
There is no real "trick registry" in Myachi. You might be the first person to put a move on You-Tube, for example, but that doesn't really mean you were the first to do it. Many people post "new moves" only to discover that they're actually reinventing a trick that's been around for years. In most of those cases, they were unaware of the move because it didn't have a cool name.
I can't overestimate the importance of coming up with a cool name that will be remembered in association with your move. I've come up with a couple of quick pointers to aid you in fashioning an unforgettable title for your trick, but in the end it's going to come down to your creativity.
#1) Ask Yourself What the Move Looks Like
Clearly, the name needs to be cool. If you name your move "the Happy Balloon", I'm guessing nobody is going to want to call it in MYACH. But a cool name isn't enough. If you called your move "the Razor's Edge" it might be cool, but it could also fall flat if there was nothing about the move that made people think of razors or edges.
The name should be easy to associate with the trick. If at all possible, the name should have an ironic or witty connection to the move so that when you see the trick you can't help but think of the move. Think of tricks like the "Blind Squirrel", the "Punisher" and the "Atlas" for examples of appropriate (and cool) names.
#2) Don't Name it After Yourself
Adding your name or your nickname to a trick is usually a bad idea. I know that sounds disingenuous coming from a person who is actually named after a trick, but there was a big difference in my case. First of all, I was named after the trick; the trick wasn't named after me. Secondly I wasn't trying to popularize a new move with that name. The name for the trick had already caught on and I was just borrowing my nickname from it.
But far too many people name moves thing like "George's Hammer" or "The Charlie" and those ones almost never pan out. Even if you have a cool Myachi nickname, if the trick doesn't remind people of whatever your nickname is, it probably won't catch on.
#3) Don't Use an Obscure Name
We name a lot of our tricks after superheroes, movies and pro athletes so those are really good sources of cool names. But it's important that when you go that route you don't use something too obscure. A move named after the Green Goblin is going to evoke images of Spidey's nemesis but a move named after Wyatt Wingfoot people are going to respond with a blank stare.
(He was a minor super-powerless sub-character that was first introduced in Fantastic Four and later crossed over into a bunch of different Marvel franchises. I add that in case you've got more important stuff to Google)
#4) Keep it Short
Two or three words is the maximum for a Myachi move. A move that starts sounding like the technical name of a piece of classical music is not going to catch on. Whenever possible, you want a one word name like "the ____" but you can also get away with a single modifier if it makes sense. A move called "the _____ing ____" will work if it makes sense. The "Flying Fish" is a great name for a move, but the "Bicycling Fish" probably won't catch on.
In some circumstances you can get away with a three word name, but only rarely. Moves like the "Duck and Dive" or the "Flying Space Cowboy" are definitely the exception rather than the rule.
#5) Stay With the Theme
Many moves are going to be subtle variations on existing moves and when that's the case it's always best to keep your name close to the name for the existing move. For example, when you do an Under the Leg catch without lifting your leg, it's called a Spider. If you do it Yoga style it's called a "Daddy Long Legs". If you do it in a Subter-Fusion pattern it's called the "Tarantula". If you do it under both legs it's called the "Black Widow".
If you came up with another variation on this move, you'd probably be best off giving it a "spider" related name that fits with the existing family of tricks. If you called it the "Scepter" it would seem really odd fitting in with all those arachnid names.
There are many themes like this that serve as undercurrents through whole families of tricks. Which bring us to our final point:
#6) Learn Popular Trick Names
This is perhaps the most important piece of advice I can give you. If you didn't know, for example, what a Spider Under the Leg was, you wouldn't know to name your moves after the Spider theme. If you didn't know that flip tricks are usually named after skateboarding moves you might give a move a radically off-base name.
It will also help save you the trouble of inventing new moves that have actually already been invented. Try to look at as many tricks as you possibly can. Not only will they give you good name ideas, but they will also give you good ideas of new tricks and combos to try.
Also keep in mind that some of the tricks you come across might be waiting for better names. Even if you didn't invent the trick, offering a relatively unknown trick a really cool new name might bring it out into the open. In that case, it might not be a trick you invented, but it might still earn you that little slice of immortality.
The appeal of inventing a trick is pretty obvious. Not only is it an awesome exercise that challenges both your skills and your creativity, but it also offers you a chance to achieve a small level of Myachi immortality. In fact, a cool enough move could earn you a significant place in Myachi history.
But coming up with the trick is really only half the battle. Many great tricks have been invented without their inventors ever getting much credit for them. Now sometimes that's just because the move never got popular. Some tricks are just before their time, others are so tough that few people can do them and still others just don't look cool enough to make it worthwhile to use them in a shred.
If that's the case the best thing you can do is go back to the drawing board and try to come up with another trick while asking yourself why the other one never caught on. But there's another problem that often shows up as well. Sometimes a trick fails to gain popularity simply because it doesn't have a cool enough name.
It's very important that you not glaze over the part where you assign the trick a monicker. If you have a cool move with a lame name that's an insult to the trick. It's also a guarantee that the move, even if it does become popular and widespread, probably won't be remembered as your invention. Instead, people will more often associate it with whoever came up with a cooler name for it.
There is no real "trick registry" in Myachi. You might be the first person to put a move on You-Tube, for example, but that doesn't really mean you were the first to do it. Many people post "new moves" only to discover that they're actually reinventing a trick that's been around for years. In most of those cases, they were unaware of the move because it didn't have a cool name.
I can't overestimate the importance of coming up with a cool name that will be remembered in association with your move. I've come up with a couple of quick pointers to aid you in fashioning an unforgettable title for your trick, but in the end it's going to come down to your creativity.
#1) Ask Yourself What the Move Looks Like
Clearly, the name needs to be cool. If you name your move "the Happy Balloon", I'm guessing nobody is going to want to call it in MYACH. But a cool name isn't enough. If you called your move "the Razor's Edge" it might be cool, but it could also fall flat if there was nothing about the move that made people think of razors or edges.
The name should be easy to associate with the trick. If at all possible, the name should have an ironic or witty connection to the move so that when you see the trick you can't help but think of the move. Think of tricks like the "Blind Squirrel", the "Punisher" and the "Atlas" for examples of appropriate (and cool) names.
#2) Don't Name it After Yourself
Adding your name or your nickname to a trick is usually a bad idea. I know that sounds disingenuous coming from a person who is actually named after a trick, but there was a big difference in my case. First of all, I was named after the trick; the trick wasn't named after me. Secondly I wasn't trying to popularize a new move with that name. The name for the trick had already caught on and I was just borrowing my nickname from it.
But far too many people name moves thing like "George's Hammer" or "The Charlie" and those ones almost never pan out. Even if you have a cool Myachi nickname, if the trick doesn't remind people of whatever your nickname is, it probably won't catch on.
#3) Don't Use an Obscure Name
We name a lot of our tricks after superheroes, movies and pro athletes so those are really good sources of cool names. But it's important that when you go that route you don't use something too obscure. A move named after the Green Goblin is going to evoke images of Spidey's nemesis but a move named after Wyatt Wingfoot people are going to respond with a blank stare.
(He was a minor super-powerless sub-character that was first introduced in Fantastic Four and later crossed over into a bunch of different Marvel franchises. I add that in case you've got more important stuff to Google)
#4) Keep it Short
Two or three words is the maximum for a Myachi move. A move that starts sounding like the technical name of a piece of classical music is not going to catch on. Whenever possible, you want a one word name like "the ____" but you can also get away with a single modifier if it makes sense. A move called "the _____ing ____" will work if it makes sense. The "Flying Fish" is a great name for a move, but the "Bicycling Fish" probably won't catch on.
In some circumstances you can get away with a three word name, but only rarely. Moves like the "Duck and Dive" or the "Flying Space Cowboy" are definitely the exception rather than the rule.
#5) Stay With the Theme
Many moves are going to be subtle variations on existing moves and when that's the case it's always best to keep your name close to the name for the existing move. For example, when you do an Under the Leg catch without lifting your leg, it's called a Spider. If you do it Yoga style it's called a "Daddy Long Legs". If you do it in a Subter-Fusion pattern it's called the "Tarantula". If you do it under both legs it's called the "Black Widow".
If you came up with another variation on this move, you'd probably be best off giving it a "spider" related name that fits with the existing family of tricks. If you called it the "Scepter" it would seem really odd fitting in with all those arachnid names.
There are many themes like this that serve as undercurrents through whole families of tricks. Which bring us to our final point:
#6) Learn Popular Trick Names
This is perhaps the most important piece of advice I can give you. If you didn't know, for example, what a Spider Under the Leg was, you wouldn't know to name your moves after the Spider theme. If you didn't know that flip tricks are usually named after skateboarding moves you might give a move a radically off-base name.
It will also help save you the trouble of inventing new moves that have actually already been invented. Try to look at as many tricks as you possibly can. Not only will they give you good name ideas, but they will also give you good ideas of new tricks and combos to try.
Also keep in mind that some of the tricks you come across might be waiting for better names. Even if you didn't invent the trick, offering a relatively unknown trick a really cool new name might bring it out into the open. In that case, it might not be a trick you invented, but it might still earn you that little slice of immortality.
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I know this goes without saying, but if you have any additional advice you'd like to give, please leave it in the comments section below.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Adding Props to Your Shred
by Crazy Ivan
I've talked a number of times in the past about the joy of inventing a new trick. I've even gone as far as mentioning the places where I think most of the undiscovered tricks lie (portals, splits and 3 Myachi moves). But one of the biggest untapped sources of inspiration is worth it's own article. Specifically, we're talking about everything on earth that isn't a Myachi.
I've said forever to look for your inspiration outside of Myachi and try to find ways of bringing your other skills into the game. This works particularly well when you find something you can jam with simultaneously with a Myachi.
There are several that we've used in the past to great effect. One of my favorites has long been using Myachis along with nunchaku. Well... not the real ones because I hate the idea of breaking my own head open, but I have a couple pair of the stage chux that allow you to whack yourself in the head to great comedic effect:
Clearly adding the nunchaku (which I misspelled heinously on the video title) makes easier moves like simple rainbow hand switches into pretty cool and challenging tricks. But this is only one example of adding Myachi to another existing skill.
Monk, as many of you know, made his living for a number of years as a flair bartender. For those unfamiliar with the art, just think about a Myachi Master and add a bartender and you pretty much have what Monk did. One of the standard props of the flair bartender is a metal cup often called a "Shaker" or a "Shaker Cup." Normally you put things like lemons and booze into it, but Monk figured a Myachi is way cooler than either, so why not substitute?
I know that these two examples might seem random, but the whole idea of adding new props to your Myachi shreds is that it should be random. The weirder the thing you add, the cooler it can be and the more likely you are to find unique tricks that have never been done before.
So much of Myachi is about creativity and so much of creativity is about thinking "outside the box"... or, if you're sick of that cliche and you're ready for a new one, try thinking outside the palm.
And just in case those videos to quench your Myachi and added prop thirst, feel free to check out the link here for some cool video of Bones and Bamboo shredding out with Myachis and an Ogo.
PS If you're still looking for ideas for your Spring You-Tube entry... hint, hint... a quarter of your score will be determined by creativity!
I've talked a number of times in the past about the joy of inventing a new trick. I've even gone as far as mentioning the places where I think most of the undiscovered tricks lie (portals, splits and 3 Myachi moves). But one of the biggest untapped sources of inspiration is worth it's own article. Specifically, we're talking about everything on earth that isn't a Myachi.
I've said forever to look for your inspiration outside of Myachi and try to find ways of bringing your other skills into the game. This works particularly well when you find something you can jam with simultaneously with a Myachi.
There are several that we've used in the past to great effect. One of my favorites has long been using Myachis along with nunchaku. Well... not the real ones because I hate the idea of breaking my own head open, but I have a couple pair of the stage chux that allow you to whack yourself in the head to great comedic effect:
Clearly adding the nunchaku (which I misspelled heinously on the video title) makes easier moves like simple rainbow hand switches into pretty cool and challenging tricks. But this is only one example of adding Myachi to another existing skill.
Monk, as many of you know, made his living for a number of years as a flair bartender. For those unfamiliar with the art, just think about a Myachi Master and add a bartender and you pretty much have what Monk did. One of the standard props of the flair bartender is a metal cup often called a "Shaker" or a "Shaker Cup." Normally you put things like lemons and booze into it, but Monk figured a Myachi is way cooler than either, so why not substitute?
I know that these two examples might seem random, but the whole idea of adding new props to your Myachi shreds is that it should be random. The weirder the thing you add, the cooler it can be and the more likely you are to find unique tricks that have never been done before.
So much of Myachi is about creativity and so much of creativity is about thinking "outside the box"... or, if you're sick of that cliche and you're ready for a new one, try thinking outside the palm.
And just in case those videos to quench your Myachi and added prop thirst, feel free to check out the link here for some cool video of Bones and Bamboo shredding out with Myachis and an Ogo.
PS If you're still looking for ideas for your Spring You-Tube entry... hint, hint... a quarter of your score will be determined by creativity!
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
The Bittersweet Victory of Recreating a Move
by Crazy Ivan
Wednesday nights are late nights for me. I do the online brawl until 9 o'clock so I usually don't make it home until near 10. By then the house is usually winding down and with Maverick and Animal in Australia I expected to come home to a pretty quiet place.
To my surprise, Monk is upstairs with Noodles, Bones, Bamboo and Unknown playing Magick. I'm in the room all of 2 seconds and both Unknown and Bones announce that they have new moves to show me. Bones claims seniority so he shows me his move first.
Now, I didn't want to hurt his feelings, but I'd seen the move before. It's a variation on a 2 sack aerial where you toss 2 Myachis up from opposite hands then your right hand Illusions around one and 360s around the other before you catch back in the hands you started from. We'd come up with the same trick years ago while brain storming on 2 sack aerials (we'd also done it cross handed and with the Myachis crossing in the air) but I didn't want to deflate him so I just nodded with a smile that tried to say "cool".
Then I turn to Unknown and he pulls this awesome Nightcrawler/Illusion move that is a beautiful thing to behold and I instinctively say, "Nice, bro!"
Well... I guess it was kind of obvious that my reaction to Unknown's trick was way bigger than the one I had for Bones' trick. Unknown even made a joke of it... "I got a 'nice bro'," he jested.
At that point I figured it would be best to come clean so I told Bones that I'd actually done that move before and I couldn't recall whether it was Animal, Butter or I who had done it first. I showed him a few variations on similar moves as well and he was happy to learn them. Bones' greatest strength is that he soaks up new stuff like a sponge.
But it got me to thinking about that feeling. I've been there before. When I was new to Myachi I constantly thought I was coming up with the most revolutionary trick ever invented only to find out that it already had a name and the name was cooler than the one I'd come up with. Of course, that was almost 8 years ago and literally hundreds of thousands of moves have been created since then. The challenge of coming up with something truly unique has gotten harder and harder over that time.
Bones' expression summed up the feeling perfectly. It's not exactly disappointment because it's not like there's a bonus to the Myachi Master who can come up with the most original moves, but it's got an element of disappointment. It's not exactly jealousy because you know deep down that the only reason someone else created it is because they were exactly as creative as you, only earlier, but it's got an element of jealousy. It's not exactly pleasant because you feel deflated but you're excited that there are already variations to learn so it's got an pleasant element as well.
To be perfectly honest, "creating" a move doesn't mean much in the Myachi world. It's really about who perfects the move. It's about who popularizes it. When we came up with the trick Bones did tonight, it wasn't a big deal. We came up with it while trying to think of as many variations on one simple theme as we could. That particular pattern didn't even merit a name at the time.
Now, if Bones names it, perfects it and popularizes it, it's his move. It doesn't really matter that somebody did it years before. He'll be the one who really brought it to Myachi.
I can think of several examples but there's one that seems particularly appropriate. Bamboo rediscovered an awesome two sack variation where you Illusion around one sack while verting a 2nd sack then 360 back around and catch both sacks in one hand. He called it the "Armageddon" (though I don't think he actually came up with the name) and started doing it in every two sack shred.
Bamboo didn't do the move first. It was actually part of my daily 2 sack repertoire at the time. But it didn't have a cool name and I never really taught it to anyone. When I came up with it years ago I was rediscovering a move that had already been done years before that. All that being said, everyone knows the Armageddon as Bamboo's move. He's the best at it and he does it often enough to be synonymous with it.
I could offer a bunch more examples, but like I said, Wednesdays are long nights for me anyway. The larger point here is that you should never feel deflated when you create a move only to discover that somebody else already came up with it before you. They weren't any more creative, they just did the same thing sooner. But if the move is obscure enough that you've never seen it, maybe it's not too late to perfect it and make it your own.
Wednesday nights are late nights for me. I do the online brawl until 9 o'clock so I usually don't make it home until near 10. By then the house is usually winding down and with Maverick and Animal in Australia I expected to come home to a pretty quiet place.
To my surprise, Monk is upstairs with Noodles, Bones, Bamboo and Unknown playing Magick. I'm in the room all of 2 seconds and both Unknown and Bones announce that they have new moves to show me. Bones claims seniority so he shows me his move first.
Now, I didn't want to hurt his feelings, but I'd seen the move before. It's a variation on a 2 sack aerial where you toss 2 Myachis up from opposite hands then your right hand Illusions around one and 360s around the other before you catch back in the hands you started from. We'd come up with the same trick years ago while brain storming on 2 sack aerials (we'd also done it cross handed and with the Myachis crossing in the air) but I didn't want to deflate him so I just nodded with a smile that tried to say "cool".
Then I turn to Unknown and he pulls this awesome Nightcrawler/Illusion move that is a beautiful thing to behold and I instinctively say, "Nice, bro!"
Well... I guess it was kind of obvious that my reaction to Unknown's trick was way bigger than the one I had for Bones' trick. Unknown even made a joke of it... "I got a 'nice bro'," he jested.
At that point I figured it would be best to come clean so I told Bones that I'd actually done that move before and I couldn't recall whether it was Animal, Butter or I who had done it first. I showed him a few variations on similar moves as well and he was happy to learn them. Bones' greatest strength is that he soaks up new stuff like a sponge.
But it got me to thinking about that feeling. I've been there before. When I was new to Myachi I constantly thought I was coming up with the most revolutionary trick ever invented only to find out that it already had a name and the name was cooler than the one I'd come up with. Of course, that was almost 8 years ago and literally hundreds of thousands of moves have been created since then. The challenge of coming up with something truly unique has gotten harder and harder over that time.
Bones' expression summed up the feeling perfectly. It's not exactly disappointment because it's not like there's a bonus to the Myachi Master who can come up with the most original moves, but it's got an element of disappointment. It's not exactly jealousy because you know deep down that the only reason someone else created it is because they were exactly as creative as you, only earlier, but it's got an element of jealousy. It's not exactly pleasant because you feel deflated but you're excited that there are already variations to learn so it's got an pleasant element as well.
To be perfectly honest, "creating" a move doesn't mean much in the Myachi world. It's really about who perfects the move. It's about who popularizes it. When we came up with the trick Bones did tonight, it wasn't a big deal. We came up with it while trying to think of as many variations on one simple theme as we could. That particular pattern didn't even merit a name at the time.
Now, if Bones names it, perfects it and popularizes it, it's his move. It doesn't really matter that somebody did it years before. He'll be the one who really brought it to Myachi.
I can think of several examples but there's one that seems particularly appropriate. Bamboo rediscovered an awesome two sack variation where you Illusion around one sack while verting a 2nd sack then 360 back around and catch both sacks in one hand. He called it the "Armageddon" (though I don't think he actually came up with the name) and started doing it in every two sack shred.
Bamboo didn't do the move first. It was actually part of my daily 2 sack repertoire at the time. But it didn't have a cool name and I never really taught it to anyone. When I came up with it years ago I was rediscovering a move that had already been done years before that. All that being said, everyone knows the Armageddon as Bamboo's move. He's the best at it and he does it often enough to be synonymous with it.
I could offer a bunch more examples, but like I said, Wednesdays are long nights for me anyway. The larger point here is that you should never feel deflated when you create a move only to discover that somebody else already came up with it before you. They weren't any more creative, they just did the same thing sooner. But if the move is obscure enough that you've never seen it, maybe it's not too late to perfect it and make it your own.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Classifying Tricks
by Crazy Ivan
How many types of tricks are there?
Seems more like the kind of question you would ask me than something I would ask you, right? Seems like I should be able to toss out a quick number and a list and move on to another question, right? Seems like developing some sort of classification system for all the Myachi tricks would be pretty easy, right?
By now you've probably guess that I'm going to say wrong, but I'm going to say it anyway...
Wrong.
There are a couple of things that make this task difficult but the biggest by far is the fact that new tricks are being invented every day. Most of those tricks are logical extensions on other tricks, but from time to time something comes up that is so unique that you're left scratching your head and wondering where it goes.
But that's only one of the problems that we face when we start trying to answer that question. Rather than drag you through each of them one by one, let me demonstrate with a few real world examples.
Years ago I thought I pretty much had it all figured out. We had divided the tricks into 8 basic categories and even though some of the categories were kind of weird and had rambling definitions, everything fit. We'd named it several different ways including dividing tricks up by elements, kung fu animal forms, directions and regions of the country where the style developed. Most of that got pretty confusing so usually we just used descriptive terms.
So circa 2006 these were the 8 categories as were more or less officially recognized by the Myachi community:
How many types of tricks are there?
Seems more like the kind of question you would ask me than something I would ask you, right? Seems like I should be able to toss out a quick number and a list and move on to another question, right? Seems like developing some sort of classification system for all the Myachi tricks would be pretty easy, right?
By now you've probably guess that I'm going to say wrong, but I'm going to say it anyway...
Wrong.
There are a couple of things that make this task difficult but the biggest by far is the fact that new tricks are being invented every day. Most of those tricks are logical extensions on other tricks, but from time to time something comes up that is so unique that you're left scratching your head and wondering where it goes.
But that's only one of the problems that we face when we start trying to answer that question. Rather than drag you through each of them one by one, let me demonstrate with a few real world examples.
Years ago I thought I pretty much had it all figured out. We had divided the tricks into 8 basic categories and even though some of the categories were kind of weird and had rambling definitions, everything fit. We'd named it several different ways including dividing tricks up by elements, kung fu animal forms, directions and regions of the country where the style developed. Most of that got pretty confusing so usually we just used descriptive terms.
So circa 2006 these were the 8 categories as were more or less officially recognized by the Myachi community:
- Aerials: These are tricks where some part of your body moves in relation to the Myachi while the Myachi is in the air. As confusing as that may sound, it's pretty simple. This is essentially any move where you toss the Myachi up and then do something before catching it. Think 360, Wolverine, Butterfly, Illusion, etc.
- Traps: These are tricks where you trap the Myachi between two parts of your body. This includes your Hulk, Lotus, X-Treme, etc. Technically this also includes the Slingshot since you're trapping between your biceps and forearm.
- Strikes: Pretty self explanatory, but these are moves where you strike the Myachi. This includes the obvious stuff like your Kicks, Knee Pops and Poppers but it also includes the some favorites like the Trampoline and the Tailwhip.
- Stalls: Again, the name pretty much says it all. These are tricks where you catch the Myachi on any surface of your body. Most of the classification systems divide this into 2 categories to differentiate between upper and lower body stalls.
- Centrifugals: Kinds of a weird one here, but these are tricks where the Myachi stays in one place as your body moves. Seems at first like it would be a small category, but it includes stuff like the Snake, the Vert, the Half Pipe, the Cradle, the Roller Coaster and the Helix so obviously it needed a category.
- Body Crosses: This is actually a pretty clumsy category but it basically revolves around moves where the Myachi or a part of your body crosses another part of your body. That's a fancy way of trying to include all the weird Behind the Back and Under the Leg variations but it also includes moves like the Bandit and the Under the Arm catch (more on that later).
- Spins: This category basically hung out as an afterthought but there were too many tricks that fit into it to ignore them. These refer to tricks that involve the Myachi itself spinning or flipping. While most of us don't spend much time on these tricks, all the skate varieties and Impossible variations had to fit in somewhere.
And that was pretty much the whole thing in 2006. The really observant folks out there will have noticed that I said 8 categories and only listed 7, but the stall category was always split in half in the past so all eight are actually explained above.
At the time this seemed pretty all encompassing. Sure, there were a few moves that didn't exactly fit. We couldn't decide exactly where the Daredevil went but we forced it into the Body Cross category. We did the same for the In-Spin even though it didn't really involve anything crossing anything.
There were a few others that we fudged at the time. Grinding wasn't a very big part of the game but the Dark Slide was already a popular move so we revamped the "Centrifugal" category to just say "Any move where the Myachi stays on your body the whole time" so that all grinds would fit into it. Of course, this brought up confusion about whether the Impossible belonged in that category or not.
Another big question was something like the Cold Fusion. It's not really covered anywhere above. You'd kind of have to put it in the category of body crosses since it's just one under the arm followed by another but the Cold Fusion doesn't really belong in the same category as Under the Leg and Reverse Behind the Back. It's about coordination, not flexibility.
The same question comes up for the Fu, the Flow or any variation of Fusion. At first we though this was a minor problem but as more and more Fusion variations evolved (think Confusion, Infusion, Diffusion, Illusion Fusion, Subter-Fusion... you get my drift) we saw it becoming a monster.
Eventually, a ninth category was added called swaps:
- Swaps: These are moves in which you swap the Myachi from one hand to the other in a pattern or prescribed way.
At about the same time, we had to add yet another category for an emerging branch of tricks called:
- Portals: These refer to any move where the Myachi passes through a closed hole or "portal" that you make with one or more parts of your body. The Musketeer is one of the most common examples, but moves like the Wormhole, the Swordfish and the Thinker also belong in this category.
But even upping it to 10 categories wasn't really solving the problem. While we were still trying to figure out where multi-Myachi tricks fit into the grander scheme of things (after all, there are multi-Myachi versions of almost every trick) and whether a Daredevil was really a Body Cross (this debate continues to rage), new tricks like the Flying Fish were popping up just to drive us insane (currently loosely classified as a Strike).
Of course, as the game grows this becomes a less and less academic debate. Back in the day it was just something to talk about while you recouped your strength for more Dragon Fly practice but now these classifications really matter to tournament MYACH players and aficionados of the game.
A large work on the subject is forthcoming and will appear on the "Pages" section on the right side of the blog. It's almost completed so unless something huge comes up it will probably be done this week but it will be long and complicated. I wanted to put this blog out for all to see so that you would understand why it was so complicated when you did see it.
As strange as the guys in the little white coats think it is, we're pretty serious about all aspects of Myachi, even the taxonomy of our tricks.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Superhero Trick Contest
by Crazy Ivan
As any fan of Myachi is well aware, we love naming moves after superheroes. Some of the most popular tricks in the game come from our favorite masked vigilantes and just about every time we come up with a new move we start trying to think of comic book characters we could name it after.
And as most of you also probably know, this summer will see the release of two brand spanking new superhero movies, Thor and Captain America. Unfortunately for us, we don't have awesome tricks for these guys just yet. Fortunately for you, we really need them.
Which brings us to the contest:
Your mission, if you choose to except it, is to think of new tricks for Thor and Captain America. Come up with a good trick and throw it on YouTube, then drop the link in the comments section below this blog entry or link it on our Facebook page and you are automatically eligible to win:
There are, of course, a few rules:
As any fan of Myachi is well aware, we love naming moves after superheroes. Some of the most popular tricks in the game come from our favorite masked vigilantes and just about every time we come up with a new move we start trying to think of comic book characters we could name it after.
And as most of you also probably know, this summer will see the release of two brand spanking new superhero movies, Thor and Captain America. Unfortunately for us, we don't have awesome tricks for these guys just yet. Fortunately for you, we really need them.
Which brings us to the contest:
Your mission, if you choose to except it, is to think of new tricks for Thor and Captain America. Come up with a good trick and throw it on YouTube, then drop the link in the comments section below this blog entry or link it on our Facebook page and you are automatically eligible to win:
There are, of course, a few rules:
- Videos must be received by March 7th to be eligible.
- Your trick has to be a new trick. You can't just do an old trick and call it the Thor or Captain America.
- We need video of the trick. It won't be enough just to describe it in an email.
- You're far more likely to win if your trick obviously relates to the superheroes in question. Think about Thor and Captain America and try to think of something that makes a logical move to name after them.
- If you are under 18, make sure you have your parents permission to upload a video to YouTube.
- If your parents don't want you putting videos on You Tube, it is okay to upload it as a private video and send me the link at aaron@myachi.com or crazyivan@myachi.com
- Winners will be selected by the Myachi Masters
- If we do not receive a submission that we feel fits either character, prizes for this contest will not be awarded.
We have some huge prizes for this contest. An Eco-Kids Yellow and an Eco-Kids Green, both amongst the most legendary jammers in the game. Coming up with an awesome trick is definitely in your best interest.
If you have any questions, email me or leave them in the comments section. And good luck!
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Ask Animal: Trick Names
by Animal
Question: How do tricks get named?
Funny you should ask.
I came up with a new move today. It’s a variation of the Matrix, using three Myachis. Two are thrown towards the inverted hand, and only one is verted out. The dropped Myachi is caught, and then the second of the thrown Myachis is gathered on the stationary hand. After sticking it a few times, I earned the right to name this new trick.
See technically whoever invents the move names it, but that's just a technicality. For the name to stick, I've got some work to do. So what to call this new move?
Creativity is the key to success, in both trick and name. If it’s too complicated, people won’t do it. If the name doesn’t fit, they’ll come up with a name of their own that does sound good.
The best place to start is looking at what the trick is like, or what it’s based on. Since I had a move based on the Matrix, I decided to go with a name from the movie trilogy. Neo was out, because of the chest stall, but Morpheous wasn’t. Neither was the Oracle. But neither of those stuck. It just didn’t capture the flavor of the move.
Flavor?
Yes, flavor. Myachi tricks have been named after pop culture since the beginning. The name of the trick should help convey what the trick does. The Knuckle Cracker was the original name of a great trick, but nobody wanted to do it, for fear of early onset arthritis. But in 2003, when the terrible version of the Incredible Hulk came out, the name changed, and now everyone knows how to do the Hulk.
The same is true for moves like Spider Man, Wolverine, and Daredevil. Originally, they were the Extreme, the Egg Beater, and the Shadow Pass. But as culture shifted, so did the name of the game.
In the case of this new, unnamed trick, I looked at all my options.
1. It’s based on the Matrix (the trick).
2. It uses three sacks instead of two.
3. It’s not a particularly easy trick, so using a cool characters name is a little selfish.
Since Morpheus is obviously the coolest character who doesn’t have a move named after him (right?), I couldn’t use him. The three sacks bit gnawed at me for a bit, until I hit on a geek goldmine.
Maniacs of the world, I present “The Trinity.”
So let’s review.
1. The inventor gets to name the trick.
2. Popular convention may change the name of your trick.
3. Keeping the name creative and relevant to the nature of the trick is important.
Now, if that's too much to keep track of, you can also go with Kore’s answer: "We open the dictionary, point at a word, and go with it."
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
The Difference Between A Trick and a Combo
by Crazy Ivan
Years ago I decided to undertake a massive project. I was going to compile a list of every single Myachi trick and I was going to catalogue them in a giant compendium. The "Tricktionary" that you see on the panel to the right is an extremely abridged form of what I was looking for and I will slowly add tricks to it until it becomes a behemoth reference, but it will never be anything like what I was going for before.
See, the first obstacle I came across when I set pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) was the most basic thing you can imagine. It was the definition: What exactly is a trick?
This is actually a tougher question than you might think. We all agree that a 360 is a trick and we all agree that an Illusion is a trick, but what about a Wolverine? It's just a 360 and an Illusion done on the same throw. Is that a trick or is it just a combination of other tricks? If the Wolverine is a trick, what if I do a 360, catch the Myachi and then do an Illusion? Would that still be a trick or would it now become a combo?
For the purposes of my index, I used a pretty basic definition that I more or less lifted from the world of footbag. They say a trick starts at a strike or stall and ends at a strike or stall. That means that a trick is what you do in between any two touches.
That pretty much works for Myachi. That would mean that a Wolverine is a trick, but a 360 and then an Illusion is actually a combo if you catch in between. If you did an In-Spin and a Butterfly on the same move it would be a trick in and of itself, but if you did an In-Spin, an Instep kick and then a Butterfly it would be a combo.
{Warning: Technobabble ahead. To avoid technobabble, skip the next paragraph}
Interestingly enough, if you broke down the In-Spin> Instep Kick> Butterfly by the definition above, you would see that it is a 2 move combo. The two moves, of course, are In-Spin to Instep Kick and Instep Kick to Butterfly. You can see right away the difficulty that faced anyone who would take on trying to record every possible combination of strikes, aerials and stalls that would be considered "tricks" under this definition.
But there are still problems with our definition. It's easy to see how moves like Aerials, Body Crosses and Portals fit into this definition, but what about swaps? Is the Cold Fusion a move or is it a combination of two Under the Arm throws? This calls into question a ton of classic moves like the myriad variations on the Fusion, the Fu, the Heartbeat, the Stutter...
And what about Vert moves? These are moves where the Myachi never actually leaves the body. If your starting point and ending point are based on the sack leaving or landing on your body, where do things like the Roller Coaster or the Snake fit in? What about Grinds where the Myachi moves from one point to the other without actually leaving the body? Is a Dark Slide a move or a combo?
To date there is no single definition that encompasses every aspect of what makes a "trick" a "trick", but the definition of a combo is still pretty clear. Any time the Myachi touches your body, one trick has ended and another has begun. Even this crystal clear definition can be parsed with moves like the Tail Whip or the aforementioned Grinds, but by and large this is a workable rule to go by.
It might seem like a small distinction, as though I'm vacuuming my big vacuum cleaner off with a little vacuum cleaner, but this definition is actually important. Because Myachi is such a broad game people are still constantly coming up with new tricks. To keep track of who is doing what, it's important that we draw a distinction between creating a new trick and simply stringing together existing tricks in new ways.
Keep in mind that some of the best moves are actually combos. Nobody would argue that a move like the Wavy Gravy isn't a combo, but it's a great combo and everybody loves it. There's value in coming up with new combos and sometimes they will lead you to ideas for new tricks as well. All that being said, it seems like every dedicated fan of Myachi at some point or another gets it in their head that they're going to define themselves by inventing a new trick. Those people need to know exactly what they need to do to accomplish that goal.
Look for another entry later this week that goes into details about how to actually invent new tricks. Just laying the ground work today.
Years ago I decided to undertake a massive project. I was going to compile a list of every single Myachi trick and I was going to catalogue them in a giant compendium. The "Tricktionary" that you see on the panel to the right is an extremely abridged form of what I was looking for and I will slowly add tricks to it until it becomes a behemoth reference, but it will never be anything like what I was going for before.
See, the first obstacle I came across when I set pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) was the most basic thing you can imagine. It was the definition: What exactly is a trick?
This is actually a tougher question than you might think. We all agree that a 360 is a trick and we all agree that an Illusion is a trick, but what about a Wolverine? It's just a 360 and an Illusion done on the same throw. Is that a trick or is it just a combination of other tricks? If the Wolverine is a trick, what if I do a 360, catch the Myachi and then do an Illusion? Would that still be a trick or would it now become a combo?
For the purposes of my index, I used a pretty basic definition that I more or less lifted from the world of footbag. They say a trick starts at a strike or stall and ends at a strike or stall. That means that a trick is what you do in between any two touches.
That pretty much works for Myachi. That would mean that a Wolverine is a trick, but a 360 and then an Illusion is actually a combo if you catch in between. If you did an In-Spin and a Butterfly on the same move it would be a trick in and of itself, but if you did an In-Spin, an Instep kick and then a Butterfly it would be a combo.
{Warning: Technobabble ahead. To avoid technobabble, skip the next paragraph}
Interestingly enough, if you broke down the In-Spin> Instep Kick> Butterfly by the definition above, you would see that it is a 2 move combo. The two moves, of course, are In-Spin to Instep Kick and Instep Kick to Butterfly. You can see right away the difficulty that faced anyone who would take on trying to record every possible combination of strikes, aerials and stalls that would be considered "tricks" under this definition.
But there are still problems with our definition. It's easy to see how moves like Aerials, Body Crosses and Portals fit into this definition, but what about swaps? Is the Cold Fusion a move or is it a combination of two Under the Arm throws? This calls into question a ton of classic moves like the myriad variations on the Fusion, the Fu, the Heartbeat, the Stutter...
And what about Vert moves? These are moves where the Myachi never actually leaves the body. If your starting point and ending point are based on the sack leaving or landing on your body, where do things like the Roller Coaster or the Snake fit in? What about Grinds where the Myachi moves from one point to the other without actually leaving the body? Is a Dark Slide a move or a combo?
To date there is no single definition that encompasses every aspect of what makes a "trick" a "trick", but the definition of a combo is still pretty clear. Any time the Myachi touches your body, one trick has ended and another has begun. Even this crystal clear definition can be parsed with moves like the Tail Whip or the aforementioned Grinds, but by and large this is a workable rule to go by.
It might seem like a small distinction, as though I'm vacuuming my big vacuum cleaner off with a little vacuum cleaner, but this definition is actually important. Because Myachi is such a broad game people are still constantly coming up with new tricks. To keep track of who is doing what, it's important that we draw a distinction between creating a new trick and simply stringing together existing tricks in new ways.
Keep in mind that some of the best moves are actually combos. Nobody would argue that a move like the Wavy Gravy isn't a combo, but it's a great combo and everybody loves it. There's value in coming up with new combos and sometimes they will lead you to ideas for new tricks as well. All that being said, it seems like every dedicated fan of Myachi at some point or another gets it in their head that they're going to define themselves by inventing a new trick. Those people need to know exactly what they need to do to accomplish that goal.
Look for another entry later this week that goes into details about how to actually invent new tricks. Just laying the ground work today.
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