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 the games. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the games. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
The 4 Essential Tricks for Myachi Fu
by Crazy Ivan
One of the many ways we track the evolution of Myachi is through the popular games that we play with it. As the game gets bigger, the preeminent Myachi game has shifted 3 times and we seem to be in the middle of a fourth epic shift. Over the years Chaos gave way to Golf and Golf gave way to MYACH and now it seems clear that Fu is sweeping in and overtaking MYACH as the most popular game in Myachi.
I don't think the shift is complete quite yet. I would guess that there are still more MYACH players than Myachi Fu players, if for no other reason than the game is spread out and you can't play Fu over your webcam, but there are many indicators that the Fu will soon supplant MYACH.
The first place that we've seen this shift historically is within the Myachi movement. When I joined the company, Golf was still the most popular Myachi game but Animal, Butter and I favored MYACH. It might be hard to believe now, but back then, we represented the younger generation of Myachi Masters (even though I'm 10 years older than Animal).
Today we're seeing a similar shift as our newest generation of masters slowly gravitate more to Fu than MYACH. Again, we're not talking about a transition that has happened, but rather about one that is happening currently. I'm actually having a lot of fun watching the signposts that are marking this shift and I saw one the other day at FAO. For the first time, I met a dude who played Myachi. When I asked him what his favorite trick was, he said, "I don't really do tricks, but I'm good at Fu."
And he was. I played him 3 rounds on the spot (it was slow) and he was quick with super-fast hand switches and really competent leg work. But he couldn't do a 360 and when I showed him an under the leg, he was trying it for the first time.
In the past that would be unthinkable... somebody who plays Myachi but doesn't know tricks? Even when the game was primarily Chaos and it was all about the toss and catch, everyone still knew the Under the Leg and the 360. But this dude had clearly spent some serious time with a Myachi on his hand and it had never really occurred to him to do an Under the Leg.
I was really fired up about this. He'd seen people doing tricks and that hadn't interested him, but when he saw a few friends playing Fu, he wanted in. He's a martial artist and he saw the benefits (and point) of the game right away. And (I can't emphasize this enough) he was good. Not just "I'm-a-grown-up-and-he's-14-so-I'm-being-nice" good, but actually, genuinely good. He scored a solid point on me when I wasn't even close to "going easy" mode.
So now that I know that there's at least one person who just plays Fu and doesn't focus on the tricks, I think it's a safe assumption that there are more. And if not, there will be. So it's about time to start representing them here on the Myachi Blog.
Obviously, if you want to be good at Fu, there are a few tricks you will have to know. Even if freestyle isn't your thing, you can no more master Fu without these tricks than you could master basketball without learning to dribble. These aren't usually the 4 basics we teach because they're not the most important moves to learn first if you're going to do a bunch of freestyle shredding, but if your only goal is to be a great Fu player, here's where you should start:
#1) The Half Pipe
This move is essentially the "dribble" of Fu. You can never afford to let your hand rest in a game of Fu. It should almost always be in motion and you need control during that motion. The Half Pipe is a super-easy move to do, sure, but it isn't as easy to master. You need to be able to Half Pipe really quickly and, just as important, you need how to stop the Half Pipe motion on a dime to react to your opponents attack.
Just as important is being ambidextrous. In Fu, everybody has to be a South Paw from time to time and you've got to have equal control with both hands. After all, if you're protecting your Myachi with your dominant hand, you'll never have it free for attacks.
And, of course, that same motion will be employed in the next move, which is actually more important, but not as easy to learn right away.
#2) The Vert
If you can't Vert, you can't win against someone who can. Being able to raise your Myachi up and out of trouble without losing control of it is essential if you're going against an experienced opponent. In fact, mastering a lefty and righty Vert can be enough to completely wipe out a height advantage in a game against a player without a Vert.
The reason is obvious. If you can't Vert, you're in serious trouble every time you have to raise the Myachi above your chest. That just gives you less space in which to work your defense. A quick Vert will also allow you to correct a bad catch without leaving yourself open to attack.
If I had to list a single, quintessential move for mastering Fu, this would be it. Practice this one a lot and go for speed. Use both hands (obviously) and try to do as many full Verts as you can in 60 seconds. Then try to do more. Then try to do more. If you can Vert fast enough, you'll find yourself making attacks with the hand you have your Myachi on. That makes for a nearly unbeatable offense... unless your opponent has a Vert as fast as yours.
#3) The Fu
Pretty obvious that in a game called "Myachi Fu", you're going to have to know how to do the move called "The Fu", but despite that, a lot of players underestimate its importance. To illustrate it, let me start with something really obvious. If your opponent is attacking your right hand, the best defense is to have the Myachi in your left hand.
Considering that, you need to have a super fast way to switch from one hand to another. The Fu is the swap move that offers you the most control. A Fusion move relies on gravity so you have to wait for the Myachi to come to you, but a Fu uses centrifugal force so you can move as fast as your hands will allow without sacrificing control of the Myachi.
Now, usually when people think about the Fu, they think of it as a continuous swap back and forth. That's useful in a game because you can stand back from your opponent quickly swapping so they don't know what hand you're going to attack with. Once they commit, you can come out of your furiously fast Fu and attack with whichever hand suits you. But even more important than having a fast back and forth is having a single, quick, controlled exchange.
I know it sounds weird, but don't just practice going back and forth. You also need to practice just doing one Fu and then going into some lefty centrifugals (and, of course, going back and going straight into some righty centrifugals). You have to be able to instantaneously switch hands and have control of that Myachi right away. Good Half-Pipe and Vert work will help you defensively, but a fast enough Fu will set you up for some great offense as well.
#4) The Slash
This is definitely the most underestimated move in Fu and that's odd because it's probably also the most common. It is so common and so rarely talked about that a lot of Fu players probably do that move without even realizing that it is a move.
The reason is clear. The Slash is virtually never used in freestyle. It's a utilitarian move; you use it because you need to, not because you want to. You would never call a Slash in a MYACH combo. You would never add it to your freestyle program. But if you want to master the game of Fu, you'll need it to be as natural as walking.
I don't want to over-emphasize the importance of a good slash, but I've played several games of Fu where a Slash has made the difference between winning and losing. If you move in close to your opponent, it can be easy to isolate their "attack" hand. Basically you just move one of your shoulders in between their shoulders. This allows you to focus in on their defensive hand and it doesn't allow them to pull off a hand switch (unless they go crazy and do a Dare Devil).
Of course, if you have a solid Slash, it's easy to get out of this. You can move the Myachi to the opposing side of your body quickly without switching hands at all and this completely negates such an attack. In fact, in a sense it reverses it, since now both of your hands are on the side opposite your opponent's attacking hand.
If you doubt the utility of this move, just watch two friends playing Fu and count up the times you see it. Odds are that even if they've never heard of such a move, they'll use it several times. But of course, if they haven't practiced it, it might be to their detriment. It's easy to overdo this move and not stop the forward momentum of the Myachi. This results in the Myachi flying off your hand at the end and scoring a point against you. Thus the importance of practicing.
Honorable Mention) Behind the Back
I hesitate to mention this one because you could play a dozen rounds of Fu without ever using a Behind the Back, but the effect is so devastating when you do that it's worth inclusion on this list. Some people accuse you of "show boating" if you do a Behind the Back in the middle of a Fu battle. It just looks so good and seems so flashy that it almost has to be show boating right?
Well, to be honest, a lot of the time it is. I would say that only about 1 out of 3 Behind the Backs I see in Fu are legitimately strategic moves. After all, you're taking your eye off the ball no matter how you look at it. It's a dangerous move for a lot of reasons, but foremost of these is that it is a move that relies on gravity. You have to wait for the Myachi to come to you and that means you're at a serious momentary disadvantage.
So why would you ever do it? Well, if you're good enough at it and you do it at the right time, it will all but guarantee you a point. Here's how: you get your opponent to a point where they're defending with the hand that mirrors you. Let's say they're defending lefty and you're defending righty. You're in a pretty standard position, doing Verts out behind you with your left hand in front and your opponent is circling around toward your right hand.
Now here's the kill shot: You let him or her in. They see an opportunity that they think was a mistake and as they pursue it they step past your offensive hand. If you can snap a quick behind the back here, they're chasing an empty hand and, if you can bring your Myachi under control fast enough to spin out of it, they're standing with their back to you and their Myachi out behind them.
It is a devastating blow that almost always earns a point, but that's not the only time you'll find a need for a Behind the Back. Any time you're in serious trouble it's an option worth considering. It negates any advantage someone might have gained on you immediately, but only if you're really fast and really accurate. You have to really snap that behind the back over your shoulder and your left hand has to be able to go straight into some defensive work, but if you master it, it will drive your opponents crazy.
One of the many ways we track the evolution of Myachi is through the popular games that we play with it. As the game gets bigger, the preeminent Myachi game has shifted 3 times and we seem to be in the middle of a fourth epic shift. Over the years Chaos gave way to Golf and Golf gave way to MYACH and now it seems clear that Fu is sweeping in and overtaking MYACH as the most popular game in Myachi.
I don't think the shift is complete quite yet. I would guess that there are still more MYACH players than Myachi Fu players, if for no other reason than the game is spread out and you can't play Fu over your webcam, but there are many indicators that the Fu will soon supplant MYACH.
The first place that we've seen this shift historically is within the Myachi movement. When I joined the company, Golf was still the most popular Myachi game but Animal, Butter and I favored MYACH. It might be hard to believe now, but back then, we represented the younger generation of Myachi Masters (even though I'm 10 years older than Animal).
Today we're seeing a similar shift as our newest generation of masters slowly gravitate more to Fu than MYACH. Again, we're not talking about a transition that has happened, but rather about one that is happening currently. I'm actually having a lot of fun watching the signposts that are marking this shift and I saw one the other day at FAO. For the first time, I met a dude who played Myachi. When I asked him what his favorite trick was, he said, "I don't really do tricks, but I'm good at Fu."
And he was. I played him 3 rounds on the spot (it was slow) and he was quick with super-fast hand switches and really competent leg work. But he couldn't do a 360 and when I showed him an under the leg, he was trying it for the first time.
In the past that would be unthinkable... somebody who plays Myachi but doesn't know tricks? Even when the game was primarily Chaos and it was all about the toss and catch, everyone still knew the Under the Leg and the 360. But this dude had clearly spent some serious time with a Myachi on his hand and it had never really occurred to him to do an Under the Leg.
I was really fired up about this. He'd seen people doing tricks and that hadn't interested him, but when he saw a few friends playing Fu, he wanted in. He's a martial artist and he saw the benefits (and point) of the game right away. And (I can't emphasize this enough) he was good. Not just "I'm-a-grown-up-and-he's-14-so-I'm-being-nice" good, but actually, genuinely good. He scored a solid point on me when I wasn't even close to "going easy" mode.
So now that I know that there's at least one person who just plays Fu and doesn't focus on the tricks, I think it's a safe assumption that there are more. And if not, there will be. So it's about time to start representing them here on the Myachi Blog.
Obviously, if you want to be good at Fu, there are a few tricks you will have to know. Even if freestyle isn't your thing, you can no more master Fu without these tricks than you could master basketball without learning to dribble. These aren't usually the 4 basics we teach because they're not the most important moves to learn first if you're going to do a bunch of freestyle shredding, but if your only goal is to be a great Fu player, here's where you should start:
#1) The Half Pipe
This move is essentially the "dribble" of Fu. You can never afford to let your hand rest in a game of Fu. It should almost always be in motion and you need control during that motion. The Half Pipe is a super-easy move to do, sure, but it isn't as easy to master. You need to be able to Half Pipe really quickly and, just as important, you need how to stop the Half Pipe motion on a dime to react to your opponents attack.
Just as important is being ambidextrous. In Fu, everybody has to be a South Paw from time to time and you've got to have equal control with both hands. After all, if you're protecting your Myachi with your dominant hand, you'll never have it free for attacks.
And, of course, that same motion will be employed in the next move, which is actually more important, but not as easy to learn right away.
#2) The Vert
If you can't Vert, you can't win against someone who can. Being able to raise your Myachi up and out of trouble without losing control of it is essential if you're going against an experienced opponent. In fact, mastering a lefty and righty Vert can be enough to completely wipe out a height advantage in a game against a player without a Vert.
The reason is obvious. If you can't Vert, you're in serious trouble every time you have to raise the Myachi above your chest. That just gives you less space in which to work your defense. A quick Vert will also allow you to correct a bad catch without leaving yourself open to attack.
If I had to list a single, quintessential move for mastering Fu, this would be it. Practice this one a lot and go for speed. Use both hands (obviously) and try to do as many full Verts as you can in 60 seconds. Then try to do more. Then try to do more. If you can Vert fast enough, you'll find yourself making attacks with the hand you have your Myachi on. That makes for a nearly unbeatable offense... unless your opponent has a Vert as fast as yours.
#3) The Fu
Pretty obvious that in a game called "Myachi Fu", you're going to have to know how to do the move called "The Fu", but despite that, a lot of players underestimate its importance. To illustrate it, let me start with something really obvious. If your opponent is attacking your right hand, the best defense is to have the Myachi in your left hand.
Considering that, you need to have a super fast way to switch from one hand to another. The Fu is the swap move that offers you the most control. A Fusion move relies on gravity so you have to wait for the Myachi to come to you, but a Fu uses centrifugal force so you can move as fast as your hands will allow without sacrificing control of the Myachi.
Now, usually when people think about the Fu, they think of it as a continuous swap back and forth. That's useful in a game because you can stand back from your opponent quickly swapping so they don't know what hand you're going to attack with. Once they commit, you can come out of your furiously fast Fu and attack with whichever hand suits you. But even more important than having a fast back and forth is having a single, quick, controlled exchange.
I know it sounds weird, but don't just practice going back and forth. You also need to practice just doing one Fu and then going into some lefty centrifugals (and, of course, going back and going straight into some righty centrifugals). You have to be able to instantaneously switch hands and have control of that Myachi right away. Good Half-Pipe and Vert work will help you defensively, but a fast enough Fu will set you up for some great offense as well.
#4) The Slash
This is definitely the most underestimated move in Fu and that's odd because it's probably also the most common. It is so common and so rarely talked about that a lot of Fu players probably do that move without even realizing that it is a move.
The reason is clear. The Slash is virtually never used in freestyle. It's a utilitarian move; you use it because you need to, not because you want to. You would never call a Slash in a MYACH combo. You would never add it to your freestyle program. But if you want to master the game of Fu, you'll need it to be as natural as walking.
I don't want to over-emphasize the importance of a good slash, but I've played several games of Fu where a Slash has made the difference between winning and losing. If you move in close to your opponent, it can be easy to isolate their "attack" hand. Basically you just move one of your shoulders in between their shoulders. This allows you to focus in on their defensive hand and it doesn't allow them to pull off a hand switch (unless they go crazy and do a Dare Devil).
Of course, if you have a solid Slash, it's easy to get out of this. You can move the Myachi to the opposing side of your body quickly without switching hands at all and this completely negates such an attack. In fact, in a sense it reverses it, since now both of your hands are on the side opposite your opponent's attacking hand.
If you doubt the utility of this move, just watch two friends playing Fu and count up the times you see it. Odds are that even if they've never heard of such a move, they'll use it several times. But of course, if they haven't practiced it, it might be to their detriment. It's easy to overdo this move and not stop the forward momentum of the Myachi. This results in the Myachi flying off your hand at the end and scoring a point against you. Thus the importance of practicing.
Honorable Mention) Behind the Back
I hesitate to mention this one because you could play a dozen rounds of Fu without ever using a Behind the Back, but the effect is so devastating when you do that it's worth inclusion on this list. Some people accuse you of "show boating" if you do a Behind the Back in the middle of a Fu battle. It just looks so good and seems so flashy that it almost has to be show boating right?
Well, to be honest, a lot of the time it is. I would say that only about 1 out of 3 Behind the Backs I see in Fu are legitimately strategic moves. After all, you're taking your eye off the ball no matter how you look at it. It's a dangerous move for a lot of reasons, but foremost of these is that it is a move that relies on gravity. You have to wait for the Myachi to come to you and that means you're at a serious momentary disadvantage.
So why would you ever do it? Well, if you're good enough at it and you do it at the right time, it will all but guarantee you a point. Here's how: you get your opponent to a point where they're defending with the hand that mirrors you. Let's say they're defending lefty and you're defending righty. You're in a pretty standard position, doing Verts out behind you with your left hand in front and your opponent is circling around toward your right hand.
Now here's the kill shot: You let him or her in. They see an opportunity that they think was a mistake and as they pursue it they step past your offensive hand. If you can snap a quick behind the back here, they're chasing an empty hand and, if you can bring your Myachi under control fast enough to spin out of it, they're standing with their back to you and their Myachi out behind them.
It is a devastating blow that almost always earns a point, but that's not the only time you'll find a need for a Behind the Back. Any time you're in serious trouble it's an option worth considering. It negates any advantage someone might have gained on you immediately, but only if you're really fast and really accurate. You have to really snap that behind the back over your shoulder and your left hand has to be able to go straight into some defensive work, but if you master it, it will drive your opponents crazy.
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There are, of course, plenty of other moves that we could add to this list. A solid Heartbeat, a really solid Daredevil, Cross-Overs, Ninjas, etc. But ultimately anything you learn freestyling will benefit you when you're playing Fu. Because when all the chips are down and your Myachi is flying through the air undefended, the only thing that matters is if you can catch it when things go wrong. And that's something freestylers have to learn early.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
A Game Too New For a Name
by Crazy Ivan
It's way too late for me to be up, but since I've been up all night playing a new Myachi game, I figured it would only be right to tell you about it before I turn in. If I'm lucky, I'll be done before one in the morning, but I don't think I'll be that lucky.
So I should say in advance that this game is Bones' brainchild. He came up with a basic concept the other day, but it took a few days and the input of a couple other Myachi Masters to refine it to its final form. Bones, Bamboo, Lucky and I finally hit upon the right formula today.
The thing is, it will sound really confusing if I try to explain it and I didn't think to take pictures as we were playing, so I'm going to give you a quick explanation (that might sound confusing) but I'm going to give you simplistic graphics to help make it clear.
First of all, you'll need a few Myachis. Each player will need 3 of them and the game is best with 3 or 4 players (though it could be fun with 2 as well). You'll also need several bowls or targets. We played with 7, but you could play with 5,6 or 8 and it would still be mad fun. We had 4 players and used 7 bowls so I'd imagine with 3 players you'd probably want 5 or 6 and with 5 players you'd probably want 8 or 9.
We set them up like this, but there are a number of ways you could set it up and still make it fun:
So the you stand far enough away to make it a challenge and throw all three of your Myachis toward the bowls. You want to land as many as you can in the bowls. To make things clearer as we go along, we'll go through a hypothetical first round between Bones, Bamboo, Lucky and I. And we'll all be using different colored Myachis in this example, though in real life you could just use whatever Myachis you have around. It'll be easy to keep track of whose are whose.
So let's say Bones shoots first and he lands two Myachis in two different bowls. After his turn, the bowls look something like this:
Bones gets 2 points for this shot. But perhaps more importantly, he blocks those two bowls for the remainder of the round. You can only score by hitting one of the empty bowls. If you land in one of the two bowls that Bones' Myachis are in, he scores a point instead.
So let's say Bamboo shoots next. He hits the middle bowl (which is mad important in this particular setup), but he also lands in one of the bowls Bones' Myachi was already in:
In this example, Bamboo would score one point (for the middle bowl), but Bones would also score a point because one of Bamboo's Myachis landed in a bowl he "controlled".
Bamboo would remove the Myachi in Bones' bowl so that when the next player, Lucky, stepped up to shoot, he would be facing a field that looked like this:
You can already see that this game gets tougher as it goes. Now that it's Lucky's turn, he only has 4 bowls that he can shoot for. Let's say that because he was nervous about giving Bones or Bamboo a point, he missed his first two shots, but his final shot landed between two bowls, half in one, half in the other:
Now this is kind of a weird situation in the game. He only gets one point (because it was only one Myachi), but because it lands in both bowls, it blocks two bowls from the next shooter (poor little ol' me) so things become even tougher for the last shooter (in this game, it's definitely to your advantage to go first).
Let's say I hit one of the two empty bowls, but another shot lands short and lands in one of the two bowls that Lucky controls:
Now I've scored one point for myself and one for Lucky, so I'll remove the Myachi that's sitting in the lower right hand bowl. This means that in this example, the score after one round is:
Now he can score points on any of the three bowls on the left. Or, if he misses or a Myachi slides from one bowl to another, he might score a point for Bamboo, Lucky or myself. Any Myachis he scores with will stay on the board, but on Bamboo's turn, he'll pick up the one in the middle and on Lucky's turn he'll pick up the Blue one.
If you're following the idea here (and it's possible that I'm struggling with the description... it's a quarter after one already), you can already see all the crazy stuff that can happen in this game. You can accidentally score three points for the guy you're tied with. You face different setups every turn. You can control one bowl forever if you keep landing your Myachis back in it. You can even fill up the last bowl so any player with no Myachis in scoring position will lose a turn (that's one you'll have to think about for a minute I guess).
We were playing to 15 points, but for a longer game you could play to 21 and for a quicker bout you could play to 10. The coolest thing about the game is that you can play with different numbers of Myachis, different setups and numbers of bowls and different final scores so you can play this game a ton of different ways.
Anyway, I'll try to post a more understandable and official explanation of the game later when I'm not so tired (complete with video), but for now I hope enough of you understand this to play a few rounds. You'll see really quickly why we were having so much fun with it.
Incidentally, if you have a good idea for what we should name this game, leave it in the comments section. I think it only fair that Bones has final say on what it's called, but I'm sure he's open to good suggestions.
It was so fun we had to play 3 games in a row. Lucky won the first one (when I scored a point for him).
It's way too late for me to be up, but since I've been up all night playing a new Myachi game, I figured it would only be right to tell you about it before I turn in. If I'm lucky, I'll be done before one in the morning, but I don't think I'll be that lucky.
So I should say in advance that this game is Bones' brainchild. He came up with a basic concept the other day, but it took a few days and the input of a couple other Myachi Masters to refine it to its final form. Bones, Bamboo, Lucky and I finally hit upon the right formula today.
The thing is, it will sound really confusing if I try to explain it and I didn't think to take pictures as we were playing, so I'm going to give you a quick explanation (that might sound confusing) but I'm going to give you simplistic graphics to help make it clear.
First of all, you'll need a few Myachis. Each player will need 3 of them and the game is best with 3 or 4 players (though it could be fun with 2 as well). You'll also need several bowls or targets. We played with 7, but you could play with 5,6 or 8 and it would still be mad fun. We had 4 players and used 7 bowls so I'd imagine with 3 players you'd probably want 5 or 6 and with 5 players you'd probably want 8 or 9.
We set them up like this, but there are a number of ways you could set it up and still make it fun:
So the you stand far enough away to make it a challenge and throw all three of your Myachis toward the bowls. You want to land as many as you can in the bowls. To make things clearer as we go along, we'll go through a hypothetical first round between Bones, Bamboo, Lucky and I. And we'll all be using different colored Myachis in this example, though in real life you could just use whatever Myachis you have around. It'll be easy to keep track of whose are whose.
So let's say Bones shoots first and he lands two Myachis in two different bowls. After his turn, the bowls look something like this:
Bones gets 2 points for this shot. But perhaps more importantly, he blocks those two bowls for the remainder of the round. You can only score by hitting one of the empty bowls. If you land in one of the two bowls that Bones' Myachis are in, he scores a point instead.
So let's say Bamboo shoots next. He hits the middle bowl (which is mad important in this particular setup), but he also lands in one of the bowls Bones' Myachi was already in:
In this example, Bamboo would score one point (for the middle bowl), but Bones would also score a point because one of Bamboo's Myachis landed in a bowl he "controlled".
Bamboo would remove the Myachi in Bones' bowl so that when the next player, Lucky, stepped up to shoot, he would be facing a field that looked like this:
You can already see that this game gets tougher as it goes. Now that it's Lucky's turn, he only has 4 bowls that he can shoot for. Let's say that because he was nervous about giving Bones or Bamboo a point, he missed his first two shots, but his final shot landed between two bowls, half in one, half in the other:
Now this is kind of a weird situation in the game. He only gets one point (because it was only one Myachi), but because it lands in both bowls, it blocks two bowls from the next shooter (poor little ol' me) so things become even tougher for the last shooter (in this game, it's definitely to your advantage to go first).
Let's say I hit one of the two empty bowls, but another shot lands short and lands in one of the two bowls that Lucky controls:
Now I've scored one point for myself and one for Lucky, so I'll remove the Myachi that's sitting in the lower right hand bowl. This means that in this example, the score after one round is:
Bones: 3
Bamboo: 1
Lucky: 2
Ivan: 1
Now, you might be wondering what happens when all the bowls fill up. But there's a rub. When the next round starts, Bones picks up his two Myachis and faces this set up:
Now he can score points on any of the three bowls on the left. Or, if he misses or a Myachi slides from one bowl to another, he might score a point for Bamboo, Lucky or myself. Any Myachis he scores with will stay on the board, but on Bamboo's turn, he'll pick up the one in the middle and on Lucky's turn he'll pick up the Blue one.
If you're following the idea here (and it's possible that I'm struggling with the description... it's a quarter after one already), you can already see all the crazy stuff that can happen in this game. You can accidentally score three points for the guy you're tied with. You face different setups every turn. You can control one bowl forever if you keep landing your Myachis back in it. You can even fill up the last bowl so any player with no Myachis in scoring position will lose a turn (that's one you'll have to think about for a minute I guess).
We were playing to 15 points, but for a longer game you could play to 21 and for a quicker bout you could play to 10. The coolest thing about the game is that you can play with different numbers of Myachis, different setups and numbers of bowls and different final scores so you can play this game a ton of different ways.
Anyway, I'll try to post a more understandable and official explanation of the game later when I'm not so tired (complete with video), but for now I hope enough of you understand this to play a few rounds. You'll see really quickly why we were having so much fun with it.
Incidentally, if you have a good idea for what we should name this game, leave it in the comments section. I think it only fair that Bones has final say on what it's called, but I'm sure he's open to good suggestions.
It was so fun we had to play 3 games in a row. Lucky won the first one (when I scored a point for him).
Friday, July 22, 2011
The Art of the Split
by Crazy Ivan
I blogged the other day about some of the crazy split challenges we were doing at the cabin. In that blog I promised forthcoming video and at the time I already had the raw video shot. Unfortunately, with my currently insane schedule, it was some time before I could actually put it all together into a video.
The result is only a bit over a minute long and I was hoping to add several more shots before I brought it to you, but I figured at this point it was probably more sensible to put up a simple teaser for a potentially longer and more involved video to come in the future.
You'll note that at the time I wasn't looking my best. I was taking a day off for illness at the time and Myachi Masters can never truly take time off. Just as Bones spent much of his day off collecting raw footage for an upcoming shred video (that we're all mad excited about), I spent my partial day off tossing Myachis into bowls that Pinky later served food out of.
Incidentally, if you can think of a shot you'd like to see in the next split video, leave a comment below. Just do me the favor of only suggesting things that would be possible. I make it look pretty easy in the video because I edit out all the misses, but I would strongly urge you to try a few of these tosses. It would be best to start off with large targets and work your way down to stuff like I was using (or even smaller targets if you really need a challenge).
So without further ado, my first "Split" video:
I blogged the other day about some of the crazy split challenges we were doing at the cabin. In that blog I promised forthcoming video and at the time I already had the raw video shot. Unfortunately, with my currently insane schedule, it was some time before I could actually put it all together into a video.
The result is only a bit over a minute long and I was hoping to add several more shots before I brought it to you, but I figured at this point it was probably more sensible to put up a simple teaser for a potentially longer and more involved video to come in the future.
You'll note that at the time I wasn't looking my best. I was taking a day off for illness at the time and Myachi Masters can never truly take time off. Just as Bones spent much of his day off collecting raw footage for an upcoming shred video (that we're all mad excited about), I spent my partial day off tossing Myachis into bowls that Pinky later served food out of.
Incidentally, if you can think of a shot you'd like to see in the next split video, leave a comment below. Just do me the favor of only suggesting things that would be possible. I make it look pretty easy in the video because I edit out all the misses, but I would strongly urge you to try a few of these tosses. It would be best to start off with large targets and work your way down to stuff like I was using (or even smaller targets if you really need a challenge).
So without further ado, my first "Split" video:
Friday, July 15, 2011
Split Challenges
by Crazy Ivan
The other night we're all sitting around munching on fine American cuisine (Hot Pockets) at the Cabin of Skills. I'm waiting for mine to cook, Bamboo is sitting at the bar by the kitchen, Bones and Kore are at the dining room table and Rush is on the couch. Pinky was in bed by that time, which is why we were forced to resort to eating Hot Pockets.
Rather than take a bunch of time to describe the layout of the room (which is an essential part of this story), I decided to go the quicker route of drawing up a terrible looking map on Paint:
So in order to keep myself entertained while I'm waiting (for 3:30 on high), I decide to start throwing splits. I've got two Myachis in my pocket and I toss a split where one goes to Bamboo and one goes to Kore. It's a near/far split where both still have to go forward, so it was a fun challenge.
Of course, in this cabin you can't do a throw without it becoming a game, so I decided to try to hit every combination of two people in the room. With Bamboo close and Rush so much farther away, it became a serious challenge. It took a few tries on a couple of combos and we decided that the ceiling was too low for me to get the Rush/Bones split, but I got all the others in a few tries.
And then, of course, everyone was in on it. We had so much fun that I forgot all about the lava-temperature pepperoni and cheese that was waiting for me, freshly nuked.
If you've never done it before, try it sometime. It's best if you have two friends that are into the game (or at least have a descent catch), but you can even try it alone. Set up two golf targets and try to throw into both of them at once. The key to the split, of course, is that both Myachis have to come off the same hand.
Pop Shove Its, slow Heel Flips, Hard Flips and a few other unique hand motions will allow you to split into any two locations in a room with a little thought and a lot of practice.
And if you have trouble visualizing what I'm talking about, don't worry. A video is coming soon.
The other night we're all sitting around munching on fine American cuisine (Hot Pockets) at the Cabin of Skills. I'm waiting for mine to cook, Bamboo is sitting at the bar by the kitchen, Bones and Kore are at the dining room table and Rush is on the couch. Pinky was in bed by that time, which is why we were forced to resort to eating Hot Pockets.
Rather than take a bunch of time to describe the layout of the room (which is an essential part of this story), I decided to go the quicker route of drawing up a terrible looking map on Paint:
 |
| On Second thought, I shoulda just described it... |
Of course, in this cabin you can't do a throw without it becoming a game, so I decided to try to hit every combination of two people in the room. With Bamboo close and Rush so much farther away, it became a serious challenge. It took a few tries on a couple of combos and we decided that the ceiling was too low for me to get the Rush/Bones split, but I got all the others in a few tries.
And then, of course, everyone was in on it. We had so much fun that I forgot all about the lava-temperature pepperoni and cheese that was waiting for me, freshly nuked.
If you've never done it before, try it sometime. It's best if you have two friends that are into the game (or at least have a descent catch), but you can even try it alone. Set up two golf targets and try to throw into both of them at once. The key to the split, of course, is that both Myachis have to come off the same hand.
Pop Shove Its, slow Heel Flips, Hard Flips and a few other unique hand motions will allow you to split into any two locations in a room with a little thought and a lot of practice.
And if you have trouble visualizing what I'm talking about, don't worry. A video is coming soon.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Myachi Arm Wrestling
by Crazy Ivan
So the other day I'm talking to Rush about my favorite Myachi games and I mentioned Myachi Arm Wrestling. Much to my surprise he just responded with a blank stare and a quick "what's that?"
I thought it odd that I'd never shown the game to him before so we played a quick round. Then it occurred to me that Rush is a regular reader of this blog and if he'd never heard about it, I must have never blogged about it. So last night I went back through the blog and confirmed it. And it surprises me since it's one of my favorite Myachi games.
One reason is that it's so simple to explain. Two competitors face off. They stand so that the outside of their right feet are touching and then place the backs of their right hands together with a Myachi in between. The object is to touch your opponents palm to his or her leg using the strength of your arm. Obviously, they're attempting to do the same to you.
It's a real full arm work out and when you get good at you quickly discover that much of the game is just about redirecting your opponent's energy. To demonstrate the game, I talked Bones into playing a quick round with me while Rush taped it. Seemed like the only real way to explain the game:
Couple of quick notes. If the Myachi falls, the round is over. If it was clearly one players fault, that player loses. If it was a mutual thing, the round is a scratch and you simply play again. If, during a battle, the Myachi gets twisted in such a way that it will be difficult to keep it up, you reset, place the Myachi back where it belongs and start again.
So the other day I'm talking to Rush about my favorite Myachi games and I mentioned Myachi Arm Wrestling. Much to my surprise he just responded with a blank stare and a quick "what's that?"
I thought it odd that I'd never shown the game to him before so we played a quick round. Then it occurred to me that Rush is a regular reader of this blog and if he'd never heard about it, I must have never blogged about it. So last night I went back through the blog and confirmed it. And it surprises me since it's one of my favorite Myachi games.
One reason is that it's so simple to explain. Two competitors face off. They stand so that the outside of their right feet are touching and then place the backs of their right hands together with a Myachi in between. The object is to touch your opponents palm to his or her leg using the strength of your arm. Obviously, they're attempting to do the same to you.
It's a real full arm work out and when you get good at you quickly discover that much of the game is just about redirecting your opponent's energy. To demonstrate the game, I talked Bones into playing a quick round with me while Rush taped it. Seemed like the only real way to explain the game:
Couple of quick notes. If the Myachi falls, the round is over. If it was clearly one players fault, that player loses. If it was a mutual thing, the round is a scratch and you simply play again. If, during a battle, the Myachi gets twisted in such a way that it will be difficult to keep it up, you reset, place the Myachi back where it belongs and start again.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
The Other End of the Age Spectrum
by Crazy Ivan
The other day I wrote a blog titled "Why Golf?" where I recounted an awesome story of a grandmother who whooped both her grand kids (and everyone else) in a golf contest at Dollywood. It was so much fun to be a part of that I doubted any other golf tournament this year would compare to it.
And I continued to think that all the way up to about 11:08 this morning.
We do our first golf contest at 11 in the morning and usually it's the smallest contest we do all day. We've had some days where only 6 or 7 people show up and a few slower days where we actually cancel the first contest because there aren't enough contestants. We have a minimum of 5 people before we'll actually hold a contest so most mornings we find ourselves in a desperate scramble to find a few willing participants.
That was not the case this morning. Kore, Rush and I opened up and right away we could tell it was going to be a fun day. By 11 o' clock we had some 30 kids lined up and waiting. Several of them were people who'd been in the contests yesterday or the day before so we had a few real ringers, including two previous champions. It was so big that I felt sorry for the newer kids because I figured they wouldn't stand a chance against so many experienced Myachi golfers.
Normally, I host the tournament and while I'm rocking that out, all the other masters are fishing; tossing in people as they walk by and trying to get them to join in. We accept new contestants all the way through the first round. The final entrants before we moved on to the second round were two little kids (a 5 year old girl and her 3 year old brother) that Kore roped in.
For the littler guys, we always let them stand a little bit closer, but even then, they never really compete with the older and more coordinated kids. True to form, the little girl took two shots, missed the goal on both tries and got knocked out. Her brother fared a little better and made it to round two. A lucky shot got him into the second round and an opening bull's eye got him all the way to the final round.
You've probably guessed by now that this little dude actually managed to win the whole thing. A spotty performance on a few of our returning champions left things wide open for him at the end, but it wouldn't have mattered. He got a bull's eye and two yellows (7 total points) and smoked the competition by a full two points.
He was so young that he barely even knew what had happened when he won, but when the whole crowd erupted to cheer for him, he beamed as genuine a smile as I've ever seen. His mom was more excited than him (even though she knew that she would then have to buy another Myachi for his sister) but he was pretty fired up and felt like a winner.
I just felt like I had to share that. In the (less than) two weeks that we've been running these contests, our winners have ranged in age from 3 to 72. That alone should be the only sell line we ever need for Myachi.
The other day I wrote a blog titled "Why Golf?" where I recounted an awesome story of a grandmother who whooped both her grand kids (and everyone else) in a golf contest at Dollywood. It was so much fun to be a part of that I doubted any other golf tournament this year would compare to it.
And I continued to think that all the way up to about 11:08 this morning.
We do our first golf contest at 11 in the morning and usually it's the smallest contest we do all day. We've had some days where only 6 or 7 people show up and a few slower days where we actually cancel the first contest because there aren't enough contestants. We have a minimum of 5 people before we'll actually hold a contest so most mornings we find ourselves in a desperate scramble to find a few willing participants.
That was not the case this morning. Kore, Rush and I opened up and right away we could tell it was going to be a fun day. By 11 o' clock we had some 30 kids lined up and waiting. Several of them were people who'd been in the contests yesterday or the day before so we had a few real ringers, including two previous champions. It was so big that I felt sorry for the newer kids because I figured they wouldn't stand a chance against so many experienced Myachi golfers.
Normally, I host the tournament and while I'm rocking that out, all the other masters are fishing; tossing in people as they walk by and trying to get them to join in. We accept new contestants all the way through the first round. The final entrants before we moved on to the second round were two little kids (a 5 year old girl and her 3 year old brother) that Kore roped in.
For the littler guys, we always let them stand a little bit closer, but even then, they never really compete with the older and more coordinated kids. True to form, the little girl took two shots, missed the goal on both tries and got knocked out. Her brother fared a little better and made it to round two. A lucky shot got him into the second round and an opening bull's eye got him all the way to the final round.
You've probably guessed by now that this little dude actually managed to win the whole thing. A spotty performance on a few of our returning champions left things wide open for him at the end, but it wouldn't have mattered. He got a bull's eye and two yellows (7 total points) and smoked the competition by a full two points.
He was so young that he barely even knew what had happened when he won, but when the whole crowd erupted to cheer for him, he beamed as genuine a smile as I've ever seen. His mom was more excited than him (even though she knew that she would then have to buy another Myachi for his sister) but he was pretty fired up and felt like a winner.
I just felt like I had to share that. In the (less than) two weeks that we've been running these contests, our winners have ranged in age from 3 to 72. That alone should be the only sell line we ever need for Myachi.
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Why Golf?
by Crazy Ivan
When people ask what Myachi is, I hesitate to say that it's a game. After all, a ball is used in a number of games, but it is not a game by itself. Myachi is a game-facilitator, but it isn't really a game in and of itself. There are a number of Myachi games, which I blog about constantly, but there is no one "game" called "Myachi".
So when we to tournaments and contests (in person as opposed to on this blog), we're left with a number of great options of exactly what game to play. A contest could be a best trick competition, a MYACH game, a game of Fu, a big air contest or any number of other crazy games we've come up with over the years. But in places like Dollywood, almost all of our contests turn out being Myachi Golf contests.
People often ask me, "Why golf? Why not do a competition that involves tricks or catches or something a little more... Myachi-ish. After all, Myachi is very rarely a game about accurate tossing over a distance, so why focus on Golf so heavily when you do tournaments?"
Actually, come to think of it, people don't often ask me that. I've been asked similar things here and there in the past, but nobody's ever asked me the exact paragraph above. But I'm going to answer it anyway.
Golf is the only test of Myachi skills that we've come up with that doesn't require any real familiarity with Myachi. You don't have to know any tricks or even be able to catch so anybody who wants to step into the game is able to do it and the person who is best at Myachi doesn't always win.
Now, in some ways this is a bad thing. You obviously want some competitions to favor the person who has earned their expertise through long and arduous practice. That's why when we first crown a world champion of Myachi, it won't be because they won the most Golf contests. But for competitions like the ones we do at theme parks, the whole point is to demonstrate the fact that everybody can play the game.
If we held a big air contest, we couldn't exactly get the 4 year olds into the game along with the rest of the group. We couldn't get grandma into a best trick competition. We couldn't even accommodate a relatively skilled person who had never played Myachi.
But Myachi Golf is a perfect game for exactly that. Everybody can play Myachi Golf. It doesn't matter their age or their familiarity with the game. Sure, I let the little kids stand a lot closer than the others, but after that there's really very little advantage in being older or better at Myachi (unless, of course, you play a lot of Myachi Golf). This fact was demonstrated in dramatic fashion this evening in our final tournament of the day today.
We hold 5 contests a day at Dollywood. They tend to get bigger as the day goes because people come back for several of them once they get fired up about the game. That means that usually the last contest is huge and awesome. That was certainly the case today.
Our contests go in four rounds. For those who haven't seen it, we use a goal with three concentric rings. The bulls-eye is a three pointer, the next ring out is 2 points and the outermost ring is a single point. Anyway, in the first round every contestant gets one shot and all they have to do is get the Myachi to land anywhere in the target. In the second round they have 2 shots to get 3 points. In the third round they get 2 shots to make 4 points and those lucky few who make it through all of that duke it out at the end by taking 3 shots. Whoever gets the most points wins.
And yes, all that set up was important.
At the end of the first round of the tournament, we give a last call. Anyone who wants to get in on the game has to join in before we move on to round two. So I usually try to coax as many people in as possible at that point, including all the moms, dads, grandpas and grandmas that are sitting around watching.
So in this particular contest, a couple of the contestants talked their grandma into stepping into the game at the very end. She was the last person to step up before we moved on to round two. She makes it into the second round and then the real fun starts.
In the second round she hits a bull's eye on her first shot. She's got to be in her sixties and she's as fired up as any of the kids that are standing around. So in the third round she shanks her first shot and only gets one point. That means, of course, that she needs to hit another bull's eye again to move on. And she does.
By the finals, it's her and 4 kids, including one of her own grand kids. All the others had been in several contests that day and had been practicing up beforehand so things didn't get any easier for her. But a funny thing happened. It usually takes at least 7 or 8 points to win that last round, but the first couple shooters had bad luck and only got 4 points a piece. Then my ringer, the dude who had already won one contest that day and taken 2nd place in another had a terrible run of luck and only got 5 points.
Grandma shot last. She only needed 6 points to win it all and she started with a bull's eye. Her 2nd shot was a two pointer, which tied her for the lead. All she needed to do with her final shot was get a single point. By that point quite a crowd had gathered around and she was visibly nervous. She lined up her shot, took a deep breath and won it all.
And that's why we do golf tournaments. Heck, I didn't even mention the 4 year old who hit a bull's eye to get in to round 3.
When people ask what Myachi is, I hesitate to say that it's a game. After all, a ball is used in a number of games, but it is not a game by itself. Myachi is a game-facilitator, but it isn't really a game in and of itself. There are a number of Myachi games, which I blog about constantly, but there is no one "game" called "Myachi".
So when we to tournaments and contests (in person as opposed to on this blog), we're left with a number of great options of exactly what game to play. A contest could be a best trick competition, a MYACH game, a game of Fu, a big air contest or any number of other crazy games we've come up with over the years. But in places like Dollywood, almost all of our contests turn out being Myachi Golf contests.
People often ask me, "Why golf? Why not do a competition that involves tricks or catches or something a little more... Myachi-ish. After all, Myachi is very rarely a game about accurate tossing over a distance, so why focus on Golf so heavily when you do tournaments?"
Actually, come to think of it, people don't often ask me that. I've been asked similar things here and there in the past, but nobody's ever asked me the exact paragraph above. But I'm going to answer it anyway.
Golf is the only test of Myachi skills that we've come up with that doesn't require any real familiarity with Myachi. You don't have to know any tricks or even be able to catch so anybody who wants to step into the game is able to do it and the person who is best at Myachi doesn't always win.
Now, in some ways this is a bad thing. You obviously want some competitions to favor the person who has earned their expertise through long and arduous practice. That's why when we first crown a world champion of Myachi, it won't be because they won the most Golf contests. But for competitions like the ones we do at theme parks, the whole point is to demonstrate the fact that everybody can play the game.
If we held a big air contest, we couldn't exactly get the 4 year olds into the game along with the rest of the group. We couldn't get grandma into a best trick competition. We couldn't even accommodate a relatively skilled person who had never played Myachi.
But Myachi Golf is a perfect game for exactly that. Everybody can play Myachi Golf. It doesn't matter their age or their familiarity with the game. Sure, I let the little kids stand a lot closer than the others, but after that there's really very little advantage in being older or better at Myachi (unless, of course, you play a lot of Myachi Golf). This fact was demonstrated in dramatic fashion this evening in our final tournament of the day today.
We hold 5 contests a day at Dollywood. They tend to get bigger as the day goes because people come back for several of them once they get fired up about the game. That means that usually the last contest is huge and awesome. That was certainly the case today.
Our contests go in four rounds. For those who haven't seen it, we use a goal with three concentric rings. The bulls-eye is a three pointer, the next ring out is 2 points and the outermost ring is a single point. Anyway, in the first round every contestant gets one shot and all they have to do is get the Myachi to land anywhere in the target. In the second round they have 2 shots to get 3 points. In the third round they get 2 shots to make 4 points and those lucky few who make it through all of that duke it out at the end by taking 3 shots. Whoever gets the most points wins.
And yes, all that set up was important.
At the end of the first round of the tournament, we give a last call. Anyone who wants to get in on the game has to join in before we move on to round two. So I usually try to coax as many people in as possible at that point, including all the moms, dads, grandpas and grandmas that are sitting around watching.
So in this particular contest, a couple of the contestants talked their grandma into stepping into the game at the very end. She was the last person to step up before we moved on to round two. She makes it into the second round and then the real fun starts.
In the second round she hits a bull's eye on her first shot. She's got to be in her sixties and she's as fired up as any of the kids that are standing around. So in the third round she shanks her first shot and only gets one point. That means, of course, that she needs to hit another bull's eye again to move on. And she does.
By the finals, it's her and 4 kids, including one of her own grand kids. All the others had been in several contests that day and had been practicing up beforehand so things didn't get any easier for her. But a funny thing happened. It usually takes at least 7 or 8 points to win that last round, but the first couple shooters had bad luck and only got 4 points a piece. Then my ringer, the dude who had already won one contest that day and taken 2nd place in another had a terrible run of luck and only got 5 points.
Grandma shot last. She only needed 6 points to win it all and she started with a bull's eye. Her 2nd shot was a two pointer, which tied her for the lead. All she needed to do with her final shot was get a single point. By that point quite a crowd had gathered around and she was visibly nervous. She lined up her shot, took a deep breath and won it all.
And that's why we do golf tournaments. Heck, I didn't even mention the 4 year old who hit a bull's eye to get in to round 3.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Sometimes I can't Believe They Pay Me...
by Crazy Ivan
When the only part of your workday that stinks is the commute, you know you've got a pretty cool job.
That was certainly the case today. Kid Myach and I did a party out in Jersey today. The party was about 2 and a half hours but the drive home was about 3. A good hour of that was spent creeping along at the speed of touch on our way into the Lincoln Tunnel.
But why focus on the bad part when there was so much good part? The party itself was as awesome as any Myachi party I've ever done. The whole family was awesome, all the kids there were cool (and had sick skills), there was plenty of room to play and there was free Mountain Dew. Anybody who knows me probably knows that I'd have done the party just for the free Dew.
So first let me set the stage. The kids whose party it was had met a couple of the Myachi Masters in the Toys R Us in Totowa a while back. I believe they'd met Bones and Bamboo and at least one of the party-goers had met Animal, Noodles and Mav as well. But most of what they know about the game they know from the various tentacles of our online outreach.
Anyway, Kid and I show up mad early (traffic was easy on us on the way out) and when we drive up to the house we see 15 dudes in the drive way all playing MYACH and Fu. Four of them are already wearing Myachi shirts and before we can even get out of the car we're getting surrounded.
So after a brief barrage of "can you show me this trick?", "how much is this Myachi worth?", "is there a name for this trick?", "you have anything to trade for this?", "which Myachi Master is the best at ...?" and "what am I doing wrong on this trick?" type questions, we got the party started.
Now, honestly, it was fun enough that I could give a play by play account of every contest without running out of stuff to say, but there was one moment that stood out like no other, and I think it typified what an awesome day it was.
Among the many games we played was a 7 on 7 Fu battle with Kid Myach leading one team and me leading the other. We were playing where everyone had a Myachi and only one life. Once all the members of one team were out, the other team won. The idea was that we would do best 2 out of 3. My team all wore Myachi beanies (so we were the "Beanies") and Kid's team went hatless ("Team Beast" for some reason).
Kid's team marched all over us in the first round and were poised to do it again in the second. In the second round i got knocked out pretty early and my teammates were dropping like flies. After a few minutes we paused the game for a second and realized that only one member of our team remained. Kid's team still had 4 players, including Kid Myach. Kid has a bit of an advantage, of course, since he's at least two and a half feet taller than anyone else there.
So this dude (Rex) is surrounded. 4 players against one and they still had 2 of their 3 best strikers on the floor (not including Kid). So Rex goes into full-on berserker mode and blows up with a rampage that would make Wolverine jealous. He fakes left, spins right, cuts behind Kid Myach and takes out one member of their team. Before he can turn back, his own brother (who was on Kid's team) grabs hold of him and yanks him back, knocking the Myachi off his hand.
But the game isn't over. It was clearly an illegal tackle so Rex gets to pick his Myachi back up and the tackler has to do 30 seconds in the penalty box. This makes it a two on one game and by now that seems easy to this guy. He held off 4 players long enough that nobody thought he was at a disadvantage when he only had to face two.
Not surprisingly, he took one of them out quick. That left him facing off one on one against Kid Myach... and the clock was ticking. By that time his brother only had about 12 seconds left on his penalty so if he couldn't take Kid out quickly it would be two against one again... and it would be the two best Fu players at the party that weren't him.
The one on one was classic. Kid was doing a lot of high throw defenses and eventually that did him in. He went to toss the sack from right hand back to left and Rex cut in between, altered the angle of the Myachi and took Kid out with only seconds left on the penalty. Then we were treated to another one on one match up as his bro came out of penalty.
I can't possibly explain how good these guys are at Fu, but they've clearly played each other plenty of times before. The final match was amazing and despite the fact that Rex had been giving it his all for the last 30 seconds while his opponent was resting in the penalty box gave him a clear disadvantage. Despite that, he eventually managed a total victory and kept our team alive.
So, to sum all that up, this dude was taking on 4 players, including one Myachi Master (and one of the tall ones at that) and won. It was the biggest Fu comeback I've ever witnessed.
that Yellow Jacket.
There were a lot of other games and a lot of other great moments, including several other heroic saves and incredible tricks from a number of the party-goers, but I figured if I was going to share one that was the one to share. So if you guys are reading this, thanks for having Kid and I out for the party. It was way more fun than anyone should be paid to have.
When the only part of your workday that stinks is the commute, you know you've got a pretty cool job.
That was certainly the case today. Kid Myach and I did a party out in Jersey today. The party was about 2 and a half hours but the drive home was about 3. A good hour of that was spent creeping along at the speed of touch on our way into the Lincoln Tunnel.
But why focus on the bad part when there was so much good part? The party itself was as awesome as any Myachi party I've ever done. The whole family was awesome, all the kids there were cool (and had sick skills), there was plenty of room to play and there was free Mountain Dew. Anybody who knows me probably knows that I'd have done the party just for the free Dew.
So first let me set the stage. The kids whose party it was had met a couple of the Myachi Masters in the Toys R Us in Totowa a while back. I believe they'd met Bones and Bamboo and at least one of the party-goers had met Animal, Noodles and Mav as well. But most of what they know about the game they know from the various tentacles of our online outreach.
Anyway, Kid and I show up mad early (traffic was easy on us on the way out) and when we drive up to the house we see 15 dudes in the drive way all playing MYACH and Fu. Four of them are already wearing Myachi shirts and before we can even get out of the car we're getting surrounded.
So after a brief barrage of "can you show me this trick?", "how much is this Myachi worth?", "is there a name for this trick?", "you have anything to trade for this?", "which Myachi Master is the best at ...?" and "what am I doing wrong on this trick?" type questions, we got the party started.
Now, honestly, it was fun enough that I could give a play by play account of every contest without running out of stuff to say, but there was one moment that stood out like no other, and I think it typified what an awesome day it was.
Among the many games we played was a 7 on 7 Fu battle with Kid Myach leading one team and me leading the other. We were playing where everyone had a Myachi and only one life. Once all the members of one team were out, the other team won. The idea was that we would do best 2 out of 3. My team all wore Myachi beanies (so we were the "Beanies") and Kid's team went hatless ("Team Beast" for some reason).
Kid's team marched all over us in the first round and were poised to do it again in the second. In the second round i got knocked out pretty early and my teammates were dropping like flies. After a few minutes we paused the game for a second and realized that only one member of our team remained. Kid's team still had 4 players, including Kid Myach. Kid has a bit of an advantage, of course, since he's at least two and a half feet taller than anyone else there.
So this dude (Rex) is surrounded. 4 players against one and they still had 2 of their 3 best strikers on the floor (not including Kid). So Rex goes into full-on berserker mode and blows up with a rampage that would make Wolverine jealous. He fakes left, spins right, cuts behind Kid Myach and takes out one member of their team. Before he can turn back, his own brother (who was on Kid's team) grabs hold of him and yanks him back, knocking the Myachi off his hand.
But the game isn't over. It was clearly an illegal tackle so Rex gets to pick his Myachi back up and the tackler has to do 30 seconds in the penalty box. This makes it a two on one game and by now that seems easy to this guy. He held off 4 players long enough that nobody thought he was at a disadvantage when he only had to face two.
Not surprisingly, he took one of them out quick. That left him facing off one on one against Kid Myach... and the clock was ticking. By that time his brother only had about 12 seconds left on his penalty so if he couldn't take Kid out quickly it would be two against one again... and it would be the two best Fu players at the party that weren't him.
The one on one was classic. Kid was doing a lot of high throw defenses and eventually that did him in. He went to toss the sack from right hand back to left and Rex cut in between, altered the angle of the Myachi and took Kid out with only seconds left on the penalty. Then we were treated to another one on one match up as his bro came out of penalty.
I can't possibly explain how good these guys are at Fu, but they've clearly played each other plenty of times before. The final match was amazing and despite the fact that Rex had been giving it his all for the last 30 seconds while his opponent was resting in the penalty box gave him a clear disadvantage. Despite that, he eventually managed a total victory and kept our team alive.
So, to sum all that up, this dude was taking on 4 players, including one Myachi Master (and one of the tall ones at that) and won. It was the biggest Fu comeback I've ever witnessed.
that Yellow Jacket.
There were a lot of other games and a lot of other great moments, including several other heroic saves and incredible tricks from a number of the party-goers, but I figured if I was going to share one that was the one to share. So if you guys are reading this, thanks for having Kid and I out for the party. It was way more fun than anyone should be paid to have.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
First Large Scale Test
by Crazy Ivan
Got our first chance to really try the 3 on 3 version of the Fu game last night and I have to say that the game passed the test with flying colors. If you don't know the game I'm talking about, you can read all about it at this link. I'd advise it since a lot of what follows won't make much sense if you don't know the game.
To be clear, we'd played before, but this was the first time where we had enough Myachi Masters around to (a) field multiple teams and (b) still have people left over to referee. The game is remarkably exhausting so we were playing first team to 3 points and then we were swapping out teammates here and there and giving a few people a rest.
Myachi Man, Kid, Monk, Animal, Bones, Bamboo, Rush, Unknown, Strike*, Metal* and myself all got in on the game and we had some epic battles. Kid got a bit of video on his phone so hopefully we'll have some evidence of the awesomeness of the game before long, but for now you'll just have to trust my testimonial (or ask Myachi Man, Kid, Monk, Animal, Bones, Bamboo, Rush, Unknown, Strike* or Metal*).
(* Myachi Masters in Training)
We didn't have enough room to really play the way we'd want to. We were playing in the driveway at the House of Skills so it was relatively easy to corner the defender and 6 people in such a small arena made it really hard to pass. By and large one player defended each team's Myachi throughout each round. There were a couple of passes, but generally speaking you'd have one guy defending the Myachi, another guy defending him and a third guy attacking the other team's Myachi.
That changed from time to time, of course. Sometimes one team would double team on attack and leave one guy to defend the Myachi by himself. That tended to work alright as long as the other team didn't decide to double team at the same time. Then it often turned into a race against the clock.
The game went, in a lot of ways, exactly how I hoped it would. The gameplay was fast, intense and filled with highlights. One thing that surprised me was exactly how many elements of different sports we brought into the game. Strike and Monk are pretty good basketball players and they were using a lot of their basketball skills when they defended. Unknown plays offensive line so when he was protecting the primary defender (the dude with the Myachi) he created a wall. There were also heavy elements of lacrosse, soccer, ultimate, footbag, hockey and, of course, martial arts.
There were also a few huge highlights, though I don't think I could do them justice just by describing them. One of my teams scored short handed while I was in the penalty box (accidentally hit Bones in the head) and that was pretty cool to watch. At one point when Bones had his team's Myachi he went on the offensive and suddenly there were three guys attacking Monk. He weaved his way out of it like nobody's business. At one point Bamboo got in trouble, outran the Myachi and had to kick it to Rush to keep the game going. At one point I had Metal all over me like Velcro and had to make about 4 saves in a row to give my team time to score.
Next time we play, we'll have multiple cameras. I can't wait to see this thing presented like a genuine sport. Unfortunately, this probably won't happen until Bones, Bamboo, Pinky and I get back from Tennessee (in August), but the good news is that we'll have a lot of time to practice up and get our strategies in order.
In fact, I'm even willing to lay down the gauntlet against Monk, Mav and Animal. Each team gets a few months to practice up and draw up crazy plays and then we duke it out for world domination at the end of the summer... I'm liking the sound of that...
Got our first chance to really try the 3 on 3 version of the Fu game last night and I have to say that the game passed the test with flying colors. If you don't know the game I'm talking about, you can read all about it at this link. I'd advise it since a lot of what follows won't make much sense if you don't know the game.
To be clear, we'd played before, but this was the first time where we had enough Myachi Masters around to (a) field multiple teams and (b) still have people left over to referee. The game is remarkably exhausting so we were playing first team to 3 points and then we were swapping out teammates here and there and giving a few people a rest.
Myachi Man, Kid, Monk, Animal, Bones, Bamboo, Rush, Unknown, Strike*, Metal* and myself all got in on the game and we had some epic battles. Kid got a bit of video on his phone so hopefully we'll have some evidence of the awesomeness of the game before long, but for now you'll just have to trust my testimonial (or ask Myachi Man, Kid, Monk, Animal, Bones, Bamboo, Rush, Unknown, Strike* or Metal*).
(* Myachi Masters in Training)
We didn't have enough room to really play the way we'd want to. We were playing in the driveway at the House of Skills so it was relatively easy to corner the defender and 6 people in such a small arena made it really hard to pass. By and large one player defended each team's Myachi throughout each round. There were a couple of passes, but generally speaking you'd have one guy defending the Myachi, another guy defending him and a third guy attacking the other team's Myachi.
That changed from time to time, of course. Sometimes one team would double team on attack and leave one guy to defend the Myachi by himself. That tended to work alright as long as the other team didn't decide to double team at the same time. Then it often turned into a race against the clock.
The game went, in a lot of ways, exactly how I hoped it would. The gameplay was fast, intense and filled with highlights. One thing that surprised me was exactly how many elements of different sports we brought into the game. Strike and Monk are pretty good basketball players and they were using a lot of their basketball skills when they defended. Unknown plays offensive line so when he was protecting the primary defender (the dude with the Myachi) he created a wall. There were also heavy elements of lacrosse, soccer, ultimate, footbag, hockey and, of course, martial arts.
There were also a few huge highlights, though I don't think I could do them justice just by describing them. One of my teams scored short handed while I was in the penalty box (accidentally hit Bones in the head) and that was pretty cool to watch. At one point when Bones had his team's Myachi he went on the offensive and suddenly there were three guys attacking Monk. He weaved his way out of it like nobody's business. At one point Bamboo got in trouble, outran the Myachi and had to kick it to Rush to keep the game going. At one point I had Metal all over me like Velcro and had to make about 4 saves in a row to give my team time to score.
Next time we play, we'll have multiple cameras. I can't wait to see this thing presented like a genuine sport. Unfortunately, this probably won't happen until Bones, Bamboo, Pinky and I get back from Tennessee (in August), but the good news is that we'll have a lot of time to practice up and get our strategies in order.
In fact, I'm even willing to lay down the gauntlet against Monk, Mav and Animal. Each team gets a few months to practice up and draw up crazy plays and then we duke it out for world domination at the end of the summer... I'm liking the sound of that...
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Reasons Why I Love My Job #63
by Crazy Ivan
I'm sweating like crazy and I'm not looking forward to how I'm going to smell on the drive home, but it was well worth it.
If you've ever hung out at Myachi HQ, you're familiar with the target we use for our golf tournaments. It's essentially like an archery target; a bulls eye in the middle and a few larger target circles around it. Normally, when we play Myachi Golf, the bulls eye is three points, the next ring is two points and the outermost ring is worth one.
To keep the floor clear, we hung the target up on one of the walls so it was only a matter of time before we started playing a version of basketball with it. I just stepped out to make a phone call and when I came back in, I suddenly found myself in the midst of a 2 on 2 game of exactly that. Two maniacs, Landslide and Zach (who is considering the Myachi name "Bunnicula") were playing with Monk and their dad.
Myachi basketball is a lot of fun as Fresh has demonstrated a number of times in the past. As fun as the game is, it is not the #63 reason why I love my job. That's actually a reference to the fact that dad was playing, too.
No surprise that a guy dad's age would want to play Myachi. After all, their dad is about 19 months older than me so definitely still in his Myachi prime. But I love the fact that Myachi offers a game that father and son can play together (or, in this case, a game that father and son and son and Monk can play together).
When I was growing up, there were two distinct classes of game; traditional sports that my dad would play with me and everything else. When I got into Transformers or Pogs as a kid, I couldn't exactly expect my dad to play along. As I got older, my favorite toys changed to things like skateboards and bikes, but still it wasn't something my dad was going to play along with. He's a pretty skilled dude, but there was no way I was going to teach him to ollie.
But I have to think that if I'd gotten into Myachi at the age of 12, my dad would have been just like the dad out in the gameroom right now. He's be playing until he dropped. I would teach him new moves, he would invent his own combos and when the weather was nice, we'd be outside doing some long distance passing.
The best possible thing a game can do is bring people together. It feels really good to go home at the end of the night knowing that you've helped to strengthen the bonds of a family.
I'd continue to spout sentimentality, but as I write this, I'm missing some serious Myachi basketball...
I'm sweating like crazy and I'm not looking forward to how I'm going to smell on the drive home, but it was well worth it.
If you've ever hung out at Myachi HQ, you're familiar with the target we use for our golf tournaments. It's essentially like an archery target; a bulls eye in the middle and a few larger target circles around it. Normally, when we play Myachi Golf, the bulls eye is three points, the next ring is two points and the outermost ring is worth one.
To keep the floor clear, we hung the target up on one of the walls so it was only a matter of time before we started playing a version of basketball with it. I just stepped out to make a phone call and when I came back in, I suddenly found myself in the midst of a 2 on 2 game of exactly that. Two maniacs, Landslide and Zach (who is considering the Myachi name "Bunnicula") were playing with Monk and their dad.
Myachi basketball is a lot of fun as Fresh has demonstrated a number of times in the past. As fun as the game is, it is not the #63 reason why I love my job. That's actually a reference to the fact that dad was playing, too.
No surprise that a guy dad's age would want to play Myachi. After all, their dad is about 19 months older than me so definitely still in his Myachi prime. But I love the fact that Myachi offers a game that father and son can play together (or, in this case, a game that father and son and son and Monk can play together).
When I was growing up, there were two distinct classes of game; traditional sports that my dad would play with me and everything else. When I got into Transformers or Pogs as a kid, I couldn't exactly expect my dad to play along. As I got older, my favorite toys changed to things like skateboards and bikes, but still it wasn't something my dad was going to play along with. He's a pretty skilled dude, but there was no way I was going to teach him to ollie.
But I have to think that if I'd gotten into Myachi at the age of 12, my dad would have been just like the dad out in the gameroom right now. He's be playing until he dropped. I would teach him new moves, he would invent his own combos and when the weather was nice, we'd be outside doing some long distance passing.
The best possible thing a game can do is bring people together. It feels really good to go home at the end of the night knowing that you've helped to strengthen the bonds of a family.
I'd continue to spout sentimentality, but as I write this, I'm missing some serious Myachi basketball...
Riding a Myachi
by Crazy Ivan
Like most of the tricks in Myachi, the skate tricks grew organically from the larger movement. We started off doing them accidentally; a toss almost always includes some kind of flip or spin to the Myachi. It wasn't until we'd been doing it for some time that people started to point out that we were doing "skate tricks" with them. With fingerboards just becoming popular, we cashed in on this angle and added dozens of skate-based spins and flips (along with adding the Half Pipe to tie them all together).
Shove-its, Kick-Flips, Heel-Flips, Hard-Flips, Tail Grabs, Caspers, Tre Flips, Manuals (which are as hard as you think they'd be) and Impossibles all grew from this initial inspiration.
Of course, unlike a Tech-Deck, there are no fingers riding your Myachi. It makes all of these tricks far easier (especially since you don't have to worry about landing wheels down) so most people could pick up a repertoire of skate tricks in no time.
The drawback to moves that are easy to learn, however, is that they're not much fun to do. It's the challenge that makes Myachi moves so fun, so once you've mastered the basic skate tricks, you don't really get much use out of them.
In an effort to add a new challenge to that genre, I conceived of a quick and easy twenty-five cent solution. You deck just needs a passenger:
By dropping a quarter onto the Myachi, you've completely changed the game. Go ahead and try it. Put a Myachi in Lotus Position, drop a quarter on top of it and then try to do a 180 degree Shove-It without letting the quarter fly off.
You'll get it, and you might even get it on your first try, but you'll see the challenge as well. This requires much more precise movements than traditional skate tricks. If the Shove-It isn't tough enough for you, try getting a full 360 degree spin out of it. Obviously, you can just keep adding half spins until you reach your limit.
But there's a lot more to it than that. You can also do Kick-Flips and Heel-Flips like that. For those, you have to go true skate-style; the quarter will have to pop off the Myachi and then land back on it after the trick.
For that, you'll need to worry about the starting position. For the Kick Flip, you'll want to start with the quarter hanging off the wrist-side edge of the Myachi like so:
From this position, a Kick Flip will launch the quarter up and if you do it with enough control, you'll have a great shot at catching it again. The Heel Flip is essentially the same, though you'll be doing it with the quarter hanging off the opposite side of the sack:
The key on these moves is control. If you were just doing a Kick-Flip sans quarter, you'd probably put a ton of spin on it and actually end up with a quadruple Kick-Flip or more. Without a quarter-rider, doing a quadruple Kick-Flip isn't much tougher than doing a single. But when you add the passenger, things get a lot tougher.
There's no reason to stop there. One of the coolest looking variations on this comes from the Tail Grab. For this one, you'll need the quarter way out toward your index finger like so:
From there you can pop the Myachi up, to the Tail Grab, flip the Myachi back into position and catch the quarter.
There are a lot more tricks that can be done here. It's extremely difficult, but you can even manage an Impossible by starting with the Myachi in the position shown above (except that you wouldn't have your pinky over top of the Myachi). Like any new genre of tricks, the key is to get creative. Look at the various skate moves and ask yourself how you could add a rider to them.
A word of warning, though. Make sure you don't really need that quarter for something else. I've lost a few bucks worth of quarters learning these tricks already. Turns out that when you miss, that quarter doesn't like to stay put. I've had them roll off into gutters, fly off into corners never to be seen again and bounce into bushes and disappear. I wouldn't worry about that too much, though, as money doesn't go as far as it did back then.
Like most of the tricks in Myachi, the skate tricks grew organically from the larger movement. We started off doing them accidentally; a toss almost always includes some kind of flip or spin to the Myachi. It wasn't until we'd been doing it for some time that people started to point out that we were doing "skate tricks" with them. With fingerboards just becoming popular, we cashed in on this angle and added dozens of skate-based spins and flips (along with adding the Half Pipe to tie them all together).
Shove-its, Kick-Flips, Heel-Flips, Hard-Flips, Tail Grabs, Caspers, Tre Flips, Manuals (which are as hard as you think they'd be) and Impossibles all grew from this initial inspiration.
Of course, unlike a Tech-Deck, there are no fingers riding your Myachi. It makes all of these tricks far easier (especially since you don't have to worry about landing wheels down) so most people could pick up a repertoire of skate tricks in no time.
The drawback to moves that are easy to learn, however, is that they're not much fun to do. It's the challenge that makes Myachi moves so fun, so once you've mastered the basic skate tricks, you don't really get much use out of them.
In an effort to add a new challenge to that genre, I conceived of a quick and easy twenty-five cent solution. You deck just needs a passenger:
By dropping a quarter onto the Myachi, you've completely changed the game. Go ahead and try it. Put a Myachi in Lotus Position, drop a quarter on top of it and then try to do a 180 degree Shove-It without letting the quarter fly off.
You'll get it, and you might even get it on your first try, but you'll see the challenge as well. This requires much more precise movements than traditional skate tricks. If the Shove-It isn't tough enough for you, try getting a full 360 degree spin out of it. Obviously, you can just keep adding half spins until you reach your limit.
But there's a lot more to it than that. You can also do Kick-Flips and Heel-Flips like that. For those, you have to go true skate-style; the quarter will have to pop off the Myachi and then land back on it after the trick.
For that, you'll need to worry about the starting position. For the Kick Flip, you'll want to start with the quarter hanging off the wrist-side edge of the Myachi like so:
From this position, a Kick Flip will launch the quarter up and if you do it with enough control, you'll have a great shot at catching it again. The Heel Flip is essentially the same, though you'll be doing it with the quarter hanging off the opposite side of the sack:
The key on these moves is control. If you were just doing a Kick-Flip sans quarter, you'd probably put a ton of spin on it and actually end up with a quadruple Kick-Flip or more. Without a quarter-rider, doing a quadruple Kick-Flip isn't much tougher than doing a single. But when you add the passenger, things get a lot tougher.
There's no reason to stop there. One of the coolest looking variations on this comes from the Tail Grab. For this one, you'll need the quarter way out toward your index finger like so:
From there you can pop the Myachi up, to the Tail Grab, flip the Myachi back into position and catch the quarter.
There are a lot more tricks that can be done here. It's extremely difficult, but you can even manage an Impossible by starting with the Myachi in the position shown above (except that you wouldn't have your pinky over top of the Myachi). Like any new genre of tricks, the key is to get creative. Look at the various skate moves and ask yourself how you could add a rider to them.
A word of warning, though. Make sure you don't really need that quarter for something else. I've lost a few bucks worth of quarters learning these tricks already. Turns out that when you miss, that quarter doesn't like to stay put. I've had them roll off into gutters, fly off into corners never to be seen again and bounce into bushes and disappear. I wouldn't worry about that too much, though, as money doesn't go as far as it did back then.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
The Most Fun Myachi Game Ever?
by Crazy Ivan
So I have this dilemma.
I just played a Myachi game with Animal, Unknown and a team made up of Animal's girlfriend and our friend Hetzer. It may well have been the most fun Myachi-game I've ever played... but I can't tell you about it.
There's a good reason. It's still a top secret project that's in development and I'm obligated to keep the details under wraps for a while longer. But it was so much fun that I can't not say anything, so therein lies the dilemma. How can I tell you about a game without revealing anything about the game?
Well, I can't say without revealing "anything" because there are a few things I can tell you. Here are the facts that I can divulge without violating my promise:
1) It's a new and way different way of playing MYACH
2) Even a new player can win if they play good defense, regardless of how good their opponent is at Myachi.
3) It's really, really fun.
And that's all I can really say about it. That leaves me in the awkward position of wanting to give you a play by play without actually telling you about a single play. So what I'm going to do instead is tell you about the reactions.
Animal said of the game afterwards:
"That's way more fun than MYACH. I mean, I don't really like MYACH. If I play Maverick at MYACH, I know five tricks he can pull on me and so does he. I know how that game is going to end but I could beat him at this."
Unknown said afterwards:
"We should play again."
Hetzer said afterwards:
"I almost won... and you guys do this for a living."
I said afterwards:
"Ha! I won! In your FACE!!!!!!!"
Because, you know... I won.
There is no name for the game at this moment, but we're referring to it as "Glyph" at the moment. This is kind of a working title, but it's strangely appropriate. I'll be revealing more about this game as contractual obligations permit, but in a brazen attempt to build suspense, I'm gonna close here by saying this:
Be ready to see the most fun Myachi game you've ever seen in the very near future.
I should note as a caveat that we really haven't tried that 3 on 3 Myachi Fu game I was talking about before and there's still a chance that it would be more fun than this game... we'll still have to see on that one.
So I have this dilemma.
I just played a Myachi game with Animal, Unknown and a team made up of Animal's girlfriend and our friend Hetzer. It may well have been the most fun Myachi-game I've ever played... but I can't tell you about it.
There's a good reason. It's still a top secret project that's in development and I'm obligated to keep the details under wraps for a while longer. But it was so much fun that I can't not say anything, so therein lies the dilemma. How can I tell you about a game without revealing anything about the game?
Well, I can't say without revealing "anything" because there are a few things I can tell you. Here are the facts that I can divulge without violating my promise:
1) It's a new and way different way of playing MYACH
2) Even a new player can win if they play good defense, regardless of how good their opponent is at Myachi.
3) It's really, really fun.
And that's all I can really say about it. That leaves me in the awkward position of wanting to give you a play by play without actually telling you about a single play. So what I'm going to do instead is tell you about the reactions.
Animal said of the game afterwards:
"That's way more fun than MYACH. I mean, I don't really like MYACH. If I play Maverick at MYACH, I know five tricks he can pull on me and so does he. I know how that game is going to end but I could beat him at this."
Unknown said afterwards:
"We should play again."
Hetzer said afterwards:
"I almost won... and you guys do this for a living."
I said afterwards:
"Ha! I won! In your FACE!!!!!!!"
Because, you know... I won.
There is no name for the game at this moment, but we're referring to it as "Glyph" at the moment. This is kind of a working title, but it's strangely appropriate. I'll be revealing more about this game as contractual obligations permit, but in a brazen attempt to build suspense, I'm gonna close here by saying this:
Be ready to see the most fun Myachi game you've ever seen in the very near future.
I should note as a caveat that we really haven't tried that 3 on 3 Myachi Fu game I was talking about before and there's still a chance that it would be more fun than this game... we'll still have to see on that one.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Myachi Net
by Crazy Ivan
So as soon as the weather got warm, the back yard at the House of Skills underwent a transformation. The slack line came down (don't worry, it'll be back up soon) and the badminton net went up. Of course, it's only a badminton net because it came with a badminton set. It is also occasionally used as a Kadima net, a Takraw net, a footbag net, and, of course, a Myachi net.
Myachi Net is a one of the first Myachi games we really codified with rules and the like. We've always played with the traditional badminton playing field measurements and the game itself is so simple it's almost self explanatory... but not quite.
So let's start with the court itself. I'm guessing not all of you have the exact dimensions of a badminton court memorized, so here's a quick refresher:
Now, it may seem pretty complicated, but those are essentially exactly the same as the lines on a badminton court and most of them are used pretty similarly. Let's take a quick minute to explain what each line means.
Doubles Service Line: This is where you would serve from if you are playing a two on two game.
Singles Service Line: This is where you would serve from if you are playing a one on one game.
Singles Back Line: Any throw that goes beyond this line in a one on one game is considered "out".
Doubles Back Line: Any throw that goes beyond this line in a two on two game is considered "out".
Singles Side Line: This is the out of bounds marker for one on one games.
Doubles Side Line: This is the out of bounds marker for two on two games.
The MidLine: This is a line down the middle of the court... duh.
Net: This is where the net goes... duh.
While the “official” net height is 7 feet and eleven and five-eighths inches (the Olympic standard for a men’s volleyball court), most people play over far lower nets. A net of seven foot, four inches (official height of Olympic women’s volleyball) is considered ideal by most adults and a net of about five feet (official standard for badminton nets) is considered perfect for most kids.
The Dead Zone:
When you're playing over a really low net (five feet or lower), you might have to institute a "dead zone" in front of the net. This zone should extend about six feet back from the net.
The dead zone is a "no pass" zone. It means that while you can strike or catch within that zone you have to move back behind the line to toss the Myachi back. This is to keep taller players from just reaching over the net to spike. If you have a standard net (of almost eight feet), this won't be necessary, but if you have two 5 and a half foot players playing over a five foot net it can be way too easy to just send over impossible spike shots.
Note that the Dead Zone is not an official part of the game, it's just an addition you can use if you don't have the right type of net.
Winning:
Usually, Myachi Net is played to 21 points but with tennis like rules of winning by two points. In other words, if you're tied at 20 to 20 at the end, someone must win 2 points in a row to become the victor. In game point situations, two changes take place:
So as soon as the weather got warm, the back yard at the House of Skills underwent a transformation. The slack line came down (don't worry, it'll be back up soon) and the badminton net went up. Of course, it's only a badminton net because it came with a badminton set. It is also occasionally used as a Kadima net, a Takraw net, a footbag net, and, of course, a Myachi net.
Myachi Net is a one of the first Myachi games we really codified with rules and the like. We've always played with the traditional badminton playing field measurements and the game itself is so simple it's almost self explanatory... but not quite.
So let's start with the court itself. I'm guessing not all of you have the exact dimensions of a badminton court memorized, so here's a quick refresher:
Now, it may seem pretty complicated, but those are essentially exactly the same as the lines on a badminton court and most of them are used pretty similarly. Let's take a quick minute to explain what each line means.
Doubles Service Line: This is where you would serve from if you are playing a two on two game.
Singles Service Line: This is where you would serve from if you are playing a one on one game.
Singles Back Line: Any throw that goes beyond this line in a one on one game is considered "out".
Doubles Back Line: Any throw that goes beyond this line in a two on two game is considered "out".
Singles Side Line: This is the out of bounds marker for one on one games.
Doubles Side Line: This is the out of bounds marker for two on two games.
The MidLine: This is a line down the middle of the court... duh.
Net: This is where the net goes... duh.
While the “official” net height is 7 feet and eleven and five-eighths inches (the Olympic standard for a men’s volleyball court), most people play over far lower nets. A net of seven foot, four inches (official height of Olympic women’s volleyball) is considered ideal by most adults and a net of about five feet (official standard for badminton nets) is considered perfect for most kids.
The gameplay is pretty simple. You serve from the Service Line and you must serve over the MidLine (in other words, if I serve from the left side of the court, I must serve toward the right side of the opposite court). You can serve by tossing or by kicking the Myachi.
Once the serve is underway, the game begins. Players (or teams) take turns returning the Myachi with strikes or catches. The only rule (surprise, surprise) is "no palms allowed", but you can use any other part of your body to strike or catch.
There aren't many rules about strikes. You can strike with any body part and as long as it goes over the net and stays inbounds. If the opposing player (or team) does not strike it back or catch it, you (or your team) gains a point and you start over with a new serve.
Catches, on the other hand, are a bit trickier. You can catch a Myachi and toss it back to the other side but once you catch the Myachi you're not allowed to move so you have to throw it from wherever you were when you caught it. This usually gives your opponent time to get into a good defensive position so it's usually best to strike rather than catch. Of course, catching allows you to toss the Myachi back with a lot more accuracy so there's a trade off between the two.
To further complicate things, players (or teams) are allowed two strikes every time the Myachi ends up on their side of the net, but only one catch. This means that you can strike twice, but if you catch it, you have to toss it straight back over. If you strike once and then catch (or if you strike 3 times or catch twice), your opponent(s) gain a point and it's time for another serve.
The scoring works a lot like ping pong. Either player or team can score on a serve. Players or teams get 5 serves and misserves are worth a point to the opposition. The serve switches players/teams every fifth serve and on every tenth serve the players/teams switch sides of the court.
When you're playing over a really low net (five feet or lower), you might have to institute a "dead zone" in front of the net. This zone should extend about six feet back from the net.
The dead zone is a "no pass" zone. It means that while you can strike or catch within that zone you have to move back behind the line to toss the Myachi back. This is to keep taller players from just reaching over the net to spike. If you have a standard net (of almost eight feet), this won't be necessary, but if you have two 5 and a half foot players playing over a five foot net it can be way too easy to just send over impossible spike shots.
Note that the Dead Zone is not an official part of the game, it's just an addition you can use if you don't have the right type of net.
Winning:
Usually, Myachi Net is played to 21 points but with tennis like rules of winning by two points. In other words, if you're tied at 20 to 20 at the end, someone must win 2 points in a row to become the victor. In game point situations, two changes take place:
- The opposing player (the one who doesn't have 20 points) gets the serve throughout the rest of the game.
- Misserves do not cost a point. You cannot lose on the serve so serves that are long, short or off target just get forgiven and the serving player/team gets to try again.
- Excessive misserves (10 or more) count as a concession of defeat so if you misserve 10 times in a row at the end, the opposing player/team automatically wins. This rule is only there to keep someone from trying to make the game go on forever rather than simply admitting defeat.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Pulling the Trigger
by Crazy Ivan
In the movie The Karate Kid (the original), there's this spectacular scene where Mr. Miyogi (Pat Morita) and Daniel (Ralph Macchio) are at the bad guy's dojo. He's got this really hard core sensei (Martin Kove) and he's giving this hard core speech about how hard core his dojo is. He says "We do not train to be merciful here. Mercy is for the weak. Here, in the streets, in competition: A man confronts you, he is the enemy. An enemy deserves no mercy." Because he's so hard core.
Now, in the movie, this is meant to explain why Daniel's tormentor, Johnny (William Zabka) is so ruthless about beating him up. It's supposed to be the worst thing that his teacher could be telling him in a karate class. It was supposed to be the kind of heartless, merciless, emotionless thing that one bad guy in a movie would teach another bad guy in a movie.
Which is why I feel kind of weird giving that exact advice on this blog.
But that's exactly what I'm going to tell you tonight... when you are playing MYACH, your enemy deserves no mercy. You have to be ready to pull the trigger at a moment's notice. Mercy will become losing really quick. Now, if you're okay with giving a friend a win here or there, that's fine. Noble even. But if you're just trying to keep from beating somebody MYACH to M, you just need to suck it up and pull the trigger.
It's not that we want people to be ruthless in Myachi. Nothing could be further from the truth. We promote respect and discipline above all other things (with confidence, patience and passion rounding out the top 5). But if you're going to enter into a competition, you're best bet is to set mercy aside for a few minutes.
I'll give you an example of how that can go wrong for you in a heartbeat. And I'll draw from my own experiences to make it more human.
So tonight I'm on the brawl. I'm more distracted than usual because I'm helping Myachi Man put together this big power point presentation for a meeting tomorrow so for the first hour I have to decline all the MYACH invites. Finally, at about a quarter after seven I'm (more or less) done with all that and Gold (or Jakeums if he'd prefer) challenges me to a game of MYACH.
Now, I do have a mercy rule in MYACH. If I'm playing against another Myachi Master (or Mantis), I just do my best tricks and hope not to lose. But if I'm playing against a Maniac, I have a rule: I'll never use a move that I know my opponent can't do. For example, if I know you don't have a Toe Stall, I'm not going to call a Toe 360 on you.
That's not to say I'll go easy on everyone. I want to challenge my opponents, but I don't want to call 4 Myachi juggles on somebody who's still learning the Matrix either.
So Gold is in a pretty high echelon for a Maniac. I know that he's got me beat in Cross-Body moves (under the legs, yogas, behind the backs, etc.) so I can pretty much count on him getting at least one letter with some yoga/crazy leg combination and he's got enough in his arsenal to threaten me with a few other moves as well.
He strikes first and gets me an M (on exactly one of those weird yoga/crazy leg combos I was expecting) and I exacerbate the problem my missing my first set. He misses his second and I call 3 consecutive right to left Daredevils for my second set. I get it, he gets it. Still down a letter.
Eventually I battle back and get my game on straight. I knock out two letters with foot tricks and another with a juggling combo. And don't think I was being mean here... the dude hit the first juggling combo I threw at him and then called a 3 Myachi Juggle with an Under the Leg and a Toe Stall in it on me later. So he can juggle. But I've got a slight edge there (5 years earning my living as a street performing juggler).
After a long battle he gives me an unintentional break. On 3 separate occasions he calls something with 20 behind the backs (pretzel style so you're throwing and catching back and forth behind your back) and missed on the 20th catch... actually, he only did that twice. On the other one I think he'd added a Mojo Rising at the end and then missed that after doing 20 Pretzel Behind the Backs.
This allows me to get a big lead. I end up with a MYAC to M score.
And then I start feeling merciful.
See, I'm feeling 99% sure that this dude doesn't have a lefty/righty Matrix. I've only used one multi-Myachi move so I've got one more I can pull out. I start going a bit easier. Not easy, mind you, but easier. I take my foot off the gas. I don't pull the trigger.
Now, I think I'm being nice, but in retrospect I'm actually insulting JDM's skills (that's another one of his nicknames). And he makes me pay for it. While I'm messing around with Daring Slingshots and 2 in one hand juggles, he starts hitting some of his sets. He finally nails the 20 Pretzel Behind the Backs and I get about 12 of them... I think. Maybe I'm revising history there because I only got two or three and I'm trying to block that out. It happens.
He got me with something else too. It was a Slingshot to a Mojo to a Slingshot. I should have hit that, but I can't honestly recall ever going straight from a Mojo to a Slingshot so it was a perfect MYACH call. I tried it for the first time and missed it (I've hit it six out of seven tries so don't go thinking you know my MYACH weakness now).
So now all of a sudden my comfortable lead is gone. I'm up MYAC to MYA. I say to myself, "self, it's time to pull out that lefty/righty Matrix."
I call it and Gold sighs. He knows he's got only a very slight chance of hitting this. But it doesn't matter. Because I miss it. Badly.
And now we get to the whole point of this convoluted recollection. I didn't pull the trigger early enough. I've messed around too long and not taken the challenge seriously enough and now he's in a very advantageous position. If he can get one more letter on me (and I have no doubt that he could), he puts me in redemption.
If you don't know about the redemption rule, tough. It's too long to get into now. Suffice to say that MYACH is kind of like tennis and you kind of have to win by two. But not really. But kind of. The end result of this rule is that if he earns a letter on me now, getting one letter won't win me the game. I'll still have to get him one more time. Maybe. Probably. But not definitely.
What it meant, ultimately, is that I never should have held my kill shot for so long. This was just a friendly game so it wouldn't have mattered much if I'd lost (though it would've stung my pride since I've been playing Myachi almost as long as he's been walking). But if this was a serious competition I'd have really jeopardized myself. One way or the other I'd just essentially given my opponent back the ball inside the two minute warning.
Luckily for me I weathered the storm. He called a tough one but I hit it. I managed my lefty/righty Matrix on the next set and won the game by a hair's breadth. But the moral of this story is that there was no guarantee. And there's never a guarantee.
If you've got a killer trick that you hit 99% of the time and your 99% sure that you're opponent will miss it 99% of the time, there are still a lot of ways that can go wrong for you. Sure, the odds are overwhelmingly on your side. But I can't honestly remember the last time I missed a lefty/righty Matrix. I can normally go back and forth with that all day.
But at this moment, I didn't have it. And there's always that slight chance that you're going to miss your favorite set. There's always a chance that you're going to take a letter that you didn't think you'd take. There's always a chance that your opponent has gotten better since the last time you battled them. And there's always a chance that you could lose.
No lead is overwhelming in a game of MYACH. Even if you're up MYAC to nothing (the largest lead you can have without already having won) it only takes two misses on your set and three tough ones from your opponent to put you in a position where you absolutely need to letter somebody right now.
Think about that for a second. You're up 4/nil in a game and decide it's time for the death blow. It's a tough move (it would kind of have to be), but it's one you're really good at it. You almost never miss. But you do. Twice.
That's all it takes to be in a one point game and you always have to assume that you could miss at a moment's notice. Never take a lead for granted in a game of MYACH because if you do, it will disappear.
Now, I know I could have said that in far fewer words, but I have a rule in life. If you can work in a Karate Kid reference, you work in the Karate Kid reference, no matter how far you then have to go to make your point. I apologize, but I can't honestly say that I won't do it again.
In the movie The Karate Kid (the original), there's this spectacular scene where Mr. Miyogi (Pat Morita) and Daniel (Ralph Macchio) are at the bad guy's dojo. He's got this really hard core sensei (Martin Kove) and he's giving this hard core speech about how hard core his dojo is. He says "We do not train to be merciful here. Mercy is for the weak. Here, in the streets, in competition: A man confronts you, he is the enemy. An enemy deserves no mercy." Because he's so hard core.
Now, in the movie, this is meant to explain why Daniel's tormentor, Johnny (William Zabka) is so ruthless about beating him up. It's supposed to be the worst thing that his teacher could be telling him in a karate class. It was supposed to be the kind of heartless, merciless, emotionless thing that one bad guy in a movie would teach another bad guy in a movie.
 |
| Here you see this ruthless bad guy donning the only facial expression he uses in the movie... or his career. |
But that's exactly what I'm going to tell you tonight... when you are playing MYACH, your enemy deserves no mercy. You have to be ready to pull the trigger at a moment's notice. Mercy will become losing really quick. Now, if you're okay with giving a friend a win here or there, that's fine. Noble even. But if you're just trying to keep from beating somebody MYACH to M, you just need to suck it up and pull the trigger.
It's not that we want people to be ruthless in Myachi. Nothing could be further from the truth. We promote respect and discipline above all other things (with confidence, patience and passion rounding out the top 5). But if you're going to enter into a competition, you're best bet is to set mercy aside for a few minutes.
I'll give you an example of how that can go wrong for you in a heartbeat. And I'll draw from my own experiences to make it more human.
So tonight I'm on the brawl. I'm more distracted than usual because I'm helping Myachi Man put together this big power point presentation for a meeting tomorrow so for the first hour I have to decline all the MYACH invites. Finally, at about a quarter after seven I'm (more or less) done with all that and Gold (or Jakeums if he'd prefer) challenges me to a game of MYACH.
Now, I do have a mercy rule in MYACH. If I'm playing against another Myachi Master (or Mantis), I just do my best tricks and hope not to lose. But if I'm playing against a Maniac, I have a rule: I'll never use a move that I know my opponent can't do. For example, if I know you don't have a Toe Stall, I'm not going to call a Toe 360 on you.
That's not to say I'll go easy on everyone. I want to challenge my opponents, but I don't want to call 4 Myachi juggles on somebody who's still learning the Matrix either.
So Gold is in a pretty high echelon for a Maniac. I know that he's got me beat in Cross-Body moves (under the legs, yogas, behind the backs, etc.) so I can pretty much count on him getting at least one letter with some yoga/crazy leg combination and he's got enough in his arsenal to threaten me with a few other moves as well.
He strikes first and gets me an M (on exactly one of those weird yoga/crazy leg combos I was expecting) and I exacerbate the problem my missing my first set. He misses his second and I call 3 consecutive right to left Daredevils for my second set. I get it, he gets it. Still down a letter.
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| He's kind of like this, only with a Myachi. |
After a long battle he gives me an unintentional break. On 3 separate occasions he calls something with 20 behind the backs (pretzel style so you're throwing and catching back and forth behind your back) and missed on the 20th catch... actually, he only did that twice. On the other one I think he'd added a Mojo Rising at the end and then missed that after doing 20 Pretzel Behind the Backs.
This allows me to get a big lead. I end up with a MYAC to M score.
And then I start feeling merciful.
See, I'm feeling 99% sure that this dude doesn't have a lefty/righty Matrix. I've only used one multi-Myachi move so I've got one more I can pull out. I start going a bit easier. Not easy, mind you, but easier. I take my foot off the gas. I don't pull the trigger.
Now, I think I'm being nice, but in retrospect I'm actually insulting JDM's skills (that's another one of his nicknames). And he makes me pay for it. While I'm messing around with Daring Slingshots and 2 in one hand juggles, he starts hitting some of his sets. He finally nails the 20 Pretzel Behind the Backs and I get about 12 of them... I think. Maybe I'm revising history there because I only got two or three and I'm trying to block that out. It happens.
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| I do the same thing with high school. |
So now all of a sudden my comfortable lead is gone. I'm up MYAC to MYA. I say to myself, "self, it's time to pull out that lefty/righty Matrix."
I call it and Gold sighs. He knows he's got only a very slight chance of hitting this. But it doesn't matter. Because I miss it. Badly.
And now we get to the whole point of this convoluted recollection. I didn't pull the trigger early enough. I've messed around too long and not taken the challenge seriously enough and now he's in a very advantageous position. If he can get one more letter on me (and I have no doubt that he could), he puts me in redemption.
If you don't know about the redemption rule, tough. It's too long to get into now. Suffice to say that MYACH is kind of like tennis and you kind of have to win by two. But not really. But kind of. The end result of this rule is that if he earns a letter on me now, getting one letter won't win me the game. I'll still have to get him one more time. Maybe. Probably. But not definitely.
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| Here, the redemption rule is portrayed graphically. |
Luckily for me I weathered the storm. He called a tough one but I hit it. I managed my lefty/righty Matrix on the next set and won the game by a hair's breadth. But the moral of this story is that there was no guarantee. And there's never a guarantee.
If you've got a killer trick that you hit 99% of the time and your 99% sure that you're opponent will miss it 99% of the time, there are still a lot of ways that can go wrong for you. Sure, the odds are overwhelmingly on your side. But I can't honestly remember the last time I missed a lefty/righty Matrix. I can normally go back and forth with that all day.
But at this moment, I didn't have it. And there's always that slight chance that you're going to miss your favorite set. There's always a chance that you're going to take a letter that you didn't think you'd take. There's always a chance that your opponent has gotten better since the last time you battled them. And there's always a chance that you could lose.
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| There's also a chance a meteor could fall and knock your Myachi out of the air, but it's a really, really small one. |
Think about that for a second. You're up 4/nil in a game and decide it's time for the death blow. It's a tough move (it would kind of have to be), but it's one you're really good at it. You almost never miss. But you do. Twice.
That's all it takes to be in a one point game and you always have to assume that you could miss at a moment's notice. Never take a lead for granted in a game of MYACH because if you do, it will disappear.
Now, I know I could have said that in far fewer words, but I have a rule in life. If you can work in a Karate Kid reference, you work in the Karate Kid reference, no matter how far you then have to go to make your point. I apologize, but I can't honestly say that I won't do it again.
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