by Crazy Ivan
Possibly the single greatest thing about Myachi is the fact that it is so adaptable. There are so few limitations to the game that basically, whatever your skill set is when you get into the game, it can immediately be applied to your unique style in the game. Baseball players will immediately start throwing big airs, behind the backs, heavy rotations and fast swaps. Gymnasts will throw down sick under the leg and reverse BtB combos. Musicians will tend toward rhythmic swaps and shreds with wavering cadence. I could keep offering examples for another twelve paragraphs, but I think you get the point.
As a company and as a movement, we recognize this fact and try to bring people into the game from a lot of different backgrounds. This fact is pretty easy to see when you look at our street team. Every Myachi Master in the game comes from a different background and this allows the game itself to constantly evolve in several directions at once. There was a time when the new tricks in the game were successive; each one building upon the limitations of the last. But today that evolution is more like a tree that branches off and bifurcates over and over again, with dozens and dozens of branches reaching ever higher. The reason for that change is simply the addition of Myachi Masters with ever more diverse backgrounds.
If there was a reality show about the Myachi Masters (and there really should be), you would probably see all of it in the opening credits. I can see the images now. You would see Myachi Man and he'd probably be on the phone with somebody in China while texting someone in Germany while rushing through an airport terminal on his way from Miami to New York or something. And then the shot would freeze frame and it would say "Myachi Man" at the top. On the bottom, it would have say "the Entrepreneur".
Next we'd see Kid and he'd probably be at a trade show with a crowd of businessmen and women in expensive suits all trying to pull of Under the Leg 360s. The shot would freeze there and the words "Kid Myach" would appear at the top with "the Salesman" underneath. I guess it could just say "the laid-back surfer dude", so I'll have to get with Kid and see what he'd prefer.
I'd come next (it's chronological here) and I'd probably be shown juggling torches while riding a unicycle or something like that. Maybe I'd be doing fire poi while on stilts or throwing down diabolo tricks on a slackline, but whatever it was, the screen would freeze in the middle of the chaos and it would say "Crazy Ivan" with the tagline "The Juggler".
Next we'd see Maverick and there's no question that he'd be long-boarding when we got our first glimpse of him. He'd probably be throwing down some footbag tricks in the middle of some crazy cross step thing and then it would freeze right when people were starting to wonder if his skills had been enhanced with CGI and it would say "Maverick" and while I will always think of him first and foremost as the hacky-sacker, I suppose it would be just as appropriate at this point to call him the "Longboarder". That being said, pretty much all of the Myachi Masters longboard at this point, so we'll stick with "The Footbagger" for him.
As the credits went on we'd meet (in no particular order) "Monk; the Flair Bartender", "Noodles, the Dancer", "Lucky; the Singer", "Chill; the Athlete", and "Hops; the Free-Runner". Each one of them, of course brings a different background to the game that shows up in the tricks that they create, the combos they put together and the very style they bring to the game.
Of course, our astute readers will have noticed that several names were missing from that list. Pinky, Bones and Bamboo simply aren't as pigeonhole-able as the rest of the team, but that's not to say that their contribution is any less important. When Bones joined the team, he wasn't a juggler or a footbagger or a flair bartender or a singer or an athlete or a free-runner... he was a Myachi Maniac. His first serious foray into skill toys was with a Myachi and thus his style is completely internal to the game. And I can assure you, this hasn't slowed him down a lick in the "creating tricks, putting together combos and having unique style" department.
Bamboo is in the same boat, of course, and while Pinky was a juggler long before she learned Myachi, she is far more dedicated to Myachi than she ever was to traditional toss juggling. I also think that Pinky should get the coveted "and featuring" spot at the very end of the opening credits, but perhaps that's just my pro-the-woman-that-I-love prejudice shining through.
The point is that everybody brings something different to the game and that's what makes it so great. Right now I'm trying to learn tricks that Mav created and a few that Animal created. And a few that Bones created. And one that Bamboo came up with. And some combos Lucky's been putting together. And some stuff Hops is working on. Oh yeah, and a few tricks I came up with.
I'll be celebrating my eighth anniversary as a Myachi Master later on this month. When I look back at my early days I remember how it all seemed so overwhelming. There were so many challenges to master and so many tricks to learn. I'm really happy that after eight years and after all I've learned, there are still every bit as many challenges to best.
Friday, June 15, 2012
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
The Collector's Dilemma
by Crazy Ivan
I've written about this phenomenon before and I've gone through it plenty in my near-decade as a Myachi Master, but that doesn't make it any easier. The question that I'm asking myself now is one that many a Myachi collector has asked themselves over and over again. To jam or not to jam?
The subjects of this question right now are two brand new belts, one black and one green. One of the advantages to being married to the woman who controls the Myachi vault is that I get all the newest releases on the day of their release. I should mention here that as awesome a person as Pinky is, this is only one of an unfathomably large number of advantages to being married to her. But that's kind of off subject...
So back to these two pristine Belts that are sitting on my coffee table. They're in little plastic baggies that protect them from all the harmful elements in the room (mostly my cats) and have been for about a couple of weeks. I've taken them out a couple of times to get a feel for the fabric and I jammed with the green belt for a few seconds to get a taste of the fabric, but with those exceptions, they haven't been outside their baggies.
In a sense, that seems criminal. By now I could have both of them nice and yummy and well on their way to SUMPOY. I've jammed with two of the new Black Belts that were completely broken in and they were as delicious as any Pakisack I've ever jammed with, so I know what the potential is here. But despite that, I still haven't jammed with them.
The reason is obvious to any collector. These Myachis are mad rare. We made fewer than 100 of each so I'm not going to get a chance to get any more. I still have mint condition samples of all three of the old Belts in my collection (along with a mint Golden Nugget) and when I add in these two, I will probably have the only collection of all 5 Belts in mint condition anywhere in the world. So how could I jam with them?
I should admit that for me, this question isn't as pressing as it is for some. I've got hundreds and hundreds of Myachis in my collection so I've got plenty of other really broken-in sacks to jam with whenever I want. I even have a second old-school Black Belt that is yummy beyond belief. So there's no real need to break these in, despite the temptations to the contrary. But I know that many others with smaller but still respectable collections are currently dealing with this same issue. And for them there isn't an option to just jam with their other broken in Black Belt.
To a certain degree, every Myachi collector deals with this every time they add a new Myachi to their collection. Ideally, my collection would consist of two of everything so I could keep one in mint condition and have another one that was insanely yummy. But even a Myachi Master can't realistically pull that off.
In the end, I'll be keeping my Belts in their bags and as criminal as it seems to keep such incredible potential locked up, it's easy for me to justify. I remember when the old Belts were the new Belts. Back then I was faced with this same dilemma and I chose not to break in my set. I did get a hold of another Black Belt along the way, but even if I hadn't, I wouldn't regret the decision. Not many people in the game today have ever seen a mint condition White Belt unless they've seen mine.
I've written about this phenomenon before and I've gone through it plenty in my near-decade as a Myachi Master, but that doesn't make it any easier. The question that I'm asking myself now is one that many a Myachi collector has asked themselves over and over again. To jam or not to jam?
The subjects of this question right now are two brand new belts, one black and one green. One of the advantages to being married to the woman who controls the Myachi vault is that I get all the newest releases on the day of their release. I should mention here that as awesome a person as Pinky is, this is only one of an unfathomably large number of advantages to being married to her. But that's kind of off subject...
So back to these two pristine Belts that are sitting on my coffee table. They're in little plastic baggies that protect them from all the harmful elements in the room (mostly my cats) and have been for about a couple of weeks. I've taken them out a couple of times to get a feel for the fabric and I jammed with the green belt for a few seconds to get a taste of the fabric, but with those exceptions, they haven't been outside their baggies.
In a sense, that seems criminal. By now I could have both of them nice and yummy and well on their way to SUMPOY. I've jammed with two of the new Black Belts that were completely broken in and they were as delicious as any Pakisack I've ever jammed with, so I know what the potential is here. But despite that, I still haven't jammed with them.
The reason is obvious to any collector. These Myachis are mad rare. We made fewer than 100 of each so I'm not going to get a chance to get any more. I still have mint condition samples of all three of the old Belts in my collection (along with a mint Golden Nugget) and when I add in these two, I will probably have the only collection of all 5 Belts in mint condition anywhere in the world. So how could I jam with them?
I should admit that for me, this question isn't as pressing as it is for some. I've got hundreds and hundreds of Myachis in my collection so I've got plenty of other really broken-in sacks to jam with whenever I want. I even have a second old-school Black Belt that is yummy beyond belief. So there's no real need to break these in, despite the temptations to the contrary. But I know that many others with smaller but still respectable collections are currently dealing with this same issue. And for them there isn't an option to just jam with their other broken in Black Belt.
To a certain degree, every Myachi collector deals with this every time they add a new Myachi to their collection. Ideally, my collection would consist of two of everything so I could keep one in mint condition and have another one that was insanely yummy. But even a Myachi Master can't realistically pull that off.
In the end, I'll be keeping my Belts in their bags and as criminal as it seems to keep such incredible potential locked up, it's easy for me to justify. I remember when the old Belts were the new Belts. Back then I was faced with this same dilemma and I chose not to break in my set. I did get a hold of another Black Belt along the way, but even if I hadn't, I wouldn't regret the decision. Not many people in the game today have ever seen a mint condition White Belt unless they've seen mine.
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
The Belts are Back!
by Crazy Ivan
They arrived late on Tuesday to much fanfare and excitement. The longest awaited rerelease in Myachi history has finally come to pass.
There have been rampant rumors leading up to this, so let me confirm some and dispel some others. There are two colors available, Black and Green. They are differentiated enough from the originals that old Black Belts will not lose any trade value. The new belts have the Myachi title printed below the logo and have glow stick loops so they will be immediately distinguishable from the old ones.
They will not be available in stores or on the website. You'll only be able to get them by picking them up at Myachi HQ or by calling HQ and placing a credit card order with Pinky. They were made in a very small run (fewer than 100 of each) and are available only while supplies last. We will not be able to "hold" any belts under any circumstances (sorry).
I've had the chance to jam with one, but not enough time to break one in so I can't say how they jam compared to the old ones, but I can say that they were produced by the same manufacturer with the same specifications. So my fingers are certainly crossed that they'll live up to the legendary status set by their predecessors.
Keep up with our Facebook page. We'll be putting up an announcement once they're sold out. Not sure which color will sell out first, but we'll announce that as well once we know. And we expect these will sell out in days if not hours, so get your order in quickly if you want one.
And for all of you who have been emailing and messaging me about this for the last month, you can finally exhale.
They arrived late on Tuesday to much fanfare and excitement. The longest awaited rerelease in Myachi history has finally come to pass.
There have been rampant rumors leading up to this, so let me confirm some and dispel some others. There are two colors available, Black and Green. They are differentiated enough from the originals that old Black Belts will not lose any trade value. The new belts have the Myachi title printed below the logo and have glow stick loops so they will be immediately distinguishable from the old ones.
They will not be available in stores or on the website. You'll only be able to get them by picking them up at Myachi HQ or by calling HQ and placing a credit card order with Pinky. They were made in a very small run (fewer than 100 of each) and are available only while supplies last. We will not be able to "hold" any belts under any circumstances (sorry).
I've had the chance to jam with one, but not enough time to break one in so I can't say how they jam compared to the old ones, but I can say that they were produced by the same manufacturer with the same specifications. So my fingers are certainly crossed that they'll live up to the legendary status set by their predecessors.
Keep up with our Facebook page. We'll be putting up an announcement once they're sold out. Not sure which color will sell out first, but we'll announce that as well once we know. And we expect these will sell out in days if not hours, so get your order in quickly if you want one.
And for all of you who have been emailing and messaging me about this for the last month, you can finally exhale.
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Revisiting
by Crazy Ivan
Sometimes it's a real struggle to come up with the right analogies for this blog. I know that our loyal readers range in age from as young as 9 to as old as 50+, so occasionally it can be tough to think of an analogy that will be meaningful to people of such vastly different ages. But on this occasion, I think I've got one that people can look at from either side of and relate to.
For my older readers, think of a niece, nephew or the child of an old friend that you only see once in a while. You might only see them once every few years so when you do, it's always amazing how much they've grown. Their parents don't see it the way you do because they see them growing gradually every day, but for you it seems to happen all at once.
And for my younger readers, think about it from the other side. Consider an aunt, uncle or old friend of your mom's who you only see once every few years. What's the first thing they say when they see you? They're shocked at how big you are, as though growing were unexpected behavior from a child. You know that they know kids get bigger over the years, but they still seem surprised because it seems to them to have happened all at once.
So with that in mind, let's turn back to Myachi.
As many of you know, Pinky and I spent a week in the Outer Banks of North Carolina (my second favorite place on earth) a couple of weeks back. We were touring around to all the Kitty Hawk Kites locations, promoting Myachi and teaching their employees how to play the game. It was an awesome week and I wish we could've stayed for a month, but that's beside the point.
While we were there, I got a chance to see an old friend I hadn't seen in several years. He's a Myachi fan from way back and knew the game even before I did. He's been working with KHK for years now and first came to the game when Kid Myach was demoing in the store back in 2001. Over the years Kid and I have dropped in on the area about once a year, but there was a period for about 3 years when neither of us made it our there and there was no real Myachi mania in the area.
Now fast forward to this year and an evening last week when Doug, Pinky and I all got a chance to hang out and have a cookout. We reminisced over old times, drowned a few overcooked burgers in ketchup, drooled over his incredible collection of paper tags and caught up on all the intervening years. At a certain point, of course, we started jamming.
And here's where we reach that analogy. Doug was like the uncle who was seeing his suddenly much larger nephew. The game had grown so much in the few years since I'd seen him that he hardly recognized any of the moves in my jam. So much had changed that what used to be a master level move was now simply the opening salvo in an endless array of combos.
He had never seen a split trick, a merge, a splurge or a portal. He'd never seen a variation on the Daredevil or a multi Myachi duck trick. He'd never seen any juggling trick beyond a three Myachi cascade. He'd never seen a variation on the Matrix. He'd never seen the Jedi, the Pteradon, the Flying Fish, the Psycho, the Maverick, the Houdini, the Tripod, the Do-What, the Armageddon or the Stopwatch. He'd never seen a three Myachi routine that incorporated simultaneous foot and hand tricks. He'd never even seen the Matrix Reloaded.
And this is a guy who used to really know the game. He just stared in amazement, flabergasted by how big the game had gotten in his absence. And I felt like the kid seeing his uncle again. Didn't he expect the game to grow? Didn't he know that new tricks, variations and games would appear? Well of course he did. I see the slow growth that happens every day and even I am shocked when I look back at how much has changed. But to be presented with it all at once would shock anyone, I suppose.
And of course, when you look at the past, you can't help but eventually glance over your shoulder at the future and wonder what new level of tricks we'll be showing Doug in 2015.
Sometimes it's a real struggle to come up with the right analogies for this blog. I know that our loyal readers range in age from as young as 9 to as old as 50+, so occasionally it can be tough to think of an analogy that will be meaningful to people of such vastly different ages. But on this occasion, I think I've got one that people can look at from either side of and relate to.
For my older readers, think of a niece, nephew or the child of an old friend that you only see once in a while. You might only see them once every few years so when you do, it's always amazing how much they've grown. Their parents don't see it the way you do because they see them growing gradually every day, but for you it seems to happen all at once.
And for my younger readers, think about it from the other side. Consider an aunt, uncle or old friend of your mom's who you only see once every few years. What's the first thing they say when they see you? They're shocked at how big you are, as though growing were unexpected behavior from a child. You know that they know kids get bigger over the years, but they still seem surprised because it seems to them to have happened all at once.
So with that in mind, let's turn back to Myachi.
As many of you know, Pinky and I spent a week in the Outer Banks of North Carolina (my second favorite place on earth) a couple of weeks back. We were touring around to all the Kitty Hawk Kites locations, promoting Myachi and teaching their employees how to play the game. It was an awesome week and I wish we could've stayed for a month, but that's beside the point.
While we were there, I got a chance to see an old friend I hadn't seen in several years. He's a Myachi fan from way back and knew the game even before I did. He's been working with KHK for years now and first came to the game when Kid Myach was demoing in the store back in 2001. Over the years Kid and I have dropped in on the area about once a year, but there was a period for about 3 years when neither of us made it our there and there was no real Myachi mania in the area.
Now fast forward to this year and an evening last week when Doug, Pinky and I all got a chance to hang out and have a cookout. We reminisced over old times, drowned a few overcooked burgers in ketchup, drooled over his incredible collection of paper tags and caught up on all the intervening years. At a certain point, of course, we started jamming.
And here's where we reach that analogy. Doug was like the uncle who was seeing his suddenly much larger nephew. The game had grown so much in the few years since I'd seen him that he hardly recognized any of the moves in my jam. So much had changed that what used to be a master level move was now simply the opening salvo in an endless array of combos.
He had never seen a split trick, a merge, a splurge or a portal. He'd never seen a variation on the Daredevil or a multi Myachi duck trick. He'd never seen any juggling trick beyond a three Myachi cascade. He'd never seen a variation on the Matrix. He'd never seen the Jedi, the Pteradon, the Flying Fish, the Psycho, the Maverick, the Houdini, the Tripod, the Do-What, the Armageddon or the Stopwatch. He'd never seen a three Myachi routine that incorporated simultaneous foot and hand tricks. He'd never even seen the Matrix Reloaded.
And this is a guy who used to really know the game. He just stared in amazement, flabergasted by how big the game had gotten in his absence. And I felt like the kid seeing his uncle again. Didn't he expect the game to grow? Didn't he know that new tricks, variations and games would appear? Well of course he did. I see the slow growth that happens every day and even I am shocked when I look back at how much has changed. But to be presented with it all at once would shock anyone, I suppose.
And of course, when you look at the past, you can't help but eventually glance over your shoulder at the future and wonder what new level of tricks we'll be showing Doug in 2015.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Using Strikes Correctly
by Crazy Ivan
Being a good hacky-sacker helps out a ton when it comes to being a good Myachi player. Hacky-sackers generally have some of the hardest motions in the game down before they start playing. Not only do they take to the foot tricks quicker, but they also usually "get" the hand motions faster. They understand the nature of the aerial and they see a lot of the possibilities right away. So if I teach an avid hacky-sacker the 360 and the Illusion, they'll usually figure out the Wolverine, the 720, the Double Illusion and the Sonic on their own. Moving from footbag to Myachi is like moving from piano to guitar; they're both really different, but knowledge of one helps you learn the other.
That being said, for all the advantage the hacky-sacker has, there is one disadvantage that they must overcome. When I teach a hacky-sacker to play Myachi, the very first thing most of them do is start batting the Myachi with the back of the hand.
This is the wrong way to go, as any Myachi player can tell you. Sure, you can bat a Myachi around on the back of your hand all day if you want but (a) it doesn't look very cool, (b) it's hard to keep under control, (c) it kind of hurts your hand and (d) it's not very fun. That's just not the game that we play. But that's primarily the game that most hacky sack players are used to. There's is a game of consecutive strikes; of keeping the sack going.
Myachi is, of course, much more a game of style and control. So one of the first things I tell people (and indeed one of the first instructions you'll read on your official Myachi playbook) is not to strike or bat the Myachi. It's something that we're always pretty clear on at first.
But then, as you get better and better at the game the strikes find their way back into your shreds. Usually the Trampoline is the first one to get there, but then the kicks and knee-pops show back up along with moves like the Popper or the Melon Popper. Eventually, strikes become a pretty big part of the game. Having a solid toe-save can be one of the most important aspects of freestyle shredding and Fu. So that leads a lot of people to wonder why we discourage strikes so much at first. It is, after all, a pretty substantial part of the game.
There are a few reasons that we discourage strikes and foremost of them is simply that it's really difficult to learn to control a Myachi if you're striking it. You kind of have to learn the control first. It's also important to control the spin of the Myachi leading into a strike, otherwise you catch a point or corner that causes the Myachi to spin out of control. So the first and most important reason to discourage striking is that it makes the game easier to learn. But the drawback to that is that many people never really learn to control their strikes.
Eventually this becomes a weakness. As I already mentioned, having a good kick-save helps a ton in both freestyle and Fu, but weak striking abilities are even more detrimental in a game of MYACH. Even novice games include multiple Trampolines, but among veteran players, marathons of kicks or alternating Poppers are not at all uncommon. So clearly a well rounded Myachi player will need to master this element of the game as well.
The important thing to remember when you're working strikes is the angle of the Myachi. If the Myachi is flat at the moment of the strike, you'll have maximum control of it. The more off-angle it is, the more difficult it will be to control. The is true of all strikes, but the tougher the strike, the more important it is. Even a beginner can recover pretty easily from an off-angle Trampoline, but a Toe Pop or an Instep Kick to the corner of a Myachi can be a disaster.
The other thing to keep in mind as you practice is that strikes usually come in clumps. It will do you a lot of good to master an Instep Kick, but it will do you a lot more good to master 4 in a row. This better prepares you for MYACH games, comes in handier in kick save situations and it forces you to learn to time your kicks even with a Myachi that's spinning like crazy.
And unlike most trick types, the strikes are a breed of move that you actually want to stick together in a shred. With almost any other type of trick, I hate to see it clumped together in a shred. I hate it when somebody, for example, does all their centrifugals in one long sequence within a larger shred. The same is true of aerials, traps, portals and almost all other categories of trick. But strikes are completely different. The visible effect of a strike is multiplied every time you add another strike to the end of that.
The reason is obvious. Even someone unfamiliar with Myachi can tell that stringing a bunch of strikes together is difficult. You audience can see the inherent chaos in the move. Sprinkling a few kicks here and there in your shred is very effective; it gives you punctuation points and a good audible kick really wakes the audience up. But offering a long chain of strikes is far more impressive. When you start kicking, the audience is half-expecting every kick to go wild and the more you do in a row, the more tense the audience gets. By the end of 10 or 12 consecutive strikes, you might find your audience holding their breath in anticipation of the miss that never comes.
That being said, if you go much further than 10 or 12 strikes the routine becomes predictable and starts to get boring. Even though I encourage people to use many strikes back to back in a routine, I still endorse using strikes sparingly. It's not a huge part of the game and it shouldn't be. A little chaos is awesome, but this is a game of control.
So my suggestion when it comes to using strikes in a shred is to get them all out of the way in one big chunk. Poppers, kicks, arm-attacks and all in one long sequential shred and then no more strikes for the rest of the routine. The two real exceptions to this rule are the Trampoline (which is an audience favorite and can fit in anywhere) and the Flying Fish (which can't be done in sequence and should never be used twice in the same routine).
Being a good hacky-sacker helps out a ton when it comes to being a good Myachi player. Hacky-sackers generally have some of the hardest motions in the game down before they start playing. Not only do they take to the foot tricks quicker, but they also usually "get" the hand motions faster. They understand the nature of the aerial and they see a lot of the possibilities right away. So if I teach an avid hacky-sacker the 360 and the Illusion, they'll usually figure out the Wolverine, the 720, the Double Illusion and the Sonic on their own. Moving from footbag to Myachi is like moving from piano to guitar; they're both really different, but knowledge of one helps you learn the other.
That being said, for all the advantage the hacky-sacker has, there is one disadvantage that they must overcome. When I teach a hacky-sacker to play Myachi, the very first thing most of them do is start batting the Myachi with the back of the hand.
This is the wrong way to go, as any Myachi player can tell you. Sure, you can bat a Myachi around on the back of your hand all day if you want but (a) it doesn't look very cool, (b) it's hard to keep under control, (c) it kind of hurts your hand and (d) it's not very fun. That's just not the game that we play. But that's primarily the game that most hacky sack players are used to. There's is a game of consecutive strikes; of keeping the sack going.
Myachi is, of course, much more a game of style and control. So one of the first things I tell people (and indeed one of the first instructions you'll read on your official Myachi playbook) is not to strike or bat the Myachi. It's something that we're always pretty clear on at first.
But then, as you get better and better at the game the strikes find their way back into your shreds. Usually the Trampoline is the first one to get there, but then the kicks and knee-pops show back up along with moves like the Popper or the Melon Popper. Eventually, strikes become a pretty big part of the game. Having a solid toe-save can be one of the most important aspects of freestyle shredding and Fu. So that leads a lot of people to wonder why we discourage strikes so much at first. It is, after all, a pretty substantial part of the game.
There are a few reasons that we discourage strikes and foremost of them is simply that it's really difficult to learn to control a Myachi if you're striking it. You kind of have to learn the control first. It's also important to control the spin of the Myachi leading into a strike, otherwise you catch a point or corner that causes the Myachi to spin out of control. So the first and most important reason to discourage striking is that it makes the game easier to learn. But the drawback to that is that many people never really learn to control their strikes.
Eventually this becomes a weakness. As I already mentioned, having a good kick-save helps a ton in both freestyle and Fu, but weak striking abilities are even more detrimental in a game of MYACH. Even novice games include multiple Trampolines, but among veteran players, marathons of kicks or alternating Poppers are not at all uncommon. So clearly a well rounded Myachi player will need to master this element of the game as well.
The important thing to remember when you're working strikes is the angle of the Myachi. If the Myachi is flat at the moment of the strike, you'll have maximum control of it. The more off-angle it is, the more difficult it will be to control. The is true of all strikes, but the tougher the strike, the more important it is. Even a beginner can recover pretty easily from an off-angle Trampoline, but a Toe Pop or an Instep Kick to the corner of a Myachi can be a disaster.
The other thing to keep in mind as you practice is that strikes usually come in clumps. It will do you a lot of good to master an Instep Kick, but it will do you a lot more good to master 4 in a row. This better prepares you for MYACH games, comes in handier in kick save situations and it forces you to learn to time your kicks even with a Myachi that's spinning like crazy.
And unlike most trick types, the strikes are a breed of move that you actually want to stick together in a shred. With almost any other type of trick, I hate to see it clumped together in a shred. I hate it when somebody, for example, does all their centrifugals in one long sequence within a larger shred. The same is true of aerials, traps, portals and almost all other categories of trick. But strikes are completely different. The visible effect of a strike is multiplied every time you add another strike to the end of that.
The reason is obvious. Even someone unfamiliar with Myachi can tell that stringing a bunch of strikes together is difficult. You audience can see the inherent chaos in the move. Sprinkling a few kicks here and there in your shred is very effective; it gives you punctuation points and a good audible kick really wakes the audience up. But offering a long chain of strikes is far more impressive. When you start kicking, the audience is half-expecting every kick to go wild and the more you do in a row, the more tense the audience gets. By the end of 10 or 12 consecutive strikes, you might find your audience holding their breath in anticipation of the miss that never comes.
That being said, if you go much further than 10 or 12 strikes the routine becomes predictable and starts to get boring. Even though I encourage people to use many strikes back to back in a routine, I still endorse using strikes sparingly. It's not a huge part of the game and it shouldn't be. A little chaos is awesome, but this is a game of control.
So my suggestion when it comes to using strikes in a shred is to get them all out of the way in one big chunk. Poppers, kicks, arm-attacks and all in one long sequential shred and then no more strikes for the rest of the routine. The two real exceptions to this rule are the Trampoline (which is an audience favorite and can fit in anywhere) and the Flying Fish (which can't be done in sequence and should never be used twice in the same routine).
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
The World According to Myachi
by Crazy Ivan
The other day I got a couple of guys from Lithuania into the game. They were in the city for a couple of days on business and had wandered in looking for souvenirs for their kids. They got distracted by Bones throwing down a crazy foot shred and once I caught them looking it was over. A few minutes later I've got them each doing Wolverines and a few minutes after that they were picking out Myachis to keep them company at the airport.
I can't say for certain, but I think that marks the first time I've ever personally sent Myachis to Lithuania. It might simply be that I met a family from Lithuania years ago and got them into the game. Maybe I forgot where they said they were from and maybe I simply neglected to ask. Of course, even if I never sent Myachis to Lithuania, it's possible if not probable that Myachi Man, Kid, Maverick, Monk, Animal, Bones, Noodles or one of the many other Myachi Masters that does this on a daily basis has. For all I know, Lithuania is absolutely crawling with Myachi Mania.
But it did get me to thinking about where Myachis have and haven't been. So I made the map you see below. In this map, the Blue countries are the ones where we've actually sent a Myachi Master. The Purple are the countries where we've had Maniacs that either joined our forum, put up YouTube videos or otherwise stayed in contact with the Myachi community. The Gray countries are places I've sent Myachis, meaning that I've met people from these countries, taught them the game and then they've bought Myachis to take home. Alas the White countries are the ones that, for all I know, have yet to see their first Myachi:
The other day I got a couple of guys from Lithuania into the game. They were in the city for a couple of days on business and had wandered in looking for souvenirs for their kids. They got distracted by Bones throwing down a crazy foot shred and once I caught them looking it was over. A few minutes later I've got them each doing Wolverines and a few minutes after that they were picking out Myachis to keep them company at the airport.
I can't say for certain, but I think that marks the first time I've ever personally sent Myachis to Lithuania. It might simply be that I met a family from Lithuania years ago and got them into the game. Maybe I forgot where they said they were from and maybe I simply neglected to ask. Of course, even if I never sent Myachis to Lithuania, it's possible if not probable that Myachi Man, Kid, Maverick, Monk, Animal, Bones, Noodles or one of the many other Myachi Masters that does this on a daily basis has. For all I know, Lithuania is absolutely crawling with Myachi Mania.
But it did get me to thinking about where Myachis have and haven't been. So I made the map you see below. In this map, the Blue countries are the ones where we've actually sent a Myachi Master. The Purple are the countries where we've had Maniacs that either joined our forum, put up YouTube videos or otherwise stayed in contact with the Myachi community. The Gray countries are places I've sent Myachis, meaning that I've met people from these countries, taught them the game and then they've bought Myachis to take home. Alas the White countries are the ones that, for all I know, have yet to see their first Myachi:
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Choosing the New Series
by Crazy Ivan
Right now at the House of Skills, the dining room table has been taken over. There will be no dining on it for at least a couple more days.
That's not really a huge problem for us. Pinky and I usually eat downstairs in our apartment (also known as the basement) and Monk and Mav usually just order some sushi or chinese or pizza or whatever and eat in the living room. Kid, Lucky and Bones are rarely here at dinner time so I can't really comment on their dining habits except to say that they don't involve the dining room table at the House of Skills.
That's not to say that the table doesn't get used. It's often used for important stuff like playing Myachi Ping Pong, holding up our skill toy collection for photos, card games, hurtling... it's generally a pretty busy table. Even now, it's serving a pretty important function, just not one that involves food. Right now, every inch of the table's surface is covered in fabric swatches of hundreds of different colors and patterns.
This is all part of the now very familiar procedure for choosing the upcoming series. This is the first real step, in which we select the fabrics that we'll be using. Our manufacturer in China sends us all these swatches of available fabric and we have to whittle it down from some seven or eight hundred to the number that will actually be in the series. Right now we're looking for 24 colors for both the 12 single pack series and the 6 double pack series that will accompany it.
As I've learned over the years, there's a lot more to it than simply picking out the fabrics that you think are the coolest looking. That's certainly how I tackled it the first time I was involved in the process, but after seeing a number of series come and go I've come to realize many of the important nuances of choosing a good series.
Step One: Eliminate the No-Gos
This is actually pretty straight forward. Not every swatch the manufacturer sends us is actually a good candidate for a Myachi. So the first thing to do is to go through every swatch and set aside the ones that aren't going to be any good to us. There are generally 3 things that can cause a swatch to get rejected this early on:
Right now at the House of Skills, the dining room table has been taken over. There will be no dining on it for at least a couple more days.
That's not really a huge problem for us. Pinky and I usually eat downstairs in our apartment (also known as the basement) and Monk and Mav usually just order some sushi or chinese or pizza or whatever and eat in the living room. Kid, Lucky and Bones are rarely here at dinner time so I can't really comment on their dining habits except to say that they don't involve the dining room table at the House of Skills.
That's not to say that the table doesn't get used. It's often used for important stuff like playing Myachi Ping Pong, holding up our skill toy collection for photos, card games, hurtling... it's generally a pretty busy table. Even now, it's serving a pretty important function, just not one that involves food. Right now, every inch of the table's surface is covered in fabric swatches of hundreds of different colors and patterns.
This is all part of the now very familiar procedure for choosing the upcoming series. This is the first real step, in which we select the fabrics that we'll be using. Our manufacturer in China sends us all these swatches of available fabric and we have to whittle it down from some seven or eight hundred to the number that will actually be in the series. Right now we're looking for 24 colors for both the 12 single pack series and the 6 double pack series that will accompany it.
As I've learned over the years, there's a lot more to it than simply picking out the fabrics that you think are the coolest looking. That's certainly how I tackled it the first time I was involved in the process, but after seeing a number of series come and go I've come to realize many of the important nuances of choosing a good series.
Step One: Eliminate the No-Gos
This is actually pretty straight forward. Not every swatch the manufacturer sends us is actually a good candidate for a Myachi. So the first thing to do is to go through every swatch and set aside the ones that aren't going to be any good to us. There are generally 3 things that can cause a swatch to get rejected this early on:
- Bad Fabric - Obviously, not every fabric is right for a Myachi. If a fabric is too stiff, too slippery or too tough, we can't use it at all, even if it looks really cool. Now granted, we've made some Myachis in the past that turned out to be too slippery, stiff or tough so I'm willing to admit that this isn't an exact science, but there are a number of fabrics that can be eliminated right away.
- Bad Design/Color - Sometimes you see a fabric and you have to wonder what in the world it would be useful for. Some of the swatches are the most hideous of colors and color combinations and still others are covered with repugnant imagery. I can't say exactly what makes a design or color bad, but when I'm looking at a periwinkle fabric with pictures of strawberries and puppies on it, I can feel pretty confident setting it aside.
- Big Pattern - Myachis are pretty small and most of these fabrics were designed with articles of clothing and upholstered pieces of furniture in mind, so often times the pattern is awesome, but it's too big. It's such a pain when it happens but sometimes you find the most awesome fabric pattern, but the pattern itself is so big that on a Myachi you would only see a small portion of it and wouldn't be able to see what you were looking at.
So once these ones are set aside, it's time to move on to the next step.
Step Two: Get Everyone's Opinion
Myachi isn't a one man (or one woman) show. Back in the earliest days of the movement, Myachi Man was making all these decisions on his own and had only his own tastes and experience to draw from. That's why many of the earliest series might have seemed repetitive. But these days we have a big team of qualified Myachi Masters and all of us have a lot of experience watching people pick out there Myachis. So not only do we bring in all of our own opinions and tastes, but those of us who've been at this for a while also bring some knowledge of what kind of colors and patterns sell.
This is the part of the process that we're in now, and that's why the table is covered over in swatches. We're getting the opinions of everybody (even the members of the team that don't live here, which is why the table is taken up for several days) and developing a slow consensus.
Now, there's never a 100% consensus. There will always be one that somebody really likes and nobody else likes. There will always be one fabric that we're split on. Maverick and I often have to take the role of the cynic when some of the newer masters are opining on their preferences by pointing out similar looking fabrics that produced duds. But in the end, we'll probably all agree about the majority of what goes in the series and the rest will be a compromise ultimately brokered by the Myachi Man.
Step Three: Balance the Series
This is a step that we only learned the importance of relatively recently. As the series got bigger and bigger, it became more and more important to look at the whole series together, rather than focusing on the individual sacks. If you've ever looked at a series and said "There isn't enough variety in fabric types" (series 5.2) or "There aren't enough bright colors" (series 3.2) or "There aren't enough dark colors" (series 2.1), that's because the series wasn't properly balanced.
Once we have everyone's opinions there are usually a lot of sacks that we can say are definitely in. We ask everyone to choose their ideal series independently and once we do, we look over all of them for overlap. There are usually a few fabrics that everyone had on their list. Something like the Harcore Cammo or the Red Dragon is just a no-brainer and as soon as we see the fabric we know it's gonna be part of the next series.
So we start with all those fabrics. Let's say that provides us with 8 of the 24. Then we look at what we've got and ask ourselves if it's heavy on dark or bright, if it's heavy on a specific fabric type, if it's heavy on a particular color. Then we start filling in the rest of the series with the most popular selections from everyone's choices. As we do, we continue to evaluate the whole series. Do we have enough reds? Enough blues? Too many blacks? Any greens? Is this series going to look dark on the shelves?
This is actually an extremely involved process all by itself. Not only do we have to make sure that the series is balanced, but we have to try to ensure that it will remain balanced even after the most popular sacks sell out. To get there, we not only have to figure out which will be the best sellers, but also which will be the least popular sellers that will dominate the shelves as the series draws to a close.
Step Four: Find the Alternates
It's a sad fact, but sometimes the fabrics we like the most won't be available once it comes time to pull the trigger on the series. The whole process, including shipping all these swatches from China, takes several weeks and oftentimes the swatches that were available when they were sent out are sold out by the time we get done with all of our fiddling and mixing.
Now, we could just choose 5 or 6 fabrics and call them the "alternates". We could pick or favorite ones that didn't actually make the cut and plug them in for any fabrics that weren't available. We could do this and we actually have done it in the past. But we've learned our lesson about it.
The problem with that method is that it messes up the intricate balance that we try to achieve. What if two of the fabrics that weren't available were red but the top two alternates were black? That could lead to a series that has very little red, too much black and is overall just way too dark. What if the fabric that was unavailable was a pink and the top alternate was an green fabric with spiders on it (which would be awesome!)? That might result in a series that doesn't have enough sacks that appeal to the gals and that might actually cost us sales.
So the alternative, which is way more involved but gets us a way better result, is to choose an alternate (or two) for every fabric that we select in the series. We look at the fabric and then try to find something similar (ie same basic color, same fabric) as an alternate. That way even if 8 or 9 of the fabrics we want are unavailable, we can still end with a balanced series.
Step Five: Come up With the Names
At this point we lock in our choices and we do a prototype run. We get sample Myachis with all the fabrics we've selected flown in while the factory tackles the bulk of the order. This gives us a week or so to jam with them before we settle on the names that will appear on the packaging.
This is actually such a long and drawn out process that it really deserves it's own blog entry, so for now we'll leave it there and once we reach that point in this new series, you can expect a follow up article.
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