WT21 R5 combo

So it’s round 5 of WT21 already, time flies! I think I’m the first spinner to reach semifinals in 3 World Tournaments, which is kinda surprising. 

Anyway, I would like to begin with a more philosophical question which was the basis of my R5 combo.

If you were going to battle a clone of yourself (who has same knowledge currently and awareness of this battle) in several years from now, how would you guarantee your win? Is pouring in more hours of practice enough to win? At best, that would only give you a coinflip’s chance of victory. What if the battle was against a spinner who has greater skill and knowledge than you now?

Some explanation of the tricks (I have no idea how to notate most of these things, apologies):

0:01 - 0:04 - mirrored powerpass reverse sequence right hand, with left hand’s fingers pushing → linked 1p2h

0:04 - 0:05 - wrist-wrist swivel ~ LH midindex bak cardioid (wiper with left hand’s middle finger and back of right hand)

pen is held between both wrists and has to maintain charge rotation while trying to maintain speed for wrist-wrist swivel

have to catch pen at grip portion to do the wiper properly, back surface of hand is not typically used much

0:06 - 0:07 - 3b4b palm up fl pa rev - (left hand’s middle finger goes into right hand’s 34 slot to push) - left middle finger pushes palmspin 0.5

annoying to use curled 34 slot for the PU fl pa rev

have to quickly move left hand’s middle finger to proper position for subsequent push

0:08 - 0:10 - palm down twirl 33’ (ring fingers of both hands) - palm down twirl release 44’ (pinky fingers of both hands) - wiper 34 

Palm down twirl sequence with hardest slot with release: combining hardest timing based mechanic (2 years training, detailed later) with very hard power based mechanic (precision to catch end of pen in 34 right afterwards)

0:11 - 0:13 - pd fl ma rev - wiper 34 release ~ lower palm part mirrored powerpass reverse 

The powerpass is done without a preceding fingerless pinkyaround, which increases the difficulty greatly

Est total time directly used for material 600+ hours

Initial conception in 2017, started training material in late 2018

Filmed in early-mid 2021

Would estimate skill level required as roughly square of WT19 R5 (incomparable difference)

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Answer to initial question

It is possible to win, because there are still more foundational principles governing this hobby that are not well developed or understood currently; whose interactions can allow you to surpass your expected level for that brief period needed.

As explained in previous posts, difficulty of links/tricks can be thought of as power based mechanics and timing based mechanics. An important property of power based mechanics is that your sense for them can increase seemingly exponentially over time (consistency may still be variable). An important property of timing based mechanics is that your smoothness progresses very gradually, but the consistency is high.

→ A combo that combines both of these mechanics is potentially more practical to perform than a combo that has comparable technical skill but only uses one of these mechanics.

Problems at time this combo was planned (late 2017)

Timing based links that have difficulty worthy for latter rounds of a WT are rare (still true in late 2021)

Timing based links that have sufficiently high level involve 2h spinning, which requires a lot of development (using strong visual highlight well requires rest of combo to complement it)

To address 1.

Begin practising that timing based link for 5-10 min at start of every practice session (4 sessions per day, started roughly Oct 2018)

Switched from mod to tipless mod to encourage stricter mastery of muscle memory, then switched to pencil (Oct 2018 - Nov 2019) ← this link was intended to be used in WT19 R6, but it wasn’t at necessary level then

Continued with pencil training until reached satisfactory level in mid 2020 

Upgraded link to release version to add power based difficulty on top of the timing based difficulty, continued practising daily (mid 2020 - early 2021)

i.e. 30 minutes daily for 2 years to get 0:08 - 0:10 link to usable level, building on previous skills in power and 2h (yes, I did the sequence daily for a year with an ordinary pencil)

Using the mod - tipless mod - pencil - step back up to mod sequence for learning very specific timing based mechanics may be helpful, but is not required for the vast majority of material in this hobby

To address 2.

Initial venture into 1p2h with WT17 R5, WT17 R6, 10 year solo two 1p2h combos (timing combo to beat of music to improve sense of 2h pacing)

Basic application of 1p1h modifiers to 1p2h ideas in PSO18 R2-3 2h (e.g. aerial, +0.5 spin for PSO R3 combo)

Use of different planes and power mechanics in WT19 R6

Further integration of linked 2h, applying harder 1p1h ideas (variations of spiderspin, wiper releases/cardioid) in the 3 1p2h combos in 12 year solo

After understanding gained from these, planned first half of WT21 R5 combo in Sept 2020: train for 10-15 min/session (4 sessions/day) from Sept 2020 to March 2021

i.e. 10 1p2h combos to establish understanding, specific practice 40+ minutes daily for 6 months to plan and perform first half of R5 combo 0:01 - 0:07

Additional

Gradual improvement of cardioid and mpr power sequences to perform ending 0:11 - 0:13, estimate 1 hr/week for 1 ½ years or so

In reviewing drafts, I looked for specific 1-2 frames to ensure the wiper release was done properly (if it’s done as charge release then the draft is instantly rejected)

It was a long-held aspiration to create a combo that represents the above understanding and requires gradual, long practice, with a very specific aim in mind. There's some bits I wanted to do better (as usual, I guess). I hope my work leaves an impression on you.

WT19 R6 combo

Well, it's finally the end of this tournament! There was a lot more material I wanted to use for this round, but it was not developed enough in practical skill or mental foundation, so I ended up sending a backup combo (sorry, haha). The theory behind the 1p2h concepts used is not that remarkable, but the difficulty has been increased a lot.

Nothing is wasted, anything that was not developed enough will be trained further for solo and future videos.

In terms of notation, ' denotes non-dominant (left) hand's finger, i.e. 4' is left hand's pinky, 3' is left hand's ring etc. Apologies for no 120 fps videos, the phone I use to record them has screwed up despite factory reset.

0:01 - 0:03: ?charge 44' - ?inverse twirl 44' - inverse twirl aerial 33'

I've used a similar idea to transition from both hands PU --> both hands PD in previous 1p2h combos. In this combo, it is done with both pinky fingers. In order to get this sequence usable, the order of skill mastery should be:
1. twirl fall (takes 3-6 months of dedicated practice at a minimum) and easier form of the PU --> PD transition using thumb (3-4 weeks to do without breaking pacing)
2. inverse twirl rise (2-3 months of practice) and harder form of the PU --> PD transition
3. combining above skills to usable level (1-2 weeks practice)

0:03 - 0:04: twirl 11' - twirl 42' - pass T2'3' - TT'1' - (palms facing each other) twirl TT' - 22' - 2h wiper release 22'

Fairly easy sequence with twirls and passes. A fast way to transition from having pen held near centre to being held at end (i.e. from regular material to 1p2h wipers).

0:05 - 0:06: 2h wiper release 22' to 11' - RH mirrored powerpass rev + LH inverse powerpass

2h wiper to ?counter/direction change 11' to transition from perpendicular (?) plane of rotation to anticlockwise plane of rotation. Also not particularly difficult, but shows that 1p2h can allow a large range of effects beyond those in 1p1h.

0:07 - 0:10: left hand palm down fingercross square pass - right hand interrupted inverse mirrored powerpass rev

Hardest ending in any of my WT19 combos (approximately as hard as second half of my R5 combo). Of note is the entry into the ending powerpass: it starts as a mirrored pinky spread reverse (i.e. by hitting back of pinky). Usually this powerpass is entered after a full fingerless pinkyaround, which is far, far easier.

Palm down fingercross square pass learning path:
1. pass reverse 23-14-23-14
2. fingercross 23 around (several days)
3. fingercross square pass by combining 1. and 2.
4. palm down fingercross square pass decently (3+ months)

Interrupted inverse mirrored powerpass reverse learning path:
1. inverse mirrored powerpass reverse (in basic form with fl pinkyaround entry, several weeks/months, depends a lot on how strong your technical skill foundation is).
2. interrupted entry - ?years? I started doing this trick around February, and was practising it quite regularly throughout this year - if your technical skill is comparable to mine at start of this year, then it can be expected that you will take 9-10 months to be able to use this idea consistently enough I guess.

I learnt a lot from this WT, see you next year!

WT19 R5 combo

Please use the 120 fps slow motion with subtitles. I’m unsure of the naming for some tricks.

1st block 0:01 - 0:04 (120 fps video 0:01 - 0:12)

Pinky fxxk 34 ~ sonic 23-24-14 (sonic has total 1.0 rotations) ~ 14 pushed index fxxk aerial ~ curled b1b2 fl fxxk ~ pd fl ra 0.5 ~ pd fl ma to 24 (catch ring out)

The pinky fxxk ~ sonic 23-24-14 is not that hard, but uses fingerswitches/hybrid to condense several tricks into less rotations, and makes the 14 pushed index fxxk aerial more difficult.

Back in February, it took a total lucky try to do the 14 pushed index fxxk aerial ~ b1b2 fl fxxk once (I was not able to link it to pd fl around), and I was not able to do it again in the next few weeks.

b1b2 fl fxxk (pen does not go around any finger) is different from the curled index fxxk in R3 (pen goes around curled index). Very difficult to control the conic rotation.

Doing pd powerpass segment after curled b1b2 fl fxxk was also extremely tough to learn, because of the change in angle of rotation required after the earlier difficult material.

Collectively, this block is tied with the 3rd block (0:07-0:11) as the hardest linkages I’ve ever used.

2nd block 0:04 - 0:07 (120 fps video 0:13 - 0:24)

pd fl ma to 24 (catch ring out) ~ inverse side sonic rev (ring out to in) to 34 ~ ?vertical plane pd angled fl pa to 14 (catch mid in, ring out) ~ 14 pushed curled index-mid bust 14-b1 ~ fist bust fishing b1 ~ pd fl pa rev to 24 (catch ring out) - pd ma rev 1.5 24-b1b2

The ?vertical plane pd angled fl pa is intended to change direction of pen’s rotation without there being any obvious direction change. Using a different plane of rotation allows this to happen.

In late 2018 when I visited Japan, I remember discussing pd fl pa rev with ennis at a gathering. It’s been a while, but I’ve finally used it in a combo properly. To train for this linkage, I trained pd fl ia rev to x 10 to set foundation for doing pd fl pa rev cont, which I got up to x 5. Catching in 24 increases the difficulty significantly.

3rd block 0:07 - 0:11 (120 fps video 0:25 - 0:41)

b1b2 pushed ?ia release ~ pinky bust to 14 (catch mid in, ring out) ~ ?invisible direction change wiper 14 ~ neobak - curled pinkybak 1.5 - curled pinkybak 1.0

The b1b2 push for ia release required a bit of practice to do without breaking pace.

Not sure about the name of this type of wiper, it is probably a hybrid of 2 wipers. A bit like figure 8, but figure 8 does not have any direction change.

I had to train curled pinkybak 1.5 for a few months to get 1.5 x 4 - 1.0 as foundation for using it as ending in this way. The critical part is the fact that the ?wiper from 14 leading into the interrupted neobak makes doing curled pinkybak 1.5 extremely difficult, because the wiper has conic spin that moves in a different plane to neobak.

Combo commentary:

In difficulty, mechanics, density, and linkage planning, this combo is worlds above anything else I’ve ever made. I planned this combo mostly in Jan/Feb and was trying parts of it occasionally at that time. I started focusing on it around June, and it took until August with several remarkable jumps in skill and 28 times landing this combo in total (12 on cam) to get the chosen draft.

It used more time to get these 10.1 seconds for R5 than it did to do my entire 10 year solo. As a rough guide to difficulty - the average difficulty of each block described below is similar to my entire R2 combo. Pen spinning difficulty works exponentially, so R5 is R2 cubed. Similarly, I estimate R5 is approximately R3 squared.

Previous posts about R1-R4 combos say things like ‘this is hardest link I’ve shown’ or ‘this is hardest combo I’ve released so far’ - which are true, but a bit laughable when considering the significant gap between those videos and R5.

Aims when making this combo for maximum density and integration:
Every transition from one trick to the next one must be a hybrid with some difficult mechanic
You cannot use the same mechanic for any transitions more than once - e.g. if you use a side sonic, you cannot use side sonic variations again.
Extra requirement: you cannot reuse any mechanics used in previous WT19 combos unless substantial modification has been made, i.e. any similarity would have to be limited to a single transition with different mechanics before and after.

There are 3 instances in the combo which may not fulfill the above requirements -
fist bust fishing: a bit like R4 ending, but has different tricks before and after
pd fl pa rev to 24 - pd ma rev 1.5: maybe not a hybrid but has a difficult mechanic
curled pinkybak 1.5 - curled pinkybak 1.0: uses a similar mechanic twice

Additional thoughts:

Despite the excess arm motion, the actual technique of the tricks is satisfactory when considering the interaction of the pen with the fingers, and the pacing is generally sustained. I’m not sure how much arm motion can be reduced for these tricks, maybe I’ll try it again in a few years’ time. The border between good chaotic effect and bad chaotic effect is very subjective.

There were discussions in WC12 about fel2fram’s execution, with many judges giving him high exec in WC12 (4-5/5). However, he was penalised heavily in exec during WT13 R4. His exec definitely could be cleaner, but the effect he created with more chaotic exec contributed positively to me. There are detrimental mistakes at times, e.g. pen going offcam; but many of the flaws helped to give the combo a unique impression.

One of UPSB’s WT13 judges (nickname: casual, who was mainly an mx spinner) said something like ‘fel2fram’s R4 is very underrated, it is remarkable to be able to do that material at all’.

I first considered having a full hybrid combo fulfilling aim 1. back in late 2018 when I was filming clips after SCT and PSO. It took about a year to improve my physical and mental skill to actually do it.

10 year solo was the realisation of a sentimental dream - to create a video that I could look back on fondly no matter how much time passed. WT19 R5 is the realisation of a technical dream - to fulfill conditions 1. and 2. to maximise density, integration and 3. for creativity. I wanted to execute it better and there’s still a lot further to explore, but this combo is one I can be happy saying I poured my soul into. Creating this combo has more worth to me than any win or loss result.

The type of combo that WT encourages is different to the types of combos that themed competitions, solo or CV creates. A solo is aimed at displaying a large range of skill rather than having 1 or 2 combos outclass everything else, so it is more practical to produce many combos with 2-3 weeks’ effort each. Only in WT (or possibly CV with established release date and elaborate preparation like JapEn) will a combo taking several months of work be encouraged.*

I hope this video was able to leave an impression on you. I will keep waiting for the one who will surpass me.

NB: if you can’t do any of the linkages, your exec is automatically zero. Come back after you’ve accumulated 5 million more drops** of practice.

*of course, if you have the discipline, you can try making a 3-month-effort combo regardless of situation

**if you drop once every 3 seconds and spin 2 hours per day, that’s 876,000 drops in a year, so it will take a bit over 5 ½ years to get 5 million drops.

10 year solo commentary

After half a year of filming and practice, it's finally out! I'd planned to make 10 year something special in 2016 December, so it's been developing for a long time.

DL link + unedited clips

Usual abbreviations: mirr pp rev = mirrored powerpass reverse, fl = fingerless, PD = palm down, PV = palm vertical, ia = indexaround (ma for middle, ra for ring, pa for pinky) etc, RH = right hand, LH = left hand, fc = fingercross etc.

In order:

Mirr pp rev power RH and PD fl ia LH: In 2016, fel2fram asked me to put PD fl around in fl sequence. Besides learning the tricks on each hand separately, the transitions are hard since the tricks have different plane of rotation. .

Arm bounce x 5: Used x 1 in WT17 R4, took 10 min experimenting then 30 min filming to get x 5. Difficulty rises steeply after x 6...

1st grid: PD fl arounds x 10 (ring, thumb, index), thumb clip is from early 2016, index from late 2017, and ring from early 2018. I'll show real record of PD fl ia later.

2nd grid: index fxxk and curled index bust x 10, PD fl ma and curled mid spread x 12.

1p2h combo: some ideas from OhYeah, and different variations of my WT17 R5 and R6 material. Became pretty consistent at this combo, filmed over 2 dozen times with second filming session having 14 drafts in 40 minutes - main issue was pacing.

['inverse' mirr pp rev - pun kan] cont: only rank A+, but it looks cool so I included it. I want to use this pp in different ways soon.

Async 2p2h: 2p2h with mirrored effect. Because 'chance of not dropping' is squared in 2p2h (e.g. success rate of 1/5 on each hand becomes 1/25). and you have to retrain stuff you already learnt, async 2p2h is way tougher than just the separate breakdowns. Trained this daily for about a week, so I think far better 2p2h combos are possible.

pinky fxxk - basketball spin: You tell me 'but pinky fxxk and basketball spin have different angles, how is that possible?' Well, fuck logic, PS is about bashing head against brick wall until wall breaks. Despite saying this, this took only 30-40 min to learn and film, but it's a pretty surprising transition so I wanted to show it.

pun kan aerial - wrist (?) spin: Pun kan pop spin variation perhaps. Not much to say other than 'I want to do it in cont some day'.

Forward to reverse combo: Was reminded of this concept by Ennis' WT17 R3. Timing was hard to adjust since I had to deliberately do some tricks faster, but it turned out pretty well. Filmed this for 1 1/2 hour for many drafts, on first day I made error in reversing the breakdown which confused me when timing was always off .-. Recorded on December 14 2017 shortly after WT ended - oldest clip in this solo.

PD fl around fall-rise-fall: Not much to say other than 'really hard' and 'I will make these tricks spin less diagonally in future'.

DC comssa fl: Inkless, tipless, gripless as usual. The cheat aerial is a bit big, but lazy to refilm (clip from 2017 November before I developed better technique for mirr pp rev stuff).

'Sync effect' 2p2h async: 2p2h with visually similar variations - inspired by Zombo's old async 2p2h wiki article.
RH parts: inv sonic 34-24, index-pushed RA rev 13-23, midbak to 24 > PD ma, pp rev 23-12-T1, pass rev (under mid, over ring) T1-34, sonic (over ring) 34-T1, PD fl ta rev T1-T2.
LH parts: sonic 34-24, thumb-pushed RA rev T3-23, midbak to 23 > PD ma, mirr pp 23-12-T1, pass rev T1-34, sonic (over ring and middle) 34-T1, PD fl ta rev T1-23.

2p1h fl idea: Pen first held in T1, then shifted to 23 quickly while main mod is in air.

3rd grid: aerial minicombos of PD fl ta, curled index bust, index fxxk, and PD fl ma. It'd be a lot harder to do PD fl around aerial with pen spinning completely horizontal, maybe later...

2p1h combo: Using ideas from gollumsk8 and fizz. Really hard to control, I want to see 2p1h developed further but I can understand why hardly anyone does it.

2p2h + 1p2h fl: Overall the hardest clip in solo. RH: mirr pp rev - pinky pop, LH: fc square pass fc aerial (the aerial is pushed by crossing middle and ring, then goes right into another fingercross); followed by LH fc21 tpass rev 124. Rank SS followed by rank S+, trained the not-aerial version of the 2p2h for 1 1/2 weeks, then the aerial version for 1 1/2 weeks, and the 1p2h transition for a few days, minor miracle to land this clip in only 30 minutes...expected it'd take hours.

RH combo: You can fit a lot into 9.5 seconds (RESPECT?). The linkage with indexspin, curled indexmid bust > thumb-mid cross sonic T3-12 > sonic rev 12-34-T4 was from adding my touch to mesi and dary's material, but their execution is worlds above mine. Thumb-mid cross PD around > thumb-mid cross pinky fxxk > thumb-index cross inv tpass rev from adjusting my WT material. Had really good day filming this, was landing it once every 70-90 seconds consistently...

Rev minicombo: Fxxk - ss rev (too noob to use in 9 year solo), PU fl pa rev - ss rev, and bakriser - arm bounce - fist ss rev. Rev fl has a lot more stuff possible, it's not developed much.

1p2h combo 2: Start inspired by OhYeah's WT17 R2 ending, applied to square pass (not that hard). Fc23 around LH + 1p2h twirls RH inspired by OhYeah and Sirapob, next bit is 1p2h twirls both hands PD using RH index + LH ring and mid inspired by katts WT17 R3 starter; PD to PV transition inspired by something Kay did in 2013-2014, 2h pass variations from OhYeah's stuff again. Fc21 LH to bust RH for ending, should've made it more obvious. Took months of practice to train this combo, way harder than the 1p2h combo near beginning.

LH fc combo: Ideas from zarne and scream, pacing of fc is hard.

1p2h twirl aerial fall-rise: rank S sequence for 1p2h. Daily training for a year to get not-aerial fall-rise one in my WT17 R6, then a bit more practice to put aerials on every part. Not as smooth as I want.

mirr pp rev pinky ss +0.5 spin pinky ss + wrist bounce: making it into 'real spiderspin' is ridiculously hard, the 2nd one actually isn't done properly but I didn't want to delay release any more. I'll start training this trick seriously now.

1p2h combo 3: Not much to say, just making a powerful impression of 1p2h with fc23 on LH, pd fl around on RH. Ending is really annoying with left arm bounce.

RH combo 2: Some ideas from f2f and dary. Start idea from coffeelucky's PU - PD sonic stuff but applied to fxxk, breakdown is: pinky fxxk ~ devil's shadow to 14 (mid in ring out) > ia 14-13 > pass rev 13-23 + fingerswitch thumb-mid cross 23-T3. Also tried doing b1b2 fxxk variation, but pen leaves hand too much. Moonwalk sonic ~> mid ring mirr pp rev > thumb-index cross fl TIA to T4 > T4 charge + fingerswitch to thumb-ring cross > PU fl ra ~ fl TIS rev.

Mirr pp rev power RH + LH indexspin rev 2.0: Under 3 seconds, hardest individual fl sequence I ever filmed by far. Over 3 hours spread out on 3 days to get this clip (I was trying easier variation with LH basketball spin-ish trick a month before going for this clip, and it felt like I was trying to hit bullseye on dartboard in a dark room without knowing which direction walls were). Indexspin rev with index angled upwards is way harder than basketball spin. Doing this clip again would be tougher than refilming all of my WT17 combos in total, I give it a high rank SS+. if I ever do this in cont I can quit happily hah.

Decent numbers of PD fl pa, mirr pp rev pinky ss, mirr pp rev - pinky pop: I've filmed PD fl pa x 8 and mirr pp rev pinky ss x 17, but they weren't as clean as these clips. Good way to conclude anyway.

Random thoughts:

Well, finishing major project that begun 1 1/2 years ago and involved more practice+filming than WT17 feels a bit strange, as though part of brain is suddenly unoccupied. Don't worry, I have some cool stuff planned later, and I'm starting to orient my practice towards making combos for WT19.

I hope this solo will leave a lasting impression on your hearts and minds, and inspire you that there's always more things possible. A lot of people say 'there's nothing left to do in PS', 'PS is dying', 'PS has reached its peak already' and stuff like that - I want to show them that limits of human skill still have much further to expand in this amazing artform.

WT filming strategy

I'll probably discuss this stuff more later since it covers a lot of different ideas, but I'll start with my thoughts on material difficulty (in terms of how hard it is for the spinner doing the combo).

I'll discuss more about WT meta in some other posts, but remember this for now - execution, difficulty and originality are worth same points, so there's no real reason prioritise any criteria over others.

Anyway, from conversations I've had with experienced WT/WC participants in past, there seems to be a lot of last-minute filming (10 hours or more) on night before deadline, to land breakdown that needs stars to align to be performed. Naturally, this leads to frustration, physical strain on hand, and often compromises execution. Also, since material was prepared and trained for a short time only, there's recycling.

Basically, this last-minute 10 hour filming is detrimental in every regard, and often makes spinners tired from competitions due to stress. So, I want to promote an alternative approach to making 'serious combo' (which is a pretty obvious and logical approach to take, but few people seem to do it), which is similar to what I used in WT17 - sample video below:

You could spend 10 hours on 1 night, but it's preferable to spend 1 hour each on 10 separate days spread out over 2-3 weeks, with breakdown planned a few weeks in advance with easier material. Each time you filmed and landed a few successful takes, upgrade the difficulty and/or originality a little bit (in 1 or 2 places in combo). This would keep breakdown at a manageable difficulty - i.e. you can land it once every 20-40 minutes. You can have 'ultimate hard breakdown' as final goal to reach, while starting with easier versions; or you may naturally think of harder variations to use as time goes on.

This gives several benefits:

• More time to develop ideas and higher chance to get interesting ideas with different material
• Better execution due to more drafts and more practice because brain uses sleep to integrate motor skill learning
• Better idea of what combo's impression and visual effect of various linkages are, since you get to see more drafts done - which allows you to adjust accordingly
• Less frustration from drops
• Less pressure since you'd prepare earlier and know you have backup drafts to fall back on 
• Less RSI and strain issues

Assuming you'd get 2 or 3 drafts every filming session of ~ 1 hr each, you'll have 20-30 drafts of gradually improving breakdown/difficulty/execution over a 2-3 week period, which will have material developed over a longer period. In WT17 I found that 20 drafts wasn't enough to get level I wanted typically (usually needed 30 or so). Of course, this would require more discipline in regularly taking a short period out of each day to plan and record, even if the actual number of hours used is similar.

I'll probably discuss material distribution (in terms of how to arrange combos which give different impression for multiple rounds of competition) in future when I propose possible adjustments to WT criteria's wording.

Solo breakdown and commentary

Brief commentary on my solo's clips in order of appearance ^^

DL link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4V5qSRN2Zi-N1I2T0h1dlY5amc

Above folder has full video, individual combos and breakdown document. If you’re unsure of what happened, or you want to learn some linkages, then this will be helpful.

0:00 - 0:04 Bottle flip (cap landing) - only took 3-4 minutes trying total including adjusting water level, a lot easier than expected.

0:04 - 0:07 PD fl around fall variation - PD TA > handbust rev on index, index+middle, index+middle+ring, then index+middle+ring+pinky > PD fl TA, got lucky and landed within 25 sec of filming

0:07 - 0:11 Knife pun kan x 3 - Definitely riskiest thing with knife so far.

0:11 - 0:29 FS236 - starter from ‘annoying linkage vol 1’, had inspiration from menowa’s WT15 R6, also uses angled pinkyaround ~ pd fl ia to 14. Ringbak counter for finisher feels fun to do.

0:29 - 0:47 FS226 - old combo from January originally filmed for laye 3rd (which never came out), then sent for UPSB 4th (which was downgraded to normal UPSB spinfest due to lack of good submissions, still hasn't come out), one of favourite combos I’ve ever recorded. Slight lag/error before PD MA is annoying.

0:47 - 1:04 FS238 - with personal G3 and left hand cam, turned out pretty nicely (if only wiper in ending sequence was done better, oh well). Exec of angled middlearound from 12 was nice, has some good sonic + pass variations inspired by iteza.

1:04 - 1:10 [PD fl TA - handbust rev] fall - similar to opening minicombo, but with PD fl TA between each handbust rev, which makes it far harder to control - took over 40 minutes filming this sequence

1:10 - 1:30 FS239 - highlight is definitely angled around from 12 > fl ra ~ mid spiderspin rev > angled TA > wiper 23-24, probably combo with strongest material level in this solo, also one I filmed most drafts of (over a dozen on a free afternoon/evening I had). Originally intended to have slightly different starting with PD fl around rev after the wipers, but ended up being too unsmooth.

1:30 - 1:47 FS234 - with personal G3, invitation combo for san noken’s CV, some linkages inspired by iteza, also reused PD IA from 14 (middle curled, ring raised) that I came up with back in 2012 but did not use much recently. More focus on performance than pure material level, linking into the PD fl TA rev could be done better.

1:47 - 1:58 FC fl combo - I had idea of doing aerial adv SS like this long time ago (back in 2012), but never ended up using it anywhere. I only remembered I could use this when someone on UPSB shoutbox asked me if I would use fingercross in my solo. One day I’ll try index-middle crossed FL IMA ~> ring SS, perhaps…

1:58 - 2:01 - Owari no Seraph anime clip for music change

2:01 - 2:05 PD TA > PD fl TA x 6 - fun trick, hard to control properly

2:05 - 2:26 FS237 - technical combo with more power, found this one easier to film than most of the other solo combos.

2:26 - 2:41 Vain Japen 11th copy - turned out decent enough, hand stability during middle pass sequence could be improved

2:41 - 2:44 - short counter sequence inspired by mesi

2:41 - 2:45 MX aerial adv SS > [fl ma - ring ss] x 4 - catch wasn’t as clean as I wanted, extremely hard to record

2:45 - 3:02 FS242 - something with different feeling and content than rest of vid, using various counters

3:02 - 3:21 FS240 - filmed in a rush on night before leaving nurses’ accommodation at hospital, highlight is the rev sequence after starter

3:21 - 3:25 PD [fl ta - hand bust rev] x 3 - difficult to control, I see potential to integrate this into rev fl sequences or 1p2h fl combo

3:25 - 3:49 fl combo 2016 Feb 3rd - one of nicest 15-30 sec fl combos I’ve recorded, shows use of large range of power tricks and power transitions (fl ma - ring ss, fl ma - ring ss aerial, aerial adv ss, mirr pp rev - ring ss, fl ta - ring ss, fl ta - fl ia - ss, fl ia - ss, fl ta - multiple spin ss in addition to everyday stuff)

3:49 - 3:51 Ending pic - random photo of suburban street and trees I took when on rural hospital placement