12 year solo commentary

 So, it’s finally out!

As always, here’s the folder: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Ou7pG0JCQsQnMLGY2O6riJFyu0c6r0lU?usp=sharing

0:01 - 0:06 1p2h fl: the key mechanic I wanted to show is the [LH pd fl around - RH pd fl around rev] cont transition - this requires changing plane of rotation so it feels quite similar to fishing, surprisingly

0:07 - 0:11 1p2h twirl fall, but pd: I trained this sequence with a pencil every day for over a year (from October 2018 to late 2019), with aim of using it in WT19 R6, however it wasn’t good enough to use in combo

0:15 - 0:21 grid: top left - fist bust fishing x 4, bottom left - [pinkybak pop - wrist bounce] x 3, top right - pd fl ma rev x 11, bottom right - [pinky bust cardioid - inv mpr] x 2. For ‘this is power V6’ in Feburary 2019, it took me 70 minutes to get fist bust fishing x 2 once; and the inv mpr - pinky bust cardioid - inv mpr took me 35-40 minutes to get once. When I tried these sequences again in March 2020, I was able to do them once every 5 minutes or so, despite not training these tricks much.

0:22 - 0:34 RH counter combo: A dynamic, aggressive impression to start off main part of solo - the first combo I filmed for this project (March 15th). I borrowed some ideas from gollumsk8 WT19 R2 and darkt. I think the pd fl pa rev 24-34 - pinky counter has not been done before. Besides the difficulty, I found maintaining pacing quite tough. It was very fun for me to learn a new branch of PS, which has allowed me to make combos with different impression. Peak consistency 4-5 times/30 minutes.

0:35 - 0:47 2p1h combo: Took a month of dedicated practice (half to ⅔ of daily practice on this combo), in addition to trying bits of it for short time every day in preceding 4+ months. Key mechanics include 0:36 - note that the red mod is held against side of hand with the other one, 0:37 - 0:38 - red mod does tw sonic rev 12-23 - sonic rev 23-24 - charge 24, while other mod does wiper in T1 - the direction of rotation is different and the planes of rotation overlap, however the mods do not hit each other, 0:39 - note that red mod does charge with force from grip of other mod. 0:40 - 0:43 isn’t that remarkable, however the setup at 0:43 is quite tough because you need very precise position for the mods in relation to each other for the next part. 0:44 - 2p1h swivel - 2p1h pen bust: one mod is caught in 23, other mod keeps spinning (I wanted to use this idea in WT19 R6 also, but wasn’t able to)

0:48 - 0:51 2p1h pd fl around rev sequence: ‘what if I tried doing WT19 R4 ideas with 2p1h’. The kind-of pd fl penaround rev (last trick) is bloody difficult.  It’s funny that consistency in this link improved when I used my signature red emboss as the secondary pen, which makes no sense. It’s like having a legendary weapon in an RPG but using it as offhand instead of main.

0:52 - 0:56 2p1h bakfall + fingerpass: red emboss does bakfall, while black emboss does fingerpass at same time. Not as smooth as I wanted (well, I only trained it for a week). I think a lot more can be done with this idea.

0:57 - 1:09 linked 1p2h: I wanted to make 1p2h with strong visual impression, inspired by baimai and minwoo’s linked 2h. 0:59 link is quite tough (setup to linked fingers T’4 - T1 fxxk from RH - wiper held with back of RH and middle/ring fingers of LH). Fist-fist wiper at 1:03 would be cool if I could do it aerial, maybe later.

1:10 - 1:17 RH ?fishing: The angle unfortunately makes it look like counters, however the impression was worse when I used other angles. 1:11 - 1:12 wrist fishing was fun to learn. Note that 1:15 has b3b4 pd fl pa rev - pd fl ma rev, there is enormous difficulty increase from doing the pd fl pa rev from curled slot (unsure if I used correct notation, sorry). The pause is regrettable, but the drafts that did not have the pause had worse control elsewhere.

1:18 - 1:27 1p2h density: 1:23 - 1:25 was made from ‘what if I tried doing RH power as 1p2h, but not fl’. Note that 1:24 has left hand’s middle finger stuck in RH 23 slot (pen spins around left hand’s middle finger while doing the RH palmspin). I’m not familiar with simultaneous trick notation, but this likely falls into that category.

1:28 - 1:33 pd fl ma rev - wiper 34 - interrupted inv mpr - I needed to replay the video in frame by frame to make sure I did not cheat in the wiper 34 (the sequence is a lot easier if that mechanic is missing). Took about 2 hours filming (over 3 days), in addition to several days’ practice prior to filming to land this clip once; in addition to the foundation I built up in these tricks. Note that the inv mpr is entered from interrupted start (i.e. pen starts on back of pinky, pen does not do a full fl pa before the powerpass), which increases the difficulty enormously. Excess hand movement, but I was happy I could even get this clip at all.

1:34 - 1:43 2p2h transfers - an upgraded version of stuff I showed in tag with supawit last year. I trained this material for at least half an hour daily for over 8 months, but it is still not as fluent as I desired. I think a lot more can be done with these sorts of ideas (both with pens spinning in same direction or different directions, different palm orientations, different visual effects etc), so I will keep exploring

1:43 - 1:46 rsvp unmod pd fl ma rev - pinky bust cardioid - you know how that WT19 finalist from Brazil took months to get this link on a proper mod? Well, I spent about 20 minutes messing around in June with a regular pen, then 30 minutes filming (15 minutes twice) to get this. I feel the power spiral is going out of control sometimes. I did the wiper on the cap side of the pen: I found the weight distribution made this more feasible.

1:50 - 1:53 and 1:54 - 1:58 - dr grip fist bust fishing, dr grip pd fl around fall. I respect aoneko and ease a lot, using this pen is ridiculous.

1:59 - 2:12 1p2h wipers - well, some of the tricks are 1p2h twirls done at end of pen, and some are actual wipers. The direction change at 2:01 was hard to get smooth. 2:06 - 2:11 was also very hard, with the catch before the wiper at 2:07 and having to finish the twirl 44’ twirl at 2:10 on the grip of the pen requiring a lot of practice (that being said, I ‘only’ used 7-8 days on this combo).

2:13 - 2:24 RH seasick + counters - 65 drafts for this, average time per draft around 1 ½ minutes. Note that most slots used are regular slots (other than b3b4 counter near start, and 24 twice), however the combo is tough to comprehend visually. I was inspired to learn seasicks by padrace and ponkotu.

2:24 - 2:29 MISS link - fxxk - moonwalk inverse side sonic 23-34 ~ b3b4 pushed ?angled pun kan - 24. The performance is not as good as I wanted, however the difficulty and density are ridiculous. MISS by itself already takes a months to do decently, and linking it to curled 34 slot still needs work.

2:30 - 2:37 RH pinkybust cardioid minicombo - from May 2020. Note the pinkybust 1.5 at 2:31, pd fl pa rev at 2:33, and pinkybust 1.5 at 2:34. Adding +0.5 spin to the final pinkybust was very hard, because the mod is held at its grip in the preceding wiper 34. I used about 5 days on this minicombo (I filmed a few drafts of easier versions of it), and only had one usable draft of the final version.

2:38 - 2:46 1p2h counters - 3 days used for this (the least time I used for any combo in this project). I felt 2h direction changes were not explored enough. The force for changing direction in the starting links is purely from LH.

2:47 - 2:58 sorry, I reused WT19 R5. I wanted an even number (12) of combos. This combo still stands out to me as being the one I want to surpass next year, and I am still surprised I managed to perform it to that level in 2019 August.

2:59 - 3:03 pinky spread cardioid x 2 - last year, someone told me that mid spread cardioid would be ‘impossible’ - I filmed it 10 minutes later. I did not train pinky spread cardioid much this year, so the transition point between the first and second is not that good. 

3:04 - 3:12 xpxh - the right hand pass 23-14-23 creates force for the left hand’s ?ta rev - palmspin rev (the left hand does not push the pen at all). 3:06 - 3:07 2p2h cross-pass idea was borrowed from ohyeah (who did it with 2p1h), I adapted it to 2p2h. I wanted to use this cross-pass idea in WT19 R6 but I was no where near good enough at it then. Even when filming this combo (as final combo for this project in September), I had to reduce the level of everything else. I will keep training.

3:12 - 3:24 RH varied power - I tried using fishing and different planes of rotation for RH ‘power’ genre. The ending was very fun to train, within 4 days I raised the consistency of the ending from 14 times in 21 minutes (i.e. once every 1 ½ minutes) to 44 times in 11 minutes (i.e. four times per minute).

3:25 - 3:30 fist bust fishing - other side topspin - interrupted inv mpr - my back hurt from twisting my arm to do the topspin. It took about a week to get this clip decent - it’s harder than 1:28 - 1:33. Getting the fist bust fishing to spin horizontally enough to do the topsin was a nightmare. I wanted to transition into the inv mpr by stretching pinky out, however the mod would never get into the right position for that. Surprisingly, I had a total lucky strike when I landed this sequence twice in a row consecutively.

3:31 - 3:33 - Kyushu islands: I visited that area in 2019 before COVID. I miss overseas travel. I miss meeting spinners in other countries.

Additional rambling:

The first BGM (Demetori’s remix of Dream Battle) - when I heard this song for first time in August/Sept 2018 during time of SCT18, when I was in final year of medical school, I absolutely knew that I had to use it in my next solo. Time flies, doesn’t it?

I kept a log of my practice time from March 15th (first combo) to Sept 10th (last clip I landed for this solo): 180 days, total 751 hours 25 minutes - average 4 hours 10 minutes daily. The first 4 weeks of this period were annual leave - I was stuck at home anyway, so I spun quite a lot; however the remaining 150+ days were all during full-time work at the hospital that has worst rating for overwork in my state. I have no regrets in putting so much effort into this solo, because I love spinning so much.

Up until I had finalised editing, I was afraid this solo would not be able to match up to the impression of my previous one in May 2018 - my brain knew that the material and level were far higher, but my heart had trouble accepting this. It turns out I was worried for nothing, because somehow, I surprised even myself when I watched the final product, despite having seen all the videos dozens of times.

As always, I hope I was able to inspire you and leave an impression on you. I aim to enter WT21 next year, and I will try to release some further videos prior to that (likely 120 fps session with solo ideas etc). See you again soon!