Sunday, April 27, 2008

Spotting

When it comes to spotting, I have witness many different kind of spotters and many different senario, just like to share my thoughts so that others may learn from my experiences.

When it comes to spotting, is it always the more people the merrier? I would not think so. Too many spotters may get in the way of each other and in the end no one catches the flyer or something even worse.

Let me give a senario...
Lets say we are all training for Japan competition and it is now break time. You wanted to play some partner stunts. Its like say you just learn the cupie for 1 week and you are not that stable yet and therefore you ask for more spotters. Ok, the 1st person comes along and spots your back, then another 3 people came and volunteered to spot, so now there is 1 standing at the back, 1 front, 1 left and 1 right, a total of 4 people, getting all angles covered and each knowing where to catch when the flyer falls.

But you are kiasu and decide to over kill in case you thought 1 might "miss" so you called up another guy from all the way across the mats, cos he is the so called "spider sense" in the team, to come and help you spot too. The 5th guy don't know where to spot as all the places are already taken up, so he stands at the back, beside the 1st guy that came. You proceed to do your cupie and it was not stable hence the flyer fell back. The 1st guy would have got it covered, but the 5th guy being the "spider sense" guy dashes in and knocks the 1st guy out catching the flyer, while the 1st guy was knocked off and sprain his foot in the process.

The first guy was injured and had to stay out of the coming Japan competition, and he happened to be 1 of the guy doing round-off back tuck in a team so lacking of people who could do gymnastics. No amount of apology is going to be of use, as he misses the Japan trip, 1 of the most important competition to him, and no one else, other than those already doing, can do the round-off back tuck. Saying sorry is NO use, the damage is done.

Therefore morale of the story is do not get so many people if 4 is enough for that particular stunt. Its not always the more the merrier or the safer. You might 弄巧反拙, i.e getting the 1st guy hurt, and sometimes the damage is so big that it might even affect your competition chances, and the damage is irreparable.

P.S: Being the 1st person means nothing these days.

4 comments:

thefly said...

In that case, i would feel ll. Too bad so the case is to train all the base to be proficient in spotting, being the fact that u know some 'spider sense' guy will appear, or some 1 will come punch you. In otherwords, Be always ready to save yourself, cos if you are down, u might not be able to save others, which is the main job right. Self protection, against crumbling fliers, hard fliers and 'spider sense' bases and the 'i think i should chup jit ka kpo spotters' is

thefly said...

required to be a good spotters. Spotting is not only about the fliers only. It's about every 1 around you.

*star* said...

yup I agree, that 1st guy was just being so dumb and so useless, unaware of what is happening right in front of his nose, to be knocked off so easily. I would say serves him right. Piority always is the flyer and not the base.

But I guess in the senario, the 1st guy probably will never help the person who jio him again, once bitten twice shy.

mynameiswoman said...

Dont get Hybrid or XW to spot, they are the only 2 who can do ROBT.