USSA Sport Education Coaches Tip of the Week: April 18 2013
Each week the USSA Sport Education Department will post a Coaches Tip of the Week. The information will rotate through the ski and snowboard disciplines so check back each week to see the newest tip!
What are the judges looking for?
Part 2: Variety, Combinations, and Progressions
{From the Freestyle/Freeskiing Competition Guide}
The judges will score the run by evaluating the overall impression criteria, including the execution, difficulty, variety, amplitude, combinations and progression of the run and the routine attempted. We talked about execution, difficulty and amplitude in Part 1 of this series. If you missed it check it out here.
Variety: A good run has a variety of tricks, grabs and axis’. Variety shows that the competitor has a complete repertoire of tricks. Look for the following in a run with good variety:
- Multiple directions of movement (forward andswitch)
- Multiple directions of rotations (right-side and left-side)
- Multiple axis’: upright, off-axis, inverted, flat-spin/rodeo, double-cork
- Multiple grabs: no one wants to see the same grab on every trick. Award a variety of grabs.
- PIPE: down the pipe spins and alley-oop spins (up the pipe spins)
Combinations: Combinations are multiple tricks linked together. It is more difficult to do hard tricks back-to-back, increasing the risk and therefore the difficulty of the run. Solid combinations can add to the positive impression of a run and should be rewarded. If a trick is landed switch the competitor should continue switch into the next feature. There should be NO reverts. A revert shows a break in flow and an inability to link multiple tricks. Tricks should flow from one to another.
Progression: New and progressive tricks keep our sport moving forward and should be rewarded. Arguably, progressive tricks can still be rewarded without perfect execution. The following elements of a run that fall under the progression criteria:
- New and uncommon tricks
- New or more technical axis’ or rotations
- New, uncommon or difficult grabs
- New variations of existing tricks or grabs
- Creativity (grabs, line, use of the course)