This is the 2nd
part of my NU vs UP: The UAAP CDC 2013 Routine Review. This part will focus on
the tosses. I think I should rename this sort-of-series “Why UP Pep Squad Lost
and Became the First Loser” cause the more comparisons I make, the more times I
have my palm and expectations slap my gorgeous face. Anyway, everyone
recognizes a toss. It’s very much different with other stunts and it never fails
to give the crowd twinkles in their eyes, jaw-dropped. Fliers stand before their labels
cause they really fly. Basically, a flier is thrown up into the air (maybe 10
to 15 feet off the ground) and then performs tricks in the air before being
caught again in the embraces of mighty biceps and triceps of the bases. I
generously and patiently made some
stick figure GIF animations so you can visualize what I am talking about here
and not go nuts with the technical terms.
 |
| Bird Front |
 |
| Kick, Full Twist |
 |
| Layout with Full Twist |
 |
| back Layout |
 |
| Straddle, Tap-out |
 |
| Back Tuck, Kick-out |
Cute animations, right? Now, take time to differentiate which is which, so you will not get lost as you proceed. LOL.
Which is “easy”
and which is “difficult”?
There are not
many tosses but there are many variations. The simplest is when a flier just
gets her air, tossed and then waits for gravity to pull her down without any
tricks in the air. Just like throwing anything vertically into the air. In the
UAAP CDC, I think, the hardest toss done was the back layout with double twist.
I honestly do not know, which is the hardest. Check on the animations above,
let your imagination sips into your noodles and try to compare how hard those
things are if you were the one thrown. 1,2,3. I guess, you’re done daydreaming
of flying.
By the way, I
did not differentiate “hand toss” from “basket toss” cause I think, all you
need to know is the air. But if you’re lucky enough to know which is which,
then you’ll appreciate the difference in the difficulty.
Now, let’s go to
the review.
Again, magic
score cards brought to you by MS Excel, my curiosity and weirdness.
Before we start,
I would like to make this early “disclaimer”. You know, I downloaded decent
480p videos (thanks to the ABS CBN News Youtube channel) but it feels like it’s
more ancient than 360p from other countries. The vids are not as clear so I really found quite a hard time spotting the skills. Oh, well. I love the Philippine
video qualities. Very much alike with
the Philippine porn video qualities.
| UP | Toss | NU |
| 3 | Layout 2/1 | 4 |
| 2 | Layout 1/1 | 6 |
| 3 | Layout | 0 |
| 0 | X, double | 1 |
| 1 | X-out | 0 |
| 0 | Pike | 0 |
| 1 | Straddle, tap | 0 |
| 1 | Kick, double | 2 |
| 1 | Bird Front | 5* |
| 12 | TOTAL | 18 |
*Poor camera angle, I cannot count how many NU-ers did bird fronts, there were five in formation, though.
Again, pardon me if I overlooked some stunts. This are good estimates, I think.
AND, for the rest of the article, forgive some grammatical errors. LOLS
The Comparison
Again, NU egdes
UP in terms of the number of tosses performed, 18-12. UP did tosses in nine
occasions but tossing at most two fliers at a time. On the other hand, NU
tossed out in just FIVE occasions but managed to have thrown fliers for a total
of 18 times. In their opening toss, they bombed with SIX layout with full
twist. UP? They opened their routine with only one layout double twist. It sets
difference, at least, for me.
I personally
think that most of the audience does not really know the technicalities of tricks.
It’s like watching fireworks - the bigger and the more colorful, the better.
But not until you tell them the
chemistry of fireworks will they appreciate how hard it sucks to be making
fireworks. Just like in cheerdancing, more twists and higher tosses are
sufficient for the WOW factor. I think that was where UP lost some of its
points. They did scattered single tosses instead of concentrating in “mass
tosses” like NU did. NU actually did three main “mass tosses” with 6, 5 and 4
fliers, respectively. The rest are fillers for the performance, I guess. Doing
many tosses adds up to the difficulty. Although cheerleaders can count 1 to 8
and 8 to 1, timing and synchronicity are two other shits to be bothered about when doing things altogether at one.
Not to mention, the force each bases has to exert to achieve same height for
the fliers which are obviously different in weight.
Take on this: if you throw
one apple in the air alone, you care less how high it will go. BUT, pull beside
five more of your friends, give them an apple each and throw it altogether,
trying to achieve same height, at least. Now, that’s business, isn’t? Then,
here will go my favorite phrase, hands down, NU.
Difficulty
I didn’t crunch
on some difficulty values. It’s quite hard, especially that my gymnastics
knowledge limitations will not allow me to designate values for each skill. Let’s
take this the easy way.
Check again on
the animations. Mostly, back layouts were performed. Compared to back tucks,
back layout are more difficult because you are pulling more length from your
legs to complete one somersault. You take more time in flipping in layout than
in tuck. Even in gymnastics, triple tucks are known but triple layouts are
BIOMECHANICALLY impossible. Then, there went the twists. Of course, full twists
are harder than flips with no twist at all, then double twists are harder than
full twists. Logic. More lessons. “Kick” and “tap” (sorry for the terms, I do
not know how to properly label some terms) are two techniques in the air. Maybe,
performed for two reasons: (1) to generate momentum, and (2) aesthetics.
Usually, kicks and taps are performed without somersaults. Again, see the
animations. Lastly, “X” or “X-outs” is used to describe that “moment when they
are tucked or piked then they suddenly kicked and stretched their legs in the
air”. Come on, feed your imagination.
UP vs NU. Let’s
dig on this but let’s go to the bottom line. Both squads did doubles,
full, layouts, kick doubles and bird
fronts. UP just did it scarcely, maybe because of the budget cut. LOL. Not really scarcely. I mean, who HONESTLY noticed the single tosses in the background? NU, on
the other hand, just machine gunned my eyes with relatively more tosses. And,
have I told you NU did so much more of them in combination?
Execution
As I said
earlier, in Part 1, NU have messy feet. UP fliers have their feet glues and
flexed. That is the UP artistry I am very lauding of. But then again, in a
performance and for people with the normal vision and mere appreciation,
crossed feet are masked by the feeling of overwhelm when there were six people
altogether flying. Nuff said. I love UP, though. BTW, both NU and UP had not fallen in any of their tosses. :D
Letter to UP Pep
Why the
scattered tosses? I really want to know the reason why. Please contact me. LOL.
