UPSB v3
General Discussion / Difficulty vs. style
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Date: Tue, Feb 16 2010 01:08:47
As pen spinning is moving forward, difficulty is becoming a thing that all pros must have in order to become recognized.
However, there are still a few spinners whose spinning is even more praised than ones who have little style but very hard linkages etc (ie: Seven)
So what do you think is most important: a style that is creative and stand-out-ish
OR
unmatched difficulty -
Date: Tue, Feb 16 2010 01:15:03
i voted for style becasue if u dont have style its just tricks linked together no energy, emotion and style to it. no life. while difficulty is just power tricks spammign. not really stylish and appealing. what i think is the best kinf of spinnign is a mix of both style and difficulty. so its not to plain. just rgiht stylish and hard. thats what im trying to get my spinnign to be like
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Date: Tue, Feb 16 2010 01:18:03
ok 5 minutes in, and all votes toward style so far.
My question is, why do so many new spinners continually strive for difficulty without regard to style, when style is obviously so much more important?
have the new wave of thai spinners changed the game?
is it due to the competition? -
Date: Tue, Feb 16 2010 01:25:17
Most people see style as something that only comes naturally, so they don't try to interfere.. I think.
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Date: Tue, Feb 16 2010 01:30:25
this thread was made like 2 weeks ago
the short answer is, both.
you can't be good without both, i remember asking college admissions officers "should i get A's in easy classes, or get B's in hard classes" and they'd say "get A's in hard classes."
you can't just have one or the other, and you'll never see a pro that doesn't have both. maybe they'll favor one of the other, but if they're really pro they'll have both, every time
EDIT: votes go towards style though because that's a "litmus test", meaning if the spinning doesn't look good, regardless of the breakdown people won't like it. -
Date: Tue, Feb 16 2010 01:33:51
I vote for difficulty, but I believe penspinning should be focused on difficulty if you are in a tournament, contest, etc, when judges will be judging you. Difficulty should be evident in a combo at any time. However, there are times when style may be more important. When spinning in public for a crowd, or when introducing someone to penspinning, style will bring out the aesthetic appeal in penspinning. Same goes for a live tournament. In order to win points, you have to use difficult tricks/linkages, but in order to be a crowd pleaser you have to have some sort of style.
Power tricks, in my opinion, are a combination of style and difficulty. It takes a lot of difficulty to bring out a basic idea of penspinning to the observer: having the pen rotate continuously around your pointer finger, having it spin continuously on your palm, continuously tapping the pen in the air, etc.
That's the "style" part of difficulty, although some spinners (supawit, peem, etc) have their style based mostly on power tricks, which is where the "difficulty" comes in.
Also, what bothers me is when people, sometimes including myself, execute many power tricks but link them poorly with basic passes, twisted sonics, etc. Based on personal experience, I understand it's hard to link power tricks together but many of us feel that we have to demonstrate our ability to perform many power tricks in a combo in order to show consistency (nothing wrong with that, imo), but a little patience should be required to learn proper linkages between the tricks in order to balance out your combo. Gradually it gives you experience, too.
As we can see, there's not really a fine line between style and difficulty, but I believe that generally, spinning should fall between that "gray area" in between the two factors. -
Date: Tue, Feb 16 2010 02:35:13
I think that both of them are incredibly important aspect of pen spinning but I voted for difficulty. Take 2 workers for example 1 is a highly skilled worker but has normal social level and the other is the life of the party, is incredibly fun and cool but has not much skill. They both go for the same job interview, who would you hire? The first worker without a doubt. Same thing with pen spinning.
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Date: Tue, Feb 16 2010 02:46:26QUOTE (Hippo2626 @ Feb 15 2010, 09:35 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>I think that both of them are incredibly important aspect of pen spinning but I voted for difficulty. Take 2 workers for example 1 is a highly skilled worker but has normal social level and the other is the life of the party, is incredibly fun and cool but has not much skill. They both go for the same job interview, who would you hire? The first worker without a doubt. Same thing with pen spinning.
When I read this at first, I read it as though the highly skilled worker 1 = good style, but low difficulty pen spinner, whereas party worker = difficult, but sloppy style pen spinner -- i dunno why.. lol
But I disagree that difficulty is more important than style if you HAD to choose. I think style's a bit more important personally. Going off of your worker example.. If there was 1 worker who was highly skilled overall but showed up to the interview looking like a mess (messy hair, jeans with holes, etc..), and then another person who was less skillful overall but looked nice (clean cut hair, suit, talked smoothly)... I actually think the nicer looking person with less skill would get hired.
Presentation is very important. After presentation, then improve on the content. Get the good angle, lighting, background, and style...then work on more variety of tricks, difficulty of tricks, etc... But in reality, they'll all develop simultaneously.
And again, in reality, they're both important. It's as strat's said, get A's in hard classes. This seems more like a who do you like more kinda question, your mom or your dad lol. (okay, that might only apply to some people haha.. since some people hate one of their parents ><)
If someone wanted to watch a stylish combo or a difficult combo though... I think they'd choose style > difficulty. I mean, just look at the poll results, and you'll see what people want to see. -
Date: Tue, Feb 16 2010 02:52:32
I voted style. If I want to progress in PS, I'd like to progress in the area of style. Tricks used may not be as difficult but at when people look at your really sweet style, they say "i wanna spin more like that person" rather that saying "i wanna be able to do that trick" and I guess style really reaches out to the softer side of people if you're really good and not just the competitive edge always.
However, with that being said, I'd like to be able to pull of a few difficult tricks every now and then, maybe as a gauge as how I compare to the other spinners, like to show your skill level. But being able to do tons of difficult tricks without being able to link them in a combo isn't everything. -
Date: Tue, Feb 16 2010 03:05:43QUOTE (JC @ Feb 16 2010, 10:46 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>When I read this at first, I read it as though the highly skilled worker 1 = good style, but low difficulty pen spinner, whereas party worker = difficult, but sloppy style pen spinner -- i dunno why.. lol
But I disagree that difficulty is more important than style if you HAD to choose. I think style's a bit more important personally. Going off of your worker example.. If there was 1 worker who was highly skilled overall but showed up to the interview looking like a mess (messy hair, jeans with holes, etc..), and then another person who was less skillful overall but looked nice (clean cut hair, suit, talked smoothly)... I actually think the nicer looking person with less skill would get hired.
Presentation is very important. After presentation, then improve on the content. Get the good angle, lighting, background, and style...then work on more variety of tricks, difficulty of tricks, etc... But in reality, they'll all develop simultaneously.
And again, in reality, they're both important. It's as strat's said, get A's in hard classes. This seems more like a who do you like more kinda question, your mom or your dad lol. (okay, that might only apply to some people haha.. since some people hate one of their parents ><)
If someone wanted to watch a stylish combo or a difficult combo though... I think they'd choose style > difficulty. I mean, just look at the poll results, and you'll see what people want to see.
You are right but This thread is asking for opinions and I feel that difficulty is more important and I agree that style is important too just not as important as difficulty. -
Date: Tue, Feb 16 2010 03:06:30
in battles/SOYC, i look at difficulty, and only consider style if it's bad
in collabs, i look at style and only consider difficulty if it's bad -
Date: Tue, Feb 16 2010 12:48:56QUOTE (strat1227 @ Feb 15 2010, 09:06 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>in battles/SOYC, i look at difficulty, and only consider style if it's bad
or if the other person matches the difficulty. -
Date: Tue, Feb 16 2010 17:00:21
ok just think about it, which is better:
1) kickass style. perfect execution, but with low difficulty
OR
2) boring style. bad execution, but with peem level difficulty
the second spinner would be considered "better" in terms of skill, but the first spinner would be much more interesting to watch because of the appeal created through his style. i vote style. just imo anyways
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Date: Tue, Feb 16 2010 22:18:06QUOTE (blahblahting @ Feb 16 2010, 11:00 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>ok just think about it, which is better:
1) kickass style. but with low difficulty
OR
2) boring style. but with high level difficulty
that's the real question here