UPSB v3
General Discussion / Style Mimicry
Small article
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Date: Wed, Dec 5 2007 19:20:03
From: http://ericy.wordpress.com/2007/12/05/style-mimicry/
QUOTECopying a particular style is a challenging task, but being able to copy the very essence which makes a spinner unique is a daunting undertaking. Not only do you have to copy the individual tricks centimeter by centimeter, you have to mimic the linking, speed, and tempo in order to successfully shadow a spinner.
I had the pleasure of interviewing DaThroat of Singapore. He is an up-and-coming spinner who is widely regarded as the late Bonkura’s successor.
Eso: Tell us a little about your spinning experience.
DaThroat: I started spinning in late December 06 when i saw ultimatsz spinning a pen during a yo-yo gathering. I had already seen stuff like UPSB+PDS and Japen 1st, but i never really saw a pen spinner in real life before. I borrowed some simple pen mod and learned TA harmonic and Shadow(i already knew sonic rise) and backaround. After 2 weeks we met again and i returned the mod. By then I had already felt the urge to make my own mods. My first mod was really heavy, or as Russell would say:’Bitch! This is heavier than a KT lah!†At that time I had no clue what a ‘KT’ was, so i just kept quiet.
2 months later i released my first solo, which was a rather stupid thing to do as i think about it in retrospect. I had a really small trick list and I really didn’t have anything solid to present. The video can still be found on my youtube channel. It serves as a reminder to plan well before releasing anything. Starting then I felt a great need to improve my spinning, I don’t know why I felt this way, but I started making it a point to practice with focus every chance I get, instead of just spamming freestyles and such. This allowed me to maximize the time spent in classes.
E: Why did you start to emulate bonkura’s style?
DT: When I first saw Bonkura’s 1st solo(it was around my 4 months of experience, April I believe), I thought: This is awesome stuff. I immediately took time to breakdown some of his combos. I then realized that the tricks he performed were not exactly difficult, but the touch of style and presentation made everything look entirely different. This made me feel from then on that the most important thing in spinning a pen was to make sure every trick is beautifully executed, with a nice flow, tempo. I believe that trick difficulty isn’t that important, but visual appeal of the combo itself takes top priority.
E: What were the first steps towards mimicking his style?
DT: Initially, I felt that the only way I wanted to spin was to completely copy his style. The first thing I did was to look for combos(any combos, not necessarily Bonkura combos) which looked good by themselves without knowing the breakdown. Next, I stalked the ‘Breakdown Requests’ page to look for the breakdown. The first combo I ‘copied’ was the one in his ‘Ballsign mod Tutorial’.
E: How long did it take before any kind of progress showed itself?
DT: Progress came rather quickly. In about 2 or 3 weeks, I had managed to stop myself from spinning the way I did in my first solo, or in the ‘Deathangel ultimatsz and DaThroat collab’. The next step was smoothness, which I must say, is the hardest. I still believe I have not achieve this yet.
E: Would you say that learning to mimic a style takes lots of practice?
DT: In my case, no. It felt as though I was going to do this all along. It became natural quite quickly. However, I think if I had tried to become a ‘Korean Style’ spinner or any other style spinner, I might not have been able to ‘copy’ the style as quickly, if at all.
E: How did you keep track of your progress? Were there lots of taking videos and comparing yourself to bonkura?
DT: I used to copy entire combos, and see how well I could do them. For instance, I learned to do Bonkura’s copy in Japen’s 2nd and in SPSL 4th, and others in his 1st solo. I did not take videos and compare them though, I saw my combo in real life to see how it looked.
However, I soon started to only copy bits of combo and mix them around to form an entirely new thing by itself, hopefully retaining the same soft touch. This, I feel, is where the true progress starts: when originality begins.
On a side note, I hope that one day, as my style of spinning evolves, it will no longer be just plainly ‘Bonkura style’, but I will actually have my very own style.
E: Do you tend to feel that you’re not performing as you think you should? If so, how do you deal with this feeling?
DT: I stop practicing for awhile, and do some other things which I like to do first. I only try again when I feel the motivation has come back.
Recently, I am beginning to feel that my combos lack difficulty. I am currently trying to put a certain level of difficulty into the routine, since if I am to take part in the World Cup 08, difficulty is one of the judging components. Slightly frustrating.
E: What single most important piece of advice do you have for the audience?
DT: Advice? I don’t know. I guess they should just sit back and relax and enjoy the combo as it is, without looking to see what are the exact tricks which it is made out of. Just enjoy the way it looks.
Thank you DaThroat for your time! I hope his words of insight and encouragement will help any spinner out there looking to mimicking a style of their liking. -
Date: Wed, Dec 5 2007 19:35:51
why did you interview him? any reason?
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Date: Wed, Dec 5 2007 19:45:27QUOTE (Zombo @ Dec 5 2007, 02:35 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>why did you interview him? any reason?
I was driving one day and I suddenly felt the need to write an article on copying styles. After a while, DaThroat came to mind so I wanted to interview him. No special circumstances or anything.
DaThroat!
EDIT: This article should have been posted a week or two ago. I was lazy. -
Date: Wed, Dec 5 2007 19:55:12
ok, I thought it was made to coincide with bonkura's birthday.
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Date: Wed, Dec 5 2007 19:58:46
Good article, but you can imo improve the style alot if you make either questions or answers bold
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Date: Wed, Dec 5 2007 20:22:44
russels comment > the rest of the article :D sweet reading all the way through though, why don't you do something like this for the magazine?
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Date: Wed, Dec 5 2007 20:49:40
Good article, I've never heard of anyone copying a specific spinner style before. But I guess Bonkura really was in a category all his own.
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Date: Sun, Dec 16 2007 08:25:41
Nice article and good topic to choose from. Inspiring and motivational...
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Date: Sun, Dec 16 2007 18:41:59
Good article Eso!
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Date: Sun, Dec 16 2007 18:50:09
Very good article, I started learning bonkura's style