Congratulations to every Athlete on your performances at the recent NZCAF National Competition.
The Judges and audience very much enjoyed watching you. The following is some feedback to help you with your 2014 routines;
Sport Aerobic General Feedback;
- Please remember that only 180 degree turns are allowed for the Static Strength moves
- Check the unacceptable moves and if you are not sure then feel free to email me to check. We did see some ‘handstand’ positions, cartwheels and a dive roll which are considered to be unacceptable
- Check the skill moves allowed for your age group and grade and only include the ones you are allowed and able to do
- The music is still causing some issues:
- Some of the tracks were slightly too long or short. We allow one or two seconds but not five seconds. The timing starts from the first audible sound and stops at the last
- The recommended BPM (beat per minute) is 150 – 155 but this depends on the length of the arms, legs and body of an athlete. There appeared to be many tracks that were slower than the minimum recommendation of 148bpm. Slow music risks a lack of impact and intensity. On the flip side there were some routines with a very fast bpm which risks all criteria but especially execution and quality
- Do not change the bpm through the track. You should have one bpm from the start to the end
- Take the time to choose your music as it will be the most important part of your routine. Find a track that has a lot of variation and structure and doesn’t sound the same for the entire track. Modern pop songs often have long sections with the same sound so maybe look at some older track remixes
- Choose age appropriate songs and songs that do not have bad language
- The ‘scissor’ in the Compulsory Combination is not a side kick. Please keep the extended side leg lower than the hip
- If you are injured please consider whether you should compete or not. We only have one body and we need to look after it – there will be other competitions
Dealing with the above issues;
We have a comparative judging system which means we compare one performance to another to work out who is the best. When an athlete has an illegal move, the music is too slow, or trips over we have to consider if that ‘error’ will reduce the ranking (not just the score) of that athlete.
For example;
Athlete A is very good (8.0) and has an unacceptable move in her routine…Athlete B has a good performance (7.0) without any errors. Is Athlete A still better than Athlete B even with the error. Judges may reduce their score for Athlete A to 7.5 but this will mean they are still better than Athlete B
Hip Hop General Feedback;
to help with routines for next year’s routines;
- The routines are short therefore ‘dance’ as much of them as you can. Be careful that when you create a visual image like a vehicle that you risk not ‘dancing’
- Acting has similar issues to the above in that you need to check you are ‘dancing’ while you are trying to put your message across
- We should be seeing different sets that have a definite Style. There appears to be a mix of Steps being used instead of a variety of Styles. It would help to look at a Style and find out what Steps make up this style, then to dance that. This will help to be able to show different styles and have more variety in the routines
Judges Conflicts;
Due to the geographical positioning of the warm-up and stage area it was not possible for the Judges to be present at the competitor briefing. At this briefing we wanted to be transparent and outline the procedure for any Judge/Athlete conflict. If a Judge has a conflict then the Head Judge will oversee the scoring for the entire section for that Judge. A non-ranking Head Judge does not submit a score but where there is a conflict, the Lead Judge will oversee that section.