Flow PvP [2 July – 29 July]

[@mu]

Helloooooo!

 

Here is a new game geared towards body weight skills! It is focused on exploration and transition between skills, and complete mastery of your own level (including strength AND flexibility).

 

It is NOT restricted to parallettes players. Floor, blocks, parallettes, high parallel bars or even rings if you feel like it. Everything is fair game!

 

It is NOT video-based. If you want to share your work via a video, please do but you don't have to. You can simply describe what you have done and which level of mastery you have reached.

 

Ok so what's the game?

 

We have 4 families of moves:

 

~ The bent arms family ~

Anything involving bent arms.

Examples: low plank, push-ups, dips, elbow levers, bent arm stand, crow and crow variations

 

~ The straight arms family ~

Anything involving straight arms.

Examples: plank, swings, crane, planche, handstand

 

~ The compression family ~

Anything where you have to lift or pull your legs towards your upper body to the point where you get serious abs spasms and/or leg twitches.

Examples: V-ups, straddle hold, L-sit, V-Sit (variations with bent knees or a single leg lift are acceptable), handstand or bent arm stand with a straddle or pike float

 

~ The pretzel family ~

Any move involving a bit more flexibility than usual.

Example: table top, bridge, splits (or progressions such as lunges), pancake, pike, back and front bends, eight-angle, crow flying splits, grasshopper

 

Every week (or 2 weeks, we will see as we go), we will define a new family ordering.

For instance: straight arms → bent arms → pretzel → compression.

 

Each player must find a sequence that fits this order with ONE move per family, that is FOUR DISTINCT moves (i.e. you can't use your flying crow as both a bent arm and a pretzel move).

Example: plank → crow → middle splits → straddle hold

 

You can choose whatever move you like as long as it fits the family. The moves I listed above are examples, but don't restrict yourself to those.

I would recommend using skills you have already some fluency in because the real unnamed killer of this game will be TRANSITIONS. Make sure moves are connected. It's not a set of moves, it's a FLOW.

 

You will try to complete the following levels:

 

Level 1 (Inspired): execute a 4-move sequence fitting the requested order.

 

Level 2 (Rebel): execute the same sequence of moves but in reverse order.

 

Level 3 (Master): execute the sequence both ways in a single flow (= 7 moves).

 

Strategy advice: when preparing your sequence, have a good think about what it will require for Level 2. Reversing the order can make transitions much harder, especially when you have to work AGAINST gravity (e.g. crow ↔ straddle hold, HS ↔ bridge).

 

When you have reached your max level, you can bonus on it with the troll mode:

 

Troll mode: execute the sequence at your maximum level with a twist of your choice. For instance smiling at all times, or looking miserable, or during a Wim Hof retention, or flexing one foot, or looking obsessively at your left hand, or balancing an object...

Pictures or videos of that one would be very much appreciated

 

Scoring: 1pt per level achieved. If you manage the troll mode, you add 1pt to your score.

You can troll all the levels if you like but you will only get points for trolling your max level. When you do so, you will basically get as many points as the level above you. For instance, an Inspired Troll will get as many points as a Rebel, which will probably annoy the Rebels and encourage them to troll the Masters. I regret to say that Master Trolls cannot be beaten.

 

Grid:

Inspired = 1pt / Inspired Troll = 2pt

Rebel = 2pt / Rebel Troll = 3pt

Master = 3pt / Master Troll = 4pt

 

You can join/leave at any time. This is a PvP write-up draft so feel free to suggest modifications / ask questions etc. We will be testing the format as we go along.

 

I thought for instance that maybe we could have a squat family to spice things up? The pull family is also missing but since it requires some kind of apparatus (pull-up bar, rings, tree...), we should probably leave it aside.

 

I'm also not sure where to put the headstand and the elbow stand, if you are doing inverted lotus or splits, or a scorpion, that would qualify as a pretzel move I suppose. Elbow stand could also qualify as a bent arm move. It's open to discussion!

 

Anyway, we are starting on Monday! Say hello if you want to join.

[@mu]

The first sequence is:

 

straight arms → compression → bent arms → pretzel

 

Good luck!

[WhiteGhost]

I am so in for this

 

[@mu]

Awesome! Hope the toothache has gotten manageable though!

 

Today I worked on finding a viable sequence, which was not so easy, especially after a P2 workout. I was too tired to do things I would really have liked to do. It was just too hard!

This is my tentative sequence. I did Level 1, and some bits in a reverse order but not all of them yet.

 

plank lean → straddle hold → push-up → crow splits progression

/Inspired

[Mad Hatter]

Following, but probably more for inspo at this point.  

[WhiteGhost]

3 hours ago, @mu said:

Awesome! Hope the toothache has gotten manageable though!

Feeling much better today, thanks!

 

I did my first sequence today:

Swings -> L-Sit -> Shoulderstand -> Shoulderstand straddle -> Shoulderstand -> L-sit -> Swings

 

I tried to think of some way to troll it, but nothing came to mind.  Maybe doing it in front of an audience counts?  As I was working through ides for my sequence a bunch of curious kids from the yard came over to watch.  

 

I have a video but can't get my VPN to work so I will try to upload it later

[@mu]

I saw the vid on your thread! Nice one!

For the trolling bit, why not an audience indeed but I'm not sure it is very disruptive for you? We are talking about master trolling here

 

Looking at a specific angle (like the camera) might be tough during the invert though. You could hold something between your teeth (flower?), but maybe now is a not a good time with your dentist adventures    Or flex a foot at all times, or both (asymmetric flexing can be harder).

 

Yesterday night I worked a bit on Levels 2 & 3, after some rest, it was a bit easier. And I started trolling a little with my ball but it needs work   I'm now controlling the bum landing / straddle hold fail a bit better though:

 

So beware, trolling in progress!

[WhiteGhost]

Yeah, it was a little distracting but not to the level of a master troll

 

Your straddle hold is looking pretty good  

 

 

[@mu]

So I have been trolling a couple of times this week, and I don't think it will get any better at this stage.

Here is the last video:

 

plank lean → straddle hold → push-up → crow splits progression → push-up → straddle hold → plank lean + ball

 

It's extremely tiring, not sure I will troll with the ball again!

 

 

[Mad Hatter]

I'm suuuuper impressed you managed to do the whole sequence without dropping the ball!

[WhiteGhost]

If I understand this correctly, I am supposed to come up with the next flow?  If so, then this week is going to be

 

Compression → Bent Arms → Straight Arms → Pretzel

 

I have an idea of how I want to do this but I need to practice a bit first

[@mu]

On 7/6/2018 at 3:28 PM, Mad Hatter said:

I'm suuuuper impressed you managed to do the whole sequence without dropping the ball!

 

Sheer foot flex it hurts

 

22 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

Compression → Bent Arms → Straight Arms → Pretzel

 

GREAT!

 

I saw your message on your thread as well about doing 

front straddle (with my hips in front of my arms) -> some kind of tuck planche/shoulder stand thing -> high plank -> side plank

 

Front straddle is a great idea!

Side plank I don't think it qualifies as a pretzel move, unless you have something specific in mind involving more flexibility in that position, like a leg up or something?

 

I'll launch a PvP sequence creation thread in my brain now. Let's see what happens  

[WhiteGhost]

13 hours ago, @mu said:

Side plank I don't think it qualifies as a pretzel move, unless you have something specific in mind involving more flexibility in that position, like a leg up or something?

Fair point, I will think of some way to modify it into a pretzel move

[Eldgee]

Looks like I'm late to this, too, but I'm going to try to play this week! Hmm. I'm thinking maybe lolasana (I mostly speak yoga) to some kind of crow to some headstand straight arm variation to adding lotus. Not sure how possible that transition into crow is for me (my compression isn't great) but I'm going to try it.

[@mu]

Yeah! Welcome!

 

25 minutes ago, lauragee said:

Looks like I'm late to this, too, but I'm going to try to play this week! Hmm. I'm thinking maybe lolasana (I mostly speak yoga) to some kind of crow to some headstand straight arm variation to adding lotus. Not sure how possible that transition into crow is for me (my compression isn't great) but I'm going to try it.

 

Headstand with straight arms => great idea!

I still struggle a lot with some transitions involving lifting my hips, unless I get my head really down... I have some ideas that I should be able to reality-check tomorrow

 

[@mu]

So... I tried my idea and it is sort of ok, it needs a bit of cleaning up but at least it's feasible

 

L-sit → (deep) bent arm stand → straddle hold (I'm using it as a straight arm move) → firefly position with bent legs and a foot lock (shoulder press)

/master (back and forth)

 

I used my higher parallettes because I was too tired to work out the level of compression on the smaller ones. But it took some practice to get my bent arm stand on those again! I rolled over a few times!

Todo: polish it, find some new trolling idea!

[WhiteGhost]

1 hour ago, @mu said:

find some new trolling idea!

I have a trolling idea for this one - Should be coming soon  

[@mu]

5 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

I have a trolling idea for this one - Should be coming soon  

 

Really looking forward to it! I hope you can take a video or a pic

[WhiteGhost]

Yep, I will take a video, but things are looking pretty hectic for the next couple of days so I don't know when I am going to get to it  

[@mu]

No worry. We have a guest at the end of the week (Thu-Fri), I'm not sure how much I will be able to do even on my usual workouts. I might not be able to practice again before Saturday or Sunday.

[WhiteGhost]

OK, I got mine done but will upload the video tomorrow when I am at a computer.  I ended up doing:

 

Front straddle -> tuck planche thingy -> high plank -> 8-angle

 

The video:

 

[@mu]

Brilliant

I just worked on the master level this week (deload + not enough sleep these past days).

 

L-sit -> deep bent arm stand -> straddle hold -> foot lock

 

Here is the video:

 

 

Not sure if lauragee is coming around these days, if not, I'll post a new sequence tomorrow morning, otherwise @lauragee feel free to post one

 

[WhiteGhost]

I love how clean your holds are.  Your transitions are very smooth too  

[@mu]

5 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

I love how clean your holds are.  Your transitions are very smooth too  

 

Thanks! I try to time my holds to slow down,  I count to myself "banana-1 banana-2 banana-3 ..."  but I still forget sometimes.

[Eldgee]

18 hours ago, @mu said:

Not sure if lauragee is coming around these days, if not, I'll post a new sequence tomorrow morning, otherwise @lauragee feel free to post one 

 

 

I have been a bit MIA...but I did finally make it through the basic level today. My plan to move from pendulum (arm balance with tucked legs picked up off ground) to crow didn't work at all, oops. I did get through a sequence of yoga headstand in tuck position (tried it with pike, but that didn't work out either...this felt like a lot of compression work once I moved on to the next step, though), switching to tripod position (bent arms) lifting up to full headstand and then lotus legs (pretzel). Hooray!

 

For the next week, let's go with straight arms -> bent arms -> compression -> pretzel. I have an idea, but I want to see yours.