LikeableRodent wrote:As you're watching freestyle videos of people in Korea, have you watched many of the Pump freestyle videos from Korea? I've seen some where they do some pretty cool things along the lines of which I've never seen someone do here.
I have a theory on why Pump is better for freestyle.
In ddr, considder all the possible stances someone can have. Note how many face the screen and how many face the side. Now try with pump. There are just more ways to face forward (which is often how dancing is actually done).
OrangeLounger wrote:I agree with Mark, freestyle is dying out, so the more the merrier.
It takes a certain attitude to do freestyle well. I can't do it because I'm big on technical play. I'm more worried about getting perfects than looking cool
Dying out? Freestyle in Indiana has had a long succession of still births. Pretty much we've just had tiny little pockets of people that freestyle. We may see a few more try it for an event, but few seem to stick with it. Plus, events--especially freestyle events--have been few and far between lately.
So yeah, it's even more dead lately than it has been in the past. Which is really a shame, I've seen some good talent here that I'd like to see more of and others that could very likely do well if they wanted to.
LikeableRodent wrote:As you're watching freestyle videos of people in Korea, have you watched many of the Pump freestyle videos from Korea? I've seen some where they do some pretty cool things along the lines of which I've never seen someone do here.
I have a theory on why Pump is better for freestyle.
In ddr, considder all the possible stances someone can have. Note how many face the screen and how many face the side. Now try with pump. There are just more ways to face forward (which is often how dancing is actually done).
I don't know if that makes it better, but perhaps more natural. I'll often incorporate things in my freestyle routines that have nothing to do with the arrows. I think that's kind of the whole point of freestyle--to do more than just hit the arrows.
But I agree with you that Pump forces more movement and positioning out of you by way of its placement of arrows. Even on singles, you are required to move within the space a lot more than DDR which is mostly pivoting. A jump from the two lower corners to the two upper corners makes that statement perfectly clear.
In addition, Pump is not afraid to turn you all the way around with its step patterns...a lot! With DDR, you can opt to do that sort of thing, but you can usually brute force it just as easily. Pump almost forces spins as doing them is far easier mechanically than not. Just look at Beethoven Virus! Watching you spin those steps and later duplicating it has probably one the biggest factors to touch off my recent bout of Pump love. I was already interested in the game, but that was enough fun to trigger addiction.
What do you consider a "pockect of people" cause i know of only two people up here in the north that even try to FS and i am one of them and usualy that is only when i am around the other FSer.
My point was that there has only been a scattered handful of people that have shown any lasting interest in freestyle in Indiana. There has never been a widespread freestyle movement here that I have seen.
Bionix wrote:I knew what you ment. I just was saying FS is so rare up here it is basicly extinct.
Extinct implies that it once had life. I used the phrase 'still born' for a reason.
I love freestyle. I enjoy watching and performing. I know there are others out there, but I'm sad to acknowledge that they have had next to no significant impact on developing anything that could be deemed as an 'Indiana DDR Freestyle Scene.'
Pretty much we've just had tiny little pockets of people that freestyle. We may see a few more try it for an event, but few seem to stick with it. Plus, events--especially freestyle events--have been few and far between lately. 
