Karma and spotting.


This post is in view of yesterday's incident, resulting in a injury to one of our flyer. Karma and spotting has always been hot topic for our discussions.

Karma...

So is this a Karma for the flyer? or Karma for the base? or even Karma for the spotter? I think this is a too profound question that I have no answer to.

People will generally think this as a karma for the flyer, for something she did in or said in the past, as it was she who got injured.

However, has anyone thought it could be the karma of the base, or the spotter? As they are all involved in the stunt too, cannot put it all on the flyer. But some will say, the base and the spotter did not lose anything, or did not get injured etc, so how can it be karma for them?

I feel that this might not neccesary be the case. Although the base and spotter did not get injured, or anything tangible, but what the base and the spotter got could be something intangible, unmeasurable. The base now will have one less flyer to train with, might get demoralised for causing another injury, feel guilty about it and lose confidence, then worse might wallow in self pity. (And not to mention the face on our coach when he saw it, he was unhappy that we are doing something extra that could add risk to our flyers.) All these could be considered as karma for the base.

Disclaimer>> The senario I painted is not a representation of how the base felt, it is just my own interpretation of how it might be like, or how I would have felt. The base might have felt a total different way from me.

So how about the spotter? He seemed to be the most innocent and un-involved party in this case. But what seemed like a routine catch and resist the flyer down slowly, ended up in an injury. In some eyes, the spotter is not doing his job well, ppl will lose confidence in him spotting. I feel this could be the worst karma of all, to lose the faith and trust of people.

Disclaimer again >> The senario I painted is not a representation of how the spotter or ppl felt, it is just my own interpretation of how it might be like, or how others and I would have felt. The ppl and spotter might have felt a total different way from me.

So whose karma was it? Karma is a very profound thing. It affects you in ways which you do not even realise. I myself do not understand it too, and can only try to intrepret it in my own ways.

Thats all for the karma part...

Spotting...

Why is it that always after an injury, the spotting awareness increase, then after a while it slowly fade again? Are some people generally more aware or better spotters than others? (eg, Giap always claims he has spider sense) Is there a preference on flyer part of who her spotter should be? Or a preference on the base part of who his spotter should be? Or a spotter preference to spot a particular flyer? Does the preference also means giving 120% more to saving the flyer? And also consider, is 80% of someone with more awareness and control, better than 100% of someone with less awareness and control? (like 80% of 1000 is 800 and 100% of 500 is only still 500) Is it always the spotter fault if he cannot save a flyer? Or you can say that some flyers just have better control, so it is easier for the spotter to react?

These are all some questions that each of us have a different answers to.

Ok in my personal opinions to the above questions...

I think people are just fan jian... Only when something bad happens then they wake up, it has happen in our team time and time again.

I also believe that there are some who are more aware and skilled in spotting than others. This may be an in born attribute or it can actually be trained up. As your skills and technique level increases, your safety awareness will definetly have to increase too. I tink safety awareness can be inculcated.

On my part, I have no preference for spotters when doing stunts which I have mastered to a consistent level. But for stunts which I am still training, I would prefer to ask sora or thefly to help, but it does not matter if they are not around also, its just a preference because I understand myself and the flyer and will not do anything reckless, like pure blast of power even when stunt does not feel right. The base is still ultimately the one to control and save the flyer, not the spotter.

On the issue of preference to spot certain flyers, I can only say maybe xw. The reason is obvious and I believe its only natural. It is also becos I am her prefered spotter as she knows she can trust me. it works both ways. But on the part of giving 120% to the flyer I prefer to spot, the answer is no. If I am spotting, I will always spot well, no matter who the flyer is. It might seemed that i give more to spot her, but I guess its becos she knows how to fall and will always pounce onto me and hug me when falling. I guess this is down to the topic of touch again. A couple hugging each other is normal, but if you fall, you choose to pounce over and hug me, I am fine with it. And also on xw part, her knee is weak and she always has a special request for me to help to absorb her landing as much as possible. If you have any special request, you can always tell me when I am spotting you, like for ww case, she request soft landing on her left leg, I am totally fine with it.

About the point of 80% of 1000 and 100% of 500, the maths obviously proved a point, like asking a inexperience hall base to spot 100%, he might still not be able to cradle you when you fall. However, even if the maths show one result, I still believe that no matter what, one should still give his all when spotting.

So is it always the spotters fault, or the flyer ability to control herself matters too? I think it is the latter, flyers ability also determine how well a spotter can spot. In some cases there is really limited a spotter could do. If you completely lose control in a stunt, say toe pitch 360 and crumple down fast, the base can only go in and catch you or break your fall as much as he could. Do not accuse that he did not try to catch you, when you did not play your part of controlling yourself.

So karma and spotting comes hand in hand. Help to spot more often, and more ppl will come spot you. Spot well and you will have better karma. Being unreasonable, jeolous, and and "small heart eyed" will only bring you bad karma.

Thats all folks. My take on karma and spotting.