Idea to get the forum alive again

[Gremlin]

Apart from taking the mick out of Jason all the time i was just browsing the forum and saw about projump competition for pics and vids posted where the winner wins prizes, would this be an idea to start again to get people back on the forum?

 

[Jason]

It would be nice mate but PJ can't be expected to give away good stuff when they only get 3 or 4 entrys (that happened last time) so we may have to get a few more people on here first 
Locky and I did try to do a comp for silly things (set of old springs etc) but it didn't seem to take off
What we need is a comp that gives people fame but costs very little

But the most important bit is what we are doing now and that is chatting on here about ideas so you have already succeeded in upping the post count this week mate 

I am happy to enter a comp that has no prize just an anounced 1st 2nd 3rd place just for the fun so think one up and I'm sure you will get at least a few Banned and a few Welshies (If only Locky  )

Jason 

[Locky]

LOL pardon me for going off topic a little, but I have been thinking about Capital Bocking this year. I would really like to start having some sort of national competition for us and CB seems the logical place to do it. One of the biggest problems though is how do we make it fair (and fun) for everyone. I believe we had this problem last year at CB on the Sunday just to give away a pair of stilts that PJ had put up and that was just one prize. How we'd do it for several events, I've no idea. I know they have the annual championships in France but from what I hear it could be organised a bit better :/

[Gremlin]

Locky you could do stuff like 100 metre dash/high jump were the 1st could win springs for thier stilts, 2nd could win calf cuffs and 3rd could win safety gear or key rings or do give them vouchers for the pro-jump shop at different values of money , most improved during the day/event could win something and maybe mock up a certificate that the winners get and maybe the other entries for entering its a start

[spring_loaded]

Ha, mock up certificates are always funny and still give recognition 

[Jason]

I do see your problem there Locky

I mean if you have a high jump contest I can give you a hand full of people who will win it every time
Same for a running contest or flipping or tricking
If you want a winner for most modified stilts I am your man

So how do you make a contest that all can enter and have a chance of winning
You either need to make a level playing field (that would mean a non bocking chalange) which sort of defeats the object
Or sort people into catagorys of how good they are (good luck with that one mate  )

One idea I had was a le mans style start race in sections

Here it is for what it is worth

You start with 5 people all seated on a wall no stilts on
They have to put their stilts on run across an area back to the wall take stilts off and hand them to someone

Once you have held 5 races like this all the winners compete against each other and the seconds against each other and so on so all are in a race they have half a chance to win

This means everyone gets two races and you can change the numbers to accomadate however many people you have on the day

It would also level the field a bit as lacing a set of skips up will take longer than a set of old PJ's

Anyway that is one idea for the pot

Jason 

[Davido]

I know it's not really the same but with motorbike stunting we had two categories: novice and pro. With stunting this was fairly easy to categorise however with bocking I can imagine its a bit trickier as how do you judge how good someone is really?

It would be interesting to see what ideas people come up with but I don't think you will find it easy to accommodate everyone. You will either have to have a competition which isn't based on skill or be put in the situation where you only have a few real contenders.

The other thing to consider: who will judge? Someone who can do it all or someone that knows the sport but has less skill?

The whole thing is a minefield of questions and different options, so whoever's organising it, I wish you the best of luck!

[Spud]

In fencing the categories are based on time in the sport. Eg: beginner < 18 months Intermediate: Less than 3 years ect.. In skiing it's purely based on age which generally means any newcomer does pretty badly, but I think actually a good motivator. There are also tonnes of handicap systems which could be adapted for the sport. Personally though I don't think that events would 'big' enough if there were different categories. I suppose if you were to split things up a bit I'd look at those who can flip and those that cant. It's quite general but those who can flip seem to have mastered the basics and everything up to that point quite well. Not always true though.

[Locky]

I dont think there would be prizes as such but just the award/medal to show the winner was the best at whatever the event was.

I think every event would need to have an absolute rule to determine the winners rather than a judge. For example, the high jump (would all have to be done on the same set up) and a running race done against the clock. I dont know what else they do at the french event. The idea of a long jump doesnt really grab my attention much.

[Gremlin]

The only way to make it fairer would be to put people in categories of skill and you could get is it Naz? to judge it and if its done in a places with a lot of people then you could get a mayor as a judge as well which would get papers evolved which would also mean publicity and advertisement for the sport and the pro-jump forum, getting stickers and banners made up should be quite easy to get done and made up.

As for events you could do stupid stuff like egg and spoon races on the stilts with stepping up over obstacles etc, plus with what Jason idea, but surely having a laugh and having a go and getting together would be more important the getting prizes

[webmaster]

I'm happy to put up prizes for a comp but like jason said we really need more people contributing. I'm sorry I've not been around much but something else is currently keeping me on my toes, but I have been lurking!

[clive]

We could do that roy but to make the egg and spoon race fair jason needs to be blindfolded as his bloody good at every think   oh and if this is a yes from jason i dont want to be next to him just incase he falls on me 

[Davido]

It's often overlooked but for a competition to be a success you need a decent commentator/mc to get the crowd going.

Also with regards to judging, you have to have ideally 3 judges to give definitive scores. One judge may favour flips, but overlook technique while another may concentrate more on use of space etc.

I'm only talking from my experience of competitions so if none of this is relevant to bocking then please don't be afraid to tell me I'm talking out of my a***

We used to get judged on the following:

Amount of tricks
Difficulty of tricks (always an objective one, hence having 3 judges)
Use of space
Crowd interaction
Execution of tricks

Just throwing some ideas in. Getting carried away! 

[Gremlin]

Clive we could super glue all of ours or hard boil them and not Jasons 

[Jason]

All the old chestnut tricks Roy 

Didn't anyone tell you Clive you are my partner for the three legged race and I feel wobbly already 

Jason 

[XS]

one great way I've seen to get more people to participate in these sorts of comps is that the prize scales based on the number of participants.  If less than ten people submit entries then the prize is something small, like a pair of kneepads.  if 10-20 people enter maybe new springs.  More than 20 new stilts.  Something like that. 

Getting the community active again is a bigger task than just running more comps, but I'd love to see the bocking community back where it was 4 years ago.

[Greggles]

also i found that at cb last year people showed up not most people just sat about even when there was a comp running for new stilts but another thing that jake from the welshes said to me last year and i agree on is that a competition is there to find out who is the best at the thing they do so trying to make it a level playing field isn't really what a competition is about i would like to think that there would be more people to go up against like there was a few years ago one of the things that has push me to where i am now is CB 2008 seeing people like sim jonho bob becky hell even sprog doing flips tricks and every one up taking part last year i only really felt it was a small group of us wanting to bock and put on a show i know some times we can be daunting doing flips but when i couldn't do them i looked at it and said to myself im not going to stop until i can do that and it happened again last year with me and jake going at it together seeing him land that 720 back blew my mind and im still trying to land them but its given me the boost to carry on so my question is why has no one els got this mentality any more

[Locky]

I know what you mean Greg and I know why some people seemed to just sit there because I asked them and the answer was simply pathetic. I'll leave you to guess.

[SNuD]

I hate to say this because it sounds negative but I think it’s a point that needs to be thought about.
Bocking has a huge handicap when it comes to organizing a competition or any event really. It is, there are so few of us we are scattered so far and wide and we’re not a rich elitist bunch either.
This means getting people to go to an event with the associated travel cost etc. isn’t easy. A competition isn’t an attraction unless there is a real chance you could do well or you want to compete. If you just want to watch, look at you tube there’s plenty there and saves all that expensive.
As for a fair competition, there isn’t enough people to categories it fairly, if there is such a thing. You would end up with 1 in each category.
For me, being a grumpy old git! A lot of the attraction of the big events is being inspired by seeing the few who can perform do their stuff in the hope that I can pick up the odd tip. After all another drawback of this sport is the lack of tuition, Almost anything you learn to do you learn alone or off someone that has just learned it, usually by trial and error.
So after all this moaning what do I propose? Well how about a “training camp” event. i.e. groups that have them bring crash mats etc. and those that can spend a few hours trying to teach those that can’t. And I’m not just talking flips. Any tricks, even just getting back up if its required.

All this said events like CB and the Big Bock were great just for the camaraderie so we will be there if we can anyway.
 

[Davido]

One thing to consider is that while you may moan about people watching and not taking part, do they actually get given encouragement to join in?

It's all well and good wanting to perform and show off, but this can be daunting to new people or lesser experienced members (me included) having people jump circles around them, and a bit of encouragement or motivation from more senior/experienced members goes a long way.

It's worth noting - this is not directed at anyone in particular, just trying to throw a different perspective on it. Just my 2p worth.

[Jason]

Well said Dave

I do find that people tend to sit around and their excuses are normally of the "I'm not that good so don't want to look like a fool" type

I have been making a fool of myself for so many years that it is second nature to me  And Locky has me beat sometimes 

But not all people have that much confidence

Also we must be careful of the "I can do it so you should be able to" attitude
If I had a quid for every time I have bitten my tongue while standing in the rain trying to mend someones car when all they needed to do was learn how to maintain it properly (I mean your not a real man if you can't mend a car are you  ) 
Yes it is a biggoted attitude but mending and maintaining cars is so easy isn't it  (I'm sure Clive will agree with me there)

  Ok so who here wants to kick my A** now 

Lets all help the wallflowers to get up and have a go and not make things worse for them because a lack of confidence in anything is a heavy load to bare

Jason 

[SNuD]

Jason and Davido, You both are so right 
Every time we go somewhere I hear it and see it from my lot and think it myself to be honest, we end up watching the "pros" then waiting till they bock off round the corner before we have a bounce or bog off round the corner ourselves.
It still doesn't stop us going if we can but I do wish I had a little more confidance / ability.

[Locky]

I'm just going to give a litte story here of something that happened at CB and to be honest it really made my day.

Being the organiser, I was all over the place. Literally didnt spend more than 30 secs chatting to any one person before being called to do something else or see someone etc. Thats how CB is for me and it goes with the territory.

We have 3 new bockers in the welsh bockers this year. Myles (who wasnt at CB) Rob and Mikey. Rob and Mike are best friends in school and together rather a lot. We also had Jake there who was having a lot of fun with the likes of Greg, Simeon, Adam (nofear) etc. At one stage the majority of the EA's decided they were going to go round to the large wooden steps. Jake was going too and I was very surprised Rob tagged along with AFAIK no encouragement from anyone. Rob's a crazy little kid, he is just 14 and has doesnt have much fear. He's picked up bocking really quickly and is no doubt "my little star". But on this day he just went. He'd only met jake twice before, didnt have a damn clue who the EA's were or what their names were. It didnt matter. They were a fun crowd doing good tricks. Thats the only reason I can see that Rob went with them. Within an hour it became clear that a crowd had developed at the steps and some guys were doing crazy stuff, as Greg has already mentioned. By this time Sprog and myself had joined them with cameras poised etc.

I guess my point is that at some stage Rob decided to go with a bunch of people he didnt know but knew he could learn from even though he was still a newbie and injured if I remember. He never turned to Mike and asked him to come with. He never told me or steff where he was going. The only thing he saw was that he needed to be with these other guys to learn from. And he did.

I know people sometimes feel intimidated by the flippers. I've been there myself. I drove kiola up to Bradford in February 2007 to meet what was then the PJ display team (brucie and zeb etc if the names mean anything to you). I was intimitaded by their presence. A little scared and anxious about meeting them and there was no way I wanted to put stilts on seeing as I'd only been bocking about 6 times in total. But they made me feel very welcome and I did put my stilts on. I made some fantastic friends that day and even attempted my first front flip on the crash mats….meant as a joke but it definitely showed me the way.
Everyone in this sport knows what its like to learn. Without exception, we've all been there. I'm sure Jason wont mind me saying this but there was a time when I never thought Jason would be able to jump up a wall or over a bench. I never thought he had the confidence and yes the age factor comes into that. But when I saw him on a video jump a bench all I felt was joy and very proud of him. It's not as easy as it sounds but you either get up and try these things or you stay sat at the sides watching. That may not be a bad thing, but you learn more and quicker by getting up and doing it…and you make a lot of new friends as Rob did at Capital Bocking.

[Jason]

Oi Locky less of the age bit   

I do agree mate I never thought I would make it over a bench 

Yep Rob is amazing and he must scare you as much as Dave does me (I mean from Bambi legs to back flip on concrete in less than 6 months)
I was half way through dialing 999 when I realised he had landed it   

Greg's post has a lot of good points in it
Comps should be to prove who is best but in our sport this would mean an elite few always winning and a lot of others not
We have always been a teaching (or self teaching oriented sport) so we need to encourage people to take part and try

So how about from now on we split comps into a Masterclass and all the rest of us
This would make a good chance for all and we would still be treated to the likes of the EA's showing us how it should be done

The one think that I feel has come out of this post clearly is that a lot of us old hands (me included) are not doing enough to encourage the less skilled/fit/confident members to get up and try something

I will be trying this year to be more like the Welsh guy (can't remember his name  ) who had to drag me into the display at the first CB and stopped me being a wallflower (Thanks Locky  )

Jason 

[Locky]

I really like that masterclass idea. So basically we'd hold a big competition which was split into 2 main categories - those who consider themselves an advanced competitor and those who are serious about fun. I suppose the contenders decide which category they wish to go for but cannot enter both. Still got the issue of what individual events there would be but I really think we're on to something here.