Flash Jam Test Sequence with Loot

Front Cross to Rut n Flip Fish

this is an interesting transition. it took me a few moments to wrap my head around

A Front Cross is essentially moving from Flank to Flank… so how to start?

Starting a sequence with a Front Cross is super easy. You can either throw the disc out to your left or right and that will Set the Flank that you Cross from.

You can also set the Flank by just turning your body to the right or left when the dog is in Front position, which is what I opted for.

The hard part was figuring out how to get the Backwards Through set properly. My first attempt with the Clockwise Flank ( 0:36 )did not allow for a Cross – it was already going in the proper direction for our Backwards Through. Once I switched to the Counter Clockwise Flank @ 0:44 it’s on. When the Flank is established the Front Cross can be cued.

At 0:49 seconds you can see that Loot switches from the right side of my body to the left, just for a moment – that’s the Cross from the Counterclock to Clockwise Flank. Loot continues on in clockwise direction into the Backwards Through ‘n’ Flip.

Dissecting the Backwards Through ‘n’ Flip

finishing the Backwards Through with a flip creates a new skill. this floating flip allows for tremendous team movement, interaction, and flow.

Linear speed is a huge problem with this move. Too much linear speed and the dog is in danger of not completing the flip or from struggling to handle the momentum on landing, putting undue stress on the knees, hips, and/or shoulders.

The handler needs to orient his or her body and the disc to reduce the dog’s linear speed. This means forcing the dog to reverse field to address the target.

@ 0:40 you can see that Loot could not acquire the target because of it’s placement. It was not visible between the handler’s legs. He had to come through first and then set his leap. This sets up an up and down trajectory that has a little bit of forward momentum, but not too much.

The dog should catch the disc up by your face in an up and down trajectory.

Takes are used for stability, predictability, timing, and safety. Loot has not done a lot of this work, and is not ready to shift to thrown discs. A rhythm needs to be built on the skill and trust that the target will be where the dog thinks it will be must be cultivated.

Hundreds of reps of takes are recommended before throwing the toss on this trick. Seriously…

Using takes also allows the handler to ease the dog down to the ground and help shape the kind of trajectory and landing that will be safe as you can see here with Loot throughout the session.

Leg Vault to Cross Body Back Vault

A solid Wait is absolutely key to success in teaching vaults. Wait is defined by the release. A slow, clear, confident cuing process can help define the release and reinforces the Wait.

I’m a little bit late on most of these vaults, which is often common with the broken routine building flow of the Art of Linking Tricks, and especially so with a dog who is new to vaulting. Once the dog is dialed in to the sequence and we go live speed this should get fixed naturally as a product of the handler no longer waiting.

The larger Leg Vault (2:20) was a mistake and a crash, not cool… It was not so much the height that was off, although it was a bit too high… the disc was not thrown far enough in front of the dog forcing Loot to rock back on take off and leave my leg at the wrong angle. Keeping the disc in front of the dog maintains linear speed and allows the dog’s momentum to be dispersed through their movement as well as their structure.

This affected me on the Cross Body Back Vault. I was tentative in my throwing and erred on the low side. It’s natural, but it shouldn’t happen.

Around Clockwise

And then he went around clockwise… 😉

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