/ /

Freestyle

We invite you to watch Jeff Stanaway & Cory's (2003 Open Division World Champions) flawless Freestyle routine at right for a taste of what Freestyle is all about.

Freestyle is a free-form, choreographed, routine scored by judges with an emphasis on success, variety, innovation, and the athletic skills of the canine and thrower.

Teams competing in Freestyle will receive a maximum of 90 seconds per round (120 seconds at the World Championship). Routines must last at least 60 seconds (90 seconds at the World Championship) to be scored. Competitors in Freestyle are permitted to use up to five discs. Timing begins when the disc is placed in flight, or the canine attempts to catch or pick-up a disc placed on the ground, or takes the disc from any part of a thrower’s or canine’s body. Countdown of time remaining will be uniform for all competitors: 60 seconds, 30 seconds, 10 seconds and time.

Contestants who bring their own music should present it to contest officials when called to the on-deck area. Music should be on a CD (compact disc) that is marked with the competitor’s name and desired track number. This information should also be noted on the outside of the CD case. Contestants must choose music that is suitable for a family audience.?

Judges will disregard tricks that do not begin or conclude with a disc in flight except roller throws. Takes — moves in which a disc is handed off to the dog — will not be scored.

PAWS Freestyle Scoring System

Competing teams will receive scores ranging from 1-10, in half-point increments, for each of the following four categories:

Presentation The team’s presentation of a crowd-pleasing routine with exciting choreography, continuous flow, good disc management and smooth transitions.
Athleticism Intensity and athleticism in completing catches, tricks or maneuvers together with a dog’s speed, quickness, leaping ability relative to its size and control over his/her body while competing.
Wow!Factor Ability to successfully complete challenging tricks or moves, including successful catches of throws with varied spins or releases. Also, the presentation of completely new moves, or a novel or unique presentation of a previously performed move, will result in higher scores in this category.
Success The team’s ability to successfully execute a routine with specific consideration given for the difficulty of the throws, catches and tricks.

Under the PAWS scoring system, judges will evaluate each team’s ability to cleanly execute a challenging, varied and exciting routine within the time allotted. Although there are specific categories that focus on execution (Success) and difficulty (Wow!Factor), a failure to score well in either of these categories may impact a competitor’s scores in all of the PAWS categories. This is because the judges must account for differences between the routines of the competitors that are competing on a given day.

For example, even if two competitors have perfect rounds they will not necessarily each receive a score of 10 in the Success category. Instead, the more difficult routine will typically receive a higher score in Success than the simpler routine. Similarly, if two competitors have equally difficult rounds, it is likely that the competitor with fewer misses will receive the higher score in the Wow!Factor category.

Vaults, utilizing the trainer’s body as a launch pad, should be minimized or excluded from routines altogether. If attempted, vaults should be performed in a controlled and safe manner. Excessive height, or frequent repetition of vaults, will not increase the likelihood of a higher score. Vaults are not required for success in Hyperflite Skyhoundz competitions. A vault is to be valued no differently than any other trick of similar difficulty. Many World Championship titles have been won with vault-free routines or with vaults minimized.

Freestyle Tie-Breaker If there is a tie for first, second, or third place, the tie will be broken by the following criteria, as necessary: 1) The team with the highest combined scores in the Athleticism and Wow!Factor categories, 2) A Snapshot round will take place with each team alternating turns and receiving ten seconds in which to demonstrate their strongest trick or cluster of tricks. Order of competition will be determined by a coin toss. The timekeeper will announce the start of Snapshot when each competitor signals his or her readiness to begin. The judges will then declare a winner based on their impressions of the overall quality of the Snapshot performances.

Pairs Freestyle As the name implies, Pairs Freestyle is essentially choreographed Freestyle employing two throwers and one canine.

With the safety of the canine always in mind, Pairs Freestyle teams demonstrate interesting variations on multiples, simultaneous throws, cross-feeding (i.e., alternating) throws to a canine, etc. Always exciting to watch, Pairs Freestyle offers endless possibilities for innovation and teamwork and doubles the fun for competing canines.

We believe that Pairs Freestyle is safer than an event in which two teams, each with a canine, are simultaneously working on a field. It has been our experience that canines, especially in the hands of inexperienced novice teams, are injured this way in greater frequency than in any other disc related activity. With Pairs Freestyle, the possibility of a canine-to-canine entanglement is eliminated.

That said, even though an additional thrower is involved, Pairs Freestyle routines should feature the substantial involvement of the canine. In other words, the judges are looking for routines that aren’t merely human Freestyle routines with an occasional throw to the canine team member.

Throwing from human-to-human, though regarded as a transfer, could potentially impact the various applicable scoring categories. In other words, if a transfer is executed cleanly and adds to the routine, it could positively impact a team’s score. A miss might have the opposite impact. Although transfers not involving the competing canine certainly could be an interesting and exciting component of a pairs routine, human-to-human throwing interaction should be balanced so as to highlight the significant involvement of the canine. Always, the emphasis will be on the canine.

In Pairs Freestyle, all the same rules for Freestyle apply with two exceptions. Competitors are allowed up to 10 discs and the category Teamwork (1-10 points) is added to the PAWS Freestyle scoring categories.

Teamwork Teamwork takes into consideration the relationship, choreography, field use, and fluidity of movement of the team during the routine.

Pairs Freestyle Tie-Breaker If there is a tie for first, or second place, the tie will be broken by the following criteria, as necessary: 1) The team with the highest combined scores in the Athleticism and Wow!Factor categories from the Freestyle Round(s), 2) A Snapshot round will take place with each team alternating turns and receiving ten seconds in which to demonstrate their strongest trick or cluster of tricks. Order of competition will be determined by a coin toss. The timekeeper will announce the start of Snapshot when each competitor signals his or her readiness to begin. The judges will then declare a winner based on their impressions of the overall quality of the Snapshot performances.