Reminders for Clean Times in Competition and Video Review

by Lisa Berman, TEAM USA, Saint Louis, MO
May 20, 2019

1. Aim for a style that is so clean that video review just confirms it is clean. The stops and starts should be so clearly clean at full speed that the video review is quick and easy because in slow motion it is even more obviously clean.
2. You can’t touch the cups when you’re starting the timer. Make sure you lift your hands before touching the cups and not the other way around.
3. Keep your hands open enough so that the judge and the video reviewer won’t think you might be touching the cups.
4. Don’t hold (or even appear to hold) the cups when you stop the timer.
5. If you’re the lead hand of a doubles team, you have to watch your partner on the upstacks so that you don’t get too far ahead of your partner. This is most common in child/parent doubles where the parent is slower than the stacker but it happens plenty in age division doubles, too. The leader can’t pick up cups on the next stack until their partner finishes and lets go of the one before.
6. Another place in doubles where a scratch often happens is on the downstack of the 1-10-1. No one can pick up one of the single cups for downstacking until the cup on the top of the 10-stack is released.
7. In relays, waiting stackers have to keep both feet on the floor until the returning stacker steps on or over the start line.
8. In relays, always run to the outside/in the opposite direction of the center line because if you go towards the center line it wouldn’t be a scratch but the camera can’t see the foot return behind the table so it will likely not be accepted as a record if a team member runs in that direction.
9. In the Timed 3-6-3 Relay, even if you run to the outside, it’s important to not go too wide and run outside the view of the camera. Go almost directly back since it’s faster and your foot return will be on camera.
10. Understand the excessive stacking rule. Once your hands touch the cups to start upstacking, whether you have properly started the timer or not, it will be considered an upstack. During an attempt, if you don’t start the timer but start your up stack, still do the stack. You’re getting a scratch for it whether you complete it or not so you might as well complete that one attempt. It will help you re-focus.