staff contact model and notation

Was bored enough last night to try and make a systematic model of contact staff. i.e. A way of writting down moves in a notation like siteswap for juggling. Though my notation is not very much like siteswap.

feel free to level abuse about the anal nature of such an undertaking, as well as better ideas for names / notation...

So we have six main classes:

Points
Contact Types
Planes
Grips
Entry and Exit
Turns

1) Planes

Denotes which plane a move can be done in.

Horizontal - H
Vertical - V
45 degree - /
All - A

{H,V,/,A}

2) Contact Types

Denotes what type of contact a move makes use of. This can change during a move and use conbinations of types. (like steve = roll + spin)

Types are added together with the + symbol to denote that they use two or more types.

Roll - rl
Wrap - wp
Spin - spn
Step - stp
Stall - stl

{rl,wp,spn,stp,stl}

3) Points

The points on the body at which contact can be done. (This are the 'clean' (ish) points, expecting to be the center of the area mentioned. They do not include such concepts as being upsidedown (where your groin might become a contact point) or stupidity, like butt cracks.) Also known as saddle points by some.

Head
Shoulder
Upper Arm
Forearm
Elbow
Wrist
Hand
Chest
Belly
Upper Back
Lower Back
Back of Neck
Front of Neck
Hip
Thigh
Knee
Lower Leg
Foot

Some of these have interesting things about them. But that would be a digression.

They also don't have any symbols / shortened forms yet, I don't know if that would make it too hard to understand...

4) Grip

3/4 out - 3/4O
3/4 in - 3/4I
centre - C

inwards refers to when you are holding the staff kunckles up horizontally with more of the staff across your body, than outside of your personal space.

outwards is the opposite.

5) Entry and Exit

The Grip and Plane notations can also be appended to the entry and exit information.

Shoulder - S
Waist - W
Under Leg - UL

to denote the otherside of the body use the hyphen -. (Not applicable to UL)
to denote an BTB (or behind other bodypart) entrance use the anglebracket >

{S,W,UL,-S,-W,>S,>UL,->S,->W}

Behind the shoulder (>S) I think does work, because you can twist your arm around enough to get there.
Up for debate in other words.

This basically makes use of the five holes theory, so when I say a waist entrance it means anywhere from above your leg and to under your arm. The same with the shoulder, it encompasses the space from above the arm to the side of the head.

6) Turns

90 - ;
180 - :
270 - :;
360 - ::

can use numbers or notation. Turns are put between moves and are assumed to happen instantaneously, though of course in reality they do not.
direction is not specified, oh dear.

Er well, lets say backside and frontside. With the foot on the same side as the entry staying still. (and the other rotates around it.)
I'll probably need to do a defination of backside and frontside at this point huh?

Movement Notation

finally to make it all fit together:

[PLANE]: [ENTRY] ! ([POINT],[CONTACT TYPE]) [TURN] ! [EXIT]

and one final special notation: * for a direction change.

and
inwards spinning - I
outwards spinning - O

so it would look vaguely like this:

A: >WI!(shoulder,wp)(upper back,spn)(-shoulder,wp)!>WO

simply for a halo roll. (I forgot to mention that you can denote the otherside bodypart with a hyphen as well)

And the exit seems to be assumed to be with the other hand...

ahhh this is sooo geeky I might puke.

Might put in a special way of notating continuous moves, or something, as well as the beats of a movement...

I haven't 'tested' this notation yet... so that'll be fun...

"the now legendary" - Kaskade
"the still legendary" - Kaskade

I spunked in my friend's aquarium and the fish ate it. I love all fish. Especially the pink ones. They are my bitches. - Anon.

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