Lesson 13 for MM_STD

Now we have a notation for both SiteSwaps and hand movements combined. We have seen how Mills Mess can be annotated in the system, and how it can be analysed to compute its time reversal, as well as finding patterns that are related in other ways, in particular, we saw the Funky Mess, and lots of varieties of the "Three-cylinder-engine." The notation doesn't tell us everything, though. In particular, the description of the weave doesn't say that the arms should be at about the same level. it allows the situation where one ball is waved about completely above the other balls, even though this is, perhaps, a rather silly pattern. (Mind you, the public tends to like stupid patterns!)

The analysis for time reversal is more difficult when we include the SiteSwaps, but that's to be expected because the time reversal of SiteSwaps themselves isn't completely obvious.

However, at this point we can give the notation for several well-known patterns, including those we've seen already. Our thanks to Mike Day for these. 

  Mills Mess 3:          3iU 3oA 3iB
  Mills Mess 4:          4iU 4oA 4iB
  Mills Mess 42:         4iU 2oA 4iB 2iU 4oA 2iB
  Mills Mess 534:        5iU 3oA 4iB
                    or   3iU 4oA 5iB
                    or   4iU 5oA 3iB
  Mike's Mess:           5iB 2iU 2oA
  Ssem Sllim             3iU 3oA 3oB  (time reversed MM)
  Funky Mills Mess 3:    3iU 3oB 3iA
  2-in-1 weave:          4oU 2oA 4iB 2iU
  Alternating weave:     4oU 2oA 5iB 2iU 2iU
  Burke's Barrage:       4iB 2iU 3oA         ie MM  2iU 3iU 4iU
  Rubenstein's Revenge:  5iB 2iU 2oA 3iU 3oA
  Egnever S'nietsnebur:  5oB 2iU 2oA 3oB 3iU  (time-reversed RR)
  Sean's Sequel:         4iB 2iU 3oA 3iU 3oA
Sean's Sequel is a pattern discovered by Sean Gandini when learning Rubenstein's Revenge.

Here are a few of these in the bar and subscript notation. As we said earlier, some people will find these easier to read, but they are harder to write in plain ASCII, having to worry about the multi-line nature of them. 

                                      _
  Mills Mess 3:                      33 3
                                       A B

                                        _
  Burke's Barrage:                   4 23    ie MM 234
                                      B  A

                                     __
  2-in-1 weave:                      42 4 2
                                       A B

                                        _  _
  Rubenstein's Revenge:              5 22 33
                                      B  A  A

                                        _  _
  Sean's Sequel:                     4 23 33
                                      B  A  A
The notation given for Rubenstein's Revenge needs a little explaining. It's not exact the way it's written, but needs a small amount of extra text. We need to say that the timing is slightly distorted from what's given, the 5 has to be low, the 2's have to be rushed a little. Also, one of the catches has to be a claw, although in the heat of doing it at speed this comes naturally. But perhaps the most amazing thing is that the notation can do Rubenstein's Revenge at all.

Go to Lesson 14
Back to Lesson 12

The contents of this document are Copyright (C) Solipsys Ltd, 1996, but you may reproduce and redistribute them freely provided that you make no changes, no charges, and that this copyright notice remains attached.

Dr C.D.Wright