While you feel a little shivering when you stand on a high place, they are riding their bikes in the air to do cool maneuvers such as backflips and dragon tail swings. At the upcoming Olympic Qualification Series in Shanghai in a month's time, BMX freestyle is undoubtedly one of the brightest events in the field.
How did the BMX freestyle develop and why is it loved by more and more young people? How should this unpopular project be watched? This reporter conducted an exclusive interview with some people in the industry.
Develop:
From the off-road track to the trendy streets
BMX originated in California in the 70s of the 20th century, when teenagers used bicycles to emulate off-road bikes on self-built off-road tracks, and gradually extended to the streets and skate parks. At present, BMX is mainly divided into BMX racing and freestyle BMX, and BMX racing has been added to the Olympic family since the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. In June 2017, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that BMX freestyle will become an official Olympic programme at Tokyo 2020, with two medal events: men's and women's.
Chen Hao, technical advisor of the Chinese national team, freestyle BMX referee and director of the Shanghai Extreme Sports Association, introduced that freestyle BMX includes different competitions: park races, halfpipe skills, flat BMX, street races and dirt BMX. Only park racing is an Olympic BMX freestyle event.
BMX bikes need to perform difficult maneuvers such as knob turns in the air. Photography by Labor Daily reporter Yan Xiaoyi
"At the Tokyo Olympics, none of our Chinese team entered the finals. But in recent years, the development of freestyle BMX in the mainland has been very fast, especially in the women's event, in the latest world rankings, in addition to the first place is the United States, the second to fourth place are our Chinese players, and we have another player ranked tenth in the world, forming a collective advantage. ”
In recent years, the Shanghai Extreme Sports Association has held BMX coaches and referee training courses every year, not only local coaches from Shanghai, but also coaches from other provinces and cities in the Yangtze River Delta and even across the country. Deng Yufei, head coach of the Shanghai Yangpu BMX team and distinguished lecturer of the BMX program of the Shanghai Extreme Sports Association, came into contact with the BMX freestyle project in 2016 when the country was just starting to heat up, and he feels that the number of adults or children playing BMX on the road has increased visibly in recent years.
Deng Yufei was interviewed by reporters. Photography by Labor Daily reporter Wang Weipeng
"There are very few places in Shanghai dedicated to BMX, and there are often young people who get together to play BMX, and a number of pump tracks have been built in Xuhui Riverside and some parks, which are very popular with young people and children. "I don't have a complete count, but I estimate that there are 30 or 40 BMX shops in Shanghai, and each store has two or three coaches." With BMX becoming an official sport at the Shanghai Games, the demand for coaches has increased significantly. ”
Equip:
Competition-class cars cost a little more
Although he is only 8 years old, Chen Ruiqi, a young man from Shanghai, is already a "veteran" in the Shanghai freestyle BMX industry, and almost all the Shanghai champions of the same age group have been in his hands.
In the New Jiangwan City Extreme Park, Chen Ruiqi rode his own car, and could easily make cool actions such as dragon tail swing, backflip, and take-off. He told reporters that he didn't know BMX bikes, and he initially bought a BMX bike just as a bicycle to ride, "Later, I watched a video on the Internet and knew that it was a BMX bike, so I began to follow the online to learn the moves, and it didn't take long to play some tricks." ”
8-year-old Chen Ruiqi is already a "veteran" of BMX. Photography by Labor Daily reporter Yan Xiaoyi
Under the guidance of professional coaches, Chen Ruiqi has made rapid progress, and with the support of his parents, he has also spent a lot of time training BMX, and will go to the New Jiangwan City Extreme Park to train almost every day after school. A simple somersault, Chen Ruiqi only took more than a week to master the mastery, "I feel that this project is very exciting, and it is really scary when the somersault is done halfway." If you wear protective gear and master the skills of the coach, you can still train it. ”
Deng Yufei told reporters that balance bikes (or scooters) were very popular in previous years, but the gameplay was somewhat limited compared to BMX, and with the entry of BMX into the Olympic Games, the popularity is also increasing year by year. "BMX is a friendly all-age sport, small, light and fun, and will attract more young people to participate as the event enters the Olympics and Asia. ”
Difficult dragon tail swing. Photography by Labor Daily reporter Yan Xiaoyi
From the point of view of equipment, the cost of entry-level BMX is not high, you can buy one for one or two thousand yuan, plus helmets, elbow pads, knee pads and other protective gear, the cost will increase by another one or two thousand yuan. However, if you are participating in training and competitions, considering the need for difficult movements such as knobs, the quality of the car itself needs to be improved, and the car needs to be modified again, and the cost will increase. Taking the BMX used by Chen Ruiqi as an example, after the transformation, the cost exceeded 10,000 yuan, which also made the child keep saying "It's very expensive, it's very expensive".
Ornamental:
There are no standard moves on the field
The Olympic Qualification Series, which will be held in a month, is full of anticipation for children and parents including Chen Ruiqi. Chen Ruiqi told reporters that his parents had helped him buy tickets and would definitely go to the scene to enjoy the performances of world-class high-level athletes.
The full name of BMX freestyle BMX is bicycle motorcycle off-road freestyle BMX, which refers to the movement in which the rider uses various auxiliary terrains (flat land, streets, dirt slopes, U-tube park props, etc.) to complete a series of fancy actions in the air and/or on the ground, which is very ornamental.
Chen Hao said that BMX freestyle is a comprehensive technical competition, in which various types of skills such as aerial leap skills, balance skills and fixed-point skills are displayed at a specific time and place in the competition. There are no prescribed technical actions and routes in the competition, and players need to wear protective gear, use professional BMX bicycles, arrange their own starting positions, and use any props in the venue to encourage players to carry out technical actions and route innovation.
Common movements of BMX bikes. Photo courtesy of Chen Hao
Each round of the event lasts 60 seconds, and the duration of the domestic youth and youth groups is 45 seconds. "When the timer is over, the athlete will be scored for completing any complete movement. The criterion for judging the end of the action is that both wheels are in contact with the water level. Chen Hao said that in the competition, freestyle BMX is not like other events, there is no prescribed standard action, and there is a large component of improvisation on the field, "Often, the action of the first player will be regarded as the standard, if you are better than him, the score will be higher, and worse than him, the score will be lower." ”
Chen Hao said that the difficulty not only refers to the difficulty of the action itself, but also includes the position/props of the action completion (such as: backflip plus three laps of the handlebar over the throwing platform, ultra-long-distance cross-prop crossing plus the dragon tail swing); Completion refers to the correct and high-quality completion of the action, three low-quality actions are not as good as one high-quality action, and height refers to the completion height of the whole round.
Chen Ruiqi shows the aerial throwing action. Photography by Labor Daily reporter Yan Xiaoyi
In addition, the use of the venue, landing point, fluency, creativity, and risk factors in the game are also factors that the referee needs to consider. Mistakes in action, failure to make the most of the game time, etc., are considered points deductibles. Overall, a good round should be made up of unique routes, 60 seconds of exhaustion, high-quality completion of various difficult tricks, high altitude, and clean landing.
"One of the most intuitive ways to judge is that if a competitor doesn't use a full 60 seconds, or if the person and car are separated during the race, they will definitely deduct points. Chen Hao said that generally before such an international competition, athletes did not have time to adapt to the venue in advance, at most only an hour of official adaptation training, this time the venue design of the Shanghai station has a certain degree of difficulty, and athletes from all over the world are also competing fiercely for the Olympic qualification, "The level of BMX is getting higher and higher, and the venue must be more and more difficult, I hope everyone can feel the charm of BMX." ”
The picture shows 8-year-old Chen Ruiqi riding a BMX bike and tossing in the air. Photography by Labor Daily reporter Yan Xiaoyi