The Nature of Elasto Mania Skill - by Sierra --------------------------------------------------------------- Skill. A term that is commonly used in Elma discussions. A property we admire and fear in equal quantities. A quality that only a fortunate elite possess. But do we understand it? This is of interest - do we know why some players are more skilled than others? To answer this we must know what skill is in its nature. What comprises skill? Is there a formula to it; is it quantifiable to any extent? Can it ever be described as anything other than skill? Skill - A Brief Description ------------------------------------ Before we can explain skill we should briefly describe it, for the sake of precision. There are essentially two means by which a player can achieve results in Elma - by skill and by höyl. Those with skill can invent and execute complex styles with relative ease; those with höyl require much longer playing periods. This is wonderfully exemplified by TorInge - whilst many kuskis play internals very hard for several years and cannot attain 37 minute total times, TorInge did so in less than one day. For reasons that we may never know, his consistency and judgment with the bike are so remarkably superior to those of other players that he does not require very many tries to manage even the hardest of styles (eg. Serpents Tale bounce, Bowling). Another curious example is Zweq's Tag world record on table #188, which he drove in approximately 15 minutes. These are not ordinary achievements, and fittingly are not made by ordinary people. People with skill are few in number. Skill - Mental or Physical? ------------------------------------- Now we may assess the nature of skill itself. If we are in agreement, as we should be from the above introduction, that skill indeed is an identifiable entity, then we must concede that it exists in either the mental or physical realm, or in both. Skill As a Mental Phenomenon - Does skill lie in the mind? Is it the case that the skilled players think, analyse, judge, reason and calculate their movements better in their minds? Is their skill a result of more effective thoughts and reactions to what they sense? Could it even be that they are more intelligent? This is not a terribly useful question, since much debate can be had as to what intelligence is itself. For example, David Beckham is largely considered to be of poor intellect, yet in crucial moments his mind can evaluate the best course of action required to score a free kick. Perhaps Elma skill is on a parallel with this. There may be some mental entity related to intelligence that allows certain people to evaluate the best button presses at crucial moments - when falling toward the Serpents bounce platform, when approaching the Labyrinth Pro bounce, when picking the gravity apple in Bowling, and so on. This seems very feasible, and I dare say it is statistically supported (for whatever utility that may add) - in the sense that normal distribution models show us that those with extreme intelligence are few in number, and we identified above that the same is true of those with extreme Elma skill. Skill As a Physical Phenomenon - Does skill lie in the body? Perhaps the mechanics of the mind are irrelevant, and what makes the top players so good is to be found in their fingers, their eyes and their muscles. In sport a common term is "hand-eye-coordination", simply meaning the ability of a person to control their hand movements in conjunction their eyes. This definitely seems relevant to Elma. Since Elma is shown to us on a screen, by definition it is only through our eyes that we may sense it. Yet the playing is done by our hands, through a keyboard. Therefore there must be a constant interaction between what our eyes sense and the consequent performance of our fingers. The intricacies of this interaction, which would most likely concern the central nervous system, are not relevant; what is, is that it certainly exists in the physical realm. Some people may simply be naturally more proficient at hand-eye-coordination, and their minds do not contribute to the process. Conclusion and The Most Important Question of All -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It seems very convincing arguments exist for both the mental and the physical cases. It seems that skill exists in both the mental and the physical sphere. A daring and shaky but wonderfully enthralling conclusion could be that those with höylä power are skilled much more in the physical sense than the mental. With much practice and repetition of movement they can painstakingly train their fingers to learn the appropriate button presses for a trick or style. Yet they don't apply their mind to the game - they cannot adapt well to new situations. If they press a wrong button they cannot regain themselves and will usually die. Their 'modus operandi' is simply to keep trying a certain combination of presses until it works. Conversely, those who do not need to höyl, but have skill, are gifted in both the physical and mental sense. They do not require familiar circumstances and long training periods to perform manouevres - their mind quickly calculates the correct button sequence to survive, or reach an apple, or get the correct bounce angle, etc. Given this mental advantage they need much fewer tries to achieve great results. All that remains is to ask the most important question of all. Skilled players clearly exist, we are certain of this. We are also in agreement that certain properties, whether mental or physical, make them superior to others. There is no doubt that in an Elma context, I am inferior to TorInge. Can this superiority, then, be transferred into other areas of life? TorInge is without doubt an extremely gifted player, a virtuoso, a freak even. Surely this does not only apply to his Elma playing. Whatever it is about him that provides him with this skill must be able to give him advantages in other areas of life, I am convinced of this. The superiority of skilled players must transcend Elma. Their minds and bodies are capable of achievements of equal greatness to their Elma total times and battle wins and World Cup results, but (with all due respect to Elma) greater usefulness, and I believe they could harness their ability to great effect in more productive areas. Alex aka Sierra, August 31 2005 NB: I apologize for the brevity of this, and appreciate that much more depth would be needed to reach a fully convincing conclusion. I also acknowledge that quite much speculation and extrapolation was used in my argument, and a certain degree of subjectivity must be recognized. In spite of this I hope it made for interesting reading :S