Sequence Guideline Committee Documents Approved1

As most of you have heard, the BoD created a new committee called the Sequence Guideline Committee. This committee meets in even numbered years to review the guidelines, and maneuver catalog that the Sequence committee (a separate committee that meets in odd numbered years) will use to generate new sequences, and to review and vet any new maneuvers for rules compliance before they are added to the maneuver catalog. This first Guideline committee was charged with reviewing the guidelines, and the maneuver catalog along with the charge to determine a way to eliminate the same maneuver having a different K Factor is different classes.

The Guideline committee found that most of the maneuvers in the current sequences weren’t even listed in the catalog of maneuvers. Their hard work has generated a new K Factor calculator that removes the subject element of assigning a K Factor to a maneuver in lieu of a mathematical calculation. This new calculator will be used by future Guideline committees when reviewing and adding new maneuvers to the catalog of maneuvers. They also created a new format for the catalog of maneuvers, putting it in a filterable Excel file. Each maneuver is listed only once in the catalog and as such has only one K Factor, all maneuvers eligible for a specific class can then be filtered to show only those maneuvers for that class. It can be filtered for centered maneuvers or turnaround maneuvers, and the maneuvers are listed by families of maneuvers like looping maneuvers or rolling maneuvers, etc.

The new K Factor calculator upgrades the K Factors to a max of 11 instead of 5 to give better pixilation to the difficulty of more complicated maneuvers. The Revised Guidelines have changed to address these new tools and the total range of required K Factors for each class adjusted accordingly (without adding difficulty creep). The guidelines also require Sequence committees to only use maneuvers listed in the maneuver catalog when building sequences. Anyone can submit proposed new maneuvers to the Sequence Guideline committee for vetting. They will go thru the process of vetting with the Guidleing committee to make sure they meet the AMA rules, and thru the Judging committee to make sure they meet the judging guidelines before being added to the Catalog.

The Guideline committee also vetted many new maneuvers and many that were being used but not listed in the catalog and submitted them as well.

The Sequence Guideline documents are below:

  1. Pattern Sequence Development Guidelines
  2. Proposed new maneuvers
  3. Catalog of maneuvers
  4. K-Factor calculator