The equipment and gear used in breaking are essential for both performance and protection. These items not only help breakdancers perform their moves with style and flair but also provide necessary protection to reduce the risk of injury.
Breakdancing Gear Resource
Cited from: https://olympics.com/en/news/breaking-breakdancing-rules-format-moves
before we dive into the breakdancing rules, let’s look at the three basic elements that make up breaking – top rock, down rock and freeze.
Top rock refers to all moves that are performed while standing up – generally a combination of stylish hand movements and footwork whereas freeze is when the breaker comes to a standstill in an unusual position (on their head or hands) in the middle of their routine.
But the most crucial and often the highlight of the performance is the down rock, which involves all moves done on the floor. It features spins, footwork, transitions and, most importantly, power moves.
Power moves are a complex set of movements the breakers showcase by spinning their whole body on hands, elbows, back, head or shoulders. The gravity-defying, acrobatic movements require superior strength, balance and flexibility.
For instance, the air flare power move requires dancers to rotate their body, whilst upside down, while alternating their balance on either arm and moving in a circular path.
Meanwhile, flare is a common acrobatic move that is also done by gymnasts. It involves balancing the torso on alternating arms and swinging the legs underneath in circles.
Breakers combine all three elements in their routine on beats provided by a hip-hop DJ when facing each other in a one-on-one competition called a battle.
Athletes, or breakers, as they are called, go up against each other in a 1 vs 1 battle and take alternate turns or throw downs to perform their routines.
A battle generally features a fixed number of sets from all breakers. Most major competitions, like the Red Bull BC One, have either two or three throw downs until the final, which has three or five throw downs.
Moreover, each throw down cannot be longer than 60 seconds but there are no penalties for performing too short or too long.
Each battle is conducted in front of a panel of judges, which usually comprises respected dancers from the breaking community. The judges rate each performance on clearly defined criteria.
A minimum of three or more uneven number of judges score the battles on six criteria – creativity, personality, technique, variety, performativity and musicality.
Each parameter has different weightage in a battle, with technique, performativity and creativity constituting 60 per cent of the total score while variety, musicality and personality make up the remaining 40 per cent.
The judges submit their votes after each round and the breaker with the highest points is declared the winner.
In the b-girls event, the athlete seeded 16 and athlete seeded 17 battle each other. The winner of the pre-qualifier battle advances to the round robin. The losing athlete is ranked 17th.
There are four groups of four athletes. Each athlete competes in three battles in the round robin. The group composition is determined based on pre-competition seeding:
In each group, athletes battle it out against each other. In each battle, athletes are assigned to the red or blue side by computerised random draw.
Each battle consists of two rounds. In all battles, the athlete designated as “Blue” can decide whether to perform. first, or to allow their opponent “Red” to perform first. The second athlete then responds.
During the round robin, scores become available at the end of each round. Athletes are ranked within each group by the number of rounds won and judges’ votes collected and finally by pre-competition seeding.
At the end of the round robin, the best two athletes in each group progress to the quarter-finals. The remaining athletes are ranked 9th to 16th, by the number of rounds won (excluding rounds won in the pre-qualifier), the number of votes collected (excluding votes collected in the pre-qualifier) and finally by pre-competition seeding.
Each knock-out battle consists of three rounds. The athlete with more rounds at the end of the battle is declared the winner.
The losing quarter-finalists are ranked 5th to 8th by the total number of rounds won (excluding rounds won in the pre-qualifier), total number of votes collected (excluding votes collected in the pre-qualifier), rounds won in the round robin, votes collected in the round robin and finally by pre-competition seeding.
The losing semi-finalists contest the bronze medal battle, and the winning semi-finalists contest the gold medal battle.
For all events, the competition consists of battles between two athletes. Each battle consists of a number of rounds. In each round one athlete performs first, then the other responds.
Each round is judged by nine judges against five criteria. The judging system produces a vote for each judge for each round in favour of one of the athletes (red or blue), with a percentage figure indicating the strength of their vote in favour of red or blue across all five criteria. The possible vote scores for each round can be 9-0, 8-1, 7-2, 6-3 or 5-4 in favour of an athlete.
