Bracket "Stomping" - How to hit hands without your hands
Submitted By: GerrakDate: June 13, 2011, 10:56:45 AM
Views: 8137
It has often been asked how some people are able to hit "hand notes" effectively on In The Groove with near-perfect accuracy, and some people seem to fail miserably despite their best efforts. This article is meant to summarize the basic technique of Bracket Stomping.
The overall idea is that one must hit two arrows with the same foot by "stomping" on the bracket between two arrows, generally up/right with the right foot or down/left with the left foot, but certainly the up/left with the left foot, and down/right with the right foot orientation is worth practicing if you seek true mastery of the technique (and it does come up in a number of charts to do this).
A very common misconception is that you must really stomp hard on the bracket in order to hit. Well I'm here to tell you this is not the case at all, in fact, if you are really good at it, you should even be able to simply hold down two arrows by standing on the bracket in just the right way. The truth of the matter is, you shouldn't need to hit it super hard at all, and generally hitting it super hard wastes a lot more of your energy and can potentially damage the pad.
Another common misconception is that only people with big feet can truly do this effectively. While players with big feet might find it easier, I myself wear naught but size 8 (mens) shoes and hit them fine, and I feel I could still hit these with yet smaller feet. What you should do is try curling your toes, such that your feet essentially form an inverted U over the bracket, thus hitting both arrows. Most people when first trying simply stomp on the bracket as hard as they can and hope it hits both, or else perhaps try to roll over both arrows. While these *sometimes* work, it's not very reliable at all. Curl your toes and you'll find you do much much better. Unfortunately, if you do have small feet, you may find you need to wear a pair of shoes with more flexible soles. As bracket stomping is an advanced technique in general, you should consider buying light, form fitting shoes for high-end play anyway, and most types of such shoes will do just fine.
Of course finding that sweet spot in foot placement is difficult at first, but there is a good exercise for this - place your foot on the bracket between two arrows (both arrows' lights must work for this, mind you) and try to simply press them both down such that they both light up. If you do it just right, you should be able to make both light up at the same time with one foot. One can even hold down quad-hold notes if done just right. Practice removing your foot and re-hitting the two notes to get the feel for where the bracket should be in relation to your foot.
Once you've somewhat figured out the feel for how you should hit the bracket, practice songs like "Hearts of Ice" (ITG3) or other hand songs, and if you're truly bold, try to hit as much of the song as is reasonable by staying on the same two brackets trying to hit every note (and hold each hold) as if they were all quads, without really moving at all.
Of course it should be noted that even the best players use their hands in some situations, so you should never get too lazy and dependent on this technique, lest some more complicated faster hand patterns (such as in "Bend Your Mind", ITG1) trip you up.
Hopefully some of you find this useful!
Keby's quick advice:
Another great way to practice stomps is through the Pump it Up series. They do more with bracket stomps than any other dance games I've seen. Sometimes even throwing in whole streams of stomps at 190+ bpm.
It will give you a greater feel or doing stomps faster and more accurate. Not that you can't get any of this through ITG, but I find PIU more effective at teaching people to stomp.
It's worth noting that the PIU layout has easier brackets to stomp than an ITG machine, but that's why it's useful for training - PIU charts are less likely than official ITG charts to give you time to prepare for a stomp, since the stomps are easier, which causes stomps to feel like a normal type of step than a special thing you need to set yourself up for.
