The SwingPoints App

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Since I've been on the topic of West Coast Swing this week, I thought I'd share the popular points-tracking app that we use in the community. It's called SwingPoints, and it lets you keep an eye on your points and your friends' points.
Let me share a quick rundown of how the points system in West Coast Swing works. 

       Points are only awarded through the Jack & Jill division. In this division, each dancer registers separately. I have now moved up to Advanced, so I would register myself in the Advanced Jack & Jill division. The leaders and followers are lined up on the floor for the preliminary round and a random number generator (or a dice) determines how many dancers to rotate. The person you stop in front of is your partner for that song. The music begins (it's random) and you dance for approximately 1 minute and 30 seconds with this random partner. Then, you rotate a 2nd time, dance, and rotate a 3rd time. The judges are judging each dancer individually. If the judges like me, they bring me back for a semi-final round. If not, they "cut" me. 
      The same rotations and individual judging occurs in the semi-final round. If the judges like me in semi-finals, they bring me back for Finals. Finals usually includes 14 leaders and 14 followers, although this can change based on number of dancers total. Dancers are paired up, and then judged together. Everyone that makes finals gets 1 point, but those that place 5th or higher get more, based on how many dancers entered the division total. 
Here's how many points you need to progress through the divisions.

Points are tracked by the World Swing Dance Council, but their website is horrible to navigate to search the points registry. That's where the SwingPoints app comes in. Here's what my home page looks like (second image is when I scroll down):


I can also click on any of the listed events I've earned a point at to see who else made finals and who placed. You can click on names to see their points profile too. 

But, here's the part of the app that I find most exciting. There have been other points tracking apps that track YOUR points.... but SwingPoints allows you to follow your friends! You can admire your idols or creep on your nemesis to see how they are doing in competitions. You can see what it looks like below. First you add a dancer. You can click on them to see all of their points details, exactly as mine does above. As your friends earn points their results will show up as notifications in the Feed tab. 
 


Unfortunately the app doesn't have any way to send messages to your friends.... yet.... but you can always switch over to text, messenger, WhatsApp, etc. to congratulate your friends or heckle your nemesis.



What do you think? Is this a neat concept, or would you rather not know how your friends are performing in your favorite sport?


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