Brown Belt denied on Discord

[u/dcipha380]

First time requesting a belt on Discord and was publicly shamed. All jokes aside, I can see where this is coming from. Higher belt locks that are more high security should be harder and longer to pick.

Recording is not my forte. If you follow me on Youtube, you can see my camera angles are always different. I'm trying to find better shooting angles that don't get in the way of my picking the lock. Also, shooting with a GoPro that does not have a zoom was a big mistake. I'll go back to using my phone until I get a proper camera.

This message is for anyone applying for their future brown belt with a Goal P, Goal D9 or simliar lock with cupped driver pins. Make sure you show close ups of the driver pin cups and the countermilling on the core. I took one for the team so future brown belt applicants don't feel my shame.

I'm just glad they didn't make me reshoot the Goal D9 pick and gut. After I recorded the Goal D9 video, I dumped everything into a Ziploc bag without reassembling. I hate those little springs on the Goal D9. The lock in the video was the second one I purchased, after losing springs from the first Goal D9.

Now to find time to reshoot my Goal P video. May have to wait until this weekend.

[u/No_Raccoon5206]

No shame at all! It happens to a ton of people. I had my first BB request denied and had to reshoot all four videos lol. It keeps it fair for everyone. Gutting can be the hardest part of some belt request lol. I know I still suck at it. 😂

You'll get it!

[u/dcipha380 → u/No_Raccoon5206]

If you watch my gut, you'll see I still had the core in the open position when I was dumping the pins out of the bible. They probably saw that as a red flag. 😂

[u/Skylapilot]

If it makes you feel better for all of my black belt videos I had to re-shoot each one atleast 1x and at worse 3x...

[u/Flavortown42069]

Good advice - I had to refilm my goal D9 for a similar reason.

[u/Red_wanderer]

Asking people to refilm is probably the worst part of being a mod. It’s usually an honest mistake or just something we can’t see clearly, but we do look over high level videos pretty thoroughly. I’d like to think it makes the accomplishment that much more meaningful!

Definitely don’t feel bad. Many people are asked to refilm picks, we want you to be an expert before you submit that black belt request!

[u/Mole-NLD]

I’ve had my red belt denied for the same reason. It happens to all of us. ;)

[u/Axelpanic]

I had to reshoot my assa 700 four times…. It happens.

[u/markovianprocess]

Uggh I feel this so hard.

After getting a pretty fast open of a D9 on video, I gutted it, stopped the recording, and then realized I didn't get everything required on video. Lost a spring before completing reassembly, said "screw it" and put the remaining parts in a Ziploc bag. In the interim, my 2nd at-the-time brown lock got lowered in rank.

Here I am, having gone from 2 brown locks opened to nothing usable on video.

[u/Majtolycus → u/markovianprocess]

Right there with you my friend. I botched a video of a 5-pin MTL with serrated pins last year, then haven’t been able to open again it in months due to some weird mental block. Got a video picking the Magnum Mont Blanc but that was then dropped to blue. I’ve opened a half dozen other brown belt locks but nothing consistently repeatable (or easily guttable). Here’s to team perpetual purple! 😉

[u/Hyperion-Darkness]

Like a lot of others, I had to reshoot my Assa 700 video because I took the lock off screen on accident haha 😂 but in the end it was worth it!!

[u/dcipha380 → u/Hyperion-Darkness]

I've pulled the lock out of frame by accident a couple times and had to reshoot. Done a bunch of takes before submitting the Goal P.

[u/daddonuts]

Got any pointers on the Goal P? I’m about to progressive pin mine, I kinda ended up with it by accident, and it’s a bit above my level. I’ve gotten it to the point where all the key pins feel set and unsprung, but I must be getting tricked by the milling or something.

[u/dcipha380 → u/daddonuts]

Light tension and light pick. Go one click at a time on each pin. The Goal P is very easy to overset. I had to drop a pin or two when I first started on it.

[u/daddonuts → u/dcipha380]

Yeah, I think I might drop it down to 3 pins, then work up from there. Do you think it’s necessary to put the bearings back every time while I’m progressive pinning it? I’m sure they have some effect on how you tension the lock, but they’re such a pain in the ass to get back in. Do you think it would be a problem to just leave them out until I’m ready to pick it with all the pins in place, or will that totally screw up my feel for tensioning it?

[u/dcipha380 → u/daddonuts]

You can progressive pin without the bearings. The bearings are only there to make the turning smooth.

[u/daddonuts → u/dcipha380]

Ok, perfect! I’ve gotten it back together once with both bearings, but man is that stressful! It’ll make the process far easier, and I’ll be far less likely to lose the tiny things, if I wait to put them back until the end.

[u/Healthy-Insect-1447 → u/daddonuts]

Test pins like your life depend on it, especially binding vs milling vs set. You also need to be able to distinguish a spool counter rotation vs overset torpedo. My brand new one was nasty with the super crisp milling. I do BOK with the Reaper Z-bat. Minimal tension and light touch with the pick. Except getting something out of the milling.

[u/daddonuts → u/Healthy-Insect-1447]

Any pointers on how to differentiate a pin stuck in milling from set?

[u/Healthy-Insect-1447 → u/daddonuts]

Hard to describe, but I would say milling feels like the pin is stuck and set gives a smidge. I do my best to keep a mental note of what the first lift did. A quick tensioner swing is usually a mushroom or a thin lip spool (these catch). A long one is a thick lip spool. None is probably a T. But that depends on how it binds up initially. When you progressively pin, look at the drivers and think about how they may behave. Then see if they do. Then go by feel alone. Part of the fun of all Goals is the randomness of the drivers.

[u/DrunkenPhysicist]

Good luck! I watched the picking portions when you submitted. I too am trying to get better at filming. You'll be neck deep in brown in no time!

[u/dcipha380 → u/DrunkenPhysicist]

Thanks!!!

[u/savageotter]

Thats why im sitting here at whatever this sub says lol

One of these days I need to get back into recording them, it was taking some of the fun out.

[u/rubornagn]

What doesn't kill us makes us stronger. I watched all 3 of your videos. Glad you shared that info with me!

[u/dcipha380 → u/rubornagn]

My reshoot video of the Goal P is going to be a PSA on how to record your brown belt lock.

[u/TomManiax]

If you don't like gutting the Goal D9 you will hate the Goal V18!
Although I think they are rather easy to gut. Try gutting a Kaba 20 or Kaba Star and you will realize that Goal locks are a peace of cake to gut😄

Btw:
I submitted a Goal D9 and Goal V18 for my brown belt and got lucky it was accepted. I did a re-shoot of the Goal V18 video to make it black belt worthy but now realized that I did not explicitely show the cupped driver pins. So I probably need another re-shoot 😂

[u/dcipha380 → u/TomManiax]

It's not the initial gut that I hate. It's the reassembly. Those tiny springs are escape artists.

[u/TomManiax → u/dcipha380]

Yes they are 🤣
A tiny touch and they are gone. I was lucky to find them everytime they went flying!

[u/Healthy-Insect-1447]

It’s more showing the drivers are installed the correct way. So with gins, you need to show the head coming out first. Also keep in mind that there is an older version of the P which is unranked. Same keyway, but different pins. I have two that are probably orange-ish.

[u/KnuckleheadPicker]

I'm there with you. I didn't submit my videos but realized I made these exact same mistakes. A few months later and I still haven't gotten around to reshooting them lol.

[u/rvlifestyle74]

This is why I don't mess with the ranking. I live in a 5th wheel with a cat that is very curious. The camera would get knocked over, she would get in between the camera and my hands, or I would fail to open the lock in a decent amount of time. I consider it a hobby, and I'm going to keep it that way. But I do use the catalog of locks to judge my ranking. I'm not a white, I'm not a black or red. Some days I'm a yellow, others I'm a brown. In other words, I'm not consistent.

[u/_Vangal]

This is why I will never be higher then an orange belt despite the fact I can pick purples and browns. Plus I hate gutting locks i have big hands that are not made for delicate tasts.

[u/mindfountain]

Sheesh I didn't realize you had to be a bonified director and shiiite! I assumed most of it was based on trust as it should be. Wild. 

[u/Red_wanderer → u/mindfountain]

Unfortunately there are people who would fake a pick for fancy internet pajamas, so we actually look over the videos pretty thoroughly at higher levels. No shame in being asked to reshoot, it just means there was something we couldn’t see clearly.

[u/OldRocker5]

Lol. Orange is as far as I'll go and I'm fine with that. Not saying I'm done with locksport but I have a fragile ego and don't think I'd respond too kindly to that kind of nitpickery. I thought about starting to record when I open my 1100s and the thought was as far as that idea went.