Many people believe that aggressive handling with fast-running front crosses produces the fastest agility runs. However, there are many times when you will not be able to put yourself in a good position for a front cross, but can use a rear cross without any loss in time. A good rear cross has many components; in this article, we examine the effect that handler path has on a run.
There are two general paths that handlers usually take for a rear cross: a diagonal path and an L-shaped path.
In the video below, when Sarah “drives the diagonal line” on a rear cross, she puts herself in a much better position to handle the next part of the course. The snapshots of Sarah were taken at the dog’s landing point for both the diagonal path and L-shaped path.
Great Video for a newbie to agility learning crosses.
Very cool analysis! I have hated the L-shaped “path” ever since and its tortured justification as semi-ok (as in a poor relation to the front-cross). Flow! (“The flow isn’t like time, it’s like life. It’s like a heartbeat or the way you breathe, it can jump, speed up, slow down, stop, or pound right through like a machine. If the beat is time, flow is what we do with that time, how we live through it. The beat is everywhere, but every life has to find its own flow.” -Jay-Z (2010-12-07). Decoded (Kindle Locations 206-209). Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition.