Kinda hard to say freestyle for me, I'd say I'm more of a "my rendition" tier.... I tie unorthodox for the most part... I don't stick to the general rule of thumb per say... For example I use a lot of over sized hackles and my tails usually are much longer than most people leave them...I learned from 2 great old school fly tiers also...Frank Audino and John Bianco ....