Nick "Houdini" Polini

[Anton]

So Im interested to hear what kinds of exercises you're doing for leg/core.
Are your workouts dex specific or just all around beneficial?

Sometimes after I workout core ill put a parallel bar about knee height and just stand there swirling it for a few minutes in order to incorporate balance with core strength and flexibility.

Footbag X training is a whole new world and YOU are Christopher Columbus!
Keep that intensity up bro! \m/

[boyle]

Check with guys like Andrew Grant and Phil Morrison for some good tips - they are personal trainers, as well as good players.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Anton: I actually used to ghost swirl a shitload when I was in my pool or something. I'd ghost hundreds of swirls on bs every time I swam. It definitely paid off. I've been doing a lot of different machines. My favorites are things like this one thing that you swivel in a chair while kneeling and keep your chest against a pad in front of you and you lift weight by swiveling. That has been so beneficial to my core. Also, this crazy ass crunch machine where you sit up and do crunches while lifting a selected amount of weight. I love the gym. It really has done me a world of good.

Boyle: I'll have to give them a chat. Any idea how I can get in touch with them?

Gym tonight with Nadiah. Worked a lot of core tonight and surprisingly sculpted my abs tremendously. I'm going to take pictures of my abs after I come home from the gym from now on. I won't post the pics immediately, but eventually when I see enough of a transformation, I will post them. A cut / separation between my lover and upper abs showed up tonight and I was amazed that it just took a few gym sessions to get that already. Really excited to see what comes of it in the next session.

Anyway, I am almost finished stitching Corey's bag. I got a new Marco bag all sunshine yellow usl. Brilliant bag. Played tiltless with it in my livingroom and actually had a highlight I was happy with:

Highlights:

Toe SS Illusion is something I really sucked at before this small session, so I hit a ton of them on bs and then b2b
I was thinking what tricks that would help with and I thought of Toe SS Eggbeater. Hit it on bs, each first timers. then I hit it b2b a few times. Fun trick. Definitely an easy bail in my future game.
oh yeah, just remembered I hit Flip Zipper> Far Legover for the first time in that session lol I guess It's a good sign I can get it flip finally. Never thought I could do it before when I hit it on my strong side.

I'm having a chill/tiltless/cloud kick drilling session with Mr. Rieferman tomorrow night for the first time since like Thanksgiving. Looking forward to seeing him again.

[C-Fan]

A cut / separation between my lover and upper abs showed up tonight .

Doggystyle?

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

You're pushin, Ken

Had a session with Bob tonight! Fun get together. Nice to see him playing again. I rolled up to his house and he was shooting hoops with his kids. I got out of my car and he said "If I make this in the first 3 shots, I'm playing footbag til I'm 40." He got it on the 3rd shot. It was a tough on too. He was playing Guiltless pretty well for not playing for a few months.

Highlights:

DATW BSOS
Pixies bs felt GREAT
New Trick?!?! Clipper Far Blink!!! Non-symple style! Never thought I'd hit that. Thank you, Johnny Suderman

Gym tomorrow.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

So tonight, Jackson and I drove 30 minutes and played footbag with Ivan and Luke in Blue Bell. Fun session. Ivan was coming dreadfully close to Toe Massacre!!! Jackson had some great runs and had a flip Pixie up to his waist. Luke was stringing like 2 tiltless together with toe stalls after them. He's definitely improving. Luke is another Penn Stater who hasn't played much this year with us since he was so busy.

Highlights:

started a run with Pixie Clipper> Revup> Swerve
Spanish Fly...? Never thought I'd hit that in a billion years.
Toe Spinning felt good for once.

Fun Stories:

Story 1: Jackson and I helped my grandma out today and on the way home we decided it would be fun to wiggle our pointer fingers at people driving by us. Then this lady was in a car in front of us at a red light, so we wiggled our pointer fingers at her and she flipped us off with BOTH hands. So unnecessary. Come on, we were just wiggling our pointer fingers at you. I hope that's not a naughty gesture in some language because it's quite fun to do while driving.

Story 2: I drove my moped to the gym the other day and when I was finished at the gym, I walked out, opened my trunk, put my helmet and goggles on, and was about to mount my moped, but then I saw a bird picking at a banana peel. I walked over to the bird, kneeled down and said to him: "Bird, what are you eatin'? "Are you eating that banana peel?" "Why are you eating that banana peel, bird?" Just then I look up and see that there are about 5 or 6 people watching me and were certainly in ear shot. I blurt out: "I was just caught talking to a bird in public... I just said that out loud". Then I walked back to my moped and drove home.

I'm gonna go stitch!

Have a night!

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Today was a pretty awesome day for footbag and I. I stitched for a few hours then went out and kicked with Jackson. Long and the short of it, Jackson worked on his Pixies for a while and hit his first 3 ADD flip Pixie trick: Pixie op Clipper. I actually had some surprising drills and highlights..

Highlights:

WHIRR! I finally hit Whirr! I hit it 2 times total.
Drilled Flip toe far blink until I could get the motion down pretty solid.
10 contacts of Dimwalk> Blur rpt first try.
Flip Ripstein first try. I think that's like number 43. It looked and felt like one of Mark's. I was stoked to see the similarity.
Spinning Gyro Mirage a few times. I had only hit it once before and now it's almost effortless
8 contacts of Gyro Mirage> Pixie Clipper rpt
6 contacts of Maverick> Merkon rpt
Ingyro Butterfly (new trick)
Footed Inspinning Clipper b2b
A super duper clean Gyro Barrage
Ghost> Toe Spinning Clipper
Sweet string with Gyro Mirage> Pixie Clipper rpt, Inspinning Osis, Ducking Legover, Schmoe, Blender> Spinnning Osis, and some other cool stuff. Definitely hyped to see where my game is going.
Run with Revup> Pixie something BSOS (Smear & Clipper)


First awesome session in a while.

[h0ag3yb3atZ]

phatty phat stuff. whirling rake>spin clip is the hotness.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Yo thanks Kevin. I can't take credit for it. All credit is given to Flash. That sorta stuff looks awesome. Which is why I've been drilling that sorta stuff lately. I want my game to look so much like Flash's and The Outsider's but with my own added touch. Cant' wait to see what it'll look like when it's done and I reach the peak of my game.

Well today is my birfday. 22. Feels weird. Had a birthday session with Jackson. He was getting really close to flip ripwalk. He also had some great strings that were really dense mixes of tiltless, guiltless and a few tripless things. He's gonna get good if he keeps practicing.

Birthday highlight:

Rubberman First one since the beginning of my injury. It felt so good to hit it again. And pain-free too. Mat GM gave me some tips on atomic/quantum and they really helped me. I feel like my vampire shinsplints are starting to see the light of day and melt into little insignificant puddles of ouch. Pretty stoked. Anyway, yeah, footbag.. birthday... fun. Gonna stitch now

Oh yeah, the other day, I messaged Flash if he could give me some drills that he used to get good at Cloud kicks. He gave me his favorite one which was Cloud kick> op Pincher> Swirl rpt.. I got half of it on one side. I felt like Flash. It was awesome God, I want his style and fluidity. Maybe one day.

EDIT!

I had another little session because I guess I wasn't satisfied with Rubberman, and also I realized that I can't step out of reverse swirl, so I always bail to Rev Swirl> Osis or Butterfly, or Pdx Mirage..

Happy Highlight:

Pixie Clipper> Reverse Swirl> Blur rpt

So happy with that drill. Plus, I can see my Pixies are way better now.

Also, just went back out and hit something else I'm happy with..

The flipside half of Flash's drill I'll get the rpt on that one soon, hopefully!

[g00d33]

Snap, dude. I just caught up on stuff, and super props! Aside from those all being good highlights, I'm really happy you got whirr!

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

John Goode, thank ya much sir

So I had a little session with Jackson a bit ago to cheer him up because some stuff in his life isn't going great. He footed Swirl!

Highlights:

Easy Fog for the first time. Stoked. Almost hit Blurry Whirl> Fog
Phonics> Ripping'd Warrior
Sweet runs.

Sent these bags to Ohio and California for Darren Kautz and Derek Littlefield the other day...



My bags are looking how I've always wanted them to look. Very plizzeased.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Had a session after work with Jackson. He was in a bad mood though and wasn't stringing like he usually does, so he gave up after a little while.

I had a pretty awesome session though:

Highlights:

Legbeater> Matador (Inspired by Boats)
Gyro Cloud kick> Osis> Spinning Cloud kick> sick string
Cloud Kick> ss Blender!
Zulu Clipper b2b (First time)
Got through 8 contacts of the Stiller drill (Magellan> PLO rpt)
A "Flashy" Drill (Click the picture to see the video) That's actually first time on both sides.



Pretty stoked on that drill. My cloud kicks are coming to me rather well. I really love them. I can totally see them in my future game.

And then Jackson's mom came out and gave me pizza. Winning.

I'm heading to the gym now I do believe.

[Jazzkid]

Great drill ...very stylie ...I love The highlights ....
Challenge .... Legbeater>sumo

[Muffinman]

Sweet drill!
I love cloud kicks. You do yours way different than me, though. I do mine kind of with the bottom of my calf and you do yours on the side. I can't bend my legs to the side like you -- I can't do outside kicks >___<

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Glad you guys liked my drill there, even though it was a long time ago But thanks guys.

So I've been taking some time off due to still trying to recover my shin splints. Haven't played for weeks, but really really hope to be healed by the time we get back to school in the fall. Tha PSU crew has been training like crazy all summer!

Ivan, Ryan, and Luke live near each other and they've been killing it. Ivan footed Toe Massacre a few weeks ago!

George went to Australia and shredded almost every day and now I think Mike Toolan, Corey Hahalis and George are gonna get together for the rest of the summer and shred it up.

Nathan has been killing it and training hard in Colorado with Ken during his internship with Backpacker.

I have been up at PSU this summer taking Physics course, which I have a lot of trouble with, so Jay Boychuk and asked him if he would mind helping me out and he has started skyping with me every now and then, helping me with my Physics homework in exchange for a pair of Lavers I had (brand new) sitting around, that he is going to give Michelle. Jay, I can't thank you enough, man.

Since I've been up here bored as hell and can't play footbag, I've taken 3 new players under my wing... Greg Wenner, Marc Peralta, and my lovely girlfriend Nadiah I have a coaching session with then about once a week. Marc and Greg at the same time, and I skype with Nadiah and give her challenges. Nadiah and Greg just made themselves footblogs! Check it out and give them some comments to start them off on their blogs:

Nadiah's Footblog

Greg's Footblog

They've been doing so well! Madd progression! I hope Marc makes one soon, because he's been doing really well too.

I feel that I'll have these three at a nice tiltless level by the time school starts up in the fall.

Oh and a new guy, Nick Schmidt showed interest in learning from me. But he's recovering from jaw surgery atm, so it might be a week until he joins us. PSU scene is looking sharp. Oh and George and Ivan made accounts on here but haven't used them yet Hope they do that soon!

I really miss playing, but it's nice to coach. Oh, Greg and Marc... and I guess the rest of the PSU Crew are now referring to me as "Coach Stupid Idiot", because I tried to give myself the nickname "Coach P" because I thought that sounded cool, but then Nathan had to give me the alternative coach nickname Bastard lol

Can't wait til I'm playing again. I really miss footbag.. I said that already, but I really fucking miss it.

[Muffinman]

How are the shins doing?

[g00d33]

I have been up at PSU this summer taking Physics course, which I have a lot of trouble with, so Jay Boychuk and asked him if he would mind helping me out and he has started skyping with me every now and then, helping me with my Physics homework in exchange for a pair of Lavers I had (brand new) sitting around, that he is going to give Michelle. Jay, I can't thank you enough, man.

This is one of the reasons why footbag is so cool!

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Oh shit, I knew I forgot to add something. I was gonna say that you've been helping me with my splint recovery, Erik. And I guess they're doing well. I have been doing stair raises every single day a few reps of 20-30. I actually noticed a huge growth of muscle in my flipside but not where my shin splints :\ I'm just going to continue not playing for a few more weeks and I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that I will be fully healed by the time the school year rolls around.

And John, yeah, one more reason I love footbag. Jay's really saved me on this one. He actually helped me help myself make sense of the stuff. He's a great teacher.

[C-Fan]

Just wanted to say it's super cool to look at the footblog page, and see all the blogs that have {PSU} next to them. It reminds me of clans in online gaming, where you have your gamer tag followed by your clan in parentheses afterwards.

Also, props on staying involved with your local scene, even when you can't play. I know how frustrating it can be to be around footbag when you can't play.

Hope you heal up soon.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Yo Ken, thanks for the kind words man. I appreciate it and I appreciate the comment in the blog even though I'm not playing atm.

Yeah, it's definitely depressing to not be able to play for such a long time. But I KNOW if I take off the full 6 weeks my doctor recommended, I'll be healed and able to start playing again. I took off 5 weeks before PSU Jamps, and I was able to play the whole weekend, but after that, the crew and I had a session and Nathan and I stayed after everyone left and shredded wayyy too long. He hit his 10 Fearless that night. Then the next morning my splints returned. I was so pissed. But 5 weeks was the longest my legs have been away from the bag... And during PSU my legs felt fine, so I know one more week, maybe one after that just to be sure, and my legs will be back to norman.

And I'm glad you liked the (PSU) idea. That was actually all Greg Wenner's idea lol He put that at the end of his, then I did it, then Ivan did it, and now Nadiah did it. Nathan, you better jump on the band wagon, son! lol And thanks for the healing wishes, Ken. I hope your words turn into reality.

So I have finished 2 weeks of no footbag. And to be honest, a mixture of no shred, summer physics, an empty apartment and only 2 friends I know at PSU (Greg and Marc), who I only see once a week... I've been pretty fucking depressed. It really sucks. Hoping the next 4 weeks pass by quickly.

Skyped Jay today ad he helped me with Physics again. We chatted about how Physics helps with footbag and I got a really cool incite about that and I want to try to understand physics as much as possible, so I can be a better player.. I've already learned a good example of Newton's Third Law of Motion: Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. For instance, my body exerts a certain amount of force when I play footbag on the earth and if that force is greater than the force that the earth exerts on me, then this can break your fuckin legs I think physics could have saved me from this injury if I understood it when I first got into footbag. But yeah, that was a cool discussion.

Anyway, tonight, I skype coached Nadiah. She got her first BSOS Clipper So proud of her. She also started stringing her clippers to toe stalls and vice versa. Progressing fast. Such a positive little bugger too She's awesome. She helps make my lonely days at PSU this summer more enjoyable by skyping and just keeping constant contact with me.

Anyway, not much is new aside from my slight depression. Man I can't wait to fuckin shred again. I've been analyzing madd videos and mentally changing my form on a lot. Been doing furious/double down plunger dexes every damn day so maybe my furious sets and double downs will improve? Ivan hit Paradon and Barfly the other day and footed Blurriest. Wtf kid? He made a footblog too, you should read his, Nadiah's, and Greg's. As Ken pointed out, we have our crew stamp at the end of our blog names lol

Shit, I'm going to bed. Wish I was posting about some sick drills I hit today, but I'm not. Good night anyone who is reading this.