FuteBlaug (PSU)

[C-Fan]

San Diego is pretty great. It's always neat exploring a new city for the first time, and noting all the cultural differences from where you're from.



Glad to hear shred is going well too. How about a vid?

[Kylescook]

I love the painting themed top posts. They are all really good.

[krustykrakk]

Yeah, it was a good time. We plan on returning later in the year.

I played footbag for the second day in a row yesterday. Days in a row is hard when the weather sucks and friends have school things. My session was great, yesterday. The sky was clear, the weather was warm (for Pennsylvania) in early spring, and I didn't take it too seriously. Inside bails aside, I am happy with how it went.
I started off with tiltless then moved on to bops, then added Whirls and whips. I have been playing with nice spinning sets but mainly just making sure they get about face high and straight then hand catching. Well, to conclude my session, I hit the easiest, cleanest spinning osis I have ever done. To top things off, I then hit an equally nice one with my flip. That was the first time I ever even hit it flip. I tossed my bag on the ground, wiped my sweat off, and looked like a crazy person.
Back to work.

[krustykrakk]

Hello.
I session twice this weekend. Saturday was fun kick and Sunday was a bit more drill oriented. I hit a bunch of whirls on Sunday. It was nice.

Highlights:
-Whip > dyno > infinity > clipper rpt
-Whirl x7 strong
-Whirl x4 weak
-Toe ss whirl on one side, footed the other.
-Many strings that started with whirl > whip bs
-Whirl > ducking clipper > whirling drop
-Consecutive bs rakes > strings
Osis > refraction > osis > refraction > osis > far osis > osis > far osis > whirling drop
-Infraction > osis > string bs
-Dlo bsos
-Whip x2 bs

[Derek]

Damn yo, still waiting on some footage, rom what I've read you are shredding hot fi-yah. No credit on the DLO, that was all you holmes.

[krustykrakk]

During my last footbag encounter, I played with some people. Afterwards, a Czech dude gave me some magic drank (that made me better at whirls.) Then bats. Then more kick. Now write.

Since my last post, I have played a good amount. It definitely hurts without most of the psu shred crew but there's still April and Khoa during the summer. After that, Greg and aiden will be back and we can hopefully recruit some new players.

Although the scene has taken a hit here, I still play and am still improving. My hand is still a bit messed up from the winter weather, so I have not stitched in quite some time. I hate that but April still stitches, so I always have bags.

Something interesting:
April has recently started working at a local game store. She mentioned to him that she needs this coming weekend off for a footbag event. After hearing that, he made sure she said what he thought she said. Turns out, this guy is an old school player. He mentioned stitching with pigskin "way before they used ultrasuede," and talked about Ryan Mulroney. Pretty cool.

I don't have any highlights because I've hit too many to remember since my last post.

I've been quiet in the community but I am still here and very much active. April and I will be attending a wide range of northeastern American footbag events that are coming up.
-Eerie this weekend
-Nyfa
-East coasts
-Nyj if they have it

Thanks for reading. Hopefully, I can post more soon. Shut your stupid face up. Sorry baby, I didn't mean it. Don't be a Nazi.


Sent from my LG-VS450PP using Tapatalk

[h0ag3yb3atZ]

oh you ben.

[Ryan_Morris]

Props for keeping it alive at PSU.

And as far as New Years Jam goes, I can tell you for sure that Anton is stoked to do it again. Of course, yours truly will be there, too.

[Kylescook]

I think it was you that asked about infraction a couple months ago. Just saw a clip of Pixie Infraction with a football, thought you might like it. https://instagram.com/p/4t-BF-SMuq/

[krustykrakk]

Thanks yall.
Oh you, Hogram.
Ryan, yis. and Hell yis.
Kyle, sick. That was me and that trick is coolioolio.

Kevin Crowley is good at whack tricks.
I just had a great session with Khoa. He's cool. I felt pretty good today. For some reason, my strong stepping was on. I think today was the first day I ever hit schmoe on both sides. Here is Khoa:
He said he hadn't played footbag in a bit since he has been busy and focusing on his football. That was a weird run-on sentence that sounded like it described a special relationship with an inflated husk. He could have fooled me.

This past weekend was awesome. I went to the NyneFA Jam with April. We had a really bad time getting there as we had to take a later bus and that bus ended up running late. We spent a total of about twelve hours just getting there. Ugh. Once we were there, we immediately went to Bruce's and were greeted by a bunch of silly peeps. Fun times were had. Traveling back was just as bad. We left Sunday early (and unfortunately missed shred) in order to catch our bus on time. We were prepared to get there in time but were held up by a Dominican pride parade right in the center of Manhattan. It wouldn't have been too bad if not for the fact that we had to cross the parade. We did so via waiting for forever before a police officer eventually had to let all the people who needed to cross go. We were about ten minutes late and made our way to the desk. An extremely nice Greyhound worker, Erica, “snuck” us on the last bus that had any way of getting to State College that day. Savior. We made it back on time and resumed our bleak and meaningless lives.

The Jam was super fun, though.

The weekend before, April and I got a ride to Eerie from Zack Hoffa, along with Ivan. We got in Friday afternoon and were welcomed to Tony Ritz's crib. He and his fiance were nice enough to house a bunch of freestylers for the weekend and were kickass hosts. Saturday was hot as balls but the event sight was dope. It was at this nice park next to a brewery/bar or a bar that had “brewery” in the name. I competed intermediate net with Ivan and he didn't die this time. Sweet. He actually carried the team. Of course Ivan is a natural at net. We had a fun team dynamic; I had a better serve than Ivan, sometimes, but he had better returns, sets, positioning and form. We had a great time in the hot but otherwise nice weather and we even won a game! After doubles, there was intermediate singles. I played badly but still had fun. By this time everyone was tired and I was certainly no exception. After my third loss, I was out of the tournament and, great time aside, I was happy to rest and rehydrate.

This Jam was also super fun.

This weekend will be April's and my third weekend in a row traveling. We are heading back to Bethlehem in order to finally visit my family. It's been over a year and I can't wait to see them. I was nervous about it since my parents won't be in town for most of it but my aunt was more than happy to put us up. I would probably ask my grandmother but she's more Catholic than a Cardinal and can't fathom the idea of us sharing a room. While we are there, I am going to show April the annual music festival that takes over half of the City of Bethlehem, Musikfest. It's got fucking polka!






http://www.musikfest.org/

It should be a great time. On another note, I have been trying to get little miss busy-paint Mike Toolman to get out to a jam, any jam. He's too busy with work and school and adult thingies so I don't blame him. Instead, I contacted a few people and set up a session on Saturday with Nick, Ivan, April, and the Toolmanbrostein himself. I can't wait to have a summer time session with ECFU, the footkick club that kept me kicking my first summer outside Penn State. Corey can't come because he works for the man.

Kevin ain't did it.

Cathedral of War is good in a voltron deck.

Highlights:
-Schmoe bs
-Kicky times funville ain'tcho mommas itch creaame

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

That brorbo clip is my favorite run I've ever seen from you. Stepping looks great and the Whizzes were a nice touch. Hope to see your style evolve on this type of path. Very fun to watch. Challenge: Do this kind of stuff again but make the run longer.

Sent from my C6916 using Tapatalk

[krustykrakk]

That's funny, Nick. I cut the run short intentionally. The video was made as a silly response to Kevin Crowley's video with the diving/gyro whiz.
Thanks for ya werds, do

Sent from my LG-VS450PP using Tapatalk

[krustykrakk]

I just tried paying for my laundry with a metrocard. Thanks, Nyfa!
Today I had a short session, so here is short post:

It was fun. I want to hit bop to bop(but with rolls in between) rpt. Bop is boring. BOPring.

Highlights:
Strong calf roll > weak osis > weak calf roll > strong osis > strong calf roll > butterfly > weak calf roll > butterfly > handcatch and "yayy"

[DC Clinks]

I lik it when you do the thing with the roll n the kicks. Kik more blog more yaaays

[krustykrakk]

Hiyo!

Today was a nice day and I had free time. Guess what I did. Go on, guess. I didn't try to teach large wasps how to read... I didn't find out that clothing made of paper maché cannot be machine washed... I didn't play acoustic death metal for the elderly toad squallers... I didn't play footbag... Oh, wait. That's probably it. Yeah, I played some of my favorite sport!

Both yesterday and today, I tried light drilling. I haven't trained in a long while but it is good to get back into the swing of things. Playing outside the apartment is ok, despite the surface being slanted and the traffic. Lots of students are moving back into town so, even though I kick in a alley, there are still many interruptions to my solo sessions.

One such interruption that occurred today was an Xfinity representative. I had just dropped the bag when this slippery bogle came over to me and said, “Hey, man. You look like you need some TV.” Wow. He actually offended me. This is a tough thing to do, if you know me.

“Excuse me?” I said, obviously annoyed.

He replied, “TV. Are you hooked up, yet?”

“No.”

“Would you like to give you a business card?”

“No thanks, I appreciate it though.” I said politely. After that, he took his rude, grinning, dumbo face down the block. I know this guy was only doing his job but I still felt as though approaching a sweaty, busy stranger with what was basically spam word-of-mouth wasn't the right way to go about it. He alluded to sitting on my fat ass watching television as a better use of my time than an extremely fun cardio workout. Maybe I'm only sore about it because he could have said, “Wow, that's cool.” or something else that doesn’t demean footbag or my intelligence for 'not realizing that I could be watching TV' before giving his crummy shpeal. I mean, yesterday a guy drove by yelling, “You're sick, bro!” while I was mid-string. Still rude but this guy was saying something nice...


Now I have to give a super duper shout-out to a few peeps who helped me fall completely in love with footbag. How I started playing was with Marc Peralta introducing me to footbag and the PSU club. After that, Nick Polini was my main mentor. I owe a lot to him. He hooked me up with Mike Toolan at Jamps III (since he lives in the city where I was living, at the time.) After school ended that year, I went back home not really expecting to go much further with it. I didn't think playing with Toolan and Corey x3 was really going to be a thing. Corey was about a year ahead of me-ish but Toolan was the experienced player of the group. Former student of David Clavens, Mike instructed me as much, if not moreso, as Nick.

Since my first summer playing, I moved out of Bethlehem and have seen the Bethlehem crew less and less. However, I still see Corey x3 at events but not much of Toolman. Well, this past weekend, I was lucky enough to head to Bethlehem for family, Musikfest, and a great session with Toolmango, Ivan, and April. It was great to play with one of my first footbag teacher after almost two years. Here's proof:



Today's session:
-Ducking clipper x6 (doubled old record)

[Ryan_Morris]

“Hey, man. You look like you need some TV.”

What a dooooooooosh.

[krustykrakk]

Hallo again.

It has been a while since I have logged onto modified, let alone written a footblog post. I'm happy to ensure the reader that my absence from Modified does not reflect an absence of footbag. I have been a relatively active player since I started back in 2013 and believe that I am currently at my highest point in the game. Constant improvement is an ongoing goal for me and I am happy to say that I am achieving it through hard work, sacrifice and the help of a few wonderful friends and mentors. The only real time off I took in my modified absence was after NYJ 2016. I was having inner knee pain that seemed to be exasperated by cranking a clipper. Not wanting to make things worse, I took two months off and ate a lot of junk food. During this time, I shifted my drive to improve towards Magic the Gathering as well other competitive games. I learned a lot in those two months and found pleasure in improving at something less physical but just as mentally stimulating. My Magic days were fun but I did miss footbag. After getting inspired by the community, I downloaded Instagram and began to film short clips of me getting back into the game. The videos almost took the place of modified because I am able to film highlights and post them. It didn't occur to me that people even still wrote in footblogs. I'm glad the community members who are reading this are still keeping the tradition going and I'm more than happy to contribute my little bit.

Rather than take a look through all of my old posts and try to remember what exact footbag milestones I've hit over the past two years, I'd like to just talk about this past year. Unfortunately, I missed NYJ. The winter months are slower for me at work, so I made the big-boy decision not go to. Missing NYJ saddened me but it also made me hungry. Another even had a huge factor in my hunger as well; Worlds. Worlds 2017 was set to take place in Portland, Oregon. Having never been to a Worlds, I knew I had to go. I bought my tickets in February and knew I had to train. Once a few months had passed and the weather in Pennsylvania warmed up, I started playing much more regularly and always outside. This spring, my solo playing increased from 0-2 days a week to 3-5 and I am currently still on this schedule. My game improved after a few weeks but then was followed by a plateau. I've never really been much of a studious player but at this point, I realized that for further improvement and to make the jump towards guiltlessness, that needed to change. I began drilling BOP and making my strings more like drills. Since all of my sessions were solo, I had no social pressure to give up on what tricks or links I was trying before getting them. Playing solo definitely has its advantages and I made sure to play to them accordingly.

Training for Worlds was worth it. I entered the convention center knowing that I was at the top of my game. It was an amazing experience as well as a humbling one. I met so many new friends as well as most of my friends who I've made throughout my footbag career. The entire experience was much to take in. Before I move on, I do feel it necessary to acknowledge Nick Polini making BAP. Nick was the first guiltless player I ever had the pleasure of watching play. His enthusiasm was definitely the glue of Penn State Footbag Club. Kicking with Nick has always been positive and rewarding no matter what skill level I was at. I'm very happy for him and proud as he continually inspires me to play my best and to improve.

Worlds was definitely a surreal experience. I felt clunky for a few days after, especially going back to work. After a day of rest, I resumed my training. I began to set consecutive trick personal records as well as up the numbers of a few of some practice drills (mainly basic guiltless). I trained this way until East Coast Footbag Championships. It was during this time that Matt Kemmer starting helping me via facebook messages and videos. Matt spent a ton of time reviewing footage, giving me tips, critiquing me and helping me shape my game into a basic guiltless shell. The tournament was very small but we all had a great time as we do every year. I participated in open circle badly but had some luck with an impromptu (never physically practiced) routine. Below is said routine:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p_ODos4WU0

My inspiration for this specific routine was an older Instagram video which highlighted the calf rolls being matched to the singer saying, "yeah." The only reason I ever made that video was because an old high school friend had commented on a previous one explaining that I should add music. Below is said post:

http://www.instagram.com/p/BV0Qw4uFssw

The music I added happened to be the song I used for my routine and I happened to jive with it enough to pull a half-ass, mediocre routine out of my butt and take second place from The Outsider. Although this tournament was small and the pool for routines was three people, I was pleasantly surprised with the result. It was especially nice since I wasn't happy with my individual performance in circle.
After East Coasts, my training increased again. At this point, I was solely an outdoors player. This worried me because it is impossible to play outside in Pennsylvania during the winter. As a result of my worry, I put my big boy boots on and got a gym membership. Sure, the initial reason for getting the membership was to use the gym's turf, but it is nice to be able to keep shape especially during the winter months. Switching to turf turned out to be an excellent thing. My joints and back don't really ever hurt even if I overplay. I still get sore but it isn't nearly as bad as when I was playing entirely on pavement.

The next jam I attended was Polini and Boatz's Pentagram Jam. At this point I was learning new tricks, kicking longer strings, and enjoying the game more than ever. The jam itself was very fun but also very scary. There was a Satanic BAPtism, fire hippy flow devices, Hoffa, and I think Hogan might have been drunk or something. I don't want to talk about it.

Finally, NYJ 2018!
This was such a great time! Betweem shredding at BDA's Wayne Manor, having my best session with Sean Diamond, shredding in a 2.5-man with Ryan Morris and Zach Jahner, and all of the tomfoolery with all of the crazy, wonderful people, I was overwhelmed with awesomeness. So much went on for those amazing four days, that I couldn't possibly due the experience justice to try to list everything. I am very grateful to have been included in such a great end to what has been my best year of footbag yet!

2018
After coming home (practically limping due to soreness), I had some of the worst post-jam depression I've ever had. I was too sore to play for a few days and then lost momentum and took a few more days off. My first session back was bad. I was having trouble and tightness and my usual stretches weren't cutting it. I was anxious about losing my steam and worried about how long it would take me to bounce back. Then, out of nowhere, Nick hit me up asking about coming up for a weekend shred visit. Of course I obliged, ecstatic as ever. I then had one more solo session and still had trouble. There was an improvement over the previous session but I was still pretty out of it. When the weekend rolled around, Nick and Boatz showed up to my door, like starving orphans asking only for a small helping of footbag. Of course I obliged. To my surprise, Nathan Bonslaver was in town visiting friends. Before I knew it, I had several sweaty boys in my living room hackin' as well as sackin'. We had two other sessions,an oatmeal party (of which Nathan was opposed), and a generally baller time. This weekend rekindled the fire that had been smoldering as of late.
That brings us to now. I'm taking today off due to illness but I had a fun, short solo session yesterday. I didn't play for very long given my packed weekend of shred but I managed to get a milestone as well as some fun, decent strings. I'm ready for 2018 and all the shred it has to offer. Thanks for reading and thanks for being a part of the best community on the planet.

Latest Session Highlights:
-stepping far legover/ripwalk out of paradox whirl

[Asmus]

Great update! Took me back to when the footblogs were really alive and kicking.
Excited to follow your journey here.

[boyle]

Great stuff, sounds like you are really improving. It's great you got a chance to go to Worlds. I wish I had've been to more. I've been to 3 but it's a long journey from Aus. That NYJ sounds so fun, I will have to go sometime, I want to play whirlyball.

[Ryan_Morris]

Krustykrakk is back! Loved kicking and hanging out with you at NYJ .You got sooo good! Keep posting more video, plz.

Any details on the Festival of the Glorious Benjamin or whatever it's called?