Fanzine

Keep a diary of what you're hitting, what's frustrating you, and your goals.
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boyle
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Re: Fanzine

Post by boyle » 21 Aug 2019 04:01

Nos vemos en Medellín. (ojála).

I think Brayan Stiven is by far technically the best player - though Sebastian now has made finals at Worlds now, though I think that is much more based on the performance side of things.

On the Spanish side of things, Sergio has improved quite a bit in the recent years, he's playing really well lately.

If there was a decent amount of money around (hot tip: there's not) - the first thing I would do would be to get someone like you out as a head judge.

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Re: Fanzine

Post by randomcrayon » 21 Aug 2019 11:37

Felicitaciones en el doble spinning eclipse! 8O
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Reverse swirling symposium mirages

Post by C-Fan » 23 Aug 2019 13:10

boyle wrote:
21 Aug 2019 04:01
I think Brayan Stiven is by far technically the best player -
Yeah, the second after I filmed the first segment I got back up to play and literally slapped my forehead. Hence the clip immediately afterwards where I was like: "How could I forget Brayan Stiven!" I had a couple other brainfarts that Vlog (Castillo vs. Cadavid) but given how rusty I am with both footbag AND Spanish, it could have gone worse.

I saw the Facebook post about reverse swirling symp torque, and it inspired me to mess around with that concept. I get why people argue there are no dexes, or why people are confused about it. 99% of footbag these days is either uptime or downtime or some combo of the two (i.e. an uptime set to a downtime component). Midtime is really uncommon, and the reverse swirling tricks are one of the few examples out there. So while a "normal" symp mirage should be dexed with the upper leg, a midtime symp mirage is dexed really small and at the calf. Its still a dex, and the notation is the same as a normal symp mirage, but it's definitely executed differently. Anyway, I tried for the rev swirling symp torque and didn't get any. I had a few where I had good enough rotation to get it, but my mind didn't adjust fast enough to osis. I did manage to hit the mirage version both sides. Flipside was almost certainly a new trick for me, and on strong side it had been over 7 years since I last hit it. So overall a lot of fun:


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Re: Fanzine

Post by boyle » 23 Aug 2019 21:32

That's a cool concept. I think I could do a few of these, will have to have a go. With a torque probably not, but with the mirage seems doable.

I think it's a great idea to do some vlogs in Spanish. You had mentioned doing that, or maybe some podcasts some time back. Cool to see. Maybe some subtitles for the non-Spanish speakers would be good too - or do a bit in Spanish, bit in English.

I have said this story in my blog a bunch of times, but when I went to Colombia, I was in the sick one, and I'd done pretty good, I'd finished up and I think I had a few 6's on the board. Maybe food processor, spinning ducking whirl, maybe one more. Up to that point, Brayan had been trying pretty wild stuff but not landing anything, so he only had one turn left. I was thinking maybe he'll go for a safer option just to have some points on the board, which would probably leave me as the winner.

Then he hit nuclear torque, so I was not the winner.

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Getting pudge

Post by C-Fan » 26 Aug 2019 12:22

I've been making more of an effort lately to carve time out to footbag. My wife recently got a scale for our bathroom, and I was unpleasantly surprised to find I have gained some weight. While it wasn't much, it still shocked me since my weight has been so stable for so much of my life. Like, when I lived in Japan and TRIED to gain weight to fight the winter cold, I couldn't. So this was a good reminder that there are limits to even my metabolism and that I need to exercise more. On a related note, we cut out red meat from our diet 37 days ago and my booze-free streak is still going at 528 days.

I was feeling nostalgic the other day so I was going through my blog and I found this post from August of 2011:
C-Fan wrote:
05 Aug 2011 09:12

Goals for the next 14 years? I like that. It’s easy for me to look at my career in footbag as mostly done, with most of my big achievements behind me. But there’s no reason to think like that. Here’s what I’ve come up with for goals for the next…ten years:

• Podium at USO in the next three years (first crack at this in one week).
• Finals at Worlds.
• Start a scene in Denver. I’ve been here long enough, there’s no excuse.
• Host a tournament in Denver. CSS8?
• Win an intermediate event at a net tournament.
• Become a competent open net player.
• Be playing footbag in some form or other when I’m 40.
First off, I love that I thought my career was mostly over by 2011. Granted, I was 14 years deep which is longer than most footbagger careers. But with the benefit of 8 years of hindsight I'd say my competitive peak was probably 2011-2014, so this post was made right as that was starting.

Its interesting looking at my 2011 goals, since they offer insight into what I thought the future held. The desire to do well in competition stayed with me, but the net aspirations seem so alien to me now. The desire to put time into organizing clubs and tournaments also strike me as vestiges of a Ken that no longer exists.

I am happy I achieved some of the competitive goals. I got podium at USO a few times in both Circle and Routines, including winning once in each. I made Finals three times at Worlds, though I never managed to do a Finals routine I was happy with. I never competed in net, though I blame that partly on not having anybody to play with (you can freestyle by yourself...net not so much). I don't see that changing any time soon. I am only like 7 months away from hitting the final goal, so that's a minor win.

Here's footage from my last session:


The matadors were a whim so getting the bsos was a nice surprise. I couldn't recall the last time I bsosed that trick, so I was surprised when I searched my YT account and saw a video of me hitting the blw-matador drill 5 years ago. Sometimes it pays off to have uploaded over 2,500 videos. My favorite combo in the session was double spinning clipper to whirling swirl, which I hit twice. Erik recently re-posted the 2005 Worlds video 33 feet, and my favorite part of that always was Vasek and Felix pushing double blender-DSC combos. It'd be so awesome if I could one day hit DSC-double blender. It could happen with a little luck.

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Re: Fanzine

Post by Muffinman » 27 Aug 2019 06:22

2,500 videos 8O
I remember you started posting tons of videos right after Asmus interviewed me for that online footbag magazine years ago, where one of my answers to something claimed that I had uploaded the most footbag videos on the internet. I always had a suspicion that you were trying to beat me :p

Awesome that you're still playing at a high level when you feel like it!
Can you link the blurry whirl > matador drill video? I love that drill!

I thought the Spanish vlog was neat, though I wish I could understand what you said!
Also, who the heck is Brayan Stiven? 8O

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Brayan

Post by C-Fan » 27 Aug 2019 08:40

Muffinman wrote:
27 Aug 2019 06:22

Can you link the blurry whirl > matador drill video? I love that drill!
I do too. Like I said in my last post, I'm a little surprised both that I hit it, and also that I forgot I ever hit it:


Muffinman wrote:
27 Aug 2019 06:22
Also, who the heck is Brayan Stiven? 8O
Brayan was the best Colombian player. Just tons of talent. Never made it to a Worlds I don't think, so he never became very well known. I'm sure there's better videos than this, but this one from 10 years ago gives an idea of his raw talent:



I may try and play during lunch today. If I do, I'll try and hit some more flip spins for you.

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Genzu!

Post by C-Fan » 02 Sep 2019 13:15

Got a text on Friday out of the blue. Genz was in town, and wanting to hook up for a shred the following morning. I really appreciated he was willing to drive all the way to my backyard to play, and was super flexible with scheduling. Otherwise we probably don't get to meet up. We played at the local skate park, which worked out well. I did what I could with filming, but given that we wanted to stay in the shade I had very few options that were NOT going to backlight us. Super fun session, and I thought we both played well. I actually had to omit a bunch of decent strings to get video length to a somewhat reasonable length.



I've got a big work trip in California from this Wednesday through the following Thursday. Thankfully, I can bring the wife and kid with me. Still expecting that to be a bit of a logistical nightmare, but he'll get to see his California family and I won't feel as guilty about leaving the wife to cover everything while I'm gone. Not sure I'll have space to pack footbag gear on this trip, since the kid has so much crap we need to bring. I'll try to though, since the weather in SoCal seems too good to waste.

EDIT: Had to reupload the entire video, because one clip had faint background music claimed by UMG. That's such bullshit that they'll block an entire video from multiple countries because a 10 second snippet is playing incidentally in the background. At least I was able to re-edit on the fly on my phone and take out the offending song, but that's such shit still.

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Autumn falling

Post by C-Fan » 04 Oct 2019 12:11

Embarrassed I haven't posted here in a month.  In my defense, I was offline for the entire San Diego trip, and then Griffin got sick almost immediately after we returned.  He got a really bad case of croup, so in addition to several rough nights for the whole family we also had a trip to the emergency room.  In good news, he's recovered remarkably well, but we all got some form of cold as a result.  With all that excitement going on, I haven't had a chance to play footbag since we got back from Cali.

The San Diego trip went very well.  There were a lot of logistical challenges in combining a work trip, a family trip, and a wedding.... but we did remarkably well.  Griffin got to spend a lot of quality time with Haley's family, we got to attend the wedding together, I got to expose Griffin to an ocean for the first time (he loved it), and I even managed to squeeze in 3 short footbag sessions.  The first one was a bit of a waste, as I played on the pool deck at the hotel.  It was a pretty drab background, so I ended up not using any of that footage in my eventual video.  My next two sessions were also really tight time-wise, but I was able to find some palm trees and other scenic backdrops for those sessions.  San Diego was so beautiful I ended up having a ton of great B-roll footage, so despite having very little actual shred footage, I was able to put together an aesthetically pleasing short video:



In mid-September I also hit a minor milestone: 1.5 years of no booze.  The one year mark seemed like a big milestone, but I didn't really have a plan for what to do after I hit it, so I just continued with the streak.  Now that I'm over 1.5 years, I think it makes sense to push it to 2 years.  Still no real concrete long term plan for it though...if you told me I broke the streak after 2 years I wouldn't be shocked, but I also wouldn't be shocked if I pushed it to 20 years either.  We'll see.

It's getting to feel a bit more like fall here in Denver, so I may have to start shifting my sessions indoors.  Given how infrequently I've played this year though, that doesn't feel like a big deal.  I'm kind of excited for fall to be honest.  It's almost Halloween in Team Fortress 2, and the NBA season is just around the corner too.  

On the winter note, I saw Dante announce he will be running the Joulukalenteri this year.  Props to him for doing that.  I'm not sure I'll have the time or motivation to make a video this year, but I've contributed some footage to some editors already.  At least I'll indirectly participate that way.

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Fall

Post by C-Fan » 24 Oct 2019 20:33

Not much footbag on my end lately. It's definitely fall now in Denver. Shorter days, legit cold in the mornings, and the occasional random snow. We got a good 4 inches last night, and it was the second minor snow of the month. Combined with fall activities starting up for the kiddo (swimming and gym) there's not a lot of good windows for playing, much less playing outside. This time of year it's almost better to skateboard, since the weather is too chilly for footbag, but still warm enough for skating. Plus, the extra layers are nice protection against falling. On that note, I've finally started to make some real progress with ollying. Only one side, almost no height, but the board is popping up and I'm staying on top of it. I'll try and get some video of it, but that's been a challenge because its super hard to frame a shot while I'm rolling on the board. That combined with my incredibly low success rate. Still, putting in the time to learn a basic cornerstone trick of a sport is exciting, and something I haven't done in years. Like, it reminds me of learning clipper and flip clipper in footbag.

Here's a short video from a real short session. I think I played like 20 to 25 minutes while Haley and the kid were swimming. Lucky I hit anything at all in that time frame. The ripstein felt like one of my better ones too.


The last bit of news is that work is forcing me to upgrade phones. This means I need to edit/dump/export all my existing footage on my current phone, so hopefully that motivates me to identify and comb through some of my backlog. It also sounds like the new phone will have a better camera, so I guess that's a plus.

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Re: Fanzine

Post by boyle » 25 Oct 2019 03:21

Don't know if I saw that previous post before, but croup is not a pleasant one. Been through that one before. Some people get it really bad and have to be admitted to the hospital. Good luck with the skating! It's always hard when there is such a low success rate but it's good feeling to be making progress at all. You seem to have really wild swings with the temperature there. (Although saying that, it was scorching hot today in the morning, now there is lightning and pouring rain).

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Re: Fanzine

Post by Tjuggles » 25 Oct 2019 13:02

boyle wrote:
25 Oct 2019 03:21
...You seem to have really wild swings with the temperature there. (Although saying that, it was scorching hot today in the morning, now there is lightning and pouring rain).
Wellington is known for crazy weather too. Especially the wind!

Also, great vid Ken, thanks. I want to make more vids and have realized that one reason I don't is because I can't listen to music and record at the same time since I need to use my phone for both...
TJ Boutorwick

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Winter

Post by C-Fan » 28 Oct 2019 09:35

C-Fan wrote:
24 Oct 2019 20:33
... and the occasional random snow. We got a good 4 inches last night, and it was the second minor snow of the month.
This weekend we got our first legit heave of snow. Had to shovel yesterday and this morning, and its still snowing a bit now. My kid and my dog are enjoying it, so that's a positive. Not great for me exercise-wise though.
C-Fan wrote:
24 Oct 2019 20:33
This time of year it's almost better to skateboard... I've finally started to make some real progress with ollying. I'll try and get some video of it


Humbling to realize these are some of my better ones to date. That said, they do give me hope I'm on the right track. It is exciting to be learning one of the fundamental tricks of skating. While I still hit new tricks in footbag, they all feel very niche and technical. Learning to ollie feels akin to learning how to hit clipper stall reliably, where you know so much of the real game builds off that core trick. Don't get me wrong; I don't have any huge ambitions (delusions?) for my skating game. But if I can learn to reliably ollie, maybe learn 180s, even a basic kickflip...that'd be pretty awesome. I've always loved skating, and it always frustrated me that I was so bad at it. Like, I know my legs aren't dumb, so it killed me that I couldn't do basics on a board. If I can get to the point where I feel comfortable cruising on a board and doing some very basic tricks, that'd make me happy.

C-Fan wrote:
24 Oct 2019 20:33
The last bit of news is that work is forcing me to upgrade phones. This means I need to edit/dump/export all my existing footage on my current phone, so hopefully that motivates me to identify and comb through some of my backlog.
Been working a bit on culling the backlog. I made a short video of my Boise backlog and sent it to an editor for the Joulu last week. I also cobbled together a vid from my last few sessions. Nothing special, but nice to get it off my phone:



I don't think I'll be able to make a video for the Joulu this year, but I'll have contributed footage to 3 videos so that feels like some help.

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Flip Wind

Post by C-Fan » 12 Nov 2019 09:47

We continue to have a very typical Denver fall; gorgeous summer weather days followed by snowstorms.  Rinse, repeat.  I try and sneak in shreds on the nice weather days, but as a father and a homeowner I often can't due to house/toddler needs.  That's just the reality of where I'm at in life now so I try and appreciate the times I get to play.  Hell, I should feel lucky just knowing I still have the physical ability to play at my age.  40 is less than half a year away now.  It'd be cool to try and hit some shred milestones in my 40s... has anybody over 40 ever hit a beast?  I bet Lon could, though I can't recall off the top of my head seeing him hit beasts.  I know Penske will be able to when he hits 40, barring injury.  But yeah, some cool post-40 milestones for me would be:

:arrow: beast combo
:arrow: 10 fearless
:arrow: Quad dex tricks
:arrow: Dropless routine?
:arrow: Shred30 over 200 points
:arrow: 40 contact genuine string

Looking at that list, I feel like the 10 fearless would be the hardest for me at this point.  Who knows...I guess we'll see next year.  
Got in a light session last week.  There was a random gusting wind that was frustrating me, so I ended up going for more single big tricks, rather than long runs:

 

The flip whirlwinds felt cool.  I'm not sure I had hit any flipside since I learned them over 7 years ago:
 

I feel like I didn't play that much footbag in 2019 and consequently didn't make that many videos.  But looking at my YT account, I've posted 22 videos this year. If you count 2-3 more Joulu videos due to come out, that'd put me right at 2 videos per month for the year.  That's a low rate compared to some of my past years' production, but better than my 2018 output.  2 videos per month is also probably a higher output than 95% of the footbag community as well so I shouldn't beat myself up too badly.  

Still no official announcement on where Worlds will be next summer.  Part of me would love to go and even compete, but I also feel like the deck is stacked against me going regardless of where it is.  I have at least 3 weddings next year that I know of, plus its my 40th birthday.  The one thing I have in my favor is that I didn't use much vacation time this year, so if I did somehow manage to go to Worlds, vacation days wouldn't be a hindrance.

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Re: Fanzine

Post by Nathan8 » 12 Nov 2019 13:18

I dig the stepping whirling swirls. Have you considered whirlwind>stepping whirl?

Is worlds next year the only event you're considering? I hear NYJ is pretty rad.

I like how you feel you haven't put out enough videos this year, when just like you said, you have put out more than 95% of footbaggers. Go for it though, you're one of the most consistent video-ers out there. Looking forward to seeing what you have in store for Joulu!

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Re: Fanzine

Post by boyle » 17 Nov 2019 03:23

I like the goals. They are pretty decent goals to aspire to for anyone under 40 as well. What's your shred 30 record? You could also do a shred 40 - get yourself some extra points! What about 40 x 4 adds? It's great how much video you have been pumping out, more than most others despite being less active.

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40 goals benchmarks

Post by C-Fan » 18 Nov 2019 09:36

Thanks for the comments guys!
Nathan8 wrote:
12 Nov 2019 13:18
Have you considered whirlwind>stepping whirl?
Yes. I consider it way too hard. :wink:
Nathan8 wrote:
12 Nov 2019 13:18
Is worlds next year the only event you're considering?
Probably just Worlds or US Open. I still have the bad taste of my last routine in my mouth, so being able to cleanse it with a good performance is a key draw for me. US Open would be nice, since I wouldn't have to travel as far or take off as much time. But Worlds has the appeal that it has more prestige, and also offers goals I've never achieved (i.e. I've won USO with a performance I'm proud of, while I've never done a good Finals routine at Worlds)
boyle wrote:
17 Nov 2019 03:23
What's your shred 30 record? You could also do a shred 40 - get yourself some extra points! What about 40 x 4 adds?
I don't think I've done a Shred30 scored in comp since like, Worlds 2010. I was pretty serious about them from 2003-2006, but then I kinda shifted focus to routines. I think my best score in comp was only like 215 ish, but I've done practice ones in the 250s. As for 40 four adds, that'd be really hard...I think my unique record is only 29?


But yeah, if I did like 31 unique tripless that'd be a nice way to accomplish the Shred30 goal and also set a personal best.

Messed around yesterday to see how far away I am from the various goals. I didn't get a quad dex, but I'm not worried about it. My stamina for Shred30 needs work, but I feel optimistic I can knock off that rust. Fearless was a disaster...that'll be the hardest for me. And beasts were surprisingly not bad, as I came super close to a few.


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Re: Fanzine

Post by boyle » 20 Nov 2019 22:49

I like that response to have you considered...

I was talking shred 30 practice versions.

Could you hit 40 of any tricks - maybe smear x 40 or tap x 40, ducking clipper x 40. Sounds kind of boring though.

31 unique tripless sounds like a pretty good aim - you could also go for 40 non-unique and that would be a decent goal to set.

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Give thanks y'all

Post by C-Fan » 29 Nov 2019 09:29

Happy American Thanksgiving modified!

It was a snowy one here in Denver. My mother-in-law flew in from Atlanta, and they had to reschedule her flight around the snow. It's pretty, but definitely a pain to shovel and generally get around.
boyle wrote:
20 Nov 2019 22:49

I was talking shred 30 practice versions.
Looking back over my blog, it looks like I was getting 240-245 in practice right before Worlds 2017. That was with a combo I planned to do in competition, so inherently somewhat conservative. If my goal is just to get my highest possible score in practice I bet I could add a few 5 adds in there and bump it into the 250s. Of course, I'd need to work on my stamina to get there, but I think it's in the realm of possibility.
boyle wrote:
20 Nov 2019 22:49
Could you hit 40 of any tricks - maybe smear x 40 or tap x 40, ducking clipper x 40. Sounds kind of boring though.
I'd tend to agree with you that 40 of anything is a bit boring. I had a list somewhere at sometime with all my consecutive records. I think my highest for any 5 add was 14 tomahawks, so I doubt I could push 40 with any 5 adds. In the 4 add realm, I think I've done 50 plus ducking butterflies. I might be able to push 40 pdx whirls. Not a lot of options I can think of. In the 3 add realm ducking clipper and smear I'd bet I could push over 40. Osis and butterfly obviously. But yeah, not sure any of those particularly interest me.
boyle wrote:
20 Nov 2019 22:49
31 unique tripless sounds like a pretty good aim - you could also go for 40 non-unique and that would be a decent goal to set.
I like both of these. Either would satisfy my Shred30 goals at the same time too. I'm thinking for Shred30 I could probably do something like:

:arrow: butterfly {stepping butterfly-blizzard-parkwalk-blur-legbeater-pdlo-dimwalk-ripwalk-blurry whirl} repeat to pdx whirl-pdx whirl- {ducking osis-ducking butterfly} repeat to {ducking pdx mirage-paradon} rpt to psw-spinning osis-pdx blender.

That'd be 32 tricks, including 31 unique tripless. I think the scoring would shake out as:

:arrow: One 3 add= 6 pts
:arrow: Twenty seven 4 adds= 216 points
:arrow: Four 5 adds= 40 pts

If I counted correctly, that'd be 262 points.

Here's a quick video I did inspired by some Kevin Crowley posts:



I'm now at 25 videos posted on YT in 2019. Whether I play at all in December is largely dependent on the weather though I'd hope I'd schedule a gym session if it really is that bad. Regardless of how December shakes out, I'm happy I hit the milestone of averaging over 2 videos per month for the year.

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Re: Fanzine

Post by boyle » 30 Nov 2019 22:12

Thanks to you for still putting out plenty of content! Interesting thread on Facebook about how much people are putting out on Youtube. I think I've been a fair bit less active this year. Will try and boost back up next year I think. When I was in Chile I was doing a monthly video, which was a good way to use the clips I had gathered, which were pretty much all from the same spot. Might start doing that again too.

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