I'm sad to say that I failed to win a second Tedexon. You could say this was due to the high level of competeters, the fact I didn't actually compete, or the volume of beer I drank while I was there. Anyone I talked to this weekend, when remembering anything I said please keep this last point in mind.
I find as the years go by I care less and less about the actual competition. For me the real excitement of a footbag tournament is meeting new players, seeing old friends and in the case of Todexon, just being in Prague (the happiest place on earth). Probably the highlight of the whole weekend for me was standing crammed in the corner of a room no larger than 12 square meters with at least 30 other players pressed against the walls and spilling out the door into the hall all trying to watch a cricle of Olaf, Jim Penske, Szymon (and another player who's name escapes me). Some big combos were hit and the noise was deafening.
I had some non-footbag people to see in Prague and I was pretty out of shape anyway so I didn't end up playing a lot. Nevertheless at one point on Sunday I played for about half an hour with Olaf and Yves Kriel with a crowd watching. The comparison of footbag skill didn't do me any favors. I just about LOLed thought when one fo the Germans told me I was too fat for that circle. I also got to kick with and practice my absolutely minimal knowledge of Czech on a 13 year old czech kid who you'll be hearing about soon enough. Seriously there must be something in the water over there, everytime I go there's some new Czech Footbag Wunderkind. Sadly I did not get to play with Honza.
Probably the one person who has better stories about me than even I do, is Honza Weber. It seems like everytime I talk to him I hear some old bit of long forgotten footbag lore. When we first met at World's 2002 I couldn't figure out how he knew who I was (no one else seemed to). It turns out more video of me from the old days survived than I knew and he later told me he was always disapointed to never see me doing baroque. It seems I'm on the "official" Euro's 2001 video doing a baroque, a trick I wasn't sure I'd ever actually done.
Well, after only playing once in the previous 4 months due to injury and more lately lack of time, I decided I should at least get in one session before heading out to Prague so I cought last Tuesday's FC Footstar practice. My blades were unbelievebly rusty, and after less than an hour I figured my time would be better spent skooling individule tricks than wearing mysefl out. I told Ville Laakso my baroque story and we had something like the following converation:
me: So I need to learn baroque by Saturday.
ville: well let's see what your baroque looks like
I then hit baroque cleanly on the first try
me: well, never mind.
So Honza I owe you a baroque.
The 3 or 4 people who read my blog have noticed I haven't posted in a while. Partly I haven't had a lot of time, but more than that I'm pretty sure my next story is going to get me into a lot of trouble. Be that as it may, I'll still try to post it sometime later today.
-Andrew McCargar
Don't mess with the bunny outsideworld.org
Tales from the Outsideworld
Last edited by dblthnk84 on 07 Feb 2011 16:08, edited 1 time in total.
The Quest for BAP
This is already a long post, but as this story is probably destined to get me in trouble let me start with a disclaimer. First of all my comments about world's 2002 are not meant to be any kind of impartial record, rather they reflect my state of mind at the time and as such are heavily biased. There was originally a version of this story that named a lot more names, but aside from not wanting to piss anyone off, the names are a little beside the point, this is a personal story and ultimately I'm the only one responsible for myself. Finally if you were playing around the time this story takes place and remember anything differently I'd love to hear about it (I'm far from a perfect source of history). Ok, here we go:
I first touched a "Hacky Sack" in summer 1994. I have to laugh whenever I hear someone say they're not coordinated enough for Footbag. That first time we must have played for more than an hour and I think I managed to touch the bag a total of 4 times, the rest of the time the bag just flew mockingly past my feet. After that I didn't see another Footbag until around March 1995. I was going to a small school then and there wasn't much else to do, so we'd gather in a circle hopelessly trying to get a "hack." I think it took me the better part of 3 weeks to get up to a dozen kicks.
I finally broke down and with my meager allowance bought my very own knit bag. Maybe my natural talent was finally showing through, more likely it was my obsessiveness, but either way I quickly became the best kicker at my school. That wasn't saying much. Anyway even at that point, only a few weeks in, just counting consecutives was wearing thin and I needed something else. The kid who'd brought the first Hacky Sack to school told me the real pros could be found at the Saturday Market and I was determined to find them. As it turns out I didn't until I accidentally invited myself over to Kenny Schultz' house, but there were still plenty of people for me to learn from.
If I wasn't a prodigy I was at least making steady progress. At first I think Footbag was just something to do, everyone's a little awkward at that age and Footbag let me meet new people. But soon enough I was learning my first tricks and became more and more fascinated with the sport and by extension everything about it. I discovered footbag.org and watched the few videos they had religiously. I remember how one night I watched a tape of the 1996 Heart of Freestyle tournament and the next day got super excited and hit my first torque, in jeans. There was this amazing group of athletes I knew only from video who called themselves BAP and I wanted to be one of them.
I guess I started out having some curious ideas about Footbag, but in general I think I wasn't that far off of a lot of new players. I can only guess at what players think of BAP now, but when I was getting started and first heard of it's existence BAP was a very exclusive club. There were 16 members, 14 of them active who I can still name from memory (Kenny Schultz, Peter Irish, Tim Kelly, Genzu, Greg Nelson, Rick Reese, Denis Jones, Eric Wulff, Ahren Gehrman, Steve Cramer, Scott Davidson, Paul Munger, Josh Casey and Tuan Vu).
I'll admit to a bit of hero worship and when I went to my first world's in 1997 I knew them all by sight. 1997 was something of a landmark year for footbag. A new generation showed up with some interesting new ideas. I saw quantum, atomic and blazing, even though we didn't know what they were. I'll never forget watching Peter Irish hitting leggy style blurry flux and being blown away. 6 new players were added to BAP that year. In case you're curious I didn't even merit an honorable mention, but I was hell bent to get in.
I taped some carpet to the floor of my basement, hung a florescent light and made myself go down and play for 2 hours a day. If I wasn't completely hooked already it was that period that really got me. Most sports were too abstract for me. The difference between a great footballer (soccer player for my American readers) and a good one is hard to quantify. But in footbag when you hit that first paradox whirl, that first torque... you're not just refining your craft, you can concretely do something you couldn't do before. I think you need to be a player yourself to fully appreciate what a rush it is and I hit a lot of new moves during that time, each of them a dizzying high like no other. I also lost a couple bags thrown out of frustration. These days I tend to think of freestyle more as a social activity, but there's something to be said for practicing alone. You're responsible for no one but yourself, your triumphs and disappointments are yours alone. For as long as it lasted I got pretty good. Although such a thing is hard to judge I'd say by the time I left for Germany in 1998 I was probably somewhere in the top 50.
If I was top 50 in the world back then, I was probably the best player in continental Europe when I arrived. Although it was something of an ego boost, I was often treated like something of a celebrity when I traveled to footbag clubs, it was also frustrating not to have anyone to play with. Fortunately I was still motivated, able to travel and had access to the internet. I kept practicing, usually alone, and traveled as much as I could. One of the things I've only gained with age is a certain amount of tact. It's fortunate I didn't have it back then because I would shamelessly invite myself all over the place in Europe just by telling people I was a Footbag player from America, I'd like to visit your club, oh and do you have a couch I can crash on? I can't imagine what they must have thought, but everyone seemed glad to have me. The scene was exploding, which slowly made up for my semi-isolation in Munich, but I still longed to make it to worlds, play with the top players and show them what I could do.
At Euro's in Paris 2000, owing partly to me not concentrating on my second degree as much as I should have, I was on the top of my game. The first day we were on a big outdoor stage and for some reason everything was working for me. It seemed like every time I touched the bag I was cranking out at least 20 contacts and hitting my biggest combos with ease. It was while I was still warming up that I met Lon Smith. I'd heard his name but never seen him play before. I immediately loved his style and we quickly fell into the freestyle conversation of new sets and tricks. For what it's worth while I was doing my blurry whirl drill (still a big trick back then) Steve Goldberg told me if I could make it to worlds I'd get BAPtized.
The whole story of Euro's 2000 I'll leave for another day, but Ahren Gehrman deserves a special mention. Although he was my age Ahren was part of the older generation. He'd been BAPtized in 1996, and I've heard people claim he was the top shredder that year. He'd gotten a little rusty but then came back in 2000 in a big way. He was hitting some combos and moves then that still hold up pretty well after all these years. I saw him hit "your mom" along with a lot of other crazy stuff. I saw him hit atomic whirl and a couple strings later I did it myself, first try, mid run. I was on one hell of a run that tournament. Sadly it didn't extend to the actual competition where I placed 6th. Fortunately I got drunk on gold mettle winning French wine, bitched loudly about the judging and felt better.
After that I went from partial isolation to the total isolation of South Korea. The first few months I had a light work schedule, was still pumped from Paris and determined to hit everything I'd seen Ahren do. I skooled both sides, all sets and all kinds of new tricks. I made my own shoes modifying the holy hell out of a pair of high top running shoes. The combination of energy, time and good gear seemed to work and everything clicked. In practice I was consistently cranking out tripless runs in the mid to high teens, skooling new 5 add combos and to 6 and beyond. The climax, as it were, came when I hit 15 new moves in one day. A few weeks after that I hit my first 7 add move. I knew the Footbag scene pretty well back then and I'd guess I was somewhere in the top 20.
For the last part of 2000, with no gym and no one to kick with I tried to keep playing and keep motivated, but eventually my job tried to kill me. For about 6 months I was working 13 hour days and quickly lost interest in anything that didn't involve sleep, alcohol or my growing collection of dvds. Towards the end of my year there I was physically and mentally done. I finagled my employers to let me out of my contract a couple weeks early so I could make it to Euro's in Prague and headed out. When I made it back to Europe in summer 2001 I was badly out of shape and out of practice. Still, I could do a few new things and the footbag world hadn't passed me by. It was there I got to see a young Vasek, Ryan Mulroney, Eric Wulff, Puka Koistinen and many more. I was able to hold my own and even show young Vasek a few tricks. Let the record forever show that I beat him in a game of "shred."
Again I had a great time, Prague is the happiest place on earth, and I have a lot of fond memories. BAP was still in my mind and I could have gone to world's instead of Euro's and had a chance to get in, but Prague was more important to me. In retrospect that subconscious decision was something of a turning point in my Footbag "career," but at the time I never stopped to work it out.
If I had to guess I'd say those two years, 2000 and 2001 I was somewhere in the top 20 or 30, but top 30 is a hell of a long way from number 1. After that I went back to Portland where I found a lot had changed in 3 years. A lot of people still kicked, but the freestyle scene had dried up and blown away. I managed to track down some new kid named Noah Jay-Bonn who wasn't bad, but he still lived at home and couldn't meet that often. 3 years of not having a club or steady playing partner had taken it's toll and I was struggling to stay motivated, but when I watched video of the top players, of Lon, Ryan, Ahren, Peter and Chad, I could see they were still a level above me, but the gap wasn't so great I couldn't bridge it. I could hit or was close to the tricks and combos they were doing. It's hard to give up when you can see the finish line, so I kept trundling along.
I went to world's 2002 a little rusty again but I thought I still had a shot at BAP. I played alright the first day, like every world's I met a lot of new kids I'd never heard of and got to see Vasek again, who although he still wasn't quite the monster he would become was working a lot of tricks I could tell were leading to unexplored territory. I reconnected with a lot of people I hadn't seen in years and generally felt pretty good. One thing that did kind of weigh me down was the etiquette nazis who were in full force that year. One of them in particular I found particularly gratting, but more on that later. In the end none of it, my dwindling motivation, lack of practice and other people sucking the fun out of the sport mattered. It didn't matter because I quickly came down with the second worst flu of my life.
The next day it was 93F (34C) without a cloud in the sky. Most players were out enjoying the sun trying to show off what they'd learned shredding alone in their basements the last year. I however was bundled under three sweaters shivering in the sun. I scratched out of all events and was only able to play for another hour or so that whole tournament. I saw history being made when Vasek beat Ryan in the finals. I saw the epic "silent night" shred, Honza's amazing sick 3 combos, and Alex Zerbe's surprising final 8 routine, but I saw it all from the sidelines.
Usually at tournaments it's the camaraderie and the energy that I enjoy as much as playing itself. I love standing in a circle seeing everyone challenge and hopefully surprise each other with their sickest combos. You prop each other up, push each other to crank out your best freestyle. Perhaps it's because I was already in a bad mood being sick, but there was an air around some of the top circles that I found stifling. One player in particular would yell at people for self serving a dropped kick before a run had even started and even louder if he thought you'd 'the'd or bailed. I'm not going to name names because I don't want to demonize anyone, but if you were there you probably know who I'm talking about. At any rate, it completely killed it for me. I couldn't play, and what was otherwise a very exciting world's was drowned out by a couple people way to caught up in their own rules.
I think I realized at the time it was my last shot for BAP and at that point it was still something I wanted. I had worked hard over the years to get my game to where it was, I had paid my dues traveling and bringing advanced freestyle to a lot of places and the recognition would have been appreciated. But at that point, more than the recognition I had just wanted to play well. My game was forcibly shut down by illness and even just hanging around a lot of the circles wasn't any fun thanks to a couple grating individuals. I felt like I didn't belong in a place where the "rules" had taken on more import than the game itself so I left. I didn't go to Footbag sites on-line and I didn't play very much. Back in Portland the Footbag scene took off around me. Ethan Husted moved in, then Noah and more recently Nick Landes took off. I was barely there.
Now that I've reconnected somewhat with the footbag scene a strange thing has happened. Whereas while I was living in Munich I was the new young player, now living in Berlin I'm the old man of Footbag. Every now and again I'll reconnect with someone I haven't seen in forever and they'll ask me if I was ever BAPtised. At some point I realized what a load off my mind it is that it never happened, that I have a certain amount of anonymity.
As I look back I realize that up to World's 2002 I was always chasing something. First it was the other kids in my class, then a consecutives record, then the move list and BAP. For a long time Ryan Mulroney was our target, then Ahren, Sunil and Lon and now Vasek. I saw a lot of guys push themselves to great heights chasing BAP and I've seen many more burn themselves out and fade away. Maybe I'm one of them. The strange thing is I'm not chasing anything anymore, I'm just playing. I'm still learning, and year on year I'm getting better, but the freestyle elite have long since passed me by and I like it this way. I can dip in and out as my time dictates and bore all of you with my old stories. I used to beat myself up with frustration if I couldn't master a new trick, now I focus on what I can do. I still have my own demons but they're measured by me and no one else now.
I think, if possible I love this sport now more than I ever have. For the last 14 years it's been one of the few constants in my life and I have nothing but good memories (even my flu at World's 2002 ended up being a good thing in the long run). For all of you out there chasing Vasek and whoever comes after him, everyone shreding only with a webcam in your basement somewhere or making that winning routine and hoping to impress BAP at Worlds this year in Prague, don't give up, you may not get there, but it's one hell of a trip.
I first touched a "Hacky Sack" in summer 1994. I have to laugh whenever I hear someone say they're not coordinated enough for Footbag. That first time we must have played for more than an hour and I think I managed to touch the bag a total of 4 times, the rest of the time the bag just flew mockingly past my feet. After that I didn't see another Footbag until around March 1995. I was going to a small school then and there wasn't much else to do, so we'd gather in a circle hopelessly trying to get a "hack." I think it took me the better part of 3 weeks to get up to a dozen kicks.
I finally broke down and with my meager allowance bought my very own knit bag. Maybe my natural talent was finally showing through, more likely it was my obsessiveness, but either way I quickly became the best kicker at my school. That wasn't saying much. Anyway even at that point, only a few weeks in, just counting consecutives was wearing thin and I needed something else. The kid who'd brought the first Hacky Sack to school told me the real pros could be found at the Saturday Market and I was determined to find them. As it turns out I didn't until I accidentally invited myself over to Kenny Schultz' house, but there were still plenty of people for me to learn from.
If I wasn't a prodigy I was at least making steady progress. At first I think Footbag was just something to do, everyone's a little awkward at that age and Footbag let me meet new people. But soon enough I was learning my first tricks and became more and more fascinated with the sport and by extension everything about it. I discovered footbag.org and watched the few videos they had religiously. I remember how one night I watched a tape of the 1996 Heart of Freestyle tournament and the next day got super excited and hit my first torque, in jeans. There was this amazing group of athletes I knew only from video who called themselves BAP and I wanted to be one of them.
I guess I started out having some curious ideas about Footbag, but in general I think I wasn't that far off of a lot of new players. I can only guess at what players think of BAP now, but when I was getting started and first heard of it's existence BAP was a very exclusive club. There were 16 members, 14 of them active who I can still name from memory (Kenny Schultz, Peter Irish, Tim Kelly, Genzu, Greg Nelson, Rick Reese, Denis Jones, Eric Wulff, Ahren Gehrman, Steve Cramer, Scott Davidson, Paul Munger, Josh Casey and Tuan Vu).
I'll admit to a bit of hero worship and when I went to my first world's in 1997 I knew them all by sight. 1997 was something of a landmark year for footbag. A new generation showed up with some interesting new ideas. I saw quantum, atomic and blazing, even though we didn't know what they were. I'll never forget watching Peter Irish hitting leggy style blurry flux and being blown away. 6 new players were added to BAP that year. In case you're curious I didn't even merit an honorable mention, but I was hell bent to get in.
I taped some carpet to the floor of my basement, hung a florescent light and made myself go down and play for 2 hours a day. If I wasn't completely hooked already it was that period that really got me. Most sports were too abstract for me. The difference between a great footballer (soccer player for my American readers) and a good one is hard to quantify. But in footbag when you hit that first paradox whirl, that first torque... you're not just refining your craft, you can concretely do something you couldn't do before. I think you need to be a player yourself to fully appreciate what a rush it is and I hit a lot of new moves during that time, each of them a dizzying high like no other. I also lost a couple bags thrown out of frustration. These days I tend to think of freestyle more as a social activity, but there's something to be said for practicing alone. You're responsible for no one but yourself, your triumphs and disappointments are yours alone. For as long as it lasted I got pretty good. Although such a thing is hard to judge I'd say by the time I left for Germany in 1998 I was probably somewhere in the top 50.
If I was top 50 in the world back then, I was probably the best player in continental Europe when I arrived. Although it was something of an ego boost, I was often treated like something of a celebrity when I traveled to footbag clubs, it was also frustrating not to have anyone to play with. Fortunately I was still motivated, able to travel and had access to the internet. I kept practicing, usually alone, and traveled as much as I could. One of the things I've only gained with age is a certain amount of tact. It's fortunate I didn't have it back then because I would shamelessly invite myself all over the place in Europe just by telling people I was a Footbag player from America, I'd like to visit your club, oh and do you have a couch I can crash on? I can't imagine what they must have thought, but everyone seemed glad to have me. The scene was exploding, which slowly made up for my semi-isolation in Munich, but I still longed to make it to worlds, play with the top players and show them what I could do.
At Euro's in Paris 2000, owing partly to me not concentrating on my second degree as much as I should have, I was on the top of my game. The first day we were on a big outdoor stage and for some reason everything was working for me. It seemed like every time I touched the bag I was cranking out at least 20 contacts and hitting my biggest combos with ease. It was while I was still warming up that I met Lon Smith. I'd heard his name but never seen him play before. I immediately loved his style and we quickly fell into the freestyle conversation of new sets and tricks. For what it's worth while I was doing my blurry whirl drill (still a big trick back then) Steve Goldberg told me if I could make it to worlds I'd get BAPtized.
The whole story of Euro's 2000 I'll leave for another day, but Ahren Gehrman deserves a special mention. Although he was my age Ahren was part of the older generation. He'd been BAPtized in 1996, and I've heard people claim he was the top shredder that year. He'd gotten a little rusty but then came back in 2000 in a big way. He was hitting some combos and moves then that still hold up pretty well after all these years. I saw him hit "your mom" along with a lot of other crazy stuff. I saw him hit atomic whirl and a couple strings later I did it myself, first try, mid run. I was on one hell of a run that tournament. Sadly it didn't extend to the actual competition where I placed 6th. Fortunately I got drunk on gold mettle winning French wine, bitched loudly about the judging and felt better.
After that I went from partial isolation to the total isolation of South Korea. The first few months I had a light work schedule, was still pumped from Paris and determined to hit everything I'd seen Ahren do. I skooled both sides, all sets and all kinds of new tricks. I made my own shoes modifying the holy hell out of a pair of high top running shoes. The combination of energy, time and good gear seemed to work and everything clicked. In practice I was consistently cranking out tripless runs in the mid to high teens, skooling new 5 add combos and to 6 and beyond. The climax, as it were, came when I hit 15 new moves in one day. A few weeks after that I hit my first 7 add move. I knew the Footbag scene pretty well back then and I'd guess I was somewhere in the top 20.
For the last part of 2000, with no gym and no one to kick with I tried to keep playing and keep motivated, but eventually my job tried to kill me. For about 6 months I was working 13 hour days and quickly lost interest in anything that didn't involve sleep, alcohol or my growing collection of dvds. Towards the end of my year there I was physically and mentally done. I finagled my employers to let me out of my contract a couple weeks early so I could make it to Euro's in Prague and headed out. When I made it back to Europe in summer 2001 I was badly out of shape and out of practice. Still, I could do a few new things and the footbag world hadn't passed me by. It was there I got to see a young Vasek, Ryan Mulroney, Eric Wulff, Puka Koistinen and many more. I was able to hold my own and even show young Vasek a few tricks. Let the record forever show that I beat him in a game of "shred."
Again I had a great time, Prague is the happiest place on earth, and I have a lot of fond memories. BAP was still in my mind and I could have gone to world's instead of Euro's and had a chance to get in, but Prague was more important to me. In retrospect that subconscious decision was something of a turning point in my Footbag "career," but at the time I never stopped to work it out.
If I had to guess I'd say those two years, 2000 and 2001 I was somewhere in the top 20 or 30, but top 30 is a hell of a long way from number 1. After that I went back to Portland where I found a lot had changed in 3 years. A lot of people still kicked, but the freestyle scene had dried up and blown away. I managed to track down some new kid named Noah Jay-Bonn who wasn't bad, but he still lived at home and couldn't meet that often. 3 years of not having a club or steady playing partner had taken it's toll and I was struggling to stay motivated, but when I watched video of the top players, of Lon, Ryan, Ahren, Peter and Chad, I could see they were still a level above me, but the gap wasn't so great I couldn't bridge it. I could hit or was close to the tricks and combos they were doing. It's hard to give up when you can see the finish line, so I kept trundling along.
I went to world's 2002 a little rusty again but I thought I still had a shot at BAP. I played alright the first day, like every world's I met a lot of new kids I'd never heard of and got to see Vasek again, who although he still wasn't quite the monster he would become was working a lot of tricks I could tell were leading to unexplored territory. I reconnected with a lot of people I hadn't seen in years and generally felt pretty good. One thing that did kind of weigh me down was the etiquette nazis who were in full force that year. One of them in particular I found particularly gratting, but more on that later. In the end none of it, my dwindling motivation, lack of practice and other people sucking the fun out of the sport mattered. It didn't matter because I quickly came down with the second worst flu of my life.
The next day it was 93F (34C) without a cloud in the sky. Most players were out enjoying the sun trying to show off what they'd learned shredding alone in their basements the last year. I however was bundled under three sweaters shivering in the sun. I scratched out of all events and was only able to play for another hour or so that whole tournament. I saw history being made when Vasek beat Ryan in the finals. I saw the epic "silent night" shred, Honza's amazing sick 3 combos, and Alex Zerbe's surprising final 8 routine, but I saw it all from the sidelines.
Usually at tournaments it's the camaraderie and the energy that I enjoy as much as playing itself. I love standing in a circle seeing everyone challenge and hopefully surprise each other with their sickest combos. You prop each other up, push each other to crank out your best freestyle. Perhaps it's because I was already in a bad mood being sick, but there was an air around some of the top circles that I found stifling. One player in particular would yell at people for self serving a dropped kick before a run had even started and even louder if he thought you'd 'the'd or bailed. I'm not going to name names because I don't want to demonize anyone, but if you were there you probably know who I'm talking about. At any rate, it completely killed it for me. I couldn't play, and what was otherwise a very exciting world's was drowned out by a couple people way to caught up in their own rules.
I think I realized at the time it was my last shot for BAP and at that point it was still something I wanted. I had worked hard over the years to get my game to where it was, I had paid my dues traveling and bringing advanced freestyle to a lot of places and the recognition would have been appreciated. But at that point, more than the recognition I had just wanted to play well. My game was forcibly shut down by illness and even just hanging around a lot of the circles wasn't any fun thanks to a couple grating individuals. I felt like I didn't belong in a place where the "rules" had taken on more import than the game itself so I left. I didn't go to Footbag sites on-line and I didn't play very much. Back in Portland the Footbag scene took off around me. Ethan Husted moved in, then Noah and more recently Nick Landes took off. I was barely there.
Now that I've reconnected somewhat with the footbag scene a strange thing has happened. Whereas while I was living in Munich I was the new young player, now living in Berlin I'm the old man of Footbag. Every now and again I'll reconnect with someone I haven't seen in forever and they'll ask me if I was ever BAPtised. At some point I realized what a load off my mind it is that it never happened, that I have a certain amount of anonymity.
As I look back I realize that up to World's 2002 I was always chasing something. First it was the other kids in my class, then a consecutives record, then the move list and BAP. For a long time Ryan Mulroney was our target, then Ahren, Sunil and Lon and now Vasek. I saw a lot of guys push themselves to great heights chasing BAP and I've seen many more burn themselves out and fade away. Maybe I'm one of them. The strange thing is I'm not chasing anything anymore, I'm just playing. I'm still learning, and year on year I'm getting better, but the freestyle elite have long since passed me by and I like it this way. I can dip in and out as my time dictates and bore all of you with my old stories. I used to beat myself up with frustration if I couldn't master a new trick, now I focus on what I can do. I still have my own demons but they're measured by me and no one else now.
I think, if possible I love this sport now more than I ever have. For the last 14 years it's been one of the few constants in my life and I have nothing but good memories (even my flu at World's 2002 ended up being a good thing in the long run). For all of you out there chasing Vasek and whoever comes after him, everyone shreding only with a webcam in your basement somewhere or making that winning routine and hoping to impress BAP at Worlds this year in Prague, don't give up, you may not get there, but it's one hell of a trip.
Todexon 9 ... II
a few things I forgot to mention about Todexon 9. First of all if you've read my blog you know how I feel about nemesis. Even though I still haven't hit it I can only imagine that if I was trying it durring a competition and failed to hit it on my first attempt my next thought wouldn't be to imediately try it on the other side. But then I'm not Olaf. Crazy Poles.
I was staying in the hostel with the guys from FC Footstar. On Saturday night we wanted to stay for the party but someone had been told by the front desk that we couldn't get into the building after 2. I'm not sure exactly how he was told this since the no one at the front desk spoke German or English (the Germans were all very impressed I was able to make the reservation in the first place). Anyway shortly before 2 we made it back to the hostel with beer (and what ever crappy food we could find at 2 in the morning) in hand. We snacked chatted and drank in one of the rooms while Felix tried to hit his first double leg over until Oxana showed up with a twister board (sorry I mean "tveester").
I destroy normal people at twister, but normal people can't move their legs like ... well a footbag player. I still won more than I lost but I though my hip was going to dislocate. At one point while playing doubles twister we were stretched out pretzel-like across the board when a certain stoned friend of mine twirled the spinner and called out "red hand right." He thought this was so funny he spent the next 5 min shouting out jibberish and leaving us twisted up on the board listening to our joints serarate. If it hadn't meant losing I would have gone over and turned him into a human knot. We played till after 4 in the morning. I'd barely kicked Saturday but thanks to that damned game of twister my whole body was sore and I spent the next day listening to my joints pop.
I also turns out that someone was at the front desk all night. We know this now because A. the poles were able to get in much later than we did and B. because she came at least 3 times to tell us to quit making some much noise and go the hell to sleep. Live and learn I guess.
And now that I've played for the 3rd time in 4 months I'm about to spend the next month working 8-10 hours a day 7 days a week. I may get some kicking in, but the odds are low. Feel free to feel sorry for me. I also have a hang over today, but you really don't need to feel sorry for me for that. Thanks for reading, see you all again in a month or so.
-Andrew McCargar
Don't mess with the bunny Outsideworld.org
I was staying in the hostel with the guys from FC Footstar. On Saturday night we wanted to stay for the party but someone had been told by the front desk that we couldn't get into the building after 2. I'm not sure exactly how he was told this since the no one at the front desk spoke German or English (the Germans were all very impressed I was able to make the reservation in the first place). Anyway shortly before 2 we made it back to the hostel with beer (and what ever crappy food we could find at 2 in the morning) in hand. We snacked chatted and drank in one of the rooms while Felix tried to hit his first double leg over until Oxana showed up with a twister board (sorry I mean "tveester").
I destroy normal people at twister, but normal people can't move their legs like ... well a footbag player. I still won more than I lost but I though my hip was going to dislocate. At one point while playing doubles twister we were stretched out pretzel-like across the board when a certain stoned friend of mine twirled the spinner and called out "red hand right." He thought this was so funny he spent the next 5 min shouting out jibberish and leaving us twisted up on the board listening to our joints serarate. If it hadn't meant losing I would have gone over and turned him into a human knot. We played till after 4 in the morning. I'd barely kicked Saturday but thanks to that damned game of twister my whole body was sore and I spent the next day listening to my joints pop.
I also turns out that someone was at the front desk all night. We know this now because A. the poles were able to get in much later than we did and B. because she came at least 3 times to tell us to quit making some much noise and go the hell to sleep. Live and learn I guess.
And now that I've played for the 3rd time in 4 months I'm about to spend the next month working 8-10 hours a day 7 days a week. I may get some kicking in, but the odds are low. Feel free to feel sorry for me. I also have a hang over today, but you really don't need to feel sorry for me for that. Thanks for reading, see you all again in a month or so.
-Andrew McCargar
Don't mess with the bunny Outsideworld.org
That was a long one.
I remember back in either 2000 or 2001 watching one of those freestylefootbag.de videos and you hitting atomic whirl and just loving that run (I for some reason remember that it was to a really great song too?) and playing it back over and over in my grandma's basement, air-shredding my dream combo of ripwalk > ripwalk. In retrospect, I can see what you mean about having been the best player in Europe at that time.
EDIT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4HeIOjmf9Q
I remember back in either 2000 or 2001 watching one of those freestylefootbag.de videos and you hitting atomic whirl and just loving that run (I for some reason remember that it was to a really great song too?) and playing it back over and over in my grandma's basement, air-shredding my dream combo of ripwalk > ripwalk. In retrospect, I can see what you mean about having been the best player in Europe at that time.
EDIT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4HeIOjmf9Q
19 Hours to Euro's (Part I)
With world's comming up in the happiest place on earth, and hopefully everyone reading this planning on attending, I hope you're all getting excited about another great tournament, connecting with the people who share your obsession. A few of you have probably already packed you bags (of course realistically most of you are staying home and waiting for the first videos to show up online). I have my spiffy new HD camera with me, so assuming it's not stolen between now and then I'll have some show and tell later. Much later in fact, as I'm writting this with in view of lake Ohrid in Macedonia on my XO. Saturday the 19th I flew down to Athens to meet a friend and we're slowly making our way to Bulgaria where I hope to tear it up with the Bulgarian shreders in Varna before flying over to Prague.
This has become something of a tradition for me, I try to do something stupid, painful or at least memorable before each tournament so that more than a decade after my first tournament I can still keep them all straight. Nothing opitomises this principle better than Euro's 2006 in Lausanne, Switzerland.
19 hours to Euros, part I (this part of the story contains virtually nothing about Footbag)
Shortly before the tournament, showing my customary lack of long-term planning I had no money and no time and hadn't coordinated with anyone from FC Footstar in Berlin. Just a few short days before the start of the tournament I gave it one last chance, looking for last min flight or train deals, but the price of both was astronomical. I had maybe 200 euros total I could spend on the trip so long as I didn't plan on eating too much when I got back. My last hope was a Mitfahrgelegenheit.
If you've never used it, Mitfahrgelegenheit.de is simply the best way to get around western Europe. People going on long trips with a seat free will register and you can ride with them for a little gas money. The problem is the farther the trip the less likely you'll find a ride and Lausanne is a long ass way from Berlin. Still I thought if I coud at least get a ride to somewhere in Switzerland I could make it work,... nope. German/Swiss border,... nope. Last ditch - Cologne,... nope, everyone was full up. At that point I'd given up hope and was making other plans for the weekend when, the competition already started, I got a text message back from one of the drivers. Someone had canceled at the last min, which gave me about 2 hours to make up my mind, pack and get to the other side of town to catch a ride to Cologne wiht no idea of how I was going to get to Lausanne. Surprisingly the harder something is, the more likely I'll try it, so I texted back the driver, threw stuff in a bag and took off.
I met the driver around 2, as it turns out where I met him was a couple blocks from where my first job would be in Berlin, but at the time I couldn't find it and we left a little late. So off we headed in an over stuffed car on a long, hot smokey car ride. We got in to Cologne around 7 hours later, already getting dark. From there I had to get a full priced ticket to the Swiss border. I arrived at Freiburg, Germany close to midnight, with everything closed, no swiss Francs and still no idea how to get to Lausanne.
I took a train one stop to hop across the (now uncontrolled) border and not wanting to wait till morning for the next train I ended up taking city trains (S-Bahn) from city to city, changinng every few hours. By the time I pulled into Lausanne it was already light.
Some people seem to have this strange idea that because Switzerland has 4 official languages all Swiss are multilingual. Although this is generally true it wouldn't be that hard to assemble a group of 5 Swiss, no two of whom could talk with one another. Nowhere in my experience was this more true than in French speaking Lausanne. Trying to ask and understand directions with my 6 word French vocabulary was interesting, but I finally found the site at 9 am, just about when everyone else was stumbling up for breakfast.
In total I had traveled for 19 hours, in that time to keep myself awake I reread the Hobbit cover to cover. Ariving, bleary eyed and worn out I just had time to eat, take in the extraordinarily beautiful site and then get called up, without time to warm up for sick 3. But that can wait for part II.
Thanks for reading.
-Andrew McCargar[/b]
This has become something of a tradition for me, I try to do something stupid, painful or at least memorable before each tournament so that more than a decade after my first tournament I can still keep them all straight. Nothing opitomises this principle better than Euro's 2006 in Lausanne, Switzerland.
19 hours to Euros, part I (this part of the story contains virtually nothing about Footbag)
Shortly before the tournament, showing my customary lack of long-term planning I had no money and no time and hadn't coordinated with anyone from FC Footstar in Berlin. Just a few short days before the start of the tournament I gave it one last chance, looking for last min flight or train deals, but the price of both was astronomical. I had maybe 200 euros total I could spend on the trip so long as I didn't plan on eating too much when I got back. My last hope was a Mitfahrgelegenheit.
If you've never used it, Mitfahrgelegenheit.de is simply the best way to get around western Europe. People going on long trips with a seat free will register and you can ride with them for a little gas money. The problem is the farther the trip the less likely you'll find a ride and Lausanne is a long ass way from Berlin. Still I thought if I coud at least get a ride to somewhere in Switzerland I could make it work,... nope. German/Swiss border,... nope. Last ditch - Cologne,... nope, everyone was full up. At that point I'd given up hope and was making other plans for the weekend when, the competition already started, I got a text message back from one of the drivers. Someone had canceled at the last min, which gave me about 2 hours to make up my mind, pack and get to the other side of town to catch a ride to Cologne wiht no idea of how I was going to get to Lausanne. Surprisingly the harder something is, the more likely I'll try it, so I texted back the driver, threw stuff in a bag and took off.
I met the driver around 2, as it turns out where I met him was a couple blocks from where my first job would be in Berlin, but at the time I couldn't find it and we left a little late. So off we headed in an over stuffed car on a long, hot smokey car ride. We got in to Cologne around 7 hours later, already getting dark. From there I had to get a full priced ticket to the Swiss border. I arrived at Freiburg, Germany close to midnight, with everything closed, no swiss Francs and still no idea how to get to Lausanne.
I took a train one stop to hop across the (now uncontrolled) border and not wanting to wait till morning for the next train I ended up taking city trains (S-Bahn) from city to city, changinng every few hours. By the time I pulled into Lausanne it was already light.
Some people seem to have this strange idea that because Switzerland has 4 official languages all Swiss are multilingual. Although this is generally true it wouldn't be that hard to assemble a group of 5 Swiss, no two of whom could talk with one another. Nowhere in my experience was this more true than in French speaking Lausanne. Trying to ask and understand directions with my 6 word French vocabulary was interesting, but I finally found the site at 9 am, just about when everyone else was stumbling up for breakfast.
In total I had traveled for 19 hours, in that time to keep myself awake I reread the Hobbit cover to cover. Ariving, bleary eyed and worn out I just had time to eat, take in the extraordinarily beautiful site and then get called up, without time to warm up for sick 3. But that can wait for part II.
Thanks for reading.
-Andrew McCargar[/b]
Last edited by MrMeebles on 18 Aug 2008 16:33, edited 1 time in total.
19 hours to Euro's, part II
19 hours to euros, part II
I got to Euros 2006 in Lausanne, Switzerland after 19 hours, traveling by car, train and foot without sleep or food. My first thought when I arrived was awe, Lausanne is really one of the most beautiful cities I've ever been to. Everything is either built on the side of a mountain or the shore of the lake and even just coming out of the train station the view is amazing. I was also amazed that when I tried to ask directions everyone seemed to be monolingual French (this is a country with 4 official languages remember), but the site was supposed to be next to the famous Piramides something something (Usually I'd look that up, but I'm typing this on a laptop designed for children in the developing world while on a 22 hour bus ride from Bulgaria to Moldova), so I wasn't too worried. As I would later find out it's a 20 min walk from the train station to the site which still took me an hour and a half to find. That's nothing against Lausanne by the way, just chalk that up to general lack of brain function at that point.
As point of fact, by the time I made it to the tournament site you could largely sum up my mental state as "mostly functional." I got there just as the first people were stumbling up for breakfast. The organizers had thought of a great deal. Vegetarian meals were provided, as were accomidations (more on that later). The site itself was right on the side of the lake and one of the most beautiful I've ever seen. Of course there was also no shade or wind break, but you can't have everything.
I had something to eat, chatted with a few people and found out I had 5 min before sick 3 started. I thought briefly about scratching, but threw on my shorts and climbed up the pyramid to the stage without warming up. I hit blurry whirl > reverse osis > butterfly. Really I'm surprised I could hit toe stall at that point. As a side note, it turned out that was it for me, after that sick 3 I decided I had no more interest in competing. Much like the rest of my footbag career that decission passed by unnoticed and I wouldn't have had it any other way.
Back to the tournament itself though, there were a few other nice touches. There were, for example, paddle boats on the lake we could use for free. I went out one evening with Katrin from Berlin to catch the sunset. We joked about paddling across the lake to have dinner in Evian, France, but the boat owner probably wouldn't have been too happy about it.
Really the thing that sticks with me from the tournament though, is the bunker. Because Switzerland is very expensive, the organizers thought to provide accomodations for us, in a former fallout shelter (prowdly advertised as the first radiation free footbag tournament). This saved a great deal of money for us all, but there were a few problems with the arrangement. For example durring the day, aside from the aforementioned lack of shade or wind break, there was a sports center nearby where we could shower, but only until 7pm. I remember vividly that each day after shred Matza would simply take off his shoes and socks and jump in the lake. There was one shower in the shelter and I am not exagerating when I say the water was maybe 2 degrees above freezing, fed as it was, straight from a glacier. I'm told I'm one of 3 people who used that shower durring the tournament. So picture if you will around 150, sweaty, unshowered, slightly sunburned Footbagers sleeping, packed together on shelves (yes, shelves, no one had an individual bed) in a subteranien, unventilated bunker.
I just got back from Prague (more on that in a different post), where for the first time in my footbag career I stayed in a real hotel room that I reserved and payed for myself (as opposed to crashing on someone's floor). It was an interesting experience, but I'm not sure it's one I want to repete. The day may come when I travel first class and stay at nice hotels, but I hope not. I may have lost some sleep because of Lausanne, but I can safely say at the least that I'll never forget it. Nevertheless I hope everyone had a more peaceful trip to Prague than I and fewer adventures than I inflict upon myself.
Thanks for reading (As it turns out Iended up writing this story in 4 different countries).
-Andrew
I got to Euros 2006 in Lausanne, Switzerland after 19 hours, traveling by car, train and foot without sleep or food. My first thought when I arrived was awe, Lausanne is really one of the most beautiful cities I've ever been to. Everything is either built on the side of a mountain or the shore of the lake and even just coming out of the train station the view is amazing. I was also amazed that when I tried to ask directions everyone seemed to be monolingual French (this is a country with 4 official languages remember), but the site was supposed to be next to the famous Piramides something something (Usually I'd look that up, but I'm typing this on a laptop designed for children in the developing world while on a 22 hour bus ride from Bulgaria to Moldova), so I wasn't too worried. As I would later find out it's a 20 min walk from the train station to the site which still took me an hour and a half to find. That's nothing against Lausanne by the way, just chalk that up to general lack of brain function at that point.
As point of fact, by the time I made it to the tournament site you could largely sum up my mental state as "mostly functional." I got there just as the first people were stumbling up for breakfast. The organizers had thought of a great deal. Vegetarian meals were provided, as were accomidations (more on that later). The site itself was right on the side of the lake and one of the most beautiful I've ever seen. Of course there was also no shade or wind break, but you can't have everything.
I had something to eat, chatted with a few people and found out I had 5 min before sick 3 started. I thought briefly about scratching, but threw on my shorts and climbed up the pyramid to the stage without warming up. I hit blurry whirl > reverse osis > butterfly. Really I'm surprised I could hit toe stall at that point. As a side note, it turned out that was it for me, after that sick 3 I decided I had no more interest in competing. Much like the rest of my footbag career that decission passed by unnoticed and I wouldn't have had it any other way.
Back to the tournament itself though, there were a few other nice touches. There were, for example, paddle boats on the lake we could use for free. I went out one evening with Katrin from Berlin to catch the sunset. We joked about paddling across the lake to have dinner in Evian, France, but the boat owner probably wouldn't have been too happy about it.
Really the thing that sticks with me from the tournament though, is the bunker. Because Switzerland is very expensive, the organizers thought to provide accomodations for us, in a former fallout shelter (prowdly advertised as the first radiation free footbag tournament). This saved a great deal of money for us all, but there were a few problems with the arrangement. For example durring the day, aside from the aforementioned lack of shade or wind break, there was a sports center nearby where we could shower, but only until 7pm. I remember vividly that each day after shred Matza would simply take off his shoes and socks and jump in the lake. There was one shower in the shelter and I am not exagerating when I say the water was maybe 2 degrees above freezing, fed as it was, straight from a glacier. I'm told I'm one of 3 people who used that shower durring the tournament. So picture if you will around 150, sweaty, unshowered, slightly sunburned Footbagers sleeping, packed together on shelves (yes, shelves, no one had an individual bed) in a subteranien, unventilated bunker.
I just got back from Prague (more on that in a different post), where for the first time in my footbag career I stayed in a real hotel room that I reserved and payed for myself (as opposed to crashing on someone's floor). It was an interesting experience, but I'm not sure it's one I want to repete. The day may come when I travel first class and stay at nice hotels, but I hope not. I may have lost some sleep because of Lausanne, but I can safely say at the least that I'll never forget it. Nevertheless I hope everyone had a more peaceful trip to Prague than I and fewer adventures than I inflict upon myself.
Thanks for reading (As it turns out Iended up writing this story in 4 different countries).
-Andrew
World's sucked
World's Sucked
or "World's was not splendid"
World's basically sucked for me. This had nothing to do with the organization, location or other players. It had to do with things entirely outside of footbag and mostly out of my control, but still world's sucked for me.
It's strange how experiences can be so situational. You can watch the greatest movie ever (Brazil, in case you're curious), but if you're tired it still might seem boring. So everything about world's 2008 sucked for me because of the situation I was put in at the time. Nevertheless I'd like to share a couple of my experiences with you.
One thing that stuck with me was freestyle frisbee. The European Frisbee Championships took place simultaniously with the world footbag championships, although mainly in a different gym. I'd never really seen it before and I really wanted to like it.
First of all freestyle footbag really owes a debt to Frisbee. It was a summer that Kenny Shultz spent playing a lot of Frisbee that gave footbag many of it's first tricks (osis is a big trick in freestyle Frisbee). Second I feel a kindred spirit to our freestyle Frisbee playing brothers and sisters. They have to put up with the same kind of crap we do from the unwashed masses, "you mean there's a championships? What do they do see who can kick it the longest?"
So you see, I really wanted to like freestyle Frisbee, but I just couldn't. I appreciate that people like it and put a lot of time into getting good at it, but it may be the most contrived, silly looking dicipilne I've ever seen. Actually that's being generious, I'll quote Moglum here "I've finally found a sport gayer that Footbag," which is not entirely accurate beause gays are good at a variety of splendid sports that I do enjoy watching. Now I've seen freestyle Frisbee and I'll never make an effort to see it again.
Also Olaf was once again snubed for BAP. This did not speciffically contribute to World's sucking for me, but I did find it surprising. For what it's worth I would have voted for him (to find out why I couldn't see above).
On the bright side the strong rumor is that worlds 2009 will be in Berlin, which would be splendid. Should this be the case I will be doing what I can to make it a success by organizing nothing. I hope everyone had a splendid time in Prague (although reading Eric Chan's, Honza's and Ners' comments doesn't support that hope). Thanks for reading.
P.S. Ners, I'm really beginning to hate that word
or "World's was not splendid"
World's basically sucked for me. This had nothing to do with the organization, location or other players. It had to do with things entirely outside of footbag and mostly out of my control, but still world's sucked for me.
It's strange how experiences can be so situational. You can watch the greatest movie ever (Brazil, in case you're curious), but if you're tired it still might seem boring. So everything about world's 2008 sucked for me because of the situation I was put in at the time. Nevertheless I'd like to share a couple of my experiences with you.
One thing that stuck with me was freestyle frisbee. The European Frisbee Championships took place simultaniously with the world footbag championships, although mainly in a different gym. I'd never really seen it before and I really wanted to like it.
First of all freestyle footbag really owes a debt to Frisbee. It was a summer that Kenny Shultz spent playing a lot of Frisbee that gave footbag many of it's first tricks (osis is a big trick in freestyle Frisbee). Second I feel a kindred spirit to our freestyle Frisbee playing brothers and sisters. They have to put up with the same kind of crap we do from the unwashed masses, "you mean there's a championships? What do they do see who can kick it the longest?"
So you see, I really wanted to like freestyle Frisbee, but I just couldn't. I appreciate that people like it and put a lot of time into getting good at it, but it may be the most contrived, silly looking dicipilne I've ever seen. Actually that's being generious, I'll quote Moglum here "I've finally found a sport gayer that Footbag," which is not entirely accurate beause gays are good at a variety of splendid sports that I do enjoy watching. Now I've seen freestyle Frisbee and I'll never make an effort to see it again.
Also Olaf was once again snubed for BAP. This did not speciffically contribute to World's sucking for me, but I did find it surprising. For what it's worth I would have voted for him (to find out why I couldn't see above).
On the bright side the strong rumor is that worlds 2009 will be in Berlin, which would be splendid. Should this be the case I will be doing what I can to make it a success by organizing nothing. I hope everyone had a splendid time in Prague (although reading Eric Chan's, Honza's and Ners' comments doesn't support that hope). Thanks for reading.
P.S. Ners, I'm really beginning to hate that word
The tragedy that was world's 2008
As Erik Chan said in a post far far away
What I saw was that the field on the first day was fine so long as the weather held, the gym for the final could have been better, but I didn't play in it so I cann't comment on the surface and the final party was nice with a great place for shreding, even though I didn't get to enjoy it much.
So the tragedy for me again has nothing to do with footbag. The tragedy for me is that quite a few people saw Prague for the first time, the setting of so many of my fondest memories over the years and will forever associate it with misery, and that makes me sad.
Perhaps for no other reason than to cheer myself up, in the next few days I plan to write about a couple of my fonder Prague memories.
-Andrew McCargar
Don't mess with the bunny outsideworld.org
P.S. Erik, it's a shame we didn't see more of you in Berlin.
As I already wrote, I wasn't at world's for the whole week and didn't compete. Although it sucked for me, it sucked for reasons entirely outside of footbag. I've heard some terrible stories from world's, many of which have already been written elsewhere, and some for the sake of tact (since when do I have any of that?) shouldn't be written in an open forum. But that's all any of it is for me, stories, because I didn't experience any of it myself.a terrible event with little to no footbag, friends getting beat up, a terrible hostel with no hot water (or toilet paper), and nobody speaking English. To me, it definitely wasn't Andrew McCarger's "Happiest Place On Earth".
What I saw was that the field on the first day was fine so long as the weather held, the gym for the final could have been better, but I didn't play in it so I cann't comment on the surface and the final party was nice with a great place for shreding, even though I didn't get to enjoy it much.
So the tragedy for me again has nothing to do with footbag. The tragedy for me is that quite a few people saw Prague for the first time, the setting of so many of my fondest memories over the years and will forever associate it with misery, and that makes me sad.
Perhaps for no other reason than to cheer myself up, in the next few days I plan to write about a couple of my fonder Prague memories.
-Andrew McCargar
Don't mess with the bunny outsideworld.org
P.S. Erik, it's a shame we didn't see more of you in Berlin.
Hey Andrew, I enjoyed meeting you again and having some chat. It was splendid. Somehow I cannot access your site, as I get an error that it might spread malicious software. It probably has something to do with the attacks you were telling me about. Anyway I hope everything will slowly sort out for you, and I guess see you next time! 
EDIT: I checked and it WAS Dave Matthews
EDIT: I checked and it WAS Dave Matthews
For some reason I find that very, very disturbing. Ever hear the story about how the Dave Matthews Band dumped a load of shit on some poor tourists?Ners wrote:I checked and it WAS Dave Matthews
Can you still not see it? Since you pestered me about it I've posted two, yes two, different comics (neither in the slightest related to footbag). If I'm feeling highly motivated I may even draw a funny one.Ners wrote:Somehow I cannot access your site, as I get an error that it might spread malicious software.
I also found it splendid to hang out with team Poland again (even if I did lose the world's first shred-drinking contest). I'll do my best to drop by Wrocław this year.
Also, let me publicly state that I am commiting to getting into shape and playing footbag at least 3 times a week for a year with the goal of competing at world's 2009 in Berlin and making it to the final. I will then most likely give up playing freestyle for good. We'll see.
-Andrew McCargar
Don't mess with the bunny outsideworld
Leaked pictures of the new quantums
Remember you saw it here first, the super secret Quantum v4.
I heard they moved manufacturing from China to Japan...
-Andrew McCargar (sorry, just couldn't resist)
I heard they moved manufacturing from China to Japan...
-Andrew McCargar (sorry, just couldn't resist)
I cannot beleive the lack of response to these stories. You sir, have me very jealous of your trials and tribulations in the world of Footbag, even if some of it was not the best times. (sick for worlds...ouch)
Anyway, I just wanted to say I really love this blog, and I hope I get a chance to meet you some day.
Anyway, I just wanted to say I really love this blog, and I hope I get a chance to meet you some day.
Of lessons learned: A tale of Zocha Jam, gremlins and Vasek
Part I
I'm occasionally an educator by profession and have invested a great deal of time into the theory of education. Good methods to learn include observing other's good examples, by a probing inquisitive nature or being presented with carefully crafted, engaging lessons. While that may be an ideal, personally my life's lessons learned tend more towards the genre of learning not to touch the hot stove by actually touching the hot stove and burning my fingers. With that said I learned a lot in Poland.
You see as part of the club (FC Footstar) which is hosting the next world footbag championships I volunteered to oversee the technical side of the event. By and large my role is not to break any new ground, rather just to see what's available and that the right people have what they need to do their jobs. However after being a judge for many years and seeing hundreds if not thousands of poorly organized, illegible, hand written judging sheets I decided something had to be done. So I've been developing a computer based judging system. In brief, there is a minimal server which runs on one computer, then each judge just need a laptop with a web browser. It's designed to be simple, easy to maintain, robust and work with a variety of hardware. ( find out more here ).
I wanted to test it out well before world's and Ners was kind enough to let me give it a try at Zocha Jam. More than a week before I left we did a beta test in Berlin using Linux, Windows and Mac laptops and even an iPhone. There was an initial problem trying to run the server on a 10 year old laptop but then we tried it on a modern Macbook and everything went perfectly. Everyone was impressed and very supportive of what I was doing. At that point I was really looking forward to Zocha, and not just because of the software test.
Lesson #1: when testing anything focus on what went wrong rather than what went right
What follows is as close as I can approximate to a chronological retelling of how everything went wrong.
The first (actually second) thing that went wrong happened before I even left. Somehow, even though I'd been to Wroclaw before I got it in my head that the website said Warsaw and bought the wrong ticket. Fortunately I figured that out the next day and was able to change my ticket. Even after paying around 5 euros of "idiot tax" I ended up getting money back. (Ironically after this trip I now have a standing invitation to visit Warsaw).
As it turns out the first thing that went wrong was that all of the organizers, save Ners, bailed. Ners, valiant soul that he is, did everything. He designed the logo, laid out the fliers, had them printed, organized the location, sound system, DJ, player accomodations, everything. So thanks Ners. What this meant to me was that although I arrived on Friday, the day before the tournament, so that we could set up early and make sure everything worked on their hardware, the hardware wasn't there and we had no time anyway.
That night I stayed at the accomodation with the Czechs. We ordered pizza (which never came) then gave up and wandered to the center for a kebab. I then chose my sleeping spot poorly and spent the whole night trying to slow the formation of ice crystals in my feet. The next morning Ners picked me up and instead of heading directly to the gym we made a detour to his house. It turns out the person who was going to bring a wireless router didn't actually know what a router was, "fortunately" Ners had a spare buried somewhere in his house. Hereafter I will refer to this router as "the bain of my existence."
The tournament was supposed to start at 11, at 10:40 we finally had all the computers there.
Lesson #2: Never wait to the morning of the tournament to set something up for the first time
Only one laptop could connect, two of the computers couldn't find a wireless signal at all. We found cables. We fought with "the bain of my existence" for half and hour, reset the beast and fought some more. Finally after and hour we got everyone to connect, fired up the server and ... and ... and a lot of waiting, it took over a min. to load the start page. I fought with the router settings for another 20 min. and finally had to concede defeat. The Polish router gremlins had beat me.
Lesson #3: Limit your variables
Lesson #3a: I should have brought my own fucking router
As it turns out the failure of my judging system had minimal impact on the actual tournament. This is because A. they couldn't get the projector which was going show the live scores working and B. the DJ was sick and the replacement turned out to be an incompetent asshole. An hour after I admitted defeat they were still trying to get the sound system working. And then things started to go wrong.
Every so often the sound system would just cut out with a horrendous blast of sound like a nuclear bomb (Around 1 pm I put in earplugs). At least two players had to stop their routines mid way and restart. Even when it worked the sound quality was crap.
There was no food or water on site save what you could buy from the bar.
Ners had an oral contract with the site, but had spoken with the wrong person so that he had to pay more, we got kicked out early Saturday and only had 4 hours Sunday.
Because the sound system was crap no one heard the announcement and when we showed up Sunday the lobby was packed full of players (including one judge who showed up almost an hour late, but due to aforementioned confusion ended up being early).
And finally the company from which the medals had been ordered lost the order.
Lesson #4: Trying is the first step towards failure.
So much for part one, in part two I'll talk about the actual footbag.
-Andrew
P.S. Slowsis, thanks for the kind words.
I'm occasionally an educator by profession and have invested a great deal of time into the theory of education. Good methods to learn include observing other's good examples, by a probing inquisitive nature or being presented with carefully crafted, engaging lessons. While that may be an ideal, personally my life's lessons learned tend more towards the genre of learning not to touch the hot stove by actually touching the hot stove and burning my fingers. With that said I learned a lot in Poland.
You see as part of the club (FC Footstar) which is hosting the next world footbag championships I volunteered to oversee the technical side of the event. By and large my role is not to break any new ground, rather just to see what's available and that the right people have what they need to do their jobs. However after being a judge for many years and seeing hundreds if not thousands of poorly organized, illegible, hand written judging sheets I decided something had to be done. So I've been developing a computer based judging system. In brief, there is a minimal server which runs on one computer, then each judge just need a laptop with a web browser. It's designed to be simple, easy to maintain, robust and work with a variety of hardware. ( find out more here ).
I wanted to test it out well before world's and Ners was kind enough to let me give it a try at Zocha Jam. More than a week before I left we did a beta test in Berlin using Linux, Windows and Mac laptops and even an iPhone. There was an initial problem trying to run the server on a 10 year old laptop but then we tried it on a modern Macbook and everything went perfectly. Everyone was impressed and very supportive of what I was doing. At that point I was really looking forward to Zocha, and not just because of the software test.
Lesson #1: when testing anything focus on what went wrong rather than what went right
What follows is as close as I can approximate to a chronological retelling of how everything went wrong.
The first (actually second) thing that went wrong happened before I even left. Somehow, even though I'd been to Wroclaw before I got it in my head that the website said Warsaw and bought the wrong ticket. Fortunately I figured that out the next day and was able to change my ticket. Even after paying around 5 euros of "idiot tax" I ended up getting money back. (Ironically after this trip I now have a standing invitation to visit Warsaw).
As it turns out the first thing that went wrong was that all of the organizers, save Ners, bailed. Ners, valiant soul that he is, did everything. He designed the logo, laid out the fliers, had them printed, organized the location, sound system, DJ, player accomodations, everything. So thanks Ners. What this meant to me was that although I arrived on Friday, the day before the tournament, so that we could set up early and make sure everything worked on their hardware, the hardware wasn't there and we had no time anyway.
That night I stayed at the accomodation with the Czechs. We ordered pizza (which never came) then gave up and wandered to the center for a kebab. I then chose my sleeping spot poorly and spent the whole night trying to slow the formation of ice crystals in my feet. The next morning Ners picked me up and instead of heading directly to the gym we made a detour to his house. It turns out the person who was going to bring a wireless router didn't actually know what a router was, "fortunately" Ners had a spare buried somewhere in his house. Hereafter I will refer to this router as "the bain of my existence."
The tournament was supposed to start at 11, at 10:40 we finally had all the computers there.
Lesson #2: Never wait to the morning of the tournament to set something up for the first time
Only one laptop could connect, two of the computers couldn't find a wireless signal at all. We found cables. We fought with "the bain of my existence" for half and hour, reset the beast and fought some more. Finally after and hour we got everyone to connect, fired up the server and ... and ... and a lot of waiting, it took over a min. to load the start page. I fought with the router settings for another 20 min. and finally had to concede defeat. The Polish router gremlins had beat me.
Lesson #3: Limit your variables
Lesson #3a: I should have brought my own fucking router
As it turns out the failure of my judging system had minimal impact on the actual tournament. This is because A. they couldn't get the projector which was going show the live scores working and B. the DJ was sick and the replacement turned out to be an incompetent asshole. An hour after I admitted defeat they were still trying to get the sound system working. And then things started to go wrong.
Every so often the sound system would just cut out with a horrendous blast of sound like a nuclear bomb (Around 1 pm I put in earplugs). At least two players had to stop their routines mid way and restart. Even when it worked the sound quality was crap.
There was no food or water on site save what you could buy from the bar.
Ners had an oral contract with the site, but had spoken with the wrong person so that he had to pay more, we got kicked out early Saturday and only had 4 hours Sunday.
Because the sound system was crap no one heard the announcement and when we showed up Sunday the lobby was packed full of players (including one judge who showed up almost an hour late, but due to aforementioned confusion ended up being early).
And finally the company from which the medals had been ordered lost the order.
Lesson #4: Trying is the first step towards failure.
So much for part one, in part two I'll talk about the actual footbag.
-Andrew
P.S. Slowsis, thanks for the kind words.
Of lessons learned: A tale of Zocha Jam, gremlins and Vasek
Part II
Epic.
Despite a few organizational hiccups the footbag was very good indeed. Dexter kicked ass at net, Olaf returned from the dead and Ales made his triumphant (if not terribly successful) return to routines. Speaking of routines Damian had one of the best I've ever seen. Unfortunately he didn't perform it very well and tied for 5th. And Vasek of course is Vasek and took first with a bad ass routine played to a mix of a couple seconds of every song ever.
All of that was nice, but nothing compared to most rippin run. Usually the time for a bathroom break or to go get a banana, this one was truly epic. Leading up to the final Vasek had 3 consecutive 40+ move battles, the first was probably the longest ever in the history of the event. He met Damian Gielnicki and with Polish pride on the line they played for well over 80 contacts, with most estimates at over two minutes. I say estimates because although several people were there with cameras, no one seems to have recorded it (I'm also guilty of this, but who knew?). After Damian dropped Vasek finished with 7 consecutive fearless. The next round, again another epic battle. I don't know if it was a conscious effort on his part, but Vasek quite literally played circles around his opponent, playing around the perimeter of the playing field. By the final battle, instead of showing signs of tiring out he started throwing in superflies and other nasty tricks. He may have lost his world title but Vasek is still the best.
Circle was by comparison somewhat tamer, but also enlightening. Because I was there we can call Zocha an international event, but basically there were about 10 Czechs and a bunch of Poles. With only 2 countries represented, the quality and depth of the players there was staggering. It also sucked for me.
Not having any kind of seed I had to play a qualification round, which I assumed had a variety round and a difficulty round, when actually there was only one round. So I did a bunch of weird but low add moves and ended up last in my pool. Wiktor swears the format was posted on the website. I never saw it, but then I also thought I was going to Warsaw. Anyway, it was disappointing. [Wiktor, thank you for organizing circle]
I also competed in request contest for the first time, went out on a stupidly easy combo (stepping same legover -> same drifter), followed along on the sidelines for another 2 or 3 combos and then filmed the rest. I think it should never be an official event at world's, but it's still a lot of fun.
And of course I talked with Olaf. He didn't compete in anything and hasn't been playing a lot lately. When I asked him why he explained that he'd been doing a lot of dance, body building, concentrating on his studies and basically broadening his interests. He also quoted my story "the quest for BAP," in the process. I'd hate to think I'm partly responsible for someone finding balance in their life, but I may be guilty of it. My apologies to the footbag community.
I shot over an hour of HD footage and I'll try to get something up in a week or so as my time allows. Thanks for reading,
-Andrew
Epic.
Despite a few organizational hiccups the footbag was very good indeed. Dexter kicked ass at net, Olaf returned from the dead and Ales made his triumphant (if not terribly successful) return to routines. Speaking of routines Damian had one of the best I've ever seen. Unfortunately he didn't perform it very well and tied for 5th. And Vasek of course is Vasek and took first with a bad ass routine played to a mix of a couple seconds of every song ever.
All of that was nice, but nothing compared to most rippin run. Usually the time for a bathroom break or to go get a banana, this one was truly epic. Leading up to the final Vasek had 3 consecutive 40+ move battles, the first was probably the longest ever in the history of the event. He met Damian Gielnicki and with Polish pride on the line they played for well over 80 contacts, with most estimates at over two minutes. I say estimates because although several people were there with cameras, no one seems to have recorded it (I'm also guilty of this, but who knew?). After Damian dropped Vasek finished with 7 consecutive fearless. The next round, again another epic battle. I don't know if it was a conscious effort on his part, but Vasek quite literally played circles around his opponent, playing around the perimeter of the playing field. By the final battle, instead of showing signs of tiring out he started throwing in superflies and other nasty tricks. He may have lost his world title but Vasek is still the best.
Circle was by comparison somewhat tamer, but also enlightening. Because I was there we can call Zocha an international event, but basically there were about 10 Czechs and a bunch of Poles. With only 2 countries represented, the quality and depth of the players there was staggering. It also sucked for me.
Not having any kind of seed I had to play a qualification round, which I assumed had a variety round and a difficulty round, when actually there was only one round. So I did a bunch of weird but low add moves and ended up last in my pool. Wiktor swears the format was posted on the website. I never saw it, but then I also thought I was going to Warsaw. Anyway, it was disappointing. [Wiktor, thank you for organizing circle]
I also competed in request contest for the first time, went out on a stupidly easy combo (stepping same legover -> same drifter), followed along on the sidelines for another 2 or 3 combos and then filmed the rest. I think it should never be an official event at world's, but it's still a lot of fun.
And of course I talked with Olaf. He didn't compete in anything and hasn't been playing a lot lately. When I asked him why he explained that he'd been doing a lot of dance, body building, concentrating on his studies and basically broadening his interests. He also quoted my story "the quest for BAP," in the process. I'd hate to think I'm partly responsible for someone finding balance in their life, but I may be guilty of it. My apologies to the footbag community.
I shot over an hour of HD footage and I'll try to get something up in a week or so as my time allows. Thanks for reading,
-Andrew
Why a 6 dexterity move will be hit
I have commented on the thread titled in how many years will a 6 dex move will be hit??. If you haven't already, please do yourself a favor and don't read it. I personally feel that a 6 dexterity trick is inevitable. I also feel that 6 is the physical limit of what we can do. What I have tried to do here is lay out my argument.
Let's start with a little history. Way back in the early 90's Rippin' Rick Reece acquired a new, supper spiffy, state of the art video camera, which was slightly smaller than a new car and weighed about the same (these were the days when video cameras used full sized VHS cassettes). He used it, of course, to record himself shredding, as it turns out just in time to capture a brand new move, which Kenny swore was not clean. Through slow-mo replay they were able to confirm the cleanliness of what we now know as blurriest.
This camera could also play in reverse (a function most VCRs lacked back then) and it was while messing around with this feature that they realized that the reverse of some moves seemed very possible. The reverse of blur, in particular, seemed very interesting and later that night Dimitri Kavouras hit the very first leg beater. Thus atomic was born, even if it would be almost a decade before it really caught on.
You see at their hearts most sets are the reverse of downtime moves that are already well known, and historically those sets have lagged behind their down time counter parts by several years and in some cases decades. So why the big lag?
In the beginning someone just had to come up with the idea. When I started playing there were only really two sets in wide use: pixi and stepping. I can't speak to the history of pixi but stepping itself was an evolution. If you've ever seen "Tricks of the Trade" you may have noticed that the blur Kenny does is actually mid time. But players did figure it out and in retrospect it seems obvious. If you'll remember your Newton you'll realize that however fast the ball comes down at the end it had to come up exactly as fast at the start and if there's time for a downtime dexterity then logically there must be time for an uptime dexterity.*
Although there is enough time for the dexterity the second difficulty with sets is acceleration. To illustrate this lets compare a butterfly to a stepping set. For the butterfly you set the bag, slowly raise your body and your dexing leg and then turn your hip and let your leg fall over the bag, landing with it. For stepping your leg travels over the bag at the exact same speed, however, instead of slowly building up to the dexterity and falling into it, you need all that speed right at the beginning and against gravity. If you don't believe me about the speed watch a video of someone doing ripwalk. If they're doing it correctly it will look almost exactly the same forwards and backwards. Fortunately the dexterity is relatively slow so high sets are not a problem.
If we compare barfly and furry set, the principle is the same, however because the complexity is increased that initial burst of speed at the beginning of furry set becomes more extreme. Remember for barfly you're using your whole leg like a whip and concentrating that speed into the dexterities at the end of the trick. For furry you need all that speed right at the beginning and again against gravity. There's also one more problem. For the down time barfly you can raise your body up before the trick and fall with the bag as you do the dexterities. For the up time furry set you have no such luxury. If you raise your body up with the dexterity you have to wait for gravity to bring you back down again, wasting time between trick elements. So all the dexterities have to be completed with all the speed up front and your center of gravity more or less stationary.
Difficult, but once people figured out the timing furry set too has become common and if the set isn't too high then it's again pretty much a straight rewind. Watch a video of a clean nemesis forward and backwards and it's pretty much a mirror. And indeed since there's time for 2 dexterities on the way up and 2 on the way down it was inevitable that a 4 dex move would be hit and it's become a very long list
If we look to a 3 dexterity set it becomes somewhat more complicated, there just aren't a lot of 3 dex down time moves: flurry, double over down swirl, mofly... there are more but it's not a long list. However, they do exist and once again, if there's time to do 3 dexterities on the way down, there's time for 3 on the way up.
It this case though it's hard for me to see the exact way forward, because although the time is the same, the way you do the dexterities is not. Because you need all that speed right at the beginning there are just certain leg positions that work and some that won't. Double over down swirl is a pretty common downtime move (often midtime), but it's hard to picture how you'd gererate the momentum for swirling furry. I won't even speculate on other particular sets for reasons I'll expand on in my next post, however I will say that several seem quite feasible and some have obviously even been hit already.
So, my argument comes down to this: if there's time for three dexterities downtime, there must be time for 3 dexterities uptime. Historically sets have lagged behind downtime components because the timing is harder and I think that's the case now, we just have to wait for someone to figure it out. If you put the two elements together sooner or later someone will hit a 6 dexterity move. Thanks for reading.
*As someone who has studied physics I realize this is a gross over simplification, but it's close enough to practical reality.
Let's start with a little history. Way back in the early 90's Rippin' Rick Reece acquired a new, supper spiffy, state of the art video camera, which was slightly smaller than a new car and weighed about the same (these were the days when video cameras used full sized VHS cassettes). He used it, of course, to record himself shredding, as it turns out just in time to capture a brand new move, which Kenny swore was not clean. Through slow-mo replay they were able to confirm the cleanliness of what we now know as blurriest.
This camera could also play in reverse (a function most VCRs lacked back then) and it was while messing around with this feature that they realized that the reverse of some moves seemed very possible. The reverse of blur, in particular, seemed very interesting and later that night Dimitri Kavouras hit the very first leg beater. Thus atomic was born, even if it would be almost a decade before it really caught on.
You see at their hearts most sets are the reverse of downtime moves that are already well known, and historically those sets have lagged behind their down time counter parts by several years and in some cases decades. So why the big lag?
In the beginning someone just had to come up with the idea. When I started playing there were only really two sets in wide use: pixi and stepping. I can't speak to the history of pixi but stepping itself was an evolution. If you've ever seen "Tricks of the Trade" you may have noticed that the blur Kenny does is actually mid time. But players did figure it out and in retrospect it seems obvious. If you'll remember your Newton you'll realize that however fast the ball comes down at the end it had to come up exactly as fast at the start and if there's time for a downtime dexterity then logically there must be time for an uptime dexterity.*
Although there is enough time for the dexterity the second difficulty with sets is acceleration. To illustrate this lets compare a butterfly to a stepping set. For the butterfly you set the bag, slowly raise your body and your dexing leg and then turn your hip and let your leg fall over the bag, landing with it. For stepping your leg travels over the bag at the exact same speed, however, instead of slowly building up to the dexterity and falling into it, you need all that speed right at the beginning and against gravity. If you don't believe me about the speed watch a video of someone doing ripwalk. If they're doing it correctly it will look almost exactly the same forwards and backwards. Fortunately the dexterity is relatively slow so high sets are not a problem.
If we compare barfly and furry set, the principle is the same, however because the complexity is increased that initial burst of speed at the beginning of furry set becomes more extreme. Remember for barfly you're using your whole leg like a whip and concentrating that speed into the dexterities at the end of the trick. For furry you need all that speed right at the beginning and again against gravity. There's also one more problem. For the down time barfly you can raise your body up before the trick and fall with the bag as you do the dexterities. For the up time furry set you have no such luxury. If you raise your body up with the dexterity you have to wait for gravity to bring you back down again, wasting time between trick elements. So all the dexterities have to be completed with all the speed up front and your center of gravity more or less stationary.
Difficult, but once people figured out the timing furry set too has become common and if the set isn't too high then it's again pretty much a straight rewind. Watch a video of a clean nemesis forward and backwards and it's pretty much a mirror. And indeed since there's time for 2 dexterities on the way up and 2 on the way down it was inevitable that a 4 dex move would be hit and it's become a very long list
If we look to a 3 dexterity set it becomes somewhat more complicated, there just aren't a lot of 3 dex down time moves: flurry, double over down swirl, mofly... there are more but it's not a long list. However, they do exist and once again, if there's time to do 3 dexterities on the way down, there's time for 3 on the way up.
It this case though it's hard for me to see the exact way forward, because although the time is the same, the way you do the dexterities is not. Because you need all that speed right at the beginning there are just certain leg positions that work and some that won't. Double over down swirl is a pretty common downtime move (often midtime), but it's hard to picture how you'd gererate the momentum for swirling furry. I won't even speculate on other particular sets for reasons I'll expand on in my next post, however I will say that several seem quite feasible and some have obviously even been hit already.
So, my argument comes down to this: if there's time for three dexterities downtime, there must be time for 3 dexterities uptime. Historically sets have lagged behind downtime components because the timing is harder and I think that's the case now, we just have to wait for someone to figure it out. If you put the two elements together sooner or later someone will hit a 6 dexterity move. Thanks for reading.
*As someone who has studied physics I realize this is a gross over simplification, but it's close enough to practical reality.
Re: Why a 6 dexterity move will be hit
Thank you for taking the time to articulate all that.
My biggest point of contention is that while I think 3 uptime dexes are possible, and I also think 3 downtime dexes are possible, I don't think anybody can do either efficiently enough to combine the two. You hinted at this with your discussion of nemesis, but I think the problem gets even worse when you add one extra dex to either side (set or downtime), much less one to each.
One final point: another reason I don't think its valuable to discuss 6 dex tricks, is the fact that nobody has ever hit a 5 dex trick on video, much less cleanly. While I don't know what the world record is for running a mile, this is akin to discussing the viability of man running a 2 minute mile, when nobody has ever run a 3 minute mile, and few have ever run a 4 minute mile.
My biggest point of contention is that while I think 3 uptime dexes are possible, and I also think 3 downtime dexes are possible, I don't think anybody can do either efficiently enough to combine the two. You hinted at this with your discussion of nemesis, but I think the problem gets even worse when you add one extra dex to either side (set or downtime), much less one to each.
I've seen a 3 dex uptime set, so I know it's possible. As for clean downtime triple dexes, I've never seen one that was fully downtime or fully clean, but for argument's sake I'll allow that it's possible. But again, just because they both are independently possible does not mean that they can be linked together, much less cleanly.MrMeebles wrote:So, my argument comes down to this: if there's time for three dexterities downtime, there must be time for 3 dexterities uptime. .
One final point: another reason I don't think its valuable to discuss 6 dex tricks, is the fact that nobody has ever hit a 5 dex trick on video, much less cleanly. While I don't know what the world record is for running a mile, this is akin to discussing the viability of man running a 2 minute mile, when nobody has ever run a 3 minute mile, and few have ever run a 4 minute mile.
