Butler

[Tripp]

Been getting in as many sessions as I can lately. I've started keeping track of how often I play. Was able to get in 15 sessions in the month of November. Aiming for more than that in December.

[boyle]

Do you think it's good to keep a timed goal as well? Or have a limit on how long a "session" needs to be before it counts as a session. Sounds great that you are kicking a lot.

[Tripp]

Almost all of my sessions are at least 1h15m, sometimes up to 2 hours. However, I don't normally aim for a time limit. Instead, I normally have a set number of tricks/links/combos that I want to do. It probably normally takes me an hour to get everything that I want to, and in between all of that, I'll shred to work on string length.

[Tjuggles]

Do you think it's good to keep a timed goal as well? Or have a limit on how long a "session" needs to be before it counts as a session.

For me the minimum is 30 minutes, or until I break a sweat (which is usually about 30 minutes). I think having a minimum time is good, at least psychologically, so that I feel like I had a kick (instead of just trying a couple of tricks and stopping).

[Tripp]

So, I know the footbag world hasn't really heard from me for the majority of 2023.

Around October 2022, I was getting close to a 5 dex trick. Apparently I tried it too many times in a single session. Really hurt my hip. I took a few days off until it calmed down a little bit and then I started playing again. It still hurt, but not as badly so I figured I'd just play through the pain until it goes away like it usually does.

Well, by mid January 2023, it wasn't getting any better. It actually was probably worsening. I decided to take a few weeks off. It still wasn't feeling any better. I went to the doctor. He took x-rays, but didn't really see anything. I went to physical therapy for about 6 weeks. It seemed to help a little, but the pain was still lingering.

Even though I wasn't back to normal, I decided to start back into footbag around mid April because I wanted to get some training in for the USO that was coming up at the beginning of June.

The USO came and went and I was still hurting. I decided to just rest it until it feels better. Well, I haven't played ANY footbag since the USO and here we are in December 2023 and I'm STILL not 100%. I finally accepted that it wasn't going to heal on its own, so I decided to go see a couple of hip specialists.

After an MRI and a couple more x-rays, I've been diagnosed with a "cam" hip (a deformity on my hip joint - a "bump" that I've developed). It causes a hip impingement, resulting in me tearing my hip labral. I'm not in extreme pain or anything, but footbag is currently out of the question because the large leg motions irritate it tremendously. I could live with it, but I wish to continue my footbag journey. Therefore, I have a surgery scheduled for Jan 22, 2024 to have my hip labral stitched up and the bump on my bone shaved down.

Expected recovery time is a pretty extensive. Crutches for 3 weeks. Mostly back to normal after 3 months, with a full recovery typically between 6-12 months.

***LONG STORY SHORT*** - I've been injured for over a year. I have a surgery coming up and I'm going to be unable to play footbag for the foreseeable future. Ugh.

[boyle]

That sucks to hear. Hope the surgery is a success. What was the five dex you were going for? Have you hit any before?

Since you're out of the kicking game, have you been to any shows lately?

[Tripp]

The best show I've been to recently... I traveled 4 hours to see:
- Carnifex
- Signs Of the Swarm
- To The Grave (from Australia)
- The Last Ten Seconds Of Life (they're from Pennsylvania, so I've always been familiar with them but they've really been growing on me lately)
- The Convalescence

On February 1st, I plan on going to Fear Factory & Machine Head. I'll be on crutches, so we'll see how it goes lol.

[boyle]

The Machine Head and Fear Factory tour is coming to Australia maybe a month later, I'll be going to that.

[Tripp]

FYI - The 5 dex trick was Sailing SS downtime Miraging Motion.

The uptime Atomic set I think is what killed my hip.

[Tripp]

Well, it seems that the surgery went well. Now onto recovery & physical therapy for the next few months and we'll see how it goes.

[boyle]

Good luck for all, must be a bit of a bummer to sit out. Are you considering Worlds in Montreal? Not that far for you I imagine but don't know how your health will be.

[Tripp]

It's now 10 months post-surgery. I'm still not 100%. However, I believe there is some light at the end of the tunnel. DATW's still hurt but nowhere near what they used to - a few months ago or even before surgery. I'm now doing a lot of things I couldn't before including Furious sets both sides. I'm still hesitant, though, on doing some things like Pdx Drifter, Pdx Torque and Barflies. I'm sure it'll all come in time.

[Tjuggles]

Great to hear an update. I think it's funny that DATWs hurt, yet you are able to hit furious sets. Are you stretching at all?