Nick "Houdini" Polini

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Hi? I suppose it's time to update my blog because my last post was 5 months ago. Wow. Sorry Modified. After my last video of the Hellraiser and Op Revup x3, I stopped playing for about 4 months.

I'm sure some of you know that my game has been hindered for a while by a bum knee. So, I basically hit Hellraiser in that last video as a final farewell to footbag, just in case I had to quit for good. As scary as that thought was, it finally felt realistic, where my knee got so bad that I simply couldn't physically deal with footbag anymore. My knee killed so bad after that last session and I had finally had it with the worrying about "what if"...

Shortly after, I saw an orthopedic specialist. He gave me the news.. I have a maltracking patella and would have to go through some physical therapy and My knee situation would be able to be footbagging within 4 weeks. That was great news to me. Basically, I had been playing on a misaligned knee cap for almost 2 years! I hit 10 Fearless on a misalinged knee cap, though, which is fucking stupid but also pretty rad haha.

Fast forward through all of the PT.. It took longer than 4 weeks, but I was desperate to get back to footbag. I didn't want to end it on Hellraiser and just say bye. It took more like 3 months of PT until I was finally able to play footbag again. I started out really slow, but after my long break, I've returned with a new outlook to footbag, new trick selection, and surprisingly, nicer/more interesting strings than I had before I left.

Before my time off, around December, I think, I knew in the back of my head that I may not be playing footbag forever, and maybe I'd even have to quit sooner than that, because of my knee.. So I decided to pick up something that has passively interested me for quite some time: Contact Juggling. It had the same appeal as footbag had.. magic. So, I'm really happy I picked it up, because it gave me something to constantly practice in my spare time while I was recovering with my knee injury. I'm really glad I have contact juggling now, because I don't feel inclined to just footbag my entire days away, which is part of how I got hurt (over-doing it). I have a strong balance in my life now, whereas before, I was 100% footbag, in an unhealthy way. I still love footbag, but honestly contact juggling is sharing the same pedestal as footbag nowadays. I love performing with contact, because it really gets a way bigger crowd that footbag ever got. People actually stop and watch contact juggling. Just this Friday night, I went to a trippy hippy flow arts festival and brought my contact balls, as well as my new LED contact ball.. I busted that LED ball out Friday night and was just slamming contact links down like no one's business in the middle of a big field... by the time I was tired, I had no idea, but there were loads of people watching me do my thing. It was really an incredible time and I was so absorbed by the ball and the motions my body was doing with it, that it didn't occur to me that people were watching me. Then Sunday, I went to the renaissance faire and there was a dude playing this giant metal percussion instrument and it sounded really cool and dark/eerie, so I decided to pull my contact ball out and jam with him. I didn't realize it by a lot of his audience was filming me and watching my sideshow performance. Man, I love contact juggling. Hate all you want, contact juggling is the shit. Contact also got me to reunite with an old footbag player, Ben Cooke, from NYFA. He quit playing footbag due to injury, and now he's an amazing contact juggler. He's kind of become my mentor with it, and it's cool, because he was an inspiration to me in footbag and now he's one of my inspirations in contact juggling. It was quite fun and easy to pick up, because I have a footbag brain. It lets me be just as creative as I am with footbag.

In footbag news, PA has a ridiculous footbag club. Our club totals out to about 9 regulars and all of them can at least do Clipper on both sides. Some of our guys recently learned stuff like Whirls. Anyway, the club is great.

Personal footbag stuff.. I'm not playing as often as I used to, which is FINE! I play 2 to 3 times a week and I think that's perfect for me. I've planned out fun, semi-organized drill sessions. Keeping it fun is important. My goal right now is to, unlike before, NOT focus on bigger tricks... Why do bigger tricks if I can't throw down like 100 contact strings of smaller tricks, so this has become my main goal for now. I chose 15 smaller tricks, and I'm working on about 6 of them at a time. My current 5 and Revup, DLO, Twirl, Torque, Pdx Whirl, and Atomsmasher. I'm working these up until I just don't understand how to drop them. Once I accomplish that, I'll choose another set of tricks.

Ended yesterday's session with Pdx Whirl> Twirl about 10x bs.

Here is a footbag clip from yesterday..

https://www.instagram.com/p/BJHC0OBhVTh ... kthepolini

Here's a rock balance pic from yesterday:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BJHNOx5h3hD ... kthepolini

Here's a contact juggling clip from yesterday:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BJIihTiBnRq ... kthepolini

And here's another newer hobby I've started practicing.. body contortion from a few days ago:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BI_ExGYhhWo ... kthepolini

https://www.instagram.com/p/BI_IPNPBBP4 ... kthepolini

I'll start posting in here from now on. However, I think I'll refrain from posting any clips in the footbag facebook group, just to keep my game a secret to the rest of the community. I used to post too much to the group. Now I only post to IG, so it's kind of nice to keep it sort of private and hidden from most people. Posting too much video makes in not as exciting for viewers, because they can't see any big improvements between sessions.

Anyway, going to drive to DLO Jam with Ivan and his gf, Kat this weekend. Really stoked to see and kick with everyone. Oh and there's a bog! And I'll def be bringing my LED contact ball so jam at dusk in the bog. Stoked for that. Bog is life.

[C-Fan]

Oh and there's a bog! And I'll def be bringing my LED contact ball so jam at dusk in the bog. Stoked for that. Bog is life.

Are you seriously going to miss the opportunity to footbog?

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Of course I'll be footbogging! I hope we play in the bog for at least 1 session. That could make such a rad video.

[boyle]

Sounds sticky.

Good to see you posting back on here. What's your tiltless record - have you done more than 200? That´s one of my current goals.

[Asmus]

Welcome back!

[DC Clinks]

Wow so much cool in one post dankalicious. Happy that PT went well and you're on track to playing consistently again. But also cool that in the meantime you found hobbies that turned out to be just as fun as footbag. I watched all those insta vids, the contact juggling looks so cool even though I have no idea what's going on. You make it look almost weightless. All the rock balancing stuff is sick too, like I see you and Hoffa posting that stuff on Facebook frequently and I'm like wtf is that superglue or just plain black magic?? That body cortortioning too! Looks like you're breaking your arms. Unreal. Dope shit homie. Keep being you Poliniz.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Dan: My tiltless record is around 120, but I just can't bring myself to do 200. After about 50, I just get bored and want to start drilling some tricks I actually struggle with. I think that could be awesome for endurance though, which is what I need to work on.. hmm...

Thanks Asmus! Great to be back.

Dang: Glad you think my stuff is cool. I think my stuff is cool, too

So, if I'm back, I guess I should be posting here more often.

I just got back from DLO Jam in Ontario, Canada and holy fuck dude... if any jam had an award for "Most Fun", DLO would have easily taken the cake. Here's a video Ivan made from the highlights:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S69aru0avSE[/youtube]

Here's the full clip of me contact juggling at Niagra Falls, also filmed by Ivan:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7-4o2rc-V4[/youtube]

After the jam, I felt very motivated to get shit done to benefit the sport, as well as get cracking on my own game. I got some really nice compliments from a few people about my game and how my work I put into footbag is appreciated, which were all very flattering.

Cass and Zach did a killer job hosting this jam and making sure it was the exact opposite of boring. Michigan is clearly not fucking around. Their crew is deep and everyone is like solid tiltless and improving. Holy shit, man, so cool.

I'd definitely go to the next DLO Jam... Pdx DLO Jam?

After DLO, like I said, I've been really motivated. I took a day off when I got home and then the next day, I drilled my little heart out. Lots of stuff, including my normal drills with Atom, Revup, DLO, Pdx Whirl, Gyro Legover, Twirl, and Ducking Pdx Mirage. That all felt good. Also messed with drilling Pdx Whirl> Twirl> Torque 3x bs. I also drilled a bit of Mobius> Pdx Whirl bs. I realized I could do that really easily on one side, which I was able to do Mobius> Pdx Whirl> bail to Gyro DLO> string with such little effort, but my flipside wasn't on the same boat. After that, I messed around a bit, did some old stuff I forgot I could do, like Near Tweak bs, Pixie Muted Swirl> hand catch bs a few times without dropping, and an easy Mobius Screw BSOS (Nice.).

Here's a video of 75 contacts from that session:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0o0chRameMs[/youtube]

After that session, I skyped with Jay. It was great to chat with him again and we made some big steps in the right direction, in terms of helping footbag grow and become better. We've decided we're going to meet up for a skype session once a week. Really stoked for next session with him. I know I'm an optimist most of the time, but I think we're actually going to accomplish some big things. The Slack group (a small group of footbaggers who are working to actively get shit done) and I also talked about some big stuff for the sport that night.

I'm about to leave work and I think I may have myself another session.

I'm glad I started writing in here again. I missed it and I think it also helps me empty my brain, so I can have some room cleared for other stuff, like cat videos.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Been drilling hard.

I pushed a really dense and long guiltless run the other day:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-mSglWAjY8[/youtube]

That video seemed to motivate a few players, like Radoslaw, Mark and some others.

I just got home from New York, where I got to see Boatz, Hogan, Bruce, Drew,Jon, and I finally met Olav! He's such a freaking nice dude and he rips hard with a footbag. I'll be making a 2 part video out of the footage from the jam. I played really well and hit some good stuff. Anyway, you'll see the video when the time comes.

Last night, I didn't want to drill anything crazy, since I had played hard the day before, so I chose to drill Cloud Kick> op Pincher> ss Symp Swirl *rpt. Got this on film:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BJrMYJXBCf8 ... kthepolini

My runs are starting to get more interesting and I think I'm going to be pushing the limit on Reverse Swirly/Blinky stuff this year and next year up until worlds. Olav told me some promising stuff about my game, which lit a fire under me once again. Just gotta keep footbag balanced with life and stuff.

Speaking of balancing.. I have been messing with 3 ball contact juggling more often and can actually slam some patterns now. Here's 2 cool ones I've recently spent some time on:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BJqUBEGBkVz ... kthepolini

Other news in contact juggling, I won my first mini online competition the other day. So I'm finally starting to get pretty ok at it. It's just a lot of fun and it's a lot like footbag, just for the upper body.

In life news, my parents are buying a boat. Like a boaty boat. With a slip at a nearby marina. We used have a 15 ft Carolina Skiff, but it was too small for the bay and it was kinda scary with some of the waves getting so big. So my parents said, screw it, they're doubling that, up to around a 32 ft. I was on a 24 ft a few weekends ago and that was huge to me.. I'm wicked stoked though. I'm going to def be inviting some footbaggers down to our campsite for a mini-jam and some time on the boat. My parents said I can use it whenever, so this will more than likely happen. It's going to have room for like 4 or 5 people to sleep in the hull and whatnot. But yeah, I'll update more on that when we go shopping for it. Pics will be added. We want to compromise between luxury/party area for my mom, and fishing area, for my dad and me.. but I mean, the luxury/party section will be cool, too

That's all for now. Peace.

[jooles]

Great run in the video!
May I asked what's the name of the band your shredding to in the video? It reminds me on Bad Religion even if I know it isn't.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Jooles: Thanks a lot! That band is Common Rider. They're great.

So I'm going to make this post short.

WARNING: THIS IS A RANT ABOUT EAST COASTS-------

I'm drilling a lot, because I got 2nd place at East Coasts and even though I tried to just accept it and have fun afterward, it BURNED me. Bad. There is no way the judges were in their right mind, sorry... I should have taken first place. The footage is obvious when watching it. You be the judge when the video comes out. It has upset me quite a lot. If I took 2nd and I knew I deserved 2nd, I'd be really happy.. Jay asked me how I did and I told him to watch the video. Bonslaver sent him a raw clip of it, and he calculated it out mathematically and with a gut feeling... In both ways, I came out on top. Mat's runs were longer than mine, but were hyper-padded with BOPs... My runs were more risky, had more variety, and were more difficult/dense... I mean no offense to Mat in this, but holy fucking shit, do I feel like I was robbed of my very first 1st place in Open circle. I hate complaining like this, but it's my blog and my thoughts go here, so fuck it, it's been driving me crazy, and I'm spilling what I've held pent up inside since this Sunday. Please just be the judge of it when the footage comes out. I'm done with that.

In other news, since no one reads Modified aside from a few die-hards, I'll reveal that, as marketing director, I reached out to Aflamu Johnson, the actor who plays Blackie Sack. He sent me his # and we talked on the phone for about and hour or so. He will be playing a big.. no, HUGE part in footbag and footbag marketing this year, so go to Worlds in Portland 2017. That's all I have to say. If you don't go and you could have easily gone (you had the money, the time off of work, etc..), but you just didn't feel like it or you chose to do something different, then you're a fucking idiot.

Last thing.. Unjustifiably losing at ECFC this weekend has put the biggest fire in me to get good at footbag... To get good at footbag, to compete in footbag, and to win. I don't like those who are cocky in footbag, but I will just say that I will win, and I will be fucking awesome at footbag next time you see me. Done ranting.

Here's some footage from this week:

Breaking my Rubberman record by 5 contacts:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BKT5S4PhAPv ... kthepolini

Dense run:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BKUYDY4BjOx ... kthepolini

[Derek]

Are you breathing enough? Just curious. Couldn't hear any breaths in the Rubbs run (or Densy), and Atomics are notorious for holding your breath.

If you know you won, and most people view it that way, then you won. Know you probably want that title ($), but so be it. Judging is REALLY hard (Which is a main reason I don't take comp too seriously), unless you are elite. And even then, too. Hope you push smart, would utterly hate to hear of another injury.

[Sporatical_Distractions]

Love you Nick <3

[C-Fan]

Rubberman looked real solid. I counted 16 contacts of the drill, since the last legbeater should have been an atom instead.

Crazy that Worlds 2017 is less than a year away. I really hope I can make it and see everybody.

[acxel22]

I told you this before and after results Nick, and you deserved that win. Can't really change results and like I said it's a victory that feels cold, guess that's what happen when there are non experienced judges (no offense to most of them but they lack experience judging and also

You will probably get a revenge on me at worlds next summer, until then you are the winner for me.

[jooles]

In other news, since no one reads Modified aside from a few die-hards, I'll reveal that, as marketing director, I reached out to Aflamu Johnson, the actor who plays Blackie Sack. He sent me his # and we talked on the phone for about and hour or so. He will be playing a big.. no, HUGE part in footbag and footbag marketing this year, so go to Worlds in Portland 2017. That's all I have to say. If you don't go and you could have easily gone (you had the money, the time off of work, etc..), but you just didn't feel like it or you chose to do something different, then you're a fucking idiot.

Breaking my Rubberman record by 5 contacts:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BKT5S4PhAPv ... kthepolini

Dense run:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BKUYDY4BjOx ... kthepolini

Nice to see you pushing it hard week for week (and now for weeks) I remember the footage I saw from you 2 years ago- a lot of progress happened in between!

The Blackie Sack thing sounds cool! Way to go!

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Hey Julien,

Thanks for the comment. Yeah, it still amazes me how much I've improved in just a few years. It's all due to going back to my basics and schooling the living shit out of them.

Hey blog.

So, this is going to be an interesting post. It might be long (I just finished writing it.. It's definitely long), but it also might be short. I've got some feels to spill.

For the first time in Nick Polini history, I had no interest in playing footbag. The enthusiastic Nick was no longer enthusiastic... for 3 weeks. It seemed strange to me. I could have played, just didn't. I think the cause was a few things. First, a certain player had recently told me he's taken a hiatus, but possibly even quit the sport. That messed with my head and actually had more impact on me than I thought. I wish people would understand that footbag isn't just a sport... it's a family/community. The family/community needs players so it can thrive. When a player quits playing, it's like a little earthquake inside the veins of the sport. This was my recent realization. You may not agree, but without the community, we don't have a lot left.

Anyway, That was part of my reason for not wanting to play. The other, perhaps biggest reason I didn't want to play is because after I got 2nd at ECFC, and multiple people messaging me telling me I should have placed first, something snapped in my head... I had to compete, I had to win, I had to be better than my competitors. I went back into hard drilling the day after ECFC was over. I kept drillng. And drilling. And... not having fun... I was drilling to win. I was drilling to be the best.

I didn't realize it at the time, but I became obsessed with winning. My plan at ECFC was to place first and just retire from competition and just play for the reason I fell in love with footbag... because it's FUN (look at my username, for christ's sake!)

I wasn't having fun. I didn't play. I practiced more contact juggling in those weeks than ever before. I was planning to drive to PSU and stay with Ben Babyak for a weekend in the near future, so I knew I had to play a bit to scrape off the rust. Ben and I made a sporadic decision to drive 5.5 hours Northeast of State College and attend Matt Kemmer's "Quiet Sad Lonely Jam". I was excited, but more so to see Ben, Matt, Dan, and Ryan.

I picked up Ben, having only played once in 3 weeks, and we made the long drive up to Saratoga, NY. We got there and (I'm going to skip the details for now, just to get to my point) and the next day, we played footbag. I was feeling ok, at best, about my game or even playing at all. But I started kicking the bag for warm up.. I felt something. I progressed into harder tricks in a 2-man circle with Ryan. I was... playing really well. Density, variety, consistency... It was all there. I came to the realization that I wasn't playing to try to be better than anyone in those moments... I was playing to have fun with a group of my closest friends. I continued crushing string after string. It was a blast! I had so much fun. After a little while, my legs were wicked tired and I started to perform some contact juggling for anyone in the park. So many people came up to me and watched/asked about it. It's definitely more visual than footbag, so it gets more attention, unfortunately. I love stupefying people and contact juggling is a sure way to do that. I love how easy it is to perform it and impress big crowds with it. I think cj'ing will be my means for performing publicly, from now on, but play footbag for myself, because I fucking love it for how it makes me feel.

I think that's all I wanted to say.. Basically:

TL;DR Version:

Footbag wasn't fun because I only wanted to win, and it took some good friends of mine to snap me out of that mindset and make me remember again why it is that I play.

I think this video is also a great way to sum up my feelings about footbag, which is also the first footbag video I ever saw:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrW_Ha1lRXo[/youtube]

Ironically, Eli says "8 years of highs and lows", which is how long I've been playing. Go figure.

Anyway, I dont have much left, except that I have been back in the mindset. I played last night. here's an ig clip:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BLxJKNyBoH9 ... kthepolini

I'm skyping with an "open level" contact juggler in an hour and he's going to help me learn some new tricks and help me understand a little more of the mindset of making contact juggling awesome. I'm really excited for it.

I will also probably play footbag tonight

Oh and next week, Bonlaver and I are planning on meeting up to work on a new footbag instagram project. Can't wait for that either.

I'm out for now. Later.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Not much to post, but I figured I'd post anyway.

I'm doing fucking fantastic. Not sure why. Just life is going well aside from one thing, but fuck it, life's too short to worry about one thing. Fuck it, right? I'm going to say "fuck" a few times in this post, because I feel like it and it's a fucking beautiful word.

I played footbag 2 days ago and had a fucking fun session. It's gotta be all about fun from now on be-fucking-cause that's the only way I'll get myself to play at all. No competition.

Here's a good 43 contact string with good variety from that session:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BL7b4ith2sw ... kthepolini

And while I'm at it, here's a contact juggling 3 ball pattern that I got last night that I'm pretty happy about:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BL9-BXKBThv ... kthepolini

I've been trying to keep an even balance on my hobbies and instagram is a nice way to monitor that, because I can fucking see how often I've been playing footbag/contact juggling/ toss juggling, contortion, etc..

I figured out some new 3 ball toss juggling patterns the other day, too. 423 Tennis, Boston Shuffle, and Tower. Currently working on N-Box. Giving me some trouble, but it's coming along.

Since only diehards use modified, I'm excited to reveal that Bonslaver and I are going to (try) to get together tomorrow and start a new instagram project where we have every main trick on film, in real time and in slow motion, because I think it will generate some interest when people know there's more to it instead of just jumping around. I was inspired by the following page for juggling tutorials. I want to have the color coding for the footbag page, as well as the trick names on the cover slide:

https://www.instagram.com/3ballpatterns/

So yeah, that'll be fucking interesting. Would also like to kick with him after we put a dent into the project.

Today was dope at work. We had to do some electrofishing to get samples of fish meat to send to a lab to scan for radioactive isotopes. The water was super muddy, so the fish didn't see us coming and we were blasting huge carp and bass left and right. It was incredible. The shock just throws them off balance. It doesn't kill them.

I'll leave this one with what I've been listening to lately.

American Football's new album. They're an indie/emo band that my friend recently got me into. It's not the "emo" that you might think of, like My Chemical Romance. It's real emo, which I've been listening to a lot recently. Just give it a listen and go into it with a fucking open mind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4G4sm6RCDU

[Asmus]

Since only diehards use modified, I'm excited to reveal that Bonslaver and I are going to (try) to get together tomorrow and start a new instagram project where we have every main trick on film, in real time and in slow motion, because I think it will generate some interest when people know there's more to it instead of just jumping around.

Great idea!

[Cass]

Yeah great idea!

[Tjuggles]

Ditto.