Cass shreds - USO 2023

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Those Fireflies (Butterfly Dragon) looked good. I like that you're doing more cool Dragony stuff now. Very creative. Flipside ducking and diving got better for me when I started to just set the bag (with ONLY my flip clipper) up to neck height. Once I could do that pretty well, both got way easier. I found I was using too much of my support leg to try to get the bag up and over. It's all in the clipper... just a quick tiny set is all you need. Also cool highlight with the zoom out of dragon, I don't do those enough. Gonna have to try some more soon. Also you just gave me a sick idea for Sick 3. Fuck yeah. Thanks in advance haha

[Cass]

Thanks for the tip Nick.

[Cass]

I played for 30 minutes today but I just wasn't really feelin' it. I guess I need a bit of a break. Went for a run after which was a nice change.


I've been getting into really nice grooves with my tiltless runs lately. They are a lot of fun now because I can easily hit pretty much any trick I want bs without dropping. I know they aren't the most exciting runs but they feel real good and I think they are getting pretty nice style-wise.


The important things in my life are awesome right now! Footbag is great! School is keeping me busy and I have some exciting things coming up with that! So why do I let silly things get me down? I need to shift my focus to the important things and stay positive


<3

[Cass]

Day three without footbag. Lame.


I definitely need at least one more rest day before I play. Playing is such good stress relief though so I miss it for that


Last night I dreamed I went to some kind of footbag event. It was super lame though because no one wanted to do anything fun or play footbag with me. So clearly I must have been mistaken because footbag events like this don't exist


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[Cass]

I played for the first time in nearly a week on Saturday. It was a decent drill session in the gym at school.

I was low on energy so I only played for about an hour. I’m still sore in a couple key places and that’s pretty frustrating because I don’t want to keep taking time off from practicing. I’ve been avoiding certain tricks and concepts in an effort to avoid agitating the injuries further.

This weekend is thanksgiving here in Canada so it’s a long weekend.

Yesterday I was planning to play but I couldn’t go to school and it ended up raining which kinda killed that plan. After turkey dinner 1 of 2 yesterday I decided it was time to do a serious room clean. It was pretty out of hand. I had sooo many water bottles on my floor, easily more than a case. Got rid of a full garbage bag of clothing and another full of garbage. I put my footbag awards from worlds and ECFC as well as some other artwork I had sitting around on the wall finally. Looks pretty dope.

The best part is now I have space in my room to shred again!

I had a basement session today for the first time in ages! It’s not amazingly spacious but it’s fine for practicing alone and it’s nice because it’s private and everything I need is right there.

I have no amazing highlights from this weekend but that’s okay because as long as I’m practicing I’m getting better

I practiced some runs for the sick 10 for MC’s online competition. I hit several that I would be decently happy with so now it’s just a matter of filming it this week. I think I will score well on cleanliness, form, both sidedness, and style. My density obviously isn’t there but I’m hoping to make up for that in other places.

Not sure I will compete in any of the other categories. Big 1/3 isn’t my thing and I haven’t thought of anything cool for weird one. I’m looking forward to seeing other peoples entries though

I think I’m going out to London Ontario next weekend to shred and party with some of the Ontario crew. I haven’t played footbag with people since ECFC and it’s been even longer since I played with anyone from FAT. Should be rad.


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[Cass]

I fit a short session in this evening.

I had some nice tiltless runs and drilled tricks and got sweaty. I would consider that a success

My default shred spot at school is laminate flooring. It’s so slippery in my new lavers! I’m afraid I’m going to slip and hurt myself

School is super busy. The deadline to submit my first scientific publication is in two weeks and I have to finish up all the lab work and write the thing! I think it came at the right time because I really need to take it easy on shred for the sake of my health. I think a shorter session every 2 to 3 days should be sufficient for the next while.


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[Cass]

This page is seriously lacking photos and things. My iphone 5s came in the mail on friday and I'm most stoked about the quality of the camera. I haven't played with it too much but here are a couple photos I took:






I had a pretty decent basement session last night. Several concepts that I have been working on are starting to feel a lot more comfortable. I'm stoked to incorporate some more interesting things in my shred.

I've been taking the time to practice a lot of low impact tricks which I think is really helping to solidify my foundation. When I do tiltless I almost always drop because I get tired. I think that if I focus a little more on breathing I should have no problem busting 60+ contacts consistently.

Swirl x12


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[boyle]

Nice work on the swirls. I guess the beauty of the smartphones like iphone5 etc is that you can film pretty high quality videos and put it online straight away.

I am strongly considering going to Toronto next month (Nov 19, for the Chile vs Brazil soccer match). I will let you know if the plan works out and we can have a kick.

[Asmus]

Me (and some of the other footbaggers in Denmark) use our iPhone's a bunch for footbag related stuff.
Sending snapchats to get people to come to sessions, instagram for video and photos from sessions, posting updates to our facebook page.
It works really well. I am sure we wouldn't have as many attendees at our session if it wasn't for this brave new world.

And props on 12 swirls! I wish I could do daaat.

[Cass]

Cool! I'm really only able to make it to Toronto for sessions on weekends but hopefully something works out Dan! I'm sure others will be around even if I can't make it.

I love instagram! If anyone wants to add me it's casstaylor8.


I've been playing less lately and my body is definitely thanking me for the break. I miss playing all the time though.

My sessions have been focused on a couple specific concepts that I really want to dial in. Despite playing less I am still seeing progress in these areas so that's encouraging.

It's a bummer that the weather is cold now because Toronto doesn't really have a reliable indoor shred space. I haven't played footbag with people is sooo long

Five spinning clippers in one string (alternating sides)


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[boyle]

I'll see what happens, have to see if it's going to be worthwhile to go. I would really like to, but I have a feeling that it may be a bit too pricey as it's quite soon.

[Dio]

Hey Cassy,

I'm having the same problem: cold weather = less playing. Plus school has been busy lately. Luckily the gym on campus has great racquetball courts for indoor play but it takes extra time to get shred in.

Hope you keep up with your training anyways! Props on the spinning clips

[Cass]

Hey Dante it's good to hear from you

I definitely intend to keep playing but I just need to slow down the pace a bit for the time being. Definitely not hard to do when school is kicking your butt

I'm on the go train to Toronto right now even though I should probably be doing schoolwork. But eff that I get to chill with Alex Venis tonight!

FAT sesh in the morning hopefully it's a good turnout and people don't show up too late. I gotta go home early and get shit done.

I haven't had a non solo sesh since ECFC! Can't wait to see some friends and play hacky in a circle I kinda need the motivation of playing with people too I think.

Hopefully tomorrow I will have some highlights for a change

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[Cass]

Alex Venis was in Toronto visiting his parents this weekend and since he is a super rad person that I rarely see I decided to go out Saturday night to chill with him. We met up and at went to a pretty cheap bar downtown to have some $10 pitchers with a couple of his friends. It was a really fun time. It was good catching up with Alex and discussing grad school since we both just started our masters (his in ancient greek philosophy, mine in organic chemistry).




Sunday morning we made our way back downtown to Bahen centre – a U of T building for the FAT session. There was already a circle of three when I got there – JJ, Mike Faille and JOSH LACKEY!! On the way in I was saying I wish he would come out for a session and then BAM there he was. Apparently my pestering him finally paid off

Camille arrived and we played in a 6 person circle for a while. Normally I’m not a fan of big circles but the building was very warm so it wasn’t difficult to stay warmed up.



It seemed like it took forever but finally Erik Chan, Zach Forth and Johnny arrived!! So much awesomeness.



We moved to another part of the building and continued playing. I made sure I played with everyone a bit but it just wasn’t long enough. I was on time constraints due to school responsibilities.

It was a lot of fun but I didn’t play super well. I’m in kind of a shoe funk since I retired my lavers. I played in units for the first time in a while and I’m just not completely use to them.

It was SOOO GOOD to see everyone again. I’m sad I missed the wheel barrel races that looked like a lot of fun. Erik played hard! It’s good to see him be able to bust crazy shit and not be super injured. Johnny never disappoints but he’s hard on himself cause he’s a little out of practise.


FAT is PHAT again! So much win





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[boyle]

It's great to see some of these "classic" footbag club names sparking up again. I'm sure that many of the clubs have never stopped...for example "Prague Footbag Club", "Footbag Vienna", "Sole Purpose" and plenty of others have stopped completely, but it's great to see a scene that was already kicking arse continue to do so.

[Muffinman]

Can't wait to be a regular again (in one month!) That was such a fun day. We all felt bad that we were really late, but we didn't push it 'cause Zach was super hard on himself for all the wrong turns he took It was sad that everyone left so soon after we got there. I didn't get to see you shred too much either, but it was great to see you.

[Cass]

I'm at an organic chemistry conference in Sherbrooke Quebec right now. This place is so cold and French.

It's really neat being around sooo many people who are organic chemistry nerds!

I came here all by myself and I was really nervous to meet people but I had no choice. Everyone was grouped by respective school at the mixer and I sort of floated around as a free agent and met a bunch of people.

The number of women in organic chemistry is only slightly better than footbag

I ended up hanging out with one group of guys mostly from Brock U. They are pretty chill.

I showed my new friends DATW and got it first try

Played a little barefoot hotel room hack. I haven't gotten exercise since last sunday so it was nice to get moving a bit.

Having a hotel room to myself is so bawssssss.

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[Cass]

Played in a six man amateur circle Saturday night in a parking garage. I had one good run in my converse. It was a lot of fun.

The conference I went to this weekend completely exceeded my expectations. I met a bunch of cool people and had a really good time.

Maybe I will finally have a proper session tomorrow. I need a good workout.

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[Cass]

Great session this evening!

My usual spots were not available so I was forced to play in a high traffic area next to the weight room that has slippery floors. As a result the entire session was low impact/low risk runs. Lots of fun tiltless and just messing around with styley stuff.

I played for over an hour and it felt really great and pain-free. I think not being able to do hard stuff was for the best.

It’s cool to have the consistency to do long runs in front of people and end with a hand catch. One of the reasons I hate playing in public places it because I don’t like when people see me drop. It’s nice to be able to avoid this some of the time.

Ran a mile and did abs/arms/back after my session and a bunch of stretching. Love dem endorphins.


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[Cass]

Had a really nice, secluded squash court session today.

It was good to play on a surface with some traction for a change. I could actually hit some 4 adds without fear of slipping so that was cool.

To me, style is a very important part a footbaggers game. I’ve been really focused on improving my style lately and I am pretty happy with the results so far. I would like to improve faster but playing more than a couple times a week at this point isn’t really feasible. I think I’m going to take it easy until after the holidays and then go back to 5 days a week in the new year. I need to at least match the improvement I made before worlds 13 by the time the next worlds rolls around. I think that this is completely doable. I have quite a lot of concepts now that, if I can solidify by spring, will put my game in a really good place. So I think the plan is to work on style and dialling in low difficulty stuff until January and then focus on the more difficult stuff and do some serious drilling.

DATW in-out, out-in, Barrage all BSOS


I wish I was attending DFO


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