Ryan's Footblog: JOULUKALENTERI 2018!

[Tjuggles]

Oh, weird, I was thinking of doing it diving butt > diving osis > ducking pdx mirage, since that's the way I do the BOP drill.

Hmm, I can try that too! I just mimicked what Ryan did in the vid...

[boyle]

I've been doing diving butter>diving osis rpt recently. Been a bit more challenging than I expected. I've done the ducking BOP a few times before, that's a good combo.

[Ryan_Morris]

I'm pretty bad at diving osis, but I'll try it too!

I hit a challenge from Anton yesterday and got a new BOP personal best.
infinity > osis > gyro clipper BSOS
27 contacts of BOP
https://www.instagram.com/p/Be_6CObneee/

I really channeled my inner TJ on that osis before gyro Kinda mad, though, that I dropped that last butterfly in the BOP drill. I was just 3 contacts from 30 guiltless! Gaaaaahh! But I'll try again today because it's my birthday! 30 guiltless would be a really nice present to myself....

[boyle]

Happy birthday! Sounds like you've been training really well and boosting up those numbers of BOPs and other things. Keep pushing it!

[Tjuggles]

Good stuff! There is definite improvement happening. I bet you can hit 30 guiltless your next go at them.

Happy Birthday!

[Muffinman]

Happy belated birthday

[Ryan_Morris]

Thanks for the birthday wishes! You sure know how to make a guy feel special.

So, about that birthday sesh....I didn't get 30 guiltless, or even 25 for 25. But I hit my first triple dex
https://www.instagram.com/p/BfEO-RPnlRB/

That reaction, by the way, was a combination of "Yay, I hit a smog!" and "Fuck, I dropped a butterfly."

I ended up shredding with Sean and Christian for about 3 hours, trying to hit at least 25 guiltless to no avail. The rest of the night was dedicated to burgers, beer, and the winter Olympics.

Yesterday, my legs were still hurting from the weekend but I somehow managed to hit two new drills that Derek Littlefield requested a few weeks ago:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BfHs_yyHbF-/
Magellan > PLO rpt (4 contacts)
Magellan > ss DLO rpt (4 contacts)

I really like these drills---and toe stuff in general---so I'll keep going for more contacts.

[Ryan_Morris]

Matt Kemmer suggested that I work on my upper body form in clippers, my arms in particular, pointing out how the best players meticulously hold their arms "athletically." That's really good advice. Evan Gatesman has also talked about how he holds his arms out just so whenever he does a clipper stall. Who can argue with El Kemmino and the Silencer?

Turns out, it's pretty tricky to focus on that and the tricks you're drilling all at once. Matt confirmed my suspicions: this is going to take a while to sink in.

A few small highlights (which happened as soon as I forgot about my arms, of course).
https://www.instagram.com/p/BfMuO8QH8q5/
smear > pixie ss mirage repeat (4 contacts and a nut shot)
ducking clipper > spinning clipper (6 contacts, personal best)
a couple little guiltless strings

For the ducking/spinning drill, I think my form was better than usual on the first four contacts, which was the goal. The last two contacts sort of happened by accident, but I'll take what I can get.

[Ryan_Morris]

I'm back! Working in the U.P. really screwed up my routine. I practiced less, ate worse, got fat, and stopped posting here for almost a month! But things are getting back to normal-ish and I'm catching up an all your blog posts

I've had a few highlights since my last post, and a few ragequits, but let's skip all that and get to the good part.

41 guiltless!
https://www.instagram.com/p/BgHyW-4jxyg/



I can't believe it. 30 guiltless has been my goal for so long, and to hit that with 11 contacts to spare is beyond what I could have hoped for. On top of that, I got to shred with one of my best friends, Ivan, who's home from school in Germany. It was a top-notch session with many highlights from both of us. I'd like to comb through the rest of the footage for good clips.

Next goals: 50 contacts, and no-BOP 30. Shit, that's hard, maybe I should start with no-BOP 15...or 10.

Question: what is your record for number of unique tricks in one string?

[Tjuggles]

yay! So nice to see that. I noticed you hadn't been posting and tried to get a video up in your absence.

But didn't. oh well, you are back!

Not sure my record number of unique tricks in one string

[Muffinman]

Props on 41!! So huge
I notice that your clippers cushion at a weird point in your osii and butterflies. Try to focus on cushioning more and I think you'll find these tricks way easier. Like catch > cushion > slight pause if possible > set. So AS the bag hits your foot you start to cushion as deeply as you can, whereas right now it kind of looks like you're doing the cushion just BEFORE you catch the bag. Does that make sense?

No idea what my record is for unique tricks.

[Tjuggles]

I notice that your clippers cushion at a weird point in your osii and butterflies. Try to focus on cushioning more and I think you'll find these tricks way easier. Like catch > cushion > slight pause if possible > set. So AS the bag hits your foot you start to cushion as deeply as you can, whereas right now it kind of looks like you're doing the cushion just BEFORE you catch the bag.

I think that is a great way of explaining what I was trying to convey:

One thing I noticed in that first one with your osii compared with mine is that you turn fast and earlier than I do for the delay. I feel like I pretty much watch the bag fall to inches above my delay foot before I start turning. You, on the other hand, seem to almost be doing a down-time gyro clipper, if that makes sense. Not saying one is better than the other, just noting what I saw.

Are we talking about the same thing?

[boyle]

I'm going to say my record for unique tricks is probably in the mid 20s, which would just be from doing shred 30 practice. It would be interesting to try and get a high score of only unique tricks. Whenever I'm going for a higher number I tend to repeat a lot of the same tricks, especially ducking clipper, diving clipper, butterfly, osis, spinning clipper, spinning osis and ripwalk.

[Muffinman]

I notice that your clippers cushion at a weird point in your osii and butterflies. Try to focus on cushioning more and I think you'll find these tricks way easier. Like catch > cushion > slight pause if possible > set. So AS the bag hits your foot you start to cushion as deeply as you can, whereas right now it kind of looks like you're doing the cushion just BEFORE you catch the bag.

I think that is a great way of explaining what I was trying to convey:

One thing I noticed in that first one with your osii compared with mine is that you turn fast and earlier than I do for the delay. I feel like I pretty much watch the bag fall to inches above my delay foot before I start turning. You, on the other hand, seem to almost be doing a down-time gyro clipper, if that makes sense. Not saying one is better than the other, just noting what I saw.

Are we talking about the same thing?

I think so? But it sounds like you're focusing more on the timing of the spin and I'm focusing more on the timing of the stall? I guess with these powers combined...

[Tjuggles]

Upon reading them both again I can say you are correct; I was more talking to the spin, and you the delay.

[Ryan_Morris]

Thanks for the advice, guys! TJ, I see how I'm turning too early on the osis so I'll definitely keep working on it. Erik, I'll have to watch more footage to get a better idea of how I can change when I cushion, but thanks for pointing it out! I would never have noticed it on my own. Today I tried practicing BOP with my big, slippery show bag to force better stalls. It sucked, but I'm going to keep doing it.

I've had three solo sessions since playing with Ivan, and they were lame So here's some more highlights from the Philly session instead! (As best as I can remember...)

Zulu clipper > spinning clipper b2b + string
19 unique guiltless in one string!
A lot of mid-string spinning
Many 10+ guiltless strings

I have all the footage, but haven't taken the time to edit it yet. We'll see if I feel motivated enough.

Also, glad to see a few replies about unique tricks. One of my new goals is to compete in shred 30, which means practicing the shit out of a well-planned string. I already practice a 16-unique string regularly, although I'm still not consistent with it Nonetheless, given time, I know I can work my way up to 30 3-adds, maybe including a few fours. It would be really cool to see what you guys would do for a shred 30!

In other news, Matt Kemmer is coming to Detroit sometime around Easter! He's been helping me recently with ss butterfly, and I'm hoping he can give me more hints on other BOP-related stuff.

In other other news, I got five extra vacation days from working extra hours during winter test Time to plan a vacation, I suppose....

[boyle]

My general plan for shred 30 that I've been working on lately (actually haven't done this too much recently, but I was trying to get it better last year) is:

dimwalk>blur>dimwalk>blur>parkwalk>sidewalk>ripwalk>sidewalk>ripwalk>diving clipper>ducking clipper>spinning ducking clipper>ducking clipper>diving butterfly>ducking butterfly>diving butterfly>ducking butterfly>ducking osis>torque>op butterfly>spinning clipper>spinning butterfly>spinning osis and usually by that point I have dropped it somewhere along the line. It would be good to put some bigger tricks in but it's most important to get the consistency and try not to have a drop.

[Ryan_Morris]

Quick update before I fall asleep.

I drilled spinning today and it went well!
https://www.instagram.com/p/BgmymupHm37/

New drills
ss butterfly > gyro clipper > pdx mirage/illusion aka. BGP (11 contacts)
butterfly > spinning clipper > pdx mirage (12 contacts)
diving clipper > spinning clipper > ducking clipper, almost back to back except that I forgot to do the last duck and did an osis instead

I noticed that I lean my shoulder in a peculiar way on flipside spinning (the one from right-side clipper). Gotta fix that next time.

Also tried some pixie stuff, but it was all crap. Feels like I haven't made any progress on pixies in a while But I'm stoked that spinning is becoming way more consistent!

[Tjuggles]

I noticed that I lean my shoulder in a peculiar way on flipside spinning (the one from right-side clipper). Gotta fix that next time.

Yo, your spinning/gyro look significantly better, sweet! I noticed on your flipside spinning that issue you mentioned I think. I feel like I do something similar, and I think it in part stems from setting the bag too soon, i.e., before the spin. Your strong side seems more independent; you turn your upper body as you are setting, maybe even a bit before. Thinking about it, your upper body doesn't need to be in the initial clipper position at the time of the set; you can set without seeing the bag. Nonetheless, your flip seems like you set just before spinning, and that may be throwing your balance off a bit. At least, that is what I think when I do it like that. Hope that makes sense.

I have some footage I need to paste together and upload. Expect that within 24 hours.

[Muffinman]

Yeah, spinning looks great.
For me, same butterfly seems like it'd be harder to spin out of than far, or something like ducking clipper that gives you momentum in the right direction.