Ryan's Footblog: JOULUKALENTERI 2018!

[Tjuggles]

gyro DLO > tapping butterfly > rpt

That is a badass combo that I cannot hit! Hey, sorry I haven't been posting videos regularly. I guess I lose the challenge Rest assured I've been shredding a shit ton, despite the lack of evidence.

You will get it one day.

I'm sorry too for not posting vids regularly. We both lose the challenge. Glad to hear you have been kicking, it is showing!

[boyle]

That spinning DLO looked great, super smooth. I can't do it on flip so I won't be one to nag! Vortex is such a fun trick. You are just getting better and better, awesome to see!

[acxel22]

gyro dlo and vortex, next step: mobius and gyro whirl

[Ryan_Morris]

Thanks, Dan and TJ!

Mathieu, I'll have to learn torques and re-learn whirls

Working on a lot of things lately. Tuesday was mostly about gyros and spins. Flipside is still gimpy, but I'm starting to learn how to hold a flat clipper and set before I spin.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BlWxZhtA3if/

Speaking of flat clippers, flapper!
https://www.instagram.com/p/BkgtjVdg6kw/
I've even done a few without falling over now, but it's still a trick that takes me 10-20 tries before I can hit it. I'd like to get to a point where I can warm up with flapper, but even just attempting them seems to strengthen my clipper muscles

I've trained stepping sets the past few sessions, partly because Ivan challenged us to double our respective ripwalk records by the end of August. And of course he nearly triples his record a day after setting the challenge... The best I've ever done is two. The real problem is my shit-ass butterflies, so before I get into ripwalks I first need to drill stuff like butterfly > stepping ss clipper. I've done butter > stepping ss clip > pdx mirage repeat a few times, but only 6 contacts at a time. Josh G requested more mid-string stepping, so I'll try to post some video of that once I get a good string or two.

Pixies and drifters are frustrating me. No surprise, strong side is making big strides while flipside stagnates despite putting at least twice as many attempts on it. Regardless, Kemmer has been a big help with both concepts.
I did manage to pull off a very hesitant smudge > pixie op pickup repeat

Something non-footbag related:
I'm trying to cut out processed sugar, artificial sweeteners, and caffeine. No soda, not even diet, and no coffee. Work has been rough. After I got home today, I crashed on my couch for several hours and totally missed when Adam and Sean called a last minute session Me dumb.

[boyle]

Those kind of drills with the stepping ss clipper, or stepping op clipper for that matter will really help. Even stuff like stepping inside stall will help as well.

Is it healthy to kick all that stuff in one go? (Maybe the end result, but maybe it's more beneficial to go on a bit of a sliding scale). I can't really talk I eat plenty of that junk, though I don't drink coffee at all and not much soft drink. The things that I really struggle to cut out are stuff like beer and chips.

[Ryan_Morris]

Mmmm...chiiiips....

I don't think I'll ever be able to cut those. I stopped drinking sugary soda this winter, but kind of replaced the habit with diet soda. At first it was just one per week, then two, then three. When I started craving two a day I knew it was time to cut it cold turkey. The fake sugar is apparently linked to type 2 diabetes, and the caffeine turned into an excuse not to sleep enough. It's tough, but I have a few health-conscious coworkers who provide a little social pressure to stay on track.

So here I am, sitting on the shitter, trying to resist sneaking over to the vending machine....

[Muffinman]

Your game is looking great and it seems like you are improving at a nice rate!
Spinning and flappers both look awesome. Good to see video. That gyro DLO looks so breezy. Also smudge > paste repeat is haard!

Good luck on the sugar! I'm glad that my parents never gave us soft drinks growing up (we call soda "soft drink" in Canada -- it doesn't really make sense thinking about it... Oh, we also call it pop. That's probably more common.) My mom struggled with getting off of pop, ironically though. She tried to transition to carbonated water. Maybe that would help you if the carbonation is a part of the craving.

[Ryan_Morris]

Had a great session with Adam today! There was a concert at the park we often kick at and a lot of people stopped by to say "wow!" Adam had a lot of good combos and strings (that I forget now). He pulled out some super dense shuffle, too, which isn't he usual style.

I got some things like
Blur > toe ducking butter, sort of both sides (footed flipside)
dimwalk > ducking pdx illusion
pixie ss mirage > toe op drifter > diving clipper > string (which I also hit yesterday: https://www.instagram.com/p/Blotj94nVat/)
tall pixie sets on both sides
some long strings

Our best sessions have been at the Detroit Riverfront concert series:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Blgr20indyL/

There's people everywhere, so we always get a few who want to hack with us. Sometimes people can even do stalls or simple tricks! We've also given out free sand bags to kids who seem interested.

Video contest results come out Saturday. Can't wait for mine to be posted

[Muffinman]

Awesome stuff as always!
Left some IG comments, so won't repeat here.

[Ryan_Morris]

I finally get to share this with you! Although, TJ is probably the only one who hasn't seen it yet....



I submitted this to the Worlds video contest. The results come out Saturday so I still don't know how it fared, but I've had loads of positive feedback already, including comments from you guys Thanks!

A few of us Michiganders came up with the idea over a year ago after watching "Batmetal", a fan-animated music video for "Murmaider", which is a song from the virtual band Dethklok from the show Metalocalyps. If you're not familiar with any of those things, start Googling.

We filmed back in May at this place called the Russel Industrial Center, which is an old factory in Detroit that was converted to rental space for artists and musicians. It was grimy as fuck. We got dirt all over our bags and shoes---and shirts, in Christian's case. (He's the one on the ground in the last scene.) So basically, the perfect place to film a Detroit footbag video That DIY lighting rig I posted a while back came in handy because it was pretty dark inside when there was no sun shining through the windows.

I spent the next several weeks cutting and editing the footage in PowerDirector. This was my first time using an editor other than iMovie and I was amazed at all the things a legit movie-making program can do! There's a ton of color-grading on nearly every shot, plus a little animation overlay towards the end, and there are still way more features I can try out in future videos.

I gotta give a huge thanks to the Michigan Footbag crew for showing up and shredding hard. Everybody gave it their all, although the real MVP was Anton. He got suuuuper into the metal vibe, what with the broom-throwing, birdie-flipping, and Sean-shoving

Now it's time to start working on a Joulu video....

[boyle]

Your video was so fun! It looked like you put a huge amount of work into it, and I've seen plenty of photos and things lately, seems there's a great scene there in the area. Your game is also just improving all the time, which is awesome!

[Tjuggles]

I have seen it now (and on Youtube). SO GOOD. I am so happy the scene there is alive and well. Even Zach made it in the video!

[C-Fan]

Props again on that video. I don't think I watched all of the Worlds video contest videos, but yours stood out from the ones I did. Really fun vibe, cool idea, and you can see all the work that went into it. Well done!

[acxel22]

did you win, no results have been posted??

[Ryan_Morris]

Thanks, you guys ^_^

You probably heard by now that I got second place, which is astounding for my first time submitting a Worlds video A lot of people said they would have picked mine to win, and I am currently leading the People's Choice poll Ivan posted. While that is very flattering, I think the judges gave more weight to the technical quality of the videos, as in framing, lighting, color consistency, etc, and Pawel's video had that in spades. So in the end, I get a shiny medal, a trophy from Ivan, a box of footbag shirts from Lon Smith apparently, and a massively inflated ego Plus one other thing: motivation to make an even better video next year!

I also have less-ambitious video projects in the works, such as a short video series of all the sessions at the Detroit Riverfront. Made two so far and we still have two more to go! I can churn these out in 1-2 hours on a weekend and they've been getting good responses on Facebook. The first link was shared a few times by totally random, non-footbag people!
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bl1qTjugxqO/
https://www.instagram.com/p/Blgr20indyL/
I'm also working on a video of the Chicago Inner Circle birthday session, but it's taking longer than I expected. And if that weren't enough, I still have footage from Jamps to edit

In other news, I did these things:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bl651K9ntee/
diving osis BSOS
pixie muted ss illusion > toe diving butter

Nick Polini wants me to hit diving osis back-to-back for him at the Salem Double Switch Trials this weekend Speaking of which, five Michiganders are going to Salem---six if you count Johnny Breakdown, who sent me a rather lewd video today....Wish I hadn't opened that at work.

[boyle]

once you do that, go for diving osis>ducking osis>diving osis>ducking osis, then link it in to diving butterfly>ducking butterfly rpt. Keep those videos coming. Really liked the riverside one too.

[Muffinman]

Nice highlights Ryan!

[Tjuggles]

You probably heard by now that I got second place, which is astounding for my first time submitting a Worlds video A lot of people said they would have picked mine to win, and I am currently leading the People's Choice poll Ivan posted. While that is very flattering, I think the judges gave more weight to the technical quality of the videos, as in framing, lighting, color consistency, etc, and Pawel's video had that in spades. So in the end, I get a shiny medal, a trophy from Ivan, a box of footbag shirts from Lon Smith apparently, and a massively inflated ego Plus one other thing: motivation to make an even better video next year!

YES! MI footbag is alive. I can't tell you in words how happy I am to see that, so imagine a BIG middle finger with a thumbs up on top of it. Make sure to give AK a hard time. I started kicking with him and GFSmoothie, and he doesn't get to slow down yet! Similarly, I want more Zach the footbag maniac footage. Tell him to not be a lazy fuck.

Nick Polini wants me to hit diving osis back-to-back for him at the Salem Double Switch Trials this weekend

I did this a while ago. Maybe it will help you?


My advice after looking at this video again years later is to wait to set the bag until you see the bag on your foot, that is, after the osis. So you would be in clipper position. Wait until you are in clipper position before you set. You need to reset your balance in that clipper position first.

[Ryan_Morris]

TJ, that is mad impressive. Nick was saying more than 4 would be super tough....

I did manage to hit diving osis back to back the other day! But I bet I was setting to quickly and not properly spotting the bag like you said. More practice!

FYI, Adam does read these blogs from time to time, so he did get your message about giving him a hard time I kicked with him and Zach this morning. It'd been about three weeks since Zach had kicked but we're very proud of him for showing up anyway. His work schedule is pretty ridiculous and he's often tied up on weekends doing stuff with his girlfriend In contrast, this was Adam's fourth consecutive day shredding and he didn't look worse for the wear. This summer he's been working on tons of different stuff: dynos, furious sets, swirls, pixie muted sets, etc, and his game has improved noticeably. Best of all, he's finally on Instagram! No videos yet, but we'll change that soon. https://www.instagram.com/dr_smooth1980/

As for me, I hit a couple pretty huge combos yesterday (huge for me, at least):
dimwalk > pdx DLO > toe ducking butterfly BS
dimwalk > ducking ps mirage > toe ducking butterfly, strong side only

The second link is my biggest combo ever!!

Anyway, sorry for not updating my blog much lately. There's a bunch of new videos on my Instagram if you wanna get an idea of the things I've been drilling.
https://www.instagram.com/fuzzthemorris/

[boyle]

I hit 5 shortly after watching TJ's video. The advice is really good, particularly for the consecutives. Great job on your improving game lately.