The Lord of the Strings: A Footblog of Nathan

[Derek]

Please make a Bonslaver video, will make you a bag, in trade for it.

[Nathan8]

Happy Modified Day everyone!

Last weekend was Jamps V, it rocked. I don't go to many other Jams, so I guess you could say I train all year for Jamps. I had so much fun last weekend I can't even put it in words. I have found my place, I belong with the footbaggers. Everyone is so nice and fun, and there is no other sport where you can meet the world champion and have a conversation with him and tell jokes just as if he were another friend. Evan is so cool, so is Nick Landes. I kicked with both of them and they were both very nice. Not to mention ridiculously good at footbag. I totally support the Idea of BAP, because after playing those two you realize they are on an entirely different level than everyone else. They have figured something out that sets them apart from the average footbagger. Watching them makes so much sense. They do every trick perfectly, using less energy, in a state of total confidence that they will seal that trick. It's so inspiring. I want to be like them someday. I also kicked with Jon Schneider a few times that weekend, who is also BAP. I understand that he is BAP for the things he did back in the day. He still has a unique sty; and is funto play with. But my favorite part about kicking with him is that he is a wealth of footbag knowledge. I think he's been playing footbag longer than I have been on the earth, so the stories he has are awesome and he always answers my questions about "who did this first... Did Vasek try to make inspins cool... Where did the name "Ripwalk" come from..?"

I also learned a lot at Jamps:
1. Nick Polini chooses good friends. I know he is good friends with Kevin Hogan and Matt Kemmer, and I spent time on Saturday in a circle with the two of them. They were both super fun and nice. And very funny. Watching them challenge each other was great and that was one of my favorite circles of the weekend. Can't wait to kick with them again.
2. I had this vision of what I wanted to play like at Jamps V as soon as I left Jamps IV. I remember I wanted to be a shuffle machine with some bigger tricks in my arsenal. Well, I was sorta like that. Sorta. I used less shuffle than I imagined, but not because I can't do shuffle. I am decent at basic shuffle, but I didn't use it as much as I could have. Not sure why. Probably a few different factors. I use a lot of energy doing shuffle, I just discovered the fun of spinning, and who knows why.
3. I didn't expect to be spinning as well I was at Jamps by Jamps. I only figured out how to spin about a month before Jamps, but it made quite a difference once I did. spinning is fun, it's a great reset, requires low energy, and is low impact. And the really nice part is that flipside is not that far from strongside. I see spins in my future.
4. I play better at Jams. I perform better under pressure to perform. I learned this after my routine, the request contest, and circle kick on Sunday.
5. I want to get better at footbag.

I did compete at Jamps, which was fun. In the request contest I started in intermediate and made it to the top 5, tieing for 4th with Kevin Hogan. So at a point it was Landes, Hogan, Gatesman, Kemmer, and myself remaing in the circle. It was an amazing feeling, playing with the big dogs. I also did a routine demo. Now, I heard about the routine demos two weeks before Jamps. I actually wished they did routines at Jamps, I was very excited to make one. So when I got this news, I was ecstatic. But after working on a routine for a week, I realized I didn't have enough time to complete it the way I wanted. So I gave it up a week before Jamps. A few minutes before the routines, Ianek talked me into doing mine. So I got up there and did it. Everything I had planned was dropless, so that in itself was a success. I went on to freestyle the rest which went ok, with a drop or two, but I had no idea what I was doing. I learned I liked doing a routine and that the pressure wasn't overwhelming, if anything, it was beneficial. For East coasts I plan to have a full length routine planned out to compete with.

Circle Kick Highlights:
Saturday-
>I warmed up with Evan Gatesman. Wow.
>I had a pretty cool string in front of a larger circle circle. It was probably about 20-30 contacts that included spins, shuffle, a blurry whirl, and ducks.
>Stepped out of pdx drifter and mobius for the first time.
>Flurry first try

Sunday-
>I told Evan "this one's for you" and hit whirling swirl first try. Fortunately, missing it would have ruined the effect
>I opened a string with a mobius first try
>bsosed stepping ss clipper>double pickup.
>Flip whirling swirl first try

If you notice, I hit a lot of things first try. That normally doesn't happen. That's the Jam adrenaline I guess.

I put this video together. I didn't do a lot of filming, so the player selection is limited.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/bwmQzauOnC4[/youtube]

Thank you very much for hosting PSU crew, you are the best.

I think I covered most things about Jamps, but I have to do homework now, so my write up about my session with Nick yesterday will have to wait.

[Nathan8]

Oh Derek, a video... Well I am planning on doing a video for the worlds video contest, but I can probably get one out between now and then I'm happy others want to see my videos.

[Derek]

Never got my Bonsleezy video special for the Joulukalenteri, so I've been fiending for one. Glad you are doing it for Worlds, but one in the meantime would be so grand. And will totally make/ship ya a bag for it. Was hoping to shred with you before you could easily school me, but that time may have already passed

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Derek, sorry to break it to you. But Bonslaver is actually just computer graphics. I got really good at cg and I wanted to trick the community into thinking there was a new player that was getting really good really quickly. Jokes on you all, he's not real! Pretty convincing cg, if I do say so myself.

[h0ag3yb3atZ]

he's a CGI footbagger ment to bonslave-the human race!

jokes. Great meeting you dude! Nathan, you are an inspiration and it was a pleasure kicking with you. listen to nick, he will help you get as good as you're going to be faster .

good shred!

[Nathan8]

Derek, sorry to break it to you. But Bonslaver is actually just computer graphics.

I would like to deny this, but my programming does not allow it.

Cool session today with Nick. Tried to film the intro to a promotional video for footbag today. It is pretty complex and I think we need to make a storyboard before we move forward with it. It's ging to be fun though. during the second part of our session we played a game. You choose 3 tricks that you are good at, but not perfect, and try to bsos them all in one string. For example one of my strings incorporated bsosing pdx illusion, ducking clipper, and spinning clipper. This method was pretty fun. You had to really pay attention to the other person's string in order to pick out what 3 tricks they chose. I also had some massive trick milestones today including:

whirr
ripstein
stepping eggbeater

I footed stepping eggbeater on flip and can do a swirl and a half on flipside, as well as a whirl and a half on flipside, so I think it was an appropriate time to go after these tricks. PLUS - I had the whirr dream. A week or so ago I had a dream that I was getting really close to whirr (I can still see myself trying whirrs in the first person in that dream). I was footing them. It was a sign that I was close, but not quite yet. They came to me a week later. I don't whether to believe that stuff or not, but cool nonetheless.

Last night I had a dream as well. But it was in the third person, I actually might have been watching myself in a video. I was in a very large, very fancy Chinese shopping center. in front of me there was a line of Lamborghini's, they were the main focus of the video I believe. Behind the Lamborghini's I saw myself playing footbag. I hit blurriest>blurriest>barfly. When I can hit this link, I certainly will. And it's funny,I feel like that link is just where my game is going.

I also hit this trick. I was going for my ripwalk record, messed up, and just.. I don't even know. I didn't really click that I was going to do Scorpions tail until about 3/4 through the trick. And Derek, this is not the video I intend on making for you, I have a longer one planned for that.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/7g48ot1tH4w[/youtube]

[MetZelRio]

What the heck? I just read through your last several blog entries. What the heck? From your Joulukalenteri appearances too now is a night and day difference. Oh, I've been talking to your new convert footbag player on YouTube. I can only imagine that he'll be chasing your skills down relatively soon, so we will all be in for some healthy shred vids from your 'hood.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Paul, I think you're referring to Carter Cody... Our secret weapon's secret weapon

[boats]

whoa, sick dude! those three new tricks are massive.

I had a footbag dream once that took place in Europe at a tournament. It may have been france. I walk up to a circle of footbagers and David Clavens is in the circle. He is hitting all of these four dex tricks and sometimes it doesnt even make sense.

[Nathan8]

Paul, thanks for talking to Carter. It shows that there really are footbaggers out there.

I had a session two nights ago that was really good. It was basically a make up session, I hit things that I should have a while ago but never did.

Barfly b2b
stepping far osis>ripwalk rpt
Whirl x10 on strong, x9 on flip
stepping ss osis b2b

I've really been into stepping out of osis recently. It has been pretty easy for me, so I will stick with it. Plus, I feel like Phil Morrison when I do it.

Tomorrow is Relay for Life and I will probably earn some for American Cancer Society by doing some footbag performances. Everybody loves footbag. On multiple occasions today at a carnival I went to at my school someone stopped me to show them some footbag. I am known as "that footbag kid" in my high school. I like it, footbag rocks.

[Nathan8]

I am like a teenage girl about footbag right now. I still love footbag, but one day I tell myself I suck, the next I think I am half decent, then I think I suck again, then I play some footbag and think that I have made some progress. The last two weeks I have mostly sucked. Mathieu Giard-Montpetit has given me advice about how to keep my body in good shape so that it can perform to its utmost potential. It definetly is working. My legs feel better than they have in a while. One of the big he made was to play less. So I have been... and now I suck. My legs feel great... but now I suck. Matt if you're reading this, I truly appreciate your advice and I will continue to use most aspects of it, but I think I will be playing more than prescribed from now on. Or maybe I just have to find a happy medium.

Relasy for Life was great. I did street performance like things there and raised some money for the American Cancer society. I also got a lot better at it, as I spent hours playing with a tip jar in front of me. And for those of you who haven't done it, traditionally most people pull an all nighter at Relay. Myself, not so much. I went to bed at 1:30 and slept until 3:30. When I woke the very first thing I wanted to was play footbag, so that's what I did. I was pulling out 20 contact titless/guiltless strings at 4 in the morning, which was super fun. I don't think I've ever played so much footbag in an 18 hour period. Oh, and at around 6 pm there was a thunderstorm so everyone was evacuated to the gym inside. There was a captive audiencee of a few hundred bored people, so I seized the oppurtunity and took center stage. I hit some pretty good dtrings and got quite an applause. It was awesome. Possibly the craziest part of all this was my legs felt fine after Relay. I played on the rubber track and the astroturf footbal field, I guess they are easy on the legs.

I also had a very interesting experience while camping this weekend. All I will say for now is that Wham-O is looking to re-market the Hacky Sac and they are about to make some big, positive, changes.

[Nathan8]

I spoke on the phone with both Evan Gatesman and David Clavens today, so that itself made today a success. I may elaborate in the future. Goodnight.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Nathan already told me all about this, so I'm gonna spoil it for everyone..

SPOILER ALERT!

Nathan got Clavens and Gatesman to agree to be completely dismembered and reassembled with various body parts from each player to create a beast of epic footbag godliness.

It might hurt each of them significantly, but it'll be kinda cool, I guess.

[Nathan8]

Nathan got Clavens and Gatesman to agree to be completely dismembered and reassembled with various body parts from each player to create a beast of epic footbag godliness.

It might hurt each of them significantly, but it'll be kinda cool, I guess.

I think this belongs in that ridiculous thread on Facebook about injuries from footbag.

[Nathan8]

I played footbag on Friday for about 4 hours. It was great. It was my return to non-sucky footbag. I determined it was best I ever played, ever. Every stall felt so good, so controlled, so Gatesman. He has deep stalls.

BSOS Blurriest
BSOS Blurry Whirl
very footed Janiwalker

Saturday Nick, Ivan, Carter, and Danny came over. Carter and Danny are both new, both have good lavers, and are both rocking it. I woke up that morning feeling a little blah, and I didn't feel 100% while kicking. I had some decent strings, but wasn't where I was the day before. After everyone left at 2 I fell asleep until 7:30. I definitely have a cold. And I definitely don't have an immune system either, because I get so many colds. Otherwise it was a great day. Nick hit Janiwalker first try without hardly warming up. Ivan rocked his double downs, and Danny and Carter were hitting clippers both sides. At the end of the session I asked Nick to hold the camera while I hit food. I did, first try, so I didn't freak out. Again. But I was still excited, it was my first 6.

Food Processor!

[Nathan8]

I've been playing footbag. Today I specifically worked on the fitness side of footbag. I asked my friend to time me and I went tiltless until I dropped, picked up the bag as fast as possible, and kept going. I would go on like this for 3 minutes until I was exhausted. The bag felt like a bowling ball and my legs like steel girders by the end of the 3 minutes. It was fun and eye opening though, I had never tried anything like it. I also hit my first 5>5 the other day. It was blurry whirl b2b. My reaction: "yesss. Wait. Noooooo." <--- I actually said that to myself. I had totally forgotten that I wanted mobius b2b as my first 5>5, but whatever.

I kicked with my friend Ricky today, who hasn't kicked in many months. He threw down some 3-4 trick tiltless strings, including mirages, legovers, atws, clippers, far legovers, toe ss drifter, and toe ss mirages. He almost hit double legover a few times, it was thrilling.

I had a session at Danny's house on Monday. It rocked. It was a duo session, so I spent a lot of time teaching him. He learns quickly and is practicing a lot on his own. #potential. His homework was to work on magic hop and I can't wait to see how far he got at our session tomorrow. I made a video from that session, this one's for you Derek.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/y1xaAkQ1-vk[/youtube]

Hiighlights:
Blurry Whirl b2b

[isirc10]

Propsicles on the 5>5 and being good at footbag. (propsicles are props that are so cool they're frozen - quite common in the winter, but refreshing and highly sought after during the summer)

Now that you're driving (yes?) we need to find a spot in the middle to play together.

[Nathan8]

Driving.. uhh.. yeah about that... I was slacking on finishing my online course which I need to do before I take my test. But your post made me go bust out the rest of it. Now I test whenever Ms. Morgan is available and then we kick. I would be down for finding a halfway point. And thanks for the propsicles, my little brother had one today but I had a brownie instead.

[Add Block]

Nice clean style, make sure to land on your toes after Barfly/Blurriest