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Keep a diary of what you're hitting, what's frustrating you, and your goals.
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DC Clinks
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Danny Boi'$ FootblG

Post by DC Clinks » 03 Jun 2014 06:52

Just going to sum up my last few sessions, the PA net championships, and future goals for the next 2-3 months.
----
PA net event: This was really cool. I had never seen any kind of net footbag before, so it was interesting to see a blend of free-stylers and net players. I was somewhat surprised to find out that I'm absolutely garbage at playing net. I figured "Hey, I can kick a footbag pretty decently, what's the difference right?" In reality, they're entirely different concepts with the only noticeable similarity being that it involves using your legs and a footbag. It was pretty fun because of all the chill players, but I don't think I'll be competing in a net tournament anytime soon.

I didn't really hit anything new besides a few Wraps to practice my Clippers and a Leg-over > Clipper once or twice. But I played hard and it was a lot of fun.

Monday's Session: Wanted to go sort of light on this one. My legs were still a bit sore from the weekend and the sun was pretty brutal, only played for about an hour with breaks between kicking intervals. I did get two new records though: I beat my previous record of 68 toe stalls with 92 stalls, and my previous record of 22 inside stalls with 25 stalls. I'm actually pretty proud of that first one as that was a big source of frustration for me on that last day at the net events. Felt really good to hit that.

Tuesday: ???
Going for a bike ride soon. If my legs feel okay after, I'm going to have a nice long session today hopefully.
Edit: Bike ride is done, was only 4 or 5 miles so not that bad. Legs feel fine so gonna go shred. Will post later with results, might even get started on some simple level 1 badge stuff.

Future Goals:
Kicks
-Toe kicks: These having probably been the hardest thing for me to learn because inside kicks are so ingrained into my brain that my muscle memory just kicks in and tries to do an inside kick instead of a toe kick. My non-dominant left leg toe kicks have been especially lacking. My goal for these are to get them consistent enough to the point where I can 20 or so alternating without an issue.

-Inside kicks: These have been developing nicely to the point where I can get 20-40 alternating no problem most of the time with good form. My record is 118 but that was probably a fluke, I don't know. I did that with my skate shoes and I feel like even though Lavers are better for stalls and kicks, I can't help feeling that I haven't gotten fully used to the smaller surface area and curvature of my Lavers yet. I want to get able to hit upwards of 75 or so alternating inside kicks.
DONE

-Outside kicks: I have these down okay on my right side, my left side is a bit more lacking. Alternating them feels really odd at the moment and I very rarely attempt to practice that. I don't see these as being THAT important, but it's better to be well-rounded and decent at everything than off-balance and great at some things but horrible at other things in my opinion. Same goal as toes for now I think, 20 alternating.

Stalls
-Inside stalls: My form on these isn't as good as I would like, and I want to work on these a bit more. I can currently get around 15-20 or so but sometimes they're really sloppy/ I just get lazy and don't turn my body and instead turn my legs, which messes up my setting abilities. My goal for these is to get them to about where my toe stalls are right now, 50 or 60 alternating stalls consistently.

-Toe stalls: These are looking better and better and I think I've made a lot of progress with these in a relatively short amount of time. I can get about 70 alternating stalls very consistently now, with my new record being 92. Nick pointed out something about my form though that could help these become better. He said instead of trying to stall farther away from my body and setting to come back closer, I should be making a sort of "Z" motion with my legs so that my sets are just consistently closer / hugging my body more. I think that's what he meant anyways...

I noticed a while ago that Matt's toe stalls were different from mine and I couldn't see the difference until Nick showed it to me, indirectly in a way. Anyways I'm going to work more on my form as Nick suggested and try to build up more endurance so I can get 150+ toe stalls.
DONE

-Outside stalls: These are more for just fun little things to do every once and a while, I don't practice them that enough. I can get them maybe 1/2 the time with my right foot and haven't really tried on my left. Matt doesn't really stress these as much because it's sort of an awkward position and difficult to combine with other things I guess. But I still want to try and work on these and maybe in the future try to do something cool with these. Same goal as outside kicks for now.

Beginner/ Intermediate (?) Tricks
-Leg-overs: These are really fun, I like these a lot. I still need to work on my form and try to keep everything tight and controlled, especially at the stalling point. I'd like to be able to hit 20 or so consistently, alternating.

-ATW/Orbit: These are fun as well but I've been having more trouble with them than leg-overs. I have yet to land any orbits, and have only done a few ATWs on my right side and a couple sloppy ones on my left. Really need to work on form and timing with these ones, maybe be able to get 10 or 20 alternating for both.

-Pickup/Mirage: I have yet to hit these at all. I came somewhat close at the PA net events but didn't quite get it. Goal for these is to work more on form and timing, and be able to 10 or so alternating consistently.

-Wrap/ Clipper: I don't think I've ever hated anything more in the entire world than I do Clippers. These are very very frustrating for me, I just can't seem to get them down. I'm going to work hard on the exercises and tricks Nick and Matt showed me and try to nail these things maybe 10-15 times alternating consistently. I think this is going to be the hardest goal to achieve as I just seem to be more inclined towards toe stalls and toe related tricks than inside stalls/ tricks.

-Flapper(???): These look so fucking cool, I actually got this big stupid grin on my face whenever Nick did one of these and couldn't help laughing. I really want to be able to do these, but I don't think I'm skill enough yet with tricks behind my body to be able to execute them correctly. Nick said I have really good crank, which I guess is just like how flexible your ankle is/ the full range of movement and rotation you can get. Will work on these in the future.

This might be overly ambitious, who knows, but I'm going to work very hard to try and get everything on this list over the summer. If I can do that, maybe I can learn some more tricks too.

Okay, off to go shred, will post back later with results/ replies to other comments.
Last edited by DC Clinks on 21 May 2017 18:27, edited 22 times in total.
-Daniel C. NY, USA. "Sacrifice a goat to our Lord and Savior Evan Gatesman".

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Re: Adventures of a Newb: Dan's Footblog

Post by Cass » 03 Jun 2014 06:56

You seem really motivated! I think you freestyled more than anyone this weekend! Keep it up :)


The first event is kinda weird cause you don't really know what's going on. Trust me it only gets better!

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Re: Adventures of a Newb: Dan's Footblog

Post by DC Clinks » 03 Jun 2014 21:15

Yea Cassy this is definitely the coolest sport I've ever played, I don't have any plans of quitting anytime soon. Maybe, I think I played something like 4 or 5 hours on Friday, a little less than that on Saturday, probably the longest time I've spent freestyling over a 2 day period, it was great.

Haha yea, I got the feeling that this event was kind of a unique one. Can't wait to see everyone again.

----

Alright, posted this much later than expected, but session today was kinda weird. My sister "footbagged" with me for like an hour so basically we just fucked around doing nothing lol. Made a short video of it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MR6Wan-YDE. Actually was able to hit 5 leg-overs while doing it so that was cool. After my sister left I was able to get a bit more serious for maybe half an hour before a storm came in and it started raining like crazy. Here's what I got today:
-51 inside kicks (alternating)
-40 right toe kicks (one at a time, trying to focus on form)
-10 left toe kicks (these are so fucked I counted a toe kick as simply moving my leg straight and hitting it in the general area of my body, focusing less on perfect form and more just trying to keep my leg actually straight)
-30 right outside kicks (separate)
-30 left outside kicks (same as right)
-55 attempted "Z" form toe stalls (really trying to make my form and timing perfect with these)
-15 inside stalls (alternating, should have tried for a higher number but it was raining kinda hard at that point and I wasn't really feeling it)
-10 right-side wraps (inside stall to clipper position and back again, holding for 3s)
-7 left-side wraps (same as right)
-5 alternating leg-overs (I was trying for the 6x leg-overs as part of the level 1 badge but couldn't hit it, getting slowly more consistent with these however)

All in all not a terrifically great session but I had fun doing it anyways and that's the important part for me.
-Daniel C. NY, USA. "Sacrifice a goat to our Lord and Savior Evan Gatesman".

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Re: Adventures of a Newb: Dan's Footblog

Post by akprice » 04 Jun 2014 09:43

welcome to freestyle! i just started in january and am about at the same level as you. your legovers look great. you might want to incorporate the magic hop more into them (i have been told that by multiple people and it does make it easier). the same thing with mirages. :)

if you want some clipper help, check out david clavens tutorial on this (if you haven't already). helped me a TON!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGNJgqmtt4Y[/youtube]

i've had some great tips on my blog about mirages, clipper and legovers. you might learn something there. mine is double AA's footblog.

looking forward to your progression. we can do it!!!!
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Re: Adventures of a Newb: Dan's Footblog

Post by DC Clinks » 04 Jun 2014 21:03

Oh really? That's sick dude. Thanks, I'm liking them the most so far. Just did a few practice ones with the hop, felt a bit better for sure! I'll have to try it out tomorrow. Oh yea I think I've seen this before, I'll be sure to watch it again though. Oh nice, I'll check it out.

---

Went to a concert so that took up most of my time today. Saw MIRK, Sister Sparrow and the Dirty Birds, and Living Colour, was pretty cool actually. No footbag today unfortunately, maybe tomorrow.
-Daniel C. NY, USA. "Sacrifice a goat to our Lord and Savior Evan Gatesman".

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Re: Adventures of a Newb: Dan's Footblog

Post by DC Clinks » 05 Jun 2014 21:48

No shredding today. Definitely going to have a long session tomorrow. Will post results after.
Last edited by DC Clinks on 22 Jul 2014 05:51, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Adventures of a Newb: Dan's Footblog

Post by DC Clinks » 06 Jun 2014 21:48

So it ended up being a pretty short session. I've been getting progressively sicker over the past few days (I blame Matt Kemmer) and just wasn't feeling it.
Here's what I did hit:
73 inside kicks
15 alternating toe kicks (1 rotation each)
50 right outside kicks
30 left outside kicks
52 and 63 toe stalls alternating

My toe kicks are feeling a little better each session now. I can keep my left leg straight most of the time, and the form on my right is improving somewhat. So that's something to be proud of I guess. Hopefully will have a session with Matt some time soon, I'm always more motivated in a group.

L8r.
-Daniel C. NY, USA. "Sacrifice a goat to our Lord and Savior Evan Gatesman".

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Re: Adventures of a Newb: Dan's Footblog

Post by F[uns]tylin' Eclectic » 07 Jun 2014 19:30

Wtf, I thought I replied in this blog at least once! Guess not :/ Hi, Dan! Oh yeah, I replied to you in my blog, that's why I thought I posted in here. Anyway... Much improvement with Footjawn/Kicksphere. Impressed at your numbers. You're gonna be just like Matt. I already see some amazing form starting to build up. Can't wait to shred it with you again. Keep playing and drilling like this and you're going to make lewis send bounds every week or so. Heist Krupp it up!

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Re: Adventures of a Newb: Dan's Footblog

Post by F[uns]tylin' Eclectic » 07 Jun 2014 19:32

LEAPS AND BOUNDS ****** not lewis and send... Ass phone is an ass phone.

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Re: Adventures of a Newb: Dan's Footblog

Post by DC Clinks » 08 Jun 2014 20:58

Hey Nick, haha yea I remember that... Footjawn/Kicksphere? Lol. Thanks for all the compliments and advice. I'm not too sure on that Matt point though, I wanna get into the weird/ unusual stuff too once I get the basics down! Will definitely keep keep at it with the drills, they seem to be helping. Lewis send bounds haha, nice one.
-Daniel C. NY, USA. "Sacrifice a goat to our Lord and Savior Evan Gatesman".

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Re: Adventures of a Newb: Dan's Footblog

Post by F[uns]tylin' Eclectic » 08 Jun 2014 21:36

Fantastic to hear that you want to enter the unusual world… You'll get there. My advice for it is drill all the real tricks first, then once you have a solid game, then start adding your weirder tricks in. I tried to make a game based on all weird stuff a while ago and it failed miserably, which is why I stopped doing it for a while and just recently started up again. Trust me on this. Solid game first, then add weird stuff. You can, of course, mess with weird stuff on the side while developing your normal game, but don't spend a heap of time on it.

But what I meant about the Matt point is that you're going to have great form, like him.
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Re: Adventures of a Newb: Dan's Footblog

Post by Cass » 09 Jun 2014 06:29

F[uns]tylin' Eclectic wrote:drill all the real tricks first, then once you have a solid game, then start adding your weirder tricks in.
+1

I waited until I was very strong tiltless before worrying about weird stuff. That sort of thing comes a lot easier when you have a solid foundation.

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Re: Adventures of a Newb: Dan's Footblog

Post by DC Clinks » 10 Jun 2014 21:43

So I guess my priorities are as follows then:
1. Learn foundations/ basics
2. Learn foundations/ basics and
3. Learn foundations/ basics.

Haha thanks guys, will do. And I hope so Nick, I think good form makes for a nice clean style -- which I would very much enjoy having.

Let's see, had a session with Matt on Monday. It was pretty fun despite the less than optimal weather. I don't remember hitting anything really new or groundbreaking, but I did some things:
(It's harder to keep exact track of everything when I'm not having a solo session, but I'll give some rough estimates)
-60 or 70 inside kicks (total)
-10 or 15 toe kicks (both sides, total)
-a few outside kicks and stalls
-a lot of toe stalls (probably >100 total)
-30 or 40 inside stalls
-a couple dozen Legovers (still haven't hit 6 alternating)
-a few ATWs
-some wrap and clipper exercises

That's about it, no new records or anything but I had fun doing it for the most part. I usually get most frustrated towards the end of a session when my legs are tired and I can't land things as easily.

Matt says I'm at a bit of a plateau right now, and that I need more focused and disciplined solo sessions to really improve. I agree with him completely. I think I'm going to have a solo session tomorrow (or today I guess) and work on my weaker points. That is if my Game of Thrones addiction subsides long enough for me to shred (just getting into season 4).
Will update later.
-Daniel C. NY, USA. "Sacrifice a goat to our Lord and Savior Evan Gatesman".

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Re: Adventures of a Newb: Dan's Footblog

Post by F[uns]tylin' Eclectic » 11 Jun 2014 11:12

I agree with Matt. You definitely cannot just have duo sessions with Matt. You will not see yourself improving very quickly. You're out of school for the summer, so you should have plenty of session time... You should kick like... 3 to 4 days solo then once or twice a week with Matt.. Or something like that

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Re: Adventures of a Newb: Dan's Footblog

Post by DC Clinks » 12 Jun 2014 21:58

Yea, that's true. Will definitely work on that. Had another session with Matt, was pretty shitty for me anyways. Bad weather, wet and rainy. At least it wasn't cold. Got pretty mad at stuff I couldn't land a lot although I tried to keep a level head. Sloppy forms on some stuff, decent on others. We didn't play for that long, maybe like an hour, hour and a half. Got some practice in at least. Towards the end of the session I was getting obsessed with beating my alternating legover record. Matt says I should just try to do them stand-alone or with easier moves after to perfect my form and timing. He's probably right.
Last edited by DC Clinks on 09 Jul 2014 17:58, edited 1 time in total.
-Daniel C. NY, USA. "Sacrifice a goat to our Lord and Savior Evan Gatesman".

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Re: Adventures of a Newb: Dan's Footblog

Post by Cass » 13 Jun 2014 03:55

Hey Erik posted this in Aaron's blog and I think its super relevant for you also! The magic hop is super key for getting consistent Legovers and other things. Study this:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18WYUsAzDRA[/youtube]


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Re: Adventures of a Newb: Dan's Footblog

Post by DC Clinks » 14 Jun 2014 19:30

Thanks for the help Cassy/ Erik! That helped a bunch with my leg-overs this session. Yea, it's definitely one of the hardest sports I've ever done.

Had a short-ish session today for around an hour. It was getting dark so I didn't get to do as much as I wanted, but I got this:
-52 varied kicks (inside, outside and toe)
-20 outside kicks (both sides)
-Countless toe stalls, one run of which beat my previous record of 92 with 98 toe stalls (alternating)
-20 legovers (single, with hop, both sides)
-10 inside stall > opposite toe stall > opposite legovers
-3 left wraps (front to back 3 times)
-3 right wraps (front to back 3 times once, single front to back 6 times (I think this is mostly a balance issue honestly, not sure))

And that's about it. Was a fun session though, had some nice tunes on, cool sunset. Not too hot, not too cold, was really good.
-Daniel C. NY, USA. "Sacrifice a goat to our Lord and Savior Evan Gatesman".

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Re: Adventures of a Newb: Dan's Footblog

Post by DC Clinks » 18 Jun 2014 21:19

QUICK session yesterday, got the following:
-139 varied kicks (up from 118, probably a fluke but I just got into this groove after a while and every kick just made sense)
-66 toe stalls alternating
-28 inside stalls (alternating, up from 23 I think)
-20 legovers (single, both sides)

Was fun. Will hopefully have a nice solo session tomorrow/ a session with Matt soon.
-Daniel C. NY, USA. "Sacrifice a goat to our Lord and Savior Evan Gatesman".

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Re: Adventures of a Newb: Dan's Footblog

Post by DC Clinks » 20 Jun 2014 21:41

Had a session with Matt on Thursday. I didn't really hit anything of importance, just the regular drills and kicks/ stalls. We played for a good two hours, I had a lot of fun. I think I'm getting better at keeping more level-headed and calm when something is frustrating, so that's good. And I had some pretty dope legovers which is also good.

Towards the end of the session something in my right quad was hurting kinda bad to the point where it was hard to keep playing. I think I was just overworking it or something, putting too much strain on it. After some ice and pain-relieving shit it's mostly fine now. Hopefully it'll be all clear by Sunday so I can shred hard next week.

Matt's going to US Open next week-- sounds pretty cool. I don't really know all the levels of organization for stuff yet but I guess it's a big event. Hopefully we can have another session together before that but if not whatevs.

Might shred tomorrow if my leg is done being a weakling, we'll see.
-Daniel C. NY, USA. "Sacrifice a goat to our Lord and Savior Evan Gatesman".

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Re: Adventures of a Newb: Dan's Footblog

Post by F[uns]tylin' Eclectic » 20 Jun 2014 23:46

Yo Clinky, that is one of the most important aspects of footbag.. Staying calm when you can't do something. I just had to hold my shit together because a trick was giving me so much trouble. Vasek says that when you drop a trick, be grateful that you dropped because now you know how to not drop that trick. But when you're persistent, you can figure out how to do it. If you're persistent and it is still way too hard, you can do one of 4 things:

A) Stop playing for a minute… Look at the trick as a whole… Figure out if there is an easier setup on the trick, like you could move your foot a bit closer, you could set the bag lower/higher/in a different spot, you could dex higher/lower, etc..

B) Ask Matt what you're doing wrong (this is your best choice lol You have a phenomenal resource and a really cool dude, so use his brain and his experience to your advantage)

C) Take the trick and break it down into the simplest of movements. For instance, Mirage. It is composed of Toe Stalls, ATW, Pickup.. If you find a weak spot, you know what you should drill for the remainder of your session. I think a great goal for you right now is to be able to hit ATW x10 bs, before you continue drilling other things. Once you learn to hit this, your legs will have great muscle strength and muscle memory and you will have a better chance at hitting, literally, any trick. You must think of ATW & Orbit as a KEY that can open any door Because if you think about it, either one of those 2 tricks are a small part of absolutely every single footbag trick every invented or that ever will be invented. It is the ultimate shortcut in footbag. You should try to break your ATW and Orbit records on both sides during like every session/every other session. Yeah, of course they're boring, but in my opinion, I would rather drill tons of ATWs & Orbits rather than suck at footbag… so I did :P

4) I heard Matt knows a lot of stuff about footbag :P

Hope this helps dude. I'm really looking forward to kicking with you again. If Matt goes to PSU Artsfest July 10-13th, you should try your best to join him. I'll be going too. Hope to see you guys there.
Nick Polini

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"Yeah dude it's all mental. Then it's physical" ~Evan Gatesman

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