AdAstra's Footblog: Hopefully be back soon

[AdAstra]

Hi all, my name is Austin and I'm from the Lexington, KY, USA area. As of this post I'm super new to freestyle. Before discovering freestyle I just circle kicked whenever I got the chance. Now that I've come to know this new dimension I've been hopelessly hooked on the sport.

While I am a noob currently I plan to get much better over the next year. I'm a quick learner and have a rather athletic body type, both of which I hope will help. I do think I will be limited at times, though, because of time constraints and a previously injured right ankle. Nonetheless I am determined to get better at the sport.

At the moment I can hit the following tricks with relative consistency:

•Around the World [2 adds] (right side)
•Clipper [2 adds] (right side)
•Pixie [2 adds] (right side)

I'm still new, though, so I will continue to perfect these tricks and work on my left side ATW and Pixie. I'm going to leave the left side Clipper for another time, as I am currently working on improving my right ankle's flexibility. It would be near impossible to hit with my current status. Any ankle stretch ideas would be appreciated.

The bags I currently have are in the photo below:



The bags are:
•Mr. Sandbag blue/silver
•Eclipse-32 red/yellow from Dragonfly (not a fan)
•Generic knitted bag
•Custom 32-panel gray/orange from Mike Wilson

(Shoutout to Mr. Wilson, love the bag!)

P.S. For anyone wondering, Ad Astra means "To the stars" in Latin, part of a favorite phrase of mine.


Edit:

Running list of places I have footbagged:
Lexington, KY, USA
Natural Bridge, KY, USA
Cincinnati, OH, USA
Boston, MA, USA
Washington, D.C., USA
Copenhagen, Denmark
Oslo, Norway
Aruba
Curaçao
Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos

[MetZelRio]

We are about 5 hrs away from each other. A shred session wouldn't be impossible someday =)

Sent from my SM-N910P using Tapatalk

[Add Block]

Hi, Austin. Welcome to modified. No idea how to make ankles more flexible, but Damian had messed up his ankle and he made it into BAP, so you might want to ask him.
With clippers, what's usually getting better when you practice them is the strength of muscles that pull the ankles towards your body, not your flexibility, so don't try anything extreme like Walkovers, it's not going to help. Wraps are much better, but just for strength, you should definitely find some stretches for flexibility.

We are about 5 hrs away from each other. A shred session wouldn't be impossible someday =)

That's the most american thing I've read this month. I have 10 different countries within 5 hour drive.

[AdAstra]

24 Aug 2015

Kept practicing my ATW and Clipper on the right side; I'm getting nearly 90% success rate on those so I've come a long way. Still room to improve of course. Started working on my left side ATW and hit a few but still not used to the muscle motion in the left leg. My misses are getting "less bad", so to speak. My right side pixie is still my newest trick and I'm trying to get better at it and the left around the world before attempt the left side pixie.

An interesting observation: I prefer out to in ATW on the right, while in to out ATW on the left. Not quite sure why. Also, I randomly hit a Wrap today, for the first time while just messing around.

Other than that I've just been working on stretching and strengthening my ankles/calves for shredding.

This post has been rather jumbled, but I haven't any time today for an in depth post.

[Allan]

An interesting observation: I prefer out to in ATW on the right, while in to out ATW on the left. Not quite sure why.

As a general rule, when you find a preference like this: fight it; flip it; school in-out on your right and out-in on your left; school them until you prefer it that way. Then repeat the process

[AdAstra]

29 Aug 2015

Practiced my pixie, ATW, and clippers on the right side and my left ATW. I'm getting better at all the above. Started schooling my left around the world in the opposite direction. Did a few wraps too. Not much time to discuss much, have a party today.

[AdAstra]

3 Sept 2015

I haven't gotten to post for every one of my practices, but here's what I did today.

I schooled the opposite direction on my ATW's. I hit my first left to right pixie and I've gotten much better at the right to left pixie. My right side clipper is pretty solid but still haven't been able to crank my right ankle high enough to stall the bag on my left side. It's almost like I'm missing a muscle(not really) or something crazy because I just can't seem to get my toe high enough. It's frustrating to no end because it was so easy for me to pick up the left ankle crank.

[AdAstra]

4 Sept 2015

Really good practice today. Drilled my right leg ATW until I could hit it going clockwise and counterclockwise about equally well. Left leg ATW's still about the same level as previous practices; I plan to drill them tomorrow. My right to left pixie is getting visibly better, to the point where I can hit three in a row sometimes. My right side clipper wasn't too good today due to some soreness, so I let it rest for the most part.

I did manage to hit my first 3 trick (2 adds or better) string. I hit it three times; It was:

right side Clipper [del][xbd]> ATW ss [dex][del]> Pixie (right to left)[dex][del]

Could someone tell me how to put that in jobs notation? Specifically the pixie. Is a right side pixie where you set it and circle the bag with your right or is it when you catch it with the right? ss means same side, if I recall. When I say right side clipper it's my left foot catching the bag.

Exhausted and sweaty after this practice. It was definitely one I can be proud of.

[AdAstra]

5 Sept 2015

Practiced again today despite soreness, because I'll be too busy to practice Sunday and Monday.

Worked on my ATW's both sides in both directions. Still not comfortable enough with my left ATW's to seriously attempt a pixie from left to right.

Definitely feel myself getting better. Today I hit a butterfly from a hand set, so I think that may be the next trick I try to learn. (My first three add I think!)

Worked on stringing a few simple tricks together as well. It feels like more progress, but getting my success rates up on individual tricks is just as important, I suppose.

Also, I always shred to electronic music. Anyone else do this? It gets me stoked.

[AdAstra]

12 Dec 2015

Been I while since I've been able to post. This semester has been unimaginably busy and opportunities to footbag have been rare. Practiced some today and hit a leg over for the first time. Only took me three tries to get the motion down and now I can hit it well. Not consistently yet but that will come. Still working on the basics as I am quite rusty.

[Add Block]

Pixie as a standalone trick (not a set) is a great trick that most people have never practiced. It utilises the type of stability needed for Double ATWs and other stuff.
Similarly, you won't hit a Triple ATW without good Double Pixies, which is why most people can't hit Triple on flipside.

I'd encourage you to practice Fairy (Orbit bailed to the other foot, kind of like SS Illusion without a plant) as well. I have never seen anyone practice that but as a trick, Fairy requires a perfect set which is great to learn.

You seem to be doing well, Legovers are fun to learn. When you're happy with them, Far Legovers are even more fun. Happy shredding

[Kylescook]

I'd encourage you to practice Fairy (Orbit bailed to the other foot, kind of like SS Illusion without a plant) as well. I have never seen anyone practice that but as a trick, Fairy requires a perfect set which is great to learn.

When I was first starting to work on uptime components, Cory gave me similar advice. He would get a handful of bags and do pixie drop over and over.

[AdAstra]

2 Jan 2016

First session of the new year. I practiced a decent amount during Decemeber but didn't post. I hit a personal record 16 Around the worlds in a row one day.

Today I am just practicing the basics some more. From the posts above and some insight from Nick, I realize that I may have been calling some tricks by the wrong name. Apparently orbit and around the world are the same idea but different directions? Additionally, what I called pixie may be a fairy. Ugh.

Nonetheless today I hit a leg over and strung it together with a clipper and my form felt better than ever.

Edit: got a video of my leg over to clipper string. Can anyone critique it for me?

[AdAstra]

4 Jan 2016

Did 26 ATW's in a row today, which felt pretty good. Can anyone explain why some sources differentiate an orbit and an ATW but others don't? The IFPA moves page doesn't have orbit listed but I saw Nick's Instagram tutorial and the direction one circles the bag apparently makes a difference.

Additionally, I hit the longest string of tricks I've ever done. It was pixie > leg over > clipper > toe stall > ATW. Pretty basic but it's definitely an improvement for me.

[Allan]

Props on the things

Can anyone explain why some sources differentiate an orbit and an ATW but others don't? The IFPA moves page doesn't have orbit listed but I saw Nick's Instagram tutorial and the direction one circles the bag apparently makes a difference.

"Orbit" is from the Descriptive System (DS), as defined by Ianek in, what, 2006? 7?

.org's list predates the DS, and uses Jobs Notation to differentiate between directions of an around the world.

While it didn't take off wholesale, there have been a few names from the DS that have stuck e.g. twist for reverse swirl.

[ianek]

Hi, have you seen those?

should help.

this one is a move list with videos of all of them, not all tricks are there but pretty much all concepts are. so it should help understand variety of options you have to build your repertoire.
moveslist/

this one is many '' virtual badges'' you can achieve. it was meant to be some kind of a training method. look specifically at ''level'' badge. it really is a path to go from beginner to novice to intermediate to advanced.
badges/#badge20

let me know if you have any questions.

[AdAstra]

I'd encourage you to practice Fairy (Orbit bailed to the other foot

I guess I'm mixing myself up. I suppose I should clarify that my record is 26 orbits.

[AdAstra]

5 Jan 2016

Today I worked on a number of things. Namely, I worked on my orbits and ATWs, clippers, pixies, leg overs, and stringing them together. I also drilled simple BSOS toe stalls to improve my fundamentals.

My left side is so weak right now with orbits/ATWs that it is really frustrating. Definitely backtracked when i couldn't play often during autumn.

I tried filming my practice session today, and while I didn't set the camera up exceedingly well, I came away with about a minute of (not great) footage to ask you all to critique. It seems that my clipper is not very good when in a string with other tricks; I tend to lose control of the bag or twist too much. Let me know any tips please!

Here's the video:

[AdAstra]

7 Jan 2016

Today I joined Nick's Footbag 101 group and completed my first challenge of ten toe stalls. Definitely glad to be under his guidance. What I really wanted to post about though is that I hit my first real Butterfly! Boom! 3 adds!

I also worked on my weak side ATW's and orbits. Finally hitting them again. It's like my muscles completely forgot how to do them when I took those 2 or 3 months off.

[MetZelRio]

Man, we're about 5 hours away from each other. We ought to get together sometime.