Starting over

Keep a diary of what you're hitting, what's frustrating you, and your goals.
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cammel
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Starting over

Post by cammel » 18 May 2020 11:45

I think it has been about 13 years since I played any footbag. I'm still shocked that this happened. It was never a conscious decision to stop playing. Even a decade after I stopped following the footbag scene online I would still find myself thinking about footbag tricks when I was standing in line or waiting for something to finish.

With the current lockdown I found myself without my only consistent form of exercise which was soccer. I used to play a few times a week in recreational leagues around town, some pick-up games with friends. I hate running just for the sake of exercise and after the first month of lockdown I was feeling like absolute garbage without any physical activity. I really don't have the mental fortitude to push myself physically if I'm not doing something fun.

One day it just hit me, footbag! I used to footbag until I was absolutely exhausted, and I still had all my old gear! So I got out an old footbag and a pair of quantums. The quantums had rotted or something, the soles just started disintegrating when I put them on. I went on Ebay and somehow there was a pair of 10.5 lavers. Destiny. Snatched those up, got them a week or so ago and modded them. Felt like old times.

Since I'm essentially starting over from scratch I figure this time I'm going to try and work on all the things I didn't have the patience for back then. I used to be pretty terrible about training my weak side, or trying to get long and diverse runs. Instead would spend hours trying to muscle my way through ridiculous big add tricks. So many strong side symposium eggbeater variants... Since I'm much older and have knees that probably can't take that shit anymore, I'm going to try and focus on drilling the basics and getting really comfortable with things on both sides before I start trying to do anything too crazy.

So I've been taking things pretty slow, don't have a proper video camera anymore, but have tried to record some with my phone to have markers of my progress. It definitely makes me feel better to be doing some physical activity again. Happy to have any critiques or suggestions for good drills. It's sad to see that there doesn't seem to be much activity on modified these days. Maybe the pandemic will drive some more people back to footbag?


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Welcome back!

Post by C-Fan » 18 May 2020 13:42

I remember you! We met at Emily Kulczyk's pajama jam in Santa Cruz back in 2005 or 2006 I think. Grant or Gray? Close? Regardless, glad to see an old face come back to the sport.

I think the main footbag activity is happening on Facebook, which is part of why Modified is so quiet. I also heard there is a Discord for footbag now too?

I hear you on the getting old thing. I just turned 40, and while its hard to play as hard, as consistently, and as consistently hard as before... you can still have a lot of fun with it. I'll check out your video soon and give feedback.

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Re: Starting over

Post by boyle » 18 May 2020 14:03

Welcome back to footbag! I've been hoping to see more people get back into it and also get back into posting their own stuff on Modified.

I'm running a comp for the rest of the month for consecutive kicks (one minute). There's some info in the online comps section here on Modified. Unfortunately there is a bit of spread across many online platforms but it's only a small-medium amount of people on each one. Do you have Instagram at all? Lots of players use Instagram and I find that to be a really good platform.

There is a "Freestyle Footbaggers" group on Facebook, that's probably the most active.

Where are you based? I guess it doesn't really matter in a time of lockdown for meeting others. There is also going to be an Online Worlds this year as no face to face event is going to be able to happen. Some information has just come out in the recent days.

Good job coming back to the basics, you're looking very balanced with those drills at the moment. A good one is to try and do all the different variants of legover, illusion, mirage, pickup. So if you go legover>ss legover then the same again, then you switch to illusion>ss illusion and then keep going. Good for stamina.

A good clipper one is you go from side to side, start with 1 clipper, on the other side 2, switch sides 3, keep going for as many as you can do.

Keep posting in here too. It's a bit quiet but there's a few of us who post reasonably often, particularly here in the footblogs section. Enjoy, look forward to seeing some more of your stuff.

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Re: Starting over

Post by cammel » 18 May 2020 16:15

Thanks guys! Yep, Gray. That sounds right about the pajama jam Ken, you've got a good memory! I was also at the 2007 worlds.

Too bad to hear things have fragmented a bit. This is the closest I've come to social media in a decade or so, and I think I'll probably stay away from Facebook and Instagram. I don't even know what Discord is.. :oops:

Thanks for the suggestions Daniel, and thats cool you're running online comps, I'll give it a go. I edited the videos for some of the online competitions back when Nic from NZ was running them. That was good fun.

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Re: Starting over

Post by acxel22 » 19 May 2020 06:11

welcome back! Looking forward to see you hit some PS Eggs again!
Mathieu Gauthier

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Re: Starting over

Post by C-Fan » 19 May 2020 08:27

cammel wrote:
18 May 2020 11:45
I hate running just for the sake of exercise I really don't have the mental fortitude to push myself physically if I'm not doing something fun.
Same. I've lived at a lot of places with gyms and tried to just do cardio or weights, and failed mostly due to boredom.
cammel wrote:
18 May 2020 11:45
I'm going to try and focus on drilling the basics and getting really comfortable with things on both sides before I start trying to do anything too crazy.
That's a great mindset, really for any stage of a footbagger's career. I periodically have to remind myself to do this.
cammel wrote:
18 May 2020 11:45
Happy to have any critiques or suggestions for good drills.
Beyond any specific drills, I think it helps to track your drills. Like, have a group of drills that you do every time you play, and ideally also track how many contacts you are getting of them. I find that having specific targets and markers helps me be more objective when assessing my progress. Like, I may feel like I'm having a bad session, but if I see I'm hitting my targets it makes me realize that its not a bad session. Hope that makes some sense.
cammel wrote:
18 May 2020 16:15
you've got a good memory!
My footbag memory is pretty sharp. Functional day-to-day memory on the other hand... I'll let you know right after I find my keys. Fuck. I JUST had them in my hand! :evil:

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Re: Starting over

Post by Tjuggles » 19 May 2020 15:43

Yay welcome back!

You mentioned in Ken's footblog about a dictionary. It turns out I made one here (Android):
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... icktionary

There are two versions. The free version is probably better for you since you are just getting back into things. It has a trick cap of 3 adds. The full version has more-add tricks. Of course, purchasing the full version will help motivate me to continue to upgrade.
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Re: Starting over

Post by Muffinman » 21 May 2020 16:08

OMG Gray Chadwick! It's so great to see you playing again! I remember all the crazy symp eggbeater tricks! Also, you featured me in a super long Worlds 2007 video, which was the longest I was ever in a footbag video! Always really appreciated that! Your form looks awesome -- love the bothsided in-turned (out-turned?) ankle on the legovers. If I had to say anything, it would be that sometimes your righthand-side clipper looked a bit weak? Is that your flipside? Maybe twist your hips a bit more on that one?

I also like Ken's idea about keep tracking of drills and records. Since I'm also just starting back up, because of injury, this is a great time to get rid of some bad habits!

Looking forward to seeing your progress!

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Re: Starting over

Post by cammel » 24 May 2020 20:03

Thanks Eric! Glad to see another familiar face, and its awesome that your injury is starting to get better!

Clippers are definitely not super comfortable just yet, my ankle flexibility needs a lot of work. My biggest imbalance is definitely in my toe sets. Pixie sets are super easy for me on the left side, and I just never got my right side consistent at all. Getting myself comfortable with that is going to be one of my biggest challenges.
Tjuggles wrote:
19 May 2020 15:43
You mentioned in Ken's footblog about a dictionary. It turns out I made one here (Android):
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... icktionary
Thanks for the suggestion, that looks really cool. Dont have android unfortunately. Its all starting to come back though..

Took about a week off because the muscles in the back of my left knee were feeling off, something about the way I was doing far pickups strained it. Or maybe they were just super sore having not been used for so long.. Feels alright now. Had another quick session today, here are a few highlights. Got whirl on both sides, DLO > clipper > rpt a few times, butterfly x 3, boyle's clipper drill up to 5.. Some higher add strong side stuff that I shouldn't be doing yet (bad!). Realizing all my clips were less than 10 seconds, next session I'll go for longer basic stuff.


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Re: Starting over

Post by Muffinman » 26 May 2020 13:26

Great stuff. Seriously love your form on everything! You really emphasize that turned ankle on your DLOs too!

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Re: Starting over

Post by cammel » 27 May 2020 10:41

Muffinman wrote:
26 May 2020 13:26
Great stuff. Seriously love your form on everything! You really emphasize that turned ankle on your DLOs too!
Thanks! Yea, I turn my ankles a lot on leg overs, dont really know any other way :)

Had a fun session today, the highlight for my "grown-up" goals:
36 contact run that had all the combinations of far/near legover/pickup/mirage/illusion
pdx DLO BSOS and dropped on the second pdx eggbeater argg :x
far butterfly > near butterfly > rpt in a string with a whirl

Highlight for my "16-year-old me still just wants to hit big moves" goals that I apparently havent grown out of:
strong side torque (almost weakside)
reaper strong side
near double pickup BSOS


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Re: Starting over

Post by Tjuggles » 27 May 2020 13:37

Nice shred! Great to see the goals being hit.

It looks like you maintain good balance for all of those tiltless combos. That will help a ton as you continue to move forward.

Keep it up!
TJ Boutorwick

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Re: Starting over

Post by cammel » 30 May 2020 13:20

Thanks!

I really need to go into a session with a list of things I'm going to try and do. If I don't it just ends up being totally chaotic and I can't really focus on anything. This was one of those days, pretty frustrating first part with no direction, then I just decided I was going to try and work on stepping sets some. Ended up getting blur, blizzard and ripwalk BSOS (separately) which felt nice. Happy with how comfortable those were. Not all the muscle memory is gone :) Toe sets from my right foot are still really bad, did PLO b2b, but thats definitely only possible starting with my bad side, really can't throw in toe sets in the middle of string yet. Definitely need to focus on that.


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Re: Starting over

Post by Tjuggles » 02 Jun 2020 14:38

cammel wrote:
30 May 2020 13:20
I really need to go into a session with a list of things I'm going to try and do. If I don't it just ends up being totally chaotic and I can't really focus on anything.
I agree completely. My main goal this year is to play bothsided. Unfortunately that is not the S.M.A.R.T.est goal. One thing I like about tournaments is that they force you to focus on specific things. When I am shredding casually, I tend to practice the same things, and not practice the same things too.

PS - I want to work on stepping sets too. Recently I have made sure to hit this at least once before finishing a sesh: stepping same clip > stepping op clip > rpt
I use way too much effort hitting this combo, and I think this combo may be one of the reasons my toes have been sore recently.
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Re: Starting over

Post by Muffinman » 03 Jun 2020 12:09

Actually, you guys (Gray and TJ) have similar style! Very smooth with lots of time to spare!
It looks like you're struggling with you osis a bit. Maybe some BOP drills would help with that, like as many full rotations of ((pdx mirage > near butt > osis) repeat). Something I like to do when training a drill like this is to count each full rotation of the drill (6 contacts here) as a single contact. So, in my head as I'm doing them I will count "1" after 6 contacts, then "2" after 12, etc. Somehow that way of thinking tricks my mind into believing I'm able to do a lot more contacts! Suddenly I'm at "5", and it's 30 contacts! So it's also a great drill for stamina and run length, as well as basic control.

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Re: Starting over

Post by cammel » 03 Jun 2020 14:14

Good ideas! I'll definitely try and do the stepping clip > stepping op clip drill, and try a few BOP drills to get some longer runs.

Kicked a bit more yesterday, stuck with working on stepping, got a few drills with stepping near/far legovers and pickups. Messed around with barfly and pdx whirl, got both on both sides which was nice. Whirls still feel really awkward, I feel like I would like my leg to stick out horizontally more, but right now my knee just sorta points straight down. The dex is clean, maybe its just a form thing. Hit fog on both sides which felt like a big move, and happy it wasn't really much harder on my weak side. Couldn't get ducking clip > diving clip > rpt though. So bad at ducking.


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Re: Starting over

Post by Muffinman » 03 Jun 2020 18:55

Your barfly form is so choice! Watching the first one, I was, like, “Oooh!” Very Tom Mosher (who gets barfly compliments from everyone!) I also just wanted to say that I have the same form on whirls and I also always hated it! If you figure out the secret to changing to more horizontal, I’d love to hear it! It’s part of the reason I don’t do whirls at all anymore!

Here’s old footage of me doing your style of whirl:

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Nice fogs

Post by C-Fan » 03 Jun 2020 19:42

Nice fogs. I've always loved that trick.

One thing I noticed with your ducks and dives, is that I think you're throwing the head movements too early. You should set the bag to about neck height, WAIT for it to get to that height, then throw the head movement. I think now you're doing the head movement before the bag has peaked or reached the right height, and it's throwing you off. Don't do anything with your head too early, wait until the bag is where it needs to be, and then have faith your head can move fast enough once the bag is there. Hope that makes sense.

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Re: Starting over

Post by cammel » 03 Jun 2020 20:36

Thanks Eric! Haha, wow, everything about that video is amazing. I remember watching a lot of those old hackrifice videos when I first found out about footbag. Not sure how you could play in such a small space. Love the box fan placement :D

I was hoping that whirl form might just be a flexibility issue. I'm pretty inflexible, so I've been trying to stretch more. I feel like maybe its Honza Weber's form that I think of most when I think about how I want to do whirls and blenders, leg sticking straight out at like 90° from your plant leg. Maybe I'll just focus on the barflies more than whirls, haha. I definitely have tried to make those dexes really big, and it feels more natural.

Thanks for the thoughts about the ducking Ken. Definitely will keep that in mind next time I try them. Pretty sure I tweaked my neck throwing my head around so much, so I definitely think you're onto something.

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Re: Starting over

Post by Tjuggles » 04 Jun 2020 16:46

cammel wrote:
03 Jun 2020 20:36
I feel like maybe its Honza Weber's form that I think of most when I think about how I want to do whirls and blenders
That reminds me of talking with Honza about similar tricks. I think his advice was to set behind you instead of to your side, almost like an osis set.
cammel wrote:
03 Jun 2020 20:36
Pretty sure I tweaked my neck throwing my head around so much, so I definitely think you're onto something.
For me, the duck just sort of happens. What I mean is that I set the bag and then determine its trajectory on its ascent. By doing so I can duck with as little effort as possible and then adjust my position to where the determined trajectory places the bag on its descent. I think having a long neck helps too...ah, also I think it helps to aim the set at your shoulder. That helps to ensure the duck is deep.
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