Muffinman

Keep a diary of what you're hitting, what's frustrating you, and your goals.
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Tjuggles
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Re: Muffinman

Post by Tjuggles » 10 Jun 2023 16:30

That is great news! You can 'officially' Footbag again! Hoping for the best Erik. Don't push too hard! I definitely know how hard it is not to just bust big tricks after a long break.
TJ Boutorwick

"You can do anything" -Greg Nelson

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Re: Muffinman

Post by Muffinman » 24 Jul 2023 06:16

Thanks TJ! Yes, I have a bad habit of pushing too hard after an injury D:

I've been playing every week since my last post but didn't write anything here since I haven't really increased difficulty at all, just duration. I'm now at 1x 25 min session per week, and after this week it'll be up to 30 min! I have physio on Wednesday for the first time in 1.5 months, since my homework was to just increase duration of that weekly session unless pain hit a 4/10, which it hasn't quite yet. Assuming things go well, I may ask to start working on that hip/groin injury that I had in 2003, my first ever injury which still plagues me and prevented me from doing things like drifters, flip atomic, etc. Recently I found that pdx mirage with that hip was causing me a lot of pain! Also, after not playing for a long time, pdx mirage is a hard trick!! lol

Anyway, I actually had a session with Alex on Friday, which was fun, and probably the first time in 2 years that I'd played, seen someone play live, and also just seen Alex. So that was nice. I hit one ripwalk and then he chastised me, so I then stuck to just BOPs, 2s, and spinning and ducking clippers. It was about an hour long session, which I figured worked as a double of the 25 min with a second player.

I also almost connected with Tom Mosher for a session while I was visiting my brother in Kingston, Ontario the other week, but our schedules didn't end up aligning :(

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Re: Muffinman

Post by Tjuggles » 24 Jul 2023 14:26

I love hearing that you have been kicking. Great! Also good to hear you got yelled at for that ripwalk. You are like that mouse that gets shocked when eating cheese, but keeps going back for more...
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Re: Muffinman

Post by boyle » 25 Jul 2023 02:35

Great for you to have a session with others and be connecting with other players even if it didn't work out with Tom. Good to get the idea of having a session into their heads. Also, when Dylan Fry was at his top level, so much of his game was mixing spinning, ducking and all kinds of crazy combinations just involving these together. So there's plenty of fun to be had with that.

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Re: Muffinman

Post by Tjuggles » 25 Jul 2023 15:17

Erik you have my favorite footbag face out of everyone I think. Looking forward to seeing more of it.
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Re: Muffinman

Post by Muffinman » 31 Jul 2023 06:33

Lol thanks TJ.
Yeah, I would love to be able to play like Dylan! Spinning and ducking are my favourite elements anyway, so that will be fun to focus on more exclusively.

Jammed with Alex again on Saturday. My physiotherapist wanted me to up the difficulty a bit, so I slipped in some stepping (ripwalks/sidewalks, blurry/stepping legovers, stepping mirages mostly), spinning/gyro and ducking osii, and some spinning and gyro mirages/legovers... I couldn't really think of much that I wanted to do without pushing too hard, but I think I stuck to a good difficulty increase without going over. Oh I also did a lot of calf and knee bumping tricks (like calf kick > near clip > calf kick > far clip repeat kinda stuff). Calf kicks are so fun!! The spinning and ducking osii also stuck really well, which surprised me after being so out of practice! Nothing super noteworthy, but it was fun and about an hour's session. I felt less rusty than I was expecting, aside from the weakness in my back and being so out of shape (getting winded).

Oh, one weird thing was that it's been so long that I've played or seen someone play that watching Alex play, my brain didn't really track what he was doing. He did some drill that he was happy with and when I asked if what I thought I saw was what he hit, it ended up being something completely different... I guess I need to get back in practice of watching hack live too!

I'm also supposed to start introducing running, 20 min per week. I've never run before in my life, so I have no idea how that will go or how it will affect my footbag. I'm afraid of the impact on my back, but we'll see. I think it's the impact specifically that my physiotherapist wants me to get conditioned with for helping with footbag. I got fitted for a pair of shoes and my wife and I are going to try to start that maybe on Wednesday...

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Re: Muffinman

Post by boyle » 02 Aug 2023 02:22

What's your ducking osis record? That sort of stuff would be good to work on. Ones that flow nicely.

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Re: Muffinman

Post by Muffinman » 05 Aug 2023 14:19

FOOTBAG
My footbag tricks spreadsheet tells me that my record is 7 on one side and 6 on the other. I did have that in mind a bit today when we were playing, but I was struggling to hit anything today. A couple drill-y things that I hit today though were:
-spinning clipper > ripwalk > gyro clipper > ripwalk repeat
-osis > spinning clipper > osis > gyro clipper repeat, and then spinning and gyro osis both BSOS same run

Both of these things I hit first attempt, but I couldn't really hit much else. It was a really humid day though and Alex said he was also struggling to do anything. My back felt super stiff, but it was nice to play. It was literally the first thing I did after waking up, so my muscles weren't very limber, but I think that was the case last week too and I didn't feel as stiff as today.


OPPENHEIMER + MUTANT MAYHEM
Saw Oppenheimer last night. It was very intense and quite good. Insane, insane, insane cast. Like 30 of the biggest name A-listers? If you're bad at remembering names, though, this will be a hard movie to follow (I'm really bad with names...) More importantly we will probably see Mutant Mayhem tonight! We are soooo flippin stoked for this one! Been following all the trailers and behind the scenes interviews and stuff. Everything about this is exactly what I want in a movie. Looks like Spiderverse but Ninja Turtles! Fuck yeah!


STEAM DECK MODDING
Otherwise I've been spending a lot of time on decking out my... Steam Deck. I'm not super techy or experienced with hardware stuff, but I ordered a replacement 1tb nvme m2 ssd to replace the stock 64gb, since even just the shader files kept making the machine run super slow, even though I run most of the games and their files off a 1tb micro SD. It was a little daunting to open up the thing, disconnect wires, and do all this stuff. All in all it was pretty straight forward with good guides, but there was a chance of bricking this expensive console. Since then I added a bunch of third party software and I'm slowly, manually building up an emulation library for all consoles, meaning I have all retro console games, a curated list of games from mid generations like PS1, PS2, PS3, Xbox + Xbox 360, N64, Gamecube, Wii, Wii U, and Switch, etc... In addition to all the PC games on Steam, Epic, GOG, Amazon, Blizzard, etc, which includes a lot of PS4, PS5, and latest Xbox exclusives. So I've got almost every single game I could ever want on one handheld machine... it's pretty bonkers. And it's been pretty fun to tinker with and customize.

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Re: Muffinman

Post by Tjuggles » 05 Aug 2023 16:03

Muffinman wrote:
05 Aug 2023 14:19
FOOTBAG
My footbag tricks spreadsheet tells me that my record is 7 on one side and 6 on the other. I did have that in mind a bit today when we were playing, but I was struggling to hit anything today. A couple drill-y things that I hit today though were:
-spinning clipper > ripwalk > gyro clipper > ripwalk repeat
-osis > spinning clipper > osis > gyro clipper repeat, and then spinning and gyro osis both BSOS same run
Those are nice drills. I may try them next time. I like gyro clip > gyro osis repeat. On beat to a song it feels nice.
Muffinman wrote:
05 Aug 2023 14:19
Saw Oppenheimer last night. It was very intense and quite good. Insane, insane, insane cast. Like 30 of the biggest name A-listers? If you're bad at remembering names, though, this will be a hard movie to follow (I'm really bad with names...)
I'm not sure how I feel about this movie. I haven't seen it (no release date in Japan, although I'm sure I could find it online), but with in-laws who are from Hiroshima, and some whose relatives experienced the bomb, plus with some reviews I have read and my wife who (apparently accurately) assumed it won't talk about the Japanese side at all, I don't think it is something I will give high reviews to.

Muffinman wrote:
05 Aug 2023 14:19
STEAM DECK MODDING
Otherwise I've been spending a lot of time on decking out my... Steam Deck. I'm not super techy or experienced with hardware stuff, but I ordered a replacement 1tb nvme m2 ssd to replace the stock 64gb, since even just the shader files kept making the machine run super slow, even though I run most of the games and their files off a 1tb micro SD. It was a little daunting to open up the thing, disconnect wires, and do all this stuff. All in all it was pretty straight forward with good guides, but there was a chance of bricking this expensive console. Since then I added a bunch of third party software and I'm slowly, manually building up an emulation library for all consoles, meaning I have all retro console games, a curated list of games from mid generations like PS1, PS2, PS3, Xbox + Xbox 360, N64, Gamecube, Wii, Wii U, and Switch, etc... In addition to all the PC games on Steam, Epic, GOG, Amazon, Blizzard, etc, which includes a lot of PS4, PS5, and latest Xbox exclusives. So I've got almost every single game I could ever want on one handheld machine... it's pretty bonkers. And it's been pretty fun to tinker with and customize.
This sounds fun. I started building my own computers about 5 years back and find it really rewarding. I find the nvme m2 ssds are much smaller and faster than anything I have used before. I'm sure you will notice a difference. Running games off a micro SD surely will be slower than the ssd...how is the performance after upgrading? Shader files will surely run on the GPU, and I suppose they use RAM as well for caching? Have you upgraded RAM too? Do you need to? Can you?

Having every single game on one handheld machine sounds crazy, almost like having your cake and eating too. Don't get too fat! :)
TJ Boutorwick

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Re: Muffinman

Post by boyle » 06 Aug 2023 02:26

We had actually been considering to see it last night, but the 3 hour running time put me off. Someone mentioned that the last hour seemed to kind of drag on a lot too.

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Re: Muffinman

Post by Muffinman » 02 Oct 2023 15:14

COVID
Almost exactly 2 months since my last post. Oops! My wife and I finally caught Covid for the first time in early September -- she thinks she brought it home from work. We were so overly careful for 3 years, but I guess it was bound to eventually happen. It was literally the week before our New York trip, but thank god we were just barely well enough to not have to just throw away those expensive plane tickets! The trip was super brief, but really, really fun. We did manage to meet up briefly with Dat Phan for like an hour. We would've loved to have seen many more people, but there just wasn't time and it was technically an anniversary trip. Oh, also our first time traveling since Covid, so we completely forgot how airports work lol.


MOVIES
I actually read both of your replies when you commented, but thought I'd be replying the next week with my next session that never happened. That's super insightful perspective on the Oppenheimer movie, TJ! We were actually wondering about that, and your super unique position gives more of a glimpse on the Japanese side than the entire film. I'd be interested to hear more, but I guess you can only say so much without having seen the movie.

We watched The Creator this past Friday. We were super excited leading up to this one, but had heard mixed reviews? We absolutely loved it. It reminded me a lot of Chappie which is one of my top 3 favourite movies? Really, really good in every single respect.


STEAM DECK
TJ wrote:This sounds fun. I started building my own computers about 5 years back and find it really rewarding. I find the nvme m2 ssds are much smaller and faster than anything I have used before. I'm sure you will notice a difference. Running games off a micro SD surely will be slower than the ssd...how is the performance after upgrading? Shader files will surely run on the GPU, and I suppose they use RAM as well for caching? Have you upgraded RAM too? Do you need to? Can you?
Oooh, fellow nerd! Oh, I didn't realize that these SSDs were faster than the standard PC ones. Actually, according to lots of people's testing on the Steam Deck, games seem to run at about the same speeds and sometimes even faster off of the micro SDs -- not sure how accurate that is, but I haven't noticed much difference. I'm not sure about upgrading RAM -- I think I've heard of others doing that, but you need to be a bit more confident/experienced I think since I don't it's really designed to accommodate much an an upgrade in that department? But people have done some weird things like sticking a whole Apple airtag inside, so there is wiggle room for more fiddling I imagine. The majority of people's mods that I see seem to be external, which kind of defeats the purpose in my eyes if they're big clunky-ass things like a massive portable charger, or cooling system, or external hdd strapped to the back.


HACKY
Anyway, had a session last week but didn't have time to write about it, so now this is my 2nd or 3rd session since recovering? Man, my back is just so weak, but at least I'm slowly progressing, and at least I'm able to play at all. Things could be much worse, like they were for the past 3-4 years! Let me try to recall some highlights, though these sessions are only 25-30 min (my body starts giving out around the 20-min mark D: )

-pdx mirage > near butterfly > osis [repeat] x3 (so 18 contacts)
-spinning osis and gyro osis both BSOS
-ducking pdx mirage and clip-set diving mirage both BSOS
-20 osii?
-20 butterflies
-ducking clip > spinning clip > ducking cliper > gyro clip [repeat]
-stepping mirage and blur both BSOS (those stepping mirages are a real struggle, but it may be one of my favourite tricks -- feels so good)
-blurry legover and shmoe both BSOS
-tried spinning clip > ripwalk > gyro clip > ripwalk [repeat], but it was taking too much back strength

That's about it. Been aiming for 2 30-min sessions per week, as per my physiotherapist's suggestion, but I've maybe only done that once or twice? By the end of the week my back feels really weak. Will see if I can push through it. He said as long as I don't go above a 4/10 on pain to just keep going, but this 20-min mark in my sessions is right around that 4, so... hopefully I'm slowly improving... I actually start seeing a new physiotherapist in a couple weeks since mine left the clinic. My wife recommended her and says she's really cute.

Sorry, no time to check in on others’ blogs today. Will check back if I have a session on Friday/the weekend!

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Re: Muffinman

Post by boyle » 04 Oct 2023 16:16

I reckon that spinning and ducking repeating combo is exactly the kind of stuff you should be doing.

How about spinning ducking clipper>gyro clipper>ducking osis rpt

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Re: Muffinman

Post by Muffinman » 06 Oct 2023 15:37

Yes! Perfect! More challenges please :)
I think it only took 3 tries, but trying to stick at a semi-low level, it's hard to think of interesting tricks, links, and concepts, so any ideas will make my sessions more fun. Thanks Daniel! Also, don't worry, it was my physiotherapist who told me to increase difficulty. So I'm basically sticking to anything tripless and below without jerky movements, and no "hard" tricks.

Oh, I filmed, because I wanted to get your combo, so I don't really have anything more to say, since it's all in there. The girl off camera at the end was walking the cutest little kitten around the park. It must've been like half a year old or something. Omg.


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Re: Muffinman

Post by Asmus » 08 Oct 2023 23:09

Looking good! So good to see you back and kicking for real!

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Re: Muffinman

Post by boyle » 11 Oct 2023 21:14

Some great runs afterwards too!

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Re: Muffinman

Post by Muffinman » 21 Oct 2023 01:58

Thanks guys. Getting there!

I saw my new physiotherapist. She made some minor changes to my regiment, the most relevant of which was increasing one of my 2 weekly sessions from 30 to 40 minutes, and increasing intensity of that one session from ~20% to 30%. To do this I tried to add in a few more downtime components: DLOs and symp mirages. I thought DLOs would be too much of a jerky movement, but the very few I've done so far felt okay. My back has been feeling stronger and my stamina has been getting better. I don't have to rest as much throughout each session and I don't feel like my back may give out by the end. It's great to be able to quantify that progress. I have been having issues with my hip, which was my very first injury back in 2003, so I think I'll ask her to start focusing on that as well next time I see her.

I've filmed a few videos since my last post. Today's cut off like 5-10 minutes before my session ended, and I lost 3-4-ish good runs that I was happy with. Ah well. I think they were:
-diving osis > ducking osis repeat
-stepping clip > sidewalk > shmoe > dimwalk repeat
-another run starting with a drill that I forget...
-and then the other was just a 20+ run with some decent variety

Oh yeah, and I tried blizzard and stepping illusion BSOS because Sergio requested it from the previous video. I tried some and they felt super the, which is part of why I've never done many illusions (also because they used to hurt my knees), but watching the final clip in today's video they didn't look nearly as bad as I thought?

Anyway, here are the videos:




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Re: Muffinman

Post by Muffinman » 05 Mar 2024 14:46

I just had my first outdoor session of the season! I don't think it'll be a regular thing yet for a while, but it felt good and it was so warm! Before today I'd played twice since end of November, 2023, and both sessions were struggling just to do anything more than BOPs. So today wasn't much better, but it felt a lot more freeing than our stuffy, dirty indoor spot that I only really feel comfortable using when we have a group session, which has been really sparsely. I've lost most of the progress from when I was making videos last fall, but I'm happy to be able to play at all! Nothing of note, though I've started trying to learn fairy sets in place of my daily ATWs and that feels so good! Good side is pretty good, I think, but flip is a struggle. I hit fairy near mirage x2 and fairy near pickup > hand catch > other side. I was also able to hit fairy near mirage first try(?), on command, in shoes, when I mentioned it to Alex last session.

I'm hoping that the weather warms up consistently soon and that I can start playing twice weekly again! It's my primary life goal.

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Re: Muffinman

Post by Tripp » 19 Mar 2024 14:20

I can relate. With the exception of the month leading up to the USO last year, I haven't played in over a year due to injury. Hoping to be back into it by June but I know I'm going to be really rusty and I'm pretty upset about the whole situation. Regardless, flip fairy is one of the first things I want to start drilling again when the time comes.
Josh Gayhart ... keeping footbag tuff since 2002.

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Re: Muffinman

Post by Tripp » 19 Mar 2024 14:21

Good to hear your update, btw. Sorry, I didn't mean to be all talking about myself in your footblog lol.
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Re: Muffinman

Post by Cass » 27 May 2024 10:12

Hey Erik!

I noticed you’ve posted some videos on YouTube lately. Great to see you are able to play a bit again. I hope to see you at worlds!

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