Fanzine
TPP, Taishi Doc, Worlds 2021
Breonna Taylor Nouveau Tribute, Teddy Wright IV, Digital, 2020
I always loved Alphonse Mucha's art deco style, and it always struck me as weird that nobody really paints like that these days. I like this adaptation paying homage to his style, while also honoring the memory of Breonna Taylor, whose murderers are still free.
My last session where I filmed for Worlds was 2.5 weeks ago. I took a solid week off after that to physically recover. Since then, I've gotten in 3 sessions. Playing without any Worlds pressure has been such a joy. It's so liberating to just mess around with combos and tricks and not have to worry about cramming in the difficulty or meeting milestones. These past 3 sessions have been the most fun I've had with footbag since I started ramping up my playing at the start of spring. They've been like 95% downtime tricks, and lots of spins and swirls. So basically tricks that I'm bad at but that I enjoy doing when I can pull them off.
When I was training for Worlds I'd often feel cursed when I'd have bad luck with playing conditions. I'd think things like: "this heatwave is timed perfectly to prevent me from filming my routine!" Or: "only during Worlds would my normal playing spot get covered in blown up fireworks and goose poop!" The weeks after Worlds showed me that this was of course not true. The heat is still pervasive even after Worlds and I've had to cancel a few sessions due to bad luck with groundskeeping crews and other unforeseen problems. Whenever that happens I remind myself that I'm lucky it's not costing me a Worlds session and that it's low stakes to reschedule now. I also remind myself that it proves that bad conditions can happen whenever and that they are not specific to Worlds bad luck. It also makes me feel proud that I pushed through the bad conditions that happened during the Worlds period and that it produced good results for me.
The Taishi Worlds documentary on NHK was great. The production was excellent, Taishi was excellent at explaining things, and it was super accessible to a general audience and not just footbaggers. It got me thinking: what if every player who participated in Worlds did a similar segment for their local news? I know there are factors this year where players may not have wanted to risk potential covid exposure, and in many cases I'm sure competitors didn't have much time to prep their submissions as is. It still got me thinking though how much more news exposure we could be getting if we made just a bit more effort. I am also very aware I'm like the pot calling the kettle black, as I made zero efforts at promotion this year. Between family, work, and competing in every event though, I don't know that I could have done a very good job though.
The other thing that was interesting to me in the Taishi documentary, was when Taishi commented that this year's format put him at a disadvantage. He noted that he is a very consistent live performer who is not impacted by nerves, and that often gives him an advantage over more talented players who do not manage their performance anxiety as well. I thought that was a very astute observation, and I think I noted something similar in my blog. I think Mathieu did too in the Worlds thread, where he noted that Taishi and some others would be capped by their difficulty in this format. Two thoughts related to this. First, I believe the idea of basements and ceilings for players' performances is not static. I think that a player's basement for example can shift from year to year, based on how much they practice. For me personally, I think my basement was pretty high during my best years of competition (2010-2014) . My basement got notably lower in ensuing years, though I'd argue my ceiling probably stayed the same. Second, I think it would be pretty neat and interesting to look at all the competitors in a tournament and estimate their ceilings and basements. In practice though, we'd never do this for footbag since it's such a small and tight knit community. The potential for insulting people is just way too high. If we were watching something like the NBA though, where we're completely disconnected from the players and they don't even care, you could do some form of that and observers would find it interesting I'm sure.
Haley asked me if Worlds 2021 would be in Colombia. I responded that the IFPA is hoping to do that, but 11 months out who the heck knows? Even if we had a crystal ball and could see Colombia has covid under control by then, what if Europe and North America don't? Would they host Worlds in person if say half of all potential competitors are not allowed to travel to Colombia? I also wonder about the economics of it. Pre-covid, going to Colombia was going to be a logistical/economic challenge for a lot of players. Factor in 1.5 years of the global economy being in the gutter and how many players will be financially able to go? Going back to the health concerns, even if we have a vaccine by next summer, how likely is it that all footbaggers can get it? Even if they do, would Colombia still impose a quarantine on visitors? I really hope for the sake of the world and not just Worlds that covid and the economy miraculously recover in the next year. But if we don't see a radical turnaround in the next few months, what is the argument in favor of Worlds in Colombia over doing a second virtual Worlds?
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Re: Fanzine
You look nice and relaxed in the video. I actually don't think I see you do DATW all that often and there were a few of them in there.
The Taishi documentary was excellent. I believe it's going to be online for only two weeks. I've written to the people that made it at NHK and asked if there's some way to view in once that period has finished. Something I have thought of doing is writing up a little something for different competitors. It's a lot of work though, potentially for no result.
I imagine the hope would be that things just get better by themselves, but that doesn't seem to be the case. South America in general, and then the USA as well, there are many parts of these areas that don't have the virus under control at all. I think they are saying here that international travel won't be on the agenda until probably April next year.
The hard part with doing any "analysis" on footbag players is that you also know them, and people are friendly, so like you said you can't really talk about how this guy just doesn't have the level. I found that really interesting about Taishi, that his consistency is the quality he works on, like he's going to deliver the same show every time (and you do see a lot of the same tricks in his routine and shred 30s), but when people can take as many tries as they like, no crowd, it's a different story.
The Taishi documentary was excellent. I believe it's going to be online for only two weeks. I've written to the people that made it at NHK and asked if there's some way to view in once that period has finished. Something I have thought of doing is writing up a little something for different competitors. It's a lot of work though, potentially for no result.
I imagine the hope would be that things just get better by themselves, but that doesn't seem to be the case. South America in general, and then the USA as well, there are many parts of these areas that don't have the virus under control at all. I think they are saying here that international travel won't be on the agenda until probably April next year.
The hard part with doing any "analysis" on footbag players is that you also know them, and people are friendly, so like you said you can't really talk about how this guy just doesn't have the level. I found that really interesting about Taishi, that his consistency is the quality he works on, like he's going to deliver the same show every time (and you do see a lot of the same tricks in his routine and shred 30s), but when people can take as many tries as they like, no crowd, it's a different story.
Re: Fanzine
Great thoughts! Very interesting about Taishi! I'm not sure I saw the documentary you mentioned though, can you link it? This would have been a fun Worlds for me to compete in, but I was injured, and even though I had just started to play again I didn't want to push myself because I knew I would re-injure myself. Ah well. Maybe next year if I'm able to play and Covid is done. Crazy that it seems 50/50 that it could still be around at that time. What a wacky world.
Oof, it's been a while since I was on Modified. The artist from a couple pages back was Juan Ruiz. Super similar style to Uribe like you said! It was hard to find a good example of his work on Google. His Instagram is fantastic!
RE: Mucha, are you familiar with Adam Hughes? He's one of my favourite artists -- he does a lot of of Mucha tributes: https://www.google.com/search?q=adam+hu ... 54&bih=712
Oof, it's been a while since I was on Modified. The artist from a couple pages back was Juan Ruiz. Super similar style to Uribe like you said! It was hard to find a good example of his work on Google. His Instagram is fantastic!
RE: Mucha, are you familiar with Adam Hughes? He's one of my favourite artists -- he does a lot of of Mucha tributes: https://www.google.com/search?q=adam+hu ... 54&bih=712
Quick E
Those Adam Hughes Mucha tributes are AMAZING! I had heard of him and seen some of his normal comic book art, but these are way more impressive. Thanks for sharing Erik!
Downtime
Styly
Fun to do
Not in my standard trick rotation
Really, almost any toe-toe double dex meets those criteria. Barrage, DSO, terrage, etc. My overarching goal since Worlds though has been to play for fun. Directly related to that are my secondary goals of playing often and avoiding injury. So far it's been working out very well.
I still plan on doing a deep-dive on all the events I competed in at Worlds. Maybe next post.
Here's video from the day before the Worlds broadcast. It felt a bit weird since I had finished submitting videos to Worlds a full week earlier, but I still hadn't found out how I'd placed. So for this one session I simultaneously felt like I had won every event and somehow also finished in last place in all of them too:
DATW definitely checks all the boxes for the kinds of tricks I've been working on since Worlds:
Downtime
Styly
Fun to do
Not in my standard trick rotation
Really, almost any toe-toe double dex meets those criteria. Barrage, DSO, terrage, etc. My overarching goal since Worlds though has been to play for fun. Directly related to that are my secondary goals of playing often and avoiding injury. So far it's been working out very well.
I still plan on doing a deep-dive on all the events I competed in at Worlds. Maybe next post.
Here's video from the day before the Worlds broadcast. It felt a bit weird since I had finished submitting videos to Worlds a full week earlier, but I still hadn't found out how I'd placed. So for this one session I simultaneously felt like I had won every event and somehow also finished in last place in all of them too:
Smoke town
Poor air quality has limited my playing this past week. There are like 4 major wildfires active around Colorado now. While they're too far away to pose an immediate threat, the smoke has been intense. Everything has been hazy, it smells like a fire, and there are public health warnings to stay inside. While it's been inconvenient, I'm also grateful that the fires aren't threatening our house or family. On a more selfish level I also feel grateful this is happening now and not during the last week of Worlds.
I did manage to play yesterday morning which I really needed mentally and physically. I approached the session the same as all my post-Worlds sessions: play for fun, don't get fixated on any specific combo/trick, do more flip spins, and shoot for 95% downtime. That has been a recipe for fun sessions. I've also really enjoyed listening to music off my iPod while playing. I'm pretty sure I didn't touch it from 2017 Worlds until this year's Worlds was announced, and I'm also pretty sure I haven't put any new music on there since 2014. So it's been a nice experience rediscovering all the old music I have on there. Yet another unexpected boon from Worlds 2020.
While it's been fun playing without any goals, I also miss having a long term goal to work towards. I could go back to my Age 40 goals, but that project has lost some appeal to me since Worlds Shred Off basically made me do something very similar. I considered some of my old records (fearless, unique triple dexes, beastly, etc.) but I don't know that I'm too motivated to break them. The one thing that caught my attention this week was that Japanese Footbag Championships were announced, and they will be done in an online format similar to Worlds. The events they announced appeal to me, since Shred30 and Sick3 were my biggest letdowns from Worlds and this could potentially give me a chance to redeem myself some. Of course, I have no idea whether the competition is even open to non-Japanese players. I'd suspect it's not, or best case scenario they'd let foreigners submit but not be eligible to win anything. I should ask around and find out. If I can't compete, maybe I can help out with judging or something.
I did manage to play yesterday morning which I really needed mentally and physically. I approached the session the same as all my post-Worlds sessions: play for fun, don't get fixated on any specific combo/trick, do more flip spins, and shoot for 95% downtime. That has been a recipe for fun sessions. I've also really enjoyed listening to music off my iPod while playing. I'm pretty sure I didn't touch it from 2017 Worlds until this year's Worlds was announced, and I'm also pretty sure I haven't put any new music on there since 2014. So it's been a nice experience rediscovering all the old music I have on there. Yet another unexpected boon from Worlds 2020.
While it's been fun playing without any goals, I also miss having a long term goal to work towards. I could go back to my Age 40 goals, but that project has lost some appeal to me since Worlds Shred Off basically made me do something very similar. I considered some of my old records (fearless, unique triple dexes, beastly, etc.) but I don't know that I'm too motivated to break them. The one thing that caught my attention this week was that Japanese Footbag Championships were announced, and they will be done in an online format similar to Worlds. The events they announced appeal to me, since Shred30 and Sick3 were my biggest letdowns from Worlds and this could potentially give me a chance to redeem myself some. Of course, I have no idea whether the competition is even open to non-Japanese players. I'd suspect it's not, or best case scenario they'd let foreigners submit but not be eligible to win anything. I should ask around and find out. If I can't compete, maybe I can help out with judging or something.
Re: Smoke town
Typically they don't open up events for non-Japanese/non-resident players, unless the event is unofficial (e.g., circle contest).
TJ Boutorwick
"You can do anything" -Greg Nelson
"You can do anything" -Greg Nelson
Solo 2020
Given that I am half Japanese, I think it'd be fair if they let me compete and then just halve my scores. So like the Shred30 I did for Worlds (246 points) would count as a 123 point entry. Or maybe they could let me do Shred15. Sick3 would be trickier. If I did superfly-double spinning clipper-whirr, they could judge it as if I had done symposium butterfly-spinning clipper-whirl.
Or maybe I could just help them with judging.
All joking aside, I'd understand them wanting to keep it just to Japanese competitors. If the number of entries they got doubled due to international submissions that's a lot of extra logistic and judging work. I wonder what other countries will do their national tournaments online? Has there been any discussion on Facebook about US Open online?
On the topic of interacting with other footbaggers, this has been a pretty unlucky summer for me to quarantine our family. I haven't traveled to a footbag tournament since Worlds 2017 so my only in-person interactions with other players are either when people come through Denver or when I travel for work. That usually results in a shred, a shared meal, and a video. We've basically been in full lockdown mode at our house for the past 5 months now and I've had to turn down invitations from several visiting players over that time including Gatesman and Bonslaver. All my work travel has also been canceled too. I think the last time I shredded in person with somebody else was when Genzu visited around New Year's. It's weird to think that 2020 may be a year of only solo sessions. I'm pretty sure that's never happened in my entire 23 year playing career.
On that note here's yet another solo session:
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Re: Fanzine
Hope everything goes alright with those fires. Even just being close enough to have smoke in the air for days and day is not pleasant at all. Too bad about missing those sessions. I saw Evan was coming through Colorado this week, thought you might be able to catch up for a kick.
I mentioned on the Discord Worlds thread about following other competitions but there was much enthusiasm. Personally, I think it's a great idea.
I mentioned on the Discord Worlds thread about following other competitions but there was much enthusiasm. Personally, I think it's a great idea.
Grading my Worlds
Bad air persists, so I haven't played in a week. Beyond footbag though the air quality has forced us to keep Griffin indoors 24/7 so he's been cranky and bouncing off the walls as a result. Can't wait til some of these fires subside and the summer heat eventually breaks. I do feel lucky though that this is hitting after Worlds and not during the peak of competition. The heatwave was hard enough to deal with so I can't imagine how much worse this smoky air would have made things.
It's weird to think that Worlds has been over for a month now. It still feels a bit like a fever dream, like I'm not sure it actually happened. I think part of the reason I don't feel a total sense of closure is that we didn't have an in-person awards ceremony and finals night party. Weird as it sounds, I think that kind of thing helps competitors mark the end of a tournament or even a season. With the format of this year's Worlds, it was like I spent 7 weeks grinding sessions out...and then the big moment was a slide appearing on a screen for a few seconds. Don't get me wrong, I don't know how you could do a proper awards ceremony much less a party given this year's circumstances. But it does feel a bit weird. Maybe I'll feel more closure once my medals arrive or once I get them framed and put on a wall or something.
Since we're on the topic of Worlds and I'm currently unable to play, might as well do my breakdowns of how each event went for me at Worlds. For each one I'm going to list what my goal was, what my expectation was, how I feel I performed, and finally how the judges placed me and how closely I agreed or disagreed with them.
Shred 30
Goal: Score in the 250-265 range. Dropless was also a goal but realistically these two go hand-in-hand. It's almost impossible to score a 250 if you have a drop.
Expectation: I expected to get a dropless 250. Mostly that expectation was due to having so much time to try for it but also I think I underestimated how tiring and frustrating it is to grind out 30 ish tripless without repeats.
Performance: I ended up submitting a dropless, completely unique 30 contact run that scored 246. Unfortunately I left about 2 seconds on the clock, which meant I could have added 6-10 points just by doing an osis or paradox blender. At least I managed dropless and unique with good control and form. This felt like an A- for me.
Actual result: This was a weird event in that there was no anticipation or drama from judging. Instead all the excitement came from not knowing who else submitted a Shred30. My score was set from the moment I submitted it but I had no idea if that would be a top 10 score or a podium finish. As it turned out, I tied for 4th place and missed winning bronze by like 6 points. So those 6-10 points I left on the table by not doing 30 seconds ended up costing me a medal. That's pretty disappointing. Still, 246 is a personal record for me, and 4th at Worlds in Shred30 ties my previous best from 2005.
Sick 3
Goal: Make finals and hit something unique and stylish. I wasn't shooting for podium, but I wanted something that would get the attention of the judges.
Expectation: I expected I'd make finals and then that I'd fluke out something cool in finals.
Performance: I made it to finals with a solidly executed beast, but things never clicked for me for a finals sick 3. I had several sessions to bank something but I was also still filming for the other 3 events during that time. I think I was correct to prioritize the other events over this one but I still feel a little bad I couldn't fluke my way into something better than what I ended up submitting. I'd give myself an A- for my first round and a C- for my finals. But hey, a C- is better than an incomplete which is what I would have gotten if I either didn't make finals or if I failed to submit anything once I did.
Actual result: I finished in last place with my combo which is where it belonged. I wonder though how high my ceiling was in this event though. Like, if this was the only event I entered and I pushed myself to my limit, I wouldn't be surprised if I still didn't podium. In any case, I'm glad I made finals even if I'm disappointed in my finals submission.
Shred Off
Goal: Make finals and have fun with some of the videos.
Expectation: Initially, my expectation was I'd make it to the Top 8 but not to Finals. Once Landes dropped out my expectations increased a bit and I held some hope for making Finals. When the top 16 brackets were posted I saw I had a viable path to Finals and I shifted my goals to making it.
Performance: Hard to give a single grade here since I submitted 5 videos, at different points in the tournament, all with different stakes on the line. Overall I was happy with my performances. The first two rounds were very low stakes (no cuts in first round, and second round I just had to finish in top half of my pool) so I had fun being a little silly. First round I had the Kenny tribute and second round I had the Derek tribute. Third round I had a favorable matchup with Sergio and so I played it very strategically. Basically I threw out a lot of my harder clips including a clownface and blurrier swirl, since I figured I could advance this round without them and they'd have bigger surprise value in the next round against Pawel. So the first three rounds I'd give myself an A. In the round of 8 I almost lost to Pawel, but not because I took my foot off the gas or anything. He just had a really strong entry. I'd ding my performance slightly though, mostly because my submission came from 2 sessions. Given that a finals berth was on the line I probably should have tried to sneak in one more session to ensure a win. My entry was still strong though so I'd give myself an A- for it. Once I made it to Finals I only had a week to film and my body was breaking down. In one of my better mental performances of the tournament though, I forced myself to play through poor conditions and ended up with an entry I was proud of. I'm going to give myself an A+ for my finals effort, and an A overall for this event.
Actual result: I was pleasantly surprised to win silver. This was probably the event where I pushed myself the hardest and came closest to showing my full potential, so it felt great to have that recognized with a medal.
Here's video of my finals shred off:
It's strange to watch that now and see how densely packed it is with hard tricks and shuffle, compared to all my videos since Worlds ended which are 97% downtime and easy.
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Re: Fanzine
I think your overally performance in the shred off was very high level, and definitely you were able to get strong results because of your regular posting. I actually would have had Pawel slightly ahead of you on that battle (probably by approx 0.01), but I wasn't a judge at all, and I wasn't the only judge. I think you totally deserved that silver medal on your performance - impressive performance.
De La Sole
Thanks Dan. As time passes I'm able to view Worlds 2020 with hindsight, and consequently I am more able to internalize it as a success. I'm proudest and happiest about how routines and Shred Off turned out, but the tournament as a whole was also one of my best and for that I feel proud.
On a related note, I have a new short term project to motivate me. Japanese Footbag Champs are this month, and while I cannot compete (not a resident of Japan anymore) I do want to show my support by shooting entries for most of the events. I don't think I'll do Shred30 since I'm still avoiding shuffle tricks, though I guess doing an entirely downtime Shred30 could be a fun challenge. The events I do plan on doing are:
Sick 3. I wasn't happy with what I submitted for Worlds, so my goal is to hit something undeniably stylish that I can be proud of. Most likely all downtime but we'll see.
Drill contest: This is neat and unique. You do a drill of 4-8 contacts. Sticking to downtime makes for a nice challenge, but we'll see what I can manage.
Big trick. I have a few ideas here. Similar to other events, the goal is for something downtime.
New trick. This event you have to do a trick that is new to you. So for example, I couldn't do strongside clownface because people have seen me do it before. The event really rewards you for trying and hitting something that's new for you, that you are hitting for the first time. The challenge I foresee for actual competitors is having to decide if they submit a hard new trick in this category, or in Big Trick.
Of course, step one for me is just getting back out and playing. It's been over a week since I've played, and it looks like the weather will keep me from playing until Thursday at least. Here's footage from my last session. I've really leaned into the whole downtime mentality since Worlds ended. It definitely creates a different flow and feeling to my sessions. I also wouldn't be surprised if it strengthens my overall game once I bring sets back into the mix.
What was nice about that round and the one before it (top 16) was that we got to see the judge's scores. As a competitor it was reassuring to see the judge's splits reflect my own judgments on how each matchup shook out. In the case of Pawel and me, the judges had a 3-2 split which reflected how close it was. It is interesting how the format of the event changed through the tournament too. Rounds 1,2, and 5 (final) were basically ranked pools of 4 players, but rounds 3 and 4 were head-to-head matchups. It almost felt like a Circle contest with intermission rounds of Battle.
We got a slight break in the heat and air quality for a few days. I wasn't able to capitalize on it for footbag due to a shoulder injury, but we were able to get the kid out of the house to burn off energy which was clutch. We're now back in a stretch of poor air quality and hot temps, but there's also a freak snowstorm on the forecast for tomorrow? Hopefully that clears the air out some. I'm hoping we get milder temperatures by the end of the week and I'm able to get a session in again.
On a related note, I have a new short term project to motivate me. Japanese Footbag Champs are this month, and while I cannot compete (not a resident of Japan anymore) I do want to show my support by shooting entries for most of the events. I don't think I'll do Shred30 since I'm still avoiding shuffle tricks, though I guess doing an entirely downtime Shred30 could be a fun challenge. The events I do plan on doing are:
Sick 3. I wasn't happy with what I submitted for Worlds, so my goal is to hit something undeniably stylish that I can be proud of. Most likely all downtime but we'll see.
Drill contest: This is neat and unique. You do a drill of 4-8 contacts. Sticking to downtime makes for a nice challenge, but we'll see what I can manage.
Big trick. I have a few ideas here. Similar to other events, the goal is for something downtime.
New trick. This event you have to do a trick that is new to you. So for example, I couldn't do strongside clownface because people have seen me do it before. The event really rewards you for trying and hitting something that's new for you, that you are hitting for the first time. The challenge I foresee for actual competitors is having to decide if they submit a hard new trick in this category, or in Big Trick.
Of course, step one for me is just getting back out and playing. It's been over a week since I've played, and it looks like the weather will keep me from playing until Thursday at least. Here's footage from my last session. I've really leaned into the whole downtime mentality since Worlds ended. It definitely creates a different flow and feeling to my sessions. I also wouldn't be surprised if it strengthens my overall game once I bring sets back into the mix.
Re: Fanzine
Incidentally, I thought about doing something similar, but was thinking more along the lines of making a short video saying hi to everyone there (with less shred). That being said, I like your idea and may come up with something for them too.C-Fan wrote: ↑07 Sep 2020 10:58
On a related note, I have a new short term project to motivate me. Japanese Footbag Champs are this month, and while I cannot compete (not a resident of Japan anymore) I do want to show my support by shooting entries for most of the events. I don't think I'll do Shred30 since I'm still avoiding shuffle tricks, though I guess doing an entirely downtime Shred30 could be a fun challenge.
On a related note, in case you haven't seen, Haseken has posted TEN sample vids for the tourney:
https://www.youtube.com/user/FootbagJapan/videos
TJ Boutorwick
"You can do anything" -Greg Nelson
"You can do anything" -Greg Nelson
Re: De La Sole
Thats a pretty cool idea for a competition .
Nice video! Really liked the run starting with the flurry near the end. Its funny to me what a difference there is between uptime and downtime components, but its definitely true there is a huge difference between sessions where I focus on downtime components or sets. I feel like most single dex downtime components I could do without even warming up, and two dex downtime components aren't too bad. But single dex sets I wont try until I'm really warmed up because I worry about pulling something, and I currently cant do any two dex sets. Interesting how different that is.
Hope the weathers not too bad out there! I saw a pretty bleak weather map for CO today that was pretty much fire or snow across the state. Only fires out here, but at least there's consistency in that..
From 90 degree heat to snow overnight!
That thought crossed my mind too, but then I got all self-conscious about how bad my Japanese has deteriorated. Maybe I should binge more Terrace House so I can eke out a small message and not be completely embarrassed.
Agreed! I love Vasek and I love his backside clownface, but if I'm at a tournament and I see he's doing Big Trick...I already know he's going to do it. And frankly he should do it, and he should win more often than not by doing it. But it also takes some of the excitement out of the room knowing he's going to do a trick he's been doing for over 10 years now. Same probably goes for Japanese champs, where the top players have their "go-to" big tricks that people expect to see. I know I have my own list of tricks like that (see: my final Shred Off video). This "new trick" event should be refreshing if nothing else.
The weather forecast was correct; temperature dropped almost 60 degrees in a single day and it snowed today:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/08/us/d ... ather.html
As I'd hoped, the air quality has vastly improved as a result. Now the hope is that it warms up slowly over the next few days so by the end of the week I can play outside in good air quality. Fingers crossed. I already have a bunch of tricks/combos I want to try for the Japanese champs project.
Closing out with another post-Worlds downtime video, playing to an old favorite album of mine:
Re: Fanzine
wow, nice paradox drifters! love the jurassic hack video too, awesome last link, and DATW>barrage BSOS is sick
glad the air quality improved there, we're still pretty terrible out in california..
glad the air quality improved there, we're still pretty terrible out in california..
Unhealthy Air Quality
Yeah, whenever I want to complain about the bad air quality I catch myself because I understand how much worse it is for other parts of the country. Like, it sucks that we can't take the kid outside to play and that I can't footbag, but we also aren't in any danger of our house burning down either.
I still want to shoot entries for JFC 2020, but the air hasn't let me. I think I've only had one shred this whole month due to the poor air. I worry that by the time the air improves, September will be over and so will JFC.
In more positive news, my new boozeless streak has been going since the Worlds broadcast. So closing in on 2 months already! On a related note, I still haven't gotten my medals in the mail. That's pretty minor, but I do want to get them so I can make a little wall-hanging commemorating my footbag career. I've never had anything like a trophy case, and for somebody who loves footbag as much as I do it's a little strange that there's nothing in my house to reflect my passion. So when I get my medals from Worlds, I'd like to frame my Team USA jersey and have 4 medals in each corner of the frame:
2013 USO routine gold
2012 USO circle gold
2020 Worlds routine bronze
2020 Worlds shred off silver
It'd be nice to have that on a wall in the office or in the basement or something, so when I'm old and retired I can look at it and remember the days when I was spry enough to play in (and even win some!) hacky sack competitions.
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- Joined: 19 Sep 2007 23:42
- Location: Canberra, Australia
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Re: Fanzine
That's a really cool idea. We did something some years back for the Aus champs, obviously not on the same level, but it was the same idea - it had a frame with a picture from the event, and then some of the best results. Caroline did them up, they came out quite well.
JFC drill
Air quality has been fluctuating between good and bad lately. The trick is being flexible and being ready to play on a moment's notice when conditions allow.
The best drill I managed was this one:
Nothing too insane in there, but I liked the flip fog to flip pixie link, and stepping out of tomahawk always feels fun. I was pretty happy with the execution as well. I posted it on Twitter using the JFC hashtags to show my support, and they retweeted it with a very nice message:
https://twitter.com/FootbagJapan/status ... 6040785922
Autumn in Denver is super weird, as we always go from blazing heat to nippy cold seemingly overnight. I need to sneak in as many sessions as I can before it gets too cold. This winter will be weird, as I'm too scared to go to indoor gyms and it will be too cold to play outside. Maybe I can make a space in my basement to use.
Happily, I did manage to squeeze in a session and shoot some stuff. I decided to use uptime sets for this session as that would enable me to hit harder stuff. Of course, I also haven't really used sets in like 2 months so the trade off was they were a bit rusty. I did have fun chasing drills and "hatsu make" tricks, which are tricks you hit for the first time. I came real close to a few cool tricks for the first time, which I'd like to revisit next session. I didn't spend much time on sick3, but that's something I'd like to revisit as well.
The best drill I managed was this one:
Nothing too insane in there, but I liked the flip fog to flip pixie link, and stepping out of tomahawk always feels fun. I was pretty happy with the execution as well. I posted it on Twitter using the JFC hashtags to show my support, and they retweeted it with a very nice message:
https://twitter.com/FootbagJapan/status ... 6040785922
Autumn in Denver is super weird, as we always go from blazing heat to nippy cold seemingly overnight. I need to sneak in as many sessions as I can before it gets too cold. This winter will be weird, as I'm too scared to go to indoor gyms and it will be too cold to play outside. Maybe I can make a space in my basement to use.
Autumn
Weird and constantly changing weather has made it tricky to play lately. Denver Autumn weather always yo-yos between too hot and too cold, and this year the air quality has added another wildcard to the mix.
I snuck in a session over the weekend. I didn't have enough energy to play well, but I knew I might not get another window where the temperatures and air quality would allow me to play. I decided to return to downtime tricks, and the first 20 minutes of the session went well. After that I basically ran out of energy and spent the whole time chasing gyro ducking symp dlo and never hit it.
The first drill in the video was notable for me, in that I normally find clipper set barrage super hard to clean. I've hit that drill using flurry countless times, but this may have been the first time I did it with normal clipper barrages. Felt good too.
I saw Derek L is setting up some kind of spooky shred off competition. I'd like to enter, since I had a surprising amount of fun doing Shred Off at Worlds this year. I'm not sure if I'll have time or inspiration to do a costume but I like this as an excuse to push myself a little bit.
I snuck in a session over the weekend. I didn't have enough energy to play well, but I knew I might not get another window where the temperatures and air quality would allow me to play. I decided to return to downtime tricks, and the first 20 minutes of the session went well. After that I basically ran out of energy and spent the whole time chasing gyro ducking symp dlo and never hit it.
The first drill in the video was notable for me, in that I normally find clipper set barrage super hard to clean. I've hit that drill using flurry countless times, but this may have been the first time I did it with normal clipper barrages. Felt good too.
I saw Derek L is setting up some kind of spooky shred off competition. I'd like to enter, since I had a surprising amount of fun doing Shred Off at Worlds this year. I'm not sure if I'll have time or inspiration to do a costume but I like this as an excuse to push myself a little bit.
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- Post Master General
- Posts: 3166
- Joined: 19 Sep 2007 23:42
- Location: Canberra, Australia
- Contact:
Re: Fanzine
I was thinking that I couldn't be bothered to do a costume, but then I had the thought that we have a cupboard full of costumes for the kids so I will at least do with some kind of mask I'm thinking. On theme for this year, anyway.