We started blog today.
Adam and I (Kenzo) play in Osaka.
Adam hit a Yoda yesterday. I thought it was clean.
I have been playing footbag for two years. Adam posted my barraging set before. I am practicing a lot of spinnig. I like gyro clippers.
Here is a video of Adam's Yoda:
http://adammadam.hp.infoseek.co.jp/0205adam.wmv
Here is a video of my ripstein:
http://www.snowmagic.jp/~otayan/movie/single/050109.avi
Please write some coments.
Kankeri Japan
Kankeri Japan
Kenzo Ogawa
West Japan shredder
West Japan shredder
Nice! I think I remember the barraging videos that were posted a while back. That was impressive stuff!
I love enterrage, though I'm not sure that one was clean. The first two dexes looked kinda churney. Yeah, churney.
Like, missed. Kinda. *watches again* I'm not sure, I'd have to slo-mo it. I guess the fact that I have to slo-mo it means it could be better. *shrug* Maybe I'm just crazy. 
But the Yoda and Ripstein looked good to me.
I love enterrage, though I'm not sure that one was clean. The first two dexes looked kinda churney. Yeah, churney.
Like, missed. Kinda. *watches again* I'm not sure, I'd have to slo-mo it. I guess the fact that I have to slo-mo it means it could be better. *shrug* Maybe I'm just crazy. But the Yoda and Ripstein looked good to me.
- Kevin R.
F = G*((m1*m2)/r^2)
Know thy enemy.
F = G*((m1*m2)/r^2)
Know thy enemy.
Thanks Ners and qphox for the comments. I managed to talk Kenzo into keeping a blog here. He's a little unsure of his English but I thought it would be a great chance to introduce ourselves to the international footbag community!
Maybe I should start with a self-introduction. I came to Japan about five years ago to study Zen Buddhism at a temple in Kyoto. I lived in this temple in the heart of Gion (the place with the geisha girls) for three years and got into footbag at that time. Two years ago, a friend and I used to get together on the weekends for hack sessions. He was screwing around on the internet one night and found Tricks of the Trade and ordered it. For some reason he didn't really bother to look at the video so I borrowed it from him. I started messing around with the basic tricks on the video and before I knew it I was hooked. My hack friend eventually stopped playing so I had to look for other shredders in the area. I live in Kyoto, where there aren't many players, so I have to travel about an hour and a half by train down to Osaka. There are a few serious players in Osaka, but it's a pretty small scene. Everyone seems to have formed a 'club'--usually with an internet site and two or three members. Kenzo and I play together most frequently...So I have been playing for two years now and look forward to many more injury-free years in this incredible sport! More later...
Updates on the session today:
Played with Kenzo down in Osaka at this outdoor court area. We had a demo the night before at a hip hop club in this really sketchy part of Osaka. Our performance was from 1 am. We had a pretty hard session that day so we had to take care to stay warm and loosened up. We hit up a public bath and decided to do a little hacking outside to stay warm. While we were hacking this drunk rough-looking Korean gangster guy with knife cut scars on his face came up. He was really interested in what we were doing but seemed to think that we were trying to dance. He started showing us all these dance moves--swaying his hips, doing these spins and stuff. It got a little scary when he started doing these punches and kicks. He was acting like he was going to kick someone and then he'd go back to his dancing. Luckily we avoided any trouble. But we felt a little drained. We pulled off a good demo though...the lighting was pretty bad. I wanted to do more spinning and ducking but the bag would totally disappear into darkness on most clipper moves!
Had a good session today. Started off feeling real cold and sore, but managed to hit some nice combos. Kenzo and I were playing with consecutive clippers--but touching your feet down four times between each clipper. It's a great warm up.
What went down:
+Pixie muted clipper>drifter>dlo (rpt.) I was real close to this before but hit it mid-run today!
+Torque BSOS, mid-run, both sealed with infinities
+Serpent drill
+Rev. swirl>ss butt BSOS
+Paradox whirl>paradox whirl, Hit this before but I always forget to do it
Kenzo had a nice run with blurriest BSOS with a footed mobius in the same run!
More to come...
Maybe I should start with a self-introduction. I came to Japan about five years ago to study Zen Buddhism at a temple in Kyoto. I lived in this temple in the heart of Gion (the place with the geisha girls) for three years and got into footbag at that time. Two years ago, a friend and I used to get together on the weekends for hack sessions. He was screwing around on the internet one night and found Tricks of the Trade and ordered it. For some reason he didn't really bother to look at the video so I borrowed it from him. I started messing around with the basic tricks on the video and before I knew it I was hooked. My hack friend eventually stopped playing so I had to look for other shredders in the area. I live in Kyoto, where there aren't many players, so I have to travel about an hour and a half by train down to Osaka. There are a few serious players in Osaka, but it's a pretty small scene. Everyone seems to have formed a 'club'--usually with an internet site and two or three members. Kenzo and I play together most frequently...So I have been playing for two years now and look forward to many more injury-free years in this incredible sport! More later...
Updates on the session today:
Played with Kenzo down in Osaka at this outdoor court area. We had a demo the night before at a hip hop club in this really sketchy part of Osaka. Our performance was from 1 am. We had a pretty hard session that day so we had to take care to stay warm and loosened up. We hit up a public bath and decided to do a little hacking outside to stay warm. While we were hacking this drunk rough-looking Korean gangster guy with knife cut scars on his face came up. He was really interested in what we were doing but seemed to think that we were trying to dance. He started showing us all these dance moves--swaying his hips, doing these spins and stuff. It got a little scary when he started doing these punches and kicks. He was acting like he was going to kick someone and then he'd go back to his dancing. Luckily we avoided any trouble. But we felt a little drained. We pulled off a good demo though...the lighting was pretty bad. I wanted to do more spinning and ducking but the bag would totally disappear into darkness on most clipper moves!
Had a good session today. Started off feeling real cold and sore, but managed to hit some nice combos. Kenzo and I were playing with consecutive clippers--but touching your feet down four times between each clipper. It's a great warm up.
What went down:
+Pixie muted clipper>drifter>dlo (rpt.) I was real close to this before but hit it mid-run today!
+Torque BSOS, mid-run, both sealed with infinities
+Serpent drill
+Rev. swirl>ss butt BSOS
+Paradox whirl>paradox whirl, Hit this before but I always forget to do it
Kenzo had a nice run with blurriest BSOS with a footed mobius in the same run!
More to come...
Anssi-
Thanks for the comments. Serpent drill is whirl>drifter (rpt.). It was on that long drills list that was posted awhile back.
I'm really busy but I am looking forward to a session tomorrow. I usually kick alone on the weekdays and with others on the weekends. I actually like shredding alone because I get very focused and work all my weak spots. I often feel like I have a good practice when I feel embarrassed if someone was watching--it takes a lot of confidence to work on things that you aren't so good at, especially if other people are watching.
I have been thinking about some interesting concepts recently. One thing I have been pondering is how to conceptualize moves. It seems as if there are two basic ways of thinking of a move: 1. breaking the move down into its components and thinking of it as a combination of those components or 2. seeing the move as whole, flowing, totally unique movement. Both ways of thinking are necessary. I try to use this zooming in/zooming out perspective when I get stuck and it often works to get things flowing again.
I was listening to an interesting lecture this evening on martial arts. The speaker was talking about movement that is beyond conceptualization or pre-planning. One simply moves freely in response to information--for example, where is the bag, how is my timing, how is my balance, etc. The trick is to be really sensitive to the information around oneself. It was an interesting lecture and I think a lot of the concepts could be applied to footbag. I want to try to keep my thinking toward my playing in a dynamic state. Thought-frameworks are helpful but they can become fetters if they become static.
One other thing the lecturer was talking about was the body's constant desperation to keep the body from falling over. This isn't directly related to footbag but I thought it was interesting. Injuries seem to be more common in sports that involve keeping oneself in an upright position. It takes a lot of training to be able to fall while remaining relaxed. Maybe if I land wrong next time I am playing footbag I won't try to stay balanced, I'll let myself sprawl about freely!
Thanks for the comments. Serpent drill is whirl>drifter (rpt.). It was on that long drills list that was posted awhile back.
I'm really busy but I am looking forward to a session tomorrow. I usually kick alone on the weekdays and with others on the weekends. I actually like shredding alone because I get very focused and work all my weak spots. I often feel like I have a good practice when I feel embarrassed if someone was watching--it takes a lot of confidence to work on things that you aren't so good at, especially if other people are watching.
I have been thinking about some interesting concepts recently. One thing I have been pondering is how to conceptualize moves. It seems as if there are two basic ways of thinking of a move: 1. breaking the move down into its components and thinking of it as a combination of those components or 2. seeing the move as whole, flowing, totally unique movement. Both ways of thinking are necessary. I try to use this zooming in/zooming out perspective when I get stuck and it often works to get things flowing again.
I was listening to an interesting lecture this evening on martial arts. The speaker was talking about movement that is beyond conceptualization or pre-planning. One simply moves freely in response to information--for example, where is the bag, how is my timing, how is my balance, etc. The trick is to be really sensitive to the information around oneself. It was an interesting lecture and I think a lot of the concepts could be applied to footbag. I want to try to keep my thinking toward my playing in a dynamic state. Thought-frameworks are helpful but they can become fetters if they become static.
One other thing the lecturer was talking about was the body's constant desperation to keep the body from falling over. This isn't directly related to footbag but I thought it was interesting. Injuries seem to be more common in sports that involve keeping oneself in an upright position. It takes a lot of training to be able to fall while remaining relaxed. Maybe if I land wrong next time I am playing footbag I won't try to stay balanced, I'll let myself sprawl about freely!
Had a good session today.
First, what went down:
+ripped warrior
+barfly>barfly
+paradox whirl>whirl>(rpt.)
+gyro clipper x 9
Thoughts on stepping ducking:
I have been so close to ripped warrior many times but today I think I really understood the trick to the trick! I was keeping my weight too far forward. You can pop your stepping set up real high and real effortlessly if you make sure to keep your head up and weight back. It almost feels like you intentionally throw your balance off slightly on the clipper before the step. It feels like doing a clipper with your torso in the same position but your feet slightly extended a little more forward than usual. Being slightly off balance like this naturally makes you 'sit back' as you do the stepping dex. Rather than bring the knee up or over the bag, it feels as if you just slightly push back off the support leg (the dex leg).
Spinning:
Oh, there isn't anything better than the feel of a well-executed spin! Spinning is somewhat of a mind game. You have to spin without making it a spin . What I mean is you have to overcome that false sense of distance when you spin and feel the bag really well. The body matches up with the bag, a soft clipper, with no pause the clipper leg sets nice and straight AS you turn around to spot, but you already know where to look because you can FEEL where the bag is, there is a pleasant twist as the head, shoulders and torso turn in a fluid motion, the bag is waiting there, hovering in the air, your body is balanced, and you match the bag's movement on the way down. Having a sense of the whole body is important for spins.
At the end of my session I met a girl who is playing sepak takraw. She was very impressed by what I was doing so I think I may have a new person to shred with. We did a little hacking together. She's in my Pali study group and is studying one of the same Buddhist texts that I am! I always fall for girls so easily!
First, what went down:
+ripped warrior
+barfly>barfly
+paradox whirl>whirl>(rpt.)
+gyro clipper x 9
Thoughts on stepping ducking:
I have been so close to ripped warrior many times but today I think I really understood the trick to the trick! I was keeping my weight too far forward. You can pop your stepping set up real high and real effortlessly if you make sure to keep your head up and weight back. It almost feels like you intentionally throw your balance off slightly on the clipper before the step. It feels like doing a clipper with your torso in the same position but your feet slightly extended a little more forward than usual. Being slightly off balance like this naturally makes you 'sit back' as you do the stepping dex. Rather than bring the knee up or over the bag, it feels as if you just slightly push back off the support leg (the dex leg).
Spinning:
Oh, there isn't anything better than the feel of a well-executed spin! Spinning is somewhat of a mind game. You have to spin without making it a spin
. What I mean is you have to overcome that false sense of distance when you spin and feel the bag really well. The body matches up with the bag, a soft clipper, with no pause the clipper leg sets nice and straight AS you turn around to spot, but you already know where to look because you can FEEL where the bag is, there is a pleasant twist as the head, shoulders and torso turn in a fluid motion, the bag is waiting there, hovering in the air, your body is balanced, and you match the bag's movement on the way down. Having a sense of the whole body is important for spins.At the end of my session I met a girl who is playing sepak takraw. She was very impressed by what I was doing so I think I may have a new person to shred with. We did a little hacking together. She's in my Pali study group and is studying one of the same Buddhist texts that I am! I always fall for girls so easily!
健さん、
このフォーラムで日本語で書けるとは知らなかった。書き込みありがとうね。また、けんぞうも頑張って英語で書くみたいから、サポートしょう！Yodaは本当に突然できたから、自分でもよく分からない。
My PC has a Japanese operating system but I didn't know that Japanese would show up on the forum. Usually the characters get all strange-looking.
Speaking of that, one of my main jobs here is translation. I work freelance for a Japanese classical guitar magazine and publishing company. I do translations for CD booklets, sheet music explanations, and articles. One of the funny things that I've noticed is that when English text shows up on a Japanese operating system sometimes the apostrophes and what not change into these really wild Chinese characters. I think there is some kind of conspiracy behind it because the funky characters are almost always characters for words like 'vagina', etc.！
Anssi-
I was surprised that you used the word 'aho'. Where did you learn that from? I didn't think that that was a well-known word outside of Japan!
このフォーラムで日本語で書けるとは知らなかった。書き込みありがとうね。また、けんぞうも頑張って英語で書くみたいから、サポートしょう！Yodaは本当に突然できたから、自分でもよく分からない。
My PC has a Japanese operating system but I didn't know that Japanese would show up on the forum. Usually the characters get all strange-looking.
Speaking of that, one of my main jobs here is translation. I work freelance for a Japanese classical guitar magazine and publishing company. I do translations for CD booklets, sheet music explanations, and articles. One of the funny things that I've noticed is that when English text shows up on a Japanese operating system sometimes the apostrophes and what not change into these really wild Chinese characters. I think there is some kind of conspiracy behind it because the funky characters are almost always characters for words like 'vagina', etc.！
Anssi-
I was surprised that you used the word 'aho'. Where did you learn that from? I didn't think that that was a well-known word outside of Japan!
Well I've heard that sentence from some friend... I've heard also "baka" as last word in that, but I think that "aho" sounds better because it means meadow in FinnishAdam wrote:I was surprised that you used the word 'aho'. Where did you learn that from? I didn't think that that was a well-known word outside of Japan!
Nice Kenzo!
I have been stuck with a cold the last two days. Hopefully we'll have a session tomorrow. I have too much to do to catch a cold!
It has been interesting reading tne accounts of GLASS. I am really impressed by what Jorden is doing--he's taking footbag to new dimensions. Matt's shred 30 was also very impressive.
We are having a tournament coming up in April. It's the third annual Tokyo Shredder Gathering. I hope to be able to go.
There are more and more small and large tournaments popping up all over Japan. At the end of this month there is a small tournament in Okinawa, and they just had a small tournament in Shizuoka. Footbag has definitely taken root here. It would be nice if the language barrier wasn't a problem because the international footbag community would know more about the scene in Japan.
Maybe I'll post a vid of some of my guitar stuff soon...I was impressed by the Bob Zabek link that Matt Cross posted awhile back. On Bob Zabek's site there is a link to Adam Fulara's page. He plays in the tap style and does some very impressive arrangements of Bach. I have known about tap style since high school from listening to Stanley Jordan CDs. I think it is impressive but it doesn't work well on a classical guitar, which is the type of guitar I play. The sound is kind of thin and, hmm....computery.
I have heard that Ales plays classical guitar. Does anyone know more about him?
I have been stuck with a cold the last two days. Hopefully we'll have a session tomorrow. I have too much to do to catch a cold!
It has been interesting reading tne accounts of GLASS. I am really impressed by what Jorden is doing--he's taking footbag to new dimensions. Matt's shred 30 was also very impressive.
We are having a tournament coming up in April. It's the third annual Tokyo Shredder Gathering. I hope to be able to go.
There are more and more small and large tournaments popping up all over Japan. At the end of this month there is a small tournament in Okinawa, and they just had a small tournament in Shizuoka. Footbag has definitely taken root here. It would be nice if the language barrier wasn't a problem because the international footbag community would know more about the scene in Japan.
Maybe I'll post a vid of some of my guitar stuff soon...I was impressed by the Bob Zabek link that Matt Cross posted awhile back. On Bob Zabek's site there is a link to Adam Fulara's page. He plays in the tap style and does some very impressive arrangements of Bach. I have known about tap style since high school from listening to Stanley Jordan CDs. I think it is impressive but it doesn't work well on a classical guitar, which is the type of guitar I play. The sound is kind of thin and, hmm....computery.
I have heard that Ales plays classical guitar. Does anyone know more about him?
HOLY!!! 
Ok, back to the blog! I didn't forget you!
I have been down for the past ten days with a cold. I stayed in bed for two days and felt better but my cold seemed to linger for quite awhile. I wanted to make sure that I was mostly over my cold before playing, so I took about ten days off. But now I'm back in action!
I just had a big pizza tonight so my belly is all full and bulging.
I got a new refrigerator! It is the perfect size and works like a charm. My old refrigerator was small and the defroster didn't work so a massive hunk of ice formed and overtook most of the space! I put it outside so it can melt. It was heavy as all get-outs (as my dad would say).
Kenzo is in wonderful tropical Okinawa now for a small footbag competition. I am looking forward to hearing from him. We made plans to have a session in Kyoto this Thursday so something good should come about. We always have really intense sessions when we play together.
Today I had my first session since getting over my cold. It was just a light session but it felt good to get back in the swing of things.
+Spinning clipper>gyro clipper>(repeat) Did this a few times starting on different sides.
+Consecutive whirls> I can get ten easily on my strong side and today I broke my weak side record with 6! The trick to this is keeping your timing and set height consistent.
+Zulu clipper X 7
+Gyro clipper X 9 (Kenzo and I are aiming for 20)
+Some basic atomic and stepping stuff on both sides.
I just got a nine-page article that I have to translate for a magazine and I am spending a lot of time on Sanskrit and Pali so...back to work!!!
I have been down for the past ten days with a cold. I stayed in bed for two days and felt better but my cold seemed to linger for quite awhile. I wanted to make sure that I was mostly over my cold before playing, so I took about ten days off. But now I'm back in action!
I just had a big pizza tonight so my belly is all full and bulging.
I got a new refrigerator! It is the perfect size and works like a charm. My old refrigerator was small and the defroster didn't work so a massive hunk of ice formed and overtook most of the space! I put it outside so it can melt. It was heavy as all get-outs (as my dad would say).
Kenzo is in wonderful tropical Okinawa now for a small footbag competition. I am looking forward to hearing from him. We made plans to have a session in Kyoto this Thursday so something good should come about. We always have really intense sessions when we play together.
Today I had my first session since getting over my cold. It was just a light session but it felt good to get back in the swing of things.
+Spinning clipper>gyro clipper>(repeat) Did this a few times starting on different sides.
+Consecutive whirls> I can get ten easily on my strong side and today I broke my weak side record with 6! The trick to this is keeping your timing and set height consistent.
+Zulu clipper X 7
+Gyro clipper X 9 (Kenzo and I are aiming for 20)
+Some basic atomic and stepping stuff on both sides.
I just got a nine-page article that I have to translate for a magazine and I am spending a lot of time on Sanskrit and Pali so...back to work!!!