Muffinman

[Tjuggles]

Agreed; double blender from you is off the charts! I have never hit it either...

EDIT: TOP POST!

A nice one of Mana island, with the south island in the background:

[Muffinman]

Urgh, too bad those Modified posts got wiped. Really sucks. Thankfully I didn’t lose too much — a post about a Christmas session with Adam Greenwood that went pretty well despite me being so deathly sick that I was impressed that I was able to play at all and literally not pass out. Obvs didn’t add to my 20x20 count.

But I did lose a post in Josh Gayhart’s blog with videos and descriptions for neck stretches that I put quite a bit of work into



NEW YEARS JAM 2018/19
Mathieu contacted me and asked if I was going to NYJ this year. I’d taken the time off just in case, but was super undecided and so was he, both because of back pain. But then we kind of pushed each other a bit to go. Apparently it was supposed to be a surprise that we were showing up, but Mathieu forgot to tell me that -__- on that note, there were a lot of unannounced surprise guests! Like Nick Landes! Who else was there? Dante Diotallevi, Josh Gayhart, Cassy, Derek, Kevin Hogan, Pete Bowler, Zach Jahner, Matt Kemmer. I can’t even list or remember everyone.

I only played one day, and I’m thankful that I could at all, but I was dying the next day and just filmed (quite a bit!) My back is still killing me a few days later too. A nice coincidence though: my gf had a massage booked for Thursday, but a good friend from out of town is showing up and she cant cancel last minute, so she’s going to transfer her appointment into my name (we share a discount pass anyway). So I’ll get a massage before my first session back on Friday!

Also on that note, Nick Landes was so nice and concerned about my back health (he’d helped me with a Skype yoga session a few years back). So he organized a group yoga session, that was basically my first group experience ever (I learned 1-on-1 from my uncle, also an instructor). It was awesome and he came around and corrected our posture and stuff. Then he also gave me a massage on the sunday since I wasnt playing due to pain. He also gave me poses to do for my back and muscles groups to tell my massage therapist to work on at future massage sessions! He isolated this one muscle group that he noticed was particularly tight that I never noticed before — my QL for future self reference, up in my mid-back.

Anyway, I played okay, but not great, and thankfully not terribly. Highlight was maybe big apple first and only try, footing the BSOS. Some people singled out a run I had with something like stepping same symp mirage > ducking symp mirage and then also symp whip war drill > rev whirlygig same run. Something like that. I filmed good shred from most everyone. Including a lot of trials by Pete Bowler! So much crazier in person! Anyway, will eventually make a video and let that speak for itself.

Need to fix my back

[C-Fan]

Neat that you got to go to NYJ. I think nine times out of ten in life, when you're on the fence about doing something or going somewhere its best to just go do it. Even if things don't end up perfect, its better to have the imperfect experience rather than no experience at all.

That's cool you did a group yoga experience at the tournament. If I recall correctly, a group yoga session at a footbag tournament is what got Nick into yoga in the first place!

Hope your back feels better and your 2019 is off to a good start.

[boyle]

yeah, I would love to go to the NYJ sometime. Looks like a lot of fun. Glad you could make it there!

[Tripp]

It was nice getting to shred with you, Erik! I didn't realize you were in pain, or else I wouldn't have been harping on you to play more!

[Muffinman]

Thanks guys.
No worries, Josh. I didn't noticing you harping at all. I enjoyed watching you play though, and getting to shred with you!

[Muffinman]

Yeah, totally, Ken. That was my exact rationale for going. And I'm glad I did even though I could barely play. Still going through that footage very slowly. Been having issues with my (NEW) phone, where transferring files likes to crap out, so it's taken me like 50 attempts to get all the files, and still only about 2/3 are transferred. Eventually...



FIRST SESSION OF 2019:
Had a duo session with Alex today.
Didn't realize just how sick I still am, though. Only went in to work for half a day last week (went home at lunch). Thankfully I'm able to work from home, so I only actually took one sick day, and the rest I worked from bed. Today I went to work and felt fine, but then as soon as I started playing footbag I could feel that I'm still only halfway to getting better. And I was starting to feel it a bit to the end of the day before that too. No 20x20 today. I had tissue jammed up my nose and was feeling a bit dizzy too. Just beat. Oh, and my back, of course. But surprisingly it was mostly the sickness that was holding me back today.

Highlights:
-A run with gyro dlo BSOS, and some other good things (stepping whip > spinning ducking clipper BSOS?)
-double spinning clipper BS (dropped the BSOS?)
-OH! pdx blender > ripwalk BS! first time ever stepping out of blender, I think! I've been thinking up combos for a drill video (a la Rafal Kaleta), and food > ripwalk repeat is something I thought I could attempt. I also stepped out of both foods, but didn't quite nail the ripwalk on either. Only stopped because of back pain. But it felt amazing. Not nearly as hard as I expected!
-mobius BSOS, with blurriest > blurry whip BSOS?
-scorpion's tail BSOS

Oh, and some new tricks:
-inside-kick-set ducking clipper BS
-inside-kick-set diving clipper BS
-inside-kick-set ducking legover BS
-inside-kick-set diving legover BS
Actually, I'm sure I've hit at least a few of those before. Also need to check my trick list to see if any are actually new, but the legovers feel new...

Fun, but unsure if I'll be able to play on Friday. Girlfriend has strep throat, so I'm probably going to get that now too. I basically haven't not been sick since mid-December. Crazy. My manager is going to be so skeptical...



EDIT: here’s the drills list so far. Trying to think up as many drills that disclude whip as possible, but that’s tough. If you have any suggestions...:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Rd4 ... nIqapEEq4k

[Muffinman]

Urgh. My back is super ridiculously fucked.
It was bothering me quite a bit early last week so on Wednesday I decided to finally get to the yoga poses Nick Landes gave me, in addition to my usual physio exercises. I did like 2 hours total of everything and I totally pushed too much and then the next morning could barely stand up. Took Thursday and Friday to work from home, which is so-so acceptable, especially since I did kind of miss a meeting.

Took those 2 days and then the whole weekend to just rest and stay in bed. But it's kind of just stayed the same. We're pretty sure that my mattress has a lot to do with it. I bought basically the cheapest spring mattress I could in 2011 when I moved to Toronto, and the cheapest bed frame. I did splurge on bedding and a mattress topper because I always had bad insomnia, but the mattress is just super floopy now and I need support. So once I'm able to go back into the outside world we're gonna go test out mattresses and buy a super expensive one, after hours of research. Too bad I can't just pay the money and magically have the perfect mattress appear on my bed right now because that's what I really need :'(

I'd been using heating pads consistently, but WebMD recommends icing instead, so just today I've switched over to that. It's hard to tell if it's working better yet. I doubt I will be much better by tomorrow, so will probably go to the doctor's instead of work. I have about a day's worth of lieu time accumulated so that should be fine too.

But definitely no footbag in the foreseeable future. The one day at NYJ was baaasically the only time I've played since early December. It suucks. I just want to play. But also if I can't fix my back in the long term I don't know if footbag is something that I can physically continue to do :'( It's not worth it to be a cripple for the rest of my life. Blleerg. Gonna follow-up with my physiotherapist soon also, though she was really unsure how to proceed last I saw her... Oh and I have massage on Tuesday, but I'm almost more concerned that that will make it worse and I'll have trouble getting home after...

I just want to play footbag D':

[Dio]

Dude.. that's bad news. I was hoping to see you play more at NYJ but didn't know you were going through such a severe time. Best wishes for your recovery.

I've found yoga once a week to be helpful, and yes for sure get a supportive and comfy bed. maybe used for a better price? Lots of post-secondary students buy new, use for college, then sell.

I feel like we need a guide to the physical ergonomics of playing footbag.

[C-Fan]

Sorry to hear the bad news on the back Erik. I don't think I bought a proper nice mattress until my early 30s, but that was one of the best things I ever did. I know I used to wake up my wife with restless leg syndrome, or even just getting in and out of bed. Now she doesn't feel a thing.

I like Dante's yoga idea. I feel like that couldn't hurt, provided you don't overdo it.

On a tangentially related note, if you ever decide to have kids be aware that picking them up repeatedly (especially when they squirm) can really mess your back up. I was fine for the first year of my son's life, but once he hit 25+ pounds I really started feeling it in the lower back.

Fingers crossed on your recovery!

[boyle]

Too bad to hear about all that pain, hopefully you have some improvement there. I think a new mattress would help. I imagine your financial position is better than when you first moved to the city. I remember when I was a kid, I had been having all this trouble sleeping, then eventually we looked at my bed and it was all bumpy with a couple of the springs poking into my back, which explained a lot.

Ken is right on the kids thing, they get really heavy and it's easy to do some damage trying to pick them up.

[Muffinman]

Thanks guys <3
For a mattress I'm definitely not going to cut any corners. This could potentially be really important for my back health, so I'm going all out! We're going shopping tomorrow, so that's exciting. Hopefully will have a replacement in the near future! Spoke to a couple of people today about mattresses who both happened to buy a new one in the last couple months, so got feedback from them and potentially eased some concerns. Also good to hear your mattress story, Ken. Anyway, will see how it goes. There's a sleep accessories store in Canada called Sleep Country Canada, and it's been around since I was a kid. It has the catchiest jingle in the world that I still remember to this day. Been singing it all day lol


Yoga's a good idea. I do a handful of poses as part of my physio routine every day, but I have a 10-minute routine I do from time to time also and will definitely see how that helps once I'm back to a better condition where I can start strengthening again. For now I'm sticking to just stretches. Physio was postponed from last week to next Friday, so will see what she has to say then.

Also good to know about kids fucking up your back. But I'm 90% not planning to have kids so that will help my old age...



20x20 session #68:
Yay, finally!
This was actually much sooner than I was planning, but I stuck to spinning and ducking. I was at about 14x20 and was feeling that I should probably stop playing, but then was able to just knock out 2 easy 60s and called it quits. Nothing that notable. Spinning ducking, tried to throw lots of gyro butterflies, which felt nice. Tried to avoid any dexes, even just the 2s that I usually warm up with. Went straight into BOPs since that's less strenuous for me. Avoided things like merkons and ducking mirages for the most part, but did some. And a little bit of easy stepping, but that's it. Felt nice to be playing, especially since I'm soo out of shape, like not footbag-wise so much as weight-gaining due to not being able to exercise at all for so long, and consequently eating terribly. Excited to get active again, cycling regularly and footbag again slowly. Taking it easy, but trying to get back into it and eating better.



UPDATE:
Back is baad the next day, so gonna ease off footbag and maybe only play on fridays so if it's bad after again I can rest up over the weekend. But I'm out for at least a week or 2. Shouldn't have tried to play earlier than I knew was a good idea. On the bright side we put down a deposit on a nice mattress, so if we decide to go with that one we'll have it in 2 weeks.

I also did a Brocka mod for the very first time. It was weird positioning in Climas since my ankle is so far forward, but I took out a good chunk and cut it pretty seamlessly so you can't really tell that anything is missing. Didn't notice a huge difference with it aside from the fact that I had less chafing. I cut out a whole eyelet at the top on both shoes.

Also, here's a short clip (at the end of this video) of our indoor space. We basically have the run of the place! Sooo nice! These guys are amazing and we feel like family there. It's the best. We are sooo fortunate.

[Muffinman]

Wow, so much BSOS stepping ducking 12 years ago!

[boyle]

So much more hair too! Great work on the stepping ducking there - is that something you don't do so much anymore?

[Muffinman]

Haven't played in a long time. Back is still messed up
I do have an appointment with a back specialist next Friday though, so... fingers crossed.
Yeah, stepping ducking isn't something I've done any real amount of in yeears.

Here's another throwback video from 16 years ago, with my best run to date at the end: fog > pixie whirl, a blurry whirl, and smog BSOS > hand catch:

[Muffinman]

BACK SPECIALIST APPOINTMENT
I've been thinking a lot recently about whether or not I should just quit footbag for my long-term health, and it makes me so sad. I was close to making a post about it, but then I had a back specialist appointment yesterday. My family doctor referred me and it finally happened. I don't know why I didn't get this before since I've had this issue with my back since 2006 -- 13 years! I didn't know what to expect going in, but didn't really have many high hopes, but it ended up being really positive and hopeful! The doctor prodded me all over and nothing hurt, so she was pretty convinced that it's just muscular but that I get the sharp pain from pinching of something close the the vertebrae -- not nerves, I forgot what she called it, maybe it's just muscle? So she had me get x-rays for that, which I went and did the same day.

She also gave a slight suggestion for changing up the strengthening that my physiotherapist gave me to see if I can do that without pain. But the best part of the whole appointment was when she suggested a cortisol shot in my back. I was super excited about this because I recently had that done for a nagging shoulder injury and it fixed it 100%! What it is is a steroid, I think, to numb the pain for a pretty long period, like 2-6 months, so that you can strengthen without pain and by the time the injection wears out the muscles are strong enough that they don't hurt anyway! I asked if it's a risky procedure because it's close to the spine, and she said it was basically the same minor risks as the shoulder one -- chance of infection if they nick a blood vessel.

Oh yeah, and she also gave me prescription-strength back relaxant to take on a daily basis. So not only do I have hope in the cortisol shot, but hopefully the back relaxant will kick in and at least give me a better quality of life, it not allow me to maybe try footbag lightly again! I definitely won't push it, but I came out of the appointment with a lot of hope, and that feels really nice. I got my x-rays immediately and she wants to get the ball rolling, so hopefully I can get that shot ASAP.


SPREADSHEETS <3
Been librarianing a lot in my spare time, making spreadsheets to organize my life, 'cause I'm wild like that. Would love to do something footbag video-related, but the most efficient thing I can think of is a database of YouTube footbag videos, and those are so transient that I'm not sure how worthwhile the effort would be... Anyway... here are some of my (filterable) spreadsheets that I'm happy with so far:

My footbag tricks: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... edit#gid=0
My video games: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... edit#gid=0
My comics: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... edit#gid=0
My tabletop games: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... edit#gid=0
My movies/tv series: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... =193939028



THROWBACK VIDEO
Oh, and I guess here's a video of me doing some barefoot stuff. First and probably only time ever hitting toga BS.. also flip bladerunner. There was some stuff I remember from this session also that didn't get captured for whatever reason, like blurry reaper on the other side and spinning reaper BS!

[Muffinman]

I had a footbag dream last night!
I was in the house I grew up in with my little brother who also used to play footbag and we were just talking about footbag, looking at our old footbags, and playing with my old DV video camera. Then for some reason Chad Devlahovich walked down the hall and hugged me and started asking about the video camera. I remember standing in the bedroom doorway and pointing to the little 3.5-inch fold-out screen and saying something like, "I used to edit footbag videos on this little screen!" And Chad was, like, "No way! That's crazy!" (which is strange, since he was doing that long before me). And then I was, like, "Yeah, right?? And I used to have to use just these buttons on the camera to do the editing!" And Chad was completely floored and blown away.

Then Brian Bear walked down the hall and completely ignored me and hugged Chad and they started talking. And then Jim Penske was suddenly in the doorway of the room across the hall, but he was kind of just quiet and didn't say anything. And then for some reason we were suddenly in Rob Fuller's basement and we were playing tackle football. I had the ball, and I was running, and I was too fast for everybody, except Jim who tackled me, but couldn't quite get me to the ground, and I think that's when I woke up

First footbag dream in years!

[C-Fan]

Ha! Cool dream. I have footbag dreams all the time, but they're almost always stress dreams related to competition (e.g. can't find the site, can't find my equipment before competing, music won't load, etc.). Yours sounds way cooler.

Fingers crossed on your new back regimen.

[Tjuggles]

I may have footbag dreams but thinking about it now they aren't often.

On a similar note, more often than not when I can't fall asleep I imagine doing long strings, really visualizing each trick, as a way to relax and get sleepy. A footbagger's version of counting sheep I suppose.

As an FYI I am still on here reading your posts (and Ken's too. Hi Ken!). Am just not as productive at writing posts and comments. That will change soon!

[B1nary0]

Speaking of Stepping ducking,... I spent my session today trying to land stepping ducking DLO ,... but I am having a lot of trouble getting the right angle to nail the DLO. I couldn't find anything specifically on ducking DLO, any suggestions or resources you could point me to?