Fanzine

[mc]

...people wondered if Ryan Mulroney would ever lose at worlds.

man, I remember that. seems so weird now. ryan was GOD... wasn't that long ago...

[hacksterbator]

it's still a young sport. how long utill vasek gets knocked down? and don't say "oh, vasek won't get knocked down!" since that's what every one thought about ryan.

ken, i'm super stoked about coming to japan!!! i just can't decide if it's better to come before or after footjam (mid may).

[sampotter]

My guess is 2-3 years. There are a ton of small, blonde children of the corn Euro players like Vasek on the rise. Juho Marjo, anyone? It's not going to be long until they start getting really good. Also, it's not like there aren't other players rivaling Vasek right now. Honza's routine skills and shred 30 skills are very near that of Vasek's. Felix, the rest of the Finnish nation? :-p It won't be long.

[C-Fan]

Man, can`t believe I`m still writing about JFC2 as late as this. Today I found photos from the event ( http://footbag.jp/jfc/2004/photo.php ), so that`ll help inspire me to finish up my JFC2 blog.

On Sunday I wake up feeling pretty good. It was definitely a good decision to call it a (relatively) early night, especially since I had played a little footbag the day before for my demo, and had drunk a good bit toasting everybody for their hardwork, and catching up with friends I hadn`t seen in ages.

Henmo had been injured before JFC2, so he had played a bare minimum at the even the day before (warming up and competing), and had scheduled an appointment with a physical therapist for the next day. So Kim, Kaz from Okinawa, and I head out to the shred site without Henmo. It kinda sucks, because for some strange reason Henmo and I hardly ever get a chance to play together, like some cosmic force prohibits it. Kaz and Kim say real profuse `thank you`s and goodbyes, but I`m sticking around an extra day so I head out with a `see ya later.`

The train gets us near the site, but apparently nowhere near enough. We ask around, and hear estimates of a 30+ minute walk to get to the site. No WAY am I walking that distance, and then shredding for several hours. We get a cab and sure enough, it is a good distance to the park, and a nice chunk of it is rolling up and down hills. SUCH a good decision to cab it. Once we`re in the park though, we still don`t know where the shred spot is, considering the park is gymongous. It kinda reminds me of Central Park which is nice. We ask for directions, and hike for 10 minutes or so before finding the spot. It`s beautiful weather out though, so I look at the walk as a warm-up. It`s seriously a good 8 degrees celsius warmer than my part of Japan, and I really dig it.

When we get to the spot, there`s already a few players there. Its nice weather for playing outside. I play in a long sleeve shirt and shorts, and feel fine throughout. I hop into a circle with Ikezawa-san to warm up, which is fun. I feel real happy for the rest of the staff, because not only do they (we) finally get a chance to play footbag, we do so with the knowledge that our tournament ran well, and that all the players had a great time.

The site is a large outdoor plaza in the middle of a park, which is conveniently located next to some beverage vending machines, and near a big fountain which looks like a huge asparagus. I think it was supposed to be a plume of smoke, but it looks delicious to me, in a sort of bronzed-vegetable way. The other notable thing about the shred spot, is there is a series of long, flat steps leading down to the fountain, which remind me of the steps in the beginning of Lon`s special on the Monsterhack page, where he does the trials. This inspires me to do some trials on the steps, which end up being the most fun things I do all day. Things like: small combo, pdx mirage down a step, BOP, ducking butterfly, pdx mirage, symp mirage down a step, some more tricks, dlo down a step, etc. So I would do like a 15 or 20 move string, but space out street moves every few tricks.

Here`s a vid: http://web.hc.keio.ac.jp/~fr032269/Ken_ ... stairs.wmv
Big biiiig ups to X+Y for hooking it up.

I warm up slowly, and make a point to play with a lot of beginners and locals who don`t make it down to Tokyo. I feel real good being able to play with no pressure on me (demo/competition), and take my time warming up. Things feel kinda slow, until I hear a really loud commotion heading my way. I look up and see a good chunk of the Tokyo crew (Masa, Yusuke, Sue Kichi) literally dancing and jive-walking towards the site, as Sue Kitchi is holding a Ghetto Blaster straight out of an 80s Breakdancing video ( http://footbag.jp/jfc/2004/styles/photo/157.jpg ), which is booming some Throwback tunes. Everybody busts out laughing at this unbeatable entrance, too good!

Most importantly though, this means we have tunes for the rest of the session, which really helps me play better, and improves the atmosphere. I do a little bit of teaching, but mostly I just want to have fun playing with everybody, so most of the time I just have fun in the circles. In one circle I hit janiwalker-mullet on a whim, and think about modified forums.

So many good circles that day, it`s hard to remember them all. Adam Catt impressed me with how flipsided and smooth he is. He`d always been smooth, but its easy to be smooth with 2 and 3 adds. Thankfully, he`s managed to retain his smoothness even with his transition to harder tricks. I saw him hit diving clipper-ducking clipper repeat, straight into zulu clipper x2. He was also throwing in lots of symple legovers, and hit a symple merkon for me on demand. His style is pretty similar to older Pete Irish stuff, so seeing him hit symple merkon was kinda eerie, but in a cool way. Enna, a promising new shredita, impresses me by hitting real nice datws. Shige-san throws down his usual, long combos with ducks and pixies and swirls. Such huge style, I love it. I see Keita hit a real nice predator. His quantum set is also coming along well. When he hits it, its really clean and really high, and looks real energy efficient. Probably the best quantum set by a Japanese player in Japan. But the consistency needs work.

I had a lot of fun playing in a circle with Keita, Morii, QP (Osaka), and Yama. Morii mostly does shuffle combos using both steps, but every now and then he`ll throw in something random like smoke, and I`ll just be blown away, because it`s not the kind of trick I`m expecting from him. He`s probably in my top 3 in terms of favorite styles in Japan. At one point in the circle, QP, Morii and I were talking about stepping out of osis. Morii and QP were trying things like stepping out of torque and blender. QP hit something out of blender, but I have trouble recalling what. Ripwalk maybe? Real stylish. I hit osis-blurry torque for my first time, which feels real fun, because of the shifts in momentum.

Kenzo also plays real well. He`s got good ducks, dives, whirls, and eggbeaters. He likes doing lots of theme-runs, like ducking runs, or runs with lots of drifters in them. I like it best when he mixes things up though. Apparently he hit his first fury ever, but I didn`t see it. His furious set looks really cool. The first dex is very whirly; so different from mine. I had a lot of fun hitting midstring janiwalkers myself, they just felt really `on` that day for some reason. I had one run with tomahawk bsos, bl whirl, ps whirl, pixie paradon, midstring janiwalker, and pdx torque in the same string.

We play for around 5 hours, until it gets dark. I hadn`t had a long session like that since Worlds, and it feels really great to play that long. As things wind down, I start up a game of 4 square, which is lots of fun. I think Yama wins both games. It`s a good warm-down. People change to street clothes, and a few Tokyo players say goodbyes as they get ready to go home. We then splinter off into two big groups to get food. I`m real excited for this. Osaka is famous for various local foods, but I hadn`t had a chance to really try any up until now, since things had been so busy with the tournament. Yuko is in my group which I`m stoked about, since we hadn`t had much of a chance to catch up before. We hit an Okonomiyaki joint, and I am amazed by the size of the okonimiyaki (like, a huge omellette, filled with all sorts of delicious stuff like squid, cabbage, bunch a other stuff). On one of the okonomiayki we ordered, 3 sunny side up eggs comfortably rested on top, without competing for space. We all stuff ourselves, and I`m real happy that I can get a few laughs with my jokes in Japanese.

Over dinner I learn that QP is real good at Fighting Games, so we hit an arcade afterwards and get our fight on. The only arcade cabinet which is free is Street Fighter Alpha 3. QP apparently uses Zangief in everygame, which is bad news for me considering how strong Gief is in Alpha3. I pick Dan in our first fight, just to test the waters, and its ugly. So then I switch to Charlie (who is called Nash in Japan) since he`s probably my strongest character in the arcade, and his defense should help against QPs aggro-Gief. QP is easily the best Street Fighting Footbagger I`ve played against. We play 4 matches, and he wins 3 of 4 (in good Japanese arcades, matches are best 3 out of 5, instead of 2 of 3). Lots of really close fights too. Unfortunately, I run out of change, and all I have left is a 5000 yen bill, which I can break. Hopefully in the future, I can get in more SF with QP, but in something like Capcom vs SNK2, or Marvel Capcom 2, both which I`m much better at.

Shortly thereafter I say goodbyes and goodnights, and then head back to Henmo`s. The next day I plan on doing some sightseeing before heading home, and it also looks like most of the other footbaggers are exhausted from the day and about to head home. Lots of bowing and promises to see each other in the future ensue.

I love footbag tournaments. I love footbag.

[BainbridgeShred]

I'm just curious, it seems like you are constantly teaching these Japanese guys, but does anyone ever get the impression that your kind of talkign down to them?

I realize this might sound a little ignorant, but I had a friend who lived in Japan and I heard that their was a little tension racially. No outright racism just a little angst towards my friend who was there.

Ever notice any of this?

[C-Fan]

I'm just curious, it seems like you are constantly teaching these Japanese guys, but does anyone ever get the impression that your kind of talkign down to them?

That`s a good question, and truthfully, it`s hard to know the answer. Japanese society on the whole is very polite and non-confrontational. If the Japanese footbaggers felt I was `talking down` to them, they probably wouldn`t say anything, because they wouldn`t want to seem rude.

Here`s a small story to illustrate Japanese non-confrontational politeness. When I moved to Japan, two and half years ago, I bought a car from the guy who had my job before me. The car was a stick shift, and since it was Japanese, that meant I would be using my left hand to shift gears. I had never driven stick shift before, and I had never driven on the `wrong` side of the road (the left) before. So my first couple months driving in Japan were challenging. On more than one occasion, I stalled out at a green traffic light, with several cars behind me. Panicking, I managed to start the car again, and stall out by trying to switch gears too quickly. I took so long, that the green light turned yellow, then red. The entire time, nobody honked at me, and nobody passed me, even though there was no oncoming traffic in the other lane.

Now, as a New Yorker, this was shocking to me. But then I realized, that the Japanese people in the cars behind me realized I wasn`t stalling out to piss them off, but I was just incompetent. I think they realized that my intentions weren`t bad.

I like to think that when I give Japanese players pointers on moves/combos/posture, they recognize that I am trying to help them improve, because I deeply want the Japanese freestyle scene to develop as quickly and cleanly as possible. To my credit, I normally preface any tips I have with: `would you like me to give you some tips on that trick?` Or some other relentlessly polite phrase. I`ve gotten pretty good at speaking in the polite, apologetic structures of Japanese, and I like to think I`m fairly culturally sensitive. Also, a lot of times people ask me for advice on certain tricks, in which case I assume that they don`t mind me teaching them.

Because of Japanese politeness, it`s not uncommon for people to say `thank you` to me after a session, or after receiving tips from me. When they say `thank you` is it really heartfelt? Again, hard to know. But I think that a lot of times it has been. And the fact that Tournament Organizers here consult with me on how to run tournaments makes me think that my advice is valued, at least some of the time.

I realize this might sound a little ignorant, but I had a friend who lived in Japan and I heard that their was a little tension racially. No outright racism just a little angst towards my friend who was there.

Is there racism in Japan? Yes. Have I experienced racism in Japan? Yes. Have I experienced racism in Japan from footbaggers? Not that I`ve been aware of. I`ve lived a good chunk of my life in Spain, a good chunk in NYC, and a summer here and there in other places (Denver, Montreal). I really find that the more places you go, the more places you live, the more people you meet... the more you realize there are idiots and incredibly kind people no matter where you go.

While my official job is `English teacher,` if you look at my contract, `teaching English` is only an aspect of my main job description: internationalization. The Japanese government back in the 80s became aware that Japan`s cultural isolation and homogeneity were hurting it in the business world and the international community, so they started the program I work for to help Japanese people interact better with foreigners. So while teaching English 9-5 everyday is part of my job; making Japanese friends, going on dates, smiling at children on the street, playing footbag with friends are also aspects of me `doing my job.` Hopefully this will have an effect on the xenophobia that still exists in Japan.

[hacksterbator]

ken i found that to be a very interesting post. it made me aware of aspects of japanese culture i didn't know about. i find it interesting that "internationalization" is part of your job.

[BainbridgeShred]

My Social Studies teacher taught English to Japanese business men, and he also had to internationalize them ie shaking hands firmly ect

Also said that Japanese kids usually learn English in school, but only gramatically and not conversationally. He said most students could read something like Hemingway fairly easily, but not be able to hold a basic conversation?

Any truth?

[C-Fan]

i find it interesting that "internationalization" is part of your job.

Yeah, when I actually read the job description, I was kinda surprised that my main job is `internationalization,` and that `teaching English` was just a subset of that. In my mind, helping spread footbag around the country is definitely an aspect of `internationalization,` so you could almost say that my job is teaching footbag.

As for Dan`s question... if people want to know about Japan, they can start a topic about it in Kicking Circle and I`ll happily answer as much as I can. This is my footblog though, so if at all possible, I`d like to have all discussion relate to footbag, footbag in Japan, me and footbag, etc. So the question Dan asked before, I answered because it related to footbag in Japan, and teaching footbag. But I`d appreciate if questions unrelated to footbag, or questions that can be answered elsewhere (like, `whats chainsaw massacre?`) be posted in more appropriate subforums.

Hope that didn`t come off all bitchy.

[qphox]

Not at all. Whilst reading it, I could totally hear you speaking it in a cheerful, assertive manner.

[C-Fan]

A few people have asked me about the video in my signature, so it seemed like a good excuse for me to reminisce on good times by telling the story behind the video.

The backstory: 2 summers ago, my only Japanese cousin got married in Tokyo. My folks decided to come over to attend the wedding, and decided to spend the week leading up to the wedding hanging out at my house. It was great seeing them in person, since I hadn`t spent time with them since I had moved to Japan (over a year before then). Even so, a week is a long time to spend with your parents, and so when the wedding was over and I said goodbye to them, I definitely felt a sense of liberation. You know what I`m talking about.

The wedding was my first Japanese wedding, and it was a real beautiful experience. My cousin had a shinto wedding in Asakusa Temple, one of the oldest and most famous temples in Tokyo. I had taken Sunil there a couple months earlier to sightsee, so it was cool this time to be allowed to enter the temple itself, and see the inside. The whole ceremony was real serious, and the bride and groom wore real elegant traditional kimono. After the ceremony, we went to a fancy restaurant, where everybody made a speech and much toasting was had. I got very toasted. <--- computer simulation of me getting drunk... but I don`t think I flash like that... check that, I don`t flash at all. <----me not being drunk, but being embarassed at how that last sentence came out.

After making a speech in my clumsy Japanese, and eating lots of good food, I congratulated my cousin once more, accepted a traditional wedding party gift (a nice wooden box which contained an expensive salted fish, which was garnished with ribbons and festive ceremonial paper), said goodbye to my folks (promised to eat my veggies), and literally skipped to the train station so I could make it to Yoyogi park to shred with my Tokyo footbag crew.

Since I came directly from the wedding, I was still wearing my suit. It was September, so it was still t-shirt and shorts weather, but I could wear a suit without sweating. When I got within sight of all the footbaggers, they all stopped to laugh at my appearance, and cheered their welcome: `Ken-sensei!` At work people call me Ken-sensei (teacher) everyday, but it was funny to be called that by my friends. After complimenting me on my new look, everybody promptly noticed that I was still very buzzed from drinking at the wedding.

I noticed that a bunch of people were standing around Mayumi Maki, like they had been practicing something before I came. As it turned out, Maki was coming real close to hitting Phoenix, which was a big deal because to that point no Japanese Shredita had hit a 5 add. I put on my lavers and jokingly step in between her attempts, and `demonstrate` how to do Phoenix, while wearing a suit. To my surprise, I hit it on my first try. http://www.footbag.org/media/312/ken_su ... hoenix.wmv This also surprises everybody else, moreso because I`m drunk, than the fact that its in a suit. At the time I wasn`t even sure they were filming, but when I saw the video later, I was stoked.

I play a bit more in my suit, but then switch to regular shred clothes. I announce to everybody that I will award a special prize to whoever hits the best trick of the day. Shortly thereafter, Maki hit phoenix, on video no less. http://www.footbag.org/media/354/0927phoenix.wmv

After the shred, we all hit a Chinese restaurant to eat and drink. We do this after every session and I think it`s a great tradition, cause it really helps us get closer. After some toasting Maki`s historic achievement, I announce that she won the special prize of the day. I present her with the ceremonial fish, and when she opens it, everybody is amazed, because nobody expected me to present such a nice, traditional Japanese gift.

Later on we all went to shoot pool, and Masa crushed us, but that`s a story for later. Japanese freestyle rules!

[mosher]

Wow Ken! I have both of those videos on my computer and I love them both, it is so cool to put them together in my head finally.

I watch the Mayumi Maki video alllll the time as it is the most inspiring clip I have ever seen. I show it to all my buddies and it gets us pumped to shred.

Thanks so much for explaining how all that fits together Ken!

[C-Fan]

After Japanese Footbag Championships 2, I told myself I would lay off footbag until going to New Zealand. I was doing pretty well in this respect, and managed to lay off footbag for 2 weeks. Playing basketball and ping pong with my students really helped. But yeah, this last weekend I couldn`t suppress the urge any longer, and so I called up the Morioka crew for a jam.

This week, only Gochin and Shin-chan could make it. But a 3 man circle turned out to be just about right, in terms of everybody being able to get enough touches, and not get antsy waiting for their turn.

For the first hour or so, we listened to `Power in Numbers` by J5. I had made a hip-hop mix, but I left it in the car. I need to get some new shred music. Scratch that, I just need new music in general.

We had a really good session, and at the end of it we all had the feeling of being tired, yet wholly satisfied. I love that feeling. I usually only really get that from footbag, maybe its related to the fact that you can pace yourself throughout. In a basketball game, the stopwatch dictates when you finish. So if you`re exhausted with 5 minutes to go, too bad. If you finish a game but still feel like you have energy, too bad. But with footbag, you can dictate your own pace, which I really dig.

I really like playing with Gochin and Shinchan. They ask for lots of tips on moves, and this ends up helping my game a lot. I taught/gave them tips on paradox whirl, torque, fairy set, and general form throughout. When I teach them a move, it forces me to think about how I execute the move myself. By breaking down the move, and by explicitly thinking about, and explaining how I do it, I not only help them understand the trick better, I also come to a deeper understanding of the trick.

At one point, after having taught Gochin torque, he started trying it from toe. I explained to him that it is easier to hit it from clipper, due to the position of the hips, and I realized that I had never hit flipside toe torque. I hit it on my 2nd or 3rd try, and in the same combo I also hit clipper torque bsos, strong toe torque (so bsos), and paradox torque bsos!

Another time, Gochin was trying to do fairy sets, but he was rushing the set, and in doing so failing to get any height out of it. I told him to show me his pixie set, which sure enough was much slower, and much higher. I told him to think of fairy set in a similar way to his pixie set. Raise the knee high, start relatively slowly, and bring your foot down fast after the set. Prior to the session, the only fairy tricks I had hit before were fear, fairy butterfly, fairy same whirl/blender. But by following my own advice, I found my fairy sets much improved. I even hit my first feral!

I was also kind of proud to hit a sort of footbag milestone for myself. When I first started playing footbag, 34 years ago, I thought the coolest moves in the game were eclipse, torque, whirling swirl, and mobius. Nemesis hadn`t been hit yet, so that wasn`t even an option. I remember thinking that I could `quit` footbag after I had hit even a few of these tricks, because I would feel satisfied. I hit them all eventually, and then over the years I managed to hit all of them on both sides. Except for whirling swirl. But since my flipside swirl has been improving a lot lately, and I had recently seen Ales hitting whirling swirl bsos, I decided to give it a go. To my utmost elation, I finally hit flipside whirling swirls! Shortly thereafter, I started going for it BSOS, and twice I had my strong whirling swirl `fly-by` on the swirl dex (overdex it). In any case, it felt good to finally hit it.

The best part of the session for me was just being real conscious of how much fun it is to play, and how lucky I am to play. My mental game was real good all session, which always makes for a fun session. I thought about an article I had read about Grant Hill (the NBA player), and how this year he looks forward to every single game, and in every single game he is just thankful to be able to play again. Granted, the injury that sidelined me last year for over 2 months isn`t as serious as Grant Hill`s was, but I could really relate to that. It seems to petty to get frustrated during a session if you can`t hit flip pixies. You`re healthy enough to be playing the game that you love! That`s all that matters. I try and keep that in mind every single time that I play.

[King Monkey]

My guess is 2-3 years. There are a ton of small, blonde children of the corn Euro players like Vasek on the rise. Juho Marjo, anyone? It's not going to be long until they start getting really good. Also, it's not like there aren't other players rivaling Vasek right now. Honza's routine skills and shred 30 skills are very near that of Vasek's. Felix, the rest of the Finnish nation? :-p It won't be long.

Its probably pretty certain that someone will one day 'beat' Vasek, but disturbing to think of someone who could be classed as 'better' than him at footbag. Im not sure if that person is playing yet. One guy who seems to have huge potential is Ilja Mitrofanov from Estonia i think, that guy has ridiculous control, rhythm and ease of execution, and ankles too. Definitely one to watch i think

[C-Fan]

While the subject of `will Vasek ever be beat?` is an interesting one, it`s been discussed before in a separate topic. The manner in which it was raised in this blog seems to answer the question though: yes, just a matter of when.

Everybody gets older, so while the best can be dominant for a long time, somebody better will always come along. Which brings me to an interesting thought I had. Recently I saw an NBA commercial where little kids are discussing `who is the next -insert 80s NBA star name-?` So one kid thinks that Dirk Nowitzki is the next Larry Bird, Lebron James is the next Magic Johnson, etc.

This got me to thinking about footbag. I got into the sport in 97, and for me the heyday of the sport was 98-99. That was when footbag was real fresh for me. That was also 6 years ago. So I thought it would be interesting to ask, `who is the next ________?` for footbag, using 98 and 04 as comparisons. This is just for fun, but bear with me.

Who is the next Ryan Mulroney? The answer is easy: Vasek Klouda. In 98 and 99, Ryan was the undisputed best player in the world. In terms of shred, he had the longest strings with the hardest tricks, and he was super consistent. From 2000 to 2001, he solidified his position on top by dominating not just shred, but all facets of competition. When people made shred videos, nobody wanted their run to appear after Ryan`s, because they`d look so comparatively bad.

Vasek is the new Ryan, and not just because Vasek`s style so clearly evolved off of Ryans. Like Ryan before him, he is unquestionably the most consistent and skilled player, who busts long runs with the hardest tricks in them. The last 3 years has seen him dominate all facets of competition (though he did place second in a shred contest this year), and he is a force in circles.

Who is the next Daryl Genz? In 98, Daryl Genz was notable for being one of the most flipsided players in the game. He was busting long, both sided shuffle combos, and became one of the first players to use nuclear sets consistently in midstring.

Yves Kreil is the new Daryl Genz. He has never had a flipside, which is only appropriate for Daryl`s successor. Yves is reknown for his long flipsided shuffle strings, and his nuclear set is solid on both sides. Plus, having glasses like Daryl did before laser surgery also helps him claim this spot.

Who is the new Tuan Vu? In 98 Tuan was blazing trails as a bad-ass Asian man in a sport dominated by white players. Tuan was hitting sets like shooting and atomic before other people were, and helped make them popular. You could name combos at the time, like rubberman, and you knew that ONLY Tuan was capable of hitting them. Tuan was considered to have the fastest legs of anybody at the time.

Sunil Jani is the new Tuan. Footbag is still mostly white, but Sunil inspires shredders of all colors to try and catch up with him. Like Tuan before him, Sunil popularized difficult sets like quantum and furious before anybody else was hitting them. It`s also hard to imagine somebody arguing that anybody in the game has faster legs than Sunil.

Who is the new James Risden? Back in 98-00, James Risden was an underground shredder, who had skills to match the best. But he never showed at tournaments, and when he did he was injured, so few saw his true abilities. He may not have been famous, but that added to his appeal as an underground shredder of the highest ability. He was hitting some of the hardest concepts of the time, like furious sets and quantums, long before these were common.

This is hard. I`m going to say that Brad Nelson is the new James Risden. yeah, Brad has been to more tournaments, and even made worlds this year. But I really think that most people have no idea how good his game is, or some of the combos and moves that he can hit. He has hit some tricks on both sides, that very few BAP have hit on one. Honorable mention goes to Derek Vandall.

Who is the new Paul Munger? OK, this is a bit of a stretch. In 95 and 96, Paul Munger was that shredder with the coke bottle glasses who was hitting the hardest tricks imaginable out there. His string length wasn`t the best, but who cares when you are hitting food processor to infinity swirl in 1995! Its hard to imagine, but bedwetter was one of the coolest and hardest tricks ever, and this is the man who invented them. Not only did he hit the biggest tricks and combos, his style always made them look humongous too! Lets also not forget that Raw Shred, the first `real` footbag video, was his baby. This tape really helped inspire players all over the country to improve, especially players who hadn`t been exposed to high-level guiltless play.

Eli Piltz is the new Munger. There are definitely a few people out there who are blazing trails in terms of difficult tricks, but Eli deserves the nod for hitting so many new tricks over so long a period of time. Montage? Vertigo? Paradox swifter? Blazing mirage? Nuclear torque? Eli still busts huge, and was the first to hit several tricks which are still considered huge. And while Munger`s `Raw Shred` was the first popular footbag video, Eli`s `Aggressive Grounds` and subsequent releases were the first truly professional footbag videos produced, which were of good enough quality to be sold in stores.

More later.

[Senor Grommet]

I really think that Jorden moir is the "new" James Risden. He was underground for a long time, posting on modified that he could hit hella hard tricks but no one saw them. Then he went to worlds and blew everyone away> He IS the new Risden.

More importantly, who will be the next Abshire???

[C-Fan]

Yesterday and today I taught a footbag class to my favorite class. It`s the high-level English class at one of my schools, so it`s just 6 enthusiastic girls. I`ll write more about that class tomorrow, but today we did a worksheet about footbag, and the last question was to make as many words as they could using the letters: F O O T B A G

We came up with:

foot, oaf, oat, fog, toga, tog, boo, tab, fag* (cigarette in the UK)
bag, boa, boat, fat, gab, gat* (slang), got, goat, taboo, to, too, bat, boot

Some of those were mine, but my kids surprised me with some of them like `boa.`

I can`t believe I get paid for this.

[Senor Grommet]

goof , tag

[C-Fan]

Man... 10 days or so until Winter Vacation. Hard to focus on work. I re-read my journal from last year`s trip to New Zealand, and it really brought a smile to my face. Maybe I will post my footbag experiences from last year into my blog.

In the meantime, I`m just trying to coast at work. Last week I did a footbag class with my favorite class, which is comprised of just 6 students. It`s the advanced English class. We held class in the freezing cold gym, and I taught about footbag and its history as we stretched. Then, for like 30 minutes, we split into circles and hacked, and at the end of class, we made a big circle (6 students, 3 teachers) and got a hack. The gym teacher and another English teacher are both 22, and both have taken an interest in footbag as well. After the session, 2 teachers stayed on to practice footbag, and I gave them pointers. Since I had the next period free, I decided to play footbag and shoot hoops until lunch.

Despite the see-your-breath cold, I still had a real fun session. Inspired by the latest Montreal videos, I tried paradox swifter and decided I am nowhere near it. I also wanted to hit blurry drifter-reverse swirling pick up, but not much luck there. A styly Laroche link indeed. I mostly just tried to do easy, long runs to stay warm. I was kinda shocked how bad my flipside ducking osis was, so I decided to hit pixie ducking osis, and hit it for the first time. It was real easy though, so I only got a mild rush out of it. Much more exciting for me, was hitting flipside DATW for my first time. Yeah I know, it`s sad that I`ve played for like 7 years and never hit that, but I never really felt the urge to try it. I hit it a few times (in to out), and got it BSOS. It`s kinda cool that in the last month I`ve hit DATW and whirling swirl flipside for the first time, since I never really thought I`d hit those tricks flipside. I kinda feel defensive writing that though... I kinda feel like I have to list all the hard tricks I`ve hit flipside in my defense, to show I`m not as one-sided as this post makes me seem. Ummm....I`ve hit food bsos, superfly bsos, diving pdx drifter both sides, fury both sides.... there, that`s better.

Towards the end of the session I really just started messing around. I thought about how Jeremy O`Wheelj had thought I was the first person to hit triadon, like 5 years ago. That got me thinking: if Jeremy`s mistaken subconscious has enough faith in my abilities, that it thinks I could hit that trick 5 years ago, then maybe I can hit it, now. Armed with this new confidence, I toyed around with muted leggy atomic paradon, and kicked myself in the nuts a bunch of times. The footwork and timing is definitely tricky. Still, I managed to get it on my foot once, which felt cool, since I think it means I have a good chance of sealing it next time I play in good, warm conditions. I also toyed with triple over down, using a muted fairy set, and it`s also eminently do-able.

After school I went down to play basketball with the team, and was surprised to see only one team member down there... playing footbag? Because of school trip, only one basketball member was there, and the other basketball coach was playing footbag with him. I taught them how to play the basketball game `knockout`, and after a few rounds of that, we went back to footbag. Both of the young teachers who are interested in it also played, and we formed a circle which went real well. I was kinda tired, but since everybody else was so enthusiastic about playing, I decided I`d stick around and teach them. They picked up toe stall pretty fast, and jester is coming along as well. We ended up playing until 6:30 pm, which is incredible.

Again, I can`t believe that I`m paid sometimes.

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Again, I can`t believe that I`m paid sometimes.

Kyuryo-dorobou!