Krafty's Footblog

[Krafty]

Today was such a great day. The weather outside was awesome!! It wasn't too hot and it wasn't too cold; it was perfect!! So, I went outside for a couple of sessions at different times during the day. First of all, yesterday and today, I was working on a video I am making on some of the Chicago Inner Circle guys. I shredded with them last Saturday and got only about 10 minutes of footage, but it was all good footage. I had footage mainly from Eric Siegel, Will Rockey, and some of Tom Kaycho (finally found out his last name!!!). That was because the rest of the guys that were there (Tim Werner, Kamil Szpara, Zeke, and Tom, for a little while) were all playing 4 square. So, I made the video mainly on Eric, Will, and Tom. It's about 5 minutes but it's 70 mb because of the high quality. I sent the file to Kamil and Adam also so they could check it out and give me their opinions on in and also, Kamil is compressing it for me so that the file size would be smaller. That way, I can post both the high quality and the low quality files and people can download whichever one they wanted. I'm still waiting for Kamil to finish compressing the video for me but here's the high quality one:

http://s40.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2R57 ... W44TXBAON2
(High-quality, approximately 70 mb, around 4:50 long)

If any of download it and check it out, it would be great to get some opinions out of you guys. Maybe I can make it better before I post it in the 'Videos' section of the forums. Thanks a lot and I hope you guys enjoy the video!!

Alright, onto the shredding part. The first time I went out to shred, I was determined to hit paradon at least on one side. For the last couple of days, I've been holding my bag on my flipside clipper position to make my flip clippers better and I have to say that my flip clippers really improved. I can even step better out of them and I hit my record of 9 infinities (still pretty sad, but I'm working on them... ). So, I kept trying to hit paradon (I can hit double over down both sides) and after about 5 minutes of trying, I finally hit paradon on my strongside. I can't believe that paradon is so simple to hit; I feel stupid it took me this long to hit that move. Oh well, the feeling after I hit it makes up for all the times I was frustrated at not hitting it. I didn't think I'd even come close to hitting it on my flipside but I footyed it a couple of times before getting really hungry and going in to eat lunch.

I came out again to footbag, but I was supposed to help my dad clean out the car and van. So, I helped my dad out for a while and then started to footbag. This session was all about working on longer strings, and I had a couple of nice long tiltless strings with 3 adds and a couple of 4 adds thrown in. I'm finally somwhat happy about my combos and moves, but my goal is to become so much better. My third session which was at around 6:20 was mainly me drilling my flipside butterfly > pdx mirage. I finally nailed it after a lot of attempts and hit butterfly > pdx mirage rpt. It felt so good to do that. Oh, also, last night I hit 9 same side clippers on my flipside (that's my record!). My flipside is finally starting to catch up to my strongside. A month longer, maybe, and my flipside will be equally as strong as my strongside. Alright, I'm done rambling. Don't forget to download my video and post comments on it!! Later!

[wolfpac444]

Hey Kaushik, you should come here. ;-]

[Krafty]

I'll see what I can do Mike! I've got Prarie State Exams (ACT, etc.) towards the end of April and my parents will probably not let me go out to footbag. I'll try to come out though!

P.S. Did you check out the CIC guys in the video?!

[Krafty]

Oh man, I had a session at around 6:30 today for about a half an hour and it was awesome. First of all, I am so tired today because I had a tough gymnastics practice in the morning and I went outside to shred for about 40 minutes in the afternoon. The weather outside is even better than yesterday, with a slight breeze to keep everything cool. But the best part was that I hit barrage today!!!! Finally, after watching others hit it in videos and watching Tom impressing me with it in person, I finally hit barrage too!! It took me about 50 attempts to finally hit it; I had it on my foot so many times, but the bag either fell off when I tried to set it back up into my hands or hit my knee or shorts ! But hitting that move was such a great feeling!! Now, my goal is to hit paradon > barrage or double over down > barrage! It's going to be like a Vasek combo (sort of, but not really...hehe). Alright, I'm gonna go and work my flipside clippers more now! Later!

[Krafty]

Man, today was such an awesome day!! I was supposed to shred with one of my friends after a whole week of shredding alone, but he kind of bailed out on me at the last minute. Oh well, so I went downstairs and shredded by myself (again) for about 30 minutes. It was such a great day because finally, my flipside butterflies and clippers have almost caught up to my strongside!! I almost hit my first ever flipside spinning clipper and almost had flipside swirl a couple of times!! Also, I almost hit flipside sidewalk (the only stepping move I ever hit on my flipside is ripwalk) so I was really happy that my stepping sets are becoming a lot better on my flipside. Also, my consecutive infinities are getting a lot better; I always had to really fight to keep the bag under control but today, it felt like both my butterflies were the strongside ones (I still didn't beat my past record though!)!! Hopefully tomorrow will be amazing again!! FOOTBAG ROCKS!!!!!

[Krafty]

It's been a week since my last blog entry and now, I'm back!! Last week was really busy for me because I had gymnastics practice right after school from 3:30 to 6:30 and then I had Variety Show practice (I'm in the pit band!) from around 6:00 to 9:00. So, I had to leave practice early to get to the V-Show practice. And after coming home, the homework I've been having has been killing me. So, I didn't have much time to shred at all this week. I did shred whenever I found a few minutes here and there though! And the one trick I got real close to this week was...! I'll post it after I hit it with a witness! That is my dream move and my friend (who I was shredding with) saw me almost hit it!! I'm about a nanosecond away from nailing that move perfectly!! Also, going along with the flipside stuff, I'm getting a lot closer to swirl flipside! So, this week wasn't too bad and it wasn't too good either. More later!

[Krafty]

Man, today sucked so much (for the most part). I got up around 10:40 and I had to get ready because I had to meet with a group to work on an AP US History practice test due for tomorrow. But before I went, Zeke called me up around 11:50 and asked if I could make it out to shred today with the CIC guys. I was planning on making the shred because I haven't played with those guys in a while but the test my group was working on took for ever! We were hoping the test would take us only about an hour or two to finish it, but it took us about 4 hrs. After I got home at sometime past 4 o clock, I completely forgot that I had told Zeke that I would call him back to let him know whether I would be coming to shred with those guys or not. I'm really sorry about that Zeke!! I hope you guys had a great shred session!

This week and the next two weeks are going to be really tough for me because of all the tests I have to take, so I don't know if I'll be able to shred with the CIC guys until school ends.

I did go out to shred for a while today though. I went out around 6 and I just shredded easy. I hit ducking pdx mirage bs though and that was one of the highlights of my session. Also, when I was just about to finish up and head back home, these two girls (semi-hot, although I have known one of them since 8th grade) showed up and were all like, "Ooohhh, you are soo good, can we play with you?!" And I was totally like, "Hells yea!" So, with renewed energy, I proceeded to bust some sweet moves and combos (for me, at least ). The bustage was pretty good and I think I impressed the crap out of them (the double around-the-world was pretty impressive for them). And then, these two freshmen guys show up and they all got really impressed too!! So, I naturally pointed them toward footbag.org and modified.ca and told them I became somewhat decent because of these two sites! They seemed really interested, so I hope they pick up the sport! So, at least something good came out of today. Now, to go back to my homework...

[Zeke]

This week and the next two weeks are going to be really tough for me because of all the tests I have to take, so I don't know if I'll be able to shred...

Please, please, please, please concentrate on what's important. Plenty of time for footbag this summer

[Krafty]

It's been a couple of months since I've posted in my blog. Over summer, my friends and I got pulled into disc golfing and literally spent hours everyday at various disc golf courses. I had a whole training schedule worked out for footbag, but getting into disc golf kinda messed the plan up. I still footbagged over summer, but not as much as I wanted to.

Then, school started and this year, I have 6 AP classes that I am taking (AP classes = college level courses you take in high school). So, after school started, I've been extremely busy with all my classes and I also have gymnastics practice after school everyday, from 3:30 to 6:00. After practice, I was usually too tired to shred, so I had to depend on just shredding during the weekends. Also, I am a senior now, so I had to start applying to colleges. That has taken up a lot of time for me so far this year, but I am done with all my colleges except for one, so I am glad that all that stuff is out of the way.

Now, to footbag! Jon Nagela moved to the same apartment building I live in and he's kinda been getting me out to shred a lot more. In the past couple of weeks, I shredded so much more than I did all summer. Now, I'm back to being pretty serious about footbag again, so I'm gonna start posting more often in my blog. Apparently, another shredder lives near me. His name is Jeff and he emailed me a while ago. I started shredding with him and he's pretty good. Kicking with him also has given me motivation to start footbagging as much as I used to.

In the past few weeks, my flipside has improved a lot. I can finally hit almost all my moves both sides. Today, especially, was a really good flipside session. I shredded with Jon Nagela today and I was hitting a lot of stuff flipside!

Today's highlights:
flipside clipper x 18
ducking clipper > spinning clipper > diving clipper (almost rpt & almost bs)
ducking clipper > sidewalk > ducking clipper > sidewalk (drop)
flipside spinning clipper > run
spinning clipper > ducking clipper > spinning clipper > ducking clipper (drop)
flipside blur
blur bsos

[Krafty]

Oh!! I forgot to mention:

My first ever 32 panel footbag, stitched by Josh Raye!

In my hand...


Another shot of it, without my hand...


Compared to my old Sandmaster sandbag...


This bag is working out great! It's sooo awesome!!

[Krafty]

Just had a session with Jon and Jeff. We shredded for more than 2 hours and we hit some pretty good stuff!

Highlights:
flipside symposium whirl (didn't seal it though)
atomic osis
pixie ss clipper > pdx mirage > butterfly > sidewalk > food processor attempt
infinity x 11

Tomorrow, it's gonna be Josh & Jake Raye, Jon, Jeff, and me shredding it up for a few hours! I'm gonna take my videocamera and maybe make a video for modified for Christmas!

[quadgun]

JJKJJ session!

[Krafty]

Unfortunately today, Josh and Jake missed their train down from Chicago and Jeff had to do stuff with his family the whole day. So, it was just Jon and me shredding.

I took my camera along and videotaped some stuff. We didn't really have a good day because we've been shredding a lot the past few days. We were kinda burnt out a little today, but I'll still try to make a video of our shred and post it by tomorrow.

Merry Xmas all!

[JeffRichards]

Hey man sorry i coudlnt make it out yesterday. i just got an abshire mini red and orange, and the box set of 8 shred videos! Merry Christmas all and get out and shred!

[JeffRichards]

Just hit paradon BSOS!

[Krafty]

...i just got an abshire mini red and orange, and the box set of 8 shred videos!

Wow!! Lucky...

[Krafty]

I've been trying to make the video, but my firewire cord that connects the camera to the PC is all messed up and won't work. Now, I'm forced to record directly onto DVD and then, using that to create a video. I'll get it up later today, I'm almost done.

On Christmas, I was doing a little barefoot shredding at home and I kinda hurt my knee trying double switchovers. So, no shred yesterday. It feels a lot better today, so I'm probably gonna end up shredding for a bit.

On the plus side, NYJ starts tomorrow!! I am sooooooo excited for this.

I've been getting into pool (billiards) lately too. It's pretty fun!

[Krafty]

Alright, I'm gonna post up details of the New Years Jam just like I did last year.

I got up at around 7:00 in the morning and my friends, Kyle, Jeff, Chris, and I headed out to the Metra station at approximately 8:15 to catch the 8:25 train down to Chicago. I then realized, as the train pulled into the station, that I left my Lavers at home!! Unfortunately, I couldn't go back home to get them since the next train wasn't gonna come until an hour later. From the station in Chicago, we took 2 seperate buses to finally reach McCormick Place. After reaching there, we walked over to the footbag area only to see Tom and some other people still setting everything up. So, while Jeff and Chris decided to start warming up, Kyle and I went to play some ping pong. We lost track of time and ended up leaving the ping pong area around 12:30 pm to get a quick bite to eat and start footbagging.

The first thing I noticed when we got back to the footbag area was the number of people that showed up! There were so many people shredding today; it was a beautiful site! Kyle had a pair of Nikes along with his Lavers and the Nikes seemed okay to shred with, so I borrowed his shoes (his shoes were about a size or two too big for me though) and started shredding in a circle with Jeff, Chris, Shawn Boyle, Kamil (quadgun), and Kyle. It was great seeing everyone again; I hadn't seen some people in almost a year (since the last NYJ). I also shredded a little bit with Emily (moxie) and she improved so much since last year!! She was busting out with ripwalks and other crazy moves with really smooth style; I was really impressed by her! I also saw Jorden and Johnny shredding in a circle with Reid and Jeremy Mirken. What a great circle that was!! Everyone was busting out some huge stuff! I looked over once and saw Jorden hit something like PS Whirl > Mullet > Food Processor midrun!!

I also met Amelia, who was a really nice person. She was busting out some awesome tiltless combos with one of the smoothest, relaxed styles that I've ever seen. I also met some other new people (Dat Phan and Zach from Michigan come to mind). They have really nice styles and awesome trick repetoires as well!

Anyway, after a while of shredding, around 3:30 or so, a Sick 1 contest was held, with 4 different levels that one could enter in: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, and Insane! Each person got 5 attempts. I entered the intermediate competition, especially because I couldn't do many tricks due to the lack of Lavers. I don't remember everybody's names, so if anyone sees something about them and no name, just let me know and I'll change it. The first person to go for intermediate busted pixie torque on his second try! My jaw hit the ground! I did not expect this level of competition! Another guy hit stepping ss whirl which is pretty hard also. When it was my turn, I hit blur on my third try, crispy torque on my fourth, and dropped a phoenix on my last try.

After the intermediates was the beginners, who hit various kicks and stalls. After that was the advanced. I don't remember the correct order and everyone who entered, but I will try my best! Eric Siegel hit blurry mullet, which was crazy! Henry Griese almost hit alpine smoke. Greg Nelson almost hit alpine marius. Will and Reid didn't hit anything but came really close to hitting their moves. Then, Jeremy Mirken hit whirring swirl on his third attempt!! Everyone just went wild!! After the advanced players came the insane ones. Jorden hit blurry flux and came close to backside marius! Johnny hit alpine matador, genesis, and nuclear torque . Eric Reile almost hit ripwalk twirl.

After the competitions, Kyle and I played some more ping pong and then headed out to the CIC suite, where everyone was. We got there and chilled there for a little bit. Jeremy Mirken is a really nice guy! He offered me food when I was hungry! Everyone in general was nice and cool to hang out with. We shredded some more after a short break and then ordered food. After getting our food, Kyle and I left to catch the 8:30 train back home, but a bus driver dropped us off at a stop and told us to get on a bus that apparently doesn't run anymore. We wasted 15 minutes waiting for the bus to show up and ended up missing our train by a couple of minutes. So, we grabbed another bite to eat and then got on the 9:30 train and finally reached home around 10:30.

I'll post some more tomorrow night! Hope you enjoyed the read!

[Not-so-ripped Warrior]

Hope you enjoyed the read!

I did!

[Krafty]

Today, I got up around 7:00 am, but after talking to Kyle and Jeff, we decided to catch the 9:25 train to Chicago, but due to a problem, we ended up missing the train. So, we ended up taking the 10:25 train to Chicago and walked into the footbag area around 12:00. There were already a lot of people shredding, but we were really sore from the previous day, so we took our time stretching out so that noone gets injured. This time, I remembered my Lavers!

After stretching out a little bit, Jeremy came over and I shredded with him for a little bit while I warmed up. He was a real nice guy (he gave Kyle lots of tips) and he was hitting awesome combos. He had these weird, styley clipper moves where he straightened out his support leg while the bag was in the air; they looked pretty cool! After warming up, I shredded in a few other circles and had a really great time! I noticed that I was hitting some of my longest strings and most of my normal stuff on my flipside (I think it was because I was wearing my Lavers).

Soon, the Shred 30 and Sick 3 contests were held, with two different levels: Intermediate and Advanced. I didn't enter any because of how sore and tired I was, so I sat back and enjoyed the competition. In Shred 30, all of the advanced guys did really well, with Scott Davidson, Jorden, and Johnny standing out because they went dropless almost all the way to the end. In the Sick 3, Jorden hit janiwalker > bedwetter > paradon swirl, ripped warrior > blurry whirl > ps torque, and whirlygig > food processor > whirlwind!! The combos were insane!! I don't remember exactly what Eric Siegel hit, but I know it included a blurry whirl and a blender. Johnny almost hit fury > quantum whirl > 69!! It would have been insane if he landed that combo; he came really close a couple of times. Jeremy hit something like blurry whirl > ps whirl > ps whirl (I think it was a safety combo) because he couldn't hit the one he wanted to!

After all the shreddage, Kyle and I went to play more ping pong and then went back to the CIC suite to hang out with the others. This time, we left at 7:31 so that we can catch the 8:30 train, but Kyle, Jeff, and I all apparently missed our stop at the Metra station and had to get on another bus to go back to the station. After sprinting to catch our train, we got on as the door closed behind us!

I'll update this post a little more and also post all about the next day's shred tomorrow!