Jeremy Mirken's Footbag Blog

QuantumBalance · Post by **QuantumBalance** » 22 May 2005 11:15

Are we? LA to grom LA to grom - every since you flipped out on me - theres not been a word

Senor Grommet · Post by **Senor Grommet** » 22 May 2005 18:35

1) There will be a Santa Barbara session over the memorial day weekend. Not much of a jam, but more of a get together with some shred and some hang out. I did not set this thing up and I did not even know what day it was going to be, but apparently, the 28th. As far as I know, Ted is driving up, Eric from SB will prolly make it (i hope), Ill be there, Moxie will prolly come down, Dat can't make it, and Amelia will be there. Thats all I know . . .

2) I told you like it was and I think you flipped out on me. That's why I haven't made contact with you- I thought you were mad at me for my public comments. Im not really mad tho.

3) I had a fun session with Dat today at Pismo Beach. We impressed hundreds of onlookers. Dat said he was playing really wel, and that it was possibly his best session ever. He almost hit ripwalk>ripwalk.

4) I busted some crowd-pleasing stuff, btu in general it was waaaaay too hot to shred well- it was like 90 or something insane. I did have one memorable run that included atom smasher> atomic whirl and atom smasher> atom smasher>jonny quest . That was really fun.

Blackjack · Post by **Blackjack** » 22 May 2005 19:38

QuantumBalance · Post by **QuantumBalance** » 22 May 2005 20:42

-Sam Colclough Ms.T.

did u bring snoop and your costume? theres still more to film of u

Senor Grommet · Post by **Senor Grommet** » 24 May 2005 21:05

Post re: LA session:

Fournier highlights:
some stuff, blurry whirling swirl, whatever
janiwalker> janiwalker

Mirken highlights:
janiwalker>whirlygig
symp whirl>mobius
symp whirling swirl>mobius
kicking smear
kicking blur
kicking atom smasher
clip set symp torque (2nd ever)
diving tap (tapping diving ss mirage)

Chad D:
(fart sound> 2> uhhhhhhhh!)
big apple
lots o' symp whirls
blurry whirl>gyro whirl>repeat

Sam C:
set personal ripwalk record
some nice runs, symp whirls, mobius bs

My highlights from yesterday:
whirr> janiwalker
reverse whirr
whirring swirl again
symposium torque (clipper set)
more, but i can't remember now

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 24 May 2005 23:39

Senor Grommet wrote:
Fournier highlights:
some stuff, blurry whirling swirl, whatever
janiwalker> janiwalker

Mirken highlights:
symp whirling swirl>mobius

My highlights from yesterday:
whirr> janiwalker

Sweeeet.

Was all the LA stuff filmed? Will it be on Sam`s new joint?

QuantumBalance · Post by **QuantumBalance** » 25 May 2005 09:35

naw I was gonna film - and i started out filming someone throwing a pretzel into mic checks mouth.. and then i decided not to film cuz filming is boring

i cant wait to finish my movie so i can be a musician full time

Senor Grommet · Post by **Senor Grommet** » 29 May 2005 10:15

Non-musician Day #1:

Woke up happy from exclusive session day before.

Many great things hit, too bad you weren't there to see them.

I hit some stuff, other people did things too, I wish i remembered.

After the exclusive session, we went out to eat at this really exclusive restaurant, where only we 5 ordered really exclusive meals, with great tasting shakes and hot chocolate. Then we all went to an exclusive spa/resort-like facility where we snuck in and broke several rules and finally got kicked out by a mean security guard. Big ups to all the rule breakers reading this blog!

If you've got good taste, you will return to the footblogs section and then re-view this post cause you're cool and I am too. We should shred sometime at my exclusive SB location.

QuantumBalance · Post by **QuantumBalance** » 30 May 2005 00:28

havent you been non musician for more than 1 day?

Senor Grommet · Post by **Senor Grommet** » 04 Jun 2005 08:57

While I was in CA this trip, lasting for about 13 days or so, I got to shred with so many people from this forum. Ill name as many as I can remember:

Blackcrown
Dat
Moxie
Jackbag
QuantumBalance
BigAdd
Blackjack
ShredPirate
Ted
Maraxus
FlexThis
. . . I think that is it.

I shredded with the above over abou 4-5 sessions, and the best sessions (in terms of what was hit) was: 1) with Maraxus and FlexThis, and 2) with BigAdd, QuantumBalance, BlackJack, ShredPirate.

Thanks for taking the time to have sessions with me guys. I enjoyed every session, but even more, I enjoy hanging out and just being in the company of friends.

And an official congrats to Sam Colclough for finding and getting a job that fits with his morals, and for being excited about the possibilities it holds.

david · Post by **david** » 04 Jun 2005 10:29

reverse whirr is cool. i like jani>whirlygig too.

Senor Grommet · Post by **Senor Grommet** » 04 Jun 2005 11:33

Thanks David.

Listen, Im really upset right now. I just came back fom a session with my gf, and, like always, we ended our session with one of us storming off completely upset. I am writing this to maybe get some advice as to how to prohibit this from continuing to occur, because as it is, I have no desire to continue to play with her. It makes the sessions of footbag less fun when we get angry with eachother. It makes footbag not fun. Basically, what happens each session is that she tries X, she cant do it, she gets upset and stops doing X or stops playing footbag completely. Throughout, I am trying to give her advice so she can hit X, most of which she is completely uninterested in hearing or applying to the move. She continues to try until she gets too frustrated to continue. Then, I say "Dont give up! Why do you just stop when you dont hit it? Keep trying. Dont put up mental blocks . . ." So, then she and I somehow escalate into even more anger, sometimes yelling, and occasional crying even. How does a footbag session turn into this? Then, when we try to resolve it later, we seem to accomplish nothing. Then we fucking wait a week, sometimes two, before we session again and the whole g-d damn process starts all over again.

What can I do to stop this cycle of anger and unfulfilling footbag sessions?

please help

Blackjack · Post by **Blackjack** » 04 Jun 2005 14:04

Moxie · Post by **Moxie** » 04 Jun 2005 17:23

Suggestion 1.: End the sessions earlier.

Senor Grommet wrote:I just came back fom a session with my gf, and, like always, we ended our session with one of us storming off completely upset.

If all of your sessions end on a bad note, try ending them while they are still positive. It's hard to quit while you're ahead, but it might be necessary to try in this situation. If you don't play together as long, there's less time to get frustrated with one another. If she gets upset after trying something a bunch of times and not getting it, it could be that she's flustered and should just take a break for a while and cool off.

Senor Grommet wrote: Basically, what happens each session is that she tries X, she cant do it, she gets upset and stops doing X or stops playing footbag completely. Throughout, I am trying to give her advice so she can hit X, most of which she is completely uninterested in hearing or applying to the move. She continues to try until she gets too frustrated to continue. Then, I say "Dont give up! Why do you just stop when you dont hit it? Keep trying. Dont put up mental blocks . . ." So, then she and I somehow escalate into even more anger, sometimes yelling, and occasional crying even. How does a footbag session turn into this?

This sounds like this part of it is completely up to her to handle in the right way. It’s good for you to encourage her to continue, but as I said earlier, sometimes when I’m tired and frustrated trying the same trick over and over will only make things worse for me emotionally. As you said, she continues until she gets too frustrated to continue but then you ask her to not stop. When someone suggests I try something and I just can’t anymore (or I know I’ll get upset/frustrated/tired), I know now that I have to say “No, I’m good thanks” or "maybe later, I'm too tired to try that now" with a sincere or pleasant tone and I just try something else which I won’t get frustrated with. As long as the person respects that, I'm okay. If I get too frustrated to continue, I will probably going to get more frustrated if I do so rather than less frustrated.

Please try to remember too, Jeremy, that your stamina while playing is 10 times what hers is. It might look like what she’s trying doesn’t take a lot of effort, (I know you know it's hard and you don't belittle her effort because it's a "basic" move. You're good with that.) but it can be really draining especially since she has to concentrate so hard on every “basic” move/motion. It’s really hard to feel comfortable trying a move when nothing in footbag is really second nature yet. When I get tired and keep trying something I don't usually hit it because I'm tired and frustrated (a bad combination). I don't know what she got frustrated with not being able to hit. Do you think she's trying something above her ability/level?

Suggestion 2.: Find out if she gets that frustrated when she plays by herself. (Once you know that, there will be other things to figure out from there)

Suggestion 3.: If it doesn't get better, stop playing with her. Seriously, if I felt the way you described after every session because someone would get upset enough to storm away, I would not play with that person anymore. Your relationship is worth more than to disrespect it with behavior like this. (that was not meant as a jab at you)

Comment 1.: I've never been in either of your positions, but from my experience it can be very frustrating to take suggestions from someone who you are very close with. I used to get very (very) frustrated and angry when I couldn't hit specific moves. It must have been frustrating to see me get upset. (This was mostly while I was trying stuff around Tim, I think.) Eventually I figured out that NO ONE would play with me if I got so upset and unplesant, especially if I was bad to them personally while in one of those moods. I started saying "thanks" when someone would say it was a good run or good try.

Comment 2.: I guess that was all just a bunch of the same stuff said over and over. But it was fun to think about. I think this stage of footbag is important for your girlfriend developmentally. This is when she will have to decide to limit herself if she will only get frustrated after a certain point. And this is when she will have to decide how she wants to behave and treat someone who she cares about.

Remember:

Relationship above footbag.
______________
Emily Kulczyk

"…Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must ever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.” -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

QuantumBalance · Post by **QuantumBalance** » 04 Jun 2005 19:38

Senor Grommet · Post by **Senor Grommet** » 05 Jun 2005 16:25

Schooled flip furious set.
At least 300 attempts.
At least 60 janiwalkers.
Three flip furies.
Three flip fissions, can't confirm cleanliness.

flip janiwalker>dlo
flip janiwalker>whirling swirl
flip janiwalker>blur
flip janiwalker>stepping clipper
flip janiwalker>janiwalker
flip janiwalker>butterfly swirl

I was happy with that.

At the end of the session I hit nemesis unclean on three different occasions, all of which felt clean. On two, the third and fourth dexes were above the bag. On the third attempt, the last dex was questionable, basically not really there. In any case, those three were my first nemeses that felt like nemeses, and they were the first to be on my foot after the move was over. I'll keep working on it. BTW, it was my flip furious set.

Senor Grommet · Post by **Senor Grommet** » 06 Jun 2005 16:17

Hear ye, Hear ye,

I just ended a pretty fun session outside in the shade. Its way too hot to be playing in the sun in the afternoon in Tucson this time of year. Today it approached 94, which is actually below the norm for this time of year (about 98-100). The bad part of shade shred is that footage taken from my digital camera comes out waay grainy and bad quality. Too bad for us, because i hit some cool stuff.

To capitalize on all of my flip janiwalker work yesterday, what did I do? School the hell out of it again! Today, I was really proud to hit 15/24 janiwalkers on the flip side, starting from the simple clipper delay. 15/24= just over 60%, which is waaaaaay better than two days ago, when my percentage was about 15%.

i think I'll just make a short list of the things i hit today:

-before i hit the awesome Sick 3 mentioned below, I was pleased as pie to have hit: blurry whirl>whirr 3 times

-today's best: janiwalker>blurry whirl>whirr

-second best: flip janiwalker>flurry (inspired by David Clavens)

-fury>toe blur>toe ripwalk

-flip janiwalker>stepping whirl

-janiwalker>flip janiwalker

-blurry drifter>blur (on two occasions, a reaaaally tough link for me)

Also, I tried to hit fury>quantum whirl, but i didnt have any luck there.

Senor Grommet · Post by **Senor Grommet** » 07 Jun 2005 21:51

I'd really like this post to get a lot of views because in some strange way, it validates my accomplishments and makes me feel better about myself. please help me to feel better about myself

In any case, Im about to talk about cool stuff, so read below!

I started out today in a toe blur race with Dave Clavens and Loren Baum- first person to 10. Well, dave hit it before Loren or I had even sessioned i believe. So, he won that race before we even put on our track shoes

So, the motivation of my session changed after he aimed me with that shocking news. I promptly went to Lon's world record list and found a record to smash. Well, I found one i thought I could handle, and I fucking spent nearly three g-d darn hours, on and off of course, trying to break it. Ohhh man it was soooo frustrating! i got sooo close sooooooooo many times.

Anyway, in the end I felt pretty satisfied with my session. I hit one pretty good run, for D Clavens, 20 contacts starting with toe blur>toe blur> toe blizzard, which is a pretty good combo. Then when I got back inside from my session, David Wilder aimed me and was so happy because he hit this new combo for the first time. I had just hit something cool also, so we were both feeling pretty high on footbag, which was fun.

I think thats all for this post, its getting a bit long. Im uploading some video right now, so i'll try to edit this post with the addy (ies). To all those loyal readers who've read this far, you'll get to see some video!

EDIT 1: http://www.mwhansen.org/footbag/The%20Scream.MOV

EDIT 2: http://www.mwhansen.org/footbag/World%20Record.MOV

Enjoy!

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 08 Jun 2005 15:40

C-Fan wrote: Anyway, I was just wondering if you have any interest in racing me to see who can hit 10 consec unique dexless first..

Just wondering, have you hit this yet? I finally managed to get it yesterday, getting 11 unique dexless. We talked about this a while ago, so I was wondering if you hit it ages ago, forgot about it, or what. Lately I`d gotten distracted with frantic sets, so I didn`t skool dexless as hard, and it sounds like lately you`ve been doing lots of triple and big dex moves, so I was wondering if you were in the same boat, or had moved on cause you hit it so long ago.

While I`m here, I challenge you to do a 3 trick string where you link any combination of toe blizzards and omelletes.

Excited to watch your movies... hopefully I`ll watch em tonight.

Senor Grommet · Post by **Senor Grommet** » 09 Jun 2005 10:05

C-Fan, you beat me to it! I have gotten 8, not recently trying for it though. Nice work. Knowing youve hit it will probably want to make me hit it more!

Also, S&M Smasher is possibly the hardest move to hit frikkin cleanly! OMG

its soooo hard!

i hit a ps dlo again today. I hit symp torque a few times to hand catch or drop. Gave up on ps whirling swirl. Close to rolling my ankle on flip blurriest

, verrrrry close) but thankfully no pain at all immediately or hours after, just a close call.

Oh, and one 29 contact run, another in the mid-high 20s.

Hope to have a second session later this afternoon. This first one was about 1.5 hrs.

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Jeremy Mirken's Footbag Blog

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