Here's the sequel of 'The Making of Footbagger Wim'
Wim’s Footbag Genesis Episode II:
‘The Hack Strikes Back’
Where was I? Oh yeah, in front of the student union (see a couple of posts ago). In fact, I think I accidentally landed some toe stalls that night.
In the following days and weeks Peter and I would kick occasionally in between writing essays and attending classes. Because it was getting dark earlier in Wales we needed some artificial light, which we found at the student residences. When it got too cold outside we moved indoors and kicked in the kitchen, which the people having their meal there didn’t always appreciate. Who can blame them. Also the hack was in great peril, as sometimes it would come dangerously close to pots and pans on the fire. So we finally found a suitable spot in the laundry hall of the residences.
Around that time I could get a few consecutive kicks and an odd toe stall, so we set ourselves a little challenge. By the end of Peter’s term in Wales, together we had to be able to do one hundred kicks.
At first that seemed out of the question. There were nights, I remember, we even had difficulties getting in just the first ten. One time we kept dropping on the 9th kick, which was funny because Peter sometimes counted out loud, and he would yell “Nein!” when we dropped.
One night a Finnish girl saw us ‘entering the hack’, as we called it, and said that her boyfriend – who was to come over in two weeks from that – played that too! Needless to say we jumped for joy.
A few weeks later, Jari, the announced boyfriend, showed us that you could actually
do stuff with a hack. He did stuff I couldn’t name then (we called it simply ‘the Jari moves’) but later turned out to be flying clippers and pinchers.
Neither of my kick pals could beat me at forehead stalls, however, which I had made my trademark by then. But then I’m physically endowed for that, cuz I have a pretty high forehead.
After Jari’s adieu we kept kicking and eventually – during our last session together actually – we did like 108 kicks. Total hoots and frenzy!
During one of those last sessions together Peter told me that there was life beyond hack, namely an actual sport called footbag, and that I should check it out on the net. I remember sneaking into the residence computer rooms that night for ‘educational purposes’ and seeing tricks like ripstein, paradon, and symposium everything by Ales Zelinka on footbag.org. My god! What planet was this guy from? Most trick descriptions, I thought, were theoretical and weren’t actually supposed to be hit.
Also shortly before Peter left, I got to know one of the best things about footbag, that is to say playing outside. Odd as it may sound, I had never played outside during the day. One Sunday in December when the campus was dead-still I finally did. Chilly but sunny and not a strap of cloud above the sea. What liberty!
December 2003
I went back to Belgium for X-mas break and remember doing a city trip to Berlin with my girlfriend and a few others. By that time I had come to associate Germany with hack and footbag (thanks to Peter), so I couldn’t help stepping into every sports shop looking for bags. I found some eventually in a fucking big mall and was super happy, as I no longer depended on Peter’s gear for kicking!
Back home I kept visiting footbag.org and stumbled upon an animation of Kenny at the Tam Tam Jam in 1996. Old school as it was, I fell in love with the dancing-like combos I saw (stomping dlo>butterfly>double pick-up>paradon>barfly comes to mind). The leg speed! I think I decided only then that I wanted to become really good at that sport.
January 2004
With the internet as my resource, I practiced basic stalls frantically in the back garden. I remember having inside, outside, toe, and walkover by the time I was to go back to Wales for my semester exams.
There I did little demos and practiced mostly on my own. Two other people kinda contracted the kicking disease as well (again a German guy named Wolfgang and an Italian named Matteo). Hmm, I wonder if they still kick.
February 2004
Exams went fine and in February I went back to good ol’ Belgium ‘for good’ and lived together with my girlfriend in Elsene, just outside the centre of Brussels.
As I realised that from then on I was alone in terms of footbag unless I found some people to kick with, I did a little search on clubs in the neighbourhood. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Belgium actually had several clubs, the biggest of which was based in… Elsene, just outside Brussels. Too good!
A few weeks after I had first contacted the club chief – I didn’t know Seb back then – he gave me a call to say they were off to practice in a nearby train station. I grabbed my bike and got down there.
When I arrived there was a handful of blokes doing all sorts of crazy shit. Later I realised they were probably doing tiltless stuff, but that was too much for my then tiny footbag brain. What really blew me off my socks, however, was Sean Wingert’s shred. His spins and ducks were amazing and his toe play was just beyond my comprehension.
I just did the few stalls and dexes I could do, but couldn’t help feeling sorta intimidated, although I enjoyed kicking with others again too.
Spring 2004
So that’s how those first practices with the Brussels Footbag Club went: I came, I saw, and tried to pick up some of the madness I saw around me. I remember Sean telling me I needed mirage and giving me some pointers on that. And me practicing like a nut in the weekend. And eventually nailing it. And the slooow progress on clippers, for which I eventually needed Lavers from all the way across the f*cking Atlantic.
I also recall my first 3 add trick, which was osis. I went to the practice with no idea I would hit my first guiltless that night, but Sean encouraged me to do so and didn’t leave before I had hit it. I remember being stoked when I went for the stall on one side of my body, and threw my head to the other side to see the bag rise again. My very first guiltfree! Amazing times.
I also remember having my first interclub meeting with the guys from Belgian Kick Crew Mechelen and being really grateful for the existence of their chef Dimitri
. We were at the same level and trying the same tricks (drifters, ripwalks), which was a really good boost, the more so because we could converse in our native language Dutch (first time I ever talked footbag in Dutch!).
This is getting sentimental.
Summer 2004
That summer the footbag club was temporarily broken up due to absences, holidays,… but I still practiced like crazy in spite of the heat. I soon hit my first four add. I guess I was learning quite rapidly, but I also remember a lot of frustration because my game was hardly ever where I wanted it to be. That was the stage when I dropped on clippers and, if a ripwalk or a blur would finally succeed, I was too exhausted to do anything after it.
I also saw my godfather of footbag again on a holiday at the Garda Lake in Italy with part of the Erasmus group. I realised I had been progressing nicely only when Peter told me so. I guess also the fact that suddenly
I taught
him tricks was a symptom.
Towards the end of the summer I had occasional kicks with Sean in Brussels again. I remember that the first time he saw me again, he said “dude, clippers are too easy for you now”. That kinda opened my eyes, as it meant that I could practically go guiltless from then on, which indeed became a goal for me. Before that, I had never considered that as it seemed to me something for people who had been playing footbag for ages.
Fall 2004
In retrospect I think it was perhaps two months too early for going guiltless, as in the beginning it was hard to get any further than five contacts. In fact, it took me about six freaking months to pass the border of ten. At the same time, I wasn’t motivated to ‘condescend’ to tiltless play any more (yeah, a silly point of view, I know), so I was in a no man’s land between tiltless and guiltfree for a few months. Frustration again!
Winter 2004, Spring 2005
I kept practising indoor during winter and came out again in spring.
Well, my footbag life has been more or less public from then on. I got myself one of those really cool challenge threads etcetera.
I went to my first tournament in Aachen in spring, and made the classic noob mistake: I kicked like there was no tomorrow on Saturday and my sore ass couldn't hit a single trick the day after.
Had loads of fun that first day though. I think this one circle with Nils and Viktor from Dortmund, Sean, and me was my personal favourite of the tournie. It was past ten, and I'd been kicking since early afternoon but the energy going on in that circle just kept me going... like some infinite reservoir just for footbag (that proved to be not quite infinite the day after that, but whatever
). I had never experienced anything like that before. Although my runs weren't impressive, I did hit my first ever paradox atomsmasher there and then, which was cool.
That brings us to Summer 2005, right?
)
