Fanzine
Yeah, I`ve got a ton of goodbyes these days, and they`re all rough. But I look at it this way: if I had no friends in Japan and I hated my job, saying goodbye would be really easy. The fact that all these goodbyes is so hard is a testament to the good life I`ve led here.
I still can`t believe you are breaking your 10 year Worlds-attendance streak. It won`t be the same without you man.
In good news: I`ve managed to sneak in a couple sessions lately! I was rained out on Monday and Tuesday, and on Wednesday it was still pretty miserable weather, but I wasn`t going to let that stop me. I went out in a light drizzle and got in about 45 minutes of footbag before the skies really opened up and the world became walls of water. Thunder, lightning, the works.
Before that happened though, I tried out Max`s IPod advice, and was very happily surprised by the results. It`s really pretty good! Ducks and dives feel strange, but shuffle and spins are pretty much normal. I had a real good session, considering the crap conditions and short amount of time. Thanks to my guiltless warmups, my flip pdx mirages and osis feel much more solid. I used to always play out of flip osis with pdx mirage, but now I feel comfy playing into infinity and other `far` tricks from flip osis. Flip barfly anbd flip torque felt pretty natural.
Thursday I had an excellent after-school session. I was glad I played the day before, because it built my confidence in my fundamental game. On Thursday I played inside a gym, which meant I sweated a ton, but I also didn`t have to worry about slipping, or about lighting. I mostly skooled frantic, and I was happy to see that it has greatly improved. I just feel more consistent with it, and it feels like it takes less energy too. jawa-fog-smear-pixie butterfly to a run. Had Jawa-blurry whirl-tomahawk roll off my clipper. Frenzy. bsos
I also skooled my shred 30 some, which was OK, but not great. I`m kinda hoping to rise to the occasion under pressure. Still, everything felt pretty solid throughout... hopefully I can make it to finals, but who knows. One of the highlights of the session was being able to hit my Sick3 within 2 or 3 attempts. I think its because my frantic set has improved. Skooled dexless some, which went well. I think its real key to remember to plant your foot as fast as possible after each set for a spin. Another session highlight was hitting blurry whirl bsos in a run with ewalk and paradon swirl. and dod swirl
I also managed to hit some good drills:
ripwalk-spinning clipper repeat
diving clipper-drifter-repeat
ducking clipper x2
spinning clipper-gyro clipper-repeat
ducking clipper-ducking pdx mirage bsos
...all in the same string, along with a tomahawk.
What can I say, your brother writes a persuasive email.$2.22 wrote:Good luck at worlds man. .
I still can`t believe you are breaking your 10 year Worlds-attendance streak. It won`t be the same without you man. In good news: I`ve managed to sneak in a couple sessions lately! I was rained out on Monday and Tuesday, and on Wednesday it was still pretty miserable weather, but I wasn`t going to let that stop me. I went out in a light drizzle and got in about 45 minutes of footbag before the skies really opened up and the world became walls of water. Thunder, lightning, the works.
Before that happened though, I tried out Max`s IPod advice, and was very happily surprised by the results. It`s really pretty good! Ducks and dives feel strange, but shuffle and spins are pretty much normal. I had a real good session, considering the crap conditions and short amount of time. Thanks to my guiltless warmups, my flip pdx mirages and osis feel much more solid. I used to always play out of flip osis with pdx mirage, but now I feel comfy playing into infinity and other `far` tricks from flip osis. Flip barfly anbd flip torque felt pretty natural.
Thursday I had an excellent after-school session. I was glad I played the day before, because it built my confidence in my fundamental game. On Thursday I played inside a gym, which meant I sweated a ton, but I also didn`t have to worry about slipping, or about lighting. I mostly skooled frantic, and I was happy to see that it has greatly improved. I just feel more consistent with it, and it feels like it takes less energy too. jawa-fog-smear-pixie butterfly to a run. Had Jawa-blurry whirl-tomahawk roll off my clipper. Frenzy. bsos
I also skooled my shred 30 some, which was OK, but not great. I`m kinda hoping to rise to the occasion under pressure. Still, everything felt pretty solid throughout... hopefully I can make it to finals, but who knows. One of the highlights of the session was being able to hit my Sick3 within 2 or 3 attempts. I think its because my frantic set has improved. Skooled dexless some, which went well. I think its real key to remember to plant your foot as fast as possible after each set for a spin. Another session highlight was hitting blurry whirl bsos in a run with ewalk and paradon swirl. and dod swirl
I also managed to hit some good drills:
ripwalk-spinning clipper repeat
diving clipper-drifter-repeat
ducking clipper x2
spinning clipper-gyro clipper-repeat
ducking clipper-ducking pdx mirage bsos
...all in the same string, along with a tomahawk.
Staying the course.
Even with rainy season conspiring against me, still I feel confident entering Worlds. I continue to navigate moving logistics, painful goodbyes, and awful weather, and feel like I`m doing alright with it so far.
Last week it rained non-stop from Monday through Sunday. I played a bit in the rain on Wednesday, but thankfully I could play in a gym at school on Thursday and Friday. Friday I played ping-pong for an hour or so with a Chinese student at school, which was a great warmup and ridiculously fun. I shredded lightly, but I felt good. My strings just felt confident, I felt like I was flowing well. Not much of note, but a solid session nonetheless. Ewalk-bed-smog then had pigbeater roll off. Frenzies.
The string of the day started with jawa-fog-smear, and later in the same run I hit spinning clipper-gyro clipper-ducking clipper-ducking clipper repeat. So 8 dexless in the sealing run. Midstring frantic stuff is coming along a lot easier too.
Saturday and Sunday I was rained out or had goodbye plans, so I didn`t get to shred again til Monday (yesterday). Monday I had a business trip in Morioka, which ended mad early. This was sweet because not only did it give me time to do errands, it also gave me a chance to shred with the Morioka crew. Despite the short notice, Shin-chan, Gochin, Enta, and Yusuke all made it out to shred.
On one hand we were lucky, in that it didn`t rain. But the weather was still a factor, in that it was frickin` freezing. I have bad circulation, so in the winter I accept it as a given that I can`t warm up well. But mid-July? Shit man, this is supposed to be summer! My hands and wrists were clammy, I had the other shredders touch them and they couldn`t believe it. Ice cold. I didn`t break a sweat the entire session, despite my best efforts. Towards the end of the session I had my hands tucked under my armpits, when it wasn`t my turn. I`ve made good friends in this part of Japan, but honestly, I couldn`t have picked a worse place weather-wise for footbag. I felt frustrated by the weather all session, and lost my cool, cursing the weather repeatedly throughout the session. Seriously, if my future-self were to travel back in time and tell me I was going to shred in 50 degree weather 2 weeks before Worlds, I`d ask two questions:
1. What Worlds? Curling World Champs? Ice-fishing Worlds? Bobsledding Worlds? Surely not footbag world champs...
and
2. How is my section on Eutopia?
Seriously frickin` freezing. Anyway, we played outdoors, and even as I complained about the cold, I was thankful it wasn`t raining. Despite the horrid conditions, I still managed to hit a lot of good stuff, which got my confidence up. I figure that if I can hit my Shred30 and Sick3 in these awful conditions, I should have a good chance to hit them in better conditions.
Gochin`s best combo was pixie butterfly to ripwalk. I gave him a lot of high fives throughout, so I think he had a good session. Some nice atom smashers. Shinchan played well. He can do real long tiltless strings, and throw some threes in there. I think that is better for his development than just trying to link 2 or 3 3s in a row. His best trick of the session was hitting alpha smasher again, as well as fs leg for the first time. I spent some time giving Shinchan and Gochin tips on clipper set dlo. In the process, I hit clip set dlo-ss toe whirl repeat for the first time. Yusuke and Enta are getting better at linking tiltless, but I`m making a point not to teach them any three adds until they learn their flip clippers.
I "warmed up" with my traditional warm up, which went well. My guiltless string warm up was in the 40s, which isn`t bad. I should try and push it longer though, to build stamina for my routine at worlds. I was pretty stoked to hit barfly swirl real cleanly. It was my second time ever hitting it, but I hadn`t hit it in over a year, so that was a nice feeling. I came incredibly close on my flipside, but gave up after a bit. I think I would have hit it had I been warmer. The highlight of the session for me was hitting my Sick Three 3 times in the session. The first time I had a shaky handcatch, the second time I hit it better than I`d ever hit it before (but missed the handcatch!), and the third time I hit it even better, and had a super-controlled catch. I think I understand how to do the third trick better, and my first trick feels easier these days, so now I have an easier time linking the whole thing together. I feel like I have a 65% chance or so of hitting it in competition, which is good because a month ago I hadn`t hit any of the links in the combo, ever.
I also had a good run though of my shred 30. I focussed on not dropping, and sacrificed some uniques and difficulty towards that goal, but I was rewarded by going dropless for over 30 seconds. I think there were enough uniques in there that I would break 200 with it. So even in horrid conditions, I was able to hit my Sick 3s and my Shred 30, so that built confidence. I wanted to end my session with a new trick, but the cold really hurt my chances. I hit toe vortex twice, but neither time could I seal it. Still, cool trick.
I did lots of frantic all session, and at one point Gochin made a funny comment: "When you do frantic, there`s a moment when you look like Dhalsim`s teleport" (hands together in prayer, legs locked in lotus position). I laughed at that, and the next time I got the bag, I started a string normally, and halfway through the string I did an ewalk and said "YOGAAAAH!" as I did it.
Today promises to be another rainout, but if I can get in like 6 or 7 more sessions before Worlds, I`ll feel in good condition.
Last week it rained non-stop from Monday through Sunday. I played a bit in the rain on Wednesday, but thankfully I could play in a gym at school on Thursday and Friday. Friday I played ping-pong for an hour or so with a Chinese student at school, which was a great warmup and ridiculously fun. I shredded lightly, but I felt good. My strings just felt confident, I felt like I was flowing well. Not much of note, but a solid session nonetheless. Ewalk-bed-smog then had pigbeater roll off. Frenzies.
The string of the day started with jawa-fog-smear, and later in the same run I hit spinning clipper-gyro clipper-ducking clipper-ducking clipper repeat. So 8 dexless in the sealing run. Midstring frantic stuff is coming along a lot easier too.
Saturday and Sunday I was rained out or had goodbye plans, so I didn`t get to shred again til Monday (yesterday). Monday I had a business trip in Morioka, which ended mad early. This was sweet because not only did it give me time to do errands, it also gave me a chance to shred with the Morioka crew. Despite the short notice, Shin-chan, Gochin, Enta, and Yusuke all made it out to shred.
On one hand we were lucky, in that it didn`t rain. But the weather was still a factor, in that it was frickin` freezing. I have bad circulation, so in the winter I accept it as a given that I can`t warm up well. But mid-July? Shit man, this is supposed to be summer! My hands and wrists were clammy, I had the other shredders touch them and they couldn`t believe it. Ice cold. I didn`t break a sweat the entire session, despite my best efforts. Towards the end of the session I had my hands tucked under my armpits, when it wasn`t my turn. I`ve made good friends in this part of Japan, but honestly, I couldn`t have picked a worse place weather-wise for footbag. I felt frustrated by the weather all session, and lost my cool, cursing the weather repeatedly throughout the session. Seriously, if my future-self were to travel back in time and tell me I was going to shred in 50 degree weather 2 weeks before Worlds, I`d ask two questions:
1. What Worlds? Curling World Champs? Ice-fishing Worlds? Bobsledding Worlds? Surely not footbag world champs...
and
2. How is my section on Eutopia?
Seriously frickin` freezing. Anyway, we played outdoors, and even as I complained about the cold, I was thankful it wasn`t raining. Despite the horrid conditions, I still managed to hit a lot of good stuff, which got my confidence up. I figure that if I can hit my Shred30 and Sick3 in these awful conditions, I should have a good chance to hit them in better conditions.
Gochin`s best combo was pixie butterfly to ripwalk. I gave him a lot of high fives throughout, so I think he had a good session. Some nice atom smashers. Shinchan played well. He can do real long tiltless strings, and throw some threes in there. I think that is better for his development than just trying to link 2 or 3 3s in a row. His best trick of the session was hitting alpha smasher again, as well as fs leg for the first time. I spent some time giving Shinchan and Gochin tips on clipper set dlo. In the process, I hit clip set dlo-ss toe whirl repeat for the first time. Yusuke and Enta are getting better at linking tiltless, but I`m making a point not to teach them any three adds until they learn their flip clippers.
I "warmed up" with my traditional warm up, which went well. My guiltless string warm up was in the 40s, which isn`t bad. I should try and push it longer though, to build stamina for my routine at worlds. I was pretty stoked to hit barfly swirl real cleanly. It was my second time ever hitting it, but I hadn`t hit it in over a year, so that was a nice feeling. I came incredibly close on my flipside, but gave up after a bit. I think I would have hit it had I been warmer. The highlight of the session for me was hitting my Sick Three 3 times in the session. The first time I had a shaky handcatch, the second time I hit it better than I`d ever hit it before (but missed the handcatch!), and the third time I hit it even better, and had a super-controlled catch. I think I understand how to do the third trick better, and my first trick feels easier these days, so now I have an easier time linking the whole thing together. I feel like I have a 65% chance or so of hitting it in competition, which is good because a month ago I hadn`t hit any of the links in the combo, ever.
I also had a good run though of my shred 30. I focussed on not dropping, and sacrificed some uniques and difficulty towards that goal, but I was rewarded by going dropless for over 30 seconds. I think there were enough uniques in there that I would break 200 with it. So even in horrid conditions, I was able to hit my Sick 3s and my Shred 30, so that built confidence. I wanted to end my session with a new trick, but the cold really hurt my chances. I hit toe vortex twice, but neither time could I seal it. Still, cool trick.
I did lots of frantic all session, and at one point Gochin made a funny comment: "When you do frantic, there`s a moment when you look like Dhalsim`s teleport" (hands together in prayer, legs locked in lotus position). I laughed at that, and the next time I got the bag, I started a string normally, and halfway through the string I did an ewalk and said "YOGAAAAH!" as I did it.
Today promises to be another rainout, but if I can get in like 6 or 7 more sessions before Worlds, I`ll feel in good condition.
Oh man Ken. Right when i read "Dhalsim's Teleport" I knew EXACTLY how you looked
I have capcom vs marvel 2 on my PS2, maybe you should come to wisconsin and play
I have capcom vs marvel 2 on my PS2, maybe you should come to wisconsin and play
JSACK wrote:alright well me and obara'bars, shredded our dicks off, since we are both in high school, obviously there is some sort of talent show
Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is one of my all-time favorite games. Flawed, but fun. Dhalsim`s actually not that bad in that game... 8 way airdash means you can do some limited rushdown, and you can also run away well. Dhalsim is one of the best counters to Magneto actually.
Aaaaanyway, back to kickybag. I had a little session yesterday, despite ass weather conditions again. It didn`t rain after school yesterday, but it rained all day, so my practice space was totally wet. This meant that I couldn`t sit down and stretch between strings, and my bag and lavers got heavier as the session went on.
Today the sun is showing its face for the first time in 8 days. 8 days mother fucker! Stupid rainy season. But yeah, hopefully that means I can get in a good session today.
So yesterday I did what I could given the crap conditions. At least it wasn`t cold, so I could warm up. The bag collected rain water, so towards the end of the session the parts of my lavers where I stall the bag were a different color than the rest of the shoe. I was happy to see that my left toe was used almost as much as my right. I was also a bit surprised to see that I catch my clipper stalls further back on my instep than I thought I did. But there was the evidence, right on the lavers.
The session didn`t produce many highlights, but I was aware that that wasn`t the point of the session. Playing in crap conditions puts adds on my shoes, and keeps my muscles familiar with footbag. Its not fun, but I viewed it as necessary practice for Worlds. I did have a couple pseudo-highlights though.
Whirl-stepping mirage-legbeater repeat barely off my foot.
FS leg-fog-ewalk rolled off my foot.
A run with jawa-blur, ducking butterfly, ripwalk, pdx whirl, and ducking clipper x2
Hit my Sick 3 real nicely.
Aaaaanyway, back to kickybag. I had a little session yesterday, despite ass weather conditions again. It didn`t rain after school yesterday, but it rained all day, so my practice space was totally wet. This meant that I couldn`t sit down and stretch between strings, and my bag and lavers got heavier as the session went on.
Today the sun is showing its face for the first time in 8 days. 8 days mother fucker! Stupid rainy season. But yeah, hopefully that means I can get in a good session today. So yesterday I did what I could given the crap conditions. At least it wasn`t cold, so I could warm up. The bag collected rain water, so towards the end of the session the parts of my lavers where I stall the bag were a different color than the rest of the shoe. I was happy to see that my left toe was used almost as much as my right. I was also a bit surprised to see that I catch my clipper stalls further back on my instep than I thought I did. But there was the evidence, right on the lavers.
The session didn`t produce many highlights, but I was aware that that wasn`t the point of the session. Playing in crap conditions puts adds on my shoes, and keeps my muscles familiar with footbag. Its not fun, but I viewed it as necessary practice for Worlds. I did have a couple pseudo-highlights though.
Whirl-stepping mirage-legbeater repeat barely off my foot.
FS leg-fog-ewalk rolled off my foot.
A run with jawa-blur, ducking butterfly, ripwalk, pdx whirl, and ducking clipper x2
Hit my Sick 3 real nicely.
Damn you Ken!!! I thought this was my blog and then I got confused when I read the last post. Hahahaha. You tricked me!
Joshua Annis
"Don't Panic..."
"I woke wanting nothing more than a box of Gushers....
DENIED
I shake my first at the sky."-Matt Cross
"Yeah, seriously! When I got back into my cubicle Jazz started throwing dimes at me. What an asshole."-David Wilder
"Don't Panic..."
"I woke wanting nothing more than a box of Gushers....
DENIED
I shake my first at the sky."-Matt Cross
"Yeah, seriously! When I got back into my cubicle Jazz started throwing dimes at me. What an asshole."-David Wilder
-
brian relly
- fan-tas-tic
- Posts: 2711
- Joined: 31 Aug 2003 10:03
- Location: 303
I laughed a lot at this.I did an ewalk and said "YOGAAAAH!" as I did it.
A lot.
I can totally imagine you doing this (in vivid detail). Hilarious.
esteban barnez
myspace.com/rawcakes
myspace.com/rawcakes
david wrote:I was just sitting here surfing and my mom looks over my shoulder. I had to jab down the down key real quick so she wouldn't see that topic title and question me about what kind of site I was going on.
Clock is ticking...
Ah footbag, the thin thread I clutch to these days to maintain my sanity these final Iwate days. This departure period feels like I`m in a bathtub which is draining... it seems to start to spin faster as I get closer to the end. Lots of tearful goodbyes, lots of presents exchanged, hugs, hopes and unknowable promises blurring together. At least there`s a light at the end of this tunnel. The light of Helsinki, Worlds, re-forging myself in the fire that is my love of footbag.
But I`m not quite there yet. I don`t even have lavers at the moment, and I have that feeling you get when your toes are curled over the tip of the high dive... that delicious lump of dread in the pit of your stomach, when you really don`t know if your brain can trick your body into following through. I think I can get done with all my preparations, I think I can keep my shit together. Hopefully I`ll be in Tokyo tomorrow afternoon and I`ll be able to say I took care of everything alright.
My final sessions in Iwate went down Thursday, Sat and Sunday. My good pair of lavers I stashed in Tokyo last month, so this last month I`ve been playing in an old pair. One of the Morioka crew, Kenji, has the exact same size feet as me, so I gave him my old pair on Sunday. Pieces of me.
Thursday after school I played, and laid down a decent session. It was humider than an armpit, so I drenched my shirt by the end of my warm up. I spent a lot of time skooling my Sick 3, and only managed to hit it once, but I felt more comfortable with it. The first 2 links are becoming more consistent, but the last trick is still hard to lay down everytime. I think people will be very surprised by the last trick.
Saturday I really needed to play footbag. The night before I had my farewell party for the school I like most, and I cried through my farewell speech. It was really intense. Saturday morning I ran a bunch of errands to keep myself busy, and around 4:30 pm headed out to shred. After kicking through my warm up, I realized that I felt extremely weak... I pretty much skipped lunch. I knew that itd be a frustrating session should I try and play in that state, so I went back inside and ate a slice of toast, some yogurt, and a banana and waited until 5:20 before heading out again to shred. Definitely a good decision. When I headed out again, I felt strong. The weather was nice too, not too hot, not too muggy. First real session in over a week or so really. I warmed up with my ipod, but to tell the truth I still haven`t figured out a way to play and listen comfortably. I had an excellent session though without music. Some highlights:
5 gyro clippers in a row, on two occasions. Probably could get more, but still, a nice drill, and fun.
Stepping whirl-pdx egg bsos.
A run with paradon swirl, blurry whirl, ps whirl, and paradox torque all bsos
Frenzy bsos
Jawa-fog
Jawa-blurriest-pdx torque.
My blender came back to me today as well, which was a nice surprise. Did stuff like dexless run ending in gyro clip-pdx drifter-blender. Stuff like that.
I also had 2 confidence-boosting run throughs of Shred 30. I feel pretty good with it. I need to add a few more contacts, but thats something I only need to worry about if I go dropless. I had one dropless run through which I finished with a handcatch, but probably didn`t last the full 30 seconds. It was 29 contacts, 28 uniques, 19 4s, and 10 3s (I repeated a butterfly). I think that scores like 208? I`d be thrilled if I could break 200 in competition again.
My confidence also felt real good when I managed to hit my Sick 3 a total of four times all session! Each time was legit too, no desperate hand catching; each time it popped up perfectly in front of me. I finished my session by hitting my sick 3, which was another plus because now I know I am capable of hitting it even when I am tired.
Sunday I had my final shred in Morioka. The sun felt like a death ray beating us down. We played in the shade, but it was still too easy to imagine peoples outlines getting wavy in the heat, colors blurring together. We all struggled until around 5, when it got cool enough that we started playing OK again. I took it pretty easy all session. I hit my Sick 3 three times this session, and had another dropless run through of Shred 30. I kinda lost track of uniques though, so not as in-the-zone as the day before. Still, I feel pretty good going into worlds. We`ll see how I do when it comes to the actual events, but at least I KNOW that I have the capability to hit my Shred 30 and Sick 3.
But I`m not quite there yet. I don`t even have lavers at the moment, and I have that feeling you get when your toes are curled over the tip of the high dive... that delicious lump of dread in the pit of your stomach, when you really don`t know if your brain can trick your body into following through. I think I can get done with all my preparations, I think I can keep my shit together. Hopefully I`ll be in Tokyo tomorrow afternoon and I`ll be able to say I took care of everything alright.
My final sessions in Iwate went down Thursday, Sat and Sunday. My good pair of lavers I stashed in Tokyo last month, so this last month I`ve been playing in an old pair. One of the Morioka crew, Kenji, has the exact same size feet as me, so I gave him my old pair on Sunday. Pieces of me.
Thursday after school I played, and laid down a decent session. It was humider than an armpit, so I drenched my shirt by the end of my warm up. I spent a lot of time skooling my Sick 3, and only managed to hit it once, but I felt more comfortable with it. The first 2 links are becoming more consistent, but the last trick is still hard to lay down everytime. I think people will be very surprised by the last trick.
Saturday I really needed to play footbag. The night before I had my farewell party for the school I like most, and I cried through my farewell speech. It was really intense. Saturday morning I ran a bunch of errands to keep myself busy, and around 4:30 pm headed out to shred. After kicking through my warm up, I realized that I felt extremely weak... I pretty much skipped lunch. I knew that itd be a frustrating session should I try and play in that state, so I went back inside and ate a slice of toast, some yogurt, and a banana and waited until 5:20 before heading out again to shred. Definitely a good decision. When I headed out again, I felt strong. The weather was nice too, not too hot, not too muggy. First real session in over a week or so really. I warmed up with my ipod, but to tell the truth I still haven`t figured out a way to play and listen comfortably. I had an excellent session though without music. Some highlights:
5 gyro clippers in a row, on two occasions. Probably could get more, but still, a nice drill, and fun.
Stepping whirl-pdx egg bsos.
A run with paradon swirl, blurry whirl, ps whirl, and paradox torque all bsos
Frenzy bsos
Jawa-fog
Jawa-blurriest-pdx torque.
My blender came back to me today as well, which was a nice surprise. Did stuff like dexless run ending in gyro clip-pdx drifter-blender. Stuff like that.
I also had 2 confidence-boosting run throughs of Shred 30. I feel pretty good with it. I need to add a few more contacts, but thats something I only need to worry about if I go dropless. I had one dropless run through which I finished with a handcatch, but probably didn`t last the full 30 seconds. It was 29 contacts, 28 uniques, 19 4s, and 10 3s (I repeated a butterfly). I think that scores like 208? I`d be thrilled if I could break 200 in competition again.
My confidence also felt real good when I managed to hit my Sick 3 a total of four times all session! Each time was legit too, no desperate hand catching; each time it popped up perfectly in front of me. I finished my session by hitting my sick 3, which was another plus because now I know I am capable of hitting it even when I am tired.
Sunday I had my final shred in Morioka. The sun felt like a death ray beating us down. We played in the shade, but it was still too easy to imagine peoples outlines getting wavy in the heat, colors blurring together. We all struggled until around 5, when it got cool enough that we started playing OK again. I took it pretty easy all session. I hit my Sick 3 three times this session, and had another dropless run through of Shred 30. I kinda lost track of uniques though, so not as in-the-zone as the day before. Still, I feel pretty good going into worlds. We`ll see how I do when it comes to the actual events, but at least I KNOW that I have the capability to hit my Shred 30 and Sick 3.
I leave for Worlds tomorrow... I feel like I`m watching my life on fast forward. I arrived in Tokyo yesterday, and was reunited with my good lavers. I had a 2 hour solo session in Yoyogi park. It was weird playing alone in Yoyogi, that was a first for me. I hadn`t played in 3 days, so the goal of the session was just to get the footbag muscles familiar with playing again. I ended up having a pretty good session. The wooden planks at Yoyogi are much nicer on the legs than the parking lot back in Kitakami. Not too many real notable highlights, but the important thing was I felt strong and comfortable with my game, which is key going into Worlds.
I managed to hit my Sick 3 three times, which is pretty good because I didn`t spend too much time trying to hit it. Like, I happened to hit it 3 times in a regular session, as opposed to dedicating an entire session to it and hitting it three times. So that felt reassuring. I had a decent run through of Shred 30, made it about 20 unique contacts in before a drop, and it was a silly one. I need to mentally remind myself that IF I do drop, I need to keep it to just one. 2 drops is deadly...I think 2 drops kills most peoples chances of making it to finals. All day I mostly just skooled strings with lots of variety in them. I don`t throw lots of fives midstring these days, I wonder why. I definitely can. fog-jawa-WHAT
Packing my bag now... its cool that I have 3 Japanese footbag shirts. when I got to Japan 3 years ago, there were no Japanese footbag shirts in existence. I actually have 4 shirts, but only plan on bringing 3 to Worlds. I still don`t have a place to stay, so hopefully I can work something out with other footbaggers when I get there. Both hostels near the site cant be sold out already, can they?
I`ll see some of you in a couple days. Rock it.
I managed to hit my Sick 3 three times, which is pretty good because I didn`t spend too much time trying to hit it. Like, I happened to hit it 3 times in a regular session, as opposed to dedicating an entire session to it and hitting it three times. So that felt reassuring. I had a decent run through of Shred 30, made it about 20 unique contacts in before a drop, and it was a silly one. I need to mentally remind myself that IF I do drop, I need to keep it to just one. 2 drops is deadly...I think 2 drops kills most peoples chances of making it to finals. All day I mostly just skooled strings with lots of variety in them. I don`t throw lots of fives midstring these days, I wonder why. I definitely can. fog-jawa-WHAT
Packing my bag now... its cool that I have 3 Japanese footbag shirts. when I got to Japan 3 years ago, there were no Japanese footbag shirts in existence. I actually have 4 shirts, but only plan on bringing 3 to Worlds. I still don`t have a place to stay, so hopefully I can work something out with other footbaggers when I get there. Both hostels near the site cant be sold out already, can they?
I`ll see some of you in a couple days. Rock it.
In Helsinki
So this is Day 3 of Worlds for me. Strange that I'll have been here 4 days before competing. Still, I really am approaching this worlds as more of a vacation than a competition, so I'm pretty whatever about it. Worlds is shaping up pretty well so far, lots of fun indeed. I have to admit I am sad that lots of my friends couldn"t or didn"t make it, but it is giving me the opportunity to make new friendships and strengthen others.
The weather has been really surreal and strange here. I"m staying with Team Russia at a hostel, and hanging out with them a lot, and they are used to the weather and light, but it still freaks me out. The sun comes up around 5, and goes down around 11 pm. And even when the sun is down, its still kinda light in the sky, like around dusk. It adds a real surreal feel to the tourney. The weather has been strangely accomodating. It poured rain a couple nights ago, and as I was having breakfast with Seb and Caro, we were all commenting how the torrential rain would make it easier to take the day off. Then, when we put away our breakfast trays, the sun burst through, and it was beautiful weather all day. I even got sunburned, because the morning rain led me to believe I wouldn"t need to bring my sunblock!
<----me being sunburned.
Its also been a bit of a head trip for me, just because I"m the only non-white person at this tournament other than Tuan. Its also strange, spending most of the year in Japan, to go to another country where all of a sudden the ratio of whites to asians flips so completely. Its like the photo negative of my everyday life. Sure enough, I"m getting used to it, but its still a touch strange. Some of y"all may be wondering: "Ken, what about Team Japan?" Well, that leads me to my next unfortunate point.
I flew out of Osaka on Friday with no problems at all. Apparently, there was a Richter 6 quake in Tokyo a few hours after I left, and it led to a rash of cancelled flights out of Tokyo. There were only 27 injuries, and from what i could read online I felt confident Team Japan was likely fine, but it was still nervewracking. I sent out some emails, and thankfully today I learned that everybody is alright, and that the flight for Team Japan was delayed until yesterday. Hopefully that means I can run into Team Japan today. What a harrowing, annoying way for Team Japan to start worlds.
On my end, I"ve been really enjoying this years worlds. Its strange though, how I haven"t been playing the way I do in Japan. I"ve kinda stopped doing my flipside moves, and have hardly touched dexless at all. I wonder why that is? Am I feeling some sort of invisible pressure? I dunno, but its early in the week, so i"ll try to relax my style a bit more. Even so, I"ve laid down a few combos and runs I"ve been happy with, so I can"t really complain.
I"ve also been doing well with my "hitlist" of players I wanted to play with at this tournament. Some names are easy to take care of, but other players can often be hard to track down in a shred circle, like Tuan and Carol. So far, my list of players I"ve shredded with who were at the top of my hitlist are: Tuukka, Felix, Flash, Carol W, Mikko, Jorden, Manu (14 year old swiss prodigy), ChrisKo, and Jon Schneider. There have also been some pleasant surprises, like Ann Kaplan showing up. There are still a few names on the list which I definitely need to play with before the week is up, notably: Vasek, Oxana, Tina Aeberli, Sebastien D, Karim Daouk, and of course, Tom Mosher. Though I haven"t shredded with Mosher yet, I have played doubles net with him, so its not been a total disappointment.
I"ve also been tapped as one of 6 players at these worlds to appear on some documentary... sounds like lots of interviewing, but maybe I"ll even lay down a trick or two. Not entirely sure what it entails. That happens today... hopefully I can beat this hangover before that goes down. Last night I went vodka shot for vodka shot with my new comrades, so I"ve still got a touch of cotton in my head. But today is my rest day, so I"m just gonna do what I"ve been doing all week and roll with everything.
Aight, gonna head out to the net site soon and see whats going down there.
Love from Helsinki,
Ken
The weather has been really surreal and strange here. I"m staying with Team Russia at a hostel, and hanging out with them a lot, and they are used to the weather and light, but it still freaks me out. The sun comes up around 5, and goes down around 11 pm. And even when the sun is down, its still kinda light in the sky, like around dusk. It adds a real surreal feel to the tourney. The weather has been strangely accomodating. It poured rain a couple nights ago, and as I was having breakfast with Seb and Caro, we were all commenting how the torrential rain would make it easier to take the day off. Then, when we put away our breakfast trays, the sun burst through, and it was beautiful weather all day. I even got sunburned, because the morning rain led me to believe I wouldn"t need to bring my sunblock!
<----me being sunburned.Its also been a bit of a head trip for me, just because I"m the only non-white person at this tournament other than Tuan. Its also strange, spending most of the year in Japan, to go to another country where all of a sudden the ratio of whites to asians flips so completely. Its like the photo negative of my everyday life. Sure enough, I"m getting used to it, but its still a touch strange. Some of y"all may be wondering: "Ken, what about Team Japan?" Well, that leads me to my next unfortunate point.
I flew out of Osaka on Friday with no problems at all. Apparently, there was a Richter 6 quake in Tokyo a few hours after I left, and it led to a rash of cancelled flights out of Tokyo. There were only 27 injuries, and from what i could read online I felt confident Team Japan was likely fine, but it was still nervewracking. I sent out some emails, and thankfully today I learned that everybody is alright, and that the flight for Team Japan was delayed until yesterday. Hopefully that means I can run into Team Japan today. What a harrowing, annoying way for Team Japan to start worlds.
On my end, I"ve been really enjoying this years worlds. Its strange though, how I haven"t been playing the way I do in Japan. I"ve kinda stopped doing my flipside moves, and have hardly touched dexless at all. I wonder why that is? Am I feeling some sort of invisible pressure? I dunno, but its early in the week, so i"ll try to relax my style a bit more. Even so, I"ve laid down a few combos and runs I"ve been happy with, so I can"t really complain.
I"ve also been doing well with my "hitlist" of players I wanted to play with at this tournament. Some names are easy to take care of, but other players can often be hard to track down in a shred circle, like Tuan and Carol. So far, my list of players I"ve shredded with who were at the top of my hitlist are: Tuukka, Felix, Flash, Carol W, Mikko, Jorden, Manu (14 year old swiss prodigy), ChrisKo, and Jon Schneider. There have also been some pleasant surprises, like Ann Kaplan showing up. There are still a few names on the list which I definitely need to play with before the week is up, notably: Vasek, Oxana, Tina Aeberli, Sebastien D, Karim Daouk, and of course, Tom Mosher. Though I haven"t shredded with Mosher yet, I have played doubles net with him, so its not been a total disappointment.
I"ve also been tapped as one of 6 players at these worlds to appear on some documentary... sounds like lots of interviewing, but maybe I"ll even lay down a trick or two. Not entirely sure what it entails. That happens today... hopefully I can beat this hangover before that goes down. Last night I went vodka shot for vodka shot with my new comrades, so I"ve still got a touch of cotton in my head. But today is my rest day, so I"m just gonna do what I"ve been doing all week and roll with everything.
Aight, gonna head out to the net site soon and see whats going down there.
Love from Helsinki,
Ken
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bigdirtyfoot
- Sloppy
- Posts: 3142
- Joined: 22 Apr 2002 12:30
- Location: NC
Too many highlights to get into, so just one quick one:
Yesterday Jere Vainikka's friend Sami brought a basketball to the site, so I ended up getting a wicked fun game of 3 on 3 street ball. The teams were Jere Vainikka, Arkady Labonkov from Russia, and Sami on one team, versus Juho "Super" Marjo, Alex Strassman, and myself. I wasn't really aware of the score, but apparently we won. We were much smaller than the other team, but we were real fast. Juho Marjo is fast, and Alex Strassman hustled harder than Biggie. I was most impressed by Arkady though. He looks like he'd naturally play the 2, but he had good handle and passing like a one. Good help defense and fundamentally sound. I think our team won, but I wasn't really keeping track at all. I kinda looked at it like an And One game, where I'd just be happy if I had a good crossover or no-look pass. It had been my dream for quite some time to play a non-footbag game with a bunch of freestylers, and yesterday I finally got my wish! Worlds is rocking so far.
Yesterday Jere Vainikka's friend Sami brought a basketball to the site, so I ended up getting a wicked fun game of 3 on 3 street ball. The teams were Jere Vainikka, Arkady Labonkov from Russia, and Sami on one team, versus Juho "Super" Marjo, Alex Strassman, and myself. I wasn't really aware of the score, but apparently we won. We were much smaller than the other team, but we were real fast. Juho Marjo is fast, and Alex Strassman hustled harder than Biggie. I was most impressed by Arkady though. He looks like he'd naturally play the 2, but he had good handle and passing like a one. Good help defense and fundamentally sound. I think our team won, but I wasn't really keeping track at all. I kinda looked at it like an And One game, where I'd just be happy if I had a good crossover or no-look pass. It had been my dream for quite some time to play a non-footbag game with a bunch of freestylers, and yesterday I finally got my wish! Worlds is rocking so far.
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hacksterbator
- Washed-Up Child Star
- Posts: 4141
- Joined: 12 Jul 2003 18:33
- Location: Winterpeg, Manisnowba
- Contact:
overload, overload!
Gah, too much to report here. I'm jotting down lots of notes in my real journal though, so hopefully I'll be able to flesh this out later.
Anyway, I'm feeling good today. I have to say that this Worlds is running pretty smoothly so far. Here are some of the things which are very good about this worlds.
1. Both host hotels are ridiculously close to the competition site.
2. Most hostels, including mine, are also ridiculously close to the competition site. I don't think many people are more than a 5 minute walk from the site.
3. Net site is real close to the freestyle site, so you can actually watch both this year.
4. It really feels like the events are running on time.
5. The gym where freestyle is run has a kicking sound system, is real well lit, and isn't slippery.
6. The freestyle event on Friday is being held in an amusement park.
In terms of things that could be better, there are a couple.
1. Players parties so far have been at over 18 places, and they are pretty diligent about IDing people this year. There are lots of players who can't get into these parties, like Takumi, Alex Strassman, Tina Aeberli, etc.
2. Judging in the first round had some real weird results. I heard one prominent player complain last night that people were advancing based on their name alone. I'm definitely a little bitter myself, because I felt I won my pool on Tuesday, but instead I was ranked 2nd, and now I am in the Pool of Death today. I have to beat Felix or Peter to make finals. Oh yeah, and I have to avoid being beaten by one of these guys: Tuukka, Jon Schneider, Mikkko, and maybe one other guy. Had I won my pool Tuesday, I would have had a much much easier pool. I was jobbed by the judges, but other players ate much harsher shaftings in the first round.
I didn't mention this in my last post, because I wanted to stay positive, but I actually injured myself kinda badly on Monday. The streetball game with Jere, Juho, Arkady, Alex, and Sami was a ton of fun, but I overdid it on the crossovers, and I got a nasty huge blister on the ball of my right foot. Like, hurts-to-walk-on kinda blister. I felt pretty good about how I handled it though. Rather than berate myself for injuring myself stupidly at worlds, I realized that I couldn't undo the injury, so now I had to just be mature and deal with it as best I could. Max K from Berlin gave me some Moleskin, Sergey from Moscow gave me some russian bandaid, and Aron Tennant also gave me some gauze. USK from Tokyo also gave me some healing medecine, and this international combination has worked well enough that I've been able to ignore the pain well enough to compete.
On Tuesday I played footbag for about 30 minute. Just enough time for me to warm up, then compete. I surprised myself, and I think everybody else, by doing a one drop routine! I think it was my best routine ever. I think everybody else in my pool had 3 or more drops, and my artistic was better than most, so I also felt real happy cause I thought I won my pool. I guess ultimately all I can control is my own routine, so I feel happy I stepped up so well, especially cause I was injured. I think it shows that I've made some progress on my mental game.
Wednesday my foot felt a bit better, so I went sight-seeing with Team Japan in the morning and afternoon. The weather was perfect, and we checked out this cool island fortress area called Suomenlinna or something. I think it translates to Somolinos Island. I even saw Muumi! The sightseeing was real idyllyic, and I got a bunch of real good photos taken with Team Japan. All the walking around was kinda tiring, but my foot still felt decent enough that I decided to compete in the Sick 3 contest. I had been skooling my combo for a couple months, so I felt I HAD to try it, even though I wasn't sure if my injury would hurt my chances. I arrived a bit late at the site, but as it turned out my timing was perfect, cause right when I felt warmed up, the comp started. I was seeded towards the end, so I didn't get to see many of the combos ahead of me. People later told me that there was a lot of "the" in the early stages. But it also sounded like most people were able to lay down at least one combo, which is pretty great.
I warmed up with a bunch of people. Max Kerkhoff impressed me I have to say... hes gotten way better than he was when he visited Tokyo a while back. In a practice circle I saw him foot this combo a ton of times: fury-smoke-gravedigger.
Some Finnish kid called Tuomas was doing frigidosis set jani-matador-ps whirl. That first trick looks awesome. I pretty much just skooled my combo repeatedly, I didn't even bother with a safety. Hit or go home. I eventually moved on to German circle with Stefan Siegert and Paul C. I had never really played with Stefan before, but I was impressed. His frantic is so nice. In the practice circle I saw him hit a big 3 which started with stepping reaper to pixie something. Impressive. I also saw him hit frantic legover-pig-pixie butterfly swirl. I liked his style a lot. I don't think he managed to hit a combo in comp though, which is too bad.
When it was my turn to go up to compete, I was a bit nervous, but managed to swallow it pretty well. I kept my eyes down the whole time to try and tune out the crowd, just phase them out. We had 7 tries to hit our combo, but I figured if I couldn't hit it in 5, I wouldn't hit it at all. My combo breaks down like this: hard 5, moderately hard link to an easy 5, hard and styly 5. My goal was to focus on hitting the first link, so I could give myself a chance to hit the last hard trick. I was a bit afraid I wouldn't get to the third trick, cause the first link is kinda tricky, but as it turned out, I hit the first link every single time! I think once or twice though I slurred the step a bit. Anyway. Here's how it went down:
1. First at bat. Mentally I feel its my best chance. Drop to toe: ewalk-fog-toe spinning... drop.
2. Take my time getting my energy back. Kick kick kick... ewalk-fog-toe gyro mirage. I collect my props, cause its still a sick 3. Not a great one, but toe gyro mirage is about as legit as ps whirl in my book, so I acknowledge the crowd.
3. With one combo under my belt, a bit of pressure is off. I breathe, then bust out: ewalk-fog...... toe gyro mirage!
I jump up and down in fake excitement, then say: "whoa... deja vu." Somebody actually asked me after the comp, "hey ken, why did you hit the same combo twice in a row?" D'oh!
4. Attempt number 4. I wasn't all that conscious of how many attempts I was taking, but at this point I knew my first link was decently reliable (though I think my ewalk to step was slurred in one of the past two attempts), so I wanted to have a better look at the last trick. Here we go: ewalk-fog-toe spinning... drop.
I do an Akuma/Gouki pose from Street Fighter to summon my strength. Team Japan laughs, and everybody else looks at me like I'm the weirdo I am. Whatever, the pose gave me the power I needed, and on attempt #5 I hit: ewalk-fog-tobius! 
Yeah boyee!!! I hadoken my footbag (a sweet felix bag Mosher lent me) at team Japan, then walk off stage. My plan was to hit my sick 3 then leave, cause of my injury. When I walk off stage, everybody yells that I have two more turns, but I really don't want them. I'm told I can give my turns to somebody else, so when Ales returns to the stage (he went before me, and didn't seal a combo in his turns), I said that Ales could use my last 2 turns. He hits Bedwetter-triple ATW-butterfly. I wonder if I get credit for that combo or what? I think Mosher summed it up best later on: "Who puts triple atw in a sick 3? Seriously!" Craziness.
I sat down and stretched and really enjoyed watching the rest of Sick 3. Jorden hit janiwalker-mullet-mindbender. On his seventh turn he tried to hit something starting with slicing infinity, but bailed to osis, then did like pdx blender or something. it was real funny though, cause when he bailed to osis, he said: "Damn" and sealed with the last 5. Everybody laughed. Honza hit phoenix-food-ps whirl off the bat as a safety, but I cant remember what he hit after that. I got the impression he just threw in whatever, and is going to show the real stuff in the finals on friday. Honza. Felix hit a beast, i think it was surreal-food-spinning blender. Later when I talked to him at the party that night, he said he though the surge was the, but he figures he'll make finals anyway. He's likely right. Vasek went last, and I think his safety was montage-whirlwind-spinning blender. Maybe it was just me, but he got real subdued applause for that. I think everybody knew it was a safety for him. I can't recall what he managed to hit for real, but his opener for all his remaining attempts was frankenstein. He was trying things like frankenstein-montage-gangsta. I think that was going to be his most impressive combo. Somebody else must remember what he hit.
I'll try to write about the video contest later. It was really fun. I ended up being one of the judges for it, along with Uve Poom, Ondrej Skrabal, and somebody else. I should go soon to cheer on the Team Japan members who made it to intermediate semis. Today I have to compete in Open semis, as well as Shred 30. My foot is feeling better now, but I still will try to go relatively easy on it.
Wish you were here.
Anyway, I'm feeling good today. I have to say that this Worlds is running pretty smoothly so far. Here are some of the things which are very good about this worlds.
1. Both host hotels are ridiculously close to the competition site.
2. Most hostels, including mine, are also ridiculously close to the competition site. I don't think many people are more than a 5 minute walk from the site.
3. Net site is real close to the freestyle site, so you can actually watch both this year.
4. It really feels like the events are running on time.
5. The gym where freestyle is run has a kicking sound system, is real well lit, and isn't slippery.
6. The freestyle event on Friday is being held in an amusement park.
In terms of things that could be better, there are a couple.
1. Players parties so far have been at over 18 places, and they are pretty diligent about IDing people this year. There are lots of players who can't get into these parties, like Takumi, Alex Strassman, Tina Aeberli, etc.
2. Judging in the first round had some real weird results. I heard one prominent player complain last night that people were advancing based on their name alone. I'm definitely a little bitter myself, because I felt I won my pool on Tuesday, but instead I was ranked 2nd, and now I am in the Pool of Death today. I have to beat Felix or Peter to make finals. Oh yeah, and I have to avoid being beaten by one of these guys: Tuukka, Jon Schneider, Mikkko, and maybe one other guy.
Had I won my pool Tuesday, I would have had a much much easier pool. I was jobbed by the judges, but other players ate much harsher shaftings in the first round.I didn't mention this in my last post, because I wanted to stay positive, but I actually injured myself kinda badly on Monday. The streetball game with Jere, Juho, Arkady, Alex, and Sami was a ton of fun, but I overdid it on the crossovers, and I got a nasty huge blister on the ball of my right foot. Like, hurts-to-walk-on kinda blister. I felt pretty good about how I handled it though. Rather than berate myself for injuring myself stupidly at worlds, I realized that I couldn't undo the injury, so now I had to just be mature and deal with it as best I could. Max K from Berlin gave me some Moleskin, Sergey from Moscow gave me some russian bandaid, and Aron Tennant also gave me some gauze. USK from Tokyo also gave me some healing medecine, and this international combination has worked well enough that I've been able to ignore the pain well enough to compete.
On Tuesday I played footbag for about 30 minute. Just enough time for me to warm up, then compete. I surprised myself, and I think everybody else, by doing a one drop routine! I think it was my best routine ever. I think everybody else in my pool had 3 or more drops, and my artistic was better than most, so I also felt real happy cause I thought I won my pool. I guess ultimately all I can control is my own routine, so I feel happy I stepped up so well, especially cause I was injured. I think it shows that I've made some progress on my mental game.
Wednesday my foot felt a bit better, so I went sight-seeing with Team Japan in the morning and afternoon. The weather was perfect, and we checked out this cool island fortress area called Suomenlinna or something. I think it translates to Somolinos Island.
I even saw Muumi! The sightseeing was real idyllyic, and I got a bunch of real good photos taken with Team Japan. All the walking around was kinda tiring, but my foot still felt decent enough that I decided to compete in the Sick 3 contest. I had been skooling my combo for a couple months, so I felt I HAD to try it, even though I wasn't sure if my injury would hurt my chances. I arrived a bit late at the site, but as it turned out my timing was perfect, cause right when I felt warmed up, the comp started. I was seeded towards the end, so I didn't get to see many of the combos ahead of me. People later told me that there was a lot of "the" in the early stages. But it also sounded like most people were able to lay down at least one combo, which is pretty great.I warmed up with a bunch of people. Max Kerkhoff impressed me I have to say... hes gotten way better than he was when he visited Tokyo a while back. In a practice circle I saw him foot this combo a ton of times: fury-smoke-gravedigger.
Some Finnish kid called Tuomas was doing frigidosis set jani-matador-ps whirl. That first trick looks awesome. I pretty much just skooled my combo repeatedly, I didn't even bother with a safety. Hit or go home. I eventually moved on to German circle with Stefan Siegert and Paul C. I had never really played with Stefan before, but I was impressed. His frantic is so nice. In the practice circle I saw him hit a big 3 which started with stepping reaper to pixie something. Impressive. I also saw him hit frantic legover-pig-pixie butterfly swirl. I liked his style a lot. I don't think he managed to hit a combo in comp though, which is too bad. When it was my turn to go up to compete, I was a bit nervous, but managed to swallow it pretty well. I kept my eyes down the whole time to try and tune out the crowd, just phase them out. We had 7 tries to hit our combo, but I figured if I couldn't hit it in 5, I wouldn't hit it at all. My combo breaks down like this: hard 5, moderately hard link to an easy 5, hard and styly 5. My goal was to focus on hitting the first link, so I could give myself a chance to hit the last hard trick. I was a bit afraid I wouldn't get to the third trick, cause the first link is kinda tricky, but as it turned out, I hit the first link every single time! I think once or twice though I slurred the step a bit. Anyway. Here's how it went down:
1. First at bat. Mentally I feel its my best chance. Drop to toe: ewalk-fog-toe spinning... drop.
2. Take my time getting my energy back. Kick kick kick... ewalk-fog-toe gyro mirage. I collect my props, cause its still a sick 3. Not a great one, but toe gyro mirage is about as legit as ps whirl in my book, so I acknowledge the crowd.
3. With one combo under my belt, a bit of pressure is off. I breathe, then bust out: ewalk-fog...... toe gyro mirage!
I jump up and down in fake excitement, then say: "whoa... deja vu." Somebody actually asked me after the comp, "hey ken, why did you hit the same combo twice in a row?" D'oh! 4. Attempt number 4. I wasn't all that conscious of how many attempts I was taking, but at this point I knew my first link was decently reliable (though I think my ewalk to step was slurred in one of the past two attempts), so I wanted to have a better look at the last trick. Here we go: ewalk-fog-toe spinning... drop.
I do an Akuma/Gouki pose from Street Fighter to summon my strength. Team Japan laughs, and everybody else looks at me like I'm the weirdo I am.
Whatever, the pose gave me the power I needed, and on attempt #5 I hit: ewalk-fog-tobius! Yeah boyee!!! I hadoken my footbag (a sweet felix bag Mosher lent me) at team Japan, then walk off stage. My plan was to hit my sick 3 then leave, cause of my injury. When I walk off stage, everybody yells that I have two more turns, but I really don't want them. I'm told I can give my turns to somebody else, so when Ales returns to the stage (he went before me, and didn't seal a combo in his turns), I said that Ales could use my last 2 turns. He hits Bedwetter-triple ATW-butterfly. I wonder if I get credit for that combo or what? I think Mosher summed it up best later on: "Who puts triple atw in a sick 3? Seriously!" Craziness. I sat down and stretched and really enjoyed watching the rest of Sick 3. Jorden hit janiwalker-mullet-mindbender. On his seventh turn he tried to hit something starting with slicing infinity, but bailed to osis, then did like pdx blender or something. it was real funny though, cause when he bailed to osis, he said: "Damn" and sealed with the last 5. Everybody laughed. Honza hit phoenix-food-ps whirl off the bat as a safety, but I cant remember what he hit after that. I got the impression he just threw in whatever, and is going to show the real stuff in the finals on friday. Honza. Felix hit a beast, i think it was surreal-food-spinning blender. Later when I talked to him at the party that night, he said he though the surge was the, but he figures he'll make finals anyway. He's likely right. Vasek went last, and I think his safety was montage-whirlwind-spinning blender. Maybe it was just me, but he got real subdued applause for that. I think everybody knew it was a safety for him. I can't recall what he managed to hit for real, but his opener for all his remaining attempts was frankenstein. He was trying things like frankenstein-montage-gangsta. I think that was going to be his most impressive combo. Somebody else must remember what he hit.
I'll try to write about the video contest later. It was really fun. I ended up being one of the judges for it, along with Uve Poom, Ondrej Skrabal, and somebody else. I should go soon to cheer on the Team Japan members who made it to intermediate semis. Today I have to compete in Open semis, as well as Shred 30. My foot is feeling better now, but I still will try to go relatively easy on it.
Wish you were here.
-
max
- Australofrenchbrityorkus
- Posts: 3751
- Joined: 24 Apr 2002 00:12
- Location: Bondi Beach, Australia
- Contact:
Hey Ken: BIG PROPS for you sick 3! You'd kept us all wondering for a long time what it was and it lived up to the hype. Tobius rocks. I'm glad you nailed it. Good luck to you and all of team Japan for the rest of the events.
oh and big thanks for the reports of course.
oh and big thanks for the reports of course.
Maxime Boucoiran
French ConneXion
BFC
French ConneXion
BFC
-
bigdirtyfoot
- Sloppy
- Posts: 3142
- Joined: 22 Apr 2002 12:30
- Location: NC
Re: overload, overload!
Awesome. Thanks so much for the reports.C-Fan wrote:Gah, too much to report here. I'm jotting down lots of notes in my real journal though, so hopefully I'll be able to flesh this out later.
Shitty. Again? Didn't this happen last year too? Lordy, sorry that happened to you man.C-Fan wrote:Judging in the first round had some real weird results. I heard one prominent player complain last night that people were advancing based on their name alone. ... I was jobbed by the judges, but other players ate much harsher shaftings in the first round.
Hope you have a fast recovery.C-Fan wrote:I didn't mention this in my last post, because I wanted to stay positive, but I actually injured myself kinda badly on Monday...
Awesome description dude, that whole explanation of your turn at bat was awesome! Props on that Sick 3!C-Fan wrote:When it was my turn to go up to compete ... on attempt #5 I hit: ewalk-fog-tobius!
This gave me quite the chuckle. Props to Ales.C-Fan wrote:... when Ales returns to the stage (he went before me, and didn't seal a combo in his turns), I said that Ales could use my last 2 turns. He hits Bedwetter-triple ATW-butterfly.
Anyways, I was going to write more but I'll save it for later. Thanks again for the write-ups! Hey, go kick those guys' ass in competition! (Haha, but good luck to them too)
I read your blog every single time there is a post, exactly for this. Your reports are detaild, interesting, and lovable and fluffy.
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JSACK wrote:alright well me and obara'bars, shredded our dicks off, since we are both in high school, obviously there is some sort of talent show
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shreddaily
- Flower Child
- Posts: 1665
- Joined: 03 Sep 2003 16:56
Re: overload, overload!
Good to see some things never changeC-Fan wrote:2. Judging in the first round had some real weird results.
Prps on the sick 3Today the only events are Shred30 and Big3, and happily I made it to the second round in both events!
Yesterday Shred 30 was scheduled for 4 pm, so I ate a sandwich at 3 figuring Id have time to digest. Then at 320 or so, they announced they were ahead of schedule, so Shred30 would start immediately. I was unhappy about this and rushed my warm up, but when it was my turn I felt OK. I felt like they were mentally fucking with me though, and my stomach still felt heavy. Kinda took me out of my rhythm. Anyway, when my name was called I felt good enough, so I dropped into my first butterfly... wait, that should actually read: I dropped my first butterfly Seriously, that had never happened to me ever, even in practice. It kinda spooked me, starting like that, but then I recovered and went dropless for the remaining 29 seconds. I think I bailed to clipper once, and towards the end I got a bit confused about what I had hit already, so there were likely some repeats. When the final seconds were counted off I thought in a panic: shit, hit something unique! So my final trick was spinning eclipse, a move that I never do, even in shred circles. Despite my initial drop and the clipper bail, I still managed to score a 195. Not bad, I scored a 195 in Shred30 at Worlds! So thats good for 7th seed, which means I have another chance to compete today. Pretty stoked about that.
My foot is definitely feeling way better. Yesterday after Shred30 I felt good enough for circle play, for the first time in 3 days. I played in a few really fun circles. Most notably I got to play with Sebastien D, which is always a treat for me. We tried to make a francophone circle with Kolo, but I feel like Im drowning when I speak french these days, cause its gotten so bad. I also had a fun time playing in a circle with Alex Strassman, Oleg Donner, Caro B, and Max K from Berlin. Alex Strassmans style reminds me of Felix, which is really enviable and cool. At one point Alex passed me the bag and I said: "Im going to hit an Alex Strassman trick now. " I proceeded to open a string with pixie tap. Then I passed to Max K, and he said: "I want to hit a Ken Somolinos trick, but I dont know what to do." I replied: "just the something." Oh yeah, I also hit frantic quad dex for my first time, and sealed with a 30 contact string. Im going to try and get it on film sometime this week.
Footfighter bags are pretty nice I have to say.
Last night I tried to organize an event for the under 18 crowd, but organizing a bowling night. I ended up going bowling with most of Team Japan, Josh Benham, and Alex Strassman. It was a ton of fun, and only ran everybody 2 or 3 euros for an hour of bowling, so not even that expensive. I was just happy that Takumi got to do something fun after footbag ended, cause it kinda sucks for the young crowd that they cant hit parties. Bowling was a blast... almost everybody got a strike or spare by the end of the night. I started the game off by bowling a spare with my left hand, and then getting a strike with my right hand on the second frame. I assured everybody I would promptly return to sucking, and I didnt dissapoint. I still managed to bowl a 112, which is great for me. Keita, Japans best shrdding bowler, threw a gutterball in the first frame, but I guaranteed he would kill us all. Josh looked skeptical at first, but sure enough, Keita killed his way to a 171. We all made fun of him for choking on the 10th frame though.
I ended up skipping the players party last night, partially cause I was tired, but also partially just to hang out with Takumi. Takumi gave me one of the most moving compliments Ive ever gotten from a Japanese player, which easily has to be the highlight of this tournament so far, so I think I made the right decision.
Todays event is at an amusement park, which Im stoked about. Im totally hitting up all the rides. But first I need to track down my lavers, which I really hope I left at Takumis hotel. Otherwise, Im fucked. I seem to lose my lavers at least once at every worlds I go to. Its like some idiot tradition.
Im gonna try my best in todays events, but already I feel very satisfied with my performance at this years worlds. Last year I had 8 drops in my routines, I didnt hit my sick 3, and my shred 30 wasnt good enough to make finals. Yeah, I had some legit reasons for that, but it still sucked. This year in contrast, I only had 3 drops in routines, I hit my best routine ever, I scored a 195 in Shred, and I hit my Sick3. So this may be my best performance at a major tournament ever.
Keep on keeping on.
Yo! Hell chinko!
Yesterday Shred 30 was scheduled for 4 pm, so I ate a sandwich at 3 figuring Id have time to digest. Then at 320 or so, they announced they were ahead of schedule, so Shred30 would start immediately.
I was unhappy about this and rushed my warm up, but when it was my turn I felt OK. I felt like they were mentally fucking with me though, and my stomach still felt heavy. Kinda took me out of my rhythm. Anyway, when my name was called I felt good enough, so I dropped into my first butterfly... wait, that should actually read: I dropped my first butterfly Seriously, that had never happened to me ever, even in practice. It kinda spooked me, starting like that, but then I recovered and went dropless for the remaining 29 seconds. I think I bailed to clipper once, and towards the end I got a bit confused about what I had hit already, so there were likely some repeats. When the final seconds were counted off I thought in a panic: shit, hit something unique! So my final trick was spinning eclipse, a move that I never do, even in shred circles. Despite my initial drop and the clipper bail, I still managed to score a 195. Not bad, I scored a 195 in Shred30 at Worlds! So thats good for 7th seed, which means I have another chance to compete today. Pretty stoked about that. My foot is definitely feeling way better. Yesterday after Shred30 I felt good enough for circle play, for the first time in 3 days. I played in a few really fun circles. Most notably I got to play with Sebastien D, which is always a treat for me. We tried to make a francophone circle with Kolo, but I feel like Im drowning when I speak french these days, cause its gotten so bad. I also had a fun time playing in a circle with Alex Strassman, Oleg Donner, Caro B, and Max K from Berlin. Alex Strassmans style reminds me of Felix, which is really enviable and cool. At one point Alex passed me the bag and I said: "Im going to hit an Alex Strassman trick now. " I proceeded to open a string with pixie tap. Then I passed to Max K, and he said: "I want to hit a Ken Somolinos trick, but I dont know what to do." I replied: "just the something."
Oh yeah, I also hit frantic quad dex for my first time, and sealed with a 30 contact string. Im going to try and get it on film sometime this week. Footfighter bags are pretty nice I have to say.
Last night I tried to organize an event for the under 18 crowd, but organizing a bowling night. I ended up going bowling with most of Team Japan, Josh Benham, and Alex Strassman. It was a ton of fun, and only ran everybody 2 or 3 euros for an hour of bowling, so not even that expensive. I was just happy that Takumi got to do something fun after footbag ended, cause it kinda sucks for the young crowd that they cant hit parties. Bowling was a blast... almost everybody got a strike or spare by the end of the night. I started the game off by bowling a spare with my left hand, and then getting a strike with my right hand on the second frame. I assured everybody I would promptly return to sucking, and I didnt dissapoint. I still managed to bowl a 112, which is great for me. Keita, Japans best shrdding bowler, threw a gutterball in the first frame, but I guaranteed he would kill us all. Josh looked skeptical at first, but sure enough, Keita killed his way to a 171. We all made fun of him for choking on the 10th frame though.
I ended up skipping the players party last night, partially cause I was tired, but also partially just to hang out with Takumi. Takumi gave me one of the most moving compliments Ive ever gotten from a Japanese player, which easily has to be the highlight of this tournament so far, so I think I made the right decision.
Todays event is at an amusement park, which Im stoked about. Im totally hitting up all the rides. But first I need to track down my lavers, which I really hope I left at Takumis hotel. Otherwise, Im fucked. I seem to lose my lavers at least once at every worlds I go to. Its like some idiot tradition.
Im gonna try my best in todays events, but already I feel very satisfied with my performance at this years worlds. Last year I had 8 drops in my routines, I didnt hit my sick 3, and my shred 30 wasnt good enough to make finals. Yeah, I had some legit reasons for that, but it still sucked. This year in contrast, I only had 3 drops in routines, I hit my best routine ever, I scored a 195 in Shred, and I hit my Sick3. So this may be my best performance at a major tournament ever.
Keep on keeping on.
Yo! Hell chinko!