Shrooms quest for footbag extremities!!!

Shroom · Post by **Shroom** » 06 Jul 2005 23:23

Ok so firstly I’m writing this so when i am hitting shooting torque I don’t forget struggling to get 3 consecutive kicks the first time i played! My name is Geordie and I’m from Christchurch, New Zealand. I first discovered hacky in my first year at high school, my friend had one which we would casually kick around at lunchtimes trying to get 'hacks' and inventing stupid moves. At the same time close to where we played a group of more experienced shredders played, I would later get to know them and have one of them introduce me to some serious footbag.

Meanwhile I only kicked around my mates hacky on and off before getting my own and thinking how cool it was when I got 53 consecutives, then 112, then 256. I learnt to toe-stall, clipper/dragonfly/butterfly kick my crocheted bag before at the start of this year a friend finally got a 12-panel sand filled footbag for his birthday. Still playing in my school shoes we would play every day and I just tried to string together my coveted clipper/dragonfly/butterfly kicks!

I stumbled across footbag.co.nz and posted something which Phil Morrison (New Zealand’s 2nd best player) read. He asked me to come have a kick with him in town which I did. He told me he was pretty good but I'd still never really seen any hardcore footbag and when he first started playing the 1st thing he did was drop a toe stall and I thought for a second that maybe I was really good!

Then he picked it up and launched into a string of spinning, ducking, diving, swirling and whirling moves which made my jaw drop!

About then I became addicted to the sport. I had some cheap shoes which were ok to play in and by playing every day in my interval and lunch break I slowly picked up new moves. Starting with toe stalls, inside stalls and outside stalls, then clipper stalls, wrap-arounds before moving on to dex moves- atws, mirages, pixies and butterflys.

Phil plays regularly with us now and after complaining of sore feet I persuaded my parents to order me some Lavers.

They have improved my game heaps and now about 6months after discovering footbag I’m hitting the basics- pixie, mirage, atw in-out and out-in, legover, pickup all on my flipside. X-body rakes, hopovers, reverse stepover, flip clippers, flapper delay, pdx mirage, refraction, whirl, swirl, osis, spinning butterfly, ducking/diving clipper are all moves that I’m just working on the consistency of. And improving my consecutive records which are kinda pathetic! 8 mirages, 13 atws and 9 clippers- much work needs to be done there!

Anyway this blog is just going 2 help me keep up with the moves I’m hitting and possibly invite some help for the ones that I’m not!

Shroom · Post by **Shroom** » 10 Jul 2005 20:44

Its the school holidays here now so hopefully i can get some longer sessions down. Went into town yesterday to play with my mates Chris and Tom. Had some extreme-sports film guy from Sydney come over and ask us if he could film us for a clip hes making which we of course said yes to!

Didnt really hit anything amazing my shin splints started to come back which was annoying. Best was flip mirage>pixie>out-in atw butterfly> butterfly> clipper> clipper mirage> legover> xbdy rake. Ive got my flipside clippers working a bit better now I can string a couple together also hit flipside fairy and got 3 xbody rakes in a row. STILL CANT OSIS PROPERLY!

Shroom · Post by **Shroom** » 23 Jul 2005 22:37

well the end of the holidays have come and ive played less than usual due 2 having a conference 2 go2 and a bit of an ankle injury. Did get in a good wee session last week hit a string of my usual difficulty moves and finished with a toe swirl in front off a wee crowd of people in town. Also got flipside fairy and worked on getting moves before and after hopovers. Playing tomorrow after school with Phil (who recently put a really cool vid up in the video forum) and my mates girlfriend whos just starting2 play! awesome!

Shroom · Post by **Shroom** » 08 Aug 2005 02:15

back at school now. rainy weather so kicking is not as fun, looking forward to the summer when we can play in the sun! umm lately hit flipside fairy a couple of times and got a couple more swirls, today almost got whirl and was SO close to getting cloud stall> op osis into reverse stepover, if that makes any sense- anyway it looked cool till it fell off my foot just as i stepd back over it!

Sporatical_Distractions · Post by **Sporatical_Distractions** » 08 Aug 2005 10:58

Shroom wrote: and was SO close to getting cloud stall> op osis into reverse stepover, if that makes any sense- anyway it looked cool till it fell off my foot just as i stepd back over it!

that's a super styley combo

keep it up

Shroom · Post by **Shroom** » 16 Aug 2005 00:47

thanks! played yesterday had a really good shred with Phil and sum mates from school. DOUBLE ATW first time solid! yus! also some sick combos 4 me! reverse wraparound> stepover> op osis> reverse stepover. clipper set op bumping pickup, and just been schooling repeating pixies, flipside fairys, op clippers. oh and i got another clean diving clipper and butterfly> far legover> paradox mirage. awesome! im amped!

Shroom · Post by **Shroom** » 16 Aug 2005 00:54

oh btw i got cloud stall> op osis into reverse stepover several times too which is a cool looking move!

Shroom · Post by **Shroom** » 18 Aug 2005 01:18

fun today at lunchtime. nice shred in the sun thats coming out, i hate winter! anyways favourite combo i got was butterfly>dragonfly>hopover>toe swirl, not an extremely hard combo but it looks cool! also got another clean datw which was pleasing and a really sick x-body rake that was like shoulder high when i raked it i swear!

Shroom · Post by **Shroom** » 21 Aug 2005 22:52

got some more cool stuff, played sunday night under lights in the centre of town. new 4 me.. pixie> butterfly> swirl, spinning butterfly, datw and swirls i can both occasionally get midrun like 1 outv 4 times. uum oh and i can get swirls set off the same and op sides now. and i hit pixie legover as well! yus! my runs are stretching out as well now! more 2 come

Shroom · Post by **Shroom** » 29 Aug 2005 23:39

the weather is looking up4 lots of footbag over the spring and summer except now all my mates r playing rugby at school now so im mostly playing after school or on weekends now. Played in town with a few guys hit a couple more new combos that werent bad considering i was playing in baggy shorts and a polo hahah. nailed legover>butterfly>spinning toe> butterfly and also stepover> atw> swirl plus a few different moves into x-body rakes.

Shroom · Post by **Shroom** » 12 Sep 2005 21:58

At the moment Ive been playing every 2 days or so in town, this is helping improve the consistency and lengths of my strings. Fairy and illusion are almost down properly and my spinnings getting better to, dropped butterfly spinning clipper a couple of times. Hit clipper>legover and paradox mirage a couple more times lately as well!

Shroom · Post by **Shroom** » 27 Sep 2005 14:27

Well its holiday now which is SICK cos i get to play heaps and for longer. Nailed a clean butterfly>spinning clipper the other day. And a cool run with an xbody rake, illusion, fairy, swirl and a hopover! gotta go im playing in town at 11 and looking 4wrd 2 it!

Shroom · Post by **Shroom** » 06 Oct 2005 19:19

learnt my first symposium moves! got symposium mirage pretty down, but symposium pixie im finding a wee bit confusing but got it cleanly twice, the plant thing just gets me. Oh and got 6 consec. butterflies

Shroom · Post by **Shroom** » 25 Oct 2005 22:23

ooo havent posted 4 a bit, ive been sOOOO busy with finishing my art folios at the moment! still trying to fit some footbag in every few days though! ive nailed symposium pixies and mirages now on my good side, there pretty consistent and i got symp pixie>symp mirage> symp mirage which was cool. They are cool moves to add into my usual moves which I'm hitting much more consistently now. I want to get whirl soon!

Shroom · Post by **Shroom** » 02 Dec 2005 20:11

Wow its been a month since the last post and Ive hardly been kicking at all, exams exams EXAMS! and now there all over

Played in drizzle 2day in town. Hit some new combos, we had these cool Californian tourist guys came up and start talking to us. I got a couple of swirls midrun and consec hopovers plus really clean symp pixies and mirages!

Jdigges · Post by **Jdigges** » 02 Dec 2005 20:32

Nice man. i know what you mean with the EXAMS! i have finals soon and i haven't had much time to play latley! but once they are done i have a whole month break!

keep kickin!