Fanzine

[C-Fan]

edit: for the sake of continuity, I am cutting and pasting my Sick 3 experience from page 17 here. If it seems familiar to you, this is why. I am adding video links and some more content though, so maybe worth a skim even if you already read this. I think the video links really bring it more to life.

Worlds Day 5: Sick 3 contest

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. Everybody is a bit surprised that I tried a toe spin, and I think some people even know I was going for toebius.

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!

Here`s vid of me hitting the same combo again, and acting like I`m real happy:
http://www.apvivax.ee/worlds2005/videos/kensick3.mov

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!!!

You can see it here, at the end of this video by Lise: http://www.footbag.nu/yksi.wmv

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), 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. Or at least I thought he did. Apparently, the judges also thought this was legit, because he was seeded 4th for finals. But check out this video:
http://www.apvivax.ee/worlds2005/videos/jordensick3.mov

Here you can clearly see that the duck on mullet is totally "the." Weird that nobody noticed in person.

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.

[mosher]

Ken, Thank you thank you thank you thank you for writing all of this.

You are inspiring me to go write out more of the things I remember from worlds that I never managed to put down anywhere.

What an incredible experience it all was! Seriously everyday was the most thrilling choose your own adventure imaginably possible. The daily options were a spectacular bounty of ways in which to go and have fun with the most incredible people in the world. (minus of course all the great ones that couldn't make it, but you know what I mean)

Thanks for coming to World's, you have an awesome presence everywhere you go and you really bring a hilarious positive vibe to everything you do. I really enjoyed getting to interact with you and hang out with you more than at last years World's.

We're so good at Net. Hey Ken, maybe we could compete in Novice Doubles Net next year at World's in Frankfurt.

I will start drilling my roll spikes.

Thanks for the Japan pin, I didn't mean to destroy the first one you gave me. Did you know I destroyed it?

Oh, and I meant to appologize for upsetting you with the name Cripwalk. I just couldn't go back on a name after it was already born.

I noticed something really interesting one day at World's though.. do you know what WHAT!? is in rewind? The Moshnig set.

[C-Fan]

Worlds Day 5, post Sick 3

After Sick 3, I was feeling pretty good. My month of practicing paid off, and already I felt like I did better at this years Worlds than I did at the two previous ones. The fact that I`ve been competing well while being able to ignore an injury only makes me feel that much better.

My injury is feeling so much better, that I decide to push my luck a bit and play a little in some casual circles. I wouldn`t have, except that I saw Mosher playing, and I had yet to play freestyle with him. I promised myself I`d play a bit in a circle with Mosher, then call it a day. To my credit, I actually stuck to the plan!

The circle I played in was Mosher, Aron Tennant, Paul Croenjaeger, and myself. Aron has gotten way better since the last time we played, but in all fairness, that was like 3 years ago. Aron has that spray-sweat-when-he-spins thing that Windsor and Jere Vainikka also have. But Aron is 6 foot 8, so he covers an even wider radius. At one point I asked him to hit vortex, and when he tried for it, I did the Matrix `dodging-bullets-in-slow-mo" thing to avoid his sweat. Mosher played real well. I can`t believe how much progress he made in a single year, really inspirational. He showed me his cloud set pixie butterfly, which really confused me. It looks a lot like a janiwalker where you slop the 2nd dex, very cool. A lot of the Japanese team commented that they didn`t recognize Mosher at first, because he seemed so different from last year. Not just the haircut, they said, but rather the way he carries himself with confidence now. I could see that. I played OK, just making a point to not go too hard on my injured foot. The best was seeing Paul C catch fire. I love it when that happens; you`re in a circle and all of a sudden: BAM. Fire. Such good style.

Around that time Jere Vainikka comes up to me, and asks if I`d like to be one of the judges for the Worlds Video contest that night. Hell yeah! He gives me a brief rundown on how to judge the vids, and when I need to be there. I go get some takeout pizza with Masa, and we watch some shred while eating. Ilja from Estonia just oozes style. Several times he forces me to abandon my slice to get up and give him props. After eating, Masa and I go around picking up garbage around the ampitheatre, then head to Club Opera for the event.

On the way, we run into Mikko, who has takeout food, but no utensils! Masa has a partial solution, in that he has disposable chopsticks. But Mikko doesn`t know how to use them, so I leave Masa to teach him as I head to the party. Right at the door are 2 huge bouncers, who are literally IDing everybody. Even Doctor Mike got IDed! That sucks for everybody under 18. This problem really needs to be addressed next year...

Inside the club I buy a couple people beers, including myself. I talk a lot to Sebastien and Caro, but sooner than later the video contest starts. Right as the contest starts, Jere announces the 4 judges of the comp, and when my name is called, Seb and Caro are really surprised. They had both been telling me for the last few minutes how good they thought their (Eli and Seb respectively) entries were.

The first video shown was an Aussie vid of Dylan Fry which had been posted months before on Modified. It`s a great shred video, but I didn`t think it represented `your local freestyle scene` very well, and it was more shred vid than footbag vid. One plus though was that I finally got to hear the audio of the vid, which I couldn`t do when I first saw the vid months before. DJ Scribe! Yeah New Zealand! Totally brought back memories.

I thought Eli`s vid was real cool, but mostly because I hadn`t seen Eli play in ages, and I really like his style. Tons of clean pogo everything. Good vibe to it too, but I think it was hurt by being more of a shred video than a footbag vid. Sam`s vid had cool editing, but I think was a bit too out there for the crowd, and was also pretty shreddy.

My personal favorites were Sebastien`s vid and Aaro Wichmanns. I wish they would be released online. Aaro obviously put a lot of time into his production, but it was a little bit too long. It was like 7 minutes. Still, the idea and the acting were superb, which boosted it. Sebastien`s was really well shot, real funny, and real succinct. I thought it should have placed higher than it did. Jere Vainikka`s entry was just beautiful to watch... I felt like the last 45 seconds of shred were superfluous though. I didn`t think any of the entries really needed to have shred in them. The judges voted, and the results were forgotten within a couple minutes. The key thing was that everybody had a good time watching the films. It was a nice way to kick off the night.

There really wasn`t any dancing that night, which is good and bad. I really wanted to dance, but I knew that would be pushing it for my feet, so I`m glad I didn`t. I mostly just wandered about and socialized, then eventually called it an early night and trammed home, having a nice conversation with Spankin` Jim Hankins.

Back at the hostel, I run into Arkady, a shirtless Sergey and 3 Russian girls talking in the middle of the street. I`m introduced to the girls, and when I`m invited to go party with everybody, I feel like laughing out loud. Who knew, back when I started playing footbag, that one day it would lead to me being on the streets of Finland, invited to go party with Russian girls. Choose your own adventure indeed. I weigh the offer, and think about how I have semis the next day, and a chance at Finals. Any other night...

...alas, I graciously decline and head to sleep.

Worlds, gotta love it.

[C-Fan]

7/28 Thursday, Worlds Day 6: Routines

Wake up, reach down, squeeze the foot, still painful. Still, I can tell its making progress each day, and now I know I can ignore the pain successfully when it counts, so I feel OK. I hardly drank the previous night (2 beers) , so I feel in good shape. Got about 7 hours of sleep. These are all good signs for me, because I know that today will most likely be my most difficult day at worlds: Shred30 and semis of Freestyle.

I get my traditional breakfast with my comrades, and by the sleepy look on Sergey`s face, I`m glad I called it an early night. I make myself an extra big sandwich to take with me, because I figure I`ll need an energy boost between routines and Shred 30.

I`m at the site early, and stick to my plan: watch routines with my leg elevated, and only warm up once my pool has been called. When I finally see the pool listings, I`m predictably unhappy that I am in the pool of death. When I woke up that morning, I felt like I had a chance at finals, but based on how judging has gone before, and the popular names in my pool, I know I have no chance. If Ales Zelinka can drop 12+ times and make semis, do you really think think the judges would put me above Felix or Peter, even if I had a perfect routine? Sounds bitter, but think about it and tell me I`m wrong. Pete announced its his last year competing at Worlds, so I can`t see him being denied finals even if he spaunches.

My pool is depressing, but it takes some pressure off. I am convinced that no matter what, I can`t make it to finals with these judges, so it liberates me to do as good a routine as I can. I don`t watch the routines which precede me, but they all had 4 or more drops a piece, which makes me feel like I should have a chance at beating them. I go up, and just tell myself to give it my best shot. Today is my 8th anniversary of playing footbag. I dedicate my routine to Josh Penney, as a way of thanking him for hosting the tournament that got me into this sport.

My routine isn`t bad, but it`s nowhere near as good as my first round routine. I rush my musical cues, so my artistic merit isn`t as good as I`d like. I also have 2 drops, but they didn`t effect the flow of my routine that bad, and didn`t mentally rattle me or anything. After I bow and walk off the stage, I feel pretty good about myself. At last years worlds, I choked in the first round (5 drops?) and had a mediocre semis (3 drops). So at least 8 drops in 2 routines. But this year, I hit my best routine ever, and had a very solid semis routine. Only 3 drops total during routines at Worlds 2005. I attribute it to an improved mental game.

Now with the pressure off, I watch the remaining 2 routines. Felix hits a beautiful 1 drop routine which gets the crowd going, and guarantees him a spot in finals. Props. Last up is Pete, who has a 4 drop routine. Objectively, I`d say its better than mine, but still, twice as many drops. But still, he makes it to finals with a 4 drop routine. When the results are announced, it turns out I got 4th in my pool, behind Tuukka, Pete and Felix. I`m not really disappointed or angry or anything... today`s results were a direct result of my shafting from 2 days ago. I think my 2 drop routine, though not as good as my first round, would have put me in finals in most of the other pools. Just not in the pool of death. I can`t control the judging, and in this round I didn`t feel nearly as robbed as in the first round. Overall I feel happy that I competed as well as I did in routines. The official results will likely show me in 16th or so, but if I had been judged fairly in the first round, who knows?

I also definitely feel bitter about not making finals this year, because it was such a golden opportunity for me to make it. Yacine, Penske, Sunil, GF Smoothie, Lon Smith and several other Finals-caliber routine players weren`t there. So this really looked like my best shot at finals. Who knows... hopefully I`ll get another chance to go to Worlds, and maybe next year I`ll go dropless and have competent judges. But I`m not holding my breath. I should really try and get my first round routine on line... maybe it`ll make my bitterness seem more justified. Sides, it would just be nice to see my best routine again.

After digesting the bitter results of routines, I mentally blanked out all negative thoughts. All that mattered for the rest of the day, was doing my Shred30, and doing it well enough to make the cut to semis. I feel good about my mental game. I feel like my mental game has carried me well through this point, and now I just needed to focus a little more.

[C-Fan]

Shred 30, First Round

I spent my time after my routine resting up, watching other routines. I had my iPod with me, and between routines I listened to music with Takumi, sharing earphones, DJing it up. Takumi has a calming effect on me. He just exudes calmness, which can be catching. I ate a sandwich exactly one hour before Shred30 was scheduled to start, and right as I finished it, Steve G announces that they are ahead of schedule, so Shred30 will start in 20 minutes?!? Damn!

I mentally re-center myself, aware that there is nothing I can do to change the circumstances, and that I am at Worlds, so the stakes are high enough that I really need to stay on my mental game. I mentally remind myself that there are a ton of entrants, so assuming I go somewhere in the middle, that`s an extra 10 minutes I have to warm up or digest.

I warm up with Takumi, again using Mosher`s sweet sweet Felix bag. When warming up for Shred30, I never run through the whole thing. Instead, I practice individual segments of it, because its less tiring, and increases my confidence in each section. If I tried to do the whole thing and dropped, that could hurt my confidence a bit, whereas if I drop while practicing a section, I can mentally write it off more easily.

I generally don`t watch the other Shred 30s, but I make exceptions for Henmo and Takumi, who do OK, but have too many drops to make the cut probably. When my turn is finally called, I take a second before starting, and can`t help but think: "at least the judges can`t fuck me in this event." With that winning attitude, I proceed to drop on my very first butterfly! That`s something that had never happened to me ever before, not even in practice. I recover well though, and do the next 29.5 seconds without dropping. There is a clipper bail in there, but that`s way better than another drop. At the very end when I hear the countdown, I mentally freeze for a second wondering what move I hadn`t done yet, I spin on the 1 count... then eclipse! I walk off the stage, relieved that I recovered from the initial drop. I`m pretty sure I made the cut, since it was top 20, but I`m curious whether or not I would crack top ten.

Later on, when thinking about my drop, I realized that its probably preferable for me to drop on the very first trick, as opposed to somewhere in the middle. When I drop or mess up in the middle or the end of a Shred30, my mind always has to scramble to remember what I haven`t hit yet, so I can max my uniques. But by dropping on the very first trick, I dont have to rearrange my shred at all, because the order is the same since I haven`t hit anything! Weird, but makes sense to me.

After Shred30 is over, I have no more events for the day, but I feel pretty good. In fact, I feel good enough that I hop into my first real freestyle circles since Monday. I pretty much feel at full strength again.

The first circle I play in has Sebastien, Kolo, Oxana, and Yanna. I couldn`t have picked a better circle, Sebastien says its his first time playing in 10 days, and I dont see him play at all the rest of the tourney. I really love playing with Sebastien, so I`m glad I jumped at the chance while I had it. It was my first time seriously playing with Kolo, which was also a cool surprise. He was close to leggy gimping ducking legover, or something like that. I did a few combos with lots of leggy atomic both sides for him, which he appreciated. Oxana was really rippin shit up. 10+ smears, flip pixie sets, ripwalks, spins... real impressed. Sebastien had his usual mix of genuine, surprising links, with some cool massacres randomly tossed in. I love that style. I asked him to check if my BS beds were clean, and I was stoked and relieved when he said they were super clean. He also paid me one of the nicest compliments of my freestyle career. He asked me how often I practice, and I said I play about 3 or 4 times a week. He said that he was surprised, because "every time I play with you, you are so much better!"

<--- me being moved by the compliment. So nice to get such a flattering compliment.

Eventually I moved to another circle, and played with Max K, Alex S, and Caro B. I already mentioned this circle earlier, but for continuity: the best part was getting a pass from Alex, and then announcing that "I`m gonna hit an Alex S trick now" and then starting a string with pixie tap. Next Max went, and he said:

"I wish I could start a string with a Ken Somolinos move, but I don`t know what to do."
Me: "oh, just `the` anything."

We were using a real sweet, small footfighter in this circle, and I was able to hit my first new move of the tournament because of it: frantic same side... shit, gotta go get dinner. More later.

[C-Fan]

7/28 Evening of Day 6

The shred circles start to die down, so I sit and watch a circle while stretching. It`s Takumi, Manuel S, Tina Aeberli, and Mattias L-S. Mattias is like 22 or 20, but everybody else in the circle is 15, so he`s like the old man of the circle. Still, I see him hit pdlo-toe whirl repeat directly into pdx egg-toe whirl repeat, which is pretty rad.

Watching this circle of young players, I get an idea. There`s a bowling alley in the same building we`re playing in, so wouldn`t it be cool to set up a bowling night for all the players who are under 18? There had already been a few nights where Takumi stayed in the hotel room by himself watching footbag DVDs because he was too young to go to the parties, and I thought that was really criminal. Flying all the way from Japan to Finland, and having to watch Sick03 every night? So I set up a time and got a lane and told as many players under 18 as I could find about the event (Tina, Manu, Alex S, Dustin Rhodes). Unfortunately, I was cutting it kinda close time-wise, so a lot of players couldn`t make it because they didn`t have enough time to eat and come back, or were too tired. Still, a group of like 10 of us ended up bowling, and it was a sweet time.

The 10 of us were Josh, Alex, Takumi, and most of the rest of Team Japan. I was real happy for 2 reasons. The main thing I was stoked about, was that Alex and Takumi got to do something fun, even though they were too young to go to the players party. The other thing I was happy about, was that Team Japan got to hang out with some foreigners in a completely social context. Oh, I guess I was also happy because I bowled over a 100, which is really good for me. Actually, the night started off really deceptively, with me picking up a spare with my left hand on the first frame, then getting a strike with my right hand on the second frame. I assured everybody it was a fluke and that I`d promptly start sucking again, and I kept my word. Similarly, Keita bowled a gutter ball on the first frame. I leaned in and assured Josh that, despite this bad omen, Keita would proceed to kick all our asses. He looked back at me like he wasn`t sure if I was kidding, but sure enough: Keita finished with a 171, despite messing up on the 10th frame.

After bowling, Josh, Alex, Takumi and I got some snacks and went back to the hotel to watch footbag DVDs and hang out, while the rest of Team Japan hit the players party. I was real stoked to see Takumi trying hard to understand Alex and Josh`s questions, and really tried to refrain from translating everything. Still, sometimes Takumi would look at me for a hint or translation. At one point, Josh asked Takumi who his favorite player was, and Takumi didn`t understand the word "favorite", so he looked at me. I just said to him in Japanese: "Me. Just say me. Say it. "
Right then I think Takumi understood the original question, because he had caught on to my sense of humor, but he said: "Ken" anyway.

Josh and Alex headed home after a bit, and I took a shower, cause the hotel showers were way swanker than the one back at the apartment. Right before leaving though, Takumi surprised me by giving me the nicest compliment I`ve ever received from a Japanese person. It`s hard to believe he`s only 15, because he put it so eloquently. Rather than risk butchering it by attempting to recreate it here, I`ll just say that what he said made me feel like my efforts in helping footbag in Japan were completely worth it, and made me feel really appreciated and accepted by the Japanese footbag world. I was really deeply touched.

I walked home feeling really good. I had a good routine today, I had a 1 drop Shred 30, I played well in circles, hit a new move, bowled with footbag friends from around the world, and felt the love of the community. Not a bad 8th anniversary at all. Thanks footbag.

[Just call me hagesy]

Ken, awesome read. You are one cool dude. One day i hope to shred with you. That would make my day.

peace

[C-Fan]

We're so good at Net. Hey Ken, maybe we could compete in Novice Doubles Net next year at World's in Frankfurt.


I noticed something really interesting one day at World's though.. do you know what WHAT!? is in rewind? The Moshnig set.

Yeah, playing net together was sweet. I think my favorite part was right at the end of the game, when I called a timeout, walked 3 paces to my left to give you a high five, returned to my original position, and called `time in.`

That`s an interesting observation about the Moshing set. Now I`m intrigued and wonder if I can hit that set... something to try. Thanks for all the kind words. I really appreciate all the props I get here, I just don`t usually reply to all of them. I`ll try to get Day 7 done today as well.

[C-Fan]

7/29/05 Worlds, Day 7

Day starts of pretty well. My foot is healing remarkably fast, and a side benefit of the injury is that it forced me to go easy for a few days. So even though it`s my 7th day at Worlds, my legs still feel pretty fresh. I haven`t burned out.

I kick off the day with breakfast, and then check the Internet. All of a sudden, all of the other Russian footbaggers using the internet start congratulating me. They motion me over to their computer where I am surprised to see yesterday`s Shred30 results are already tabulated and posted online! Nice work, Worlds Organization team! Even more surprising, is that I am in 7th place in shred30 with a score of 195!

195 is my second best score ever, and I got it at Worlds to boot! This puts me in a very positive mindset, and I feel like I have a shot at making finals, despite the intimidatingly good scores ahead of me. 195 is normally a decent Shred30 score in my opinion, but it only netted me 7th place. The 6 people ahead of me all scored over 200, but I`m not that intimidated, because I`ve scored over 200 before myself. Freestyle events are at Linnamaki Amusement park, but don`t start til 5 pm, so I head to the Sports Hall to watch some net matches.

I get to the Hall in time to see Tina Lewis beat Julia from Russia to claim the Women`s singles title. I`m very impressed by the professional feel of the hall. There is even an electronic scoreboard overhead which shows who won the previous sets, as well as the score. The event sites are just in a different league compared to last year.

I watch the net matches sitting next to Josh B, and I listen to his Biggie CD while taking in the games. Life is good. Semifinals of Men`s Doubles produces one of the best matches I`ve ever seen. Eric Wulff and Chris Siebert vs Manu and JF Lemieux. 2 roll spikers in one game! The match lives up to my expectations, with several exciting sideouts. Siebert has insane reach, and a real solid mousetrap. I really wanted the match to go 3 sets, but JF and Manu put it away in 2. I wish net was always this entertaining.

The next match I see is the other semis pool, where its PT Lovern and Johnny Leys vs. Patti and Flo from Germany. Me and Strassman get on a roll with jokes about the German team.

Alex: Man, the Germans are really good.
Me: Yeah, but they should really invest in more intimidating names.
Alex:
Me: I bet last night PT and Johnny saw their pool and were like: "Patty and Flo? I have aunts named Patty and Flo. This is gonna be easy. Let`s go drink!"

Since Net was being held indoors, Flo played without his trademark sunglasses.

Josh: It`s so weird to see Flo play without sunglasses.
Alex: It`d be so badass if he wore shades indoors.
*pause*
Alex: And then you found out he was blind.
Me and Josh: ....
But the Germans ended up having the last laugh, as the German cheering squad in the stands, led by Jan Zimmerman, visibly rattled the American team. The crowd got into PT`s head, and you could see him just lose focus. The Germans win, but there was kind of a sour feel in the air.

I get up to get ready to hit Linnamaki. It`s still mad early, so I go to Team Japan`s room and hang out a bit. It looks like everybody is kinda taking their time, so I decide to go mad early to get to the site, so I have plenty of time to warm up and take it slow. On my way out, I bump into Jussi and the documentary crew, and ask them what tram I should take to get to Linnamaki. I see the tram they mention, and hop on it. It`s nearly 4 pm.

I ride the tram for a bit, and after 15 minutes, I get kinda antsy, cause I haven`t seen my stop yet. I check the players booklet, and see the tram I am on goes in a loop, so I figure maybe I got on the wrong direction, but it will still get me there, and in less than an hour. I also see in the players booklet that they recommended a different tram line (8)to get there, which is a more direct route from the hotel to the site. Serves me right for not checking the booklet. Still, the booklet says my current tram (3T) will get me there as well. I really start to squirm once I`ve been on the tram for over 35 minutes. I mentally try and stay calm... but its hard.

My watch reads 4:55 pm, and I`m still on the tram... yech. I get off at the Opera stop, because I see the park is visible from there. I run non-stop from the Opera stop to Linnamaki, and the last leg is all uphill. I think to myself: "this will make a great story, if I end up getting there on time and competing well." I try not to think of the corresponding thought, that it will also make a horrible story if I end up missing the 2 events I had to qualify for...

Once I`m in the gates of Linnamaki, I feel a touch of relief until I realize 2 things:
1. This place is huge. and...
2. I have no idea where freestyle is being held.

I waste a couple seconds at an information booth, and they don`t know what footbag is, so I lose a few more minutes running around, and by dumb luck I find the stage.

I see that Sick3 is still going on, which I suppose is a relief in the sense that I didn`t miss both events, but also means that I`m up real soon. How soon? Jorden is near the end of his 7 tries... and I`m on deck? I`m still in my street clothes, and explain that I took the wrong tram, so could I possibly go last? Dexter tells me firmly that the answer is no. Why? Why can`t I go last? He just tells me its now or never. I`m still curious as to why I wasn`t allowed to go later. Not like it would have mattered in the event.

I change into my lavers and LITERALLY do not even have enough time to do toe stalls to warm up. This is a nightmare. I ask for somebody to give me a bag so I can compete, and then I take a split second to try and compose myself before stepping on stage. This really is a nightmare. I`m on a stage in front of a large crowd consisting of strangers and friends. I step out from behind a red curtain. Circus music is LITERALLY playing in the background. I`m playing with a bag unfamiliar to me, and I have not had a chance to warm up. And its Worlds. I can`t believe that its real, and happening to me.

If ever there is a time for my mental game to try and save me, its now. I bow to the crowd, and try a couple combos, but even the clipper before my fog feels weird, because I`ve spent the last hour sitting on a bus, then running up a hill. I try for fog-frantic ss butterfly-WHAT?!, and amazingly I pull off the first two links, despite being cold. I ask for water, and somebody tosses me a bottle. Then I go for my ewalk-fog-toebius combo a few times, and amazingly I come close to getting the toebius. I feel a touch of pride that I can get that close to such a hard combo without a warmup, but at the same time I feel like this nightmare shouldn`t be happening to me. Didn`t I leave for the site an hour early? Didn`t I ask for directions? I still don`t understand why I couldn`t go last. Even those 2 minutes of warm up time would have helped my chances. Instead, try 7 is a drop, and I`m peaced out. Fuck fuck fuck.

I summon every ounce of self control, and I don`t throw a fit on stage. Instead, I bow to the audience, and walk off stage... then throw a fit. Still, very proud that I didn`t go Chernobyl on stage, cause I was close to it. I`m unnapproachable and inconsolable for the next 4 minutes. "Fucking Finland!" I mutter to myself repeatedly. Later, I`d feel real bad about this, because I realized how this could be misinterpreted. The way I meant it, was like in the sentence: "I came all the way to fucking Finland to have this happen to me? I came all the way from Fucking JAPAN damnit!" and not in the sense of "fuck Finland." I really hope nobody thought I meant it in that second sense, because really, I felt like Finnish people were extremely nice and hepful to me.

I was definitely pissed that the documentary people recommended I take the 3T as opposed to the 8, but when I thought about it, it`s also very possible that I just missed my stop on the 3T. In any case, I should have checked the players booklet, or asked the conductor, or even got off the tram and taken a cab. Part of the blame is definitely on me, but that doesn`t make me any less mad. In any case, I limit my mental anguish to 3 minutes, because Shred 30 semi finals are slated to start in like 10 minutes. 10 minutes doesn`t seem like a lot of warm up time, but considering I had to do Sick 3 without so much as a toe stall of warm up, I`ll take 10 minutes.

Right at that instant, Kim and Kenzo show up! The last 2 members of Team Japan, they were only able to come for the last 3 days, so it was a shock to see them. I was also amazed that they showed up right at the worst moment of my footbag career, when I`m still pissy I enlist Kenzo to warm me up for Shred, and I get somebody else to get Mosher`s Felix bag for me so I have a good bag to shred with. I`m still seething with anger, but I swallow it, because I know I need to step up for Shred, and I can`t afford to lose concentration now.

I warm up pretty quickly, but its still a bit of a shock how quickly my name is called to be back on stage. I take a moment to center myself, then I tune out the crowd, then I shred... and for 30 seconds, I don`t drop. http://v.footbag.org/media/manual/8th_s ... olinos.wmv
Yeah, there was a clipper bail in there, and some repeated tricks, but I still executed a dropless shred30 at Worlds. I`m tempted to let out a Kenyon Martin-style roar , but instead I bow, and walk off the stage. Later, I joked with everybody that I was glad I redeemed my Sick3 nightmare with my Shred30, because otherwise all the people who saw Sick3 might think that Asian people suck at footbag or something.

I`m not sure if my shred will be good enough for me to make finals, but even if it isn`t, I`m satisfied with it. I went dropless at Worlds, and I did it under some seriously hard conditions. Sebastien, who saw everybody else`s Shred, says he thinks it likely that I will make the cut. I hope so.

My day immensely improves when one of the Worlds Staff gives me a green wristband, and tells me that I can ride all the attractions for free for the entire day. Yaaaaaaay! Apparently, everybody who made Sick 3 finals got one. But I doubt anybody else appreciated it more. Yeah, I had the worst footbag moment of my life that day, but my Shred 30, and now this... definitely more than made up for it.

A couple shred circles form, but there`s no way that I am wasting this free pass. A 26 Euro value, I`m determined to milk it for all its worth.

Next: I milk it for all its worth.

[C-Fan]

Gonna take a small break from all the Worlds entries.

It rained a ton this week, so I haven`t had a chance to play as much as I`d like (everyday if possible). Stil, I got in 2 solo sessions this week, which isn`t bad, and today`s session I used a new bag, which gives me hope for future solo sessions going well.

At Worlds Oxana from Russia gave me a free bag that some Russian stitcher made. I think a lot of people got them, and almost everybody had the same reaction: nice stitching, decent material, but the filler was way too light. So yesterday I took a straw, emptied half the original filler, and put in a bunch of lead bb`s which I had leftover from my Miki bag which died. I`m a bit concerned about using lead... but the weight really helps, and its not like I wasn`t using lead when the same filler was in my Miki.

Today at Yoyogi I ran into a tap dancer I met right before worlds. He does Savion Glover style tap, which is super cool. Definitely reminds me a bit of footbag. I wonder if he sees my footbag ability, and thinks that I`d be good at tap? Anyway, it was real fun playing to the beats he tapped out.

My newly re-filled Oxana bag played really really well. Playing with a small, round bag makes such a big difference for me. Like, with triple dexes, I always get that extra bit of confidence, because I know the bag is setting properly. Or with osis, I know the bag will hit my foot smoothly, as opposed to unevenly. Its a world of difference.

I started today with a bunch of flip paradox torques. Hit paradox torque bsos a bunch, it felt pretty comfortable. I hit spinning osis to pdx torque for my first time, but didn`t get it flipside. I think I can though. My dod swirls felt real good today too, so I decided it was time for me to seal it with something other than pdx mirage. After skooling that for a bit, I managed to start a string with dod swirl-pdx torque, nice and tight. Felt great.

I did a bit more spinning practice, but its definitely frustrating. Moves like vortex and mobius just don`t feel natural for me. I`m going to force myself to give it more time though. I did manage to hit vortex to ducking butterfly again, and mobius felt a little better, but still not that great. My last solo session I managed to hit vortex to dlo, but little else.

Today I decided to skool frantic a bit, and was real pleasantly surprised to hit 3 new frantic triple dexes today. The first move I hit was flipside frantic ss mirage, which was surprisingly easy. Quite likely my coolest and hardest trick that starts and ends on my left toe. That or flip datw. Then I worked a bit on hitting frantic ss legover (not crispy smog, but rather like pixie toe schmoe). I was pretty close on both sides, and when I finally did hit it, I nearly got it bsos. The second one barely rolled off my toe. That would have been so cool, to have hit it bsos, when I had never hit either one before. I worked it for another 5 minutes or so, and managed to seal flip for the first time as well. Even though frantic is a relatively new set for me, I feel like I`ve done a lot with it. I`ve hit 7 or 8 frantic tricks both sides, something like 11 frantic triple dexes (counting flipside as unique), and 2 frantic quads.

I closed out my session by doing some dexless practice. I`m definitely a bit rusty, but I felt it coming back a bit today, which was nice. I think the bag helped out. I definitely neglected it during worlds, and in the weeks following. But I intend on getting back into it.

Oh yeah, and I also have some exciting news about my October footbag plans, but I want to wait until things get a bit more finalized before I celebrate in here.

[C-Fan]

Saturday`s session in Yoyogi was special because it was likely my last time playing with Yuko. As you may recall, Yuko is the best shredita in Japan, and for a good while there, lived near my town. I taught her a lot of her basics and really skooled her hard, until she moved to Osaka last year. Since then, we`ve only had a few chances to play together, but I always enjoyed seeing her improvement. It was definitely real sad to play with her for the last time, but I made a point to just have fun, and to keep telling myself that I will play with her again at a future tournament. With footbaggers it`s never truly goodbye after all...

The weather obliged us all day. It was pretty sweltering hot, but it`s summer right? USK, Yuko, Tosh, x+y, Hearts (Hatsu), Morii, and BBK (!) all showed and shredded, which meant we generally had 2 circles going throughout. We used my Oxana bag in one circle, and everybody agreed it`s really good. I should find out the name of that stitcher... I`d totally buy another bag provided it had heavier filler.

It was a treat getting to play with USK again. It felt like it had been a long time. My fav combo of his all day was gyro mirage-dlo-egg. He was real close to gdlo, and blurry whirl was looking consistent. He`s also started doing pdx torques in his runs, which is a nice addition. Long runs all day, but he`s stopped doing flip steps. Last time we played, he was starting to throw those in, and they were nice and clean. I requested he bring them back.

Tosh played solid. His quantum sets are sooooo good, its weird. You wouldn`t peg him as somebody who would have that set down so well. Hard to explain. He says hes hit toe blur x2, which I am jealous about. Inspired by him, I hit tripwalk-ripwalk-blur repeat to start a run, and then I hit pdx torque bsos in the same combo. Buuuuuut....

...x+y says my flip pdx torque is "the" I have no reason to doubt him either, but I`d still like to see it on vid to figure out what I need to change. It feels clean, but I guess not. Keeping that in mind, here are my other "highlights" of the day. Stepping whirl-pdx torque bsos (but again, who knows). reverse swirl-pdx torque (?). Vortex to tomahawk! My first 5 out of vortex. And then later, vortex-ps whirl! Also a 5, but feels way less legit than tomahawk. Go-go mirage first try. Toebius first try to start a string.

Yuko plays well. Her steps have cleaned up, which I`m real happy about, and she`s trying for pdx torque and motion. I don`t think any shredita in Japan comes close to her in terms of variety, bothsidedness, difficulty, or string length. I gave her some tips on pdx whirl and other moves, but in general I tried not to teach as much as play, cause I knew this would be our last session for a while, and I wanted it to be enjoyable.

Hearts hit his first PS whirl ever, and it was good and deep. Big props. I think Morii played the best out of anybody all day. He`s really developed into one of Japan`s best players. Top 4 for sure. Blurry drifter-blurry whirl-blurry drop. Stepping clipper-sidewalk-ripwalk repeat to blur-smear-pixie butterfly-blur-smear-pixie drop. The last dimwalk was his strong pixie too. His consistency and string length have gotten better too, and he`s working on his spins. He hit toe gyro mirage which was pretty rad.

We all got pretty exhausted from the heat, so we closed out the day with 2 games of 4 square, which I think we should make a tradition. Afterwards we head out for pasta, in the hopes of finishing fast enough that we can all go sing Karaoke before Yuko`s bus.

At dinner Morii tells a funny story. When he first got interested in footbag, he was shy about his abilities, so he went to Yoyogi park and watched people play, but didn`t let on that he was interested in footbag. One time though, he saw Tencho hit whirlwind for the first time, and he was so surprised that he said out loud: "Whirlwind!" which totally freaked Tencho`s shit out. Can you imagine? You`re playing by yourself in the park, and some random dude sitting on a bench calls out the name of your trick! Too good.

After dinner we all hit Karaoke, and got in some good tunes. I sang "I wont say goodbye anymore" or whatever its called with x+y, and got in a couple Japanese songs, but not as much as last time. Yuko surprised me by being a really good singer. The hour lasts long enough, and we all feel good when we leave. When we near the station, I realize its time to say goodbye, which I dread, but I tell myself is only a "see you at the next tourney" kind of deal. But then Yuko busts out her backpack, and I know it`s going to be a lot tougher. The goodbye is doubly tough, because she is also giving me a goodbye gift from QP. QP`s gift really moves me... he`s a graphic designer, and so he made me a goodbye letter which looks like a professional flyer, which has a drawing of me hitting a clipper, a photo of us drinking together, and a long message thanking me for my friendship and for inspiring him to be a better player. I`m really moved. I feel like it`s a one-two emotional punch, cause right after that, I have to say goodbye to Yuko. I`ve known Yuko for at least 2 years, and when I first met her, I decided it would be my mission to help her become the best Shredita in Japan, as well as top 3 in Japan overall. When she moved I was real sad, but she still progressed well. She gives me a note which she tells me to read later, as well as a gift which I open later. I feel like a putz for not having brought her a farewell gift, but there will be chances in the future. We hug goodbye, then I head home.

[C-Fan]

Sunday 9/11/05

Thunder and lightning rained out the session before I even left the house. Flurry of phone calls, and we end up playing ping pong in Shibuya, which proves a good time. I wanted to treat Takumi, but I ended up treating everybody, because I never collected money from anybody... Oh well. Ping pong was awesome fun. I love that even when we can`t footbag, we still have a good time hanging out.

[C-Fan]

Monday, 9/12/05

Scorching hot today, but the sun was beaming all day which was a welcome change from yesterday. I feel bad for those who work or are in school: Takumi was only free Sunday, and it was a rainout. Luckily for me, I had no plans for today, so I got to shred with Hatsu and Tosh.

I felt real tired and sleepy when I first got there, but I ended up having a good session. Its funny how playing with certain people affects your style. Tosh does lots of quantum sets, which totally inspired me to do lots of quantum as well, which I normally hardly ever do. I started off the day practicing dexless, but then mostly moved to quantum.

Hatsu played pretty solid, I remember giving him props a bunch, but I can`t remember anything particularly standing out. His drifters and pdx drifters are looking good. Tosh played well too... it was a good session for everybody. He had some real excellent looks at symposium whirl, where he cleared a real clean dex, but no delay... yet.

I had some good gyros, and I feel good I put some time into practicing dexless. I need to work at it. Vortex-ducking clipper-pdlo to start a string. One real good mobius. Not much else. I realized that I used to favor floppy bags for spinning, because they catch easier, but now I realize that they also set more sloppy, so now I prefer round bags for spinning. Oh yeah: drifter-spin clipper-drifter-spin clipper-drifter. GYro mirage to blender midstring also felt stylish.

I practiced quantum for a bit, and finally hit toe blur x2 for the first time. For me the key was starting with my "weak" toe blur first, which made all the difference. That may have been the session highlight for me... that or blur-tripwalk-blurry whirl-blur-tripwalk-blurry whirl-blur. Inspired by Tuukka`s old Finnish warm up vid, where Felix hits something similar. I sealed it with a run that included gyro mirage bsos, which was a bonus.

[C-Fan]

7/29/05 Evening of Worlds Day 7

Armed with our ride passes, Josh B, Alex S, Adrienne and I hit the rides. Alex has dinner plans in an hour, so we try and hit the best-looking rides first, in the hopes of him getting the most value out of his pass. The first ride we hit, was called "the Rocket" (in Finnish), and was one of those rides where you get strapped in a seat, then shot into the air to the height of a 2 or 3 story building in like a 5 second span. It was a rush for sure, but the best part was at the very top, you could see the stage where a footbag demo was happening. There were a couple bounces, so after the initial, best shot, there were a couple other boosts which cushioned our descent. At the apex of each boost we`d get a view of the stage, and yelled things like: "go Jorden!" or "the whirl was thin!"

I got really into all the rides, and just the feelig of being at an amusement park. I`d really missed it. I also think I had a lot of pent-up nervous energy from my experiences with the Sick3 finals and subsequent Shred30 semis, so I was literally doing cartwheels around the park and high fiving the employees who ran the rides. I also started high fiving the kids who were on the rides with us, and introducing myself. The highlight was probably when I was high fiving a bunch of 10 year olds on a ride, and one 8 year old girl denied my high five. She just crossed her arms and shook her head, and Josh B and Adrienne couldn`t stop laughing. I was so owned.

We asked Justin Sexton which was the best ride in the park, and he told us without hesitation: "Kieppi." We looked around for a bit, and the general area where we were told it was looked like the kids` rides area, so for a while we thought he was just messing with us. But then we finally found it, and it was intense. It was a series of spinning chairs dangling off wheels, which were in turn connected by axels to a main crane, which in turn spun, and also lifted up and down. The effect was very much akin to being in a washing machine, in that the speed and angles and directions kept changing up on you, so just as you thought you were getting a grip on your fear, it would swing you upside down and fuck you up. I loved it. We all agreed that Sexton was right. We made sure to make it the last ride of the day, and when I went on it for the last time, Manu Schmidt (aka Swiss Takumi) sat next to me. I screamed for the full 3 minutes, because I am a firm believer that that makes the rides better. Later, on the tram ride home, I heard Manu describing in disbelief to JZ how he had sat next to me, and I yelled for the ENTIRE ride. Definitely proud of that.

That night I decided to go to the players party, because I felt a little bad about not having socialized as much as I could have. I got dinner with Josh and Adrienne at a Chinese place, then we hit the club. I was pretty amazed how strict the people at the door were. If you didn`t have your players booklet, you had to pay full price, which meant Josh and I think Adrienne as well both had to pay, even though they were wearing footbag shoes and Josh had on the Worlds t-shirt. Once inside, we found out we were 10 minutes to late to get footbagger discounts on our drinks, so my beer was like 5 euros, instead of 1. The DJ really sucked, but I made a point to dance, if only to set an example for the white people to copy. Seriously though, I was doing "the running man" as a joke, and I was still the best dancer there. That should never be the case.

I`m social for a bit more, then head home. Next day is the last day of worlds, and I want to be tired on the last day of worlds because of a lame party. On the contrary, I`m hoping I can shred my ass off, considering how little I`ve drunk, combined with the fact that I LITERALLY only played footbag a total of 20 minutes today.

[C-Fan]

edit: I added the video link to my Shred30 semis a few posts back.
7/30/05 Worlds Day 8: Finals!

Woke up feeling real good. By now, my foot is almost completely healed. I get breakfast with Team Russia, who by all accounts had an excellent night. After breakfast, we have to clean up and check out. I can`t believe its the last official day of Worlds already. I was so lucky that Team Russia let me stay with them too... I had my own mattress, cool people to party with, and they didn`t even let me pay anything close to what would have been a fair share of the rent. Seriously huge spacebo goes out to Arkady, Sergey, and Vladimir... I felt well rested all week, and that`s largely thanks to you.

After cleaning up the house, we seem all ready to go. They all call me into the main room and tell me to sit down. We all sit in silence for a good 30 seconds, which seems to last forever. I have a nagging fear that they are going to surprise me by giving me dead-arms or something, but after 30 seconds of tenseness (for me), they all stand up and say: "let`s go." They see the confused look on my face and explain that it`s a Russian tradition. Whenever you leave a place before embarking on a trip, you share an extended moment of silence for good luck. I like that tradition.

I go dump my stuff off at Team Japan`s hotel room, then hit the site. Apparently, the Czechs have the results from yesterday`s Shred30 event, but the Czechs are late! I mentally prepare myself for any actuality. It`s still a bit stressful though, not knowing if you are competing in an event, a scant 2 hours before the event starts. The important thing though, is that my body feels fine, so if I did make Shred30 finals, I feel ready to give it my best. If I didn`t, then I still feel good enough to sideline shred all day.

Eventually the Czechs (and results) do arrive, and I`m stoked to see I made it to the finals. Now I`m assured to finish top 10 in the World in Shred30, which isn`t something I really expected when I arrived at Worlds, especially when I heard Shred was going to be 3 rounds. I really feel like this year in particular, Shred30 became a legitimate event. In the past, you could get lucky in the first round and make it to finals. But this year, having 3 rounds of shred meant that you had to be consistently good in order to make it.

The most eye-catching things about the Shred30 semis results are:

1. Vasek scored 2 hundred and 71 points. 2-7-1. In the words of the Finnish chocolate industry: "daaaaaaaaaaiiiiiim!"

2. The top 6 seeds all scored over 200 points. Top SIX over 200. The top 6 in the first round also all scored over 200 points. This year it looks like everybody not only planned their Shreds, but also clearly practiced them.
http://www.footbag.org/worlds2005/frees ... shredfinal

3. There are no Americans in the Shred30 finals. I think that`s a first. Obviously, that`s due largely to the lack of Americans overall at the tournament, but you would have thought that at least one would have made it. The finals consist of 8 Europeans, Jorden Moir, and myself.

My semis score ended up being 193. I went dropless, scored a 193, and am seeded 8th! Daim, nothing easy! I borrow Mosher`s Felix bag again, and go warm up. It feels sooooooooooo good to take my time warming up. Its a total contrast with my stressful warm up from the day before. Matthias L-S sees me warming up, and tells me of the existence of a warm-up room for finalists. Awesome awesome awesome. It`s a small dance studio with a stereo and non-slippery floors. I think for a minute about last year`s Worlds, and how finalists were warming up outside on the sidewalk. What a difference. Oh yeah, finalists this year were also given free bottled water, free energy drinks (Battery), and free bananas. It felt real professional. Getting free water and drinks made me feel like I already won something. I follow my normal warm-up regime for Shred30, practicing segments of it, rather than entire run-throughs. I`m glad I warmed up with Matthias, because I see him do symp mirage-symp pixie repeat in his shred. I explain to him how downtime moves aren`t uniques this year, so he removes them from his shred.

The bronze medal doubles net match is going on as we warm up, and we are set to go up immediately after they finish. This is a little stressful, because it means I should warm up so I`m ready to go if Doubles ends in 2 matches, but I shouldn`t wear myself out just in case it goes 3 matches. Luckily for me, doubles only goes 2 matches, and then we are up. I don`t see the 2 shreds before me, but right before I go up, Josh Benham shows me he bought a Muumi doll, and I ask to bring him up with me for good luck. I also borrow an extra bag, just in case I lose Mosher`s Felix to a bad kick or something.

I walk out on stage, and prop Muumi up on a chair behind me. Then I drop my extra bag near enough to me that I can get it should I need it, but not so close as to be worried about stepping on it. I tune out the crowd, and go automatic. http://v.footbag.org/media/manual/4th_s ... olinos.wmv
I stick to my plan, and it all goes well until the 20 second mark or so, when I drop on a torque out of flip ducking butterfly. I recover well, and go dropless from there on out, but in retrospect I didn`t mentally register my drop correctly. I dropped on torque, but because it was out of my flip ducking butterfly, I thought that I dropped flip ducking butterfly, but I didn`t. Because of that, I hit flip ducking butterfly again during my last couple seconds, when instead I should have turned that into ducking clipper for the unique. Still, when the time is called, I know I`ve just hit a 1 drop Shred30 at finals at Worlds, and I`m stoked. First thing I do is run to Muumi and thank him for the good luck, then run out into a sea of high fives. I have to say, it felt really really good.

I want to watch the rest of finals and shred that night, so I sit on the sidelines drinking an energy drink and stretching as I watch the rest of the Shred30 finals. Jorden goes dropless, and I give him huge props. Just the day before, I was talking to him, and he said he had never done a dropless shred30 before semis in Helsinki. I told him he couldn`t have picked a better time. And now he went dropless again, and looks to have broken 200, which is also a first for him.

Other than Jorden though, most players seemed pretty nervous, and I was shocked to see how many drops were collected. Other than Jorden, Honza, and myself, I think most players are disappointed with how their Shred 30s went. I`m most surprised to see Vasek "mess up," and when he finishes, you can sense in the air a bit of uncertainty about the results. I`m not entirely sure Honza won`t win. As for myself, I feel like I have a very good chance at ending up 5th, 4th, or even possibly 3rd. Felix congratulates me, guessing I will be 3rd. I mentally ready myself for getting 5th or 4th, but I congratulate myself that I competed well enough that there is a possibility of me making podium.

More important to me than how I placed in all the events, is the fact that I feel I never choked once this year. Yeah, Sick3 finals were disappointing, but given the uncontrollable circumstances, I can`t beat myself up over that. I did 2 routines this year, with a total of 3 drops. One of the routines was my best ever, and the other routine wasn`t bad either. I made it to Shred30 finals, averaging less than a drop per round, and consistently scoring in the mid 190s. And in semis of Sick3, I tried for a combo I wasn`t sure I could hit (under pressure), and I hit it. Yes, regardless of where I placed in the events, I could safely say that in terms of how I competed, my mental game, and my effort, this was easily my best tournament ever. And I`m proud of that.

Next: I watch the finals, and final night of partying.

[C-Fan]

7/30/05 Worlds Day 8, Finals

Once Shred 30 was over, I finally had a chance to sit back and be a spectator. It had been a fun week so far, but the fact that I competed a total of 7 times (3 rounds of Shred, 2 rounds of routine, and "2" rounds of Sick 3) meant that I never really felt completely relaxed... I always had the next day`s competition and a little bit of pressure in the back of my mind. But now that Shred finals were done, I could finally breathe easy and just enjoy the show.

I liked the way finals were run this year, in the sense that net and freestyle events were mixed. First was doubles net, then shred30, then singles net, then singles freestyle, etc. Last year I wanted to watch net, but the sites were so separate, it wasn`t really an option. But this year I got to see a ton of good net, and I was pleasantly surprised by the number of net players who congratulated me on my first round routine, and my shreds. The one problem with this format, is that nobody can predict how long a net match will last, and that can mess with the warm-up regimens of the freestylers. I like to warm up like 30 minutes before I compete, but you never know when that will be with a net game: a massacre can be over in 30 minutes, whereas a 3 set game with a ton of sideouts can last way longer.

I don`t really recall the order of events in finals, so the following will be just rough impressions.

Women`s freestyle finals were very likely the highest level I had ever seen. I think all the finalists could have made podium at last year`s Worlds with the routines they hit this year. The highlight was Tina`s routine, which was just loaded with difficulty, and had some real nice choreography as well. Her final combo was right on the beat, and made the entire crowd explode. It was a really moving moment. She`s only 15 too; she`s only going to get better. After her routine, I heard more than one person suggest that she should compete in the men`s Open division, because she could really kick some ass there. Carol`s routine was solid, and when it was all done, I wasn`t completely sure who won. Carol picked it up, but this year she had to work for it. I wish any Japanese shreditas had come, cause Women`s finals this year really were inspiring. Congrats to Carol for another title, and congrats to Tina for competing so well and making such a splash at her first worlds.

Singles nets finals were a bit of a letdown, since Johnny Leys forefeited halfway through the first set due to an injury. Have to give him props for trying, but still that sucks for everybody that the match didn`t really happen. Manu is champ again. Unfortunately, nobody expected singles net finals to last only 5 minutes, so the staff was left scrambling to get the next freestyle event ready.

Doubles net finals were an incredible experience. To my knowledge, net has never had such big and enthusiastic crowds before. I felt like I was at a soccer match in Europe! Finals was Manu and JF Lemieux of Montreal vs. Patti and Flo from Germany. Personally I was rooting for Manu and JF, just because I`ve known them so long. I was also really rooting for JF, because when I first met him like 5 years back, he was an up and coming net player (intermediate about to go open), and I was an up-and-coming freestyler, also on the cusp of going open. To see him in finals was really inspiring; I really hoped he`d win his first title.

The gym felt really split during the match. Again, the German cheering section was nuts, with call-and-response cheers happening pretty much at every pause in the action. Unlike the day before however, there was some attempt at balance, as a large faction of US/Canadian players countered with their own taunts and cheers. Thankfully, the players didn`t seem ruffled, unlike yesterday, so the match went well. At one point there seemed to be a lot of tension in the room, and I saw Team Japan looking kind of edgy. That kind of confrontational cheering just would never happen in Japan.
Eric D`Argent stands up and yells: "Is EUROPE in the house!??" and half the gym roars its response.
Point goes to Manu and JF.
Steve Goldberg: "Is America in the house?!" Other half of the gym roars back.
Me: "Ni-hon! (`Japaaaan!`).
Crowd: Deafening silence.

Manu and JF stay focussed and win in 2 sets. Huge applause all around.

Finally, Freestyle Finals are set to go. I try and watch them objectively and enjoy them, but I definitely feel like I should be out there myself. Time will likely me feel less bitter, but I was truly robbed this year by the judges.

I jot notes in my journal as each routine ends, and for the most part I think the judging goes well. I note that Toni P. has the nicest blurry whirls in the world. The best moment of finals comes when Pete competes. In his intro, Uve Poom tells us that Pete is 37, and has set the record for most consecutive finals appearances at 15 years straight. Deafening applause. His last finals routine ever proves to be a great one. Artisitic, difficult, and with only 1 drop. When he finished the crowd went nuts, sustained applause that just went on and on. He totally deserved it. Very likely the classiest and most moving moment of the entire week. Thanks Pete.

Bevier has a nice 1 drop routine, but his seed is low enough that I accurately predict he won`t crack top 4 without a dropless. Karim Daouk sees his CD fuck up during the first 10 seconds of his routine. What a nightmare... being at finals at Worlds for the first time, and having your CD mess up. He recovered well with a 3 drop routine. I felt the judging at Finals was really good up until Felix`s routine, which received really high artistic scores. Undeniably, Felix had the second hardest routine at Worlds, but I didn`t think his artistic was nearly as good as his scores reflected. I think he beat Pete in artistic merit scores, which is completely whack. He kicked off his routine with whirr, and finished with 318 adds( ) to seal up high technical scores. Honza hits a perfect, beautifully choreographed routine, right up until the final seconds, when he has a heartbreaking drop. He`s visibly disgusted by it, which I wonder if it hurt his artistic scores.

Vasek goes last, and goes dropless. I note that Vasek should win it, just based on the fact that he had the hardest difficulty, went dropless, and nobody else decisively had better artistic. Based on how artistic scores were given to Pete and Felix, I am 95% sure Vasek will win it, and he does. Unlike the last 3 years however, the crowd reaction seems kind of subdued... maybe we`re all just used to what Vasek can do, but I think it has to do more with a lack of drama compared to his last 3 wins. I still note in my journal that this is the first time in footbag history that somebody has won 4 consecutive Worlds titles in Freestyle.

When its all wrapped up, I drink another (free!) energy drink and listen to my ipod with Takumi. Like last year, the podium results are accurate for freestyle, which is the main thing. The only real suspense left for me, is to see if I got 3rd, 4th, or 5th in Shred30, and to see if Honza edged Vasek in Shred30 or not. The awards ceremony feels less dramatic than last year, but it`s still special. Women`s Shred30 and routines have the same 3 finalists in both categories, and men`s has the same top 2 for the second straight year. When they call the Shred30 podium, I`m not surprised to hear Jorden called up to get bronze. Big props to him, it sounds like his ability to nail Shred30s gelled at exactly the right time. Vasek ends up winning Shred30, but just barely.

After the awards ceremony I run up to check out the Shred30 results, and am stoked to see I got 4th, with a score of 196. I think that`s my second best Shred30 score ever, and I got it during Shred finals at Worlds. I take a photo of the results sheet, posing with my Team Japan shirt. This is my last year competing as a member of Team Japan, so I`m stoked that I managed to pull down a good result for them on my way out. I feel OK about not repping Japan anymore, because I know that Takumi and a few others will take up the mantle and get even better results for Japan in the very near future. Ganbare Nihon!

I go shower in Team Japan`s room, and then we all head out to get dinner before going to the player`s party.

Next: Sat night shred, players party.

[Samurai]

props 4th place in the world shred30!!!

I LOVE READING THIS! - maybe u should publish it one day

[C-Fan]

Non-worlds entry: 9/14/05

Had another solo shred in Yoyogi today. It was 34C today, so I didnt head out until around 5. As I hoped, it was cooler, but the sun also went down at 6 pm, so towards the end I was racing against the sun, which is something I hate. I hate rushing, the pressure of it. Still, I had a nice session.

I started off with some basic BOP practice, and had a run of 48 which mostly was infinities and pdx mirages, but I also had spin clip, osis, and duck clip bsos in there. I`m trying to work my stamina and string length...






















... because I`m going to Australia next month! So yeah, that`s the big news. Readers of Jeremy`s blog probably figured this out ages ago, but I thought I`d officially announce it now, since I paid for my tickets today, making my departure official. Nestle Chocolate of Australia is gonna pay me to do demos throughout the east coast of Australia for the month of October . I don`t know what the pay is officially, but I`ve been assured it will be enough to cover my ticket, food expenses, and leave me with a little more cash than when I left. If it works out this way, it will be my biggest corporate sponsorship, even bigger than when Pepsi Japan sponsored me in 2003. I`m very very excited about this.

Aaaaanyway, this means that I`m taking my solo sessions more seriously until then, working on string length and patching up holes in my game, working on things which crowds can understand easily like 2 bag juggling, datw, spins, etc.

I worked on dexless for a bit today which went OK. Had a run with pdx egg something like 3 times each side. Hit tripwalk-blur-toe blur for the first time, and I managed to get it both sides. I hit the flipside in near total-darkness, because the sun had set, but I didn`t want to leave til I hit it. The next step is blubberman, which I know I can hit.

I also played around with "toe inspinning" today, and determined that its a misnomer. "Toe inspinning" doesn`t really exist. Like, you can hit torque from either toe, but its the same trick. Or, you can hit dlo from either toe, but its the same trick. Same with toe spins. If you set from right toe and spin to your left, its the same trick as if you set from left toe and spun to your left. I hit "toe inspinning" mirage both sides for the "first time" today on either side, and then hit it bsos. But I`d hit toe gyro mirage before on both sides, so I don`t really feel like I hit a new trick today. It`s like, if I had been hitting dlos both sides, and today I decided to set it from opp toe. Its still the same trick.

With clip-set dlo and pdlo, setting from the "wrong" clipper means your hips have to move enough to justify a body add. Same with (clipper) inspins vs spins. But when dealing with toe spins, there isn`t nearly enough of a difference to justify an extra add, cause they feel (and are) pretty much exactly the same. Try it out for yourself. If you can toe spin, I guarantee you can "toe inspin" from the other toe. In any case, it`s an interesting variation, but not worth an extra add by any means.

[max]

Good to hear you're heading out for the Nestle promotion Ken!
Just a quick note to tell you that I think there is a differeence in toe inspinning and to gyro.

Say you're doing a toe "gyro mirage
"
If you set from right toe and spin counterclockwise (to your left) and dex with left leg, I'd call that a toe gyro mirage.

If set from your right toe and spin clockwise (to your right) and dex with right leg, I'd call that a toe ingyro mirage. because you have that much more to spin. You're spinning the "long" way to do your gyro mirage.

Does this make any sense? Or from a right toe set can you hit both these moves without noting any kind of difference in dificulty? What if was a tobius and not just a toe-gyro mirage?

[C-Fan]

Hey Max. I agree with your definitions. I just don`t think one is any harder than the other. Like, toe set dlo, and downtime plo: they start from different toes, but are pretty much exactly the same move. Same goes for toe spins. There`s definitely not a body add worth of difference between the two. Try it out for yourself. In fact, I recommend you do the following in this order.

1. Hit toe set dlo.
2. Hit downtime plo, ending on the same toe as the toe set dlo.
3. Hit toe drifter.
4. Hit downtime pixie clipper, ending on the same clipper.
5. Hit toe gyro mirage.
6. Hit toe ingryo mirage ending on the same toe.
7. Hit gyro mirage.
8. Hit ingyro mirage.

I think you will find that the first 3 pairs all feel the same, whereas the last 2 tricks feel significantly different. That`s due to the presence of a legitimate body add.

Or from a right toe set can you hit both these moves without noting any kind of difference in dificulty?

That is correct, I can hit both and notice no difficulty difference, and more importantly, no extra body add. Thanks for the idea on "in toebius." I`ll try for it today, but I don`t anticipate it being any harder than toebius. I`ll let you know how it goes.