Probably the only shredder of all fLemmings

Wim · Post by **Wim** » 18 Nov 2005 06:58

Damned. I haven't checked modified in ages.

It is pretty confronting to see that my shred buddies have improved (checked some logs), while I have been shredding too little lately due to my job.

I've decided to quit it end of november. New year, clean slate, new house, new footbag. EDIT: new page!

It's becoming the sad story of my footblog, but again I have to say I need to kick more. I feel I soooo have the motivation, and from december on I will have the time as well, which is new.

In fact I'm at work right now, checking modified between two silly administrative tasks, saying hello to visitors of the club,... argh this job is so not me.

What of my last sessions? Nothing big. My footbag muscle memory suffers bad from amnesia, which means that a few weeks without baggie will mean start from scratch.
Just before my footbag depression I was hitting 10-20+ contact guiltless runs pretty consistently, and I was working on getting some fives dialed.

Now I feel like I have trouble doing 20 bop, and I'm not even remotely thinking of trying any fives.

The bright side is that when I play footbag every day for a week, I'm right back where I left.

Good.

Two hours left before I'm off.

How slow the clock ticks. Is it even working?

Wim · Post by **Wim** » 20 Nov 2005 02:02

Shit! It seems I've come across as quite a downer in the above post. Or at least as more 'down' than I actually feel.

Actually it's pretty cool to have had this job experience. In fact, I think that every experience can bring you closer to who you really are. e.g. in the end I didn't like this job, hence I now have a more accurate idea of where I wanna go in life (and where I DON'T want to go).

I'm at work again, but without fear of being caught modified-handed, as the boss is spinning from 10 to 11. That is: riding fucking hard on a sort of hometrainer. It's one of the collective sport lesson things that the club offers.
So dumb. Go riding a bike outside. You'll get more out of it for sure.

Meanwhile, I feel footbag motivation is coming back...! It was late, dark, and cold yesterday but I was eager to do something 'footbag'. So I watched videos. But wasn't satisfied. So I started editing for my new video. And wasn't satisfied. So I kicked anyway. Cold, dark,... and motivated...! That must have meant something!

Shit, it's 11 and the spinners are coming back. Gotta go!

Wim · Post by **Wim** » 21 Nov 2005 12:32

Had a really nice sesh earlier today...!

I hit no big stuff, but I feel that my overall baggie control is getting better again, and that I can midstring some of the 4>4>4 combos that I lost.

Hmmm.

DoctorJay · Post by **DoctorJay** » 21 Nov 2005 15:55

I got a deal for you -for your spinning course -tell them they should move their asses outside and ride their fucking bikes in fresh air and the other day they should keep one of my docbags in the air .

If you purchase bulk orders for the whole studio you will get a discount and say your boss the best wishes !

nice to read that you are back in the game - btw you can send me your bag I will sew it up and will longer its natural life

The fives will come back soon dude- no doubt about that

Wim · Post by **Wim** » 23 Nov 2005 12:39

Ahhhh, thanks!

Excellent idea for the bags. If you wanna keep up with the orders, I'd start stitching right NOW if I were you

I'm gonna send you that bag pronto!

Wim · Post by **Wim** » 24 Nov 2005 08:58

I had some interesting insights on toe spinning earlier today. Haven't hit anything toe spinning yet, but it's a damn cool concept!

I hit a 14 contacts guiltless with a LOT of variation, and even though this is only half my best ever run length, it was pretty nice to be able to do a 10+ string again. Hmmmmm.

The boss is out for the day and the weather is armageddon so no one is going out to venture the trip to the sports club.

Checking modified seems like a reasonable passtime.

max · Post by **max** » 24 Nov 2005 09:01

Wim are you woming to the ULB next monday?

Wim · Post by **Wim** » 25 Nov 2005 07:28

Argh I forgot to tell ya! Due to a timetable change I won't be able to make it on mundi. I'm at work until 10pm!

As wednesday november 30th is my last day at work, I have a LOT more time from thursday on. Any vacancies in your agenda? Or the monday after that? Eager to be part of a BFC shred again...!

I kicked this morning (I have a day off!) but was a bit sore because I went running pretty far last night. I couldn't even lift my leg high enough to do a nuclear...!

Instead I practised some combos and dexless sjiit.

I also started editing my new vid, but now I'm stuck. I found this really cool soundtrack, but it's from a vinyl and the f*cking line out wire from my turntable doesn't fit into my computer. Will ask dad if he has proper equipment.

max · Post by **max** » 25 Nov 2005 07:32

Yeah I'm probably in for the monday after that (the 28th of Nov.) as will Julien and Alexis + others no doubt. Keep me posted. They all want to meet you and see you shred!

Wim · Post by **Wim** » 25 Nov 2005 09:26

I wanna see you shred too

but if I'm not mistaken the monday after that is december uhhhhhhh 5th or so, not november 28th!

max · Post by **max** » 25 Nov 2005 09:28

er yeah you're right, my bad! So monday the 5th then!

Wim · Post by **Wim** » 03 Dec 2005 06:09

I ended up going to Brussels yesterday evening! It was really cool to see the guys again (Seb, Alexis, Maxxx). And it was very nice to see that Julien, the new kid on the block, has some serious potential.

First of all, he's motivated, which is always refreshing to see.
Second, he has red lavers that are modded better than mine

Third, he's been seriously in the sport for a mere three months and is hitting pretty long runs with tiltless combos (e.g. mirage>butterfly) on a regular basis! He is also closer to toe set eggbeater than I've ever been

His style is a wee bouncy for the time being, but that will smoothen out eventually.

It was equally great to see Seb's and Alexis' new stuff. Seb's atomic set has come a long way and I'm pretty sure he can now hit rad shit out of it, if only he realised how good his atomic is! For now he has hit 'only' tap, atom smasher, tapdown and the like, but with an atomic that height I would try anything I can think of. He is also hitting his symposium mirages, and long toe tiltless runs.

Alexis took me off my guard going for out datw (suuuuper tight!), paradox drifter, dlo, ... Best of all was to see he is enjoying footbag though.

Max was in good form. I saw him hit some 20+ runs, sonic clipper, barfly swirl, ducking paradox blender and other wicked stuff. He's been into eggbeaters (see Maxblog) a lot lately. Yesterday he was doing them from various sets, which resulted in loooads of triple dexes.

I must say his egg craze was contagious, so I ended up asking him advice on eggbeaters, IMO a long-existing void in my game. He gave me some really helpful pointers when we were in a two men circle for a while. As I have a natural tendency to do pdx illusion very hippy, he deemed it wisest to try eggbeater from bubbas first, as bubba forces you to go for a leggy dex. I almost footed bubbabeater after a few tries on both sides, so I will definitely try those again next session. Nice to finally have a breakthrough there!

We played in a nicely secluded area in a hall of the ULB sport facilities. Needless to say we pumped up the volume of the BFC radio

About two hours into our session, however, some supervision staff guy decided to throw us out. As most of the discussion that followed was conducted in French I didn't quite catch WHY he was doing so, but I'm probably not far from the truth when saying that there may have been no reason at all.

Anyway, we were quite satisfied with the session (huuuge leg cramp last night!) so we decided to call it a day - not that we had much of a choice.

The guys went for a drink in the city while I took the bus to the train station to arrive on the platform EXACTLY when the doors were closing. As this was the last train, I was pretty happy the train guy let me in anyway! *sigh*

The sun is peeping out for the first time today, so I guess I should get my ass away from the computer and outside to try some of that bubba stuff.

crazylegs32 · Post by **crazylegs32** » 04 Dec 2005 20:54

When I think of Belgian I think of good chocolate and great beer

Its good to hear that theres shred there too. Now if I visit there before worlds I can work off the chocolate and beer by shredding with you guys

max · Post by **max** » 05 Dec 2005 02:03

haha yeah it was cool session.
Yeah the beer here in Brussels is INSANE. The chocolate is good too but I've been trying out the beer more than the chocolate

Wim it was cool seeing you again! Are you coming tonight? I'll be there as will Julien, Ilwan, Walter and Sami oh and bubu (don't know who he is). It'd be cool if you came, they're all newbies and would be very impressed by your skillz

keep me posted. Same place same time.

Wim · Post by **Wim** » 05 Dec 2005 10:26

Argh! Sorry I couldn't make it Max! It turns out the Friday sessions work a lot better for me.

Max wrote:I'll be there as will Julien, Ilwan, Walter and Sami oh and bubu (don't know who he is). It'd be cool if you came, they're all newbies and would be very impressed by your skillz

Are you crazy? If they are very impressed by my skills, then they simply faint when they see you shred!

crazylegs32 wrote:Now if I visit there before worlds I can work off the chocolate and beer by shredding with you guys

I wouldn't count on that. Actually, BFC stands for "Beer, Footbag, and Chocolate crew". You will take the chance of shredding with us at your own risk.

No seriously. (Foreign) shredders are ALWAYS welcome to our petite country by the sea. In fact, I definitely want to make it to worlds 2006 too because I have missed out on the previous two editions, which means so we could even take the trip from Belgium together dude!

What's with footbag? I had a sandbag session today so my sets sucked, but I did 53 BOP at the end of the session which was okay. Also hit barrage>smear BS (first time to hit anything uptime out of barrage) and datw>paradon (flipside rolled off my foot 1,000 times).
As for my rubberman drill, I have almost conquered the part I have most trouble with, that is to say the second atom smasher.

I tend to start the drill with asmasher>legb>blur (which is not the standard way of doing it, I've heard). Anyway, I've never gotten beyond the second asmasher, but today I hand cought the second legbeater set, which is about the best I've ever done.

More la'er

max · Post by **max** » 06 Dec 2005 01:53

You missed out on a biggie yesterday! At one point there were 8 people shredding!

props on rubberman progress!

Wim · Post by **Wim** » 07 Dec 2005 09:07

Had a low-profile garage session yesterday without any actual highlights. I tried to work a little on my style, which is paying off.

Here's what I've come to realise:
-I USED TO play very "hippily", that is to say I twisted my hips on every clipper trick so that my upper body and head were over the bag.
-THEN, somewhere last summer, I switched to a less hippy approach, thus twisting less and compensating for that by moving sideways more.
-NOW, I've come to realise that the second approach doesn't work for me at all! Before the style shift I was hitting around 10 consec ripwalks, whereas after the change I had trouble doing a mere two...! Today I beat that number without any big efforts.

It's mainly due to some remarks in DoctorJay's diary that I've come to realise this, so thanks go out to Germany.

For the rest I hit some backside dimwalks BS. It may be a cheap trick, but stylie nevertheless. I'm wondering if it is unique and distinct from dimwalk though. Is it? (Guess not: symposium dex is not a full dex, hence no extra add category involved, hence no unique, right?)

Today I started out in the garage like yesterday. After 15 minutes, however, I was sooo sick of the place that I decided to move out in spite of the rain.

So I got to my favourite summer shredspot, which I hadn't done in about two months.

I IMMEDIATELY felt a shred level rise of about 20-30%! Incredible what fresh air can do. Control, run length, stamina,... everything felt good, which had also been a while ago.

As I was doing some pretty sweet long runs, some kids stopped by to watch... and on dropping, I got applauded! Well what'ya know.

After a while, the two kids venture closer (I guess I didn't seem dangerous on closer inspection) and join in. They turn out to be 11 and on the local soccer team, which was clear from their first kick: better than average control (for total newbs), toe kicks, neck stalls, and the presence of some circle etiquette. Cool!
Among the highlights were 7 toe kicks (

I think my best on my very first session was around 3), X-body sole kick, and head stall>neck stall>inside stall. What was even more amazing was that at one point one kid did a really high and "clean" flying toe kick, a trick I find very cool but never do myself. As they never laid eyes on anything freestyle, they left me puzzled as to where he got the idea to do a flying toe

. Wwweird.

Anyway, I kicked too. Among the highlights were

*BS atom smasher>dimwalk>rip>rip>side>...
*Puzzling a teacher of my former school who had never seen footbag before.

and my body add hunt is paying off too:

*diving osis BSOS
*"gyro" clipper BSOS (I was wondering, wouldn't peeking clipper be a more accurate nomenclature for the trick that is generally known as gyro clipper?)

Finito.

Wim · Post by **Wim** » 12 Dec 2005 12:24

I had the best session everrrrr Friday evening. I got home past 12pm that night, it was misty, cold, and there was ice on my eyelashes but still I was sooo excited about it. What’s even better is that I’ve got the whole thing on tape!

I went to Brussels for the Friday Jam at the ULB to meet up with Max. We started off in the corridor we got kicked out of last Friday, but this time we had the ‘official’ spoken permission of the surveillance guy to kick until 9. Good, one hour of shred. I must say I started off pretty poorly. I had been sandbagging last week, so it was awkward to kick with a full-fledged 32-panel again. I would even drop my butterflies. Argh! After 15 minutes into the sesh, however, the spell was broken and I was doing ok runs. Then, after 30 minutes I proposed to use the one plug we had for my camera instead of Max’ minidisc player. He agreed and we kicked some more without music which, I must say, felt rather ‘naked’ in the beginning.

The camera inspired Max to try some sick1s, and he hit at least one beauty. He also tried some of the coolest and most original sick3s I’ve ever seen (no details

), croissant (pixie symposium whirling swirl – a trick he named) and gave me some ideas for new tricks like paradon swirl. We kicked for 15 more minutes until Julien – the new kid on the block – showed up. We moved to another building before curfew. Instead of our dense and secluded corridor, we went to a nicely lit hall with food and drink machines, two plugs, and a laidback night guard. No wonder my game improved

I put the camera upon one of the food machines, which I think was a nice angle but I have yet to check out the footage.

Max did some ridiculously sick stuff in that hall. Mainly he was trying for another sick1, but that one rolled off his foot too many times which got him a bit annoyed.
Julien is making about the most spectacular progress I’ve ever seen in a new player. Pdx mirage BSOS, symposium mirage too many times in one string, tiltless links all around, and even a guiltless link like butterfly>ducking clipper (although the last clipper, his left foot one, is a bit sketchy for the time being).
I for myself played about the best I ever did in front of people. It was one of those days when you feel you can hit *almost* any trick you know on command. Hmmmm. I hit a PS whirl, a trick I’m getting more confident with, got 4.5 tricks into the rubberman drill, did loads of new links I’d never even thought about on my first try. And all that both sides. There was a bit of an absence of fives, but I didn’t care about that because my bag control was so good. Which reminds me: I always get close to bubbabeater with Max’ Docbag (rolled of foot a bunch of times), while I can never foot it with any other bag. There’s magic about that sack.

And now off for some footage review.

DoctorJay · Post by **DoctorJay** » 12 Dec 2005 14:42

go for rubberman babe!!!!

really I cannot understand how you are not able to find a shred spot in big city like brussels. Hope this change soon and the belgique crew will improve like nobody could imagine .

What about your bags dude - any problems?

you know if so - you know how to contact me

Wim · Post by **Wim** » 16 Dec 2005 03:19

Yeah, I patched the one bag with glue and it should be back in shrediness now. The other one will be sent to you when I find an envelope