I'm not satisfied at all with my string length, and looking at footblogs am seeing that a lot of other people feel the same way. I searched the forum and found several topics addressing this, but they were all from a while ago.
It seems like some people just naturally have the consistency and the talent for long runs, but for those of you that have had to work for your run length and are happy with where it's at, what do you recommend?
Working on String Length
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SandWraith
- Egyptian Footgod
- Posts: 1272
- Joined: 05 Apr 2005 20:39
- Location: Marshfield, Wisconsin
Working on String Length
Zach Marine - Member of the Tendonitis Club!
blog
blog
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crazylegs32
- Egyptian Footgod
- Posts: 1341
- Joined: 02 Sep 2005 19:45
- Location: Palatine/Chicago Burbs
In the first many years of my game my average run length was, like, 7 contacts and anything over 10 was really good. Since my injury I've developed a consitant ability to hit longer runs where I can consistantly hit 20 contacts and 40 pretty consistantly if I try hard enough. I think it's the most satisfying thing in the world to have long runs, and that has always been the thing I wanted most in footbag -- I never felt satisfied with short bursty combos.
Here are some things that worked for me:
-school butterfly > pdx mirage [repeat] until you can do TONS easily. The way I first schooled this was by counting every rotation of 4 moves as a single move, so if my average string length was about 12, I hit, like, 60 contacts of this drill; suppressing mental blocks (like, "nemesis is such a hard trick and so few people can hit it") is a huge part of everything -- if you KNOW you can hit long runs it will become a lot easier
-Relax, like Sam Potter said. I don't concentrate on my breathing while I play, because it is too hard for me to concentrate on both the majority of the time, but any time I hit a bail trick I do it as easily as I can. When I used to play my stamina was very short and my breathing and movement would pick up way too fast, throwing me completely off; now after a burst of shuffle, or some harder tricks I can bail into a butterfly and it's like I'm starting a new run.
-Be both sided: it's hard to have long runs with only one-sided tricks.
I thought I had more suggestions, but it's 3am, and I've forgotten what I was going to say. It's totally all mental -- once I saw other players like Ricky Moran and Nate Linscott going off on hugely long runs really really fluidly and effortlessly I had more confidence that I could do the same. I think if we didn't make such a big deal about "huge" moves, they would become easier. The tricks today that were considered unbelieveable a few years ago became considered "less dificult" because everyone started doing them -- now they're not as huge. Janiwalker is so common. I think it's good to have really high expectations of yourself in order to push your game. Beat yourself up if you can't hit whirring swirl -- it's just two whirls and a swirl. In the future 6 dex tricks will be common -- rather than waiting for someone else to pioneer it, hit them yourself and don't make a big deal out of it or they will seem more difficult, and therefore will be.
(That's kind of off-topic, but it still applies!)
Here are some things that worked for me:
-school butterfly > pdx mirage [repeat] until you can do TONS easily. The way I first schooled this was by counting every rotation of 4 moves as a single move, so if my average string length was about 12, I hit, like, 60 contacts of this drill; suppressing mental blocks (like, "nemesis is such a hard trick and so few people can hit it") is a huge part of everything -- if you KNOW you can hit long runs it will become a lot easier
-Relax, like Sam Potter said. I don't concentrate on my breathing while I play, because it is too hard for me to concentrate on both the majority of the time, but any time I hit a bail trick I do it as easily as I can. When I used to play my stamina was very short and my breathing and movement would pick up way too fast, throwing me completely off; now after a burst of shuffle, or some harder tricks I can bail into a butterfly and it's like I'm starting a new run.
-Be both sided: it's hard to have long runs with only one-sided tricks.
I thought I had more suggestions, but it's 3am, and I've forgotten what I was going to say. It's totally all mental -- once I saw other players like Ricky Moran and Nate Linscott going off on hugely long runs really really fluidly and effortlessly I had more confidence that I could do the same. I think if we didn't make such a big deal about "huge" moves, they would become easier. The tricks today that were considered unbelieveable a few years ago became considered "less dificult" because everyone started doing them -- now they're not as huge. Janiwalker is so common. I think it's good to have really high expectations of yourself in order to push your game. Beat yourself up if you can't hit whirring swirl -- it's just two whirls and a swirl. In the future 6 dex tricks will be common -- rather than waiting for someone else to pioneer it, hit them yourself and don't make a big deal out of it or they will seem more difficult, and therefore will be.
(That's kind of off-topic, but it still applies!)
Yeah, the key to longer runs for me was identifying moves I can breathe through. BOPs, ducking butterfly, symp mirage, smear... find easy tricks that you can throw in the middle of your strings to get your breath back. Try and sip the air, don't chug it. Don't be afraid to throw in a couple bails between your harder tricks. Breathing is definitely key, and relaxing can aid this too. Good luck.
*g-units are cheater shoes. They can also make your runs longer cause you drop less clipper tricks
*g-units are cheater shoes. They can also make your runs longer cause you drop less clipper tricks
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hackeysnacker
I set aside one day a week for endurance training. Like people have said... practise bops bops bops. When you get comfortable with a trick add it to your "bail" list. I also practise long tiltless strings and try and go until I run out of breath.... push you limits and try to beat your record everytime you touch the bag. I find that playing with a rolly/unbroken in bag also helps. It's frustrating at first, but after a while you adjust and playing w/ any other bag is candy. And uh... don't do toe pick ups. Punish yourself and save your bag by bending over to retrieve it.
Rory "Tophat" Dawson
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"You can ask a stranger, my legs is fast and danger!"
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"You can ask a stranger, my legs is fast and danger!"
Everyone has their own bails, so I said the butterfly > pdx mirage is what I used, but I've also used spinning clipper > ducking clipper in the same way and you can tell those are fundamental moves in my repertoire from my game type and style.
I tried, at one point early on, doing what Josh said, but it didn't help at all. Theoretically I thought it would, but it would take a lot longer and you would REALLY be restricting yourself, then, to your move selection; instead of schooling some bails, you would be constantly schooling your entire repertoire and that would make it really hard to add any new tricks, because as soon as you add one new move you've learned, you have to change everything else you know...
Stick with something you can do very easily and see how long you can do it without dropping. I've also tried "routines", where I try to just keep the bag in the air for 2 minutes, even counting toe stalls and basic kicks (but as many regular tricks, as if I were shredding, as possible) -- I think this helps, but I didn't use it as much.
I know lots of people use 2-add shred to school stamina, but I find 2 adds a lot harder than my 3-add bails, plus I never use them alone anyway. I feel that schooling 2 is better for learning your basic downtime components better, rather than string length, but it's totally personal preference.
I tried, at one point early on, doing what Josh said, but it didn't help at all. Theoretically I thought it would, but it would take a lot longer and you would REALLY be restricting yourself, then, to your move selection; instead of schooling some bails, you would be constantly schooling your entire repertoire and that would make it really hard to add any new tricks, because as soon as you add one new move you've learned, you have to change everything else you know...
Stick with something you can do very easily and see how long you can do it without dropping. I've also tried "routines", where I try to just keep the bag in the air for 2 minutes, even counting toe stalls and basic kicks (but as many regular tricks, as if I were shredding, as possible) -- I think this helps, but I didn't use it as much.
I know lots of people use 2-add shred to school stamina, but I find 2 adds a lot harder than my 3-add bails, plus I never use them alone anyway. I feel that schooling 2 is better for learning your basic downtime components better, rather than string length, but it's totally personal preference.
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hackeysnacker