The Darkshredder's struggle

Darkshredder · Post by **Darkshredder** » 26 Jan 2006 17:04

Funny day for footbag. I've been all about footbag today, daydreaming of strings, watching videos new and old, and even a segment or two of Fourkast. So I packed my shorts and went to the gym thinking I was "in the zone". pff. Far from it. I wanted to hit things so badly but couldn't for some reason. So after about an hour of just trying to practice fairy I stopped and went back to the room a broken man.

I watched the San Diego jam video (just about my favorite in my collection) and then decided to eat and drink a little and then go play. And I was back in the game, as they say. Fun times. Worked on and succeeded in schooling pixies and fairies. Flux a time or two. And beat the bosses, DLO, torque, and the new and meaner pdx whirl (just thought I'd add that to the list of bosses). So I did four DLO and torques and three of each pdx whirl. Now it was time for pixie ss whirl and catacomb. Got 'em.

The last of the four torques I hit came out of a pixie osis which just felt cool. It would mark the first time I've hit a torque out of a non-clipper or butterfly stall. Then just because I thought it would be symbolic of the evolutionary process I did a blazing osis (crispy torque?) into a torque.
Anyway I probably would be still playing now and trying far reverse whirls and dynos and the like but I made an error in judgement and fell on my ankle while doing . . . ..

a paradox illusion. It was probably the dumbest reason to fall on the ankle. It would take me a while to expain the physics and why it was so funny so I won't.
I was also told I liked action figures by some kid coming to see a basketball game because he saw I had an Aquabats tee-shirt on and it has the character in his silly hero costume. So I laughed and agreed that it was sad.

crazydwarf · Post by **crazydwarf** » 26 Jan 2006 17:55

DLO's are ridiculous for some reason I can never get the hang of them, I don't know what it is. Also, the aquabats are cool indeed.

Darkshredder · Post by **Darkshredder** » 26 Jan 2006 18:48

Hehe yeah. DLOs are annoyingly energy-consuming. I actually have to think about when and where I do them during my sessions so that I don't tear myself apart without doing things more worth my time. Not like that trick isn't worth my time. I desperately need a 3add like that to enrich my strings of badness.
I found out that Hot Topic was very ska-ish this month and they had: catch 22, aquabats, AND streetlight manifesto shirts all in a row. I practically fell over the red hair dye. Soo I had to use my awesome discount I get with my card and got myself a C22 shirt and the aforementioned aquabats shirt.

It's been about 2 hours since I stopped playing and my ankle stopped hurting about 10 minutes ago. Must've been the hot chocolate I brewed for myself.

Alright I'm off to watch Office Space with my two french people I hang around when my other friends are out at bars (I'm the only one not 21). The French guys have never seen it before and I decided to enlighten them with the glory that is . . . Office. . . Space.

Darkshredder · Post by **Darkshredder** » 27 Jan 2006 08:46

k I'm going a little blog crazy at the moment.. sorry. But I thought I'd mention a few strings I've done the past two sessions. I realize that people might want to actually know what I consider good/amazing strings that I am up to about now. So here are a few set, non-screwing around lazily- strings that I'm up to:

Category 1: Toe game-
smear > magellan > dimwalk > pdx mirage > tap down > pdx mirage > PLO
Category 2: Inside/stylish game -
=paradon > reverse whirl > osis > pdx mirage > legbeater > osis > diving clipper > ducking clipper > far legover > parkwalk > dyno
=ripwalk > pdx mirage > paradon > sidewalk > ripwalk > osis > whirl > drifter > spinning clipper > gyro clipper > ss pickup > fairy simple clipper
= clipper > ss butter > simple infinity > far osis > far simple legover
Category 3: Misc hardcore (hardest and coolest combos hit lately) -
ripwalk > drifter > symposium reverse whirl
torque > pdx illusion > toe dyno > drifter
toe drifter > whirl > drifter > ducking pdx mirage > tapdown

I'm really making an effort to put more various 3s and 4s into my game but it's just hard because of my slow legs. But as I've said before, that's why I'm really working hard at DLOs, torques, and pdx whirls along with trying to hit a new trick or trick variation every time I play. The latter hasn't happened nearly as often as it did during the pre-winter break and during the break itself.

In other non-footbag related news: I've lost my CDs for both Empire Earth and Morrowind which upsets me. I'm learning to speak Irish because I'm going abroad. I'm reading a bunch of Hunter S. Thompson books (and not because it's cool to think he was cool). I'm getting ideas down for a new short story/series I may be writing this summer. I also have decided to see what different sodas taste like when heated. I just did a Mountain Dew Code Red and it was good but my stomach doesn't seem to think so. I think it's confuzzled. Oh well. I'll be playing hopefully at some point later on today before I start my Friday evening so who knows. I MAY POST AGAIN!

but probably only if I hit a new trick.

mc · Post by mc » 27 Jan 2006 10:32

pat, a few things... no matter what the reason, it's always good to read HST ! he's one of my favorites of all times. My friend from high school called me up at 2 in the morning to tell me he killed himself when it happened last year. Read on, that guy is COOL.

also, for DLO, practice ss symple legover > rpt. Do the dex hard and tight and get it confident. Then just toss a mirage in front of it.

Darkshredder · Post by **Darkshredder** » 28 Jan 2006 14:09

yeah my brother loves Thompson and kind of lent me a few of his books. He onyl had Kingdom of Fear and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas at home. The rest was back in LA where he lives. Unfortunately my workload this semester is going to be much heavier than I thought so I won't have too much time to read. But oh well.

Paradox whirl on my flipside whirling leg is easier than my flipside whirl. I have no idea why this is and it's really really annoying because I have a very weak flip whirl. VERY weak. Ugh. I can't even go ripwalk > whirl, one of the most generic combos and most common. :sigh:
I'm back to being unsatisfied with my progression and all that nonsense. But I'm not pissed or anything because I figure someone at my level shouldn't be satisfied a lot anyway. I'm still very happy with my variety (when I can have a string with what I want to put into it) and I really like how general I am. I mean I can do a wide selection of non-toe shuffling stuff like spinning and ducking and gryo and my osiseses are very consistent after a few minutes of a warm-up each session. Need to strive and work and work and practice. So whatever. After the security guards told me to stop today I came to the conclusion that I need to go back to a few simpler elements that'll help other things (like the symple ss legovers). I was trying really hard to do this string : parkwalk > ripwalk > pdx mirage > flux > and then I would either go right into a DLO or bail to a far legover or butterfly depending on how nice the flux was (they can be a little wacky at times). And then it would go DLO > butterfly > torque. I got the idea for it when I hit torque and DLO in the same string very easily and at the very beginning of the session. I was quite happy about it.

I'm going to play again maybe tonight since I was cut off a little short by the security guards but I don't know. My shins are in a lot of pain. Not sure if I should push it. I may just go to the gym and run on the treadmill or the bike. I'm not sure yet.

Darkshredder · Post by **Darkshredder** » 31 Jan 2006 16:48

Pretty happy about the two sessions I had today. One 1.5 hr before dinner and then another hour or so after dinner. I got down to business and didn't stop till I had accomplished all the ideas I had.

Skooled pixie a lot and had some pretty nice runs with maverik bsos.
Skooled stepping like a mofo. Hit something like ripwalk > clipper <rpt> about 5 times which was intense for me. I also did ducking clipper > ripwalk bs. And as I said before, I can't do ripwalk > whirl . . . so I did the next best thing. ripwalk > pdx whirl. I couldn't get to flipside pdx whirl before my legs got too tired to go on. But tomorrow that'll be priority. I'm really really happy about my flipside stepping returning to me after god knows how many months. I think I've only hit ripwalk bsos like once before tonight and that was in the middle of the summer. Soo yeah. I'm really happy about that. I can finally just mow right through stepping and get good at it. If I can't get something as simple as a ripwalk on a flipside I tend to just give up on it. Not the case today. I had a feeling I was going to get it. Try > Drop > Think rpt.

I also was into spinning and gyro tonight. Hit pandoras box a bunch of times and I think one time I managed to make a sloppy bsos out of it. Gryo mirage a few times. I'm also trying to do gryo knee bumping things. Like I hit gryo knee bumping butterfly today and my ultimate goal (the trick that came to mind when I thought about the component) will be to hit gryo knee bumping opposite (pdx?) whirl. It feels really suave to do so I think I'll incorporate that into my strings to some degree if I can. Definitely when I'm fully guiltless.

DLO and torque made their little appearances as well. Didn't practice them nearly as much as previous days but I will later. Tonight was a night for stepping to be in the spotlight.

Atomic was off today which kind of sucked since everything else was on. I did manage to do a scrambled eggbeater though again. Havn't done that in a month or so.

A footfighter should be on the way this week hopefully. That'll be great. Ever since my last footfighter got lost at the Syracuse mall I've missed the soft fluffy footfighters. I came close to getting one at KICKASS but never did thankfully since I would've been broke to no end.

Darkshredder · Post by **Darkshredder** » 17 Feb 2006 10:07

Yesss! with recent developments I return to modified with confidence!
I'M INJURED (more or less) - I have an inflamed patella (jumper's knee). It sucks. I've had it for a couple months now but never really looked into. Bad decision. So now it's back after playing for one day . . . a lot. I played quite a bit yesterday. It's still not as painful as it was when I decided to stop playing for a few days a week ago. But with the motivation by Matt Cross I decided to look into it and found out what the problem and solutions are. I'm going to go to the store and buy a knee wrap thing to wear when I play, one of those nifty ice packs you can reuse, and some advil or ibuprofen. So yeah this is really bad. I'm close to my two year mark with freestyle (about year 4 with hacking) and I'm already having knee pains. I don't get it. There's some cruel forces at work. I'm guessing playing alone and not passing the bag off every once in while during a session also plays a big part of this. About 78% of my whole time playing has been solo sessioning.

One reason I'm going to really get on this knee problem is that I'm going to California for Spring Break to see my brother who lives in Hollywood. He doesn't get home from work till like 7:40 every night so he felt bad when I said I wanted to come over to see him but I told him "Dan. . I'm a very happy go lucky person and as long as it's not 35 degrees and relatively dry, I will be perfectly happy. Just going to bring along a book, my gamecube, a footbag, and some music. Bam. My time is taken. And when he comes back we'll have a few hours to chill and drink and do other wholesome things like that. I'm really really excited about this. I haven't been able to play outside in months and it really does make a difference to me when I play outside. It's so much more fun. Clearer. Open. Pure fun. AND I'll be in california so it'll be warm and all touristy so I'm sure I'll be able to find some really cool looking places to play.

Darkshredder · Post by **Darkshredder** » 20 Feb 2006 16:57

Ugh. Wonderful day of footbag. Two sessions. Both equally as satisfying. Here are some highlights:

smudge bsos (first time hitting smudge flipside)
ripwalk > whirl bs
string: sidewalk > ripwalk > infinity > blur (most stepping I ever have seen on my foot)
ss simple swirl and then simple far swirl
almost had scrambled eggbeater bsos (off toe)
pdx whirl bsos . . . not new but still very rare for me
very close to flipside torque
* figured out the secret of the reverse blender *

* dyno is a trick I can do. I've been able to do it now for a couple months but it's very tricky. It's always a gamble once I set it up wherever my foot tells me to and then I just go with it and hope for the best. BUT today I think I found out that I need to do one of those famous "magic hops". You know, like in drifters and or similar things. It's not a jump. Not a REAL hop I wouldn't say either. It's a little hiccup of the calf muscle that makes you rise a little. Yes. So there ya go. Dynos are still pretty hard for me but I was able to be much more consistent when I was randomly practicing them today before dinner.

As far as my patella injury everything is being taken care of. I'm going to get some aleeve (sp) maybe as soon as tomorrow (only one class!).

I'm going to go back home for a four-day weekend this weekend and I'm going to shred with some old circle kickers. I've heard some good news that one of them is still practicing freestyle. The other? Well he was once my "prodigy" but stopped after he got butterflies dialed and now he's really into yoyo. So I told him the three of us should get together and put on a circus for some public place, a footbag flyin around and a yoyo doing what it does best. Should be really fun. Haven't seen them in a while.

Darkshredder · Post by **Darkshredder** » 30 Mar 2006 21:18

Back to modified. It's always a scary night when this happens. To see who's improved, what new stuff is out, new videos, my mind being blown. It's just too much. I love it. This is just a post mainly to get my blog from the depths. Um. But I suppose I'll give you an update.

I'm sick at the moment. Sucks. It's been really nice and warm and it's finally spring here in Albany and I've been very unhappy because I wasn't able to play footbag for almost a week now. The last few sessions I had just before the sickness were great. I had nice long runs and I could sense another wave of improvement. So I was stoked for it. Then one night Pat just kind of . . got drunk and woke up with a cold. Not a hangover. Just a cold. Yeah. I would've preferred the hangover. Anyway I revived my Mosher bag and so I'm using a footfighter and a mosher. I lost my awesome abshire. I loved that bag with a passion. But oh well. It happens.

I was going through another batch of those "Why am I still playing this game by myself?" and "Why am I so slow at learning" bitching phases just before those last awesome sessions. I really have to stop doing that. It just reflects poorly on why I stopped playing soccer and cross country/track and field and baseball all those years ago. I tend to give up way too easily. But I decided like a year and a half ago when I met the RFA crew that I'd stick with this game till the bitter end. It's still really depressing that I always play alone and no one seems to care but hey. . that'll just make my success story even cooler and ready for hollywood.

I'm studying abroad next year for the whole year in Ireland. I'm going to UCC (University College Cork). My ancestors came from Cork. So that could be cool. But this poses another possible gap footbag must jump over since I really like the sport of Hurling (irish game of awesomeness. Look it up if you've never heard of it) and I'd really be into that. But the way I see it I've given too much already into footbag (This April marks the 2nd year mark when I did my first mirages and legovers and really took the first steps into footbag) and it kind of fits me. Soo yeah I'll see if I can start a County Cork Footbag Association.

To those who keep reading this blog I'm sorry if I keep posting when I'm not too psyched about footbag. I really am today. I've been getting the footbag withdrawl shakes for the past two days and I've been watching videos and tossing around my bags in my hand all day. I do really love footbag. I defend it aggressively (increasingly more as I get more angry at people for not showing an interest) against those who call it a mere "time waster". I even snapped at this woman who asked if it was something soccer players do these days to practice. So yeah. I love footbag, the company of devoted players that I've met and those I have not met.

Darkshredder · Post by **Darkshredder** » 04 Apr 2006 19:43

Hey!

I'm finally better enough from my cold to play footbag. See I've been sick for a little over a week now and so I've decided that since all i"ve really got is a cough and a running nose, I should be back on my healthy regiment of shred. The weather's been kind of dull and cold the past two days (the only days I've shredded since sick) but I was really happy to see that a week doesn't really do too much to my game. I was still hitting some pretty funky strings. I'm noticing a little improvement in string length because I've been just drilling and finding basic, hard combos usually every session and not stopping until I fall over and spit up blood. It's really paying off since it's never really been my strong suit. I'm really trying to add drifters more and smoke. Catacomb is still a rare jewel (only hit 3 times

. . don't really try it too often) so I'll wait on that. To ease the eyes, here are some clear lists of things:

New Tricks That I Want-
- pixie opp whirl . I would think it'd be easier than pixie ss whirl which I can do.
- flip blizzard
- down double down (so close)
- barfly (still so close)
- flip blur to be easier

New Strings I Want-
- pdx whirl > pdx whirl . . very doable
- osis > ripwalk or other stepping
- schmoe > parkwalk > ripwalk > drifter > pdx drifter
- ducking pdx mirage > dimwalk > ducking pdx mirage (rpt?)

No new tricks in a loooong time. No new really intense, post-worthy strings in the past two sessions. I'm getting a new bag: a dryden (sp?) from Freedom. From what I see they're a more durable Mr. Need a nice flimsy 'cheap' bag to practice with so my footfighter and mosher stay with me a little longer.

GRASS is coming up! I really hope I can make it and come over to Rochester with a few new things to show people. Nice opportunity to see some old friends, of course meet new ones, and shred till they give me pizza or vitamin water. I'm working hard this week with projects and papers but I'm relatively clear after Thursday so I can focus a little more on footbag.

Darkshredder · Post by **Darkshredder** » 11 Apr 2006 15:28

hey it's been a really positive footbag day so I thought I'd post. Since my last, I've gotten bronchitis so I tacked on yet another week or so of no footbag, marking it the longest period of time not kicking a bag (except those two days I talked about in the last post) in the history of Pat's kicking career. Even when I was a circle kicker back in faded black and white days we would kick almost every day and no breaks were had. So when I realized this it was very traumatic for me (I've been freestyling a lot less than I've been just "hacking") and it was no good. But I'm more or less recovered and the weather's been great. So I played yesterday and today. Good times. No music, but good times.

very low energy sessions with hardly any long strings since I haven't played in a while. But still very fun.

Going to see if I can work myself up into a frenzy about GRASS and come in jumping up and down and rearing to shred until I'm the last one still wanting to play. Those are always fun times. I walk around and just watch people and ask every once in a while if they want to shred. Usually I get someone to go out and find a streetlight to play under. I'm not a very fun person when I'm drunk (I get really quiet and kind of cynical) and I don't really want to smoke so I usually am good with a spot on a couch and enjoying the party atmosphere that I've come to know and love about footbag players and their parties. I love it.

I was watching this crazy scootering (razor scooter. . . ) video today and laughed quite a bit. They seem to have a lot of fun just messing around and jumping into bushes. It made me really want to make a footbag video where the people are just falling over the place and saying odd things. The videos here tend to be too serious except for Tom Mosher's KFM videos. Those are always a treat. But some things I'd like to see in a video would be:

1) shredding while staring straight up at the camera with a strange face.
2) shredding in a bathroom (crowded)
3) shredding injuries (oh I think you know of what I speak. Ankle trips, random things falling or you hitting something while playing)
4) more dancing - Laroche style
5) tricks with other objects like a sandwiches, candy, random objects
6) misc. shred circle happenings like conversations or other outsiders commenting.

Oh the possibilities. Unfortunately my camera's in Rochester and there's no one here to really film me or play with me to make a movie for. Ooooh well. That's why going to GRASS will be more fun this time around. I'll have a camera and I'm coming in with a whole new attitude about the game.
Hm. Okay well it's 7:30pm and I haven't done more than one scoops worth of homework. I should get on that. I've had enough of internet junk video and playing footbag so I think I'll have enough concentration to do work till later. So that'll be "productive" and "scholarly".

dimwalk with a pineapple?

Darkshredder · Post by **Darkshredder** » 12 Apr 2006 12:53

Very Short Windy Aprilish Session #1:
pixie ss clip > ripwalk > ss legover > dimwalk > whirl > string
drill: ss legover > dimwalk > ss legover (rpt)
drill: dimwalk > pdx mirage (rpt)
drill: ss mirage (rpt) ss illusion (rpt)
drill: whirl > opp clip (rpt)
drill: ss butter (over down?) > far legover/pickup (rpt) - I like this one a lot
worked on toe grifter (inspired by the new Jeremy Mirken video)
tried pdx whirl back to back once. . didn't really have the ambition to do it

I have a new sandbag. Not a Mr. Sandbag. It's the other freedom: the Dryden or something. I don't mind it. When the material breaks in and gets a beating it'll stop being so slippery and new. I needed a little cheap practice bag to help the life span of my 32 panel. Hopefully I can scrounge up enough spare spending money to get a new 32. It'll mean not being able to go out to movies and restaurants a lot but oh well.

kind of a dumb session with the shortness (only a little over an hour

) and the annoying heavy gusts of early spring wind but I had fun and it helped clear my head. I'm kind of worried about a test I might be having in an evening class at 6pm and I was getting all worked up about it. Needed "the escape". Alright well that's all for now. Going home tomorrow for break - may get to shred with Greg Pestillo (if he even has lavers anymore. . . ) - and when all else fails? LONGBOARDING!

Darkshredder · Post by **Darkshredder** » 23 Apr 2006 18:41

HEY! Good times except A) Couldn't make it to GRASS and B) Minor shin splints.
It was SienaFest this past weekend and there were lots of music venues around my tiny campus to shred at. And boy did I ever. Some good things came out of it: I'm pretty much all caught up from the time off from practicing and now am making progress again. I also met this siena student who finally walked up to me the other day and said he had played in high school and he would really want to try footbag freestyle. He was sober the first time I saw him and he said that so I'm relatively positive about his motivation. The second time (last night) he was quite intoxicated and forgot my name three seperate times, but realized that I was the "hacky sack guy" and he still wanted to play. It was raining. We didn't play for long. And here's a fun little story of an ex-footbagger:

So I was playing at a little battle of the bands thing on friday and this guy comes around me and he goes, "Hey can I play with you?" and, you know, I was fine with it. I don't mind company at all. But then I looked down and saw he wasn't wearing etnies or sandals. He was wearing lavers. I was really surprised and happy to say the least. But apparently after a time of talking and shredding, I came to know he hasn't played in a year (it showed) and fate had it that he would wear his only pair of unmodified lavers the only day he comes across a footbag player. So yeah. Unmodded. Jeans. Out of practice. Apparently in his prime he could hit datw and some pixie tricks. So that's cool. He quit footbag because he got into juggling and he's still really into it but he's realizing just how fun footbag used to be and not just because he saw me that day. He had actually been remembering all the good times just a few days ago and had watched a few newer videos from flipsider.com and .org. We had a good talk about all the new names and I told him that flipsider's back up which he was kind of confused about (apparently he never really used it when it was full operational). But I told him about the latest news of Vasek, Jorden, Irish, and some of the Polish, Czech, and German players who are blowing minds these days.

Anyway I've got about 2 and a half weeks of school left. This week I'm really busy. I haven't had time to play today because of work and shin splints. I think the next time I pick up a bag I'll rearrange my style of solo session (again) and for a little while now just push new concepts and try for new tricks. I've been drilling and dialing basics for about a month now to get my game calmer and more controlled and now I think I'm ready to push forward. Kind of excited about that. I was going to use GRASS as a window of opportunity for this new state of mind but I had no money and no real ambition to drive all that way only to be late anyway and miss most of the day's shred. That's all - - later.

Darkshredder · Post by **Darkshredder** » 24 Apr 2006 12:36

Sucky session. Apparently shin splints don't like the atomic set and hardcore stepping practicing. But I rose above the splintering shins and managed to tie together a pretty sick 3: tapdown > blur > pixie ss whirl.

drill for the day (even though I said I wouldn't drill): ss pickup > dimwalk (rpt)
highlights -

ducking butter back to back

the sick 3 above

drifter record set to 4 - this just so happens to be the first drifter record. I've been able to do drifter bsos for a while now but never back to back. This was the first time I've remembered to try it back to back. I could've gone longer but drifters back to back is kind of boring after a while so I stopped to move on to bigger and better things. . . like:

I almost hit my flip catacomb and I footed my strongside again.

footed stepping rooted drifter (this was supposed to be the new trick)

forgot to try pixie ss butterfly swirl (this was supposed to be the other new trick)

I was really hoping to play inside to get warmed up and then to go outside and play since I really don't like playing inside when I don't want to. But as I was doing my thing I heard something - rain. It started to pour out. Sucky session. Strings were short, spinning hurt me, and no new tricks.

Darkshredder · Post by **Darkshredder** » 02 May 2006 15:43

Hey just a quick blog writeup because I've got a huge paper to write tonight. I had a really short session yesterday and a nice mall session over the weekend. Some new stuff was hit finally:

toe dlo bs since last summer
pdx dlo (wah!)
double dex practice - relearned paradon and DOD and DATW. Barfly will come sometime soon I think. I'll be a double dexer I think. It's just real stylish.
a huge pixie string - very bothsided which was nuts for me. I think it went something like this but you don't have to trust me because it was all instinct and I had no idea what I was doing

parkwalk > blur > dimwalk > pdx mirage > dimwalk > whirl > ss legover > smear > plo > butterfly > string

I mean it's a pretty pathetic example of a string for someone who's been playing as long as I have but it's good for me so I was happy. Oh and that brings me to a nice thought I had the other day. I've been playing for a while and I'm still pretty much basic guiltless but since I've been kicking for so long my comfort level and "style" is pretty respectable. This only gives me hope that when I'm really good people will notice this and be like, "Hey. . . that's Pat." - so yeah. Confidence level in footbag is very high right now. I love it. Didn't play today. Too cold and it rained and so I just went to the gym for a bit.

working more on symposium. Relearning symp mirages to be placed midstring. They aren't THAT tough so I'll have to use them more.
another new trick : bubba beater. That was funny. I was trying symposium bubba and just went with it (and didn't do it symposium).

So all in all I've got a smile on my face. It's spring, I'm almost done with school - not done enough-, and I'm starting to get back into some old high school bands I used to really like like the Chili Peppers. I'm also listening to Polish rap. I like VETO and Molesta. It's pretty bizarre for me but it's so much better-sounding than most of the popular shit that's out in American now. They're actually talented and I like their background music. Can't understand anything, but that's one of the reasons why I like it. It is an awesome language.

Hm. Not really a short blog post. But whatever. Ok I've really got to get to this paper.

Darkshredder · Post by **Darkshredder** » 03 May 2006 18:43

An odd day for footbag. Went to a gazeebo but wasn't feeling the space and there were too many cars around. So then I went to a school nearby and was warming up real well. Hit a flip toe DLO again and then it started to rain. But I'd be damned if I would have to play inside (I really hate it after going through this winter. It was pretty rough) so I went to a plaza where the walkway was covered and played on the corner of a bagel shop. Got some compliments from some people walking by. Told them about footbag. Nothing new hit. Some more pretty pixie-intensive strings and I was trying really hard to hit atomic ss illusion (tapping illusion?) and ducking pdx illusion. Made up my mind that I shouldn't rush into double dexes by trying to learn a flip paradon and barflies off the bat so I decided it'd be best if I had a few basic doubles dialed first. So I was frantically trying to hit a flip datw, got a strong datw in out / out in which was good. Then skooled my strong DOD and terrage. But nothing too big. I was really after that atomic illusion. That just felt there. I think I gave up too soon on that. I bet I could've had it. I mean I had it off my foot like 4 times.

Ah yes and I think I shall get some fabric and some needles from the KFM site and begin a stitching career this summer. Matt Cross's bags really convinced me that I should get off my ass and start stitching. So a shout out goes to anyone reading this who knows a place besides fieldfabrics.com where I could get some cheap facile. And if anyone knows if ultrasuede is the same as facile. People were talking about it on the bags and equipment topic as if it was the same thing. If so then I'm good to go. Since people are hesitant to write in this blog I'll do a little research myself on the side and see if I can settle with another company.

K. Back to homework. High of 70 tomorrow, relatively sunny. Oh atomic ss illusion WILL be hit tomorrow. Post maybe tomorrow about it. I'll also try to break my drifter record and maybe try the famous drifter > pdx drifter (rpt) drill. That string is nuts and it's a milestone.

Darkshredder · Post by **Darkshredder** » 14 Sep 2006 04:07

Hey everyone - self bump of my blog. Modified is back on for me. I took a break for the summer so that I could forget about other people for a little while and not to worry about what they are doing. That tends to get me distracted and upset easily. So I just wanted to get down to business with my own game and try to make some progress. I think I did well this summer. I played a lot with Greg Pestillo and he went nuts this summer humoring me by playing just about every time I bugged him with a call. He made a lot of progress with pixies and even hit ripwalk and sidewalk and some others. Still needs a lot of work on infinities and stringing pdx mirages and stuff like that. Good summer for footbag to say the least.

So anyhow - I'm abroad. I'm currently living and studying in Cork City in Ireland at a place called University College Cork. Cool place so far. I'm having a lot of fun. And it'll only get better when I get to meet more locals. I've met a Polish guy named Dominic who saw me shredding out by this courthouse and he watched me for a while and finally came up to me and we started talking about it. Then I let him try and he hit double switchover in soccer-type shoes. I was very surprised since he hadn't let on that he played before. Apparently he had been into it for about a year and stopped for good during the winter and thought he wouldn't go back to it - lack of outside help. But now that I'm here he's going to get back into it. So that's a great start for both of us.

We've ordered Quantums. Climacool I are really hard to find in Cork and I don't like taking chances with other shoes that look like them or lavers because you never know how heavy they are and what can be modded and what can't. Actually the quantums should be arriving today or so I'd like to think. If they aren't at my apartment when I leave campus in a few minutes I'll probably blackout and when I wake up three days later some important building or something will have blown up. It's been a while since we ordered them so I'm sure they're almost here.

Anyway I just wanted to bump back my blog. I'm going to play pretty soon and so I'll have more to write about next time. The good news is that Dominic and I play almost every day for about two hours so progress is bound to happen for both of us. I'll update you all on some of the new stuff and some of the other components and elements I'm taking a look into and improving or picking up anew. All that. Should be a good time. And, as always - - anyone is more than welcome to post any comments, concerns, advice, challenges (once more current data has been given I suppose, eh?) , etc.

PS: I found out that they have the cereal Shreddies here in Ireland. Oh you know I've invested in like three boxes of those at a time. And here I just thought it was a very clever avatar for Jorden's modified name.

Darkshredder · Post by **Darkshredder** » 15 Sep 2006 04:50

well well well - it seems that Swiss Priority shipping is less than swift. I didn't get the quantums today, Friday. . So that means another weekend without them. It's getting actually pretty dire. The ducktape holding my lavers together isn't holding nearly as well as my last pair and I'm pretty sure they're hindering my playing because the toebox is only about half mesh, half jagged and sticking up ducktape. More than that, though, it's getting really uncomfortable walking around with shoes that are falling apart and having people stare and ask me why I don't get a new pair. Starting to get to me.

Alright well here's a brief update as to how I've been doing footbag-wise. This summer I started hitting my first 5s and stuff. Still trying to learn and dial a few 4s.

4s -
blizzards
pixie whirls and pixie ss whirls
and I'm constantly working on improving the basic 4s: ripwalk, sidewalk, dimwalk, parkwalk, some fairy variations, the atomic variations, etc.
pdx dlo
ducking pdx whirl

5s (a very short list)
majello (first one I hit)
spinning ducking butterfly (hit two days ago)
pdx torque

the progress I've made, since it's not all that impressive if you're just going by the above lists, have been dialing a lot of 3s and the 4s that make up the bulk of most guiltless players' strings. And I've gotten my string length and variety to a pretty good level so that I feel good about what I'm "throwing down" when the bag drops. I've tried to adopt a style that is somehow like a lot of the players I've played with and respect. Since I don't play with the RFA and KFM anymore I'm just trying to remember all the strings I've seen them do and some of the philosophies of their games and kept them in mind while I go on on my own.
Some drills I keep doing have been:
dimwalk > pdx mirage (rpt)
pixie ss mirage > smear (rpt)
dimwalk > ripwalk > pdx mirage over and over and then switching sides.
whirl > infinity (rpt)
and I usually warmup with infinity > ss butter (rpt) for a while
when I get good enough at double dexing with my other leg I'll start going for terrage back to back. Still have a ways to go with that I think.

K my times almost up at the internet cafe. Just wanted to post real quick and to make sure I didn't mess up my quanum order. Thought I had accidentally told them to ship it to my Albany address. That would've sucked way too much.

mosher · Post by **mosher** » 15 Sep 2006 10:48

Good to hear you're still alive and shredding!

Keep it up Pat!