Buck's Ruckus

BuckRuckus · Post by **BuckRuckus** » 15 Mar 2006 12:49

Hey there. My name is Mike. Here is my blog:

Things are moving along very slowly for me, but my enthusiasm and desire to play continue to remain high! I started playing last summer and generally get in about 1 hour a day. That's 7 hours a week. 7 hours out of 168! I need to find the time to play more, but it's SO hard!

I hear new players say this alot: "I have my basics down, but I'm stuck on such and such a move". Then I wonder, what do these players consider "down"? Well, I DON'T have my basics down. I mean, I can do inside stalls fine- I hit 20 consecutive insides this morning (a personal best). When I can hit 200, or 500 in a row, and both sides feel really comfortable .... that's when I'll say I have 'em down.

I'd been working on my weak side clipper since the beginning of the year. Spending my whole hour - clipper > drop > clipper > drop. Getting nowhere. I'd really break down the movements too. My hips and shoulders both twisting in the right directions. Knees together. Support leg bent. I'd mirror the actions from my good side clipper (which came easy after 10 years of one-sided hacky-sack). It was very frustrating.

So I quit!
Yeah, you heard me. Fuck clippers!!

Despite (or because of) my super-slow progres, I'm going back a step to the very basic: inside stall. I won't drill clipper again until I hit 200! The same thinking applies to the 2 ADD moves I know: I won't say I have them down until I hit, say, 30 consecutive.

Sorry, you probably don't want to read a whole blog about inside stalls, but when I'm awesome, and shredding deep holes into the ground, I wan't to look back and remember just how hard it was to get the basics "down".

Thanks for listening. You're the best!

BuckRuckus · Post by **BuckRuckus** » 15 Mar 2006 14:13

It's a slow day at work, so I'll just keep writting. A little about me:

I'm a graphic artist at a (the) major national Newspaper in Canada. I spend my days making stock charts, maps and the odd illustration (but no editorial cartoons). It's a cool gig. One of the perks is the odd business trip. Well I've only been on one so far, but it was to Victoria and I got to play with a local shredder there!! At night (instead of shredding) I work as a freelance illustrator. I've done art for Sony, McDonald's and any other company willing to pay me the big bucks (not as big as you might think). I'm an art whore!

I also love comics, have made a few small-run self published ones myself, and would love to work exclusively in the comic book industry, except my love of money is too strong! Yeah, comics pays almost as bad as footbag.

Uh, let's see... what else...

I'm waiting on 3 footbags right now! One from Tom, one From Peng and a Footfighter. Can't wait! I've been thinking about sewing my own bags for a while, but really want to learn directly from a stitcher...

I did the Brocka mod on my Lavers last night and sliced my hand up a little. Ouch! I Brocka'd my finger! It's now 5% more flexible!

Also I'm setting up a shop at spreadshirt.com. It seems like a cool deal. Basically, you just upload a design, and anyone can buy clothing with it printed on. I've wanted to own a cool footbag shirt for a while, and the only cool ones I've found were at Flipsider, so, I thought "why not use my art skillz" and make some!

My first design can be seen in the Bags and Equipment section under "Possible shirt design". It's a 3-colour design and the REALLY cool thing about spreadshirt.com is that you can take my design and make it any colour(s) you want! So, I could draw a cool footbag, and you could put it on a shirt, anywhere, front or back, at any size, AND choose the colours for the pents and hexes!!!

When it's up I'll order a shirt for myself to make sure the quality is as good as they say before pimping my designs to modified.

mtoolan · Post by **mtoolan** » 15 Mar 2006 15:01

Nice

I love art too but I'm terrible at it. Its cool that your going really basic with the inside stalls and that.

I'm curious. What Kind of 2-adds have you hit so far?

BuckRuckus · Post by **BuckRuckus** » 15 Mar 2006 15:17

Cool Mike! If you love art you should keep doing it! It's just like footbag. You gotta drill, drill, drill the fundamentals! If art was easy, it wouldn't impress anybody.

I can hit most of the usuals:
ATW
Mirage
SS mirage
Pickup
Clipper (1 side)

I can string these together in various orders for about 6-10 contacts. I drop most of my runs on my weak clipper. I'll hit my strong side smoothly, come out of it with a pickup or mirage, and then I HAVE to attempt my weak side! I've become a big B.S.O.S. believer.

Lets see... I can hit osis 10% of the time. And I'm pretty consistent with sole kicks and x-body sole (from my silly hacky-sack days).

I've hit illusion, but I don't have it 'down', if you know what I mean.

mtoolan · Post by **mtoolan** » 15 Mar 2006 16:32

BuckRuckus wrote:Lets see... I can hit osis 10% of the time. And I'm pretty consistent with sole kicks and x-body sole (from my silly hacky-sack days).

Thats pretty sweet. I'm not good at osis but I haven't really worked it yet. Can't do any of that sole kick stuff. I never had sill hacky sack days. I took the strait plunge.

BuckRuckus · Post by **BuckRuckus** » 16 Mar 2006 20:31

Well, just finished an hour and fifteen minute session in my living room. Here are the highlights:

20 consecutive inside stralls.

Thats it. Just 20. Tied my record. I feel quite pathetic right now. Oh well. My leg did the stall motion several hundred times so at least it should be getting stronger and learning the motions. Yeah, I spent the entire time working my insides. Very boring, but I have faith that a solid foundation will pay off in the end.

On the plus side, I got a Footfighter in the mail! It's black and bellow, well brown now. Jeez I should wash the floor.

My design still isn't up at spreadshirt.com. They said it had too much detail to print. No big deal. I'll simplify it and fatten the lines up this weekend. I can't wait to see it on a shirt! I have tons of ideas for other designs too. I'll post 'em here as soon as I have the time to draw 'em.

David Morawski · Post by **David Morawski** » 16 Mar 2006 21:49

Just 20? You gotta start somewhere, man. As long as you have faith in a good foundation I think you'll come out on top.

Keep up the good work

busted · Post by **busted** » 16 Mar 2006 23:26

I like your icon. It's quite accurate actually. The cerebellum, which is the pink circle that is being pointed at in the diagram is actually responsible for motor error corrections when your body tries something like footbag. Very cool.

Anyhow, I justed wanted to chime in to say that you should definitely continue skooling your CLIPPERs and attempt to be as patient as possible. The quickest way to get frustrated with footbag is comparing yourself to those who are better. I can speak personally that I was a slow lerner, and CLIPPER took me a long time. But patience and persistence pulled me through!

Kind Regards,
-David

BuckRuckus · Post by **BuckRuckus** » 17 Mar 2006 05:32

Thanks dudes. Yeah, I shouldn't be too hard on myself, I mean,I did notice an improvement in my stalls over the course of an hour. A few more sessions like that and I'll be in good shape.

And David, in case you were interrested: here is a more detailed version of my brain:

BuckRuckus · Post by **BuckRuckus** » 20 Mar 2006 10:17

Date: Monday, March 20
Consecutive inside stalls: 24
Weak side clipper: negatory

FOOTBAG:
Didn't play much this weekend, but I did manage to up my inside stall record by 4. I started really pressing my toes to the sole of my shoe as I did them. I think it helps. Not sure what the correct toe posture is...

MISC:
I'm moving into a bigger appartment! I'll have more square footage now, so I'll have to designate a nice big area for practicing.

SHIRTS:
I just sent a t-shirt order with another company. I was going to use spreadshirt.com, but they can't print complex designs on their shirts so fuck 'em. The first run will be on blue-grey shirts. I only ordered 20 to start, incase the demand isn't high. Here is the design that I posted in the Bags and Equipment section, incase you didn't see it there:

Like I said before, I'll post an image of the shirt when I get it (about 2 weeks). Anyone who want's one can PM me then. They'll probably go for $20 Cdn. Can't wait to see how they look!

Pengu · Post by **Pengu** » 20 Mar 2006 13:15

Hey Mike,

I'll take 2 shirts... is there a possibility for a shirt to be printed on either a youth large or a women's XS? The other in a men's small.

I just finished your bag. I'm just waiting for Tom to finish his bag for you and we'll ship them right off to you. In the mean time, here's a picture:

I'm sorry if the colours I chose are fruity, but these colours are really soft and match up in consistency well so it will break in nice and evenly. Maybe one day I'll show you the ways of the needle

I'm working on my consecutive insides too. My right foot is so bad at setting it from the inside. My current record is 32, but I'm working on it.

BuckRuckus · Post by **BuckRuckus** » 20 Mar 2006 13:41

Yay! That bag looks wicked Peng! Like 3 alien fingers holding a nugget of Earth gold! I can't wait!

Props on the 32 insides! It's a good number to be at. Race you to 200!

As for the shirt sizes, I've only ordered men's small meduim and large for now. Sorry. But I'm only getting 20 shirts to start, and I'll print up more as soon as I sell em' all! (I'll be sure to make it available in Peng size too!) Is a men's small just way huge on you?

I'll be sending Tom a freebee as the design idea is from him.

Pengu · Post by **Pengu** » 20 Mar 2006 13:49

Haha... men's small almost reaches my knees sometimes...

I'm little... p(>_<)q

Fine, Tom and I will take 2 men's smalls please. If you ever make smaller shirts, I'll buy another.

mahhkohh · Post by **mahhkohh** » 21 Mar 2006 07:30

hi...would you ship to overseas...if so,then its one shirt to germany please.small,but medium would also do!

BuckRuckus · Post by **BuckRuckus** » 21 Mar 2006 18:15

Date: Tuesday, March 21
Consecutive inside stalls: 36
Weak side clipper: negatory

FOOTBAG
Not much chance to play lately. Just a few half-hour mini sessions in my living room. I beat my record though! 36!

SHIRTS
Ok, I'll put one on hold for you Marco. But to anyone else wanting a shirt please wait until they go officially for sale in the "For Sale" section (in about 2 weeks). I really want to see the shirts before I start taking anyone's money. I'll also have to lock down a price and find out what it costs to ship. I'll do my best to keep it at $20. Here is the proofs that the print shop sent me today. It should be close to what they look like (I hope so, at least!). You'll notice I simplified the colour cheme and made the lines bolder. It's partly to keep the cost down and partly to make sure it doesn't print off register.

Also, here is a sneak peek of what my second design will look like (when I eventually print it)! It's a front and back concept.

BuckRuckus · Post by **BuckRuckus** » 22 Mar 2006 19:49

Ya! 40 inside stalls! I'm progressing! But ouch! it's tough work on my groin muscles/tendons.

I was just kicking around on the subway platform today and some kid started watching, so I started a little tiltless run for him and got 6 contacts then a hand catch as the subway pulled up! I was so smooth! All that with baggy pants and a shoulder bag on too. Maybe I should start wearing tear-aways to work so I can bust out my shorts at a moment's notice!

I wish I had a million Mr. Sandbags to give to kids who showed interest, but there was no way I'd let him kick my 32 so close to the tracks.

BuckRuckus · Post by **BuckRuckus** » 28 Mar 2006 09:08

Date: Tuesday, March 28
Consecutive inside stalls: 42
Weak side clipper: much better!

Ahhh! Finally a little progress. I put my quest to hit 200 inside stalls on hold to see if all that work had any effect on my weak clipper. Holy crap! It's working! Instantly my success rate went from 1/10 to 5/7! I even hit 2 in a row! Once I can hit 10 in a row on my weak side I'll start alternating. Ya!

BuckRuckus · Post by **BuckRuckus** » 30 Mar 2006 10:23

FOOTBAG:
Not much new to report. I'm STILL just working on the same moves. Now that I've broken though the clipper barrier I'm devoting time to other 2-adds and working on short strings like:

mirage > legover > rpt
mirage > ss mirage > rpt

I've started breaking in my second pair of Lavers. They're so bright! I cut the toe walls off this pair and I love it! I love being able to lace up normally (minus the bottom two eyelets). The shoe fits nice and snug. I also took a paint pen and drew targets on the toes and insteps. I was bored, and didn't want a plain old pair of green and whites. I think the targets actually help. After a dex, when I'm looking for a landing surface, I just find the target and line it up! Now I'm not just looking to catch the bag on my toe, I'm looking for an EXACT spot on my toe- and I can hit it most of the time too!

MISC:
I went to a BlowFly show last night. Anybody ever hear of him? He's an old, dirty, filthy rapper/soul singer. Also he's very dirty. And filthy. What a potty-mouth! Good time though.

SHIRTS:
Still waiting for the shipment...

Slowsis · Post by **Slowsis** » 31 Mar 2006 07:20

Good to hear about the progress! You should check out the Toronto Blog for good stuff all the time. I'll even start to post sessions in there soon.

BuckRuckus · Post by **BuckRuckus** » 31 Mar 2006 09:38

Cool Adam. I'll keep an eye on that. And I'm sure I'll see you at York U on the 15th.

FOOTBAG:
Just had my first outdoor session this year! Well, I kick outside all the time, but this was the first time I had shorts on. The sun on my face felt great, but the hard cement was not nice to my poor feet and legs. I seriously need a shred mat or some better shoes. I'm too old and heavy to be jumping up and down so much. Too bad I'm not hip to e-bay. That seems to be the only place to get out-of-production shoes.

Today I mostly worked on osis from clipper, just 'cause it's easier on my legs. It's getting there, I guess. Still at about 1 in 10 on both sides. I'm totally surprised every time the bag pops up on my other side, so I can't hit anything afterwards.

SHOPPING:
I went on a footbag buying frenzy recently! Bought another Footfighter, a Mosher, Peng, a Haniabag and just ordered a bag from Shredzilla! Still waiting on all of them, as well as my footbag shirts. Slow mailmen are the worst!