Damn you footbag!!#%%#*Frustration thread*(need motivating)

[Rad]

I've been footbagging for a few months off and on now. I have shoes that are pretty similar to the climacools and I use a trusty facile MR. I can do toe stalls consistently on both sides, I have inside stall on my right down like nothing and the inside stall on my left I can do decently. I have strong side clipper schooled and I got do it flip side about 60% of the time, I also started learning the mirage. Here's what's getting me though, THE GOD DAMN ATW!!!!Something always goes wrong, a shitty set, bad foot motion, not catching the bag etc. I can do it about 40% of the time but it still bugs the shit out of me.

I was wondering if it would be a good idea to put the ATW's in the back seat for a while, for my sanity's sake and working on some other concepts. I really don't know anyone around the bloomington/normal area that footbags. There's the college footbag thing going but I have no way to get up to the campus. I have to practice alone and it's hard to get down in the basement and just practice. I'd like nothing more to get better at freestyle because doing runs looks like the funnest shit in the world. But getting past the basics is a big obstacle for me right now. Strong tiltless is a big goal for me by the end of the summer. My plans are I'm going to obtain the tiltless level of play and start a footbag club at my school so I can get others around my age into the sport. The thing is picking the footbag up off the ground every 6 seconds is irritating. As well as compounding my back problems. Just picking up the bag off the ground constantly and getting frustrated by not being able to hit the tricks I want is not fun. What keeps me going is the great feeling I get when I get small strings of like 3-4 tricks going. I think I need to just suck it up, stop reading modified more than playing and keep my eyes on the prize.

[Troyson]

Sorry to break it to you, but you cant learn freestyle unless you learn atw in both directions. If you want to become tiltless, then learning atw is essential due to the fact that EVERY TRICK is based on atw. If you learn atw in both directions then your pickups, legovers, pixies, fairies, EVERYTHING will be more consistent.

I know that when you first start playing it can be extremely frustrating, but in order to be good you have to drill your ass off. There is no easy way in learning how to do these tricks. If you want to learn something, try it over 1000 times and then you will have it down.

It really depends on how good you really want to be. For me, if i couldnt do a trick, i would do it over and over until i was able to do it. When i would finally hit it, i would get the same feeling of satisfaction you are talking about.

And no matter what you do, you are eventually going to have to pick up the bag instead of doing; random trick>drop>rpt, try and do kicks to yourself before you stall it and then try the trick. Or you can also do like a couple toe stalls before you start a run. This way it teaches you how to keep the bag up for long perioids of time and help gain a rhythm.

hope all this helps you out....DONT GIVE UP!

[smokefree]

yeah i drilled my pixie set so much that now i have to go back and learn how to do fairy's smoothly, dont let any direction get behind, you may regret it.

[Rad]

Essential to every trick?? Nuts, doing it with my left is proving much more difficult than with my strong side, but that's to be expected. I was having a lot more fun today when I was just practicing my clippers and trying to learn the mirage. I guess I'm going to have to keep a light attitude and take it a step at a time.

I also wanted to know if I did choose to put the ATW in the back seat for now, what would be a good concept to move on from having the clipper and basic stalls down?

[smokefree]

maybe alternating stalls like right clipper to left clipper, or inside to inside.

[james_dean]

beginner tricks:

clipper
mirage
ATW both directions
legover
pickup
illusion


They are all vital, give them a try.

[forgetmenot220]

I was having a lot more fun today when I was just practicing my clippers and trying to learn the mirage. I guess I'm going to have to keep a light attitude and take it a step at a time.

I definetly feel you here. I have the opposite problem than you have: My ATW and mirages are ok but I can't hit a clipper or inside stall for the life of me. I usually spend a majority of my sessions working on stringing together moves on my strong side- which is a dirty little habit. I guess working on moves that frustrate us is kinda like eating our vegitables- everyone hates being told they have to do it, but in the end we thank our parents for making sure we grew up strong and healthy.

OK that was a kinda cheezy analogy, but you know what I mean Even though you may HATE working on ATW you'll be glad you did once you start hitting doubles or..dare I say..tripples

Happy kicking and good luck,
Tricia

[Kljopa]

I love the vegetable metaphora Tricia

Asa!
You have to bring your legs to victory throughout struggle it is WORTH it
It is a good idea to get down your atws and do consecutives i believe it will have a major effect on your game

[Matt K]

Sorry to break it to you, but you cant learn freestyle unless you learn atw in both directions. If you want to become tiltless, then learning atw is essential due to the fact that EVERY TRICK is based on atw. If you learn atw in both directions then your pickups, legovers, pixies, fairies, EVERYTHING will be more consistent.

I know that when you first start playing it can be extremely frustrating, but in order to be good you have to drill your ass off. There is no easy way in learning how to do these tricks. If you want to learn something, try it over 1000 times and then you will have it down.

It really depends on how good you really want to be. For me, if i couldnt do a trick, i would do it over and over until i was able to do it. When i would finally hit it, i would get the same feeling of satisfaction you are talking about.

And no matter what you do, you are eventually going to have to pick up the bag instead of doing; random trick>drop>rpt, try and do kicks to yourself before you stall it and then try the trick. Or you can also do like a couple toe stalls before you start a run. This way it teaches you how to keep the bag up for long perioids of time and help gain a rhythm.

hope all this helps you out....DONT GIVE UP!

I disagree, I can only do it 10/10 times one way on one side, but I've got tiltless down. And I can only do DATW one way on one side, but I can do Paradons both sides. It's not necessary.

[sniper4life]

Hey, I learned my legovers before I could hit atw's. My friend who introduced me to footbag moved down to Normal.

[Chim-Chim]

Be positive! If atw isn't comin to you learn some other 2-3 add tricks.

[Skippy!]

I've been footbagging for a few months off and on now. I have shoes that are pretty similar to the climacools

Honestly it can't be stressed enough that some shoes are good for footbag, and some shoes aren't. I mean, the shoes you're using may be alright, but you honestly shouldn't get frustrated with footbag until you know fully what you can do with the right equipment. Get lavers! Or better yet, if you like the running shoe shape, get a pair of climas!! Honestly, they're not ridiculously expensive. You can start a lemonade stand and make enough money for a pair of lavers, seriously.

EDIT: I feel like every time I talk about footbag I talk about how important the shoes are. I dunno, it just makes such a world of a difference and I feel like people are selling themselves short by saying "I can't do this" when they just haven't played in the right shoes.

[thlaxx]

i have hope! ive always tried a trick about 5 times and then gave up and tried to look for an easier trick. this time i have made a new friend from this website who talked to me and ecourgaed me to just keep trying, i keeped reading forums and wathcing videos and new how to do the trick front to back but i kept reading how to's thinking itll make me better, But i already knew how to do it! so for 2 days, no cricle hacking, nothing but working on that trick, trying an experimenting on how to do it! now the trick is the mirage, i know its simple for those advance players, but this is my first freestyle trick, so blah. but now i have the whole dex down and jsut need to get the last stall. but in conclusion, make a friend that can encourge you , and if you need help with the mirage hahah im me

[krumpage]

when i was learning atw i was so frustrated but this helped me alot. mainly just calm down, relax, and take your time with the trick. you dont need to move your leg fast at all for atw. yet with my flipside my leg would refuse to go around the bag. it would go all tense when i circled it. so what i did is you stand on one foot and make the other foot go in a circle motion. in a minute your leg will feel sore but it has been stretched and youll see a difference in the next day.

[james_dean]

when i was learning atw i was so frustrated but this helped me alot. mainly just calm down, relax, and take your time with the trick. you dont need to move your leg fast at all for atw. yet with my flipside my leg would refuse to go around the bag. it would go all tense when i circled it. so what i did is you stand on one foot and make the other foot go in a circle motion. in a minute your leg will feel sore but it has been stretched and youll see a difference in the next day.

do that with a bottle on the ground, circle the bottle. bottle drill ftw


note: you don't *have* to learn atw to freestyle, my atw's are terrible and I'm shredding fine, but I imagine it helps, I probably should have learnt it properly. Now I just can't be bothered

[thlaxx]

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I JUST GOT THE MIRAGE DOWN AND NOW I FEEL LIKE I CANT GET ANY OTHER MOVE! I KEEP TRYING DIFFERENT ONES BUT CANT GET THEM. SO I DECIDED TO JUST STICK TO ONE, SO IM TRYING A LEGOVER YET I CANT GET MY FUCING LEG OVER! LIKE I CAN GET IT MOST OF THE WAY AROUND BUT NOT NEARLY CATCH IT BC IM USED TO IN>OUT DEX'S NOT OUT>IN DEXS!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I CANT EVEN GET THE OUT>IN DEX FEELING NATURAL AND IVE BEEN TRYING!!!!JKSKNHGJSJHKFNDSHSKJKDNSHJSFKDFJESNDFMSJ

ok im feeling a tad bit better

-dave

[Spontaneous Spaz]

did u try the atw yet? by being able to do the in>out atw (right foot) not that hard... believe me... from there just try doing out>in and try nailing that,
i think its kind of odd to go straight from mirage to legover

[forgetmenot220]

i think its kind of odd to go straight from mirage to legover

I see what you're saying, but that's how I did it.

[thlaxx]

uggggggggggggghhhhhhhh....bad day of hacking.

what keeps you'll motivated?

[zeroman13]

trying to get better, trying to hit new moves there's lots of reasons!