Fanzine

Zeb Jackson · Post by **Zeb Jackson** » 01 Jul 2006 21:35

I dunno, it just seems to me that footbag is too young a sport, with too small an internet presence for us to go shitting on this forum the way some people do. If I really wanted to be nasty and start flame wars, I know of a hundred other forums where I could do that. If I wanted to post pictures of naked breasts, or see them, that's pretty easy to do too. I don't see why people risk doing that here, when all it can do is alienate young players or shreditas.

Tomorrow is another day, and hopefully I'll get in another shred. I just need to keep my perspectives positive, and I'm sure I'll rock it all harder.

i totally agree with you man, as a semi new person to the sport, people acting idiotic on a forum thats supposed to portray the sport, is totally ridiculous, and redundant. I think that if i were to have read any of the threads as of late if i were completely new, i would be getting a horrible impression on the people that footbag, which in turn would hurt how i would develope as a player.

Asmus · Post by **Asmus** » 02 Jul 2006 02:43

Hey Ken
I hope everything will work out fast and you will be able to make to Japan.
(Even though I would love to see you at Worlds

)

Its great to see your updating your blog so often and always has some new thoughts to share with us.

I was wondering about one thing..
How many NBA-Jerseys do you actually have?

Peace,

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 02 Jul 2006 21:16

Hm, I originally was just gonna list the jerseys I have, but it could be a good excuse to list some of the videos I've appeared in as well.

NBA Jerseys I have:

1. Large navy blue Houston Rockets Hakeem Olajuwon #34 jersey. This was my first NBA jersey, and it was a gift from Sunil at Japanese Footbag Champs I. Good memories, but it's too big to shred in.

2. Red, 1976 throwback Jason Kidd New Jersey Nets #5 jersey. The lettering is sewn on, so it's a bit heavier than my other jerseys. I can shred in it, but it's not as good as my other jerseys... I can't bust out 100% with it. I've only worn it to the Rochestah jam.
http://v.footbag.org/media/344/rochestah.wmv

3. Blue Grant Hill Pistons #33 jersey. One of my best shred jerseys. You can see me wearing it on Fletcher's SCI video.
http://www.mwhansen.org/footbag/SCI%20S ... ircles.wmv

4. Black Scottie Pippen Bulls #33 jersey. Also a favorite shred jersey. You can see me wearing it on Zeb and Fletch's SCI vids, as well as CSS7 vids, if they ever come out.
http://www.mwhansen.org/footbag/SCivid.wmv

5. Purple Lakers Van Exel #9 jersey. Great for shred, but doesn't match any of my shorts too well. Wore it on competition day of SCI.
http://www.footbag.org/gallery/show/8814

6. Yellow Lakers Van Exel #9 jersey. What can I say? Nick the Quick was one of my all-time favs. I wear this on Josh Munsterman's "Tired Ken" videos.
http://www.footbag.org/gallery/showset/Ken

7. New secret jersey I will unveil at my next tourney, or next vid. As I mentioned, it's not ideal to shred in, and it's probably the worst condition of all my jerseys (the lettering is cracking badly). Not a great purchase, but still pretty cool.

8. Not an NBA jersey, but I sometimes wear my black and silver Towa High School jersey (#13) from Japan. It's a jersey from the High School team I coached while I lived in Japan. I wore it at Worlds 2005, but it's also a bit too big and heavy to really play well in.
http://www.footbag.org/gallery/show/5603

So all told, I have 4 jerseys that are ideal for shred, 3 which are passable, and one which is only for civilian wear. Oh yeah, if anybody has any old NBA jerseys they want to get rid of, I wear either a Champion small (36), or Youth XL (18-20). My birthday is April 16th.

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 03 Jul 2006 13:12

It's all coming down to the wire, which is exciting. Even through all the stress, I'm aware that I'm making progress towards a goal, and that feels good. Yesterday was Sunday, which meant I couldn't do anything grad-school related, so I spent all day doing exercise. Kinda like the calm before a storm.

I went to the gym to swim (in other words, I wore sandals), which predictably meant that one of the hoops was lowered to kids height, and nobody was on the courts.

I couldn't resist, so I spent a good chunk of time working on dunks. I didn't want to get crazy blisters again though, so I dunked in sandals, which surprisingly didn't hold me back too much. No new dunks, but my consistency was WAY up. Soooo much fun. After dunking I still had enough energy to swim 30 laps.

I went back to the gym a couple hours later to shred, and was very pleasantly surprised to find that the hoops were still lowered!

Since I was wearing G-Units, I decided to dunk some more, even though my hand was banged up from my earlier jam-session. The shoes made a big difference, but I didn't want to overdo it, cause the goal was to shred, and I didn't want to tire out my muscles by dunking. Mostly though, I wanted to give my hand a chance to convalesce, cause I was getting blood bruises from slamming home oops off the boards.

Shred went really well. I ended up playing for 2 hours or so, and the whole time I felt real good and relaxed. Initially (the first hour or so) I avoided doing janiwalkers, and just went for strings and cool links. I think this helped put me in a good mood and kept me loose, so that later on when I tried janis, there was no pressure.

In rough order of how happy I was with them, here are highlights:

*DATW x3, out to in.
*DATW x5, in to out.
*janiwalker-drifter
*15 drifters. I really should be able to get at least 20.
*atomic blender at the end of the session.
*ripwalk-jani midstring.
*11 clean pdx whirls.
*dimwalk-bedwetter bsos. I've actually hit this back to back a while ago, but today felt great because every move felt efficient and clean, which is a recent phenomena.
*tomahawk x2
*tomahawk-tomahawk-pdlo in the other direction, and in the seal I bsosed the pdlo, and also got spinning osis bsos.
*dso-dod bsos. I really like that link.
*torque-paradox torque-torque to start a string.
*19 PLOs! New record!

*janiwalker-barfly-barfly-barfly
*janiwalker to 57 infinities

At one point some old guy came up to me and gave me the usual ignorant footbag comments/compliments. He told me I should be a soccer player, because they make more money than footbaggers

I was tempted to ask him: "what gives you more pleasure and happiness than anything in the world?", and if he responded by saying anything other than "making/counting money", I would have asked him if he'd give it up in exchange for money. I was really hoping he'd say something like "my beautiful daughter." What an idiot.

I may write a FAQ sometime with tactful (and not-so-tactful) answers to commonly asked footbag questions.

hacksterbator · Post by **hacksterbator** » 03 Jul 2006 13:55

C-Fan wrote:I may write a FAQ sometime with tactful (and not-so-tactful) answers to commonly asked footbag questions.

oh hell, i can see it already! that would be awesome!!!

props on the datw's. it wasn't untill i read your blog a while back that i realized i had never hit it flipside ever. congrats on breaking some pb's, that's always fun to do, lets you know you've been improving.

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 03 Jul 2006 20:44

July the third, 2006

Man, super-stressful morning. But I got a lot done, so that felt good. I signed a 12 month lease for a room I've never seen in an apartment I've never been to. Oy

Sometimes you gotta do things like that though, so here's hoping it all comes up scotch and roses.

I rewarded myself with a light shred in the afternoon, and right in the middle of it, I decided on a whim to go to a yoga class. I had purposely chosen shred clothes that would slow me down (red shorts and my new NBA jersey), yet I had a surprisingly strong shred in spite of these hindrances. I felt like I had played real hard my last couple sessions, so I didn't want to push my body too much. Because of my surprisingly strong start, I was tempted to make it a long session, but I thought better of it, and wisely went to yoga. I'm so glad I did; all the stress of these last few weeks had taken a toll, and the yoga really helped relax me.

Yoga was so relaxing, that I'm having trouble remembering my shred highlights!

Anyway, here's what I do recall:

*drifter-blender bsos!

That's always been one of my favorite footbag combos, so bsos felt real good.
*dso-paradon bsos
*ducking clipper-janiwalker-pdx whirl
*terrage-dod randomly midstring
*janiwalker-ripwalk
*legbeater-matador-pdx torque
*ripwalk-janiwalker-torque
*janiwalker-6 pdx whirls
*.....uh...yeah.

Blame the yoga.

Tomorrow is my last day of gym membership. I gotta say that joining the gym was one of the best things I did in Arizona. I got to play on carpet, in airconditioning, in front of a TV, and in front of people (which forced me to keep my mental game, and encouraged me to go for longer strings). After shreds I'd get to use the whirlpool to massage my legs, and take long showers. It also gave me a chance to show people footbag; even if they never bother to learn anything about it, at least they are aware that there's more to it than just hippie stoners keeping it in the air. It's so hot outside these days though, that I'll need to find a place to play from now on.

I've got one spot in mind, which I'll try out on Sunday.

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 05 Jul 2006 18:14

Loooooooooong blog entry, eaten by modified. I got a PM in the middle of writing, and somehow that killed it.

Maybe I'll re-do it tomorrow if time allows, but the main thing is I got in a good shred today, where janiwalkers felt real strong (still only strong side). The other nice thing, was I was wearing my new NBA jersey, and it didn't hold me back much at all. That's promising. Alright, more later ... I hope.

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 06 Jul 2006 13:27

Alright, I'm gonna try and re-write yesterday's shred.

A couple months ago during one of my shreds, a middle schooler showed lots of interest, so I toned down my session and spent a long time teaching him some basics. I didn't see him for a couple months, but I ran into him yesterday, which proved a nice stroke of luck.

My gym membership had expired the previous day, but I went to the gym anyway in the hopes of playing somewhere near the lobby, since it's got AC and carpeting. Unfortunately, the place was overrun with kids and people walking about, so I had to abandon this idea pretty quick. Luckily, the middleschooler I mentioned in the last paragraph (Teegan) bumped into me, and asked if I was going to hack. I told him that I couldn't, since my membership ran out yesterday, and I didn't have access to my good spot. "No problem" he tells me, and then proceeds to sneak me into the gym via the janitor's route! Sweet. Teegan is truly a man amongst 7th graders.

Thanks to the sneak-in, I only managed a short session, but much better than nothing. I also managed to cram in a bunch of highlights in less than an hour.

*dimwalk-janiwalker
*toe ripwalk-janiwalker
*janiwalker-DDD, then in the seal I had blurriest to the other DDD
*ripwalk-janiwalker, then another jani in the seal
*janiwalker-ps whirl-pdlo-dimwalk-ducking clipper-ps whirl
*GDLO to start a string, and ripwalk-janiwalker in the sealing run.
*legbeater-jani-barfly-barfly

I was also real happy, cause I managed all that in my new NBA jersey, which means it isn't as bad for shred as I thought it was.

sen · Post by **sen** » 06 Jul 2006 15:54

GO TEEGAN!!

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 09 Jul 2006 16:27

C-Fan wrote: I've got one spot in mind, which I'll try out on Sunday.

July 10th, 2006

I played at that spot, and just as I had hoped, it was awesome. I will elaborate more about the spot and the session later, but for now I will just put down my highlights. The date of this post may offer a clue to this mystery...

Anyway, I felt real tired during this shred, but I was also really hyped up, so I ended up hitting a few decent highlights.

*ripwalk-janiwalker
*bl whirl-blurriest to start a string.
*alpine leg-bl torque to start a string.
*atomic blender to a run, twice. I only tried atomic blender twice all session, so I was pleasantly surprised how strong they were.
*torque-paratorque-torque-dropped pdx blender.
*frenzy on my second try.
*random spinning whirl midstring, completely unexpected.
*paradon swirl-ripwalk
*paradon swirl-tomahawk, then I bsosed the tomahawk
*a run with food bsos, plus a blurry torque.
*janiwalker-ripwalk-fog
*a couple beta e-walks
*a run with flurry bsos, with a midstring jani and a fog in there.
*sailing ss dlo!
*a run that had flurry-paradon-barfly, and bedwetter-terrage-dod-barfly-barfly in it.

I`d say I played about 2.5 hours. I want to write more, but ... more later, OK?

zeroman13 · Post by **zeroman13** » 09 Jul 2006 16:50

Can I guess where you are?

sen · Post by **sen** » 09 Jul 2006 17:00

OOO! Ooo! I know!! Pick ME pick me!!!!

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 10 Jul 2006 16:13

Shhhhhhhhh..... soon all will be revealed.

So yeah, it looks like I`ve developed a habit of constantly forgetting one highlight per blog entry. Weird. Anyway, yesterday (7/10/06) I got in a light session which proved to be fun. For the most part I laid off symposium and janis, and worked in a few more spins. Today I hope to have a big big session, so I didn`t want to push it too much.

Highlights:

*alpine leg-stepping blender (previous session)
*bl whirl-blurriest again
*one of my best vortices ever to kick off a string.
*a lot of PLOs in a row. I wasn`t counting, but I`d guess it was near my record. Felt strong.
*flurry-dso bsos!

*a run with mobius and toebius using diff torques. Dropped trying to bsos the mobius.
*a run with both fog and flurry bsos.
*pdx reverse eggbeater for my second time ever! Even more surprising, I sealed it with pdx blender bsos!

Now that grad school preparations are mostly over, I feel like I`m shredding with a clear mind, no stress. I`m making a point to really savor this summer before returning to the world of academia.

setman · Post by **setman** » 10 Jul 2006 16:43

C-Fan wrote: *pdx reverse eggbeater for my second time ever! Even more surprising, I sealed it with pdx blender bsos!

pdx miraging pickup ? must be difficult. props.
Takumi hit surreal to swifter twice. Shhh...

max · Post by **max** » 11 Jul 2006 00:44

sailing ss dlo!

woot! Props Ken, that's a cool 4-dex.
And props also on your pdx miraging op pickup, it's much harder than it looks on paper.

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 11 Jul 2006 16:11

Just to clarify: pdx reverse egg is pdx miraging pick-up. I do it big jumpy style, like a voodoo, and not with a quasi set. I actually don`t find it too hard, but it feels fun to hit. I gave a few tries the other day at blurry reverse egg (like a fog with the last dex reversed) and footed it a few times, but still no seal. I have a feeling I saw Daryl hit this trick waaay back in 2001.

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 11 Jul 2006 17:59

OK, I seem to have resolved my computer problems.

So yeah, I played a ton of footbag yesterday. I went to my new shred spot at 1:30, and came home a bit past 7. I hadn`t played that long in ages. Tons of fun, but completely exhausting. I can`t remember my highlights too well either. So just some random ones.

*toe gdlo
*alpine spinal tap, first try.
*A run with flurry bsos, where there were at least 10-11 tricks between each flurry. I like spacing out bsosed tricks, it looks cooler imo.
*mid string pixie gyro mirage
*backside fog
*random mobius at the end of a string. Excited cause it was the other side than the previous day.
*some nice diving pdx tricks
*pdx reverse egg again.
*some promising attempts at frontside reactor.

Max: sailing ss dlo is probably the easiest 4 dex trick out there. That said, I`d like to get that on video...

zeroman13 · Post by **zeroman13** » 11 Jul 2006 18:02

So when can I tell everyone where you are?

Props on all the crazy stuff your hitting Ken!

HG · Post by HG » 11 Jul 2006 18:41

C-Fan wrote: *some promising attempts at frontside reactor.

PWNT i hit that

max · Post by **max** » 12 Jul 2006 02:28

Max: sailing ss dlo is probably the easiest 4 dex trick out there.

Agreed. But I still think it's cool for several reasons:

- it's a "rewind combo" in a trick and that's cool.
- it looks cool.
- it's harder to "the" than most other common quad-dexes.

hell I'd even like a nice big fat shooting [muted maybe] ss dada if it was clean! (for some of the same reasons as above)