optimum # of shreds per week

Brad_R · Post by **Brad_R** » 09 Jul 2006 21:11

yeah, I'm in Iowa City shreding it up. Here, are crew is two man strong. We have been shreding like three times per week. This guy I'm kicking with is a machine, he practices in the moning before our shreds. Me on the other hand, am having trouble finding time to practice my moves and learn new ones since three jams per week really sucks the energy out of me. Those of you who who are fortunate like myself to have somene to kick with, how many thimes a week do you shred. Do I need to suck it up and learn to build up my endurance? If so, how do I go about doing that. I will ask the guy I'm kicking with next jam, but he is an ex-cross country runner. I've never ran 7 miles, at least not to my recolection. Thanks for anyone who responds to this email.

Zeb Jackson · Post by **Zeb Jackson** » 09 Jul 2006 22:17

i have no idea, maybe age might be a factor, endurance, sleep, there are lots of things that could contribute to that,

i myself play almost 7 days a week for atleast 4 hours or more a day, and then about ever other week or so i take a break.

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 10 Jul 2006 17:15

A lot of it depends on what difficulty level you play at. If your style consists of hard symposium tricks and furious sets, that can take a toll on your body faster than say, a smooth flowing spinning ducking style. Somebody like Luis Monhollon could probably safely play everyday for several hours, while somebody like Sunil probably couldn`t.

I would also say your age and body type also affect what is healthy and what isn`t.

One last thing to keep in mind, is that your body often needs time to develop certain muscles related to certain moves. So if you`ve only recently learned a new concept, it can be a good idea to slowly develop it, and not over-do it too much initially.

jay7 · Post by **jay7** » 11 Jul 2006 02:36

I shred with one person, and only seem to have time for 2-3 times a week for a good few hour session. Between work and well work it is just hard to fit it in. However, both of us always find time to hack by ourselves just to get started on improve on tricks so that when we do have a shred session, we can actually have something new each time....

As for endurance, I would say "run", but the best way to SHRED with the proper muscles working, and the body styles you endure is to SHRED....

But any sport would help...

RawSko · Post by **RawSko** » 11 Jul 2006 09:18

The best way to build up endurance for Footbag is seriously just to shred. Push yourself a little, but DO NOT push too hard. All that is going to do is deteriorate your knees and force you to give up footbag at a much earlier age than you would otherwise have been forced to quit at. 3-4 sessions of a few hours every week is prime for solo shred. Jams are great for learning new stuff (and just for increasing the amount of fun involved), but it's your solo shred that helps you to REALLY skool the concepts that you already know. Solo shred is also a much better way to build up endurance, since there are no breaks in waiting for the bag to come back around the circle to you.

I don't have anybody to kick with, so IMO 1 jam per month would be effin A... If you CAN have more jams than that, definately do so, but it's Solo shred that will really help you build up your game.

keep it real

beenjammin · Post by **beenjammin** » 11 Jul 2006 17:26

play everywhere all of the time, whether it be, on a sidewalk, in the grass, at the park, your girlfriends house, your grandmas house, luis monhollons house, etc.
IT's fun to kick or shred a footbag from your car to a building or some other set goal such as the other side of a bridge etc. Footbag is all about setting and reaching goals, so doing that all of the time will really boost your game. You've gotta touch the footbag, you've gotta feel the footbag, You've gotta love the footbag, youve got to be the footbag. I say this in all seriousness.

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 11 Jul 2006 22:42

I find the best thing to do is play as often as you can - but not to work on the same things every time or have the same intensity each session.

I can understand the view that you can play "too much" but I generally disagree - except it is good to take rest days with some regularity.

When I was training for a sporting team a while ago we had a very hard fitness regime - which started with just middle distance running ( 5 - 10 km) but slowly became almost entirely sprint training - which I think is much harder. It went something like:

1km warm up jog

6 x 15 m sprints with high knee rises
6 x 15 m sprints with high back kicks
8 x 70 m sprints with 2 minute walk in between sprints
6 x 100 m sprints with 2 minute walk in between sprints
4 x 200 sprints with 2 minute walk in between sprints
4 x 10,20,30,40 suicide runs (so sprint 10 meters, jog back, sprint 20 jog back etc up to 40 and then back down to 10 = 1 rep.)

1 km warm down jog

First couple of weeks of doing this was really tough but then as we kept doing it we built up the muscles and by the time the tournament came around we didn't have any problems with fitness. I think the same thing happens with footbag - if you have keep playing with good regularity despite your body hurting you'll pick up fitness and get to stage where you can play at that level without hurting. When I say hurt - if it's like injury hurt then playing on it is very stupid - but just muscle soreness is ok (at least in my experience).

james_dean · Post by **james_dean** » 12 Jul 2006 15:28

Agreed. If your not pushing yourself to the point where your muscles hurt, it's going to take a long time to get any fitter. Again, muscle soreness, not injury