Mike's - Arizona Footbloggin - I am back!!!!

[mrjauss]

Alrighty it?s about time I start this blog for the whole club. Yes, it is hot down here but it's a dry heat! I have been on mod since November 2005. Yes, a noobie. I knew about modified a few years ago but never thought it would be this interesting & helpful with my game. I read a lot on the footbag.org forum but this definitely has a lot more going on & more up to date.

First of all I want to thank modified & all the Footbag players on here. I really enjoy reading your blogs. Good stuff. Keep it up!! No pun intended. Thanks for Footbag.org too!! No doubt! Also if anyone wants to post that is not in the club please feel free. Try not to get to crazy tho. This is a place to have decisions, hear updates, & get some history about Arizona Footbag & the players. Since most of us are pretty busy I thought this was a good idea so we can post something now & then.

Ok now that I got that out of the way I will try & give you a break down of what has been going on in AZ for the last year, ok almost year, for me at least. Everyone else in the club can update here or in their own blog. There are 2 members of Unity that have their own blog that I know of, Josh Munstermann, zeroman13, & someone who needs no introduction Ken Somolinos, C-fan. They both have great blogs to read. Ken is here for now & we have kicked twice since he has. It was a great experience! Thanks Ken for all your help!!

Since I have gotten back in the Phoenix area in July I have really started to kick more. It is nice to have people to kick with again. When I was in New Mexico it was hard to find anyone really dedicated to kick with. I found a few Hacky Sack players but no real Freestylers. Some of you know what I mean. We have been slowly getting more & more Footbag players to kick with. Johnny Baldwin, Marana, AZ, & I were getting together once or twice a month in Casa Grande which is half way in between. Things have changed a bit & we try & get together when we can. Johnny & I (old timers for Footbag players) need to play more but with work, family, & life it is hard. I was kicking almost every other day for about 1 ? to 2 ? hours. Then I tried to kick about 1 ? hours at least 3 or 4 days in a row with one or 2 days off. I am trying to find out what works best for me. I am also trying to figure out how to learn faster, even at my age. I work a lot of consectives & combo?s with 2?s & then work some 3?s with the similar ideas. I thought we could become completely guiltless by the end of 2006 but right now I went back to the basics to work my weak components like both clippers, mirages, illusions, LO, etc. I noticed I go to fast with my flip clipper so it affects how I set the bag. I have learned to slow down & stall the bag before you set the bag. This is where some of the personal style is added by each player. I moved into my house so I will have 3 places to kick just at my house the concrete patio in the yard, the covered patio, & then the garage. I have given it a name already, the shred lair. Ok, cheesy but it works. It is nice to have options. I will soon have my pool table setup too. I need to practice so if I get a chance I can play Paul Munger or Rick Reese. I heard they are both pretty good players. I am sure they are more Footbag players that are good at pool too. I can?t wait for the next tournament that I will go to so I can find out!

The Unity club is growing. We got Josh back into kickin again a while back. He is a natural & will pass Johnny & I up soon. Nate Oates kicks with us once in a while. He has such good timing. If he played more he could be so good. Johnny is getting Sean McKiernan to kick more down in Marana/Tucson. Sean has some good talent. He just needs to slow down like I do. Johnny is working every hard & has some smooth tricks like his osis, butterfly, drifter, & torque. The way he does an osis reminds me of Eric W. & Bryan F. We now have the pleasure of kicking with Ken since he is passing through town. We would hate to see him go but I think Arizona is not for him right now. He is worried now but I know a man with his talents he will be fine. I think he is just stressing like we all do when we go through changes in our lives. Now we have some new young talent in the club. Steven Boliek just started kicking with us in the last few weeks. He has some good talent & great motivation. He is getting mirage, illusion, both clippers, ATW, & LO. Victor Coronado is up in the Glendale area & we have not had the pleasure of kicking with him. He did send me an email & said he hit 1028 consecutives. Damn! Nice job! We will continue to promote & share the love of Footbag.

Johnny Baldwin & I did a demo at Marana High School in February 2006. We had about 12 students in awe about Footbag. I think Johnny will be teaching a Footbag class down there soon. I will hopefully have a demo at a high school in Phoenix soon. I should prepare but I guess I will just wing it. I got a lot of idea from players on modified & what they did in there demos. Thanks guys!! Josh, Steven, & myself kicked on Wednesday the 17th. Great session. I think Josh wrote some information in his blog. Steven was working hard on slowing down & getting some 2?s down. Josh is hitting stepping moves like he was born with them already ingrained in his legs. I hit 4 smears on my good side. I am still working on getting 2 on flip side. My tiltless strings are getting better. I will start working more 3?s in there too! Ok I better quit rambling & save some for later. I will give a brief history of my game & hopefully the other Unity members will do the same! Enjoy!

Later?

[zeroman13]

Well here's my history with the sport.

I first started hack kicking as a freshman in highschool. It was a lot of fun, but was very repetitious! I learned early, from a couple of seniors, about flyers. My first trick was a flying clipper, or as we called it a benji. Soon after that a fellow student came by and kicked with us, the thing about him was that he could hit around the worlds! So, after some talking to, we persuaded him to show us how he did it. After a couple of days, I was hitting them pretty easily.

My junior year was when everything tool off! About a third of the way through the year, a friend of mine found footbag.org. He also found some really kool vids of some major tricks. After we saw those vids we decided to find other tricks that we would be able to hit. The first thing we did was order Tricks of the Trade 1 & 2. Those 2 vids helped me out so much! After we got the vids, we decided to see if any other highschool in our district had a "hackey sack" team. One school did, so we got together with them and had a little tourny. They had a scoring system, which was really weird, and had two different games: team and singles. For the team comp. each individual in the team had to kick int once, and then we could do a stall or flyer. For the singles comp, you go out and do your best for 2 min (I think). We annihilated them, even tho they had 3 times as many people in their club. I won the singles comp, my best friend took 2nd, and another one of my friends took 3rd.

Later on during my junior year, we were invited down to Marana for a lesson on footbag by Johnny Baldwin. I learned a lot from him, and I still use quite a bit of the help he gave me from that session.

My senior year I didn't kick at all! Not very many people at my school were interested in it anymore. Ohh well, footbag had a falling out in my life for a year.

Then in the latter part of December, a friend that I use to kick with came over to my house and told me that he kicked with Mike and Ken. He told me that Ken was was off the hook. So after he told me that we kicked for probably 1 1/2 hours. Ever since, I've been hooked. I've gotten so much better in these last 5 months, I would've never believed I could be this good when I was kicking a year and a half ago.

There's my story, to see the rest go check out my blog http://modified.in/footbag/viewtopic.php?t=12388

later
Josh

[Senor Grommet]

I used to live in Tucson, AZ. I was even a pseudo member of the Unity Footbag Club. I did a lot of public kicking at the U of A but nobody ever expressed interest in learning to freestyle. In the end, I guess I prefered kicking by myself and only met up with Johnny B. a few times over the course of 2 years. It's good to see that your club is starting to expand.

As you already may know, the BEST ways to improve your tiltless game is to practice linking planned strings of 2-add moves and improvising long 2-add strings. If the most contacts you've ever linked are 15, make your goal for every session to hit 15 or more, with your true intent to be reaching 20. Of course it is super important to drill the basic individual moves. I find that my string length improved when I could rely on several moves as bails. Develop bails in which you're so confident you never feel like you will drop them.

[zeroman13]

Mike,
Are we on for wed at 3:30 at Encanto? Just wondering.

[mrjauss]

Unity,

We are on for the kick on Wednesday the 24th at 3:30 pm at Encanto park in Phx. I sent out an email to the phx area guys so hopefully more will show up.

Wed the 17th sess at Encanto park was great! I will keep working my juggling both with my hands & feet! I think 3 on my feet is doable one day! I will first work 2 one the feet. One thing at a time!

I only kicked once since last Wednesday's sess because of work & the house. I just worked mirages, illusions, clips & butterflys since I only had about 40 mins before work. Keep on addin the add's! It helps no matter how little time you have.

Jeremy,

Thanks for the post. I talked to Johnny B. about you already & we both agree you are an animol (yes, it is spelled that way. You are a step up from animal). To bad you left but I understand why. Tucson is a small place. Phx is much better if you like bigger cities & all. Thanks for the tips. As of late, I am hitting 20 to 30 tiltless now & working on getting more & more 3's & a few 4's that I can do in there. I learned some good ideas from your blog. Thanks. You have some great drill ideas! Most of the links I can not do but I am using some of the ideas for 2's & 3's that I can do. Based off the clip drill you made up. I like it a lot & use it for butterfly's too.

clip>op clip>op clip>clip>op clip>clip>op clip>clipx2>op clip>clipx2 etc. keep adding one to each side to see how many you can get.
I got up to 7 so that is about 66 clip. No where near your 281. Damn!

I am trying this one tomorrow.
clip>op clip>clipx3>op clip x3>clipx3>op clipx5>clipx5>op clipx5>clipx5>op clipx7>clipx7 etc. Keep adding again. 1,3, 5,7, 9 etc. to see how many you can get. U can add one more op clip so you can get back on the same side so it is less confussing. Something like that might work. Got to work the brain as you shred or drill! Some don't like to think so much but so far it does not bother me. I will find out if I can still handle it when I get into more complicated tricks & links. Well see. blah.blah. rpt.

One day the Unity crew should make a trip to LA or Santa Cruz for a Jam! We will talk about that one!

later.....

[mrjauss]

I am now in NY & finally had some time to give an update about the club.

Wednesday May 24th:
Josh, Victor, & myself kicked at Encanto Park. Victor Coronado is a pretty good hacky sack player. He has most of the basic kicks down & some stalls. We showed him ways to better his toe stalls. We also showed him ATW, LO, & mirage. He had some trouble so it will be interesting to see what he has accomplished next time we kick.

Josh was doing great with all his stepping as usual. Hopefully he will work some of his toe moves more.

Myself it was the same. I keep working the flip clipper & working on longer tiltless runs & throwing some different tricks in now & then.

We also worked on some juggling with the local juggling club that comes to the park!


Saturday May 27th:
Unity club session/article/interview in Tucson. Good times! Ken, Johnny, Josh, Sean, & myself. We kicked about 2 hours the first session. The photographer that came with the reporter took pictures for the first 2 hours that we kicked at the tennis courts. It was a little over 100 degrees & dry as usual. I think the photographer got the best pics from Ken since he has such intense long runs. The article will come out soon, hopefully. We will post the link on the forums later.

Ken was having a great session in my opinion. He makes tricks look so easy. Johnny was working on the usual. He & I don't have enough time so we end up doing the same shit. The days are just not long enough. Sean was trying his crazy tricks like fairy spinning stuff. He going so fast. Slow down buddy! Josh keeps getting getting better. His tricks that he does are so clean. Sickening! Like we said he will pass us up! Well at least Johnny & I. I was trying the same shit. Ken gave me some great input on DLO's, eggbeater's, dyno's, & blenders. I will work these more when I get back.

Then we had some burgers & hit the spa. Great for the legs. The spa not the burgers. Well maybe the protein helped. Since Josh & I drove so far we wanted to kick more. Sean left already & Johnny had some things to do so it was Ken, Josh & I for about 2+ more hours. We got some on video. I will work on it when I get back.

Sunday June 4th:
Kicked for about 1 1/2 hours in this parking lot in New Jersey. Working on the same stuff. I can't get rid of the bad habit on my left clipper. I think I figure it out & then the same thing happens. I need to get it on film so I can figure out what I am doing wrong. Once I do that my game should in prove & then I work the shit out some new tricks I want to get down.

This must be a boring ass blog when I write in it. I will be kicking with the NYFA on Wednesday so that should be killer! Ok enough babbling!

later all!

[zeroman13]

Life in the desert is great, but it gets TOO DAMN HOT to do anything except sweat! But I keep kicking, check out The Munster Blog to see what I've been up too!

Unfortunatley earlier today I slightly twisted my ankle, so I won't be kicking tomorrow, I just realized I couldn't kick anyway because I giving away some of my blood tomorrow. Damn vampires! gotta love'em tho!

[mrjauss]

Wednesday 6/7:
no session w/ the NYFA crew because of rain. Hopefully next time!

Thursday 6/8:
1 hr 45 min session starting at about 12:30 am.
Worked basics as usual. Double switch overs. No luck
there. Stepping clippers. Good side is good. I hit
it about 3 or 4 out 5. Flip: maybe 1/5. Need to work
on that one a lot. Once I get my clipper/butterfly
better on flip that should help. My timing is an
issue, still! Doh! Also worked smear' & dyno's.
Trying to work on turning the head sooner on the
dyno's to get my ankle flatter as Ken S. recommended.
Works good so far. Just need to fine tune it.

Friday 6/9:
1 1/2 hr session starting at abt 11:15pm. Basics.
Dbl swtch over close on good side. No luck on flip.
DLO's & eggs practice. Worked on clippers &
butterflys on weakside. I think I may have figured
out a better way to work out the kinks. Slow down as
usual & set straight up w/ stall foot. Sounds simple
but sometime the brain does not get the muscles to
work right. Drills: ss butterfly>pdx mirage rpt
stopped at 5x/3x on flip, osis>ss butterfly rpt cycled through
3x. finished off with some osis practice & some
balancing drills like inside stall to wrap to clippers
w/o planting.

saturday 6/10:
Kung fu practice for 2 hrs. Then worked on basics for
about 30 mins. mirages, illusions, clippers,
butterflys. ss butterflys rpt 5x on strong 4x on
flip. weakside is coming along. A few more weeks & I
can move onto some more tricks that I want to work on. Or maybe I am dreaming........

Monday 6/12
Worked on basics for abt 30 minutes before it was time
I had to go to work. Time to make the wafers!
I drilled pdx mirage>ss butterfly>ss butterfly rpt.
Good drill for my balance. Flipside is tough.

Tuesday 6/13
Took the day off because my right calf muscle was sore
from working my flip clipper/butterfly.

Wednesday 6/14
Since I am off for 2 days I thought it would be good
to sleep in & then do some consecutives & a few
drills! I had a long list but only got to about a
third of it since I worked the flip issue. Consec`s
take a lot out of you. Ok maybe it is age or maybe I
am not in as good as shape as I thought. Reality
check! Soooo I went for some records. Here is my
list. No laughing. This is a great idea for stamina.
It sure tell me that I need a lot of work. argh! I
also notice where my balance & timing needs to be to
get the flip side clip/butter better. Once I get that
flip to work then I can increase these records. I
shouldn`t have wasted those 3 years in NM when I only
played about once or twice a month. What a lazy ass!

left foot/right foot
Mirage 20/34
Illusions 5/8 (very weak)
clippers - ALT: a pathetic 14 SS: 37/58
SS butterflys 3/13 (what a difference bet the 2)
Infinities less then 10. argh!
osis a sad 7
clip>infinity rpt 10x thru a good 40. See it is that
flip clip that is messing me up! argh!
mirage>LO rpt 8

I will get to the rest in a few days. I think I will
incorporate this into my solo shred practice a lot
more. It is pretty hot here in AZ but since I kick in
my greatroom right now because my pool table is not
set up there is no problem! AC is a shred saver!
Check back later at the end of the year to see better
progress!!!! Damn straight! I noticed when I was in the Zone even tho is was short lived on some of these consecutives the balance & timing felt great! I need to get that so it feels like that more!

Friday 6/16
A good 2 hour session. It was a nice break from work. haha. I warmed as usual with abt 100 kicks, 50 toe stalls, 50 inside stalls. Then mirages, illusions, Clip, LO, butter. Then I worked DLO's. I can hit them from clip or toe. I can usually get about 2 or 3 in a row then I get tired. Need to set lower & work the pop & lock (tighten & relax the mucles). I think I read that on someones blog too. Great idea. I will work on that more. I did some cross body rakes. I have hit 7 alt. Not to bad. I also thought of a new trick. Well ok to me it is new. I will work on that & get back to you on it! My clips are slowly getting better but my butterflys are still lacking. I can only get abt 10 infinities. That flip clip jacks the flow up. The clip>infinity rpt is so much better because it slows me down so I can get about 30 or 40. Ahh so much work to do & so little time. I will post again in a few weeks since I want to drill more & then try for more records. I will stick to kicking 5 or 6x a week! Until next time.....

[zeroman13]

It's been hard to play down here in Az. It's getting to the point where the weather has taken over and you shred at your own risk, literally!

[mrjauss]

6/20
I noticed my G-units (first pair) had a pretty big tear in them. It is on the inside by the shoe string eyelets. After taking off the leather, the soft material, & the foam the last layer is pretty thin. Since I tighten my shoes a bit tight it tore easily. I will have to watch that. As usual I warmed up, stretched, then worked the basics. I kick abt 40 mins. Worked on timing & my flip ankle crank. I get real lazy on the cranking the ankle so it is another limitor. *sigh* I hit a new combo. Heel stall > cross body rake > butterfly>pdx mirage> few other tricks. I can only start from the heel stall. It is pretty tough to do it mid run. I will work that in. I had to take it easy since my shoe had a tear in it.

6/24
I finally broke out another pair of g-units. These are the blk & red style. Nice colors. It is same pair I seen Ken Somolinos had the first time I kicked with him. I modified them I left the thin material under the leather on. This made it hard to feel the bag. I took it off later the next morning! As for the kick I did the standard warmup, etc. I kicked for abt 1 hr 45 mins. Yes, I worked the flip. Man it is still weak. It is driving me nuts. I also worked DLO's & eggs. Again I can hit DLO's from clip pretty easy but from toe it is not real consistant. The eggs from toe are getting better but I can only hit like 1/5. Weak! Putting the set foot down quickly is the key like Ken S. said. I need to get more consistant at the set height too. These DLO's & Egg's really work the upper abs. I need to do more situps.

I also worked stepping clipper. Slow down set & lift knee high! That sure helped. I hit stepping clip>DLO> few other tricks. No luck on flip. argh!

Worked - ss butterfly>ss butter>pdx mirage rpt.

Next...

6/26
Finally had some time to kick again for only abt an hr but hey better then nothing. I warmed up bit but didn't stretch so now my groin area is a bit sore. Happens all the time if I don't stretch. What a lazy ass. So again I was analyzing the flip butterfly. I noticed that either the knee is to high or to low or the stall foot is to low because when I go to stall the stall foot does not go down with the support foot like the good side. Ahh!! I think I will start out every run with flip butterfly so I can work it. I did hit clip>infinity rpt x10 (40 contacts again). At least I am consistant at something. I can only hit abt 10 infinites still. I try to keep them clean & not chase after them so I only get abt 10 or less. The bad habit on the flip butterfly just keeps haunting me. I also worked on a few smears so I won't loose then. Weak side is feeling better. If I raise my knee higher I can get it about chest high! Then it was off to work! Who invented work anyway!? Damn him! I wanted to kick longer!

ja ne (see u later)!

6/28
First day off so I had to kick! Last week I did not kick as much as I liked so I made it a point on my days off! I kicked abt 1 hr 45 mins starting about 9:20 pm after 2 hrs of kung fu. Good times! I warmed up & stretched. I worked some stepping clippers. Good side I can hit 4/5 & flip is a sloppy 1/5. I also worked pdx mirage>ss butterfly rpt. I have so much control on good side. I keep analyzing everything I can so I can get the flip just as good! I cycled through the drill a few times but it starts getting sloppy on the flip side so I have to stop. Ok I probably drop it anyway. The good side I hand caught it after 5x (10 contacts). Then worked infinites & clip>op clip. Infinities I get about 8 to 10 & the clip drill I got about 15. Very weak! Damn how annoying!! I worked on rev whirls & whirls. Great practice & my right knee didn't hurt. I can get a 2 or 3 in a row on both sides both rev & whirls. Damn good! I need to put this in my tiltless runs! I worked on BOP for a while to. I worked a few other things but can't remember.

6/29
Kicked about 1 hr 45 mins again. I warmed up & stretched. I worked clips & butterflys like I will always do! The same results as usual. I did notice if I wait just a slip second before I jump into my flip side (weak side. I will call it that from now on till it gets better) butterfly then I can stall & set with more control. That is what I need! I did hit 10 contacts of ss butterfly on good side & 7 on weak side. I worked stepping clipper, stepping mirage, stepping LO which just ended up being stepping......
toe stall. haha. I also tried to get stepping op LO but it still turns out to be DLO's. My terrages where pretty good. Still can't get it back to back. Need to work on that. Hit a few pixie LO's. The LO after the pixie is still more of a uptime LO then I like but it will work. I can get about 3 to 4 in row. Just trying to make it more controlled. Worked on DLO>cross body rake & cross body rake>DLO. That combo is getting tight! I also hit osis>spinning clip of good side but no luck on weakside. Overall great session. Worked on many tricks & combo's. I also hit wauxspin on good side & off the side of the foot on weakside. That is a sweet trick to throw in a run. I tried spinning wauxspin & came close! yeah! Well enough babble. Until next time!

6/30
Had a killer 2 hour session. Did the usual warm up. I worked on some DLO's from clip & toe. I also worked the motion for barrage from clip & Double switch over w/ & w/o the bag. I never hit anything but it was good practice. I also worked wauxspin to dial in the good side. I was hitting it 3/5. The weakside I still could not hit it. With the weakside clip foot I would rotate to much or to little. That foot still does not have control like the good side which I can rotate where I need it to catch the bag. Then I worked about 45 mins on BOP stuff. I tried to think of all the combo's directions I never do like far osis>infinity butterfly rpt or far osis>ss butterfly> infinity butterfly rpt or pdx mirage>far osis -- add either of the previous drills stir & rpt. It was great practice. I will now more to through into my tiltless runs! keep on kickin....

7/1
No kick today. My legs needed a day off! At work now & had some time to post the last weeks sessions. Taking day off but still thinking of what to work on next! I am still fixing my first pair of G's. So far they are coming out great. I used some old curtains that my wife had. They are a thin canvas material, the Kea special. I have stitched them on the inside of the shoe with some Tear Mender (Great stuff! Johnny Baldwin told me about it. It dries clear is a bit soft, flexible, & very strong. Works great for bags to!) i will have to kick in these shoes the end of next week when I am done with them to see how the fix worked. Well tomorrow is another day so..... more practice it will be!

[mrjauss]

7/2
quick up date. I kicked for abt 45 mins today. I hit abt 14 contacts of clip>op clip rpt which is pretty low. I only tried once & moved onto butterflys. I got a controlled 8 & then 10 & a sloppy 14. The 14 was sloppy for only a couple then I recovered. Maybe I should keep at it even if some are a bit sloppy then I could break 25! We will see. Then worked on more BOP stuff. I also worked on ATW so I can tighten up my set for DATW & Double moves in general. Ok tomorrow is another day! Another day for more Footbag!

[zeroman13]

Nice to hear that your alive and still kicking Mike! Haha Too bad Johnny won't post hear Well here's what I've done today:

Today I kicked twice. Once at my Dad's friends house, and then again after we got home.

Highlights:
(Friends House)
flip ripwalk: worked on form, definately better than before
flip blur: got a couple of times, need to work form more
zulu: worked form and consistency, also got zulu butter a couple of times.
flip blur > op butter > blur:

(Home)
flip ripwalk: worked more on form
atomics: worked on form, did hit atomic ss butter and legbeater
pixies: worked on form and consistency
butter > diving butter > ducking butter > osis > zulu butter
diving butter > ducking butter > osis > ss butter > rip > dyno
butter > torque > op butter > osis
torque > ripwalk drop: so close to stepping out of my torques
symp mirage > dimwalk drop
ripped warrior: worked on getting a higher set, got a couple of close tries to hitting it again, needs more work tho

Thats it for today. I'll probably kick more tomorrow after klass. I still need to get my demonstrative speech set up. I can do that tomorrow before, after or while kicking. I love having my shred area in front of my computer

well I kicked a little longer.

Highlights:
osis > rip: flipside
diving butter > rip
ducking butter > rip
zulu butter > rip: almost, so close
rip > rip x3 and sealed with a run
osis > torque
torque > ss butter > rip > ss butter > blur drop
flip torque (crispy) > ss butter > infinity > rip

thats really about it, had a good time. What a great workout

[mrjauss]

1/3
Good short 30 min session. Worked on BOP stuff. Then off to work!

1/5
2 hour session. Warmed up, stretched like a good boy, then worked on may things. Finally hit wauxspin on flip side a couple of times. It is very inconsistent like many of my tricks. Haha. Not really any highlights except 14 clips (weak), broke my infinity record with 15 (it is coming along) & had several 8’s, 10’s, & a few 12’s runs at infinities also. I noticed, yes still analyzing the flip clip & butterfly, that the timing is just off a bit. Back to the practice room! Anyway…. Worked BOP & many of my other tricks.

1/8
Killer 3 ½ hour session with Josh, Conrad, 2 of his friends John & Ryan both are hacky sack players, Nate, & another new guy showed up to watch his name is Randy. Josh was busting his stepping tricks all over & a some nice legbeaters too. Sick shit. He also hit 42 osis’ in a row at the end of the session! Nice job! Conrad has some great tricks & is learning to combine them like we are. His stepping, drifters & strong pixie are effortless. Nice phoenix’s & darkwalk! John & Ryan are noobies so we will see if they have to motivation to work on some things we were showing them. It was nice that they showed up to check it out. Nate & Randy showed up a bit late since they were on the North side of the park. Next time read the whole email I sent out for the exact spot! Haha. Nate was busting some good guiltless even though he has been sick & does not practice. I don’t get it. Randy said he has never seen anything like freestyle & wanted to check out Net but had to go. Next time man, next time!

As for me I was mainly working more 3’s. My runs we kinda short. I felt like shit after the taco bell & not enough water. I need to shred outside more since I only shred in my house where it is a nice 82! When you are kickin in 105 degree weather it takes its toll on the old man. Haha. My dyno’s were off & I finally hit one at the end of the session. How pathetic & annoying. I did hit one new trick! Pdx dlo! Yeah! First time I tried it for the day & bam real soild execution! Tried 2 times after that but no luck. I will keep working it. All in all a great session. It was good to kick with other again. I will practice more & more so next time my runs will be a bit longer! Thanks for coming everyone! It was great to kick with you & meet you! Until next time…..

[mrjauss]

7/14
Kicked about an 1 hour. I had to take the week off since my right ankle was a bit sore after Saturday’s session. I think it gets sore because I rush into my tricks so fast on my left clipper/butterfly. I don't think I plant my support foot completely on the ground before I rush into the next trick. One of the reasons my weakside is so weak. Slow down damn it. This day I only worked BOP stuff & played around with eggbeaters & bubba beaters. I think I hit one eggbeater. Sigh!

7/15
Had a session with Conrad this evening in 113 degree weather! He was working his links trying to get his game back on track. His pixies are still sick like his stepping. Stepping is something that seems so hard for me! Seems like we can start kicking every Friday! That is a hint for the club! Josh hope you get a car soon!

As for me I kicked alright & I was surprised since I slept like shit. I woke up all hot sweaty & then had the chills the next time I woke up. I keep waking up every hour or 2. It sucked that I couldn’t sleep. I was about to cancel the shred but what does a good footbagger do. He takes ibuprofen & goes out & shreds. My left clipper/butterfly was not working that well the whole day. I think I could get about 5 or so clippers in a row & by the end of the session I got about 5 or so butterfly’s too. I did hit a few new tricks tho! Since it was so hot out we just made some attempts at tricks & drank a lot of water.

New tricks:
-bubba beater (bs- sealed with butterfly on good side & had a hand catch on weakside)
-toe> ss swirl (bs) Sealed with clip or butterfly. Can’t remember
-atomic ss butterfly (hit this the 3 attempt. Only can do this one side since my flip atomic is weak).
-Atomic SS LO
-Atomic LO (eggplant)
-Clip>spinning ss pick up or was it gyro pickup? Ok one of the 2.
-Clip>spinning op LO
-Tripwalk (what a surprise that was. It was about the 3rd or 4th attempt & bam! I need to work the other side because it came to me pretty easy. Must be all that mirage practice paying off!)


Overall a pretty good day! I really need to remember to breathe more. When I do a lot of 2's in my runs I breather more but when I throw in more 3’s I tend to hold my breathe.

I got my old G unit’s fixed. I will try them out this week. I would like to keep these shoes longer since they are so new. I will update later……

Oh yeah before I forget. I ran across 4 cd's full of pictures from an Southern California & western regional Footbag tournaments from 2001. I will try to post some pictures on here soon & try to remember a few things. what a good experience. I really need to go to a tournament one of these days!

[zeroman13]

Mike, nice to hear your hitting some new tricks, are you including them into your strings yet?

Here's my story:

Well I'm done for one or two weeks. I think I might've pulled a muscle around my ankle/lower cald area

I did have a session today before I did what ever I did to do this. I was hitting dlo's again pretty easily, also had a good run: atomic ss butter > ss butter > rip > osis > ss butter > torque > infinity > osis > dlo > butter.

It was fun, then right after that I did an infinity run and thats where I did whatever I did to my leg. Ohh well, now I got the time and motivation to finish my recent bag, and watch some great shred footy!

later

[mrjauss]

Josh,

Thanks for the blog entry. Sounds like we only have 2 guys in our club. We have more, really we do. They don't post anything. Some people & some peoples kids.

I haven't been adding the new tricks to strings as of yet since they are so new. Soon I will though. We will kick soon. Looks like you have a quick recovery time? That is good. What are you taking? Ok onto the entry..

7/17
Kicked for about 40 mins. Took it easy since we had a longer then normal shred on Friday. Just worked BOP. Nothing special. Work has been busy so I am pretty tired. I will try to kick again soon.

7/19
I had a pretty good session for about 2 hours. At least my weak clip/butterfly was working. I finally broke my infinity record. I hit 26 & then about 15 mins later I tried again & hit 18 so not bad at all. I keep playing with my timing so I will slow myself down on the weak clip/butterfly. Something seemed to help a little. Let’s see if I can remember what it was next time I kick. I worked on a few drills. I tried pdx mirage>op butterfly rpt got through it 6x. Nothing special. Of course I drop on weakside. I also got through butterfly>infinity>infinity>osis>osis>osis rpt 2x. That one felt good. It is getting tighter. I also worked atomic & pixie sets from pdx mirage & downtime LO by staying over the bag & keeping it tight. I know when I will have it tight on my weakside by just how I stall the clip/butterfly so if it does not feel right I can bail to osis or something if I have to. Usually I have to start with an atomic move so it is good I am finally getting the bag to go up without having to work so hard. Progress! I played around with toe>ss swirl again. I can still only hit it once in awhile. In due time! Also my quantum’s are coming along. I worked that set far about 20 mins on both sides. I will have to watch some video to see how I can improve it. It feels so much like an atomic when you set the bag. Well to me anyway. I wanted to kick longer but I thought that was enough since I had kung fu the next day & want to save some for Friday’s session! Oh yeah I tried op clip>clip>op clip> clip rpt 7x (28 contacts) & clip>infinity rpt 28x (56 contacts). Also clip> op clip rpt on 28 contacts there to. That one drives me nuts. Slow down damn it. Goal #1 by the end of the year I will get 100 alt clips & 75 infinities! I will give it my all! That seems reasonable & doable! Oh yeah my spins are getting so much better & the flip spin was surprisingly good! No falling over. Later……..

[mrjauss]

7/21 session

Had a good session with Conrad. It was 117 degrees out! Doh! Nate would have made it if he would check his email. We found a good shade spot at the elementry school by Folley Park but it started to get windy so we moved to the back of the school where the stage area is. There is still some shade even after they hacked off most of the big trees that are there. Nate & I used to kick there all the time back in 2001. Time flies. It sprinkled a bit & the wind cooled things down some. We'll Conrad & where kickin pretty good. Conrad almost ducked a fair set a couple of times! Out of no where! He hit a couple of new tricks & a couple of his old drills he used to do. Sad part is I can't remember the tricks he hit but I can remember a couple of drills that I would like to eventually get down. dimwalk>stepping LO rpt & parkwalk>stepping ss LO rpt! Nice. He made them look easy & smooth!

I only hit a couple of new tricks & hit a new record & close to another. I hit weaving & zulu clip on one side & footed both on the otherside. I hit 36 contacts of clip>op clip rpt & 21 contacts of infinities. It is nice when the flipside is working. My butterflys & clippers felt great that day! I hit tripwalk on my good side again & all most footed it on my weakside. My pixies felt ok so I worked some smears, dimwalks, pix lo's. My atomics were working great. I keep hitting legbeaters & Atom Smashers on both sides! Wow! Granted the flipside was a bit shaky but at least the set was going up higher & the stall was landing on my foot. Most of the seal's were catches but I will take it since the flip does not work that well. Since my clips were on I hit 3 whirls in a row on good side & a couple on flip. Also hit clip>whirl rpt 4x through on good side & only 2x on flip. Had some good BOP runs at about 12 to 15 contacts. Sweet! Nothing like some half way desent sleep to make you kick better. Got close again to double switch over. Rolled of the toe a couple of times. I didn't work it that much since it was at the end of session. Come to think of it I didn't work to many doubles at all. Hmm. Overall a good session. I need more of them! Next friday we will kick again. Hopefully it will be a bit cooler! We finally left at about 8 pm when it was getting dark & to hard to see the bag & the funny thing was it started to get real windy & rain real hard. Our timing was great! Mother Nature was on our side that day! Sooo.........

edit 7/22 right after this post: oh yeah I hit toe whirl 2x on good side & almost one flip. Had to take that one slow so I don't buckle the old ankle again.

[zeroman13]

Sounds like you guys had alot of fun. Congrats on all the stuff you've hit. I've haven't been kicking all that much. My knee has been bothering me now . I did do some light kicking today, no tricks. The knee felt ok, some slight pain here and there but for the most part it felt good through out. On Wed. I got two sick 3's recorded for the comp. I've thought about another one, I might try if I get the chance!

Hopefully I'll be able to kick next friday. I looked at the bus routes, the fastest is 2 1/2 hours to get there from my house, ouch! But hey, I can listen to music and get hyped up to kick some

Mike, have you gotten Moir's DVD yet? If you have how'd you like it?

[mrjauss]

Had a 30 minute solo session today. Not much time to do anything so I just worked clippers & butterflys mainly on my weakside. I am trying to get rid of the bad habits completely. I have been thinking that once I have my clippers & butterflys better my stepping should be a bit more consistent. In theory. haha. I already hit stepping clipper, sidewalk (one side), stepping mirage, & ripwalks on bs. It is definitely not enough & want to put them in my runs more. Since the consecutive practice is paying off I will have to try more consecutive stepping clippers & more sidewalks. I also think my BOP's are coming along pretty good. I only get on the average over 10 but still I have come a long way. I wanted to add a goal to my other 2 goals 4 ripwalks. Have to aim high! I will add a few more in the next few months just to make it more challenging! Keep practicing I will.

When it finally cools off I would like to go around to some colleges & high schools to post some fliers & maybe do a demo or 2. Maybe I will run into a hacky sack club somewhere. My tiltless game should impress someone out there. We will see.

[mrjauss]

7/27

Had a ok solo practice session last night for a little over 2 hrs. My weak clip/butterfly was being a pain. It is like off & on. A couple thousand more practice clips & butterflys should help out. I kept getting about 15 or so clips & about 10 butterflys. It is sure flaky. I played around with stepping clip & blurry clip. Stay relaxed, go slow, keep balanced, & stay over the bag. It sounds so simple & the good side just works but then the weakside is just there flopping around. I did flim most of the session with my digital camera. Nothing worth of internet yet. Maybe next year. haha. I just don't want to embarrass myself with simple tiltless less then 15 contacts or waste anyone time. I will keep them for myself to analyze! Maybe this will give me a different view that I need oh so badly! I also tried a few tiltless runs but with that clip/butterfly issue it just wasn't working. argh....

The Unity club will have a session this coming Friday afternoon for a few hours. Should be good times. It should be cooler then the last scorching 112+ degrees the last few fridays have been but with more humity. Internet says about 94 with isolated showers. Damn monsoon. Yeah spelling is not my strong point & I am to lazy to look it up. Just read. You get the point. Hopefully I will have some news to report about my game. I am sure the young guys of the club will have something to impress. Report coming later.