Ners' Footblog

Ners · Post by **Ners** » 26 Aug 2006 11:44

The jam went very good, we shredded for about 3 hours - it was nice to meet guys from Łódź once again. They organized a tournament 2 years ago, which was my second and last time I played intermediate (proud owner of 3rd place

). I have great memories from that tournament, like staying in the gym with Cod and Bucek till 2 at night and trying to hit as many defferent 4 adders as possible - I think we got up to 40 or something like that

Anyway, we shredded and I saw some cool things hit by Damian Zarębski, like Shooting Star, or close attempt at Fusion > Cold Fusion. He can also do Fairy Atomic set which is pretty wack

The next day I went to Strzelin to meet with the guys (and girls - there are 3 girls playing in Strzelin, awesome ratio

). We had a very solid session, for most of the time I played with Tomek Ostrowski and Rafał Kaleta. I'll start briefly by announcing that I saw a clean frontside Nemesis by Rafał - shit this guy is crazy

I hit some new tricks as well, like Whirling DDD. I also sealed Flaring Dyno with a "wall stall"

Tomek started having his knee pains again, and I noticed that he most probably has the same thing I had - wrong Whirl technique.

If you're having knee pains check out your Whirls - if you're not twisting your hips so that the dexing motion is like you would like to heel yourself in the ass then it's possible that this is the couse of the pain. The knee has to bend in a natural motion. I had the same problem but I fixed it and I stopped having knee pains since then.

Tomek was doing his Whirls with the dexing motion going sideways, like for a outside kick, and I think that was why his knees hurt. He changed his technique and we'll see if it worked.

Szymon Kałwak (Ners)

Ners · Post by **Ners** » 04 Sep 2006 07:34

I was on a holiday at the seashore, so I didn't play for about a week - long time! Finally I had a session today. It was short and I was trying to refresh my rusty tricks and links. There was one highlight though, which was hitting Arch Nemesis. I worked on my flip Clipper a lot, trying to correct my technique, and I saw some immediate progress. I could link more then 3 Stepping Clippers most of the time, which used to be pretty difficult. Figuring out the motion for Flurry felt nice too. I could only hit the Barraging Legover version before - now I know that getting the midtime version is just the matter of a fast Whirling set

I felt like Franek while hitting Flurries

The session ended with some Eggbeater practice, which included hitting Eggbeater, Pdx Eggbeater and Bedwetter on both sides.

My last year in school just started and I'm already thinking about my final exams

It looks like I won't have as much time for footbag as I used to.

Szymon Kałwak (Ners)

Matt K · Post by **Matt K** » 04 Sep 2006 17:16

Congratulations on making Massive Szymon!

Ners · Post by **Ners** » 17 Sep 2006 12:38

I just came back from a tournament in Warsaw. It was the 3rd edition of WilanÃ³w Cup, and it was a blast! The level of competition was pretty high, and for the first time the barrier of 200 points in Shred30 was broken - Marcin Bujko from GÃ³ra hit a run that scored 202 - nice! I did well, getting 2nd in Open Freestyle (I was really happy with my performance, and only had one drop), 1st in Sick3 with Janiwalker > Blurry Drifter > Food Processor and Janiwalker > Whirlygig > PS Eggbeater (the other places were: 2nd Damian Gielnicki with Double Spinning Clipper > Spinning Pdx DLO > Pixie Torque and 3rd Wiktor DÄ™bski with Whirlygig > PS Whirl > Voodoo, although I'm not 100% sure). In Shred30 I didn't do so good, and got 5th place with 180 points

Me and Norek got the idea of competing in Doubles (even though we never played with each other before

) and we quickly prepared a routine, which surprisingly went very good and scored us 3rd place in this category.

In the evening we changed the tournament location to a restaurant in the middle of WilanÃ³w, and the last two events were played - Most Rippin Run (for the first time in Poland) and Circle Contest. I choked in Rippin Run and got knocked out in the first round, and that was a good lesson on beeing concentrated all the time haha

In Circle Contest I played a bit better and got to the finals where I placed 3rd.

It was a really nice tournament and I hope I'll be able to attend it next year. Thanks to the organizers and all the people I shredded with!

Szymon KaÅ‚wak (Ners)

Ners · Post by **Ners** » 20 Sep 2006 07:43

Short session with Radek that I had yesterday was short but very nice. It felt good just to hit simple tricks and have fun with some weird links. We played for about 1,5 hour. In the end I tried some new stuff, and managed Blur > Pixie Paradon (rpt) - inspired by Norek

. And also hit a run with Flurry BSOS and High Plains Drifter (close to BSOS too

). The flip Flurry was crispy though, I'll have to get the midtime version down. Radek improved over the summer holiday too, his control is much better and his Torque is more consistant.

We are going to have a gym in one of the schools near the city center, so finally we'll have regular sessions in one place. This will make getting new players easier, as we'll be able to tell anyone interested where and when they can exactly find us.

There's also going to be a tournament here in WrocÅ‚aw - next edition of Zocha Jam! We're going to have a lot of work with preparing everything, but I'm sure it will be a great contest.

Szymon KaÅ‚wak (Ners)

Ners · Post by **Ners** » 22 Sep 2006 14:19

I met up with Damian Piechocki at the town square today for a late night shred. MichaÅ‚ Ostrowski and Radek were also there, so we had a nice circle going on. Even though it was a bit dark we played for about 1,5 hour, and I even hit one new trick - Paradon Swirl. This trick has actually been evading me since I've tried it for the first time about a year ago, so it felt awesome finally nailing it. As always, it was the matter of bad technique, so after receiving some pointers from Piechu I finally understand the motion. I also came frustratingly close to Clown Face again

One day, this trick will be mine haha

There were some people watching us, and once, when a small group like that formed, I hit a really long run that felt very satisfactionary - there were some shuffle links, a ducking, spinning and symp. section, then some downtime genuine stuff. I think the whole run was about 60-70 contacts, but I wasn't counting so it was probably less. Anyway, it was a good session, and as always in the end we tried some weird tricks and unsusual stuff. I hit some new variations of Wichajsters, and Symple Mirage and Whirl - the latter felt very weird. Pixie Symple Mirage is quite confusing

I tried some tricks ending on Insides, and liked Flail Inside a lot. I tried Flail Inside > Hopover Swirl, but it was too hard

I think it could be a good Sick3 combo - Stepping Wichajster > Flail Inside > Hopover Swirl haha

Szymon KaÅ‚wak (Ners)

Asmus · Post by **Asmus** » 23 Sep 2006 01:59

Props for Paradon Swirl.
Are you really inspired by Stefan Siegert?
I know you learned Quantum because of him and now all this inside stuff.
Well he is definitely not the worst person to be inspired by!
What are Wichajster??

Ners · Post by **Ners** » 01 Oct 2006 10:15

Thanks for the props Asmus, yeah, Stefan's game is definitely an inspiration for me. One day I'll have the skill to hit Quantum Eggbeater

Wichajster is a catch that is made between your both feet on the ground (turned slightly to make the catch easier).

We had a session today, on the new gym - it's cool, the surface is nice and grippy, and there's a lot of space. Now that we have regular sessions we'll try to make our club bigger. There were 5 people there, 4 of them were shredding - me, Olaf, PaweÅ‚ and Danio, who was a special guest

Danio is a player from Przemysl that had a break from shredding because of his graduation exams. But now he is studying in WrocÅ‚aw and will probably attend our sessions - cool! We played for about 3 hours, but there was some juggling and net too. I hit one new trick - Whirring Swirl which I'm very happy about.

And now I have to do some more schoolwork. Argh.

Szymon KaÅ‚wak (Ners)

Wim · Post by **Wim** » 02 Oct 2006 02:23

Ners wrote:I hit one new trick - Whirring Swirl which I'm very happy about.

And quite rightly so! Props Szymon!

Ners · Post by **Ners** » 05 Oct 2006 09:05

I had a short solo session today, and I hit one really big milestone for me - 10 unique fearless! The combo was:

Phoenix > Blurry Drifter > Blurry Whirl > Blurry Whirl > Blurriest > PS Whirl > Spinning Pdx Whirl > PS Whirl > Tomahawk > Pdx Blender

I felt really fulfilled after the handcatch. I can die in peace now haha

And what's even cooler, Damian Gielnicki hit 13 fearless today, so there are two Polish players that broke the 10 now - awesome

Szymon KaÅ‚wak (Ners)

Ners · Post by **Ners** » 07 Oct 2006 06:32

We did a small demo at a school festival today. It was in the school that let us use their gym, so doing the show was a way of saying thanks. There were 4 players - Antek, PaweÅ‚, Olaf and me. In the beggining we did some kicking and juggling while everything was beeing set up. Then we started playing 4Square to show that circle kicking is not the only footbag activity

After some short speeches there was our demo, which went very well, everyone seemed to like freestyle and we got some nice applause. Then we made a shred circle so that people could see some more runs and played like that for about half an hour. I hit one new link - Spikehammer > Plasma, and Olaf did some awesome strings too. Afterwards we kicked with some guys from the audience and invited everyone to our training session for tommorow. There was also some free food and drinks for us, which is always nice (homemade cakes were the best

).

Some people said that they want to learn footbag, so there is a chance that we'll get new club members. We'll see tommorow. There's going to be a lot of people playing so I'm sure it will be a good session

Szymon KaÅ‚wak (Ners)

Asmus · Post by **Asmus** » 07 Oct 2006 08:44

Talking about succes..
That sounds like an awesome demo.
You and your 4square..

Ners · Post by **Ners** » 08 Oct 2006 04:29

As I should have predicted, no new players arrived today at the training session

But it's not really surprising - footbag isn't really the mainstream thing to do. Oh well, maybe next time.

Anyway, we still had a bomb shred. Damian Budzik and Damian Piechocki came with us, so there were total of 5 shredders - almost a crowd haha

We played for about 2,5 hour. I hit some new links, I think the most memorable was Symp. Whirling ss Butterfly > Stepping ss Eggbeater (Wet Dream?). Flaring ss Butterfly feels wierd

I've been also hitting this trick, I don't think it has a name, and it's a Pincher with your knee planted on the ground. So, like kneeling Pincher

I was experimenting with it today, and hit some variations, like Pixie, Quantum, Ducking "this", and even Miraging Planted Pincher!

Gyro Miraging Planted Pincher would be cool - a Mobius with a slight change in the end

Olaf hit his new beast again - Alpine Bigwalk > Blurry Torque > Food Processor - crazy style!

There was also a bad accident - Budzik twisted his ankle because of a bad landed Barfly. It looked bad, but after some cold treatment it wasn't swollen, so probably Damian will be ok.

In the end we did some juggling and hooked up with the breakdancers that were schooling on the other side of the gym. We watched some of their crazy moves - damn those guys are good

Ok, now it's time for some schoolwork! Yay!

Szymon KaÅ‚wak (Ners)

janis · Post by **janis** » 08 Oct 2006 04:58

Some very nice stuff being hit, props on miraging planted pincher!
The kneeling pincher sounds very interesting, please tell us more about it, I was trying (non-plant) miraging pincher for a while.

Ners · Post by **Ners** » 10 Oct 2006 12:39

Hey janis, thanks for the props! The planted (kneeling) Pincher is quite simple, although I can believe it's hard to visualize

You just plant your catching knee on the ground so you end up in kneeling position. Maybe I'll make a video or something.

We had a session in the gym today, there were 3 shredders - me, PaweÅ‚ and Goku. I haven't seen Goku for a while so it was nice to play with him. Everyone's game was pretty on, so some cool combos were laid down. My highlights:

Blurry Whirl > Bedwetter > Dolomite
Flare (Symp. Whirling Pdx Mirage) > Plasma > Food Processor

I'm really happy about the new Beast, especially that it's pretty unique, and there's only one Pdx Whirling trick. I was schooling my Double Downs too, and I can see some progress.

Szymon KaÅ‚wak (Ners)

Ners · Post by **Ners** » 14 Oct 2006 13:07

I went to Katowice, a city in the south of Poland for a small jam. It was a gathering of SSFC players. It was great to meet with everyone a shred it up. There were some new faces as well, I got to play with some guys that are new to the scene. If I remember correctly there were about 9 people there. I hit some new combos, two of them stood out:

Blurry Whirl > Blurry Drifter (rpt) > run with Blurry Whirl > Stepping Whirl BSOS
PS Whirl > Symp. Whirl > PS Whirl > PS Whirl > PS Whirl > PS Illusion > Symp. Whirl > PS Whirl > Mullet

We shredded for about 3 hours, then juggled some and went to eat some Knysza

and soon we were in the train going back to WrocÅ‚aw. So it was a really nice footbag day. And there's a training session tommorow, so some more shredding ahead!

Szymon KaÅ‚wak (Ners)

Wim · Post by **Wim** » 15 Oct 2006 03:49

Ners wrote:PS Whirl > Symp. Whirl > PS Whirl > PS Whirl > PS Whirl > PS Illusion > Symp. Whirl > PS Whirl > Mullet

Ners · Post by **Ners** » 17 Oct 2006 13:22

Hey Wim, thanks for the comment

We had another gym session today. It's slowly getting colder and colder, so we probably won't be able to shred outside anymore. The winter season is starting! Most of the session I was playing with PaweÅ‚, and it was decent "line"

Both of us had some good runs and hit new stuff. My highlights were:

Alpine Stepping Whirl
Blurry Drifter BS and Tombstone in Stepping shuffle run dropped on flip Tombstone attempt
Drifter > Pdx Drifter (rpt) > Barfly > DDD (rpt)

I hit a lot of Barflys throughout the session. The idea of trying Blurriest > Blurrier (rpt) appeared in my head, but I needed only a couple of tries to realize it's way above my skill

My previous personal best of consecutive Symp. Whirls got broken too, as today I hit it x16! I think I also broke my Ducking Clipper record, but I wasn't counting. It felt like I was somwhere near 60. It was a good session - I did some juggling in the end, and figured out a new trick. I think it's called Slam, feels cool

Szymon KaÅ‚wak (Ners)

setman · Post by **setman** » 17 Oct 2006 13:29

Ners wrote:. It's slowly getting colder and colder, so we probably won't be able to shred outside anymore.

chickens.

Ners · Post by **Ners** » 24 Oct 2006 13:05

There's a new video of our shredding crew - your can find it in the Video section or under this link:

http://www.footbag.org/gallery/show/10274

Making it turned out to be harder and more time consuming then I thought, but I'm very happy with the final result. There's still so much stuff to improve with my video editing! I hope to make some more vids in the near future

. We had a session in the gym today, and I broke my personal record of PS Whirls, hitting 11 of them

That felt really nice, also because it's the new Polish record.

I also worked on lots of stuff, like double dexes and toe shuffle game. About the rest of the players - PaweÅ‚ is getting very solid, he was throwing Merkons all around the place today. He also improved his Pdx Whirls, and hit flip Pixie Whirl for the first time I think. There was also Damian Budzik who hit some awesome strings as always

Wojtas is improving too, he hit an amazingly controlled Spinning Pdx Whirl today - props man!

In the end of the session I went for a Barfly and landed badly on my ankle. I got really scared that I could have injured myself, but thankfully everything is ok. Beware of Double Downs, they are dangerous and sometimes even fatal

Szymon KaÅ‚wak (Ners)