I've been circle kicking since freshman year of highschool (jeez...5-6 years ago now
). Never anything fancy, just did it to pass time in between lunch periods or skipped classes. No one took it seriously, no one put in any extra effort to improve, no one progressed or got creative or ever stumbled upon this sport of footbag, we just kept kicking the bag to one another in the style we had grown so accustomed to.I left highschool at pretty much the same level (in terms of hacking) as I had been on my first day. I could hit more consecutive kicks, sure. But that was pretty much it. I started college, and found a new group of people to kick the bag around with. It was more or less a parallel to my old circle of friends. Things would seemingly never change.
Then one day, about a year ago, I stumbled upon a couple footbag sites. I think I was trying to order a new bag, and in the process I happened to come across some freestyle videos. My jaw dropped in awe as I watched them; the moves I was witnessing had never even crossed my mind before. I started kicking more often, even alone when the usual group wasn't around. As Spring began and the weather warmed, I started trying to learn some stuff. I began schooling stalls after class, attempting my first dex's in the laundry room during the restless nights that sleep is an impossibility. I was thoroughly enjoying myself...
And then tragedy struck in the form of an ankle sprain!
A very, very bad ankle sprain. There was a slight fracture, but not bad enough to require a hard caste. But the sprain left my the top of my ankle to the beginning of my toes black and blue. Yes, my whole foot, minus my toes, was bruised for about a month. It was all-in-all pretty disgusting looking. It was a few months before I could put any weight on it without intense pain, and it still hasn't completely healed. So needless to say, footbagging got put on hold for a while. All the work I had put it in so far (though not nearly that much) was pretty much down the gutter. So summer went by without any kicking. I could walk on the mostly healed sprain perfectly fine, but any strenuous stretching of it still aggrivated it a lot. But when summer ended, I found myself with a lot of free time on my hands. I decided that the healing process had been enough and I would start footbagging again, pacing myself so I could first strengthen the muscle instead of overexerting it and possible reinjuring it.
Two months ago from today I couldn't bend my ankle (left side) enough to do an inside kick. Emphasis on that word! The inside kicking motion actually hurt when I first started, and toe kicking for long periods of time did too. This morning, I did this: http://youtube.com/watch?v=pjW-s1OeO4s. Like the description says, it is nothing special. I was drilling inside delay -> clipper -> repeat. Even though it isn't a very difficult string or anything, I was still extremely happy with myself when I thought about the progress I've made. If I had tried to attempt that in September, I probably would have fallen over in pain and had to ice my ankle for a while. Now I can drill that for hours and the worst that happens is that the muscles get very sore/tight once I stop (though, walkovers on that side definitely still scare the hell out of me and will not be attempted anytime soon...).
Okay, so the backstory/rant is done with. Right now I can consistently do...
-ATW (In & out, both sides)
-Legover (Both sides)
-Pickup (Both sides)
-Clipper (Both sides)
-Other tiltless stuff that I don't really school too much and delays that don't involve dex's.
Have hit, but still working on...
-Mirage (I will have this down by next week... optimism, yeah!)
-Illusion (Same as above!)
-Pixie
-Fairy
-Butterfly (one-side)
So anyway, I think I just got that writing mood out of me. Time to go kick the bag around! I'm definitely going to be hitting clipper -> op clipper -> repeat much better by the end of my session, as I don't plan on stopping until I start getting it consistently. 'Til next time!
P.s. To anyone that does read this, feel free to post in here.
No more having to deal with cold weather!