The Darkshredder's struggle

Keep a diary of what you're hitting, what's frustrating you, and your goals.
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Darkshredder
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Post by Darkshredder »

thanks Tom! Yeah still alive. Can't stop the shred. Not while there are still laws of gravity to be proven wrong.

Hm well the Quantums have not come yet. So I've done something rash and tragic. I've destroyed my lavers. We all knew it would come to this. But a funny story comes from it. And it begins thusly:
- So my apartment mate Bill has to do this interview for his business/management class. He has to choose someone he knows to interview and find out who he or she is, what they value, how they make decisions, and how they buy things. So obviously one thing that was talked about in some detail during the interview was footbag. He has a clip of my shredding a little in our living room that he was going to use as an intro to the interview. But things got messed up, plans were changed, and now he can't use that clip. So today, about five hours after my lavers were no more and I was drowning my sorrows in polish lager and soda bread he comes in and asks me if I could do another little thing for a new non-ibook format video. And I take a bite out of my break and go, "Umm. . Well I can't. I destroyed my footbag shoes with a meat cutter." and I drank deep the lager in memory of my lavers. So anyway we talked for a while and I said that I'd see what I could do. So I went back into my room and saw I still had a nice thick roll of ducktape left. So I pretty much rebuilt my lavers and made them about 90% ducktape. And I came back into his room and said, "K let's do this". The good news? I didn't drop because my shoes were made of tape. The bad news? The bag was not really responding well to my ducking attempts because they were made of tape.

Fin.

So I sit here at this internet cafe a laverless man, lacking in any near future attempts at playing footbag tonight (or probably tomorrow). And my socks are sticking to the walls of my shoes. . . because they're made out of tape. It's a sad day for footbag. I hate Swiss Priority shipping.
Well after I went to my mailbox and after I got done with the meat cutter, I set out to the 30+ shoe outlets all around Cork city in a meager attempt at a laver/quantum replacement. I still can't find clima1s. Just clima cyclones which look only slightly unmodable. But then the last store I came to had these new puma running shoes which kind of had the appearance a climacool/nike air hybrid. Definitely modable. So in like three more days when the thought of me not being able to play is too unbearable, I will do something very dumb (being a dirt poor international student in an expensive city that uses the euro) and I'll get these pumas. Kudos to Puma for creating a shoe that isn't neon in color or really just goofy and impractical unless you're a diehard track and field star.

I suppose I should include a few interesting updates from a shred I had with Dominic the other day.
:arrow: hit a very torque-intensive run. It went something very close to this: string > infinity > torgue > pdx illusion > dimwalk > torque (flip and the first time it was hit midstring and from something other than a butterfly) > osis > torque > osis > pdx mirage > parkwalk > string of ducking and I think a gyro or two.
:arrow: Dominic hit magellan and pixie ss pickup. Then I challenged him to hit smear and a dimwalk in a tiltless string. He almost did it but his dimwalk crank was weakened because it was going to be his final trick and he got the "I'm almost there" laziness.
:arrow: I'm trying to go back to double dexes like I think I said in my last post. So I tried to remember to do paradons and DODs midstring. Got warmed up by Dominic challenging me to do datw bsos and terrage bsos. I'm getting a bit better with datw's with my flipside which is fuzzy.

so this :x is for Swiss Priority shipping
this :roll: is for me still wearing the ducktape lavers
this :twisted: is for the fact that I'm torque-bound in my game
this 8O is for Dominic's pixie ability. he's going to school me in proficiency before he can do two infinities back to back.

my time's almost up at the cafe. Thanks for reading this if you've gotten all the way through. I'll be more concise when the quantums come and I get down to business. Yeah. . . that's me being optimistic.

R.I.P. Lavers pair #6[/code]
Pat Thomsen
Syracuse, New York - The connecting point to footbaggers in the NE and Canada. We make pancakes and air conditioners.
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Darkshredder
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Post by Darkshredder »

just a quick post because I've got to go do some actual work.

quantums came - 1/2 size too small. Kind of pissed off at that. But a half size isn't that bad really. I'll get a bunion from it but I was going to get a bunion anyway at some point because they run in the family. I'd rather get one for footbag instead of my mom's side of the family having weak toe bones.
- Dominic's quantums are perfect in size for him which I was more pleased at. He really needs them more than I do. It was cool to see him really noticing the difference between his stiff leather soccer shoes and the quantum toe box.

a personal review? yeah they're great. Pre-modded lavers pretty much. Lighter than lavers too. Material, as you all have probably come across or experienced, is a little slippery at first but it took me about two short sessions (all I've had time for so far) before they either got less so or maybe I just got used to them. Either way I dig the way pixies are made easier somehow with them. Maybe I was just on that day with pixies. You never know. I also completed a quantum set, something I never do and wanted to wait for till I got the shoe. I'm guessing the next time the bag comes out of the pocket I'll be hitting some new quantum tricks. I want to honor Steve Gale by hitting toe blur both sides in the same day. That would be fine for me. Mighty fine.

I haven't played much the past three days. Played a bit rushed when I got the shoes because I was all excited. Yesterday was called on account of the torrential downpour we got (and are still getting). Not sure how I'll fair today. Maybe this is as good a time as any to start scoping out indoor shred spots. Ugh. The thought of it is very depressing. Another winter of shred. The summer went by way too fast. Oh well. Indoor shreds are cool becuase of the interesting buildings you can play in and the people of whom you are in the way. Good times. K well I'm off. Slainte
Pat Thomsen
Syracuse, New York - The connecting point to footbaggers in the NE and Canada. We make pancakes and air conditioners.
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Darkshredder
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Post by Darkshredder »

some finer points:
My quantums are stretching out which is more than awesome. Getting used to them has been easy and it's just so good to be playing in a shoe instead of a sole with tatters of mesh trying their best to cling to my feet. Now all I need to do is get myself a new 32. As a going away present Greg gave me a sandman and so did this guy I used to play with in high school (he gave me two actually. . . ) so I'm up to my chin in sandbags and that's all fine and dandy for a time. I have an oooold abshire mini that never broke in and I'm trying to break it in again. It's slowly coming. Back in the day when I got it I had no idea how to quickly break in a 32 so it should be fine. It is just a tight bag that takes a while to do so. Oh well. Maybe some cash will need to be dumped into a new one anyway.
Some of the Irish locals are starting to regard Dominic and I as demigods on the streets of Cork. They don't know what we are, why we came, and why one of us is American and the other Polish, but there's one group of kids who live just outside the city and they say they'd be interested in freestyle. The UCC students are also back from whereever it is they come from and so a UCC-based club is a definite possibility.

and now? some new tricks/strings hit yesterday and the day before:
:arrow: by me:
stepping (ss) reverse whirl
nuclear butterfly and nuclear clipper (new set) :twisted:
pdx mirage > legbeater and other atomic tricks much much easier
dynos revisited and more or less dialed
footed twirl
symple infinity swirl
reverse swirl bsos (I don't do swirls. . but Dominic loves them and he forces them on me)
lots of spinning and gyros in a string. . about four of each I'd say.
:arrow: Dominic: as a recap of all he's hit in the last two weeks
toe drifter
swirl - - a part of me died when he hit this so easily and now it's all he does. His progress will probably slow because of it. But man will he be good at swirls. Some day.
pdx mirage
clip ss pickup/legover
dlo from clipper (toe dlo is not new for him)
smear, dimwalk, magellan, plo, pixie pickup
farside osis

And that's all for now.
Pat Thomsen
Syracuse, New York - The connecting point to footbaggers in the NE and Canada. We make pancakes and air conditioners.
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Darkshredder
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Post by Darkshredder »

Hey. The last few sessions haven't been all that great. I hadn't played for two days and then finally found time to play around campus yesterday. Played pretty badly. No string length to speak of which bothered me. I'm all about that these days. But it was a good opportunity to let the UCC population know that I exist and that I can do something they've most likely never seen before. And they made note. My quantums are stretched out and are now perfect. The support is a little less than I expected when I first slipped my foot into them. Usually the balls of my feet start hurting for a few minutes when I first start playing. It's odd. Shooting pain like I'm pinching a nerve. But it goes away after I wiggle my toes around a little and take it a little easier. I tend to get carried away when I first start "warming up" and I try way too hard.

Campus life has never been better and I'm having as much fun as I had way back in high school. It's been a great week. I signed up for a wargaming and roleplaying society (along with many other gaming and sci-fi and medieval societies) and we've been meeting wednesday and thursday so far. Great people. I've never been happier with taking a risk with meeting new people. About 7 of them are jugglers too! I was leaving to get some dinner after my solo sesh yesterday and met them coming up a path with all these juggling devices. Craziness. So I was like "Ooo! Well. Have you ever heard of FOOT juggling?" and they were quite interested when I started busting out clippers and ducking and diving things. So I went to get some pizza (my post-shred meal of choice) and came back to the room we'd be roleplaying and they juggled and I shredded. Again, yesterday the bag didn't like my foot. . . so I didn't do well at all. But at least I gave them a descent show. BOPing strings and they liked dynos and pdx whirls a lot so I did those till they had their fill and it was time for us to put away our respective tools of the trade and sat down for some nice RPG boardgames and I played a really cool tabletop roleplayer called Traveller. It's a gaelic/high fantasy campaign this guy Darren set up for us.

And to tie WARPS (that's the name of the club) to footbag, these guys Mark and Pierce were actually grabbing my bags and trying to hack and toe stall them for a while. Mark was RPing with me and every once in a while he'd just leave for a second when the rest of us were arguing or not coming to any decision and he would make his way to my backpack and try toe stalling more. I think he got three in a row once. So BAM! Irish Footbag is well on its way.

St. Patrick brought Christianity to Ireland. Patrick Thomsen will bring footbag to Ireland (southern Ireland. I guess Thom brought it to Londonderry and other nothern Irish regions).

Anyway my knees are feeling better the past few days and I won't let yesterdays performance leave a bad taste on the toe boxes of my quantums so I'll play later today. No class! It was Dominic's birthday earlier this week so we were going to shred and then drink our happiness away. Should be good fun. Polish beer + Tekken + footbag = a damn fine night.

cheers.
Pat Thomsen
Syracuse, New York - The connecting point to footbaggers in the NE and Canada. We make pancakes and air conditioners.
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Post by Darkshredder »

Hey . . some good stuff. I'm hitting a bunch of minor but cool tricks and dialing some harder stuff.

new - stepping reverse whirl, stepping illusion, flipside schmoe, stepping dyno, footed pixie ss dlo first try (I'll try again hopefully today), footed twirl again. There have been other even lesser new tricks hit easily the past few days but I can't remember them all and so they're not all that important.

dialing. . . - toe dlo's, pixie whirls and rev whirls is what I've been working on recently.

rebooting . . . - barrages and terrages and trying for reaper next time the bag hits my foot.

haven't played in another day or two. Again. Very inconsistent. Not happy about it. I made a lot of progress this summer so I'm not that mad but still. I'd like to get some hard shred in before the winter season. My knees are fine. Need to play.

K well that's all I suppose. Just wanted to maintain that I can still hit new things. Oh and here's a nice little conversation I wrote about footbag in Irish the other night while a little drunk with my Polish friends. If anyone knows Irish please correct any errrors. I don't know too much of the language but I'm learning quickly. Um. Well it's not ABOUT footbag. It has footbag IN it. . . I think.

Person one (we'll call him Aiden) - Ta an footbag anseo
Person two (we'll call him Oisin) - Ta. . . ta se go breas
Aiden - Is footbagger me.
Oisin - Is cumas liom.
Aiden - pogue mo thoin.

translation -
Edward - There is a footbag here.
<no> - Yeah. . it's nice.
Edward - I'm a footbagger.
Oisin - I don't care.
Edward - kiss my ass.

Alrighty well that's all for now. I'm going to go back to my apartment and see about setting a shred time with dominik (yeah I've been spelling his name the anglosized version. . it's with a k in poland. Should've known)
Pat Thomsen
Syracuse, New York - The connecting point to footbaggers in the NE and Canada. We make pancakes and air conditioners.
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Post by Darkshredder »

Class was cancelled. Off to the lab to bathe in the glorious Modified. Quick update. I slapped on the shorts just a bit ago before the cancelled class and just messed around a bit. Nothing too grand. But I'm feeling it's a good day for the bag so I'll find a place to play after I'm done here and have a full session. Dominik is in Poland - has been for about a week and a bit. He should be returning pretty soon. Hopefully. Gettin' pretty lonesome again.

Some new concepts and tricks :
Nuclear - I've hit slapdown (?) nuclear ss butter? My strongside is on my weak clipper and it's pretty consistent in its "just barely good enough"ness. I actually have a flipside set from it but haven't hit anything out of it yet. YET.

Spinning ducking - I've been really experimenting with this one the past few weeks. I've hit spinning ducking clipper on both sides and spinning ducking butter from my strong backspinning side. I need to really word on controlling it, though. It feels like I'm just setting it and blindly swooping my head down and flinging it to one side as I spin wildly. Dominik says it looks fine but what does he know. . . I still want it so that I don't have to whip my head. I want to set, spin, spot, duck, > trick. Not this silly set, duck, spin, hope to god the bag isn't three feet behind me and stick my foot out into a pseudo clipper position.

Reworking atomic - Yep. . I'm reworking the atomic set. Re-hitting a few things and trying to hit reactor. I can do legbeaters and tapdowns out of pdx mirages which is huge for me. It gets lame when I have to bail to tiltless and do a far legover just so I can have time and built up the store of energy it takes to get off an atomic set. I'm also trying to work it out so I DON'T have to use a lot of energy to set it up. I know it doesn't require too much - from experience.

PS and symposium - I watched the latest video from the san diego crew (the 7 minutes freestyle . . blahblah of net video) and was in awe of the styles. I decided I needed to see if I could incorporate symposium into my strings more and see if I was comfortable with it and if I could make good with midstring strung symp. mirages and the like. I've done about three sessions really trying hard to remember to do symposium mirages midstring and I've learned a few things about myself. A) I've gotten pretty good at them all of a sudden. . . odd. B) It feels really good to hit pixie <anything> out of one. Excellente. C) My left knee hasn't forgotten how much it hates symposium tricks from that month (oh. . was it almost a year ago? Where has the time gone?) of straight learning and drilling symp. mirages. Ugh. Syposium, stepping, and spinning. . on newly waxed tiled floors. Not a good month. My knee still hasn't recovered fully.

DLOs - I'm really working them into strings more. Both from clip and toe. Getting pretty fun actually. I think I'll like them a lot when I get better. They'll make up a big part of my style (yes. . . style. That's what I'll call it) pdx double legovers are getting surprisingly consistent but only done midstring. I can't just toss it out there.

Torque - My worst enemy. I just recently more or less dialed the strongside torque and toe torque. Almost hit porque. Hit flipside toe torque and hit my regular (clipper) flipside torque a couple of times. I just can't get it. Really really annoying. They're also going to make up a big part of my string variety some day.

- - - - - - - - -

and other than that, I'm still keeping the shred on here in Ireland. I've managed to get about 5 euro without actually putting out a hat or jacket or something which was cool because I used it to get a post-shred snack and a piece for my halloween costume. They just throw money at me. I said I didn't want it and just wanted to play and get other people interested. They said they weren't and that I should just take the money. So I did. Mmmm. Post-shred snack.

tshh Signing out. Ktshk.
Pat Thomsen
Syracuse, New York - The connecting point to footbaggers in the NE and Canada. We make pancakes and air conditioners.
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Post by KronoKicker »

Hey Pat, good to hear you're still playing a lot and sounds like your still progressing well. Barfry=nuke ss butter, Slapdown= slapping butter.

For spinning ducking, really concentrate on the spinning aspect first. Concentrate on spinning > spotting > then stalling. After that is nice and solid, ducking after spinning will just be a small adjustment to set height.

It took me a year to learn atomic, and after a year of doing it the hard wa I just stumbled on to a better way. Make sure your setting toe is pointed toward the dexing leg. This helps align and get your knees together, which helps to reduce the amount of energy require to get the dex off. Repeating atomsmashers is a good way to practice, because you need a decent set and control to repeat them. Repetition is always key for me.

Hope these little tips help you out, and I hope we get to shred together again.
Aric McIntosh
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Darkshredder
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Post by Darkshredder »

Hey hey. Just came back to campus to take out a couple books from the library and just happened to come across a computer and I thought to myself, "Hey. . . I wonder what the Modified world is doing today?" so here I am.

Thanks again, Aric, for the tips. I've actually been doing the opposite. Usually I usually have my setting toe pointing straight ahead but then I've recently been tweaking it and found SOME improvement in pointing them away from the dexing leg. I see the logic in pointing the toe toward the dexer so I'll try that. I'm actually on my way to go shred till I drop. No class again today. Apparently it's "reading week" for my lit. class. Pff. Reading. That can come when I need to stay on the couch from playing 3 or more hours of footbag - oh yes. I'm going to go all out today.

It's kinda Irish out today, meaning it's really rainy and overcast. So I'll have to play at this place called the South Mall Plaza. Not exactly a mall, but it has a parking garage that gives plenty of space. Other than that there aren't too many places around Cork to play when it rains and I can't really play on campus because I want to stay around my apartment.

Some desired outcomes for the shred that'll happen in about 30 minutes:
1) some improvement on my ripwalk > ripwalk (rpt)
2) smog - never tried it. I bet it'll be pretty simple for me now that my DLOs are getting better.
3) swirl bsos
4) pixie ss mirage > symposium mirage (rpt)
5) * vortex
6) * mobius
7) atomic illusion bsos
8. reactor
9) flipside flux (crispy flux)

K I'm off. Later
Pat Thomsen
Syracuse, New York - The connecting point to footbaggers in the NE and Canada. We make pancakes and air conditioners.
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Post by Darkshredder »

Oof - majorly overestimated my "in the zone"ity of the above shred session. Pff I hardly had anything done. Definitely played for a long time. That's good, I suppose. I need to get my endurance back up. I used to play for 2 + hours when I was back at Siena but lately and over the summer I usually only go for about and 1.5 and sometimes 2 lazy hours.

- But as I played for a long time, it was good enough to at least "improve" on the ripwalks. Yeah I'm finally getting my flipside stepping to a fairly usable level. Schmoe and sidewalk bsos now. Yay.
- Smog gave me more trouble than I thought it would but that could've just been me trying it at the very end of the session when I was dead tired.
- no swirl bsos (again - I've done it before. But I wanted to do it a few more times) . I did rev. swirl bsos though. Good.
- Did some work on that drill. Soon I'll get good at it.
- atomic illusion on my flipside was hit. Much thanks goes to Aric for his tips. They helped. My flipside atomic set is so high now - higher than my strongside. . .
- reactor - soooo close
- flip flux was hit. yay.
- Oh yeah I was also trying to do an Chan-esque drill. Gryo clip > ducking clip > infinty (rpt). I did it after a few times of practice. So much fun.

Dominik is back. I think his cell is broken or out of credit so I'll just have to stop by his flat some time soon. Gettin' sick of the lonesome shred. Must be done, though. Speaking of which. I can throw in an hour and a half or so before a 4pm class. Later.
Pat Thomsen
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Post by Darkshredder »

Ok one last post before I let the blog slide into the second and third pages once more. I just had the best session I've had in QUITE some time. It was on, so to speak. Besides my strings being pretty long and controlled for the most part, I had one massive string just outside the art center on campus (after I was kicked out of a sweet basement room because there was going to be a lecture there in a few minutes. . oh well. We'll come back) .. I included some both sided pixie - ness, a fairy ss butterfly, some stepping on both sides, a couple gyros both sides (gryo mirage and pandora a few times) and loads of ducking and diving and weaving to start the whole thing off. It was magnificant. I really wish I knew what I was doing when I did it so I could remember. Rest assure, there were hardly any bails to infinity or osis. Very pleasing.

I hit a flipside merkon for the first time (first try) and then did it bsos a few times.
Mobius has been footed!!
toe torque bsos!!
sick three : atomic legover > pixie whirl > blizzard
easy sick three led into string : ducking osis > infinity > gyro mirage > dimwalk > pdx mirage > pixie ss clipper > ripwalk > drifter > . . .
Symposium rev whirls (x3) very easily and was cut off by a little black trashcan I was slowly moving toward.
Didn't drop once on a pdx whirl - and I did them quite often. :twisted:

Other than that it was very high-energy and I was being twisted and insane by talking to the bag and myself and laughing a lot and the goofy ways I'd drop the bag, sometimes slipping on a wet spot or running into a wall after a spinning-intensive run. Awesome time. Dominik was supposed to come. Oh well. He'll like our new shred spot.

I love footbag. :mrgreen:
Pat Thomsen
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Post by Darkshredder »

Couldn't leave it alone for too long. And even though I haven't had a good solid session in a while I thought I'd post anyway.

I'm working my ass off to get some loose ends tied in my trick variety and to make some minor gains before the possible New Years Jam when I come back to the states. Even if that jam doesn't happen, I'm still most likely going to be shredding with some very very good people like Aric and Matt (and others!?) and I'd like to not suck enough so I can enjoy myself. It seems that whenever I played with the RFA people back in the day I would always be too intimidated or bent on impressing them (yeah. . addless to tiltless player being REAL impressive) that I would just miss out on the laughs that could've been had. Regrets, regrets, that year of old. If only I could go back and do it all over.
But anyway I've been playing a lot. Everyday for the past 9 days or so for about 2 hours each time. Only about 4 of those have been decent sessions. The last few have been broken up by people telling me to stop playing or just a total lack of energy on my part and no Dominik to take the spotlight for a while. I'm not sure if it's such a good decision to keep going with a lost session till the clock reaches the 2 hr mark when I can hardly hit more than four contacts at a time (like yesterday. . ugh. . bad memories) Some pretty interesting things have been worked on, though:
- merkons bsos
- stepping set (MAJOR reconstruction on how I do things. Working on posture and "attacking" the dex noticeably after the set, etc.)
- gyro whirl bs (new. I've only hit it on my flipside once though. Need to work on that)
- gryo bubba
- ducking clip > ducking osis (rpt)
- trying to hit farside symple swirl bs. It's a close race. Both strongside and flipside are pretty close with this own. I've had it off my heel quite a few times. I'd really exploit this trick in my strings when I can dial it
- still schooling my flip pixie to the degree of control I want. smear > pixie ss mirage (rpt) is the drill I'm working on but it's just sooo hard to do a p ss mirage on my flipside. The set on my flipside is not straight up. It's either straight up and way too low and probably not clean or else it is perfectly set and the bag drifts to the left for a very easy dimwalk. It makes pixie whirls and dimwalks very easy but I'd like to do smears and parkwalks as well. . . obviously.

I'm not entirely sure what's going on with my atomic set. It seems to drift in and out of muscle memory. I've lost my ability to string the set to pretty much anything guiltless which is disappointing to say the least. Just when I was so close to hitting reactor and flailing too. grr.

- And now for the dodgyportion of this post -
Over the summer I realized that I had lost way too much weight. I was stupid. During the spring I was playing like mad, like everyday more more than I do now - and harder, too, since I wanted to be true guiltless by the time I left. But the thing was that I wasn't eating more to compliment the amount of exercise I was doing. So, in essence, I was depriving myself of fuel. But I was finally shaken out of that this summer and I've been trying to gain weight and get eating well in relation to how much I'm playing footbag. It's going pretty well and my parents aren't worried about me. They thought I was either depressed or was starving myself or something. I just shook my head and said "nah. . it's just footbag." and the problem righted itself.
Every now and then I'll make some dumb move and not eat breakfast or something (like this morning. . . ) but I'd say I'm on the right track.

Anyway, I'm off. Gotta see what time Dominik has work today, get a book for class, play some footbag, eat some dinner, and then play some laser tag with some people.
Pat Thomsen
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Post by Darkshredder »

post before I go back to the states and can't post anymore since I lack ambition for such things as Modified when I'm home.
SO!
I had the second longest dry spell of footbag since I first picked up a crocheted bag in my friend's basement. It wasn't really that I was all that pissed off at the game, either. Usually went I throw the bag away for a few days it's because I get frustrated or ran out of ambition cake. It was pretty odd. I was happy. Just didn't want to play or couldn't because I got a lot of work these last few weeks with exams and papers to write. Hm. But oh with the prospect of the Geneseo New Years jam I decided to get my act together and play.

I've been playing for about 7 days straight from the dry spell, which has been murder on my knees and on my psyche because my string length and endurance actually took a beating this time. Usually breaks don't do this to me. But yeah. My strings have suffered a great deal and I'm still working on being able to solo shred for 2.5 hrs. I'm up to about 2. Today I'll push myself all the way back up to 2.5 I think. I'll take a few minutes break or something. It's not cheating - I just don't want to die :roll: .

I'm leaving on Saturday and I hope I can play a lot with Greg P. as well as some new players like Ben Rea and his friend from my own area (!?) and maybe we can lure some other players into the area for a few sessions. That should be good fun. I need to get my game back up to par with some progression made for the NYJ. I'm thinking if I can get back my atomic set (which has officially died since my dry spell) and seal up my flip nuclear I'll be golden. My pixies and stepping, spinning, ducking etc. is almost up to par from the sessions I've been having. I'll just need to get them to where I can choose which ones I need to make strings as long as varied as they used to be. Just to not get anyone's hopes up, my string length is STILL not all that good. I mean they're long because I think they're long. They aren't actually all that long. I'm more of a 6 to 10 contact kind of guy on a normal basis. Every ten minutes of shred, however, I have tripless littered guiltless and smooth tilted strings like 15 or 20 contacts long.

some weak new things hit in the past few recovery sessions:
1) whirl > infinity (rpt) x 6 or 7. can't remember now.
2) drifter > pandora's box bsos
3) drifter > symp. mirage bsos
4) gyro clip > ducking clip > infinity drill x 3
5) zooming clip bsos
6) spinning osis bsos again - hit it a while back and never did it again. First try yesterday.
7) stepping out of osis on both sides. Very pleased with this.
8) simple dyno
9) g.y.b.a.s

things I will work on today:
1) ripwalk back to back record
2) flip pdx reverse whirl
3) flip hatchet
4) diving osis bsos
5) flip pixie whirl
6) pixie ss dlo bs
7) regaining consistency and goodness in game. . ugh.
Pat Thomsen
Syracuse, New York - The connecting point to footbaggers in the NE and Canada. We make pancakes and air conditioners.
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Darkshredder
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Post by Darkshredder »

recap of the sessions because it was quite long and I was fairly happy with how my endurance lasted.
- no progress on ripwalk record but I'm getting much bolder in throwing them in (especially flip) midstring.
- I meant to say flip ps rev. whirl. Footed quite a few times. For some reason my flip rev. whirling dex goes much slower. I don't whip it as easily. Maybe it's just the angle I'm looking at the leg. Who knows. I'll continue to work on it.
- diving osis bsos first try. Easier than I thought it would be.
- flip pixie whirl was hit after I adjusted my pixie set once again. This is now the 30th or something time I've had to readjust my flip pixie. Will I ever have a consistent flipside? Ugh. Annoying as all hell.
- no flip hatchet. Forgot to try it :lol: . I'll try it in a half an hour when I slap on the shoes for the session before my class.
- no pixie ss dlo. Towards the end of the session I got mad at the fact that I couldn't do this: infinity (starter) > pdx mirage > dimwalk > pdx illusion> parkwalk > sidewalk > ripwalk > gyro clip > whirl > dlo > . . . It's simple. It's easily within my skill level. I have no idea why I couldn't do it. So instead of trying to hit new things I just spent the remaining 30 minutes of the session drilling and skooling flip pixie (more adjusting. . heh) and atomic.

Some thoughts:
- flux > torque
- matador
- double switch over bs
- I hope I'll be able to play a bunch before the NYJ
- I hope I can get a new 32 panel or two. I'm so sick of sand. Haven't played with 32 panels since the summer.
- zooming clip > outspinning clip would look cool as long as I keep my hands pulled in during the zooming because I look like a fool as it stands right now with my right arm folding over my chest and my left hand usually arched rigidly off in the other direction. Hmm. . . zooming mirage? :twisted:

* two days and i'll be back in the states!
Pat Thomsen
Syracuse, New York - The connecting point to footbaggers in the NE and Canada. We make pancakes and air conditioners.
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Darkshredder
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Post by Darkshredder »

Quote of this epic post: : "I am bound by 32 panels to this world."

back in the states!
Haven't played yet since I've been here. Got back and had to ride in a car another 5 hours or so from boston to albany and then albany to syracuse so I got back around 10ish. Then I got together with some friends and saw one of my friends for the last time till the summer because he's leaving for India tomorrow and won't be back till after I leave again for Ireland. Sucky. It's the longest we've been unable to hang out since we were in the 7th grade. I was majorly jetlagged so I couldn't be with them for long and had to crash.

Then today was getting this laptop updated and information shifted from my old desktop. Took a looong time and was rewarded with a hickory burger from Outback Steakhouse. Mmm hickory burger. . .

I'm feeling really good about footbag right now. More and more I'm just getting comfortable with my own game as it pertains to the whole playing community. I watch videos and read posts of people, some of my favorite players of all time, talking about what it really means to enjoy and live footbag and it's something I've always known but was too anxious and narrow-minded to see that it doesn't matter how fast you learn or the fact that the day will come when I have to put the bag down (at least for freestyle. . . there's always net and just circle kicking). As long as I'm playing, having fun, progressing as fast as my body allows, and enjoying the game for what it's worth, who cares about everything else? Not me. Not anymore. And that's final. So I suppose you could say this is a turning point in my game. As far as progression is concerned I'm guessing this year will be the less . . . good. I'm not playing nearly as much as I usually do for no reason what so ever and I'm just at one of those slowpoints people get from time to time. Meh.

summer of '04 - toe stall, clipper, mirage, very simple links and far legovers.

fall of '04 - met the RFA. HUGE progression even though I didn't really see it (and it didn't seem like it at the time). Learned pixie set, drifters, and could hit blur from time to time. Tiltless. Went back and learned flip clipper and reworked lots and lots of flipside things. Became slightly more bothsided. . . finally.

spring of '05 - strong tiltless/very weak guiltless. Whirl, ripwalk bs, ducking (thanks to Jorden Moir at GRASS I). Flip pixie was in the making.
summer of '05 - the summer of string length. Played lots and worked on getting longer guiltless links. It worked. I dreamed in Infinity>infinity. Double dexing "prodigy". Paradon, dod, barrage, terrage very easy.

fall of '05 - developed a stronger pixie game as I found out I could do it midstring. ripwalk was lost but came back at this time. Spinning was my major thing. Merkon, spn butter, spinning pdx mirage, etc. Fairy set was first realized. Didn't pursue. 2nd big mistake of my career. Torque was hit.

spring of '06 - HUGE skooling. I played more than I ever have at this time. Three hours (at least) EVERY day for like four months. Nuts. Knees have never fully recovered from this. My left knee is still very iffy. Average string length doubled and I began hitting some new interesting tricks like dyno and blender and better links like ripwalk > drifter. Found out during a break shredding with Greg Pestillo that I could hit an atomic set on both sides. Very random and very welcome.

summer of '06 - Ducks and dives became effortless, stepping on strongside became very simple. Pixies thrown in lots midstring. Fairy relearned and developed only on strong side. Strongside torque was dialed and pdx whirl was more or less dialed on both sides. Very confident guiltless.

<<Present>> - flipside stepping developed. flipside pixie developed and thrown easily into strings. Reincorporation of spinning which led to spinning ducking tricks for the first time. Dynos are huge both sides. Blenders? Not so much. Starting to relearn double dexes. Just getting back into that now (winter).

<sigh> and that's that. I needed to do that. I've been meaning to write something like that in my blog for some time now. Man that took a long time to do. It's probably slightly inaccurate in that some things took place overy obscure points between the seasons I suppose and I honestly can't remember when I learned the atomic set. I just know that it was outside of the Dinosaur BBQ Pit and it was a really really hot day. So I'm guessing late spring/early summer. Meh. So that's my game as it stands up till three days ago when I played last. And oh you better believe I's gonna play quite a bit tomorrow! :twisted:

pt
Pat Thomsen
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Darkshredder
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Post by Darkshredder »

Hey. Reeeally happy with footbag still. Haven't had a chance to play because of Christmas and the Eve but I've been playing a bunch to get ready for YEAH. Coming up really soon and it's going to be awesome. This break has gone by too fast it seems. Only two and a half weeks or so in the states. Ugh.

As far as my own shred is concerned it's going pretty well. My flipside stepping is going excellently. It's becoming an overall concept I'm pretty confident in, something I never thought I'd be comfortable with. I always thought I'd be a toe shuffler. Oh well. I'm not all that tied to stepping just yet and if you could put a formula to most of my strings it would go something like this:

couple BOPs > two or three contacts of pixie > drifters and whirls and BOPs > or > stepping (usually just a lot of ripwalks sidewalks and schmoes) > ducking/diving mixed with osis > About this time I like to say this is quite a long string and if I have the balance I'll start throwing in tripless combos like pdx whirls, pdx drifters, ducking butters, torques, and double dexes (paradons, dod, terrage). If I think of it I'll almost always enter into this stage of a shred with a legbeater or tapdown.

I'm trying to get a few shorter, more intense combos into my strings since a lot of what I do looks very flowy and like I'm dancing. . . not too good when I'm trying represent the badass-ness of footbag. So I'm trying to dial some combos like tapdown > blur > toe whirl (very intense looking) and drifter > pandora > dimwalk as well as stepping out of osis and ducks (new projects I've recently been developing) . In a way this is to do two things: make my style more intense and to bump me up a level or two in the great scheme of things if I work on these faster and often more difficult tricks.

I really need a 32. A friend of mine wants to give me a Mosher bag but he can't get it till new years. I hate sandbags now.
Pat Thomsen
Syracuse, New York - The connecting point to footbaggers in the NE and Canada. We make pancakes and air conditioners.
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Post by Darkshredder »

behold one of the more worthless posts in this blog!
Just had a couple quick things to say: a) people should listen to this Polish rapper I've recently grown to worship. O.S.T.R. = VERY stylie shred music if you like to play to hiphop. I'm trying to play to more of a variety. I've played to NOFX (punk), ska (suburban legends, toasters, RBF, etc.), a crazy zuit suit band called Squirrel Nut Zippers, and west coast rap or old school rap. RJD2 is always welcome. Aric McIntosh and I once played to Rage Against the Machine and that worked really well. RATM is quite fun to play to.

I woke up this morning with a sour stomach and my mom told me there's a stomach flu going around. I wasn't about to admit that I had a stomach flu so I threw that idea out. But praise Thor I got better after a while and now I just feel kind of sluggish. But I can work that out because I'm going to play for a few hours this afternoon, cash in my xmas checks, go to Best Buy, eat dinner at Hooters with some pals, and go back to my house to fix a hole in the wall. I wasn't responsible for the hole. It was my friend Andrew Vackel. He - uh - he's big. And clumsy. So that should be a lot of fun - bunch of clueless college kids trying to fix a hole in a wall without my parents knowing and have it done before they get back tomorrow.

F O O T B A G !?!?!? yes. . . footbag.
Pat Thomsen
Syracuse, New York - The connecting point to footbaggers in the NE and Canada. We make pancakes and air conditioners.
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Darkshredder
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Post by Darkshredder »

writing this from JFK on my way back to Ireland. Well well well. Break is over. Back to a moldy apartment and the land without Mountain Dew. I had a real nice hawaiian pizza and one of those pint .25 bottles of MD so I that'll last me for oh . . two weeks. Then I'm sure the withdrawl symptoms will return. Pretty sure this semester will have loads of distractions and good things to keep my mind of the petty things like a lack of good pizza and mountain dew. I'll have my own computer equipped with Civilization IV (it's like crack, I tell ya), a new 32 panel footbag (compliments of Aiden/Ayden/Eyden/. . . sorry no clue how to spell her name). I'm also probably going to get a very used ps2 for not a lot of money from Dominik (if he'll sell it. . he needs the money as much as I need a console :lol: ). AND I'll be getting a bike so I can just go and get lost for the weekend biking the southern countryside of Ireland. I'm REALLY looking forward to that. Freedom. I'm going to be a mad bastard of the bike to be sure. Let's see. Ah yes and travelling. I'm going to travel to places outside the isle. Greece and Scotland are on my agenda for sure. I'm going to go to Scotland and hunt for the different places were in the Holy Grail (monty python, that is). Greece? Yeah i'm just fascinated with ancient greece so I'm going to just go nuts finding old ruins and battlefields from the time of Alexander (I've got a notebook full of handouts and notes on his battles around greece). All in all it'll be a really eventful semester. Because, along with the travels, ps2, wii, civ IV, biking, and "schooling". . . there will be footbag.

YEAH left my legs in bad condition so I've decided to go on a bit of a break for a little while so that they can heal a little. Just for a week or so till I can get my schoolwork/classes figured out, get what I need to get, and heal up. Hopefully Dominik has been playing while I've been gone. He hit whirl a bit before I left to go back to the states so I hope he skooled it a bit. He's polish and has a LOT of potential but he likes money more than anything in the world and is kind of a workaholic. Not saying that's a bad thing but it definitely gets in the way of a beginner getting started with footbag. You really need to devote a lot of time at first to the game.

I'm going back with a bunch of new things to try and get better at. Spinning, for example. Chris showed me a few neat little tricks to help make my spinning a bit more efficient. Paul helped put into words a few things I've known I'm doing wrong and have never really considered; turning more into gyros, dexing knee placement during torques, and the fact that my weaving SUCKS :roll: . Even Matt, whether he knew it or not, added in a few comments as to how to get off a quantum set. Set slow and lower. So I'm hoping the next time these guys see me:

a)I won't be injured
b)I'll have a sturdy mid-string quantum game
c)I'll be a spinning fiend (as it should be)
d)vortex and mobius bs would be nice since on a number of occasions people thought I was about to hit them whne all I really wanted to do was bail to infinity or osis. . gah. They're right. I really should buckle down and hit them once and for all. They seem easy enough for me.

YEAH was awesome. I had such a good time. Glad I could make at least the shred of the first two days.
Pat Thomsen
Syracuse, New York - The connecting point to footbaggers in the NE and Canada. We make pancakes and air conditioners.
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Post by Pyroman924 »

Dude, I didn't know you lived in Ireland. O_o That's awesome! It was cool meeting you at YEAH the first night. Disappointed I couldn't stay for longer but oh well. One night is better than none. :wink: Sounds like you're prepared for the second semester of school too. 8) I'm working on flipside Far Legovers now as well, thanks for telling me what those were too. Hope you get all healed up fast!


P.S. - Take pictures of the Ireland countryside!!
Alan Underhill

http://www.myspace.com/pyroman924

"The more you drop, the better you get." -Ben Rinowski
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Darkshredder
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Post by Darkshredder »

heh yeah no prob. Good meeting you too. Come to lots more NE jams and I'll try to do the same! That's my new years resolution. Go to more jams. . . and go on the south beach diet (just joking. seriously. I hate those diets). Need to go to worlds. It's actually a strong possibility if I can get a good job that pays me better than a 16 year old (no offense, 16 year olds).

Today was nuts. I woke up at 8 and ate breakfast and was going to get ready for heading to campus. Then all of a sudden a very non-Pat voice popped into my head. It said, "Hey! This is just registration week. Next week is when classes will matter. You should go back to sleep." - yes that's a good idea. Thanks. But I shouldn't sleep too much more than a couple more hours. Maybe get up at 10:30 or 11 or something and get some reading and homework done. Pff. And what actually happened? I woke up at 1:45. One thing about me remains constant. I HATE sleeping in. So after just staring at the clock for a while and swearing a while under my breath I got up and saw that Dominik had texted me 45 minutes earlier asking if I wanted to shred. Jesus. That's a first. So I called him and told him I'd be over in a second. So I went to his house and we got our stuff on and headed out to the Cork Courthouse and played for a couple hours (remember. Only had breakfast at 8) at 4 we went back to his house and he showed me his 360 and we played Gears of War for a good hour. Very good game. Almost makes me give a thumbs up to Xbox. Then I left and went back to my flat to eat. A LOT (I'm actually still making up for the meals missed.) And I just finished homework. - - - - straaaange day.

The Session -
Well I had taken about a two week break since YEAH so I was all rested and only a little slow. Dominik hadn't played really that much since I've been gone but he wasn't rusty at all which was a pretty nice surprise to both of us. Not a lot of new stuff from either of us. We just spent most of the time quoting Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Borat. . .
Dominik - flip far legover
- infinity first try
- rehit toe drifter after not doing it for a long time
- long string with dimwalk and smear and toe ducking clipper strewn about the place
- osis > osis - not that hard for him but he did it as a challenge and I was impressed. I clapped and said "woo!"
- symp. mirage bsos over and over . . too easy for him, the bastard.

Me - um. . . yeah i played as well.
- spinning clip > spinning osis rpt first try
- flip pixie was helpful today. Did a lot of midstring stuff with flips.
- pixie whirl and pixie ss whirl in same guiltless/tripless string. Intense.
- ducking pdx mirage > legbeater. Old combo but hey - Coming from a break atomics shouldn't have been this consistent. Who knows. Maybe I'm actually getting good at footbag.

This weekend we're getting my bike and a ps2. Hurray for bike and gaming! And hurray for OSTR which is on my playlist at the moment.
Pat Thomsen
Syracuse, New York - The connecting point to footbaggers in the NE and Canada. We make pancakes and air conditioners.
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Darkshredder
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Post by Darkshredder »

wow. . didn't think that last post got through. My internet had cut out after I said submit and I thought it didnt' get through. Hm well that's convenient.

Well as this is my first time getting back online I decided to use this time to give a brief blog of my journey. I've only played once since I've been back. Travesty. About three days ago I stepped on an empty glass that someone left as sabotage. So yeah. I stepped on a glass with bare feet and haven't been feeling like my left foot could be used to play footbag for a little while now. It's gotten much better and i can put weight on it as of yesterday. So I imagine I'll be all set and ready to shred in another day or so. But maybe I could just wait for the weekend and give my knee one last chance to be all rested. It'll be slow goings at first getting back at the bag. But I have a good feeling about this spring. Lots of cool places to play outside that I didn't get a chance to visit because when I got here the weather was turning shitty sooner than it does in the states. And I plan on going to different ruins along the midlands of Ireland and shredding on them. That'd be awesome. There are a bunch actually not too far from Cork City. When I get my bike maybe I could ride out to them. Day trip to shred - heh. It'd be worth it I think.

K well that's about it. Thanks for reading. I need to get back to work now. :roll:
Pat Thomsen
Syracuse, New York - The connecting point to footbaggers in the NE and Canada. We make pancakes and air conditioners.
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