Begin Phase 1 again

Carlos · Post by **Carlos** » 14 Dec 2006 10:47

Sweet! Nice to see you back in the game again. I'm gonna take your advice on my blog you posted BTW.

Iron Clad Ben · Post by **Iron Clad Ben** » 17 Dec 2006 22:52

WOOHOO!!! ÃœBER SESSION today!

It was the 2nd SAN MARCOS JAM. Much to our surprise 3 guys from San Antonio were there! I had heard so much about Juan and Mike from various people, it was cool to get to shred with them. Mike hadn't played in a long time but then he said he saw the "September Session" video from our first jam and started schooling for the past couple months. He had really solid downtime game and was hitting some decent shuffle like repeating ripwalks. His gyro was really good and he was hitting mobius really well. Juan (inventor of the juantomic set) had some damn good moves too, his shuffle was pretty consisent with stuff like pdx dlos and eggs... and that was him playing rusty too. I think Mike hit fusion.

Jose was busting like crazy. He hit a bunch of wild stuff. I got Big Apple on video. He hit toe fog, both sides I believe. Plus a bunch of symp atomic / symp tapping stuff like stampede and symp atomic drifter.

I played really well. I was definitely at the top of my game. The only thing that wasn't really happening was spinning. I had lots of LONG tiltless runs with plenty of 3's and a few 4's thrown in (check out the "new runs" topic in shred symposium). Symp mirages and DLOs were cake today. I also hit eggbeater a few times, blur once, a bunch of ripwalks, and a bunch of stuff out of pixie set. My consistency was top notch. Andrew even commented that my consistency had gotten much better since the last time he'd seen me play.

The weather was perfect. It was a great session, we kept going until sundown. We just didn't want it to end. Probably a total of 6 hours there, pretty much shredded the whole time. Now my back is kinda sore but otherwise I feel great. I just wanted to write what I do remember down before I forget it. Great day. Video later.

Carlos · Post by **Carlos** » 18 Dec 2006 04:27

Awesome, I can't wait for the videos from the session!

Iron Clad Ben · Post by **Iron Clad Ben** » 19 Dec 2006 20:25

Let's see hyere...

Monday 12/18/06 - No footbag
Sucky day at work. Lotsa crap to do after work. Did manage to hit up the gym and get in 25 minutes of cardio. That felt goooood. Cardio helps the game out a ton, son. I suggest you all try it. Endurance is so important. It helps my game out tremendously.

Tuesday 12/19/06 - 1 hour 20 minutes solo session - Eastwood Park
My girlfriend is house sitting at this AWESOME house for the next 2 weeks! Booyah. Their backyard has a deck that is going to be PERFECT for shred. I am luckyyyyyy!
Anyways, this house is like 2 blocks away from Eastwood Park. Which, as a small number of you know is where we held Texas Statewides this year. It was kinda nostalgic for me, brought back good memories. Had a good session:
Highlights

Clipper > Pickup > Legover > Illusion - double BSOS baby! (18 contact run in total)

(Clipper > Far Legover ) > rpt > (Clipper > Mirage ) > rpt > (Clipper > Pickup > Legover ) > rpt > Clipper > drop on far pickup attempt

DATW - new!

Terrage - new! - several times!

After reading Jamieson's tutorial on drifters I had been attempting some this weekend. James (not Jamieson, different guy) saw what what I was doing and gave me the tip to attack the bag even earlier, to really get a jump on it as early as possible. That helped! I footed drifter 3 times this session, it's definitely doable! I think I'm just going to work on visualizing it and practicing the motion without the bag. I'll get there soon, I can feel it.

I am sore as balls yo. Shin splints and sore quads. Gotta pay the cost to be the boss. I literally love this sport too damn much to let the soreness stop me. As long as it's not a joint injury and just muscle soreness I'm just gonna pop 2 ibuprofen and keep playin' son. You can be sure of that.

Walking home I was just feeling really good. Getting in some exercise every day (usually footbag, occasionally other stuff) makes me feel so well, so good. Like I just feel so alive. I feel like myself. It's trite, but I just feel like I'm 100%. Coming home I was just really happy thinking about how my game is coming along steadily and how much fun I'm having. Effort going in is putting results out slowly but surely. The lows will come, and I'll have to fight through them, but right, things are good and I'm enjoying that to the fullest.

Peace out everyone

Iron Clad Ben · Post by **Iron Clad Ben** » 19 Dec 2006 20:26

EDIT: Double Post. Stupid Mac.

SECOND EDIT: This space is still here so might as well make a post.

12/20/06 Session with Luis and Cody 1.5 hours

Luis is back in town from Cornizzle. I PMed him to make sure he knew we still had our regular Wednesday session (which are awesome BTW, they have helped me get over the hump of many stressful weeks at work). Well it rained so they turned the lights off at tennis courts, so we went up to the TX state capitol to shred.

For reasons I won't get into, I didn't have some of my most important shred gear with me: my water backpack (such a staple these days) my new snazzy shoes, ibuprofen, or any of my bags

I got shin splints about 30 minutes into playing from bad support in my shoes and no pain pills, so I couldn't play very well.

It was really cool to see Luis again and hear all his stories about the Cornell crew, KICKASS and see how his game has improved. Before he he left he could hit a few tricks here and there, his foundation was there, but last night he was SHREDDING. His butterflies are really good, I saw him hit butter > infinity > mirage mid run like was easy. Also, he busted out a Guay mid-run which made Cody pretty happy considering it's one of his favorite tricks. Also, he showed us a few bags he has stitched, WOW, they are good. I had seen the first couple bags he had made when he was just learning which were basically not shreddable. He has definitely gotten good at stitching. If he had more time to stitch and make bags in volume, he definitely could ask at least $25 for them.

No real highlights from this session, I did hit blur once and had a few decent tiltless runs. We ended up getting kicked out by some state trooper on a power trip who told us some crap about how we were being disrespectful. Whatever, every other cop there has smiled at us and never given us a problem until last night. No biggie, my shins were hurting so bad I was ready to leave anyways.

I pushed out my GRE date until May of 2007. I just didn't have my shit together to take the test or put together a decent application into grad school. I now have until Oct 1st, 2007 to apply for Spring '08 semester

I think I'll use the time I freed up to edit the footage from this weekend. Plus I still owe all my modifriends a solo video. I got the camera, might as well do it!

Iron Clad Ben · Post by **Iron Clad Ben** » 22 Dec 2006 15:48

12/22/06 80 minute solo session
Worked on: PICKUPS! and links

It felt good to lace up my servers and play with my Zeb Jackson bag again. Plus, ibuprofen really helped put a stop to the shin splints.

Well, for whatever reason this session I decided to work on pickups. I am determined to master the shit out of even the most trivial of the basics. So I did just that today. Plus my main man Zeb Jackson got really good at pickups and it seems to have helped him get super good at whirls. I think subconsciously any time there's a trick that really troubles me, I will work at it relentlessly until I get it. I HATED pickups for so long. Today I rocked at pickups.

Highlights

Osis b2b for the first time EVER

Both ways, a couple times. Yay.

Flip Illusion x 8

Clipper > Pickup > Illusion > Legover > Mirage > rpt + 2 more contacts! Got all the basic 2 adds BSOS. woohoo!

Pickup x 11 (also hit x7 and x8)

Clipper > Pickup > Pickup > rpt x 3

(16 contacts yo)

Clipper > Far Legover > Legover > rpt x 5 (of course that would be easy)

Felt pretty good, wish I coulda played longer but I got some dumbass holiday party to go to and drink and play video games. A year ago I would have been down to do that no problems. Now it's like, damn that's time I could be shredding! I used to love to get drunk (periodically of course), now it's like "that's fun but the next day my shred will suck". Always lookin' out for #1 I suppose.

It was nice to see that the comps came out today. It was cool to see people you know on here and what they're hitting and what progress they've made. Still I wish more people would enter. I'm mad at myself for not hitting a sick 3, I should have entered SOMETHING. Mad props to Luis for hitting a guiltless sick 3, way to go dude.

Well next week I have to be on call for work from home. HOPEFULLY that means I'll get to play a lot of footbag. Luis, Cody, hit me up if you guys wanna shred, we should make the most of it. It could SNOW this weekend, crazy.

Then after this next week I'm off to Colorado for a week to go snowboarding. I LOVE snowboarding, but in the back of my mind there's a part of me thinking "oh man, I won't get to play footbag for a whole WEEK!". LOL.

Peace out. last of night of Hanukah

Pyroman924 · Post by **Pyroman924** » 22 Dec 2006 15:57

Iron Clad Ben wrote:12/22/06 80 minute solo session
Worked on: PICKUPS! and links

I LOVE snowboarding, but in the back of my mind there's a part of me thinking "oh man, I won't get to play footbag for a whole WEEK!". LOL.

Congrats on the great practice man.

I just want to say though that in reference to the above quote... That's what hotel lobbies are for.

Great way to showcase some footbag to others.

Carlos · Post by **Carlos** » 27 Dec 2006 06:04

Keep it up Ben! Awesome sessions! Hit that Drifter man!

beenjammin · Post by **beenjammin** » 27 Dec 2006 16:44

Keep shredding man I love it~!

Iron Clad Ben · Post by **Iron Clad Ben** » 27 Dec 2006 18:00

Unfortunately I haven't been able to keep it up. I got sick over the holidays, caught some sort of cold. The worst part, it's made my legs really sore. I woke up this morning and did not want to get out of bed because my legs were so sore. I had tried footbag the day before and could only play for 15 minutes before nasty shin splints kicked in.

Luis wanted to have a session today, but I was just feeling too crappy to play. So I have just been trying to get rest and shiz. I think I may take it very lightly the rest of the week so that I am in good condition for snowboarding in Colorado

I'll edit the footage I have on my camera tomorrow or Friday. Expect a new Texas video very soon!

Carlos · Post by **Carlos** » 27 Dec 2006 20:36

Hey man I feel your pain I got a little sick over the weekend also but not sore just sore thorat which sucks b/c I have to meet all these people tomarrow at NYJ and I can't even talk right! Sucks Ass!

Can't wait for the vids from TX!

beenjammin · Post by **beenjammin** » 28 Dec 2006 15:56

I feel your pain Ben. I have been playing exdcessive amounts of baggage latelly, and discovered that it hurts to shred. It hurts everybody, not just me, everybody!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Iron Clad Ben · Post by **Iron Clad Ben** » 02 Jan 2007 09:09

1/2/2007 Happy New Year

Well if you didn't see it yet for some reason, I made a video from our 2nd San Marcos session:
http://modified.in/footbag/viewtopic.php?t=15272

New Year's eve was alright. Went out with my girlfriend a bunch of her friends, pretty much all couples. It was a good time, I get along better with them every time we hang out. Didn't stay out too late because we had a 9am flight to catch. Well, even staying out drinking until 1am was a mistake. We had a to get up at 6am and I felt like shit.

I did some shredding in the airport. It's so tough in pants. I had some good tiltless runs, and my ducking game is getting better. I can now hit ducking pdx mirage probably better than ducking clipper.

Soooo... this week I am in Crested Butte, Colorado to do some Snowboarding. Ummm, so far it's not going so well. Amber has gotten really bad altitude sickness and has been throwing up. Really the only cure is bed rest so she has just been sleeping a lot while I read my book and play around on my laptop. So far it's OK, no skiing missed. We are here 4 more days and have 3 days worth of lift tickets. Actually technically neither of us are "skiing". She now has skiboards (the mini skis shaped like snowboards) and of course I snowboard. I am so JONESIN to get on the mountain and do the 2nd best type of shredding there is. SNOWBOARDING!!!

We did have some pretty good Chinese food last night, but Amber threw up all of hers. I brought my video camera! Amber said she will take some video of me going off some jumps and some rails (don't worry nothing too big) and when I get home I can make a snowboarding/footbag combo video. It'll be sweet

Hope y'all are enjoying 2007 so far. Peace out yo.

beenjammin · Post by **beenjammin** » 02 Jan 2007 09:28

ONe metal testi?

Iron Clad Ben · Post by **Iron Clad Ben** » 02 Jan 2007 20:57

blurryben wrote:ONe metal testi?

Yeah. At one point I earned the nickname "Iron Nad Ben". I'm not really sure what it's about, but it's pretty funny so I roll with it.

Images from Colorado so far:

beenjammin · Post by **beenjammin** » 02 Jan 2007 21:32

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH YAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Iron Clad Ben · Post by **Iron Clad Ben** » 03 Jan 2007 21:14

Went Snowboarding today

Hit a few jumps today. No grabs or spins, no rails... yet

More pictures!

Amber looking cute again

Another one of us

From the slopes

Iron Clad Ben · Post by **Iron Clad Ben** » 04 Jan 2007 21:15

1/4/07 Session on the mountain today (LOL).
Highlights

Cleared three tabletops in a row (a few times)

rail > rail > C-box jib

tabletop > tabletop > melon grab over table top

air off all sorts of natural jumps on the mountain

Need to bust some more grabs on Friday. Also, I need to do a few spins, but I don't want to hurt myself. I can backside 180 and 360, and also frontside 180. I think frontside 360 would be a new move (may have hit it once or twice, not sure). I like how footbag stresses both sidedness and it's considered standard to do everything both sides. In snowboarding and skateboarding if you hit something switch or spin the other way, it's like a huge deal and everyone creams their pants like a bunch of little bitches. In footbag, you're a style-less schmuck if you can't breakout the Beesauce.

Footbag highlights:

um none really. do you know how fucking hard it is to shred in 15 degree F (-9 deg C) weather at 8900 ft (2.7km) elevation after a day of snowboarding with sore legs? It's tough, boss. I was getting completely winded after 10 contacts. Did work on ducking some more. Now I know why Steve and Jose are so damn good, training at high elevation where the air is thin.

Along the road from CB to Gunnison some big explosion happened or something cutting off the gas and the whole road for a little while. So, a lot of places don't have heat, no restaurants are open. It's pretty much snoozetown here. I am pretty much stuck at our hotel with nothing to do. Good thing there is always modified.

No snowboarding tomorrow. Going snowshoeing and maybe a little sledding instead. Vacations are awesome. Amber is the best girlfriend ever. I am so happy right now. Goodnight everyone.

freestyler4life · Post by **freestyler4life** » 05 Jan 2007 14:40

Iron Clad Ben wrote:do you know how fucking hard it is to shred in 15 degree F (-9 deg C) weather at 8900 ft (2.7km) elevation after a day of snowboarding with sore legs? It's tough, boss. I was getting completely winded after 10 contacts.

I know what you mean, when I go snowboarding on springbreak or wakeboarding in the summer, my legs are extremely sore, and there is no way I can play footbag

Iron Clad Ben · Post by **Iron Clad Ben** » 10 Jan 2007 09:00

Back from Colorado. What an ordeal! Our flight from Gunnison to Denver got delayed, so we missed our connection. United put us in a hotel room for a night in Denver, and the next flight with open seats wasn't until the following evening! So I had a day half in a hotel room and half in the Denver airport. I got some reading in, played a little footbag in jeans, but didn't do much. I did manage hit to DLO mid tiltless string (in jeans) once, which was cool and impressed a few people also waiting for their flights.

Oh did I mention that my 2006 US Open Footbag Championships T-shirt got me the hookup at this burrito place?

Yeah, I was at this mexican food spot in CB ordering some veggie tacos and the dude saw my shirt. He asked me about the event, if I competed. I could tell he was enveloped in the hacker cloud of ignorance, so I enlightened him the best I could, without being condescending. I told him about the event, about usfootbag.com and shiz, and all the videos out there. He was pretty stoked and ended up giving me a "local's discount" on my food. SWEET!

Anyway, haven't shredded for real in like a week. Tonight is the Wednesday night session and I think we may have 5 people showing up

James, John, Cody and Luis are all jonesin' to shred just like me. Woohoo! I had a dream last night that I would hit pigbeater and smog at this session. Wish me luck! I was doing laundry last night and had kind of a mini session in the laundromat. I ducked a few pixie sets and almost hit assassin

Time to run! Lunch with Amber and Owen