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

[mrjauss]

I had an hour session last night after working day shift. Yuck. I had a good warmup with a lot of 2 add drill warmups. I also worked CBOP stuff, torques, double ATW stuff (terrages, paradons, & played with barrages. Those are definitely doable soon), & then I played with some zoom sets a bit. I think I might be spinning to much. I will check out some vids to make sure. I am probably making it harder then I need to as usual. I will most likely take tonight off from kickin since my legs are pretty sore from last night & from friday's session. I need to fix my two floppy bags still since they have a few holes in them. I guess they are finally getting old. Damn! ok back to work.....

[mrjauss]

Kicked for 1 hr 45 mins last night. The only thing about working day shift & only 8 hrs a day is that I have a bit more time each day to kick & workout. I worked on atom smashers, toe blurs, smears, & sidewalks for about an hr straight. I just rotated through each one with a short break inbetween each one. I still need to make the set & the mirage more efficent. I get a good set but then always mess up the mirage about 95% of the time. Doh! I also played with Zoom set a bit & BOP stuff.

mid lites:
-pdx mirage>op butterfly rpt 37 contacts. It might have been 41 because I think I missed one cycle.
-infinites 3x>osis 2x rpt I can get one good cycle & then the flip usually wigs out.

I worked infinites before the first drill trying to relax more. I think it helped when I went into the drill. Nothin much else that I can remember. Time to eat breakfast.

later...

[mrjauss]

Had another good session last night. I kicked for 1 hr 35 mins. After the regular warmup & stretch I worked some legbeaters, BOP, spinning clips, gyro mirages, gryo butterflys & zooming clips. My calfs were a bit sore from last night but worked through it with some ibuprofean (sp?).

midlights:
-32 alt clips
-24 infinities
-a few gyro butterflys on strong & one on flip (it was huge. )
-a few zoom clips - nice! I have done these in the past when I first started to learn spinning clips. Now they are so much more controlled & I don't look at the bag after the osis (just before the spin) so much.

Then at the end I thought I was done & decided to wind down with some spinning clips & gryo mirages. I only did a few spinning clips since I get dizzy so easy. With the gryo mirages it is not so bad. I finally hit:

- gryo mirage>op butterfly rpt First time it was from strong gryo mirage side (flip clip side. don't ask why. it just is). Then I wanted to get both starting from the other clip before I finished the session. I got a few bs with the last one off the toe. I was determined to get it clean. Then....

-gryo mirage>op butterfly>gryo mirage>op butterfly>gryo mirage>op butterfly>gryo mirage.. drop. Just off the top of the toe!

It was nice & controlled. I didn't feel to dizzy after the 4th one but I think I justed lean back somewhat on the last one. Doh! Good times!

Forgot to add:
-butterfly 3x>osis 2x rpt 3 cycles + butterlfy 3x> drop on osis= 18 contacts.

later...

[Troyson]

hey man whats goin on!
I was told to contact you here, you may have also gotten my email from another source. I will be in arizona while i am visiting ASU and UA and i was hoping that we could have a session while i am in town. I will be in arizona from march 1st-3rd. hopefully we can arrange something, and feel free to pm me anytime so that we can discuss this in detail.

[mrjauss]

Troy,

Sent you an email so we will talk soon & set things up for the kick when you make it here to AZ. Phx has a bigger more consistant shred scene then Tucson but don't make that the only reason you pick ASU.



I did not kick with the Unity crew yesterday because I had to work & the drive would have been nasty in traffic. Besides I had to work at 6am Saturday morning. Not sure if the other guys & gal got together to kick or not. I have not seen (their blog update) or heard anything from them. Hopefully I did not discourage them just because I didn't have to time to drive & kick with them.

However, since the weather was so nice I had to kick for a bit. I went over to the park that is a couple of miles from my house. It is a nice park with a basketball court with decent lights. There is a youth center right in the park & a skate park with the wooden ramps. Not sure how good those are since I don't skate. Anyway, I kicked for 2 hours & did ok. I thought I was going to be more sore then I ended up being. I really didn't try to many new tricks. I just worked longer runs, tiltless, & some BOP stuff with the occasionaly legbeater, blur, sidewalk, gryo mirage (a few times. bsos , torque, smear, etc. (stuff that I can actually hit now & then). I knew there was more people watching so I tried to keep the bag going longer. During some runs the bag would get a way a bit & I could not hit anything so I just kicked it back into control & started another run right away. I got a lot of verbal comments. I was surprised I never heard the question, "do you play soccer?" I did get the wow your good or are you pro from one kid.

Speaking of the one kid. There are an 8th grader from the high school that actually came up to kick with me by himself & stayed for about 45 mins to kick with me. This is very rare since most are intimidated. Not that I am saying I am that good or anything but to the regular hacky sacker I can hold my own & throw down some big tricks (to them they are big). He seemed very enthusiastic but don't they all at first (glass is half full today I guess). He said he kicks with several different friends at both his high schools he goes to. I guess each high school offers different courses (or maybe it increases his chance to meet more girls ) at each school so he has a better education. I mentioned that we could do a demo for his friends or at his high school if he likes. He was surprised & even more so when I said I would do it for free. I am not a pro so I can deal with it. I don't think it would take anything away from the experience or the sport. I am sure options very on that one. Footbag does not cost much except for the equipment & they last if you take care of them. I will have to do the demo sometime. I think it would be easier when you know someone to show me around & he would bring his friends so there would guarntee to have some people there! He got a few toe stalls with some expert teaching ( ) & started to kick with more controll using both feet & all kicks, of course!! That is the Footbag way! He got about 7 or 8 kicks. He got the flip toe stall off the flip toe. Anyway.... We will see. We got a lot of kids that have stopped by once or twice but never came back. Sometimes they talk a big game & say yeah we will be back.

Hmm demo's? We will see. I have to make time to go around & put up some flyers & talk to some people. ok enough babble.

Hmm nice out today? kick? we will see.... Definitely Net on Sunday!

later....

[mrjauss]

Amy, Rob, DJ, Nate, Kirk, & I had a good net session on Sunday 2/10. We played for a little over 2 hrs. Took me a while to warmup. I only hit a few spikes throughout the day the rest sucked ass. I definitely need to play more net. At EOS I felt terrible & needed some food. I was hopeing to freestyle in the park we where playing at to see if anyone would kick with me there. After getting something to eat I decided just to work on organizing the garage & finish putting up my wooden dummy. Yeah! Now a quarter of the garage I have the dummy (not me) & my punching bags & the other quarter is for Footbag! I left some of the carpet down. once I get the rest organized & stain some boards I will post some pics. Anyway.. I will have a session tonight damn it!

I had a chance to talk to Rob more about his NET rebounder that he made. He made a few proto types. I will have to play with some ideas too & see if I could make one! It would be great practice for one person or 2. I could put a net in front of it & spike, serve or play over it & it would come right back at me so I can do it again. Nice! ok back to work!

later....

[mrjauss]

I had an 1 hr 15 mins session last night after cleaning up the garage more. I definitely like my new setup. The shred lair (yeah it's just a garage but Footbag players will understand) is almost complete. Ok on to the session. Not much to say. It was an average session. My legs & calfs were still a bit sore from Saturday's net session. Don't know why. We only played a few hours. I worked some DLO's & eggs. I have a long way to go to make them more reliable. Also worked some legbeaters & the regular CBOP stuff. Really no long strings but the consistency is getting better. Finished off with some clips x3 (no plant)> op clip x3 (not plant) rpt. I cycled through a few times. Also worked a few zooming clips. They felt weird. I did notice that I have to be careful on my right zoom set because it puts strain on my right knee. I have kung fu later tonight so i am not sure how much energy I will have tonight to kick but definitely Wed night & then Thursday morning kung fu. I will drive out to Vegas this Thursday afternoon for a kung fu & excrima seminar on the weekend. Same weekend the NCAA is going. Vegas will be nuts.

later....

[mrjauss]

Amy & I had a little over an hour one pass session. It is good to work on this stuff since we get more of a chance to keep the bag going instead of serve, set, spike (drop most of the time. Well for me anyway). We also talked about drillin more net so we can up our game & get ready for worlds. Ok at least Amy will be ready. I think I will just be ready for intermediate NET. She will really help me to elevate my game to higher level. Just like freestyle there is a lot to work on in NET. Geesh. hopefully I won't drive her nuts since I am not that good. This will change soon enough. Maybe I will be able to give Greg, Sam, & Chad from OOPS club a better game then I have in the past. Also I will have to play Jeremy Mirken since he is the big up & coming NET god!

We also talked a little about the NET rebounder thingy. I have been thinking about it more too. I have to make a trip to home depot & take a look at stuff to see what I could come up with. I have a few. It sucks that you have to make several proto types before you come up with something that works real well. Going from paper to the actual product is a long process. I am sure Mosher knows that. I will probably kick some net with Amy on Monday & freestyle some too.

ok. later all....

[mrjauss]

Since I had Monday off I wanted to kick some one pass or Net with Amy but the weather wasn't being all that nice. It rained on & off all day. I should have called some of the other members of Unity to find out if they were kickin. According to Josh's blog they did. To bad I was feeling lazy all day long. I guess it draged over from Sunday. I finally got off my ass & kicked at about 7:30 pm. Better late then never. I kicked for about 2 hrs 45mins. I felt pretty sluggish throughout the session so I knew long runs were out of the question. I just worked some tricks & a few combos. I tried to focus on closing my hips on my flip butterfly. It seemed to help. I just need to get used to it. I also concentrated on relaxing the arms & trying to make the tricks more effortless. I worked infinities, clips, atom smashers (they felt great last night), sidewalks, gryo clips, torques, drifters, ducking clips, alt toe ducking, toe ducking mirages. No real highlights except.

-alt clips 45 contacts. I think that is my highest.
-toe ducking cross body rake bs
-toe ducking op mirages bs. I tried to alternate & came close! Yeah! Usually when I try these I do the ss mirage.
-3 or 4 consistant ducking clips
-20+ pdx mirage>op butterfly rpt. It might have been more but lost count. oops.
-2 good flip torques & several strong side! Slowly coming along
-flip drifter a few times. it still sucks!

My ankle has been sore off/on for the last week or so. I need to watch how I plant & hop into the next move on certain moves.

later..

[mrjauss]

I kicked 50 mins last night. My legs & calfs were pretty sore so that is all I could do. I warmed up with my 2add tricks. Also worked clips, butters, torques, & some drifters. Just one highlight at the EOS.

-clip>op butterfly rpt 67 contacts! new record for me.

During this session I could get an average of 8 to 10 butterflys. I used to only get 3 or 4 so they are slowly getting better. Ok back to work.

ja ne!

[mrjauss]

The wonders of ibupropean (sp?) worked great. I decided to kick last night. I thought it was going to be a short session but it turned out to be 1 hr 30 mins. Pretty good session. After the warmup I worked ducking clips & butterflys for almost an hour. Time flys. Then I worked on some torques, clips, atom smashers (still inconsistent. ), BOP, a some zoom & gryo mirages.

mid lights:
-ducking clips bs, ducking butterfly strong side (off the clip on flip) all in a small run. abt 10 contacts.
-clip 2x>clipx2 rpt 44 contacts
-only 16 contacts of pdx mirage>op butterfly rpt. weak..
-only 12 osii's ... damn...

Friday should be better. Kevin called & gave me his email address & said his friend should be there on Friday to kick also. We will see. The weather says rain. doh... I ordered 30 Mr. Sandbags so I can have some & then have some for some demo's. If that happens. anyway.....

[mrjauss]

Ok I finally had a chance to update. Yes, I am working hard again. haha. I kicked for about 1 hr 45 mins on Friday 2/23. Kevin kicked for about an hr. I gave him an old sandbag that I filled with shot & beads so it will last. Hope he enjoy's it. I started out the session pretty good. Had some great runs. I tried to help out Kevin with stalls & kicks. I try to give him as much encouragement as I can. No real highlights for me. I started out so good & then went down hill from there. I guess it was the cold & lack of sleep. Argh. Those excuses are in the book too. I just worked as much things as I could.

On Saturday I kicked one pass with Amy for 2 hrs. We can keep the bag going for 20 or 30. Who's knows? I will have to count them. Set & then pass... Good workout for my NET game. we will setup the net next weekend & work on serves & returns. After one pass I freestyled for 2 hrs. Yeah! I had some real solid tiltless & some guiltless runs. No new tricks tho.

midlights:
-44 alt clips again
-many long 20+ & maybe 30+ tiltless runs
-several 20+ guiltless runs with a few tricks besides BOP's.
-several flip drifters that night!
-5 ducking clips. finally... I want to get at least 10 by the end of april!
-flip dyno's getting way better!
-strong dyno in a run. flip.... close

worked DLO's, tapping, smears, a few atom smashers & toe blurs (they sucked last night tho), BOP's, clips, dyno's, dimwalks, PixLO, drifters (ton's). I was pretty tired at the EOS. whew!

Founder's day in Marana, AZ. Saturday March 17th! I will confirm with Johnny & then send out email! Hopefully we will have several of the Unity crew show up to help spread Footbag down in Tucson area!

later...

[mrjauss]

I got off work yesterday afternoon & thought I might go to the park to kick but decided to do some yard work first since I have been putting it off. So I finished that fun stuff & it was off to kick. Unfortunately, it was getting late so I decided to kick at home in my shred lair. It is good to kick on your own a lot & do it in private because then you are not worried about people watching you drop so many times haha. It was pretty good session. I kicked for about 2 hours & then worked out with some pushups, situps, & did some kung fu for another 45 mins.

During the session I worked many things & the usual CBOP stuff.

midlights:
-21 infinities - felt good last night but still only 21.
-26 clips - I couldn't find a good rythmn on those.
-several strong blenders & a few flip side blenders all to hand catch. I think flip blender is new for me! Yeah!
-good strong sidewalks & ripwalks. A few flipsides too. I tried to sink more into the stall before the set & step. It seemed to help a lot. The flipside is still weird. I can't keep it in the right spot to set & my leg is slow on the step most of the time. It will get better!
-Good torques! & a few flips. Nice! Coming a long
-dynos are getting really easy now!
-started a run with flip drifter & bs'd it with a few BOP tricks & strong torque to hand catch! Yeah! I might have had one clip in there tho.
-a few swirls here & there too! bonus! Getting easier!

Frustrations:
-toe moves are so inconsistent! atomic, Quantum, & even smears don't work as well as I want them too!
-still to much tension so it wears me down sometimes. New tricks will do that & so will the ones you don't have down real good.

A quick thought. Yesterday I read D. Clavens post about his talent show he did. That was amazing! I wish all parents would support their kids like that & then we would have less messed up kids in this place! My mom did but my Dad now that was another story. Anyway, what a great story it brought tears to my eyes!

I am slowly learning new tricks to put in my runs so I can go completely guiltless. So much more work to do! The new tricks, combos, runs, new friends, etc. cancel out all the frustrations & disappointments! Ok they over power them! I love Footbag! Good times!!

later...

[mrjauss]

I kicked for 1 hr 45 mins last night. I started out slow & decided & needed some food. Anyway... It turned out to be a pretty good session. I practiced several things. I need to figure out my timing better on the mirage component for blur, atom smasher, smear (not as bad), toe blur because I rush the mirage & the bag hits my thigh or knee. argh!

highlights:
-35 alt clips
-clip>ducking LO almost bs'd. it feel off the other foot several times. I thought of drill for later. clip>ducking LO>ducking clip>ducking pdx mirage>ducking clip rpt. have to work on that one!
-weaving clip on one side. close on flip.
-fairy ss clip (op clip foot so not sure if that is ss or far). I have been slowly working these now & then. I have to get some tips from JOSH! Then I can get some new fairy moves! yeah!
-the major highlight -- clip>op butterfly rpt 94 contacts! Yeah! Since I can't get the 100 contacts of alt clips or 75 contacts of butterfly yet. This is a great start! I should get over a 100 w/in the week!

Looks like Troy, Troyson on modified, is in town checking out ASU & UA. Hopefully tonight we can kick for an hour or 2 & then on Friday kick with Josh, Nate, & Conrad at Jaycee park. It has been like 3 weeks since I kicked with the Unity Crew so that should be fun as usual. Also I have a few new tricks to show off!

later..

[mrjauss]

The Unity crew had a good session Friday night for a little over 4 hours. Since we haven't kicked in a while 4 hours was all we had. haha. The session started out with Josh, Conrad, & myself. Then Troy made his guest apperience & soon afterwards Nate showed up for a bit.

Josh was doing great. flip pdx tapdwn & a couple others. His runs were a bit longer & more consistent. Sick man!

Conrad seemed to be back to his normal self. Much better then the vacation legs he had 3 weeks ago. He was hitting more stepping & drillin again! Nice!

Troy was doing pretty good. He said he hasn't kicked in a while. Must be the high school grad transitioning into college thing that has held him back from kickin more. He had some long tiltless runs. Good illusions! His last run before he left had to be 25+. Thanks for the kick, Troy~!

Nate was a bit rusty. He hasn't kicked since the last time the Unity crew got together. You could tell his balance was a bit off. Maybe it was all that beer & BBQ'in that he was doing.

As for myself, my balance was feeling weird also. I couldn't get rid of it. During the first hour & was pretty consistent with my tiltless runs. Probably 15+ on the average every contact of the bag. Ok maybe 10+. anyway... Really no highlights or even midlights that I can remember. It was all the SOS throughout. Ok wait I think I hit a clean clip>far ducking LO on the otherside. both sides are about the same & last week I couldn't get that one to stay on the toe. Even tho I had such an average session it was great to hangout & kick with the guys again!

Saturday I was hoping to kick some one pass with Amy but I had to cancel. To much stuff to get done & I had to work on Saturday. speaking of work I should get back at it.

later...

[mrjauss]

Oh yeah I better ad this story from last Friday or maybe the Friday before that. I played at Founders park with Kevin like I have been doing for the last few weeks. After Kevin had to go. I was kickin & I had my usual crowd. Ok it was only one or 2 people passing by but you know what I mean. The skate park is right next to the basketball courts so once in a while I get a skater to come walk by instead of glancying in my direction while they rest between their big skate moves & say something. It was funny because it wasn't the usual " Are you pro" or "Do you play soccer." It was "Are you a Ninja." That was pretty damn funny!


Ok the pun of the day from Friday night 3/2. Now if someones ask how can Ken do that? You have to say, cause he Ken! Ok that is bad. Ok maybe I am running out of them. Ok another story from Friday while I am here. Josh was trying to hit a combo & was having a lot of close looks at it. I noticed a stick for a sucker on the ground. I said what is that stick on the ground messing you up? Josh said, no. I said, well put that stick back in your pants then & hit that combo. Ok stupid. Anyway.... That is why I don't quit my job & go on the road.

later...

[Troyson]

Hey Mike hows it goin??
Thanks for the session, it was tons of fun! Too bad i couldnt stay longer, i felt like i was just getting warmed up but oh well. You all played so well and it really motivated me to start playing again. I even just had a small solo session in my room in which i drilled butters and osis lol.

Thanks for the view on my shred, ive never really had anyone comment on it! I never realized that i had good illusions, i always thought they were one of the weaker aspects of my game haha.

I cant wait until i come back out to arizona...after that trip i think its a very good possibility that i will be going to UA, but i dont wanna rule out other schools just yet.

Once again, thanks for the session, it was one of the best parts of my trip! And oh yeah, thanks for the bandaids i really did a number on my hand, but as it starts to heal it looks like i may have a scar in the shape of an A on my hand....maybe its a sign that i belong in arizona??

[mrjauss]

Troy,
It was great kickin with you too. Tucson or Phx would work great. We could kick more! Good luck with school selection. It is a big time in your life! No matter your choice I am sure you will have fun & I am sure there are other kickers out there if you don't choose AZ. Take care! See you!

Now on to my kick from last night! I kicked for about 1 1/2 hrs. I didn't want to kick to long so I can kick tonight & Wed. It was a pretty good session. My balance felt much better since I took a few days off.

highlights:
- clip>op butterfly rpt 56 contacts
- alt clips 45 contacts
- osii's 29 contacts
- pixie lo>ss butterfly>pdx mirage rpt almost 2 full cycles!
- infinities: 7, 10, 13, 2, 5.... went down hill... wtf! They are just so inconsistent. I will drill the f.... out of those!

Also worked a few other things like drifter, tap, swirls. I noticed on tap's I need to make them a bit bigger right now because if I make them to small I can't hit them consistently. I got 2 in a row on strong & off the foot on the second one on flip. That was about it....

Going to take the poll for worlds now! decisions decisions??

[mrjauss]

Kicked for 1 hr 15 mins. I tried to work on only a few things but you know how that goes. Worked on alt clips, infinities, drifters, & some combos. dwntm LO> pLO & mirage>atom smasher. It helps with my flow, balance, timing. I had to quit early since my knee was bugging me & my shin & ankle. All the same leg. Damn! I must plant hard on the pixie's. doh. I need to take a few days off! I hate when that happens. I have kung fu tonight so that will keep me busy.

later...

[mrjauss]

I kicked abt 2 hours on friday evening. I was hoping to kick with Kevin to see how he was doing. I guess he couldn't make it or I just missed him. Anyway, it took a while to warm up & start flowing. I think I was holding back because of my sore knee. I had some pretty good runs throughout the session. I didn't skool to many tricks just worked on runs. My ankle is pretty sore now. I think it gets better & then bam it starts to bug me again. I guess that is the way the sport is. I had 3 different people ask me if I played soccer & 2 ask me if I was pro. haha. Standard stuff there. I am trying to come up with better replys. For a reply I tried the ball is to big & round I would probably trip over it & sprain my ankle. Ok. Not that I don't do that during footbag already. Well at least the spraining part.

midlights:
-a few runs 15+ tiltless with legbeater, paradon, spinning clip, several ducking clips.
-paradons were on! Hit like 4 or 5 throughout.
-good DATW in some runs! in-out.
-5 ducking clips 2 diff x's those are getting more consistent
-a 15+ tiltless run with butterfly rakes bs, 5 cross body rakes, ducking clip, smear, plo. yeah! Slowly starting to put more into my runs besides the usual 2 add & BOP stuff.

My left toe terrage sucked that day! argh... Hopefully I can have a session on Sunday. The weather is getting warmer. I have to start getting used to that again. 100+ degrees.... doh! ahhhh water...

Unity crew: FYI. Maybe going to front day shift at work so I might start having Friday's off within a week! Yeah! Friday sessions coming soon!

later....