Thanks for all the comments dudes!
Sporatical_Distractions wrote:Props on all of the bothsidedness. You'll have bsos eggbeater in no time.
How can drifters be done leggy? Am having a hard time picturing it.
I'm not sure. I could never do them hippy. I'll show you what I do at MFJ and perhaps you can give me some tips on cleaning them up. BTW hit BSOS egg this weekend
ObArA'BaRs wrote:Nice highlights. Im so jealous of that eggbeater. Good Job
Thanks man. Don't worry you can hit tons of stuff I can't hit. I've only hit 2 fives... EVER. I can't torque or whirl at all
I'm kind of a toe-to-toe player in denial which is funny because the only sets I can do are clipper based (ducking, spinning and stepping).
Pyroman924 wrote:Props man. Especially on the Spinning. Start trying out different Spinning moves like Butterfly, Osis, Legover, and Pickup. Those get really fun.
Yeah I do that. Spinning clipper is just the easiest to hit mid run. But I'm a big fan of gyro mirage/pickup and I like spinning butterfly a lot.
Anyways...
Had one of the best footbag weekends since Texas States or US Open
2007 Austin Reggae Fest
I gotta say. As selfish and narcissistic as it sounds, it was a hell of a lot of fun to be at an event with tons of hack circles and be the best player there by a heck of a longshot. I was kicking bags and taking names. In this case it's important to use your powers for good and not for awesome. I used it as a chance to meet lots of hackers and get them stoked on freestyle and spread the joy that is shredding.
I played a total of about 9 hours this weekend. I drank approximately 4 gallons of water over the course of that time. What was great that I was able to sustain minimal soreness and no injury. I think the main reason was that I was playing on grass and dirt rather than pavement. NO SHIN SPLINTS SON! For shizzle.
My only regret is that I wished some of the other Austin guys could have made it. But they were all busy with other crap this weekend, unfortunately, but that's just how it goes sometimes.
So I just had to represent solo.
Day 1:
Saturday 4/21 5 hours
Total hours played in 2007: 87 hours
Total hours played in Apr 2007: 16.5 Hours
Worked on: pwning n00bs, representin', havin' a great time, crowd pleasing runs/tricks
I was so full on amped for this event. I had been meaning to make flyers for the club with URLs for footbag.org, flipsider etc on them but was lazy and didn't. Instead I just grabbed a bunch of Freedom Footbag flyers, scribbled some basic info on them and headed out. In retrospect this was bad, don't worry, I got my shit together the next day.
I might add, I don't give a flying crap about Reggae. I got no problems with the music, I think it's alright, I don't hate it, but I'm not into it at all really. The only reason I came was to play footbag. There was a lot of 420 culture there too, which I'm not really down with, but it kind of goes with the territory, I didn't mind too much.
Basic strategy for joining hack circles. A lot of this was borrowed from Flipsider, I just sort of built on it.
Step in, always ask if I can join. People will always say yes, but it's really a rapport building tactic. Say hi to ppl, ask them how they're doing.
First few times the bag comes to me, just kick it a few times. NOTHING FANCY at all. Remember this is the basically The Matrix, people can't just have the red pill shoved down their throat (or is the blue pill? Whatever).
Keep building rapport. If other people in the circle make a good save, bust a trick, or we get a hack, I give out props. Being friendly and vocal is important, just try to guage people's interest level and don't overdo it. Now that I've built a little rapport, if they're using some giant crotcheted crap-bag, ask if I can break out my sandbag, I tell them it's stallier, and easier to control.
5 minutes into things once I've built some rapport with the circle I'll up the ante. A few toes stalls back to back. NO SHRED! PASS!
A few turns later, one or two basic tiltless tricks, like mirage > legover > PASS. The pass is so important. If you keep going until you drop, you look like a hack hog which can be a bad stigma among hack circles.
At this point I've been in the circle about 15 minutes. I have good rapport with the circle. They have dug my basic shenanigans, usually asked me how long I've been playing and/or if I play soccer. I usually just tell them "I play a lot of hack".
Now it's time to take advantage of all my groundwork and bust big. Note that does not mean bust out something mobius > void > bedwetter > reactor because well first I can't hit fearless shit and second that's way over doing it. I'll do some basic tiltless with some BOPs thrown in. I want to do something I can hit 10 contacts of 100% solid no problem and then PASS. It's gotta be smooth, easy to follow and solid. Again,
the PASS is key because if you drop, to them you are a hack hog trying to show off. You will lose rapport with the circle and ppl will be less receptive to what you're doing.
Now the barrage of props and questions will come flying in. Be humble. Tell them you play a lot, it's your favorite game, etc. etc. Some turns still just kick it a few times and pass with no tricks. You don't want to draw too much attention to yourself, keep the focus on circle. Still keep giving props to those who make good saves, tricks or otherwise do something noteworthy. Say hello to new people in the circle, welcome them in. Pass to them, integrate them. KEEP BUILDING RAPPORT. Bust out that ducking butterfly, DLO or torque if you can, show them one or two big moves and then PASS.
When the time is right, and you have people really stoked about what you're doing, it's time to close the deal. Tell them about the club, give them a flyer. I tell them about how they can check out videos online of people who are ten times better than I am. I tell them about how the sport is tiny but growing and we want to be in the olympics one day. Stress that you are beginner friendly and always happy to teach people to play. I tell them about how 2 years ago I could barely hit a toe stall and all this is from practice, not god-given superhuman powers.
Once you've gotten the word out, hang out in the circle some more. Encourage people to try tricks like toe and inside stalls. If they can hit legovers or something like that, encourage them to do other stuff that's within they're ability. I taught 4 guys how to spin from outside kicks, they loved it. Say thank you to everyone for playing with them, encourage them one more time to check out the websites and the club tell them you must be moving on.
head to a new circle, repeat. Remember, you have start all over again from scratch, building rapport with a whole new group of ppl.
Key points:
RAPPORT IS EVERYTHING. Start building rapport with everyone in the circle as soon as you step in and don't stop the whole time. There is no need to try to show off, they will be impressed once you start busting, but you have to build rapport first. Feel them out. Talk to them. Show an interest in them, and they will show an interest in you. You are not the focal point of the circle, it's about everyone, don't try to be the center of attention.
DON'T BUST TOO BIG OR TOO SOON
People aren't going to be able to tell the difference between a dimwalk and a regular butterfly. Use tricks that have eye appeal.
Do use: Basics, BOPs, Illusions, repeating clippers, OSIS, PENDULUM, Spinning, Ducking, DATW. Silly crap like lapstalls, pinchers, head stalls too.
Don't use:Highly technical shit like dexing sets (pix/quant/step/atom), symposium etc. They can't follow or appreciate that stuff as much, don't bother.
Saturday seemed much less relaxed than Sunday in retrospect. Police presence was minimal in the beginning. I saw a lot of kids smoking pot, really young kids, like 12-13 years old. It was really sad. The 420 culture vibe was really strong.
I played in a bunch of circles and just tried to work out my technique that is outlined above. I got asked to leave one circle because I was basically just trying to show off. I kept going for big shit, and dropped a few times. A dropped bubbabeater sealed the deal. They were like "dude quit showing off". No chance to save rapport there, I cut my losses and left.
One circle there was a guy who could clipper stall one side. He say my ducking and thought it was the coolest thing ever. He attempted it a few times without a suggestion from me, I gave him some pointers and before long he was hitting ducking inside and outside kicks set from clipper.
Some guys with a camera saw me shredding and asked to film. I had just busted some fairly huge runs and was rather winded. I told them I need to rest and drink some water so I could bust big so they could get their equipment ready while I got ready. It was a much needed break at that point. I stretched, downed some water, pulled out my BenRea 12p and was ready to bust. Things worked out. First try I hit this pretty snazzy run 17-18 contact run with DLO BSOS, symp mirage, a bunch of BOPs and ripwalk one side. Got some props and caught my breath. Then I was like, "OK time to bust big" and I hit bubbabeater first try
One guy was like "OH SNAP!". They thanked me and I got back to shredding. Hopefully I'll find their footage on YouTube some day
Otherwise things went well. I met a guy named Steve who was in town from Pennsylvania for 2 weeks. He knew about flipsider and footbag.org but had never played with other shredders before. He had learned everything online, including stitching. He could hit clippers, osis, legovers/pickups, mirages and and also some bigger stuff like drifters, torques and whirls, strangely I don't think he could butterfly. He showed me the 32's he had stitched, they were GOOD! Excellent bags, he could easily sell them for $30 but he didn't stitch enough to make bags to sell. I ended up hitting blur BSOS and eggbeater BSOS with his bags for the first time. They were fairly heavy and set PERFECTLY. We exchanged numbers and hopefully he'll make it out to our Austin sessions while he's in town.
Headed home after being thoroughly exhausted. I actually figured I would have nasty shin splints the next day and didn't plan on coming back for the 2nd day.
Day 2:
Sunday 4/22 4 hours
Total hours played in 2007: 91 hours
Total hours played in Apr 2007: 20.5 Hours
Worked on: pwning n00bs, representin', havin' a great time, crowd pleasing runs/tricks, handing out flyers
I woke up Sunday morning with surprisingly minimal soreness, just in my hips and thighs only. NO SHIN SPLINTS. I was confused at first. I played for 5 hours and no shinny splints, how could that be? Then I remembered I had played on grass the whole time which was much lower impact.
No slacking this time. I drew up some fliers with URLs for the local club, plus URLs for websites with videos like flipsider and such. With a crappy 32p illustration I brought them to Kinko's, made 20 copies of a 4-per page flyer and cut them up.
I rolled in around 2:30. Things were much more chill this time. There was a greater police prescence which obviously brought low the drug culture presence down. Much more family friendly. There were dads kicking crocheted POS hacks with their kids.
Armed with my new kinda-snazzy fliers I meant business. I did my whole routine with laser precision.
Met a guy who "used to hack all time". In the beginning he was just doing kicks but after about 30-45 minutes he was hitting toe stalls BSOS, pendulum, jesters, he was pumped to get it all back. I told him about the club and he seemed pretty interested.
I saw a couple of myachi players. This was the first time I'd seen myachi IRL. The Dale Carnegie "show a genuine interest in someone else and they'll show an interest in you" technique and it worked brilliantly. I asked them to show me some moves, mentioned I'd seen a couple videos on the internet but never in person before. I asked them to show me some tricks, they were more than happy to oblige. They actually did some toe stalls with them, I was impressed, but overall, I like footbag much more. I asked more about the sport, where did it start, how big is it, but they didn't seem to really know. Hand shred was a great segue into showing them foot shred and they were pretty stoked. They asked me to shred with their myachi. They suck for clippers but I was able to hit a ton of toe tiltless like nothing with it. They were pretty into it, I gave them flyers, told them to check out the videos and such.
I was much more systematic in my approach of entering circles, slowly doing my whole dealie outlined above and moving on. I think I passed out around 30 fliers. It was a lot of fun to share the joy of freestyle with people.
Highlights:
Flip Ripwalk! First try of the day, mid run. Finally, geez.
Wow, that's a pretty long write up, thanks for reading the whole way through if you did. What a weekend. I really feel like I am on a mission to spread the word of freestyle. I was just a hacker for almost 13 years and really wished I had found this stuff sooner, so I kind of feel a personal responsibility to expose as many people to it as possible so that they're not missing out like I was.
BAGGZ movie wrote:I hack for the people
Hopefully we can get some new ppl to come to sessions and hopefully get into it! Just gotta sit back and see what happens now.
...Holy crap MFJ in 3 days! ZOMG!
I can attribute almost all of this to Kevin Regamey's tips on form for legovers and mirages. I do tiny tiny windows that make the moves almost no exertion, kinda Nathan Pipenberg style on the mirages and Sunil style on the legovers. It made them sooo effortless. I still need to work on solidifying the new form but even just getting started made it sooooo much easier.
