Frank Sinatra Lives

[ObArA'BaRs]

i just saw robocop again for the first time in like 2 years.

Your signature says it all.

Bra-vo.

[Frank_Sinatra]

Haha. How did this blog go so long without a picture of Robocop?

Kicked the last three days. Highlights?

Friday

Went to Taste, hacked with Zeke, Ronnie, Freddie & this older dude for a while. We met & kicked with Cole & Dave from Palatine. Man, all the Palatine guys get good so fast. And I'm a jealous dickweed. Cole's spins are really good. Dave should crouch less & set the bag higher. Tom also met up with us after a little bit.

I guess I did the usual stuff, don't remember anything too spectacular. Started working on illusion, got pissy. Fucking illusion, its the most frustrating trick for me so far. I'll come back to it some day, but right now I just don't get it. The most frustrating part is I can't tell if the dex is clean or not, which makes trying to drill them by myself seem really futile, because I could just learn to do them totally wrong. Tom sent me some illusion videos, I'll keep watching them for a while.

I've got to learn to let moves go when they aren't working for me.

Saturday

Kicked with my friend Tyronne in Whitewater for like 45 minutes. I demonstrated the different add concepts, working up from 1s to 2s to 3s etc. Footed Phoenix on my only attempt.

Sunday

Kicked with Greslie. Its so much fun to kick and hang out with Henry. I played alright for a little while but the heat & gusty wind wore me down pretty fast. By "gusty wind" I mean the enchiladas I ate before the session. Had a 13 contact tiltless string, also hit ducking heel, smear> ducking butterfly, ducking mirage> dimwalk, basically about half of the usual stuff that I try to hit every session. Couldn't hit DLO, but couldn't let it go either.

Henry advised that I jump higher off of my setting leg for DLO. Makes sense. Its tough for me to implement people's advice right away, I need to drill things for a few sessions (at least) before they sink in. So I'll give that a shot in my next sessions.

At one point in the session Henry did a bunch of whirls, and I was like, "I can't whirl for shit" then I attempted it four times, a couple were OK-ish but I'm not certain they were clean. Its very important to me to hit everything clean & deep before I move on to new stuff. I'd rather do six moves really well than twelve moves that are occasionally sloppy. Henry also had some advice for whirl - keeping my shoulders more square and just looking with my head. I'll give that a shot too. Also I'll try the symple swirl technique some more.

My left knee hurts today. I think it was the cramped bus ride home, but footbag is probably also a factor. I'm not gonna kick tonight & see how that feels. After reading about Chris's tendonitis & David's back & knowing all the other lingering injuries that are out there for lots of kickers, I'm thinking that I should take more days off. Easier said than done.

[HG]

im gonna get myself a sweatband tanline!

[Frank_Sinatra]

Its the cool new thing to do. Gred Oden's doing it. Zalmay Khalilzad's doing it.

Coco the talking gorilla's doing it.

So I mentioned a few posts back that I have a bunch of usual stuff that I try to do every session. I thought I'd list it here:

Terrage (both sides)
DLO
Magellan
Pixie Pickup
PLO> PLO
DATW (strong side, both directions)> butterfly
Smear> Ducking butterfly
Ducking mirage> Dimwalk
Pdx mirage> PLO (both sides)
atw inwd.> pixie> atw inwd.> pixie> atw outwd.> pickup> atw outwd.> pickup> mirage> legover> mirage> legover
if I can't hit one of the links, I need to at least hit the 2-dex part of the link, e.g. if I can't hit ducking mirage> Dimwalk, I need to at least hit Dimwalk

The following moves aren't quite on this list yet, but will be eventually:
Parkwalk
flip DATW
Phoenix
Fairy> Fairy

Kicked yesterday with Tom & Fred in the 60618. I did all the usual stuff, except flip pdx mirage> plo, plus the following:
diving heel
new drill: pixie> same side butterfly> pickup> repeat
pixie muted clipper> diving clipper

So all of Tom's challenges are complete.

I also tried another new drill: fairy> butterfly> far legover> repeat. I think I need to school fairy before including this in my drills.

Looking back, maybe I shouldn't be as unhappy with yesterday's session as I was. I just really wanted to have a good session.

But I didn't think I played well last night. I didn't hit a single flipside pdx. mirage, because my flipside clipper was worse than usual. And my strong side legover crapped out on me again. I did smear> ducking butterfly and planted really hard and my ankle hurt a bit for the rest of the session, maybe this was a factor. But even before that happened, I was dropping a lot of stuff I thought I shouldn't drop. I was probably doing what I wanted to do less than 25% of the time.

So I tried to think about what I could do to correct these things, and all I could think of was "more practice." Sucky. I've been practicing flip clipper for months (getting close to a year), and its still awful. So I'm at the point where I'm wondering what I'm going to accomplish with more practice?

Don't even get me started on legover. If legover was my child, I'd go on the Maury Povich show and have it sent to boot camp. And not because it dresses too sexy. Tentative yes to revealing paternity test results.

Anyway, the more I played the worse I felt. I tried Whirl on each side, which made my hips hurt in less than five attempts. Starting to feel like its lack of physical ability. I've really tried to avoid that attitude and stay positive about footbag, and always think "I can't hit this move yet" instead of "I can't hit this move." It was tough to maintain that attitude last night. I gave in to the frustration & discouragement.

For the first time in over a year I thought about giving up on freestyle. I've practiced so much, and I still have problems with shit that should be automatic by now. And then it seems like moves just crap out on me and I have to go back to them again and again and I'm sick of it. I'm bored with where I'm at, and I progress so slowly...

And then I feel like my shitty state of mind infects the people I'm kicking with & drains the fun out of it for them, which is not something I ever want to do.

Yep, I just bitched about footbag for six paragraphs. I suppose I could have summed this up with a string of emoticons:

Well, gotta do some work. After I get to the end of today I've got a three-day weekend - I'm taking tomorrow off because its my birthday. Going to Pitchfork on Sunday.

[Reid]

yay for beingdone with tom's challenges

[Frank_Sinatra]

Thanks yo.

I feel kinda stupid about all the complaining in my last post. I'm feeling better about freestyle, it was just one of those low point sessions that I let get to me. I'm such a moody bitch.

I should be working, but I want to post about the last few days of kicking & Pitchfork, so I might just update this post a few times as I think of different shit/when I have free time. Work is crazy right now so its important that I'm not seen spending time on this forum. I'll be stealthy.

I kicked Thursday with Freddie & Meinard, Friday with Freddie, Saturday with Jake, Josh, & Tom. All three sessions were solid, not spectacular. Also some very light kicking yesterday at Pitchfork. Wednesday - Saturday was probably 9+ hours. Bean footage:

All the usual stuff plus:

smear> smear (actually I hit this link for the first time on Wednesday, hit again on Thursday)
datw> plo
pdx mirage> plo (strong side first time)
parkwalk again
datw> terrage
pixie> legover> plo
12 legovers (new record)
new trick: butterfly ending on heel (I was trying to hit this, but it took some luck to actually do it)
a bunch of 15-18 contact tiltless strings
a string with symp. mirage> symp pixie, flip symp. mirage but dropped the flip symp. pixie. So close.
maybe forgetting some stuff?

Thursday's session was actually pretty good now that I think about it. Hit a lot of stuff on 1st or 2nd try that I was having a bitch of a time with (and bitching about) on Wednesday.

Saturday was weird in a cool sort of way because I didn't even know there was a jam. I just decided to do a solo drill session, and after about 45 minutes Jake showed up, and Tom showed up, and I was like WTF mate? Josh showed up a little later. It was like being in college and people would just come out of the woodwork and start kicking with me.

I've been thinking that instead of working on guiltless drills, I should come up with some intermediate tiltless + 3 add drills. You know, throw PLOs or something into an otherwise tiltless drill. Still need to think it through more.

My footfighter has one small hole in it. Need to patch that ass. I also need to buy a new bag or two - I hate the idea of being left bagless if something happens to my footfighter. My Jake Raye mini is retired (its 64 years old), and I don't want to go back to a Mr. Sandbag even if its only for a session or two. Bag recommendations welcomed.

Anyway, here's the Pitchfork rundown:

Pitchfork was fun, but I should have planned it out better. The idea that I'd just show up & wander around checking out bands - not so great. It was too crowded for that (the crowds made it take a long time to get from one stage to another) and from like 3pm to 6pm there weren't any bands I wanted to see or wanted to keep watching after like 3 songs. Unfortunately I still was unable to make up my mind about the Sea and Cake - they sound the same live as on their CDs... oh well.

Only found a couple groups of people hacking. One of them included a dude named Nate from Michigan who could freestyle a little in whatever shoes he had on, but he didn't have his Lavers with him. That was cool. Then I found another group who was just winding down from kicking. I got bored and drilled a little at one point, too. After the New Pornographers set I ran into some friends, and while talking to them I saw some people kicking but resisted the urge to crash their party. So less than an hour of hack/footbag out of like nine hours at the fest.

I don't really think Pitchfork, or any music festival, is the best way to see bands. I don't know if I'll go again... I also went by myself so it'd probably be infinitely more fun to go with people, and to plan it out more. Then again, the New Pornographers were amazing. I will murder like six babies to see them again. If it comes to that.

My legs are sore, not kicking tonight. I've kicked 12 out of 15 days so far this month, but it was Pitchfork that killed me (standing for nine hours es muy suck).

[xXLoss_of_ControlXx]

My footfighter has one small hole in it. Need to patch that ass. I also need to buy a new bag or two - I hate the idea of being left bagless if something happens to my footfighter. My Jake Raye mini is retired (its 64 years old), and I don't want to go back to a Mr. Sandbag even if its only for a session or two.

Yeah i'm bagless, the only way i can kick is when i kick with someone. I'm waiting for a new bag to come in. I just restitched a bag, it seems pretty poor but i havent kicked with it yet so i wouldnt know.


Theres chances for rain until Wednesday! I'm gunna try out my new bag at around 7 if you change your mind.

[Reid]

I like the leg over record... I bet once you get to twenty you will be able to go all day.

[Frank_Sinatra]

I didn't kick Monday but I did spend over an hour working on my shoes. I had played in a new pair of mesh lavers at Pitchfork, and it felt so weird, and I decided I should to try to preserve my twill pair for as long as possible. Eventually I think I'll post a comparison of the two different materials, since IMO twill doesn't get much consideration even though most people have never played in a pair of twill lavers. I'll fight the hive mind. And I'll lose. But then I'll call my 40 uncles with guns to come fuck ya up.

Anyway, to recap what I did to my shoes: I tried a bunch of different lacing to try to reduce the amount the laces are pulling on the inside toe wall of my left laver. There's an eyelet that popped out and that's really hurt the structure of the shoe, causing the toe wall to buckle when I lace them up to the tightness I want. This has also led to the toe wall ripping away from the toe cap & being repaired with shoe glue several times.

Eventually I came up with a lacing that I really like - the toe walls are shaped closer to how I want them, the toe box is huge now, and I use more of the length of the laces so the knots aren't as long & in the way as they used to be.

I also covered the worn areas on the soles with a few layers of shoe glue, just to slow the rate they are being worn down. The traction is a little different, not slippery exactly, but easier to move & reposition. I really like the way these shoes are playing right now.

Kicked last night with Freddie & Josh in the 60618. I got there a little early and started warming up & doing tiltless drills, which must have helped because I had a lot of decent strings. Also helped me get used to the changes to my shoes. Bigger toe box also a likely factor in string length. Let's just cut to the highlights:

20 contacts tiltless Finally! Actually I had two 20 contact tiltless strings.
14 legovers (new record - that's for you, Reid)
17 mirages (new record)
Parkwalk - will have to make this part of my 'usual stuff' list soon

I think I'll go for 30 tiltless next, not sure how far I want to take that. Maybe up to 50? Anything beyond that seems like diminishing returns, but then again I'm talking out of my ass. My thinking is the time spent on increasing tiltless string length past a certain point could be better spent drilling BOPs, DATW, Smear, PLO, ducking, symp. mirage, etc. If I had to choose between building a foundation for a move to guiltless, or go for 100 tiltless, then I'd choose the first option. Another example of how my questions for "would you rather" are so boring compared to everyone else's...

Planning on kicking tonight. I had thought about going to the free Decemberists concert in Millennium Park (its FREE!), but I know I'll just be preoccupied with looking for hackers. Footbag has really become an addiction. I'm preoccupied with footbag at work or when I'm with my friends, I've even footbagged on the job... I can't go more than a couple days without it... I'm so ashamed.

This thread is the first thread that has ever made me want to go play footbag. I mean, I've watched videos or read threads that make me want to try a certain move or link or remind me that I need to school something, but this is the first thread I've read that made me wish I was at Welles park right that second with CIC, having fun.

Too bad that other than that thread, and the blogs, Modified has been such troll-filled shit lately. I've added two people to my ignore list in the last two days, one of them is just a malicious asshole (but we all know that you can't be banned for being a malicious asshole). I had never really thought of the other ignoree as a troll but there was one post (which another person called them on for being shitty) that made me realize that this guy never has anything to add to a conversation other than his self-absorbed worthless bullshit.

So right this moment there seem to be a lot of threads in the non-footbag subforums that are just lists of "you have decided to ignore this user..." which isn't exactly desirable. I really want to echo what Jorden wrote in his blog. There is a lack of thoughtful posting by a small group of people who have little or no discernible involvement in footbag itself. It is making Modified shitty, at least on some days.

There are a couple topics that I've thought about starting, but figure they'll just get shit on by the trolls and posers and people with nothing intelligent or constructive to add to any conversation, but who comment on them anyways. And then there's the hysterical "use the search function!!! God stop wasting my time newb!!!!" reaction... so I just don't post the topics. I wonder how many times this has happened to other people?

And yes, I did just write three paragraphs complaining about a hackysack internet forum.

[Frank_Sinatra]

Kicked with Fred last night in the rain. Like an ass I forgot Josh wanted to kick at 6:30.

Highlights:

Diving heel (strong side for the first time)
Diving osis (first time)
Infinities to 4 contacts (2 infinities? 4 butterflies?)
Terrage BSOS
Umbrella Ducking Clipper (ducking clipper while holding an open umbrella over my head - bag goes over the neck, under the umbrella. Eight adds.)

Mostly drilled butterflies & osii. Weak side is getting better on both of those. Fred was focusing on stringing, he had a few runs at around 8 contacts guiltless, maybe even more than that.

The weather was ridiculous. Humid as fuck and then stormed like crazy. But never really cooled off. We were both already coated in sweat after like 20 minutes, and then just got an extra top coat of rain. We kicked on the front porch of the Independence park field house, which has like a balcony hanging over it so there was some shelter from the rain. But the wind kept blowing the rain in more and more and we really didn't have a ton of room. OK for drilling a move or two but the space was so small that some longer runs got disrupted prematurely.

A little after 9pm the rain let up a little bit and we were both like "fuck it, let's get out of here." So it actually turned out to be kind of a shorter session.

Not kicking tonight.

[Frank_Sinatra]

Kicked the last three days. Zeke, Tom, & Freddie on Friday in the 60618, Tom & Abe on Saturday by Wrigley, and (in order of appearance) Ronnie, Zeke, Freddie, Josh, Jake, Meinard, & Abe on Sunday at Welles. Highlizzle:

Dimwalk> Diving butterfly (first 4-4 link!)
Symp. mirage X5
Pixie> same butterfly> pickup> rpt to 12 contacts
Smear X3
ATW> pixie> rpt to 22 contacts
Mirage> legover> rpt to 20 contacts
Infinities to 5 contacts

Also won two games of 4-square and a game of 3-wedge yesterday. Hacked/played squares for about 2 hours, freestyled for about 2 & 1/2 hours. Freestyled for about an hour & 1/2 on Saturday, maybe a little over 2 & 1/2 hours on Friday. So I think I'm averaging 10 - 12 hours a week of freestyle, not too shabby.

Drilling strings seems to be paying off. If I'm gonna be tiltless (and I will be for the remainder of this season at a minimum) then I want to be really good at tiltless. And although just working on strings rarely gives me the rush of hitting a new move, it has its own sort of satisfaction. Maybe I need to add a couple more tiltless drills so I can give my runs a little more variety? We'll see.

[Frank_Sinatra]

I've got a mountain of work to do, so I'm gonna write a huge-ass post instead.

Kicked the last two nights. Monday with Fred, Tuesday with Fred & Tom. Tuesday's session started as solo because I guess there was some miscommunication with Josh. Highlights:

new move - Pixie Op Heel
new move - Pixie Same Mirage
22 contact tiltless run on Monday
ATW> Pickup drill to 18 contacts (new record)
Clipper> far legover> same clipper> far legover rpt to 22 contacts
osis> osis (first time on Monday, hit again on Tuesday)
lots of tiltless strings/drills going to 15 or more contacts

I tightened up my drills (again). The pixie> same butterfly> pickup> repeat drill now has to be completed ten times per session. Also, instead of just attempts at infinity and butterfly> osis, I'm requiring myself to hit infinity in ten separate rounds, and to hit butterfly> osis in ten separate rounds, on each side.

These drills will also be updated on the first page of the blog. Because I know how you wake up in the middle of the night - anxious, bewildered, terrified - asking yourself "what is that tiltless footbagger in Chicago - whatshisface - drilling these days?" Well, towel off your privates, the answers are always on the first page of this blog.

Yesterday I also drilled clipper> near pickup> op clipper> near pickup> repeat, and clipper> far legover> same clipper> far legover> repeat. Not sure if I'll add either of these to my drills or not. I'm already doing butterfly> near pickup in another drill, so the first one seems redundant. Second one might be a good idea, though. I'll make up my mind after a few more sessions. Mainly I'm not sure how many drills I can really cram into a single session, and if I keep adding drills I might need to start removing some. So yeah more thought required.

I was also thinking it'd be interesting to just kick for an hour and see how much of my drills & usual stuff list I can get through. Just a thought.

On Monday I took a break to go refill my water bottle, and this kid at the water fountain (bubbler for you Milwaukee readers) asked me if I "freestyle." I thought "what do you mean by freestyle?" and then said "I play freestyle footbag." He was like "oh ok thanks." And then I wondered if he meant freestyle rap, and if I had missed my chance to have one of those "rap battles" that the kids are crazy about. I've been living in Chicago for almost three years now and have yet to be in a single rap battle. Or dance-off. So frustrating.

But that made me think of poetry, and for some reason made me think about these really dirty refrigerator magnet poems a friend of mine in college, whom I've sadly lost touch with, used to write. Here are a couple I've committed to memory (the first one's a haiku!):

Why do you never
pound me with the lust fiddle
in the bloody place?

I want them smooth raw
purple sausages
ripping my butt

Needless to say, I miss her very much.

Don't think I'll be kicking tonight, my lower back is sore & when I do osis or other twisting moves it sometimes gives me a sharp pain.

I want to quit my job. Maybe I should go back to school.

[HG]

Robocop is the worst movie ever

[Frank_Sinatra]

To be honest, I haven't seen RoboCop in several years, it was just a quote from the Onion AV Club that I thought was hilarious. Like its just a collection of syllables that made me laugh - like "vagigi."

I have no stance on the merits of RoboCop, except that at the very least there are worse Paul Verhoeven movies. How can you forget Hollow Man?

Maybe I should quit my job and become a RoboCop?

Anyway, I guess I'll change my sig soon to make this conversation really confusing to look back on later.

[CIC flurry]

your pixie same mirage is money

[Frank_Sinatra]

Thanks Tom. Its a lot better when I think pixie same symp mirage - like Work Zone pointed out, I don't plant very quickly after my pixies & just kinda wait for my foot to get back to the ground. I do that with a lot of moves I think, but since they're just downtime/tiltless stuff I can pretty much get away with it. Like all those murders.

Kicked the last four days. They were all really challenging sessions. No highlights, but I want to kind of recap each session. I'll try to keep it brief. Haha just kidding.

Thursday: Welles Park with Zeke, Reile, Tom, Fred, Josh, & Jake. I jumped into foursquare right away and played fairly shittily. Missing basic kicks and letting myself get pissed off. I jumped out to get my kicking straightened out but that pretty much turned into a shred circle immediately, which is really where my interest is at right now anyway.

It got dark & we didn't have great light, so Josh & Jake took off. I kept drilling by myself for a while, which was really the biggest challenge. A lot of things felt really off, especially flipside crossbody stuff - had some pain in my lower back which contributed to the problem. Now that I think about it I don't know if I drilled osis that night or not. Then four square wrapped up & Tom, Reile, & Freddie joined me. Space on the tennis courts opened up & the light was much improved. I completed all my usual stuff & then tried a bunch of moves that are a few levels beyond easy for me, which was fun. I don't do that as much as I used to - just so focused on drills.

At the end of the session we asked Fred if he wanted to join CIC. And he did. Aww yeah.

Friday: Independence Park with Abe & Josh. I didn't even know there was a jam planned, I just showed up at 7 to drill solo & then about an hour into it I saw Abe riding up. That was cool.

Once again, lighting was a bitch. They were showing a movie in the park so the lights we normally play under were off. I didn't complete my 'usual stuff' list, so everything I didn't complete had to be done twice the next day.

Saturday: Independence Park with Abe, Josh, Tom, & Fred. I played for about 3 & 1/2 hours. Yikes. Doing double the Infinities & Osii took a long time. Hitting DLO twice also took a while & took a lot of energy out of me. But I did hit ducking mirage> dimwalk twice in one run to finish out my mental checklist, which was good.

I don't want to be this harsh, but this kid joined us and he was all "Detective did you know going in you tell my do things I done runnin." Just kinda dragged the session down for a while & I lost focus & cooled off. I don't know, I don't want to discourage interested people from kicking, but I also don't want to hack with/babysit a bunch of kids. And if this kid keeps pushing this church business, I'm gonna become a lot less ambivalent and a lot more openly hostile. Which comes naturally anyway. Synergize that shit.

Sunday: Solo shred at Independence Park. I played for a little over 3 hours. Holy moly. Surprisingly, I'm still able to walk today.

First hour was basically warmup & tiltless drills. I'm getting through these faster & faster, like mirage> legover> repeat X10 (for a total of 40 contacts) in just three runs. Clipper> far legover was challenging again - weird how this was so easy a couple days ago but now it feels awkward.

Second hour was mostly pixie> butterfly> pickup> repeat drill, Infinity practice, and Osis practice. That drill is taking me about 30 minutes to complete ten times, but I really like the way it feels & I do think its helping my flipside crossbody stuff more than anything else I've tried. Got to 17 contacts of this drill - I think that's a new record.

For infinities, I tightened up the drill again - I now have to seal at least three contacts, five times, starting from each side. Osis felt pretty good, almost hit three weakside osis in one string. Another month of this & I think I'll be dropping butterflies & osii into my strings no problem.

I've been neglecting pdx mirage as if it were my own child. I don't drill it because my flip clipper is not good, the set is so inconsistent & generally low. But I decided I should work on flip pdx. mirage, so I drilled flip clipper> pdx. mirage> repeat. Got to 7 contacts a couple times. Probably will add this to my drills. Goddamn drill list is gonna be like a page long.

And in the third hour of our program, I decided that I had to hit all my 2-dex moves/links at least five times (instead of just once). That was good - I spent extra time on PLOs & flip Terrage. Hitting DLO five times was really tough - probably took me 10 minutes to do this. I hit the Smear> Ducking Butterfly link five times in 14 attempts, hit the smear 13 times out of those 14 attempts. Oh yeah. Ducking Mirage> Dimwalk took another ten minutes, but I nailed the last three in like four attempts.

And then I did about 60 flip pixies, until my legs were like "get the fuck outta here you fucking idiot! We're all gonna die fuck!" Also did like 15 strongside pixies. With both sides I paid special attention to planting the foot as fast as I can.

Anyway, really exhausting, challenging session. But it felt good. The key was every time I completed a drill, to pause and be like "that felt really good. You're done with that now. Go drink some water." Instead of letting myself get frustrated that some of the drills took more attempts than I would like.

A freestyle soccer player asked me how to do ATW. The one move I'm reasonably knowleadgable about. That was kinda cool, I could see the same frustration/determination in how he talked about what he was doing wrong as I see in footbaggers. I also got a few positive comments from people in the park - which is appreciated. This is the only acceptable type of interaction! Man I'm such a hypocrite - please give me positive feedback, but don't come over here and kick with me & interfere with my drills or I'll mock you on the internet...

Kicking tonight. I'm binging. Gotta do a literal shit-ton of work first though. Sucks a fat one.

[HG]

shit. 3 hours solo drilling. you's 'bout to max!

[Zeke]

I love your blog. I keep wanting to add stuff to hall of fame/shame but there's so much to choose from. You should just post all your progress in that thread from now on to save me the trouble

[Frank_Sinatra]

Thanks yo. But that would get me inducted into the Hall of Lame.

Shit on it. Kicked yesterday, Fred, Josh, & Kamil were already at Independence when I got there, Tom, Meinard, and Abe arrived after. I tried to determine what it means, ontologically, when one is bout to max.

Session started with Fred, Josh, me & Tom in a circle, I thought everybody started off with a lot of energy but also playing pretty loose. And even though Independence Park doesn't have huge amounts of foot traffic, we (mostly Tom) drew a pretty decent crowd to stop and watch for a few minutes. Maybe like 15-20 people - mostly kids. We broke into two circles after that, I just drilled & checked off the usual stuff list. Highlights:

ATW> Pickup> Rpt to 26 contacts (new record for this drill)
Mirage> Legover> Rpt to 24 or 25 contacts (new record for this drill)
Clipper> Pickup> Rpt to 28 contacts (new record for this drill, new record for tiltless string length)
at least 19 contact tiltless string (for the kids) mostly a collection of drills, but also threw a ducking clipper in there

Infinity from weakside was tough. Osis was tough too but that may have been because of the darkness.

I think that when I can do an entire drill in one string (e.g. Mirage> Legover> rpt straight through to 40 contacts) then I will stop doing that drill. Seems like a good strategy.

I really like where I'm at with footbag right now. I'm challenging myself, but my goals seem attainable & I'm at least creating the illusion of progress. I'm spending some time on concepts that are difficult for me, and will take a while to master. But I'm also spending time on other tricks/links that are easier for me & using them for longer runs when I want to boost my confidence.

Maybe its just a soft spot in the learning curve.

Brief recap of July.
New moves:
Ducking legover
Diving Heel
Butterfly ending on Heel
Diving Osis
Pixie Op Heel
Pixie Same Mirage

Other important progress markers for the month:
started drilling bops
got to 20 contacts tiltless, and more
first 4-4 link - Dimwalk> Diving Butterfly
Terrage BSOS
Smear X3
Symp Mirage X5
Infinities to 5 contacts
Osis> Osis
DATW> Terrage
set various drill records

In July I've kicked on 24 days. Just guessing, but I think total playing time was around 50 - 55 hours.

Not kicking tonight. I actually feel alright considering I've played the last five days, for 12-13 hours, so I feel like I could play if my life depended on it. But some of my joints feel kind of... old and creaky.

[Frank_Sinatra]

Kicked the last two nights. Very tough sessions, especially Wednesday night. It wasn't so bad that I wanted to quit freestyle, but nearly everything was off. Getting past 4 or 5 contacts was rare, only got past ten once or twice. Yesterday was a lot better, except for the massive problems I was having with DLO. "Highlights":

Infinities to six contacts (new record)
clipper> pickup> mirage> legover> mirage> legover> repeat
DATW> butterfly> osis

My weakside crossbody stuff is still the biggest gap in my game. Weakside clipper is consistent, but I can't control the set - I can just set it straight up, between knee & thigh-high. My form on weakside osis is off a bit, not spotting the bag fast enough & the set before the osis is too far behind me a lot of times. Weakside butterfly, especially when set from op toe, is not good at all. My footwork & form when setting from op toe is so bad that it hurts.

So I've removed all the bop drills from my drill list. I'm still going to work on them, but individually instead of in strings, until I've got proper form. Then I'll work them back into the regimen. Might not happen this season, and there probably will be sessions where I don't work on them at all, but that'll probably make sessions more fun & my body will be better off for it.

This heat is a bitch to play in.

Kicking tonight. Then tomorrow morning I'm going to Wisconsin, leaving Wisconsin on Sunday night.