Footbag Progression

[MatS21]

Is how good you are really important ?

Just if you put an importance to it. I mean, it really doesn't matter if you play for fun and for yourself and try to progress by yourself instead of comparing your progression to other's.

For some progressing is important, I mean I have always been a big competitor in any sports I did. Footbag is not totally different. I enjoy playing it but I don't want to suck bad so I like to progress fast. I may not be the fastest improving player but I'm trying to progress fast and I'm happy of my progression until now. I look at all I learn and I never thought I could do all this in this amount of time, I look forward to being good but any progress is like a surprise and a happy time for me. I like this way of seeing the game.

And definitely being an old school hackyslacker have tremendously helped me in my game, I mean when I discovered footbag I was already able to kick for as long as I want and could do few alternating toe stalls + atw all directions bs and flyers. It is a big advantage.

To improve you just have to play a lot and drill. Try to learn from what you see from Brian and Lee. It's hard at first but just really look into stuff. Maybe ask them to show you basics string and carefully watch them so you can learn how they control the bag or how they set it. How fast do they take to go into the next move. Try to get the same timing.

Good luck, and don't worry too much about where you at in your game, try to see where you think you can be and look back where you we're few months before, I'm sure you can see progress since!

[Dat]

Also, I wanted to know if most people found out about footbag because they played hacky sack? I didn't hack before I found footbag, and I'm wondering if thats a disadvantage.

I found out about freestyle shortly after hack. I mainly worked on consecutives though, rather than circle kicking tricks.

It's a lot easier to teach people good technique who didn't play a lot of hack, because they tend to have fewer habits to break, more of a clean slate. It doesn't take much technique at all to keep a bag in the air, just consistency. People usually end up sticking with whatever form they stumble on first, which usually isn't the best. Freestyle, on the other hand, really brings inefficiencies to the surface. This is harder for people who already feel comfortable with circle kicking to deal with.

[dp]

I guess I'm different than most people in footbag in that competing with other people gives me the drive to get better. Whenever Mike Toolan or Aleksei Zikin or whoever I feel is anywhere near my level, puts a video out showing their improvements, my immediate thought is, crap, I gotta go drill.

[BenRea]

I guess I'm different than most people in footbag in that competing with other people gives me the drive to get better. Whenever Mike Toolan or Aleksei Zikin or whoever I feel is anywhere near my level, puts a video out showing their improvements, my immediate thought is, crap, I gotta go drill.

i agree with that completely.

[mosher]

I guess I'm different than most people in footbag in that competing with other people gives me the drive to get better. Whenever Mike Toolan or Aleksei Zikin or whoever I feel is anywhere near my level, puts a video out showing their improvements, my immediate thought is, crap, I gotta go drill.

i agree with that completely.

I feel this too and I am not sure if I feel guilty about it..

I guess a source of passion is a source of passion.



I was not much of a hacker before footbag and I suuuucked at kicking until like.. 2 years into footbag when I really started drilling my kicking.

I am now a sweet hacker.

[Iron Clad Ben]

This is something that has been troubling me on and off for a while now.

I see a lot of people who started around the same time as me who are now way better than me. I am mainly talking about the ones that I have played with in person like Zeb, Zac and Kyle. At some point they surpassed me and the gap seems to just grow bigger.

I think video can be misleading as far as showing someone's ability. You don't know how many takes it took to get that one move or combo. It can give you an altered sense of reality since people only edit down to their best stuff which is usually 3-5% of a given session. You don't see all the drops, bails and shitty runs.

I think a lot of the newer people who look good on video are just going for big onesey twosey moves rather than consistency or bothsidedness. Shredding with them in person could be a whole different story. Video just really gives you a warped sense of what someone is capable of, especially if they edit the video specifically to make themselves look better than they really are. In fact going over videos of yourself where you did that can be frustrating cause you can be like "oh I was playing sooo well that day". Were you really, because that is just edited footage of your best stuff?

Sometimes I get frustrated during a session because I need to catch up to person X or hit Y concept or Z drill/link. Those sessions are no fun. I also usually play worse at those sessions too (they are usually solo sessions). I find I play my best, have the most fun and hit new stuff when I am just excited to be out shredding with whoever makes it to the session that day. When I am footloose and fancy free those are the best days for me both fun-wise and ability-wise.

Look just because you see someone who has been playing as long as you doing this or that doesn't mean there are things that you can do that they can't. Often times we only see the weaknesses in our games, not the strengths. The fact is it will be a long time before you get every concept down. So enjoy what you can do and build your own style. That's what is great about footbag, developing your own style.

Aside from some basic guidelines or norms like tiltless, guiltless, and use both sides, there really is nothing else to conform to. So enjoy that. Appreciate your own style and the style of others.

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You can stop up there if you want. This is getting long but I had one more thing to add. Remember Ferris Bueller's Day Off? When his sister meets Charlie Sheen in the police station. And she is bitching "oohh Ferris this my brother that". Charlie is like "maybe you should be spend less time worrying about what your brother is doing and more time thinking about what YOU'RE doing". It's basically the same idea. Don't get too hung up on what some other possibly comparable person is doing in footbag. Do your own thing, and enjoy being yourself.

2B

[CIC flurry]

It's easy to say, "just play for fun," but it ain't that easy.
Play with someone at your level in real life (recruit them or whatever) and progress with them. They will be your rival. you guys can push each other. That is fun.

[Eskimo Joe]

I played hacky for quite a few years and was first exposed to footbag at worlds'98, when the regulator was only 18 and he won. I feel everyday that I should have picked it up then, but all I took from that first footbag experience with me was strong side butterfly. I didn't even know what a legover or pickup was until last September when I met Kolo and the Mtl crew. Since then I have only logged about 40-60 hours max and feel that I should be better. But when I think of how little time I have actually put into it instead of the months that passed, it makes me feel a little better. But it also makes me realize that I need to spend alot more time drilling and having fun.

But everytime I see Mathieu Soucy's progress, I get green with envy. When we first met, I was better at butter and clips, but he hit DATW in like 2 days after getting his lavers. I wish I was as good as him, but I doubt I have put in as much time or effort as he did.

On one other note, when I stitch i am constantly imaging myself doing moves and stuff, and when I finally get around to trying them, I am better for no other reason than picturing the moves. My father said that I should practice moves, and when I go wrong, just as everyone else here suggested, to take a look at where you went wrong and think of a way to do that better. My daddio said that almost all professional trainers nowadays take this approach where alot of the progression you make is mental complimented my physical. So he said to physically practice 1 hour, but every 15 mins or so stop for the same amount of time and think about what it is you are doing.

Ramble, ramble, ramble.