Begin Phase 1 again

[Kljopa]

Wow looks like you got a huge level up at worlds!

Props!

Edit:sorry for taking the first post on the new page :S

[C-Fan]

I can't remember ever being stroked about hitting a new trick. But it was just so deep and effortless, it felt fantastic.

Those 2 sentences really freak me out.

Anyway, just wanted to thank you again for picking me up at the airport. I never did pay you back for the tolls... next tourney= beer?

[Iron Clad Ben]

I can't remember ever being stroked about hitting a new trick. But it was just so deep and effortless, it felt fantastic.

Those 2 sentences really freak me out.

Can't you just be like everyone else and just say "that's what she said" and we can all have a good laugh. Funnier and less awkward.

Anyway, just wanted to thank you again for picking me up at the airport. I never did pay you back for the tolls... next tourney= beer?

Don't worry about it. Luis bought me all-you-can-eat pizza at Cici's one night. So we're cool now.

Worlds circles were fun. I was disappointed to see a LOT of self serving. I even had to call a couple people out on it that were really abusing the system (5+ self serves per "turn"). I pretty much tried to shred run length over difficulty when I could. So many people would hit like 4-5 guiltless links max and pass every time, I way preferred to bust out 20+ contact tiltless runs with the big trick thrown in where I could.

I pushed myself pretty hard at worlds, but my body held up better than I thought it would. However, since I've returned my shin splints have gotten BAD. I am able to play for about 15 minutes a day and that's it. I've just been doing a lot of clippers and toe tiltless, and occasionally throwing in spins, ducks and osii. No butterflies because I think it's my poor form on those that is really causing the shin splints. However, spins are really showing progress which is nice.

I'm going to try and account for all my playing. I remember I played for about 4 before worlds and my last blog post before it. Then I would estimate I played about 3.5 hours a day at worlds for a total of 8 hours, which would be 28 hours. I played for probably a total of two hours since I've been back so...

Total hours played in 2007: 224.5 hrs
Total hours played in August 2007: 40.5hrs

Time to re-plan Texas states...

OH BTW I meant to mention this... I hit WHIRL at worlds, with a Josh Raye bag. Huzzah!

[Pyroman924]

OH BTW I meant to mention this... I hit WHIRL at worlds, with a Josh Raye bag. Huzzah!

About damn time. Haha. Just kidding buddy. Major Props. I told you you had better hit Whirl by the end of Worlds... and you did.



Now hit Flip. ^_^


I'm getting back to playing regularly too. I had a big post today, check it out.

[Iron Clad Ben]

So if I didn't mention this already, I really did a number on my shins at worlds (not surprising).

I've decided now that worlds is over I am going to let my shins FULLY HEAL and then really fix my butterfly/clipper form so that they don't act up again. So I haven't played footbag in several days now. I haven't had a formal "session" since worlds. It sucks. It's all I can think about. I am getting very restless. I haven't really been able to get exercise, because the shins limit me on that too. I need to get a bike. It is nice not to have them hurting though, but I know they need more time to heal before I can really have a session. I am still warming up and stretching every day, just to keep my muscles fresh.

I have still been involved in footbag though. Our tournament is coming up in mid october and I am getting a head start on planning that. I met with the parks dept yesterday, and I guess I have to send them a formal letter requesting the one park we want to use. They say they'll get back to me in 7-10 business days, I hope they stick to that. They seemed nice, but I can't help but be skeptical about the bureaucracy of city government.

Next thing is to gather up sponsors. I'm taking the day off work on Wednesday to travel around town soliciting sponsors. I've compiled a list of sports equipment/clothes stores, skate shops and a few Austin-y food places like Freebirds Burritos to hit up. Kinda stoked about this. I like going on sales calls. I've got a few footbag freestyle and net videos on iPod and USB key to show if needed.

Also need to get someone to draw a logo. I think a guy in a cowboy hat spiking a bag over a net would be an awesome logo. I am really trying to up-play the net aspect of things since we have some good net players in Texas and I think it's a little more spectator-friendly than freestyle.

I signed up for Big Brothers / Big Sisters. I have my interview next Wednesday, hope it goes well. It's about time I got off my ass and did some volunteer work (if you don't count footbag).

My dog is getting very restless too. We had to get his balls chopped off last week and while the incision site heals he can't be let off the leash outside. So he blitzes around inside quite a bit, chewing everything he can. He bit a hole in my favorite jeans So we both are kinda couped up. I've been watching a lot of TV and playing online poker (losing every time, I suck at poker now).

This weeekend is labor day and it sucks. Normally I would have taken the opportunity to play a crapload of footbag but instead I've gotta take it easy and let my body heal. No more pill popping! I haven't taken a single ibuprofen since worlds. I wasn't listening to my body and now I'm paying for it. No more pills. When pain hits, I will STOP playing, and that's that.

I DVRed Jimmy Kimmel. I'll watch it when I get home. That's about it. Have a good weekend everyone.

[brinard]

hey dude, im glad youre not going to worsen your shin condition. smart thinking. tap your toes alot, and roll your ankles around if youre sitting down. that always makes mine feel better. and they never get to the point where i shouldnt play.

if youre looking for a design for some shirt, ill see what i can do. logo wise, its very different. pm me and we can talk.

good luck with sponsors, and with the tourney.

b

[Iron Clad Ben]

Thanks for reminding me about the toe tapping, that's been helping a lot.

I decided to come out to our Saturday session, just to see how it would feel to play. It turned out to be a really good idea. First off, it was a 5 man session which was awesome. Second off, everyone was playing reeeeally well. It was cool to have the whole crew there, and everyone really busting.

I figured I would warm up, stretch, play for about 30 minutes and then call it day. I actually end up lasting about an hour and a half. No pain pills taken

Warm up:
10 infinities
4th level of Tri-force drill, sealed with 2 contacts of level 5.
Lots of stretches

Shred
Spinning Clipper BSOS a few times. Spinning was pretty easy yesterday.
DLOs were easier than usual, BSOS a few times
Ducks were OK on strongside, iffy on flipside. Hit ducking butter>~12 contact run
Lots of clippers, very few butterflies
Osis working better than normal
Mid-string Dimwalk, to everyone's surprise including my own. Also hit smear.
Footed Toe Blur
Eggbeaters weren't happening, but illusion / pdx illusion were pretty easy both sides.
12 contact BOP run to end things

I actually wore baggy shorts to deter myself from doing really dex-y stuff. NO stepping at all, very few butters, didn't bother with atomic.

I was playing very carefully, on my toes when I could remember, deep delays, very controlled. I also sealed about 80% of my runs, that felt really good to just do 12-15 contacts and then pass. It kept my legs fresh.

I actually quit while I was ahead, before I was feeling any real pain, which I'm glad I did. It took some restraint. Afterwards I did a lot of stretching. No footbag today, but I think I will warm up and stretch to keep my legs fresh.

I really didn't expect to play well at all yesterday, let alone play pain free without pills. That was the best part. I'm really glad it worked out. I think I'll play again Wednesday, if only for an hour. I'm liking this whole "listening to my body" thing, it's working out much better than I thought it would.

[Iron Clad Ben]

Life's been pretty hectic lately. My girlfriend is going to school full time AND working full time this semester. It's been a big adjustment since she didn't even take classes in the spring, let alone take a full load for quite some time. But she's adjusting well, I'm proud of her. Unfortunately, it means I have more crap to do around the house.

We took Tuesday to get neutered a couple weeks ago. The incision is finally healed so I took him to the dog park a few days ago. Some hot chick was totally hitting me at the dog park, it was kinda flattering but also kinda embarrassing at the same time. Eventually I casually mentioned my girlfriend in conversation and she eased up, but it was still really awkward. Anyway, some people say a dog's energy level goes down after being neutered but I am not seeing that with the Tue. He is crazy as ever, if not moreso post-ball-choppage. He really needs 3 full walks per day to keep up with his energy level, which is tough to do now that Amber is so busy.

I found out that CLUTCH will be coming back to Texas in November so I'm pretty stroked about that. I think I'm gonna try to catch the Houston show in addition to the Austin one.

Wednesday I took the day off from work. First things first I applied to be a Big Brother through Big Brothers / Big Sisters a few weeks ago and had my interview with one of their people that morning. It went well, I don't see why they wouldn't bring me on. I'm supposed to hear back in 1-5 weeks, they have to do a background check and match me with a little. I'm looking forward to it, I think it's gonna be a really cool experience.

Later that day I went out and solicited sponsors for the TX state tournament. Honestly it did not go so well. I dressed up and looked sharp but really I still got the run-around like the Pope in an abortion clinic at most places. So I've got to follow up with some phone calls and shiz, I better get on that. Due to the low success rate I think I need to scout out some more potential sponsors, this is going to be more work than I anticipated but I should have known that going in.

We were supposed to have a group session that night but I was the only one who showed. I'll blame it on the traffic, it was terrible. I played shitty. I think my problem was doing too many clippers/butters and I started to have shin pain after about an hour. Crap

I spent a great deal of the session trying to school spinning and ducking. Came close but did NOT hit:
Spinning Clip > Infinity > RPT
Ducking Clip > SS Butter > RPT

Did some triforce and some toe drills. Hit PDX egg again on strongside, but big whoop. I couldn't hit DLOs at all, which is strange because last Saturday they were cake. Got a good 20 contacts of infinity > ss clip > RPT which was nice. But overall the session was crappy compared to Saturday.

Supposed to have another Saturday session tomorrow. If I can play 3/4 as well as last week I will be happy. I think I'll bring my camera to do some filming, for the hell of it.

[Sporatical_Distractions]

Props on toe blur. way to not take pain pills. Do not become dependent on those.

Can't wait to see what your vid produces. I like how pdx egg is no big deal anymore

[Iron Clad Ben]

Props on toe blur. way to not take pain pills. Do not become dependent on those.

Can't wait to see what your vid produces. I like how pdx egg is no big deal anymore

Thanks yo. I haven't taken a single pain pill for shin splints or anything else since worlds. I'm really happy about that.

I filmed Wednesday but I played really crappy (think I outlined that above).

I posted something in the trick tips section about playing on toes. Dat PMed and we have a good conversation over IM saturday morning about clipper form. I used it that day and had some real breakthroughs at Saturday session. Basically the main thing was turning the body towards the bag, i.e. the bag is always in front of you and you only twist your body to get your clipper foot out in front of you. THE CLIPPER IS NOT ON THE SIDE OF YOUR BODY. That was the most important takeaway. I found this made stepping and spinning considerably easier because there was a natural wind up for each one. Now I just need to work on arm and head position.

We filmed a little but no one got anything that good on camera.
Eggbeater BSOS in a ~10 contact tiltless run. First try for either egg that day, although not on camera.
Triforce drill level 5 sealed! Booyah 31 contacts of clippers Probably owe that to the new clipper technique. I usually never get past level 3 and I've only beat level 4 before twice. So this was a huge breakthrough, esp since it was first try.
PDX egg BS although ironically DLOs are still crap
Some ducks and spins, trying those with the new clipper technique. Got some work to do.
Awfully close to Flail on both sides. I think I'll get this soon. I finally figured out the "superjump". This trick is crazy fun.

The main highlight was that I was able to play for 2 hours pain free and of course pill free. In the fact the only reason that I had to stop was that I was out of gas. That's what I get for only eating 2 granola bars and some water before a shred session. I should know by now I need to have a meal before shred.

One sign that I was doing the right thing was later that day and the day after I had muscle soreness where I normally don't. My quads and calves had a good dull soreness going. I'm not sure if I can attribute that to the new clipper technique or the flails, or maybe both. But the shins have not hurt in the slightest which is fantastic, like a dream come true.

I'm gonna do a solo session tonight and film just for fun. However, I'm gonna still try to avoid doing butterflies. Once I get the clippers fixed, then I can move on to re-learning butterfly, but I think right now they are they are the main trick that causes shin splints. So it will probably be some low level shred, not my best, but I'm overdue for a video. Plus I'd like comments on how the form is looking.

Peace out fizzied

[Iron Clad Ben]

I had a dream within a dream last night. It was all way too real. In the first dream my mom had died, which made me really sad. I "woke up" within the dream to find out she really had died that it "wasn't a dream" (it was, I was still dreaming, she is not dead) and I felt absolutely terrible. For some reason I decided in my grief to go eat a cheesesteak. For any non-Americans that's basically a really big meaty cheesy submarine sandwich that originated in Philadelphia. As most of you know I'm vegetarian so this was strange indeed. In the dream I went to the cheesesteak place and they started making it and some kid was trying to get behind the grill and touch the meat on the grill. So the grill guy like smooshed his face into the grill burning him and I remember thinking like "yeah get that kid outta there" even though he had just burned the kids face off. So anyway I get my cheesesteak and I'm like choking it down, trying to force myself to enjoy it but it's meat and I just want to throw up. So I go outside and barf all over the street. Then I decide I need to get drunk so I go down the street to a bar, order a beer and it's this giant beer like 3 feet tall. I drink it all and right away I'm drunk. This chick at the bar starts hitting on me really hard and asks me to come back with her to her place and it turns out she lives in a trailer. At that point I sort of "come to" out of my dreamt drunkeness and realize "what the hell am I doing?". So I try to get away from this chick but she turns into a ninja. Pretty soon she's called like a pack of ninjas and they're chasing after me through the trailer park into an old graveyard. I run through the graveyard into this old house that may as well be haunted. I don't remember much from there, I think something in the haunted house really scares me and I wake up. It's 8:38am and I'm very late for work. What a way to start the day.

So I had a solo session last night. It was dark, some of my camera angles ended up being kinda crappy, but I made a video anyway. So happy to know that my form is on the mend. I've got a lot work to do to "re-learn" a lot of my clipper tricks with proper form, but I finally feel like I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. And with no more shin splints I'll be able to play A LOT more. The music is very appropriate.

2 1/2 mins. ~34.5 megs. Enjoy:
http://www.footbag.org/gallery/show/12544
http://www.footbag.org/gallery/show/-12544
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfXcTnxqAhA

Comments welcome. Editing/camera wise it's pretty bad, that's why I didn't post it in the videos section. Hopefully the way things are going I'll be able to put out a really good video in the next few weeks.

[QuantumBalance]

Dude! What a dream! I was just watching you from day 6 of worlds last night.

[Kljopa]

Cool video, i like your eggs!

Glad that shins dont bother you anymore


Maybe swirls next video?

[Darkshredder]

Ben that was an awesome video. Props on smashing the atom. And toe blur almost bs!!! I loved the expression after you almost got it flip. I know it well. Just a quick tip on spinning that works for me: kind of flap your arms down to the side when you spin. It makes you spin faster and you won't have to worry about the bag getting swiped in midair by a stray elbow or something.

edit: Jeez I completely forgot about those eggbeaters! HA Those were awesome! I read your post about getting them down just about the same day I did. I wish I had your consistency, though!

Glad the splints aren't a problem have fun, man. Peace.

[Iron Clad Ben]

Yo thanks for the responses guys. I was getting like a little 16 year old modified-maniac, checking a few times a day to see when my blog would get a reply. Man what a dork I can be sometimes

Thanks for the props on the eggs. They're my favorite trick. My flip needs some more schooling, but yeah my strongside is getting delightfully consistent.

There is still a lot of work to be done on my clippers, but I have a good idea of where I'm going and where I need to be. James, who doesn't have a modified account has been helping me a lot this week with messages over facebook. He is injured right now and has been a big help. Also, Dat and I had IM chat last week that was very helpful.

Another session last night with Cody. 2 hours. No pain baby!

Highlights:
Diving Mirage *new trick*
FLAIL, both sides son *new trick* I'm so gonna school these at get good at them so I can bust them out mid-run. Watch out! Oh, and apparently (according to Cody who saw that both were clean) I do them bicycle-kick style ala Regamey, can't wait get them on video
Some long tiltless runs. Also diving clipper really easy with new clip style, hit a bunch of those. Gotta learn this on flip.
DLOs were back, although toe DLOs were tough. Dammit you snooze you lose, I neglect those for a month and they're gone

Notes to self, thoughts on Flail:
1) Set waist high, CLOSE to the body
2) Keep weight FORWARD, resist the temptation to lean back that essentially makes the trick impossible.
3) Rebalance weight on dex leg to prepare for the SUPERJUMP
4) EXPLODE Van Damme style, perform dex
5) Use the fall to catch the bag softly at the end. Land on toes (this is natural for me on toe moves now)

Notes to self, thoughts on clipper:
1) Clipper happens IN FRONT not to the side of the body
2) Turn body to the bag. The bag always goes straight up and down, never lateral.
3) Fall into the clipper with support leg. DON'T PLANT SUPPORT LEG TOO EARLY.
4) Stay on toes. Obviously. This is much easier to do if the body is turned in the proper position. If you turn right, it's more natural to be on the toes than flat footed. It's essentially a function of 1-3 above.

Just need to do s**tloads of clippers this new way. They don't hurt my shins so I must be doing something right. Still using the mats of course, you can't be too careful these days. The clippers feel right, I just need to get used to them to drill out the old bad habits. I hit did a lot infinity > clip > RPT and osis > clip > RPT. Those felt very floaty and easy on the body when I did them the way James suggested. Score.

Well that's it for now. Not sure if I'll play again before Saturday. Lots of crap to do around the house this weekend. We're painting the living room, tearing up the carpet putting in wood floors on Sunday. Fun times, I love projects, I hope we can do it all in one day

[Iron Clad Ben]

It's sunday at midnight and I can't sleep. I just spent all day with Amber ripping up the living room carpet and painting the walls. We're about 80% done. Anyways... yesterday...

Saturday session with teh crew.
John was playing the best I've seen him play in a while. Dynos BS everywhere, rev whirls looked really good, lots of osii, DATWs. He hit eggbeater first try, first time ever and got a couple really good looks at TATW. I can never remember Cody's runs but I know one he hit like 8 shuffle in a row which is huge, because he usually drops after 2-3 shuffle. I think he hit gyro diving clipper too, but that might have been at a solo session or before we got there.

My Highlights:
Toe-set Torque. 1st try. 2nd torque I've ever hit. WTF?
Atomsmasher (first try) > 10 contact run.
~46 tiltless warming up (clip > pick > mir > lo > RPT x n)
~30 tiltless/BOP in the circle
SS Butter > Osis > PDX Mirage > RPT > run
Butter > PDX Mirage > Toe DLO > RPT > run
A few smears, flip pixie is still crizap
Couldn't hit flail again, but got close BS

I got DLOs back! Toe set too Hooray. Got some more help from James on clippers in person which was good. Need to do some more a-triforcin'. Chan's 324 clippers is huge inspiration, esp since the most I've ever gotten was 31 in that drill. Afterwards we rocked Veggie Heaven which is this Chinese/Vegetarian/Vegan place which was dirt cheap and very tasty.

Busy week coming up but first order of business is to finish up the living room. I feel so Bob Refier-esque when I post about home improvement in my footblog.

Goodnight.

[Iron Clad Ben]

Session Wednesday.

New guy showed up, seemed pretty interested in stuff. However, given our track record with new players actually getting into it and coming back to more sessions, I'm not getting my hopes up.

Pretty weak session. Played OK but definitely not as well as I wanted to. Didn't hit anything of note really. Got really close to ducking PDX illusion BS. I hit it "the" a few times and footed it with clean dexes a couple other times (Cody was there for cleanliness checks). I tried ducking far legover instead and was able to hit BS without too much trouble, hey new trick

Really should have spent my time drilling clippers with triforce drill and such but did not. A good sign was that my calves hurt again after the session. But still I need to drill clippers. I need to have a solo session but I've been super busy. Going Bowling tonight with some peeps from work.

Got a call back from the parks dept, everything's cool they just need us to have liability insurance naming them as an additional insured up to $500K. What???? I have no idea what to do, sent off an email to Tina, I really hope she can help me.

That's about it. Really busy at work. I need to be eating healthier.

OH! Reading back thru my blog entries I realized I hadn't mentioned this yet. I got a call from Curtis from Houston last week who is now living outside Austin and he wants to get back into footbag! So hopefully he can make it up to a session sometime, I'm stoked to hear he's coming to the tournament. He's one of those great player's no one's ever heard of because he never goes to tournaments and he's never on modified, but trust me he's really really good.

[mosher]

Hey Ben,

For the $500K insurance perhaps you or someone you know can get it through your school/college/university. When I threw KICKASS2 I needed $1million and I got it from my school no problem, it's worth a shot!

[Pyroman924]

Sounds like things are going well for you buddy. Keep up the good work!

[Sporatical_Distractions]

My Highlights:
Toe-set Torque. 1st try. 2nd torque I've ever hit. WTF?
Atomsmasher (first try) > 10 contact run.
~46 tiltless warming up (clip > pick > mir > lo > RPT x n)
~30 tiltless/BOP in the circle
SS Butter > Osis > PDX Mirage > RPT > run
Butter > PDX Mirage > Toe DLO > RPT > run
A few smears, flip pixie is still crizap
Couldn't hit flail again, but got close BS

I got DLOs back! Toe set too Hooray.

Yeah Ben!!! Good to hear that your dlo's came back. Props on that and everything else. TORQUE!!