west of philly - bob

[Rieferman]

I was so excited to start yesterday that I posted a partial day's achievements. Makes more sense for me to post on the day after, so the first portion of this is a repost:

09/24/07
woke up to lift before work? (bench, arm curls, situps.. 3 sets)
no sugar in coffee?
Good breakfast? (grapes)
drinking lots of water?
Good lunch? (ham sammy and yogurt.. power bar near end of day to get energy for kicking)
Kick after work?
Good dinner?
No beers?
No snacks after dinner/before bed?
Early to bed? (10 p.m.)

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And since this is a footblog, here's more detail on the "kick after work". I did my practice from a bunch of posts above. Boy I suck. It's a good thing I'm starting at the beginning. I played in the grass in my backyard which is difficult, but probably very good for my ankle stability because of the balance required on the slightly uneven surface. I think in the next week or two I'll put some 1/2 inch plywood down on second story of my barn so I can play up there when it gets colder/darker out. Will be a little noisy/bouncy to play up there, but I think the 100 year old barn can stand up to my jumping around. If nothing else, it will teach me to be lighter on my feet. Up through clipper drills pretty much happened just as good as ever before. Butterfly drills were horrible - my balance is so bad, and the extra weight makes me very heavy footed. ATW's on the weak side were weak - but I knew that.. this is one of those holes in my game that I've always know about. Mirages went well, was able to make them more efficient by focusing on them. Illusions are fine on strong, very poor on weak (again, known problem). Pickups fine on strong side, about 60% efficient on weak (known problem). Pdx mirages.. was getting very tired by this point (so pathetic) but they went OK on both side. Didn't get 5 nice runs in because Keegan wanted me to watch him go down the slide.

Tonight when I play, I think I'll cruise faster through the couple drills that are perfect already. I need to spend a lot of time on getting those basic dexes and balance down. It's hilarious how pretty darned good I was at footbag without being able to do these most basic things. It's not a mystery to me anymore why I hit a plateau sooner than I should have.

[Rieferman]

09/25/07
woke up to lift before work? (bench, arm curls, situps.. 3 sets)
no sugar in coffee?
Good breakfast? (grapes)
drinking lots of water?
Good lunch? (vendor lunch of chilli and chicken salad sammy, granola bar for end of day energy)
Kick after work?
Good dinner?
No beers?
No snacks after dinner/before bed?
Early to bed? (10 p.m.)

-----------

Kicking yesterday. As I said, I cruised quickly through drills that aren't hard for me. Spent more time on ATW's, mirages, illusions, pickups on weakside. All showed good improvement. I also did a lot of butterflies and found a flaw on my right side (basically was being lazy and not lifting my knee to dex, was also letting the shin of my catch foot hit the back of my support leg causing ball to bobble off). Found that my balance on my left support leg is much better than my right which contributes to my weakside issues. Really focused on the posture of my balancing positions. Did pdx mirages at end (still no long runs at end of practice yet) and had a very easy time with them. But I want to push those more tomorrow when I play (wednesday nights, tonight, are my rest day.. just going to the park with Keegan tonight). Overall, worked up a really good sweat and I'm feeling a little sore from the last two days (plus sore from lifting)

[Rieferman]

That's keegan



That's Meg and Emmy



That's Emmy getting "hug" from Keegan



That's Keegan and Piggy getting a drink



Got to keep your eye on the ball

[Rieferman]

09/27/07
woke up to lift before work? (bench, arm curls, situps.. 3 sets)
no sugar in coffee?
Good breakfast?
drinking lots of water?
Good lunch?
Kick after work?
Good dinner?
No beers?
No snacks after dinner/before bed?
Early to bed?

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OK from now on, I'll just have two lines in my daily description:
Followed workout/water/food/sleep routine?
Kick after work?

The first line encompasses all the things above.
-------------

Anyhow, kicking yesterday was encouraging. Was able to infinity as long as I wanted, and was able to hit all the weakside drills within 1 or two tries. Balance is improving very quickly as I study one side and apply to the other. I've also been doing balance drills as part of my ankle stretching at the beginning of practice (namely, balance on one foot. Then, close eyes.. harder than it sounds). Keegan thinks it's really cool when I kick and he comes over and has me put the footbag on his foot and then he does a kicking motion to fling it. Really cute. I'm going to take the weekend off from footbag and play hoops or bike ride instead. Next week, I'll continue with the same drills, but I'm going to spend much more time linking the various concepts together until they're second nature. I think I'll be on pace to move on to the next step of my plan after next week, so that's good.


edit: oh yeah, I forgot to add this. I'm going to need indoor shredding soon because it's getting dark out early. My barn floor is really inconsistent and broken apart (100 year old barn), but I think I can fill in low spots with cement mix pretty easily, and cover the kicking area with some rubber pads that I have to make a fairly level, no ankle breakers space. Will work on that this weekend probably.

[Rieferman]

In the barn, I put down some spare playground sand in this one area that's out of the way enough. I used a 2x4 to grade it smooth and flat, and then covered it with rubber mats and an old carpet. Played around on it for a few minutes and it looks like it will work. Not perfectly flat, but certainly good enough. Nice high ceilings and well lit. Ta daaaaaa. Indoor shred spot.

[Rieferman]

Did my daily routine today. Week #2.

Side bar.. Found out one of the vendors that I deal with a lot passed away this weekend. A lot of my vendors are slimy, but Stuart Blankstein was one of the good guys. Truly a gentleman. Very sad.

Also, my right hand man put in his 2 weeks notice today. He found another opportunity that will bring him back home in Florida.

In other words, it was a sucky monday. But, I did my routine, and had fun with Keegan after work.

---------------------
Kicking went well today. Hit all of my drills on 1st or 2nd try. I added ss illusion (bubba?) as one of my practice drills. Went well. Hit all manner of mirages, pickups, illusions, ATW's with relative ease. It's funny how fast weakside learns when you have the base in the game that I have. I've been very good about not trying harder tricks yet.

[Outsider]

Nice pictures, Bob.

You're looking well. Ya don't really look nearly as heavy as ya said you were. The family looks well too. Say hi to Megan for me. That second to last picture is too cute. Glad to see Piggy too. Keep up the good work. Out.

[C-Fan]

Whoa, Keegan has the same phone I do!

He really looks a lot like you, its kinda cool. I'm also glad to see Piggy looking healthy.

[Rieferman]

Hey guys! Glad to know someone is reading

Jon wrote:

Nice pictures, Bob.

You're looking well. Ya don't really look nearly as heavy as ya said you were.

Thanks (re: the pictures). Erik Chan helped me figure out how to post them. I haven't seen everyone in so long, I figured it'd be good to show you the family.

Re: the weight. The blessing of being a big country strong 6'2" is that you can carry weight well. Realistically, at about 200 lbs I look skinny, so that's my goal. Some people my height look better at 190 or 185, but with my type of frame 200 is the right weight (even according to my doctor). We'll see how far I've progressed by the end of the 2 month footbag program.

edit: btw, PM me your phone number, I lost it and have been meaning to catch up with you for awhile

Ken wrote:

He really looks a lot like you, its kinda cool.

You should see pictures of me at the same age.. It's scary how much we look alike (scary because we're twins practically, and scary because the poor lil guy is gonna end up looking like the adult me ha ha). It's like Meg wasn't even involved!

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edit 2: PegLegHolly (and MarvlMan) were both very kind to offer their shoe modding services. I ended up going with Holly because (and I don't mean this to sound as anything but a compliment) I think girls are better at stuff like that. In advance, THANKS HOLLY. And, THANKS JOSH for the offer! Oh, and Clavens, $$ will be in the mail for a footbag. Oh, and Josh/Holly, I'll definitely buy bags from you in the near future too - you helped me, I want to help you

[Rieferman]

Followed my routine yesterday.

Kicking went well.

Balance drills are really helping. For example, I'll hold a toe stall balanced on one foot for 5-10 seconds and then switch to other foot. Or, I'll do the same thing holding a clipper stall or butterfly stall.

Last night was the first night I felt comfortable to link these simple tricks together, so I spent a lot of time at the end of each drill doing that. For example, a link that is doable 1st try now would go something like: weak toe > weak clipper (which is indistinguishable from strong) > mirage > ss mirage (not pixie, I set, plant, mirage with same leg that set) > mirage > illusion > repeat whole thing on other side.

Tonight is my night off. Tomorrow night I plan to almost exclusively focus on ATW, Illusion (including Bubba now), Pdx mirage. The rest of this stuff is pretty much the same on weakside and strongside now, so I want to work on these things.

Overall, I feel like I'm ready for the 2nd steps of my plan. Right on schedule.

Oh, and the barn setup is working great.

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edit: And since my plan is on the previous page, here's the 1st 2 weeks plan (that I'm almost done with) and the 2nd 2 weeks plan (about to start that next week). Originally, I was going to play twice per week (hence the numbering on the plan) but I've ended up playing about 4 times instead.

Sessions 1, 2, 3, 4 (first 2 weeks)

- Weigh in. Record weight. Don't look at it again until end of 2nd month.
- stretching, including ankle and neck exercises
- 100 kicks alternating between toe/inside/outside
- slow alternating toe stalls. 20 on each side
- fast alternating toe stalls. 20 on each side
- same side clipper drill, frozen clippers, alternating clipper drill. goal is 30 contacts
- same side butterfly drill, frozen butterflies, infinity drill. goal is 20 contacts
- ATW's, both directions. focus on straight high sets. 10 hits both sides.
- mirages/illusions.. work on best form and straight sets. 10 hits both sides.
- pickups.. work on best form. Set from toe and from clipper. 10 hits both sides.
- pdx mirages (set from butterfly every time). work on best form.. straight sets. 10 hits strong side, 20 hits weakside.
- 5 nice runs (at least 20 contacts) including all moves practiced above.
- stretching, including ankle and neck exercises


Sessions 5, 6, 7, 8 (2nd half of first month back)

- stretching, including ankle and neck exercises
- all items from sessions 1 thru 4, but in abbreviated fashion. get through all drills in 10-15 minutes
- ducking clipper. set from butterfly and set from toe. 10 hits both sides.
- ducking alternating clippers. 10 in a row starting from a butterfly.
- diving clipper. set from a butterfly. 10 hits both sides.
- consecutive diving clippers. 5 in a row starting from a buttefly.
- diving clipper to ducking clipper. set from buttefly. 5 hits both sides.
- ducking clipper to diving clipper. set from buttefly. 5 hits both sides.
- spinning clipper. set from butterfly and sealed to infinity. 10 hits both sides.
- 5 nice runs (at least 20 contacts) including all moves practiced above.
- stretching, including ankle and neck exercises

[Rieferman]

Did my routine yesterday.

It basically looks like I'll do my full routine (which includes lifting and kicking) on Mon, Tues, Thursday. I need Wednesdays as a rest day and as a day to do something fun with Keegan after work (fun beyond playing in back yard.. go to the pool or something) and since I'm not drinking any beers during the weekdays, I think Fridays will end up usually being a night to chill back and hang out with Megan with a drink or two.

But, I think 3 days per week fits the spirit of what I'm trying to do. Plus, I might end up playing on the weekends during Keegan's naptime.

Anyhow, kicking yesterday went well. I can hit ATW's on both feet just about equally now. Weakside pdx mirage is good when I setup very well balanced for it, but I can't hide an "unbalanced" condition yet like I can on the other side. So, I attacked that by putting myself purposely in situations where my balance would be less than perfect (simple things like doing 2 ss butterflies before the pdx mirage rather than just setting up from a single butterfly). That helped rapidly. I still am not happy with my butterflies >> I can do 10-20 in a row consistently, but that's just because I've played for a long time, not because my form is perfect. My support leg needs to cushion more. The balance drills (catch a butterfly and hold it) are helpful there. Need to focus more on ss butterflies because I feel like they cause more balance issues than infinities.

Anyhow, I'm on to the 2nd phase of my footbag comeback plan and will continue to focus on the smaller nuances as warmups. The next phase focuses on spinning and ducking and diving a lot. I did it that way because those are good builds on the balance stuff I'm doing. For example, I can make my pdx mirage practice more difficult by doing spinning clipper > pdx mirage etc. All these upcoming components come very easily to me, so I think it will be a fun two weeks of practice that does a nice job of cementing the first set of concepts as I play into and out of the new concepts using the others that I've been practicing.

Damn, I wish I wasn't so heavy right now. Lower back is sore.

[Rieferman]

It's saturday, and what a nice day. Beautiful fall weather. We took Keegan and Emily to this fall fair the next town over. Keegan liked the story teller and liked throwing bean bags through a pumpkin face thingy.

When we got back, I put Keegan to bed for his nap and went out to kick.

I decided to upgrade my kicking spot in the barn by putting a 1/2 inch thick piece of ply wood over the sand. So it's sand, wood, mats, carpet. Very shreddable now. I might make some more tweaks, but I'm pretty pleased overall.

I did my 1st 2 week practice even though I intended to do my new practice. Really getting very solid and controlled. Starting to like the way I feel on my feet. Hit 20+ infinities in a row with good form. Lots of weakside coordination and balance practice. I'm starting to see how these components will help me progress. I'm considering doing my 1st weeks of practice for one more week. We'll see.

[Rieferman]

Phillies lost last night. It was fun while it lasted.

Nice Sunday. Great weather. Spent the morning playing with Keegs in the yard. We're going to the park tonight after dinner. I love being done with my house projects.

Kicked for close to an hour in the barn today. Started working ducking/diving, but didn't have time to do spins because I also worked all my basics. The improvements are coming very quickly. I'm really glad I'm taking time to do this.

Note to self: a month from now when you're frustrated, read this post and remember how it feels to progress in baby steps.

------
Side question for those that went to Funtastiks this year. You met Brian right? 35 yrs old (seems way younger), in great shape, shaved head, guiltless with a great stepping set and atomic set. Can do hand stands.

Brian and I are going to be playing together again soon. We talked yesterday and I told him to give me another 6 weeks or so.

[C-Fan]

I think it's cool how methodically you are approaching your comeback, and that you are actually sticking to the regimen.

[Rieferman]

Did my routine today.

It's funny how things build on eachother in this game. My butterflies were so easy over the years that I stopped cushioning myself with my support leg. Big mistake. As I've been relearning, I see that the cushion is what provides the nice straight pop to your next trick. This really stood out while practicing ducks/dives/spins today. If I set any of those things from a nicely cushioned clipper, they're perfect still. When I set from butterfly, I was missing - too short on the set, and too much energy spent throwing the bag rather than getting into the move. Add some cushion to the butterfly, and magic. Issue gone.

Also did a lot of illusions today. Even did pdx illusion. Played for just about an hour today and then wrestled with Keegan.

[Rieferman]

Just finally got around to uploading some new pics. Just the kids this time:

beach vacation:



Aunt Karen got Keegan a bike for his 2nd birthday. As you can tell, he loves it



Emmy is strong for a little baby. She also drools as though there's a garden hose running non-stop somewhere



She's pretty smiley too

[Rieferman]

How strange, I talked to Amy Noller on email last night. Great to hear from her, it's been forever.

Yesterday, I did my routine, but it kind of sucked. Work was super stressful >> I had to train the sales force (about 100 people) on a new process for two hours, had to be trained on some other tasks because my right hand man's last day is Friday, had an issue with another manager being bull headed about something (and his approach could cause legal/HR nightmares if I hadn't interjected). Oh, and I still have my normal job to do on top of all these things. Then, I got home about 30 minutes late because of all this, so I only had a very short period of time to kick before I had to take over watching Keegan so Meg could put Emily to bed. By the time I stretched and got warmed up, it was practically time to cool down and stretch again.

In any case, I mostly just practiced butterflies and spins. Can do lots of infinities in a row now. Can do lots of ss butterflies in a row too. Can not spin on my weakside. If I set to clipper, I can. If I start with butterfly I can't. My set on both sides is a little bit cheater >> I set behind myself. That helps now (less rotation needed in order to get the clipper) but will hurt later when I doing bigger tricks. I need to set straight, get my arms in tight, get my head around, and stay balanced. On strong side, I'm doing most of those things well, not on my weakside. But then again, that's why I'm practicing this stuff.

In any case, between stressful day at work and shortened/frustrating kicking, I was in a really grumpy mood that I never quite shook the rest of the night.

I'm still grumpy this morning. Unmotivated at work too.

Today is my rest day, so I'll eventually get back in a good mood when I take Keegan to the YMCA to play basketball and go swimming.

[Rieferman]

Did my routine yesterday as planned.

Had a good session last night. It was cool outside, but in the barn, I was very comfortable. I played for about 45 minutes, and really worked mostly on linking all the concepts I've been practicing. As one-off tricks, I can do all of the first 2 weeks stuff now, so combining them in unnatural ways is great to enforce the concepts and improve balance. I was very happy to find that I could flow into simple 4-5 trick combos very naturally and comfortably without pre-planning them. Footbag to me is more fun when you can plan combos on the fly rather than having to map it out ahead of time. I've never been able to link these little 1-2 adds before (I skipped over them the first time around) so it's really good practice I think.

Ducking/diving improved nicely considering it's only been a practice or two. I can hit maybe a dozen back to back ducking clippers now. Diving is harder for me. I'm still nicking the bag with ear/neck sometimes, but that will be gone soon.

Spins on strong side are close to being good. On weakside, if I start from butterfly, can't do em very well. If I start from infinity, I can. I think the rhythm helps me. Not a bad thing since in runs, I'll be in rhythm, but I still want to solve the puzzle on that.

I'm sore today. Pretty sore. It's the first time footbag has made me sore in a long time. That means I'm pushing new muscles. That's a good feeling.

It's Friday. I'm going to the bar tonight. I haven't had a beer or any bad food or any extra sugar all week. And tonight is the night to reward myself.

Btw, my belt is a notch tighter this week. I'm still not going to weigh back in until then end of month two (currently coming to the end of week 3), but I think that's a good indication that weight is already coming off. Wife also noticed that my face looks noticably thinner.

[Rieferman]

Did my routine the past 2 days as planned.

I've been continuing to concentrate on my 1st 2 weeks of practice items, plus adding in a little bit of ducking/diving/spinning. I came to the realization that I would have an easier time hitting guiltless runs (of tricks that I did in the past) than hitting runs of the new stuff I've been practicing. That's not the point of what I'm trying to do, so I'm working more on the beginning components. I want to be able to mindlessly run these easy components as long as I want. Only then will the harder tricks really become easier.

Yesterday was particularly good in this regard. I was regularly mixing in all of my new components into runs of 15+ tricks. If anything, I was using my weakside more than strong, so that's good considering what I'm trying to accomplish. I've been very disciplined at forcing extra reps on weakside combos that are trickier for me. Hitting all manner of illusions, mirages, pickups, legovers. Can do about 20 infinities on command. Balance improving every day.

This morning was a 3 advil morning. Pretty sore from yesterday. Pushed it hard for an hour.

I have cheated a teense here and there. For example, I was curious to see if pickup practice will help me do whirls (that's one of those easy guiltless tricks that I could never really do nicely). Was happy to see that I could whirl easily on both sides. Clipper or toe set. Didn't try paradox. I didn't do this much, because it's not time to learn whirl yet, but I was encouraged that my approach looks as though it may payoff in the long term.

[Rieferman]

Did my routine yesterday.

I gotta say, I'm pretty darn proud of how well I'm sticking to my plan. I've been eating great, sleeping enough, lifting weights, playing footbag a lot, not drinking beer, having lots of time with Keegan/Emi/Meg. My clothes is fitting better already, and in my face, the beginning of the weight loss is already noticeable. I think the fact that I let myself off the rigid routine on the weekends (aka, beers are OK, and I eat without as much restriction.. offset by the fact that I'm also twice as active on weekends) has helped me really be motivated during the week. I don't know that I'll lose 40 lbs by the end of month 2, but I think 20 lbs might be realistic. The next 20 after that will be easier to lose >> the better shape you're in, the easier it is to get in even better shape. I just keep telling myself "it didn't take you 3 weeks to get fat and out of shape, so be paitent because it ain't gonna take just 3 weeks to undo it all".

Anyhow, footbag. The more I play, the more it looks like I might be on a couple months plan of playing easy stuff before allowing myself to move on to the next level. I figure, if I was going to train some kid on how to play, I wouldn't let that kid even think about guiltless and harder tricks until he was on automatic pilot for the easy stuff. Just because I can hit all the easy stuff now isn't enough. I need to be able to just run that stuff as long as I want. I'm not to that point yet, so I'm going to continue working it. Most harder tricks end with easier components, so the more coordinated I get on this stuff, the better. Plus, as I'm losing weight, it's probably better to not be doing the high impact tricks yet.

So, pdx illusion and bubba are hard for me. ATW's on weakside are doable but feel clumsy. Butterfly, clipper, pdx mirage, mirage, pickup, legover are all about 90% of what I need them to be. My goal is to get those couple of clumsy components to be great. Then I'll be able to link simple stuff forever. Then on to the next thing.