Rabbit Lives! ECFC Write Up!!!

[Rabbit]

Well my name is Barrett some of you guys know me. I never thought I'd write a blog, but after worlds I was inspired to start playing more seriously and hopefully ill get some support with that. A lot was due to David Clavens final routine he is so passionate about what he does and I was really inspired by that. Unfortunately I missed the first 2 rounds of competition, I wish I came down a day earlier so i could have seen Ken Somolinos compete. Hanging out with him all summer, learning from him and seeing his have his first dropless routine. I really wanted to be there to support him.
I've been playing for about a year and a half with NYFA in NYORK. I havent made much progress over the last year but now im really trying to school my fundimentals every day (last 5 days in a row) and im really seeing some progress. Im starting to hit my flip butterflies, i can hit a few infinities and my flip toe isnt as retarded as it used to be Its a really good feeling to see this progress. Each day i play i try to 1up all my records and so far im doing really well with that. It kinda sucks that I have to play by myself during the week but I guess that will really help with my stamina. I have been looking for new players at school. I found a few kids that hackysack and Im hoping to get them interested in Footbag. Anyway it is welcome week and I have some freshman to attend to
Cheers,
Barrett

[C-Fan]

NYORK!

Get Bruce to skool with you more, he works too close to your place not to have bi-weekly sessions. I also recommend you go to clubfest if you can, its a good recruiting spot. Also play in public spots on campus as much as you can.

Funtastiks?

[Ian Brill]

It would be great to meet up with you at Funtastiks.

[Rabbit]

So, im not really sure how to do this am I supposed to reply to my own post?
Anyway school yesterday, had a few classes, my ethics class is going to be a bitch. I have to read a book "On Liberty and Utilitarianism" which is complete JIBBERISH. Im sitting at work trying to understand any of it but looking forward to kicking at 6 with Katya, going to really school my weak butterflys today. Played with Bruce and Pascal this weekend and we had a few random kids show up. One was from NYU and coincidentally was just walking by in modified lavers. So hopefully well get a few new members. I had a few good strings, I was hitting Pdx Mirage on both sides in the same strings which I couldnt do a week ago Anyway im going to get back to reading.

[EoghanMcDowell]

Awesome, keep up the good work. It's good you wanna school your weak side. I previously had a conflict with the sport because i never saw any progress. But today i had the best shred session ever and i feel amazing. I wish i could meet some people very close to home that i could shred with, but i don't think anyone in my town really shreds. The closest serious shredder is two towns away. Anyhow, keep going, and it's awesome that you hit that pdx mirage. I love that move. How are your clippers? How many can you get in a row without dropping on the same foot? For my strong side it's about 11, and then my flipside is 2... i know i need to school it, but like i said, today was my first real session, so we'll see. Anyway keep on keeping on, and don't ever feel like you're not getting anywhere. This sport requires dedication and perseverance, but if you're passionate, then you shouldn't have a problem with that. Cheers.

[Rabbit]

my clippers are alright. My I have done 31 with my strong side and 10 weak side. I was pretty happy today I hit 3 same side butterflys on my strong side and I hit a few clipper same butterfly on my weak side. I still cant do the consecutive butterflys on my weak side, Im getting close though Im going to be kicking tomorrow after class so im going to keep working on it.

In regards to not seeing progress its all about practice. It doesnt come natural to everyone. I spent all of last year making no progress kicking once every few weeks and this summer mostly for health reasons (quitting smoking, havent had one in 3.5 months) im playing almost every day. Really trying to get my lungs back in order, but im also making great progress. Keep schooling those weak clippers once you get those it opens the door for soo many more tricks.

[Rabbit]

I had another successful day of footbag... After oversleeping my only class today Ethics of all things. Ill atribute that to drinking with my roomate til 330 in the morning. Anyway today was really good, played with Katya for 3 hours or so. Shes starting to play really well. She did 15+ clippers on both sides. I was impressed she also has her paradox mirage down really well
I did 10 weak clippers again couldnt get the 11th
Hit my first pdx illusion
Hit 2 Smears (Im pretty sure thats what its called pixie mirage)
Hit 3 Infinities
And just randomly started trying pdx drifters which i was getting pretty close to, i should prob start working on drifters first though.

Going to watch some football tonight. Colts & Saints. Im not sure who I want to win. I guess Im leaning towards the Colts bc the Saints knocked The Eagles out of the playoffs last year.

[Rabbit]

Well today was a very productive day. Some production company (cant remember the name) was shooting at faux net tournament for a television show and tomorrow theyre shooting some freestyle. Theyre doing some pilot for Lionsgate Entertainment I believe.

Darryl and I sat down today and started working on the NYFA tournament again, and things are definitely starting to shape up. http://www.footbag.org/events/show/1189293938
Any questions contact me but it is the weekend of OCT 27th, 2007. For all of you that have wanted to come check out NYC this is definitely your chance. We are going to find places for everyone to stay and working on finding an awesome restaurant to have a party at.

Tonight is UFC 75! It got such a sick line-up you all should watch it 9pm on Spike TV.
CHEERS

[C-Fan]

Oh crap. Cornell Footbag Jam 2 is also gonna be at the end of October. I hope its not the same weekend, but it very well may be.

I hung with Pascal today, and he says you're getting way better. I hope I can swing by the city sometime soon and see it myself. I need to get me a pair of G-Units like yours.

[Matt K]

What's this I hear about some sweet NYC video that's taking away my Will Digges time?

[Rabbit]

Ken I really hope its not the same weekend. See what you can do about it bc you have to come.

Yea tomorrow they are shooting some footage for a pilot for a TV show. The show is about underground sports in NYC i believe

[C-Fan]

I actually don't have much/any control at all over the dates of my tourney. Like last year, we are again piggy-backing off of the annual Cornell juggling tournament so we can get a bigger space. On top of that, Pete Irish is one of the juggling acts in this year's show (its going to be so sweet), so we kinda have to do it when the juggling show happens. I'll let you know when I get the official date of our tourney.


Oh, and did you see this?
http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/eag ... _wrap.html

[Rabbit]

Ok Amigos,
The tournament has been set. It is November 10, 2007 in (drumroll please).... WASHINGTON SQ. On any Saturday there are thousands of people that walk through there, and with the ruckus we are going to make, including a live coverband, and were working on booking the ever popular Matt Cross (im still in talks with his agent), this is going to be a day worth remembering. Everybody within 500 miles should be coming bc this is going to be some great exposure for the sport.
N'YORK
-B

[C-Fan]

I'm glad our tournies are on diff weekends. Mine is on Oct 26-28th. I'll do my best to make it to yours, but no guarantees (stupid school).

[Rabbit]

**I almost don’t want to post this and just PM it to a few people, writing your thoughts down is pretty therapeutic in itself... anyway congrats you get to get a look into my mind, not many people get that privilege**

I have not played footbag, for real, in like a month. I’ve played maybe 2 times. Including the Cornell Jam, at which I was really disheartened by my showing in the intermediate circle comp. God it was awful, I literally could not do a clipper. Where a month ago I was doing Paradox mirages bsos, and like 10+ clippers on my weak side... I have to start schooling again...

Coincidentally a few of my friends from NYU were up at Cornell that weekend, I was kind of wavering whether I should go to the juggling show with guys I rarely ever get to see (Including Ken) or go out with guys I see every week at school. But after the circle comp and not feeling good about footbag I went out with my friends from school and got plastered. I got back to the house, don’t remember much of it... passed out... woke up and me Bruce and Ken David went home, without even a second thought...
WTF is that... didn’t say bye to ken or anybody, just got breakfast (luckily saw a few people there) and then bounced.

I'm pretty sure my tournament record thus far has been less than spectacular. I'm pretty much always stressing about something, which I guess leads to me getting wasted and not giving the best impression of myself... I need to work on that...



Is it bad that all the work I'm putting into this tournament, is turning me off from footbag... ugh. Don’t get me wrong I am very excited for this tournament and I really think this is going to be an event to remember... but I am more excited to not think/ stress about footbag for a short maybe long while after this tourney. Which sucks, but its true... I'm tired, these 2 or 3 months have been draining. I don’t even want to play this weekend, just run the tourney, make sure everyone is taken care of, make sure they enjoy NYC and make sure we get everything we need to shoot for the documentary... oh and the Washington Square News doesn’t write anything bad about us... I'm not sure if they would do that, ok correction I know they would do that. I don’t think this particular reporter would do that, she seems pretty nice, either way it has been sitting in the back of my mind since they interviewed me.

I have soo much more to say but I really think this covers everything that I care to talk about right now.

Actually one more comment... I don’t think I like the fact that we are sponsoring players to come to this event... I don’t think I would mind it so much if I didn’t feel like they wouldnt come otherwise.

A comment was made when I was first trying to get this together, to the extent of "no one knows who you are, no ones going to come to your event" something of that nature. I really did not appreciate that... but on some level its true. I don’t even think many of the people who know me, "know me".

It seems like rather than friendships here, i'm running a business or creating business relationships with some people. Acting as their agent... trying to get them gigs... I have the "NY Footbag All-Stars" doing a variety show in Brooklyn the weekend after the event, instinctually I want to write here the name of the event and promote it, but I'm not going to.

I guess part of that has to do with growing up/ but I need to separate "business time" and "social time" and I really don’t know how to do that yet. I constantly check my emails/ I got a palm treo so I could do it, I'm not comfortable being away from email. I go to sleep thinking about my projects and I wake up thinking about my projects... I got to parties thinking about projects... I go on vacation... I think about my projects... Not good at all...

[C-Fan]

Too much to respond to here, and I should be finishing my paper which is due in 9 hours (oh sh*t!), but for now I'll just leave it at:

1. Running a tourney is tough, and your first tourney is often the toughest. But...
2. After it's done, you'll think it was totally worth it. Provided you don't fail out of school... it's a tricky balance
3. I know I speak for several of our NYFA friends in saying that we're proud of what you are doing, and even if it doesn't go as well as you hope (but it might!) you have family in NYFA who still loves you. Not in a gay way. Well, at least most of us.
4. I'll give you a call tomorrow once I've recovered from my all-nighter.

Summary: hard as it may be, try not to stress out too much this weekend, and good luck with the tourney. I've got faith in ya.

[bdams19]

B-rab it is truely awesome that you have stepped up and put all this work into organizing this tourney. Once all the work is over, I'm sure you'll get the motivation to play again. And don't worry about not performing your best at competitions and whatever, especially if you've never been in that spot before. Use the wealth of knowledge around you to your advantage and you'll see progress.

And besides, all of NYFA is in it whether we are sacrificing our chances with females or not (i know i did when i invited my whole facebook list and got maybe 10 out of 150, but whatever ). 2 days, sick!

[slapdash21]

just relax, its gonna kick ass.

[Iron Clad Ben]

Barrett running an event is always stressful. You just gotta do the best that you can. I was telling Tina Lewis about how I was stressed before running TX states and she told me last month that she used to not be able to sleep for 3 days before the tournament back when she organized it. Comes with the territory. IT'LL BE OK.

It's unfortunate that in this sport there are haters and nay-sayers among us who put down other people's efforts, even though they are too lazy or too incompetent to put on their own events, or even help out with ones run by others. You have to just ignore those people and move on. Seriously, just don't give them another thought, mentalities like that only hold back the sport. Forget about them and move on.

You are doing a good thing. In fact you are doing a great thing. You are taking the initiative and making something from nothing. The sport of footbag needs more people like you.

It is unfortunate that a lot of times we appreciate people much more for how good they are at the sport, rather than how much they contribute to it.

I'm sure the event will be much better than you are fearing it won't be. Thanks for all that you've done for the sport.

Take care,

Ben

[mc]

Yo dude,

I don't agree that if no one knows you, no one will come. It's all about promo, having a strong hype presence on modified, and getting a few big names to say they'll come out (and considering the fact that you have two of the hugest... you're off to a great start).

I do agree that setting up a tournament takes entirely away from game time, taints your motivation to play, exhausts, and frustrates. Welcome to the wonderful world of tournament direction!

but I'll tell you something, footbag depends on the people who give up their own games and sanity to run tournaments and organize them for the rest of the disorganized baggers. You might feel that you're losing zest for footbag because of your efforts, but it's your efforts that show that you really do love the game, and that you're willing to go the extra mile to make it happen.

As a player (performer? I'm not really a competitor) who's receiving money, I'm sorry you feel the way that you do, but you're correct. However, you're only correct for financial reasons. If I could afford it, I'd go to every footbag tournament that time allows, but NYC is kind of a haul, so I know for a fact that I need the help you've offered for me to make it. I'm sure I speak for Jorden and Dave as well.

as for your game not being good, so you get wasted and make it worse, I can feel you on that. It's only in the last year or two that I've started going easier at tournaments, and I don't think I've reduced my consumption of party materials, I just time it differently. Skool hard, preferably with better players. It's your only option. Make sure you practice hopping in to your clippers. then it because easy to infinity.

see you in a few days, dogg. don't stress out, and let me know if there's anything I can do to help once I'm in NYC. I'm not just the MC, you can put me on staff, too.

we'll make it!!!