Benzilla Blog

Benzilla · Post by **Benzilla** » 11 Nov 2007 15:51

I started the training program Anz sent me.

Training Program
Toe Stall x 50 [toe stalls in a row, changing sides each time. When you drop continue where you left, untill you get to fifty]
ATW x 10 bs [Good tries count, not just sealed moves. Try to mimic your strong side with your flip]
Mirage x 10 bs [Again good tries count. Pay attention on the footwork, so you get more time for the dex and stall]
Legover x 10 bs [Good tries count]
Clipper Stall x 20 [Same with Toe Stall. Try to get good sets from your flipside]

I did it really good. I hit 20 flip clippers easily, and they felt so good i did like 3 times that. My strong clippers i was hitting in like groups of 4-5. They were cake. The only thing bout my flip clip that bothers my is the set. when i go to spring my foot upwards it either slaps into the underside of my thigh or hits my calf. the sets are good enough to hand catch but not really paly out of because they are so low. I hope with practice they'll just come to me

.

The mirages were tough on my flip. I spent a decent amount of time trying to nail them. my right leg just doesn't have the dex down so i end up having some part of my right leg slap the bag away from me

.

Legovers were tough. But after a while they started coming to me. I only hit like 3 on each side but the other times i'd come close. When my dexing leg goes for the dex, completes the dex and then gets ready for the stall it violently shakes disabling any ability i have to stall the bag.

This happens on both sides.

ATW, just need more practice

. No specific poblems yet.

Toe stalls are cake.

I thank Anz alot. Without a structured program i'd always slack off. But now i feel like i have a goal to accomplish everyday. That is get the training program for that day done.

shredzilla · Post by **shredzilla** » 21 Nov 2007 02:33

How's the flip clipper coming along? Update on shred status?

-Chris

Benzilla · Post by **Benzilla** » 21 Nov 2007 07:18

Flip clippers are nice. Just a little shaky at the start of each sesh but then i get back into it. I've been able to hit alot of flip clipper>right clipper. They feel great.

Last night i jsut reinforced my flip clippers alot. did some strong clips and did some BS leg overs, a few strong butterflys and a few mirages.

Im gonna have a good sesh tonight that i'll post about hopefully. My flip clip sets are starting to be more fluid and smooth. less smacking into my thigh and calf when trying to set it

and more successful sets

.

shredzilla · Post by **shredzilla** » 21 Nov 2007 12:11

Yeah it's funny I used to have that same calf smacking problem. It was so annoying, and honestly I don't remember how or when it went away. Maybe focus on turning your body more toward the clipper. Anyway, keep pushing, footbag gets easier as you go along. First year's pretty rough haha. Once you get through all the basics though, it gets a lot more fun

Here's a couple drills for tonight, try to hit them starting from each side:

Clipper>ss mirage>butterfly
Legover>mirage>butterfly>ss mirage
Clipper>ss pickup>Op clipper>ss pickup>repeat <--This was probably one of the most important drills I did early in footbag. You can repeat it as many times as you want, it focuses on both sides of the body and uses multiple concepts. It also vastly improves your string length. Get to where you can do this in your sleep. Once you have it down, you can mix it up a little by subbing in butterflies for the clippers and/or ss legovers instead of pickups.

Hope this helps!

-Chris

Benzilla · Post by **Benzilla** » 22 Nov 2007 08:20

Last night's session was a short one. I had to go help clean the house for turkey day

. I just freestyle for 15 mins and tried what you told me chris. i don't think i hit any of them. I was also confused on some of them. one of them was the:

Clipper>ss pickup>Op clipper>ss pickup>repeat

Does this mean i do a clipper>toe stall then a pick up dex>then oposite clipper>toe stall pick up dex?

Or

Is it a clipper>duribng the set of the clipper>do the pickup dex>op clipper> pickup dex from the clip set?

i will definately try them again and try to hit them all next sesh.

shredzilla · Post by **shredzilla** » 22 Nov 2007 10:38

benzilla wrote:Is it a clipper>duribng the set of the clipper>do the pickup dex>op clipper> pickup dex from the clip set?

Yep that one. The clipper>ss mirage>butterfly is same concept. Clipper>during the clipper set, mirage>butterfly. You may have not done any of the clipper ss (same side) moves, so you may want to school those a little bit before trying any of the drills.

So, why don't you school clipper>same side legover, clipper>same side mirage, clipper>same side pickup for the first part of the session, both sides.

Don't worry if you don't get the drills right away. Some drills take a while to get down. But once you do, it opens up a lot of things. The main point is you want to try to link as many 2's as possible right now.

Benzilla · Post by **Benzilla** » 22 Nov 2007 13:22

gotcha. my strings used to be killer long..i gotta rebuild that endurance

Benzilla · Post by **Benzilla** » 23 Nov 2007 20:11

I hit Clipper>ss mirage>butterfly..A lot of bsos clipper strings. legovers i've lost after not practicing them for a few days. I plan on getting them back. Made alot of bags, the thanksgiving break really let me get alot of stitching in. I wish i put more footbag in. I have staurday and sunday to do that. Tomorrow im looking forward to a big shred...then again i say that everyday

. i'll try a little harder this time

Benzilla · Post by **Benzilla** » 24 Nov 2007 19:34

Good sesh like i wanted. 30 mins, but i made a lot of progress. Me and Eric had a lot of good strings. I hit BSOS clippers twice, maybe three times in one, in a few strings. proud of that. I got a new consecuative record of 10 ss atws. now i gotta hit a flip

. Flip mirage prgress today. hit it a few times. ducking toe stalls made me proud. hit it once. but it counts. Not much else.....o yeah,got leg overs back. hit that in a few strings.

This blog will now have me and eric. The Wantagh Footbag Crew i guess you could say.

.

We're teaching my little bro and his friend to footbag. They're just hackers atm and they're only 10 but if they stitck with it they'll be gold. I really hope they do. I can see that they like it but im not sure if they have the determination or the want to stick with it as long as i plan them to. My bro's friend even went to a store to buy a hacky sack. I smiled when he showed me. I gave him a freebie, a bag i made a while ago-made sure it had steel instead of lead. can't be too safe. don't want anything bad happening to him anyway. He likes watching us and thinks we're cool. I tried to explain to him that in a few months he will reach our current level and will soon after surpass it. But he is 10 and wouldn't believe me.

gonna stitch. Buy a bag from me. visit my for sale thread

Benzilla · Post by **Benzilla** » 28 Nov 2007 16:25

-hit paradox mirage today: flip clip>strong mirage.
-found a new cool drill. Butterfly>mirage>RPT (as much as possible)
-Got jerab's bag. I love getting packages in the mail. Its pretty good. I like it alot. plays nicely. I'll post about it more when i break it in.

Benzilla · Post by **Benzilla** » 01 Dec 2007 06:32

good sesh last night with eric. I HIT AN OSIS!..i wanna get a lefty osis in so badly that im not going to train a righty until i can hit the left. didn't hit anything else really. came close to alot of nuclears. hopefully i can nail them today.

CHOCOLATE MILK PYRAMID:

So at school me and my friends at lunch thought of a really great thin we do ever few fridays. We all buy a hell of a lot of chocolate milks, drink them and stack the cartons up to make a pyramid. bellieve it or not, when you're that bored at lunch its a hell of a lot of fun. we've had 40 or so cartons last time. we didn't drink them all, but we get friends walking buy to drink some, people even come to the cafeteria during their classes to help drink some.

Yesterday the lunchladies got pissed. they always give us crap about doing it and how we'll puke and ruin the place. we do it anyways. yesterday they stormed and surrounded our lunch table and told us to stop doing it. we argued and fought until they came to the conclusion that they just wanted enough chocolate milks for the next period. so we're like ok, we'll just buy choclate milk and regular milk

. and they're like fine..

But it got to the point, after buying so many chocolate milks, that the lunchladies upon seeing us get on the snack line would jsut say "no.." to us, knowing we're were on like for some chocolate milk. It was pretty funny. we had to send other people to n get some. i think the first time we did it one kid bought 10 milks at once and the lady stared at him for a little and then brought the crate of milk out on the table.

So yeah, big shred day today. atleast 2 1 hour shred seshs. i'll post if i got anything to say

Benzilla · Post by **Benzilla** » 03 Dec 2007 16:47

Real good sesh today.

I went solo for about 30 mins. I got alot done. Much improvement on legovers, pixies, clippers, mirages (BS FINALLY!!!) and long strings and sick combos.

Legovers - got bs down pretty tight, room for improvement...but its getting better. Did some cool strings with LO's. clipper>ss LO i did that on strong side a bunch and flip atleast twice.

Pixies - finally really clearing the set. just need to make the dex tighter so i get my foot bag in position faster to do another trick. but otherwise i can pixie and handcatch very well.

Clippers - BS alot. multiple strings with 2 or more bs clippers hit. lots of improvement. getting my sets cleaner and more consistant. still some left leg smacking into my right support leg but its becomnig less often.

mirages - BS!!!!!! flip is awkward but i hit it atleast 5 times. lots of work to do.

Atw - right is strong. left i hit it 3 times or so and alot of "the's" I wanna hit a left atw and then a right.

Cool combos:

clipper> ss mirage (bs)
clipper> ss LO (bs)
butterfly>butterfly> LO (ss only)

My endurance has improved. I can't wait until my next sesh. but until then i have to study for my killer math test.

.

Oh yeah! I've realized how good my brinard bag actually is. i kinda broke it in, but its still not there yet. its insane. i can't believe i have realized its ability months after i bought it. better late then never. Gonna sign off, I wanna get this sweet trizarro bag done. i'll post it when i get it done.

gMoney · Post by **gMoney** » 06 Dec 2007 19:09

Lol, you're lucky with the training program Anz sent you. He sent me stuff like "60 legovers" and "ss clip>op clip>ss clip>op clip>rptx80 contacts." I was like dead at the end of each session

If you want to get better endurance, heres a couple things you can work on after sessions or on 'off' days.

-Core workouts (your abdomen play a key role in respiration, and it's never a bad idea to work out your core

)

-Concentrate on breathing deep, delaying the bag deep, relaxing your style, and landing on your toes. (I never really paid attention to those things, and now that I am my endurance has improved a helluva lot)

-Cross train as much as you can. This never hurts

-Practice basics until they become effortless

You should also get your friends to make a pyramid out of something other than milk, just to be a smartass. I could go on,.. but I don't want to be a bad influence

Benzilla · Post by **Benzilla** » 07 Dec 2007 14:05

lol, we made it out of whole milk too. We made one today, and it was scary. They called security guards to stand near our table trying to scare us out of it i guess. But they watched and didn't say or do anything.

I think breathing is my problem. I either stop breathing during a string or take shallow and quick breaths. i'll try it in about 10 mins when i go shred. i'll post later on my progress.

Benzilla · Post by **Benzilla** » 07 Dec 2007 15:07

decent sesh. Nothing new. Just drillin.

The breathing thing i think worked. I tried to breath deeply and more often. and i only had to stop 2 times during the sesh to take a breath, compared to last times 4 or 5. maybe i didn't drill as hard

gMoney · Post by **gMoney** » 08 Dec 2007 05:10

When I started breathing deeper, it also felt like I wasn't working as hard, but it's not nessicarily true. If you're breathing properly, of course it won't feel like you're working as hard, but it's because you're not always out of breath. The thing is, when people start playing, they concentrate on the bag and the bag only. Not breathing, not what their arms are doing, and not their posture. The more you concentrate on those things as well as the bag the better off you'll be.

Benzilla · Post by **Benzilla** » 08 Dec 2007 07:59

Yeah, thats exactly what im doing. Concentrating on the bag and the bag alone. my arms rarely ever get in the way anymore. So i just gotta slow down and concentrate on breathing mid-string.

Benzilla · Post by **Benzilla** » 11 Dec 2007 17:10

ugh, i feel like i've hit a barrier in my footbag progression. I haven't really hit anymore tricks because im trying to school pickups and legovers and combine them with strong and flip clips. i don't know.. Maybe its a time for refinement before i can move on..

hit clip>ss lo>op clip>ss lo: haven't hit that but i've been trying. funny thing is i hit it and couldn't nail it again

.

If anyone has any tips or drills i can do i think that may help.

Benzilla · Post by **Benzilla** » 12 Dec 2007 18:18

crap sesh today. I was stiff and took really long to warm up. I dropped way more than i usually do. Gotta have some bad days i guess..

Benzilla · Post by **Benzilla** » 13 Dec 2007 16:16

good sesh today. I hit paradox mirage both sides back to back. I'm really stoked.

I couldn't get my cd player to work so i shredded music-less. I think it was beneficial because i could get a feel for the beat and my rhythm. I think i'll be alternating between music and no music.

So yeah, nothing else major. Im jsut schooling clipeprs, mirages, legovers and trying flip butterfly to equalize my strong butterfly. A few months ago i wasn't even able to hit these moves consistantly one sided. I'm glad to see the progress. Its one of the things keeping me going in footbag. That and the fact that when your done with a good sesh, you smile with sweat burning your eyes

and salt tickling your tounge

.(sp?)