Fanzine
Mike Hansen's visit was random and fun. I woke up yesterday morning and saw I had a voicemail from him; he was in New Mexico and on his way to California. Things lined up so he and his brother crashed at my folks' place last night and left this afternoon. Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to play footbag together, but we all went on a good walk in the wash and I had fun giving them a tour of the Arizona wildnerness. We saw a cottontail, 2 lizards, a hawk, a desert turtle, and the remains of a hawk.
After the Hansens left I got in a shred. It was surprisingly cool out, and I had a bad headache for the last hour, but I still had fun. I toyed around a lot with cloud kicks. They look kinda like whirls that you mess up. They make for a nice changeup. I didn't hit many long strings, but it felt good to hit some new tricks and combos.
Highlights:
*Cloud-kicking DLO
*Whirligig-PSDLO
*A run with a bunch of down doubles.
*Vertigo BS
*Almost mobius bsos.
*Small run
After the Hansens left I got in a shred. It was surprisingly cool out, and I had a bad headache for the last hour, but I still had fun. I toyed around a lot with cloud kicks. They look kinda like whirls that you mess up. They make for a nice changeup. I didn't hit many long strings, but it felt good to hit some new tricks and combos.
Highlights:
*Cloud-kicking DLO
*Whirligig-PSDLO
*A run with a bunch of down doubles.
*Vertigo BS
*Almost mobius bsos.
*Small run
Went to the gym yesterday and swam 30 laps. I think it tired me out, because I had a really rough session. Mentally I was fine, but my body felt out of it. I hit pdx drifter x5 both sides, which may be a record on flip. I can't recall. The only other notable was trying atomic DSO and kicking my nuts so hard that I literally had to lay down on my back with my eyes closed for 5 minutes. It sucked so bad.
Went to the dentist today and learned i need thousands of dollars of work done on my teeth. No footbag today, but lots of stress. Maybe I'll play tomorrow and vent some stress.
Went to the dentist today and learned i need thousands of dollars of work done on my teeth. No footbag today, but lots of stress. Maybe I'll play tomorrow and vent some stress.
- CIC flurry
- Amazingly Sexy Man-Beast
- Posts: 3426
- Joined: 28 May 2003 16:06
- Location: Chicago
It seems to me like you've been getting a lot better lately from the vids you've been posting lately. Your style just looks so much more controlled/nice to watch, and a lot of the links are surprising me. At times it looks like you're able to slow down hard tricks and links (which I really like when I see in top players) and everything has been super clean. Nice job!
Bob R.
I kinda like the grill idea... I think it would go well with the mohawk I gave myself today.
I'm glad some people have watched my blog videos. Filming with the small camera is a bit of a pain, and it takes a long time to upload it all to my PC, YouTube, and then into the blog. I make the videos for my own sake, but it's nice to know other people watch it after all the effort.
My mohawk is pretty cool. I got in a small session this morning, mostly just to shoot the 'hawk. I ended up having a bad headache though, and my camera battery died early, so I didn't film much.
Went to the gym and swam 40 laps. I also played footbag, but didn't play very hard. I've kinda lost interest in doing big moves, which is someting of a first for me. I've always loved big tricks and combos, but lately I have very little desire to hit them. I've been doing lots of basic 3s and 4s on both sides, and just trying to tighten up my style on the basics. This seems like a safe idea, because if I do decide to go back to big tricks in the future, tightening up my basics can only help me.
Highlights:
*Inspired by Byrin: blurry whirl-blaze-smog
* Uh... can't recall. I shot some stuff, so I'll add it later.
Root canal tomorrow.... oy.
I'm glad some people have watched my blog videos. Filming with the small camera is a bit of a pain, and it takes a long time to upload it all to my PC, YouTube, and then into the blog. I make the videos for my own sake, but it's nice to know other people watch it after all the effort.
My mohawk is pretty cool. I got in a small session this morning, mostly just to shoot the 'hawk. I ended up having a bad headache though, and my camera battery died early, so I didn't film much.
Went to the gym and swam 40 laps. I also played footbag, but didn't play very hard. I've kinda lost interest in doing big moves, which is someting of a first for me. I've always loved big tricks and combos, but lately I have very little desire to hit them. I've been doing lots of basic 3s and 4s on both sides, and just trying to tighten up my style on the basics. This seems like a safe idea, because if I do decide to go back to big tricks in the future, tightening up my basics can only help me.
Highlights:
*Inspired by Byrin: blurry whirl-blaze-smog
* Uh... can't recall. I shot some stuff, so I'll add it later.
Root canal tomorrow.... oy.
No root canal...yet? Went to the specialist today, and he gave me a temporary filling. If it hurts a month from now, I'll need root canal. If not, I should be fine with a crown. Let's hope it's the latter.
The dentist also prescribed vicodin, which I'm on now. No pain, but it also doesn't feel particularly good either. I don't feel like I can footbag, because I'm kind of out of it.
Here are some vids from yesterday:
*Run with nice variety
*Tomahawk-tomahawk-pdx torque, haze in seal.
*run with a few bsos 4s and ripped warrior.
Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow and get in a session.
The dentist also prescribed vicodin, which I'm on now. No pain, but it also doesn't feel particularly good either. I don't feel like I can footbag, because I'm kind of out of it.
Here are some vids from yesterday:
*Run with nice variety
*Tomahawk-tomahawk-pdx torque, haze in seal.
*run with a few bsos 4s and ripped warrior.
Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow and get in a session.
Last edited by C-Fan on 09 Jan 2008 22:01, edited 1 time in total.
Wow, I can't believe my blog has been viewed 50,000 times. That's kinda cool.
Went to the gym today and swam 40 laps. I only played footbag for like 10 minutes, but within that time I figured out regular swirl. Earlier in the day I checked out the Tips thread for Ripstein as well as the Kankeri blog, and I toyed with some of the ideas I read there. For me, reverse swirl is more natural than forward swirl (when they're done non-symple). It turns out that the set for these tricks is very different. Reverse swirl has a slight set, a pause, and then the dex. Forward swirl has a strange set... the dex and the set happen at the same time. They're almost a single motion. The timing is totally different, and I needed to realize that. It started to click for me today, and I was hitting them on both sides with about equal success. One important thing is to set them close to your body, otherwise the dex is with the shoe, or even thinner. I don't want to learn thin swirls. Eventually I'd like to pick up ripstein, and I don't want an ugly one.
No real highlights, but not a big surprise. Oh wait, I guess ripwalk-swirl bsos was one.
My sister comes to town the day after tomorrow. Not sure how that will affect my playing schedule.
DC players: I arrive in DC around the 19th. PM me your phone numbers or email me at my last name at gmail.com.
Went to the gym today and swam 40 laps. I only played footbag for like 10 minutes, but within that time I figured out regular swirl. Earlier in the day I checked out the Tips thread for Ripstein as well as the Kankeri blog, and I toyed with some of the ideas I read there. For me, reverse swirl is more natural than forward swirl (when they're done non-symple). It turns out that the set for these tricks is very different. Reverse swirl has a slight set, a pause, and then the dex. Forward swirl has a strange set... the dex and the set happen at the same time. They're almost a single motion. The timing is totally different, and I needed to realize that. It started to click for me today, and I was hitting them on both sides with about equal success. One important thing is to set them close to your body, otherwise the dex is with the shoe, or even thinner. I don't want to learn thin swirls. Eventually I'd like to pick up ripstein, and I don't want an ugly one.
No real highlights, but not a big surprise. Oh wait, I guess ripwalk-swirl bsos was one.
My sister comes to town the day after tomorrow. Not sure how that will affect my playing schedule.
DC players: I arrive in DC around the 19th. PM me your phone numbers or email me at my last name at gmail.com.
I feel like I've been in a bit of a footbag funk lately. I'm not injured, I still have the desire to play (ie, I airshred), I'm playing regularly, and I'm not even playing badly... I just don't seem to have as much fun as I normally do. I have no idea what's wrong. Hopefully I just need one good session to get me back on track, but it's definitely a bit disappointing.
Got some highlights on camera today:
*Atomic knee stall to DOD
*Fifteen unique tripless, unplanned
*Cloud stalls (not kicks). Play this one with sound
*Nice run with swirls
*Gyro whirl and spinning whirl in the same run
Got some highlights on camera today:
*Atomic knee stall to DOD
*Fifteen unique tripless, unplanned
*Cloud stalls (not kicks). Play this one with sound
*Nice run with swirls
*Gyro whirl and spinning whirl in the same run
My sister is visiting now, so I haven't played footbag in 3 days. Went to the dentist today and was in the chair for 3 hours. I got 10 teeth worked on. Towards the end I figured they would have to stop eventually when they ran out of teeth. I'm in horrible, horrible pain right now. It's like a mix of these three smileys:

- zeroman13
- Post Master General
- Posts: 2385
- Joined: 17 Jan 2006 07:17
- Location: Somewhere in the desert!!!!!
- Contact:
Damn Ken, take it easy man! You'll be back to kicking soon, so in the mean time don't do anything to worsen (is that a word?) your teeth.
It's a shame we weren't able to kick. Maybe next time when you're back out here
Later..
It's a shame we weren't able to kick. Maybe next time when you're back out here
Later..
Josh M.Wasabi wrote:Footbag is not materialistic; it's about challenging yourself and having fun at the same time.
My Website
Pm me for details about Munster Bags!
Hey Ken, I'll cheer you up. PM me your address (at the moment, or whereever you might be in the next month) and I'll send you a footbag gift. 
Waylon Lew - maker of Wasabi bags
NYFA represent.
"Footbag can be pretty frustrating when it's supposed to be fun. I was partly driven by this forum - practice, practice, practice... As that is true, I think someone can be too focused on progressing and training that they miss the fun aspect of it." - Bander87
NYFA represent.
"Footbag can be pretty frustrating when it's supposed to be fun. I was partly driven by this forum - practice, practice, practice... As that is true, I think someone can be too focused on progressing and training that they miss the fun aspect of it." - Bander87
Man, feels like forever since I posted here. What can I say? Life's been busy and I haven't been playing much. My last week in Arizona was a blur of dental visits, vicodin, and doing touristy stuff with my sister and her husband who were visiting. I didn't get to play as much footbag over break as I wanted, but overall break was great.
The big news is that I'm in Washington DC for a semester. I made it safely, and have been super-busy since I got here. I got a job as an RA, which means I get free housing in exchange for babysitting undergrads. My room is huge, and I also have a very nice shred spot in my building, where I can play at night. It's lit, carpeted, open, safe, and I can videotape too. The floor below the carpet isn't great, and I feel like it kicks up some dust, but it's a great space and those are minor complaints.
I had fun playing, but I definitely felt rusty. I also felt like I was still kind of in the funk I was in during winter break. Footbag is still fun, but I'm not having as much as I feel I used to. Maybe I'm just having trouble readjusting to playing solo? I dunno. I need to find a way to make playing fun again. I think maybe I'll stop videotaping my shreds for a while, and see if that helps. Like, maybe it'll help me pace my game better.
Despite not playing for a while, I had some decent highlights:
*Jani-vertigo
*Blurriest-bl. whirl-bl. whirl-blurriest
*Toe GDLO. A bit sloppy, but hey, I'm out of practice.
*Probably my favorite run of the day. Nothing huge, but I felt like I was flowing a bit more naturally.
*Stepping blender bsos A bit sloppy, but rare for me.
*Lots of clipper tricks B2B
No footbag for me today, because I decided to go give blood on an impulse. Everybody should give blood. It takes like an hour, but you can save up to 3 lives with each donation. Think about that.
I'm meeting up with Adrienne Dukes and hopefully Chris Miller on Friday to play. Gonna take a break until then.
The big news is that I'm in Washington DC for a semester. I made it safely, and have been super-busy since I got here. I got a job as an RA, which means I get free housing in exchange for babysitting undergrads. My room is huge, and I also have a very nice shred spot in my building, where I can play at night. It's lit, carpeted, open, safe, and I can videotape too. The floor below the carpet isn't great, and I feel like it kicks up some dust, but it's a great space and those are minor complaints.
I had fun playing, but I definitely felt rusty. I also felt like I was still kind of in the funk I was in during winter break. Footbag is still fun, but I'm not having as much as I feel I used to. Maybe I'm just having trouble readjusting to playing solo? I dunno. I need to find a way to make playing fun again. I think maybe I'll stop videotaping my shreds for a while, and see if that helps. Like, maybe it'll help me pace my game better.
Despite not playing for a while, I had some decent highlights:
*Jani-vertigo
*Blurriest-bl. whirl-bl. whirl-blurriest
*Toe GDLO. A bit sloppy, but hey, I'm out of practice.
*Probably my favorite run of the day. Nothing huge, but I felt like I was flowing a bit more naturally.
*Stepping blender bsos A bit sloppy, but rare for me.
*Lots of clipper tricks B2B
No footbag for me today, because I decided to go give blood on an impulse. Everybody should give blood. It takes like an hour, but you can save up to 3 lives with each donation. Think about that.
I'm meeting up with Adrienne Dukes and hopefully Chris Miller on Friday to play. Gonna take a break until then.
Ken,
It's great to hear that you're in DC safely. I absolutely love your shred spot! It looks like a very chill place to hang and shred.
I should definitely make some time to visit DC to play with you, Adrienne and Chris. The last time I was in DC was at East Coast Championships '06.
Hey, as an RA, you can probably motivate some potential hacky slackers into footbag. Just my thoughts.
It's great to hear that you're in DC safely. I absolutely love your shred spot! It looks like a very chill place to hang and shred.
Hey, as an RA, you can probably motivate some potential hacky slackers into footbag. Just my thoughts.
Waylon Lew - maker of Wasabi bags
NYFA represent.
"Footbag can be pretty frustrating when it's supposed to be fun. I was partly driven by this forum - practice, practice, practice... As that is true, I think someone can be too focused on progressing and training that they miss the fun aspect of it." - Bander87
NYFA represent.
"Footbag can be pretty frustrating when it's supposed to be fun. I was partly driven by this forum - practice, practice, practice... As that is true, I think someone can be too focused on progressing and training that they miss the fun aspect of it." - Bander87
Good news and bad, intertwined.
I got to shred with Adrienne and Chris Miller yesterday, which was a lot of fun. Adrienne arrived first, and we decided to warm up slowly so we'd still have some energy for when Chris arrived. Things started off well, and I was playing conservatively, when in the middle of one of Adrienne's runs, my right knee just started hurting out of nowhere. I was literally just standing normally, not playing, not airshredding, and then *BAM.* Ouch. Like a lightswitch was flicked on. I continued to play for the rest of the day, but I was very limited. The one positive was that it motivated me to work on my flip swirl tricks, because strong swirls bothered the knee. As I write this today, the knee still feels funny. Very annoying.
It felt good to play with others again. I wasn't enjoying playing solo lately, and this definitely was an improvement. I taught Adrienne DLO, and she hit her first 2 ever. The second one was midstring to boot. Chris joined us a little later. We were all pretty out of practice, so we were all playing below our level. The hope is we can start getting regular sessions and all get back to where we want to be.
Highlights:
*flip spinning swirl, new trick
*flip diving swirl. Don't think it's new, but still fun.
*flip sidewalk swirl, super controlled.
*bl. whirl-bl. whirl-psw-psw.
After the shred we went to a good sushi place for dinner. Made me miss Japan.
I got to shred with Adrienne and Chris Miller yesterday, which was a lot of fun. Adrienne arrived first, and we decided to warm up slowly so we'd still have some energy for when Chris arrived. Things started off well, and I was playing conservatively, when in the middle of one of Adrienne's runs, my right knee just started hurting out of nowhere. I was literally just standing normally, not playing, not airshredding, and then *BAM.* Ouch. Like a lightswitch was flicked on. I continued to play for the rest of the day, but I was very limited. The one positive was that it motivated me to work on my flip swirl tricks, because strong swirls bothered the knee. As I write this today, the knee still feels funny. Very annoying.
It felt good to play with others again. I wasn't enjoying playing solo lately, and this definitely was an improvement. I taught Adrienne DLO, and she hit her first 2 ever. The second one was midstring to boot. Chris joined us a little later. We were all pretty out of practice, so we were all playing below our level. The hope is we can start getting regular sessions and all get back to where we want to be.
Highlights:
*flip spinning swirl, new trick
*flip diving swirl. Don't think it's new, but still fun.
*flip sidewalk swirl, super controlled.
*bl. whirl-bl. whirl-psw-psw.
After the shred we went to a good sushi place for dinner. Made me miss Japan.
Glad to hear you're in DC and liking your digs etc.
Let's look for a weekend a bunch of weeks out when the weather warms up and maybe you can travel up to stay with us for a night. As a point of reference, in case you're without a car, the Septa train system (specifically R6 line) links up to Norristown which is nearby (I could pick you up there). I believe Philly regional rail runs to DC's system somehow.
If you figure out your travel, we'll take care of food, drink, comfy place to sleep, and kids to play with.
Let's look for a weekend a bunch of weeks out when the weather warms up and maybe you can travel up to stay with us for a night. As a point of reference, in case you're without a car, the Septa train system (specifically R6 line) links up to Norristown which is nearby (I could pick you up there). I believe Philly regional rail runs to DC's system somehow.
If you figure out your travel, we'll take care of food, drink, comfy place to sleep, and kids to play with.
Bob R.