Man, tough week. Had another chapter of my thesis due today, so the last few days I didn't have time to play footbag. Handed in the paper today at 4, had a beer at 4:01, napped an hour, got some food, then got a long-ass session in with Chris. I'll blog the highlights tomorrow, but the main thing was that it is Pi day (3/14), so in celebration I hit a pi day combo. I apologize for not being able to hit any 9 add tricks.
Happy Pi day!
I also got in a couple practice routines, which felt very good. I only did 3 run throughs, but I got one good one-dropper, and I also learned a very valuable lesson: no matter how confident I'm feeling, I should ALWAYS stick to the gameplan. My worst drops tonight could all have been avoided if I didn't get cocky. So from now on, I'm going to always stick to the plan, and not try and make things harder in mid routine. This is a valuable lesson, I just need to internalize it.
Next week is Spring Break, but I'm still going to work. I won't have classes though, which should mean I'll be able to practice the routine every night. Getting very excited for next weekend, both for my routine, and for seeing NYFA, Flash, Pete, and everybody else.
Fanzine
Session yesterday with Chris was just what I needed. Felt like such a reward for getting through the week. I had a few decent attempts at pixie paradon swirl, but didn't get it. It's frustrating too, since this is my strong paradon swirl and my strong pixie. I hit blurriest swirl using weak stepping and weak swirl, so you'd figure this should be easier. Still, I have high hopes for hitting it sooner than later.
Shredwise I didn't go for anything in particular. Just had fun playing really. I also wanted to get in a routine practice before I got tired, but Chris had so much energy, I didn't get to it til real late. I'm hoping to get in some solo routine practice tonight.
Highlights from yesterday:
*tapping DLO x2
*Run with good variety and a spinning whirl at the end
*Gimpy tricks and rev. whirls
*Good mix of up and downtime.
*Midstring ducking pdlo
I've now posted 100 videos on my YouTube account. That's pretty cool.
Getting real excited for Age's tourney. Less than a week!
Shredwise I didn't go for anything in particular. Just had fun playing really. I also wanted to get in a routine practice before I got tired, but Chris had so much energy, I didn't get to it til real late. I'm hoping to get in some solo routine practice tonight.
Highlights from yesterday:
*tapping DLO x2
*Run with good variety and a spinning whirl at the end
*Gimpy tricks and rev. whirls
*Good mix of up and downtime.
*Midstring ducking pdlo
I've now posted 100 videos on my YouTube account. That's pretty cool.
Getting real excited for Age's tourney. Less than a week!
Feels so good to decompress a bit. Yesterday was 60 degree weather outside, so I went sightseeing. I hit the botanical gardens and saw some beautiful orchids, then I went to the museum of natural history which had a lot of neat stuff too. Just walking down the national mall and seeing everybody out and enjoying the weather was almost as much fun.
I got in a solo session yesterday, which was 80% dedicated to routines. I ended up hitting 3 more dropless routines, a great 1 drop, and a 2 drop which also went well. I'm at the point now with my routines where I'm beginning to expect dropless, and I don't get nervous when I enter the final 20 seconds without a drop. Later when I watched my routines, I came to the realization that even if I don't go dropless next weekend, it will still probably be my best routine to date, just based on choreography and variety.
Only shot a few highlights, but that wasn't really the point of the session:
*Spin whirl, mobius, and gyro butter all midstring
*Some motions
*Some shuffle and a vortex
Woke up the next morning with my legs feeling pretty sore and trashed. Pretty sure it was due to all the walking, plus the footbag. I also didn't have bananas last night, which I think made it worse. I still might play a little today... its a delicate balance; I want to keep my mental game sharp and my conditioning up, but I also don't want to blow my legs out before the tourney.
Calling a bunch of people today to sort out next weekend's logistics. Getting very excited for it.
I got in a solo session yesterday, which was 80% dedicated to routines. I ended up hitting 3 more dropless routines, a great 1 drop, and a 2 drop which also went well. I'm at the point now with my routines where I'm beginning to expect dropless, and I don't get nervous when I enter the final 20 seconds without a drop. Later when I watched my routines, I came to the realization that even if I don't go dropless next weekend, it will still probably be my best routine to date, just based on choreography and variety.
Only shot a few highlights, but that wasn't really the point of the session:
*Spin whirl, mobius, and gyro butter all midstring
*Some motions
*Some shuffle and a vortex
Woke up the next morning with my legs feeling pretty sore and trashed. Pretty sure it was due to all the walking, plus the footbag. I also didn't have bananas last night, which I think made it worse. I still might play a little today... its a delicate balance; I want to keep my mental game sharp and my conditioning up, but I also don't want to blow my legs out before the tourney.
Calling a bunch of people today to sort out next weekend's logistics. Getting very excited for it.
Took off Sunday to give my legs a chance to heal up. They felt really trashed after Saturday. Felt a good bit better yesterday, so I got in a solo routine session last night. 3 more dropless routines, a couple good 1 droppers. I think the day before the tourney I'm just going to watch all my routines and see what I learn from that.
Stoked to see you all this weekend!
Stoked to see you all this weekend!
NYFA w c u n MD fri 3.21.2008
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
No footbag yesterday due to a combination of being tired, there being good basketball on TV (no, I don't really watch march madness), and a conscious effort not to overdo it before the tourney.
Got to squeeze in a tight 1 hour session tonight. I forgot my camera, which I actually think helped me warmup and play better. Its nice not having to worry about angles and takes.
Highlights, transcribed during the session as they occurred:
*paradox drifter-far symple swirl repeat
*dimwalk-whirl-ripwalk-flapper-reverse swirl (pretty sick 5 eh?
). DSC in the seal.
*fog-muted pixie ss swirl.
*blurry whirl-rubberman-psw-spin clipper-some more genuine
*flip blurry whirl-rubberman-psw-duck clipper-some more genuine
*void
*marius 1st try!
*spinning pdlo, 2nd try. Had spanish fly bsos (thin?) and bl. whirl bsos in the seal.
*dropless routine.
*my best dropless routine to date. I think my first time doing 2 dropless routines in a row.
*smoke-dlo repeat, with motion bsos in the seal.
*confidence building 2 bag juggling for my routine.
Got to squeeze in a tight 1 hour session tonight. I forgot my camera, which I actually think helped me warmup and play better. Its nice not having to worry about angles and takes.
Highlights, transcribed during the session as they occurred:
*paradox drifter-far symple swirl repeat
*dimwalk-whirl-ripwalk-flapper-reverse swirl (pretty sick 5 eh?
). DSC in the seal.*fog-muted pixie ss swirl.
*blurry whirl-rubberman-psw-spin clipper-some more genuine
*flip blurry whirl-rubberman-psw-duck clipper-some more genuine
*void
*marius 1st try!
*spinning pdlo, 2nd try. Had spanish fly bsos (thin?) and bl. whirl bsos in the seal.
*dropless routine.
*my best dropless routine to date. I think my first time doing 2 dropless routines in a row.
*smoke-dlo repeat, with motion bsos in the seal.
*confidence building 2 bag juggling for my routine.
Got my root canal today. It was actually pretty quick and not very painful. I fell asleep in the chair a few times. They did warn me though that the worst pain might come "in 48-72 hours." So right during the tournament! 
So far I haven't had any pain, but who knows how this will develop. No matter what happens though, I needed to get the root canal, so I'll just have to deal with things as best as I can.
Got in a short session with Chris tonight, and it got my confidence up. I don't remember hitting anything too good, but i just felt good knowing that I could play without the tooth bugging me. I also ended up hitting 3 more dropless routines, and a good one drop. Overall, my confidence is very high for routines.
Gonna take tomorrow off from footbag so I'll be at my freshest for Saturday.
Stoked!
So far I haven't had any pain, but who knows how this will develop. No matter what happens though, I needed to get the root canal, so I'll just have to deal with things as best as I can.
Got in a short session with Chris tonight, and it got my confidence up. I don't remember hitting anything too good, but i just felt good knowing that I could play without the tooth bugging me. I also ended up hitting 3 more dropless routines, and a good one drop. Overall, my confidence is very high for routines.
Gonna take tomorrow off from footbag so I'll be at my freshest for Saturday.
Stoked!
Went to work today, so it didn't really hit me til lunch that the weekend was finally starting. Got lots of good news today of friends coming, who were either not sure they could come, or I had heard were not coming at all. In a bit of a frenzy now cleaning my place up, as well as figuring out plans and getting my gear in order for tomorrow.
I'm a bit nervous about my routine tomorrow, given how much time I've put into preparing for it, but at the same time, I'm also not nervous for the exact same reason. Weird huh?
Plan is to have fun tonight, not play footbag, and get enough sleep that I'll be fresh for comp tomorrow. Wish me luck!
I'm a bit nervous about my routine tomorrow, given how much time I've put into preparing for it, but at the same time, I'm also not nervous for the exact same reason. Weird huh?
Plan is to have fun tonight, not play footbag, and get enough sleep that I'll be fresh for comp tomorrow. Wish me luck!
Man it's late. I bought two six packs anticipating only a couple people would stay at my place, but instead there are now seven people sleeping in my room. Started the night at a club where we watched Vince Bradley's band play, and then some people went to a bar while others played Wii at my place. I did what I could to play host. Gonna wake up in 8 hours, hopefully grab some breakfast, then figure out getting to the site. I hope I can perform well, and I won't feel tired tomorrow.
Shred for Savvy write up: Friday
Still digesting the events of the weekend. I'm hoping that writing in my blog will help me get a handle on the negative stuff and come to terms with it. I also really want to blog about the weekend, because a lot of really positive things happened which I want to remember. I think the best way to achieve both these goals, is to take it slow and do it in detail.
Background: To put the weekend in context, a bit of background from the weeks leading up to it would be useful. As readers of my blog know, I'd been pretty excited for this event for a while now. My goal was to do a dropless routine, and for the first time in my life I really put in the work to do it. In the 3 weeks leading up to the tourney my routine got harder, better, and more reliable. I think I hit it dropless 17 times. I felt very confident and excited for routines. I didn't have any real interest in Circle comp, but I decided I'd do it for Age's sake, just to raise the level of competition. The other big news that happened before the tournament, was that I got a root canal 2 days before comp. This was important because it meant I couldn't eat food that required chewing, and I was worried about my energy level for the tourney. As it turned out, my energy was fine, despite only really eating yogurt, bananas and soup for a couple days. The root canal did end up being a concern, but not for the reasons I expected. In the week before the tourney I was sad to read that Dave hurt his ankle, Barrett wasn't coming due to Easter, Jon might not come for a variety of reasons, and that Bruce might not come because he was still recovering from the flu.
Friday: I worked M-W, root canal on Thursday, and worked again on Friday, so the weekend really kinda snuck up on me. On Friday in a 2 hour span I learned that Jon, Bruce and Barrett were all coming! I spent the hour after work cleaning my place up, and getting ready to accomodate more guests. I was originally only planning on having Jake Milofsky and Ian stay at my place, so I figured that 2 mattresses and 9 beers would cover us. As things developed over the course of the night, I ended up having 7 people stay at my place. 
But I'm getting ahead of myself now.
The first footbaggers I saw over the weekend were Jake and Ian. I don't think I'd seen Jake in over 6 years. Maybe more. I enjoyed getting to know him better; he's a very chill and cool guy. His personality reminds me of his shred style. Seeing Ian was great, because we go way back. I met him at my first footbag tournament ever, and he was probably my first footbag idol. We had a beer, then got a ride with Chris Miller to the club where Vince's band was playing. Vince got us on the guest list so we didn't have to pay the cover. We had to wait a while before Vince's band got on, and before the rest of NYFA arrived. I had some baked Brie with my girlfriend which was absolutely delicious, and enjoyed good convo with everybody.
Vince's band went on, and they were pretty good. I'd seen them before a couple times, and this time I thought the sound was slightly off, but they were still good. NYFA showed up, and while I wanted to hang out with them at the club for a bit more, things were a bit complicated by the arrival of Drew Krause, who is under 21. To make things easier for Age, I decided I'd leave when Drew got there, so she wouldn't have to leave. As we got ready to go, I felt really bad about leaving Waylon and Erie behind, but there just was not enough room for all of us in the cars, much less at my place.
I really wasn't planning on having so many people at my place, but I did what I could. I put out some snacks, gave everybody a single beer, and we had fun just talking and watching the shred sections of Bringing Out the Shred. My girlfriend made some excellent guacamole and chips which pretty much evaporated. Half the people then went to a bar, and the other half set up the Wii downstairs and played bowling and super smash bros. I played Smash Bros for the first time, and somehow won a round by using Kirby. I just enjoyed being a big marshmallow that eats people.
We got to bed later than I wanted, but I slept OK and felt pretty fresh in the morning.
Background: To put the weekend in context, a bit of background from the weeks leading up to it would be useful. As readers of my blog know, I'd been pretty excited for this event for a while now. My goal was to do a dropless routine, and for the first time in my life I really put in the work to do it. In the 3 weeks leading up to the tourney my routine got harder, better, and more reliable. I think I hit it dropless 17 times. I felt very confident and excited for routines. I didn't have any real interest in Circle comp, but I decided I'd do it for Age's sake, just to raise the level of competition. The other big news that happened before the tournament, was that I got a root canal 2 days before comp. This was important because it meant I couldn't eat food that required chewing, and I was worried about my energy level for the tourney. As it turned out, my energy was fine, despite only really eating yogurt, bananas and soup for a couple days. The root canal did end up being a concern, but not for the reasons I expected. In the week before the tourney I was sad to read that Dave hurt his ankle, Barrett wasn't coming due to Easter, Jon might not come for a variety of reasons, and that Bruce might not come because he was still recovering from the flu.
Friday: I worked M-W, root canal on Thursday, and worked again on Friday, so the weekend really kinda snuck up on me. On Friday in a 2 hour span I learned that Jon, Bruce and Barrett were all coming!
I spent the hour after work cleaning my place up, and getting ready to accomodate more guests. I was originally only planning on having Jake Milofsky and Ian stay at my place, so I figured that 2 mattresses and 9 beers would cover us. As things developed over the course of the night, I ended up having 7 people stay at my place. But I'm getting ahead of myself now. The first footbaggers I saw over the weekend were Jake and Ian. I don't think I'd seen Jake in over 6 years. Maybe more. I enjoyed getting to know him better; he's a very chill and cool guy. His personality reminds me of his shred style. Seeing Ian was great, because we go way back. I met him at my first footbag tournament ever, and he was probably my first footbag idol. We had a beer, then got a ride with Chris Miller to the club where Vince's band was playing. Vince got us on the guest list so we didn't have to pay the cover. We had to wait a while before Vince's band got on, and before the rest of NYFA arrived. I had some baked Brie with my girlfriend which was absolutely delicious, and enjoyed good convo with everybody.
Vince's band went on, and they were pretty good. I'd seen them before a couple times, and this time I thought the sound was slightly off, but they were still good. NYFA showed up, and while I wanted to hang out with them at the club for a bit more, things were a bit complicated by the arrival of Drew Krause, who is under 21. To make things easier for Age, I decided I'd leave when Drew got there, so she wouldn't have to leave. As we got ready to go, I felt really bad about leaving Waylon and Erie behind, but there just was not enough room for all of us in the cars, much less at my place.
I really wasn't planning on having so many people at my place, but I did what I could. I put out some snacks, gave everybody a single beer, and we had fun just talking and watching the shred sections of Bringing Out the Shred. My girlfriend made some excellent guacamole and chips which pretty much evaporated. Half the people then went to a bar, and the other half set up the Wii downstairs and played bowling and super smash bros. I played Smash Bros for the first time, and somehow won a round by using Kirby. I just enjoyed being a big marshmallow that eats people.
We got to bed later than I wanted, but I slept OK and felt pretty fresh in the morning.
Shred for Savvy write up: Saturday
Saturday
Woke up on Saturday feeling a little sleepy, but overall OK. I figured everybody downstairs was still asleep, so I went to the bathroom. A minute later, I hear the head RA of the dorms in the hallway asking: "who are you? Who are you here with?" I dash out and find Barrett and Drew K. in the hallway; apparently they were knocking on every door in the dorm in search of girls.
I apologized to the RA (I am also an RA, so this was particularly embarrassing) and shepherded them downstairs. Everybody wanted breakfast, so I walked them to a nearby place to eat. Given that I couldn't chew anything, I went back home to eat a banana and yogurt for breakfast. I burned my routine song onto a CD and double checked my bag to make sure I had everything I needed. Then I watched a few of my dropless routines on my computer to go over the choreography, but mostly just to boost my confidence.
I drove up to the site with Jon S, who did remarkably well dealing with the weird traffic circles and horrible drivers of DC. We passed by one particularly road-raged old fat white guy who yelled "Fuuuuuuuuuuck. Youuuuuuuu!!" so loudly that we heard it through both his and our windows. This became something of a running joke for us the whole tourney.
We arrived at the event site without incident, and saw Flash and Aidan in the parking lot. We said hey, then walked into the venue. It was a really huge gym, which had some pluses and minuses. On one hand it was great to have as much space as we wanted, but on the flip of that it also made the crowd look really small. I donated some money for the girl Savvy, and picked up my players pack. I'm happy to see Dave Clavens is there, but I'm also not that surprised. I give him a hug, say hey to some other people, and then find a basketball. I warm up with basketball for a bit, then get to footbag. The floor was a touch slippery, but I hardly noticed because I was playing in G-Units. I imagine it must have been rough for people in Lavers. The competition area had really nice carpeting, so that wasn't an issue there.
I can't recall much from warmups, other than noticing what a smooth style Jake has. I saw Dave hit nemesis-nemesis, though the second one was thin. Still, I'd never seen that in person before. Later in the day I challenged him to genesis-fog-atomic torque...I think he hit it? Either that or it was so close, I gave him big props. The only intermediate routine I watched was Adrienne's, and I was pretty impressed. She's got solid 2s, which is the key to intermediate routines, and she also had a good sense of the crowd. Before I knew it, it was my turn to compete.
I was so focussed on my routine, that I forgot to ask somebody to film it on my digital camera. Aidan says she got it on tape though, so hopefully I'll get to see it again. I walked up, waved to the crowd, and tuned everybody out. Just as I'd hoped, the whole thing went pretty automatically. I had to calm myself down a couple times during the routine, but on the whole I didn't needlessly expend mental energy by wondering what I had to do, or where I was in the routine. I didn't even see the room. Even when I looked up at the crowd, it was like I was back in my practice room in my dorm looking up at my computer. I made it through the juggling section of my routine (which is where I was most afraid of dropping), and I was in the last 15 seconds of the routine when I finally dropped. I don't even know why I dropped. I wasn't trying something new, it wasn't a lapse in concentration, it just...happened. Happily, I didn't curse or give up. I just picked it up and went through the rest of the routine. I bowed and walked off stage.
Once the routine was done, I felt relief more than anything. It was weird. On one hand, I didn't achieve my goal: I didn't go dropless. On the other hand, I hit the best routine I've ever done in competition. I wasn't as disappointed as I thought I might be, but I also wasn't as happy as I thought I could be. It still really hasn't sunk in for me yet. Maybe once I see it on video I will come to a better conclusion. I am happy though that all my work paid off. I could just as easily have gone dropless, and at least now I know what it takes to do it. I'm tempted to go to GRASS and give it another try, but I'm not sure how realistic that'll be with school and everything. That's something to think about another day. Later on, several NYFA guys, Scott, and Clavens all told me separately how hard they were rooting for me to go dropless. I thought that was really sweet and really cool, how supportive my friends in the community are.
I watched Dave's routine, which was really really hard. It was his worlds finals routine, but with harder tricks, and he dropped like 3 times. Then I watched Scott's, which was also really hard, and had one drop. The judges ended up taking a long time to decide the results, which we all thought was weird, because we thought it was pretty clear that Scott should take first and I should get second. I was tempted to go tell them to just put me in third, because I really didn't care about what place I got. I really entered routine with a personal goal in mind, and I didn't care how I placed. Later on I told people that I honestly would have preferred to go dropless and come in 5th than to have one drop and place better. But the judges had to judge what they saw, and it was only fair to all competitors that they make the best judgment they could.
Once routines ended, I was happy to just play footbag. Circle came up soon, and I dutifully entered even though I was tired and didn't really feel like competing. My first round pool was Jake Milofsky and Flash, and I surprised myself by playing really well. I hit Your Mom and some other tricky stuff which I didn't expect to do. Because our pool was the second to compete, I was still warmed up for finals, which worked out well. Because I won the first round of Circle, I got to go after Drew Martin and Flash, and before Clavens. I felt real comfortable in this circle, and had another strong round. I hit atomic ducking eclipse at one point, and also hit WHAT?!. There was also a run where I guiltlessly shredded my way out of the circle, shoved some of the judges, and dropped when I was unable to shove Pete out of the way. When finals ended, we were all pretty sure Dave won, but I was just happy that we put on a good show for the tournament. I think I've only competed in Circle once before, but this time felt way stronger than before. I had a lot of fun in circle, and I feel like I really showed some of my best stuff.
I took a small break after circle, and it struck me that I had just put in my strongest overall performance in competition since Worlds 05. Objectively, this was probably my strongest showing in competition ever. That definitely felt very good, and made this a special tournament for me on a personal level.
After competition ended, I played for a good long time with Bruce and Ian. It was cool to be in an old-skool, circa 1997 NYFA circle. Both Ian and Bruce played better than I've ever seen them play, which combined with my performances in comp made me feel very happy. Here I was, playing footbag with friends I've had for 10 years, and despite all the miles we were all playing at the top of our game. That's beyond cool.
Next: Award ceremony and more basketball, and the party.
Woke up on Saturday feeling a little sleepy, but overall OK. I figured everybody downstairs was still asleep, so I went to the bathroom. A minute later, I hear the head RA of the dorms in the hallway asking: "who are you? Who are you here with?" I dash out and find Barrett and Drew K. in the hallway; apparently they were knocking on every door in the dorm in search of girls.
I apologized to the RA (I am also an RA, so this was particularly embarrassing) and shepherded them downstairs. Everybody wanted breakfast, so I walked them to a nearby place to eat. Given that I couldn't chew anything, I went back home to eat a banana and yogurt for breakfast. I burned my routine song onto a CD and double checked my bag to make sure I had everything I needed. Then I watched a few of my dropless routines on my computer to go over the choreography, but mostly just to boost my confidence. I drove up to the site with Jon S, who did remarkably well dealing with the weird traffic circles and horrible drivers of DC. We passed by one particularly road-raged old fat white guy who yelled "Fuuuuuuuuuuck. Youuuuuuuu!!" so loudly that we heard it through both his and our windows. This became something of a running joke for us the whole tourney.
We arrived at the event site without incident, and saw Flash and Aidan in the parking lot. We said hey, then walked into the venue. It was a really huge gym, which had some pluses and minuses. On one hand it was great to have as much space as we wanted, but on the flip of that it also made the crowd look really small. I donated some money for the girl Savvy, and picked up my players pack. I'm happy to see Dave Clavens is there, but I'm also not that surprised. I give him a hug, say hey to some other people, and then find a basketball. I warm up with basketball for a bit, then get to footbag. The floor was a touch slippery, but I hardly noticed because I was playing in G-Units. I imagine it must have been rough for people in Lavers. The competition area had really nice carpeting, so that wasn't an issue there.
I can't recall much from warmups, other than noticing what a smooth style Jake has. I saw Dave hit nemesis-nemesis, though the second one was thin. Still, I'd never seen that in person before. Later in the day I challenged him to genesis-fog-atomic torque...I think he hit it? Either that or it was so close, I gave him big props. The only intermediate routine I watched was Adrienne's, and I was pretty impressed. She's got solid 2s, which is the key to intermediate routines, and she also had a good sense of the crowd. Before I knew it, it was my turn to compete.
I was so focussed on my routine, that I forgot to ask somebody to film it on my digital camera. Aidan says she got it on tape though, so hopefully I'll get to see it again. I walked up, waved to the crowd, and tuned everybody out. Just as I'd hoped, the whole thing went pretty automatically. I had to calm myself down a couple times during the routine, but on the whole I didn't needlessly expend mental energy by wondering what I had to do, or where I was in the routine. I didn't even see the room. Even when I looked up at the crowd, it was like I was back in my practice room in my dorm looking up at my computer. I made it through the juggling section of my routine (which is where I was most afraid of dropping), and I was in the last 15 seconds of the routine when I finally dropped. I don't even know why I dropped. I wasn't trying something new, it wasn't a lapse in concentration, it just...happened. Happily, I didn't curse or give up. I just picked it up and went through the rest of the routine. I bowed and walked off stage.
Once the routine was done, I felt relief more than anything. It was weird. On one hand, I didn't achieve my goal: I didn't go dropless. On the other hand, I hit the best routine I've ever done in competition. I wasn't as disappointed as I thought I might be, but I also wasn't as happy as I thought I could be. It still really hasn't sunk in for me yet. Maybe once I see it on video I will come to a better conclusion. I am happy though that all my work paid off. I could just as easily have gone dropless, and at least now I know what it takes to do it. I'm tempted to go to GRASS and give it another try, but I'm not sure how realistic that'll be with school and everything. That's something to think about another day. Later on, several NYFA guys, Scott, and Clavens all told me separately how hard they were rooting for me to go dropless. I thought that was really sweet and really cool, how supportive my friends in the community are.
I watched Dave's routine, which was really really hard. It was his worlds finals routine, but with harder tricks, and he dropped like 3 times. Then I watched Scott's, which was also really hard, and had one drop. The judges ended up taking a long time to decide the results, which we all thought was weird, because we thought it was pretty clear that Scott should take first and I should get second. I was tempted to go tell them to just put me in third, because I really didn't care about what place I got. I really entered routine with a personal goal in mind, and I didn't care how I placed. Later on I told people that I honestly would have preferred to go dropless and come in 5th than to have one drop and place better. But the judges had to judge what they saw, and it was only fair to all competitors that they make the best judgment they could.
Once routines ended, I was happy to just play footbag. Circle came up soon, and I dutifully entered even though I was tired and didn't really feel like competing. My first round pool was Jake Milofsky and Flash, and I surprised myself by playing really well. I hit Your Mom and some other tricky stuff which I didn't expect to do. Because our pool was the second to compete, I was still warmed up for finals, which worked out well. Because I won the first round of Circle, I got to go after Drew Martin and Flash, and before Clavens. I felt real comfortable in this circle, and had another strong round. I hit atomic ducking eclipse at one point, and also hit WHAT?!. There was also a run where I guiltlessly shredded my way out of the circle, shoved some of the judges, and dropped when I was unable to shove Pete out of the way. When finals ended, we were all pretty sure Dave won, but I was just happy that we put on a good show for the tournament. I think I've only competed in Circle once before, but this time felt way stronger than before. I had a lot of fun in circle, and I feel like I really showed some of my best stuff.
I took a small break after circle, and it struck me that I had just put in my strongest overall performance in competition since Worlds 05. Objectively, this was probably my strongest showing in competition ever. That definitely felt very good, and made this a special tournament for me on a personal level.
After competition ended, I played for a good long time with Bruce and Ian. It was cool to be in an old-skool, circa 1997 NYFA circle. Both Ian and Bruce played better than I've ever seen them play, which combined with my performances in comp made me feel very happy. Here I was, playing footbag with friends I've had for 10 years, and despite all the miles we were all playing at the top of our game. That's beyond cool.
Next: Award ceremony and more basketball, and the party.
Congratulations on your best performances to date! I'm sure that felt amazing, even if you didn't achieve your ideal goal. 1 drop with 15 seconds left to go is admirable! Did the hack hold up?
Your write-ups are really good. I liked the part about the traffic jam and the running joke -- helped make it easier to imagine being there. Also the part about dashing out of the dorm to save...immatures?
Your write-ups are really good. I liked the part about the traffic jam and the running joke -- helped make it easier to imagine being there. Also the part about dashing out of the dorm to save...immatures?
SFS: Saturday until the incident.
Saturday continued:
One of the highlights of competition came during the first round of Circle. After routines had ended, I was a little chilly, so I went and put on my Pippen jersey on top of my t-shirt, and put on gloves too. Before comp began, we asked Pete (one of the judges) for clarification on the passback rule, and while he was clearing that up, he decided to give a brief overview of the basics of comp: first 3 rounds are judged on variety, last 3 rounds on difficulty. Then he said: "we're also taking into account personal style." Eyeing my color-coordinated jersey- t-shirt combo, gloves, and shorts, he added: "...and right now Ken is clearly beating you all." Definite highlight of the day.
Awards ceremony rolled around, and I wasn't really holding my breath. I expected 3rd in Circle and 2nd in Routines, but the results really didn't matter to me, since I already knew how my performance went. The main event was routines, so when they announced Dave took 3rd, I got ready to get up and accept 2nd place. Then Pete made the unexpected announcement that, for the first time in his memory in an East Coast event... there was a tie for first place?!? Whoa. Scott and I exchanged "what the?" glances, but I went up and accepted the props. Like I said, I didn't care how I placed, but it was nice for me to see that other people enjoyed my routine enough to split first place between me and Scott. In a funny development, Age had made out award certificates ahead of time, so there was only one first place certificate. Since the certificates featured a picture and a paint hand print of Savvy, I told Age she should just cross out the word "second" and write "first, " and do so in crayon. She obliged me, which made for a very cute award certificate. I ended up winning a very cool pair of golden/silver rod lavers from Pete, but since they were too big for me, I ended up trading them to Clavens for a pair of PF shorts.
I also won 3rd in circle. Again, I didn't care what place I got, so much as the fact that I competed very hard and well for it. I got some more shorts, and some nice dirtbags which seem ideal for 4square. One of the nicest "prizes" I got this weekend was a beautiful rainbow bag Waylon stitched for me. Thank you very much for this Waylon, I have high hopes for this bag.
Once awards were over, many people headed to Adrienne's for dinner. I was pretty torn between sticking around and playing basketball, or going to my favorite noodles place (Check out their amazing website) with Chris. I decided that basketball with NYFA was a rarer opportunity, so Chris went and picked me up dinner, which was awesome. Basketball ended up being one of the biggest highlights of the weekend. I figure we must have played for at least 45 minutes. First we did a 3-on-3 game, then a 2-on-2. In the first game it was me, Ian Brill, and Drew Martin against Barrett, Jake Milofsky, and Drew Krause. It was kind of cool to see how people naturally fit into certain positions. Drew M, for example, was an obvious natural power forward, while Drew K was more of a long small forward. Drew K uses his length well, which meant I couldn't sneak sloppy passes through. Barrett struck me as more of an undersized combo guard than anything, with the ability to take contact and still finish. In the first game my shot was off, but I was rebounding well and had one good psyche out: I threw the ball off the glass to myself, and while everybody was distracted I assisted to Ian off a bounce pass. That moment alone was almost as enjoyable to me as Circle comp was. In the second game my shot magically reappeared, and we won that one.
Basketball was super fun, but also exhausting. I'm not used to playing more than 2 hours tops of footbag, so playing for 4+ hours, and then adding about an hour of basketball on top of that was really pushing it. It was worth it though, considering how rare it is I get to do either. Went to a liquor store with Vince and Barrett, and picked up a bottle of my favorite Canadian beer: Fin Du Monde by Unibroue.
We got to Age's place where I just stretched down for a bit and ate my thai curry soup that Chris picked up for me. It was still light outside, so I was hoping people might want to play 4square, but it wasn't going to happen. I got Clavens to do some card tricks for me, and that was super fun. There were some tricks where I just ended up giggling and clapping my hands... during one trick he started mumbling, and when I looked up from his hands to see why, I saw the card I had picked up earlier was dangling from his mouth. Too good.
There was talk of getting in some Poker, so I went to CVS with Chris, Dave and Barrett to get cards. I picked up some chocolate milk and cupcakes, and as I met up with them they were debating buying the cards since they were overpriced. Chris was like: "f* it, I'll buy them. They don't call me 'C-Dolla-Millz' for nothing!" I responded immediately by saying: "nobody calls you 'C-Dolla-Millz'." A split second later, these 2 weird looking strangers bump into him, and are like: "Chris! What's up!" We all had a fun time joking about how amazing it would have been if those guys came up at that moment and were like: "Yo! C-Dolla Millz!"
Back at Age's place we played some video games and some chess. The worst game was some new version of Mortal Kombat, which was just horrible. I had a lot of fun playing GTA, which I treat strictly as a driving game where I hijack copcars and run away. Chess was fun. I played one game of bughouse which I won for my team. One of the more enjoyable parts of the night was going downstairs and just reminiscing with Pete, Jon and Flash about the best tournies we've been to.
Age made brownies which were great, and at some point Age's folks came over and brought a fantastic "tres leches" cake which was literally one of the best cakes I've ever had. We watched Champion's League and Fourkast, which brought back memories of watching those vids at my friend Kim's place in Tokyo. Olav Piwowar reminds me slightly of Ricky Moran.
I played a bit of poker with Adrienne, and pretty much made her lose all her money. I'm the worst partner ever at poker. During the poker game Chris adopted this very funny, very cocky evil persona which helped him win lots of hands. I dubbed this persona "C-dolla millz." It made me laugh so hard my face hurt. The problem with it, was that I thought he was just putting on a show, but in reality he was getting drunk and I didn't realize it.
This was a good post, and given its length and the time of night, I'm going to end it here for now. In my next entry I'll talk about the incident. I just want to make it clear that I'm not doing it to point blame at anybody, but rather to help me come to grips with what happened and how I feel about things. For now though, I feel happy ending this post on a positive note.
One of the highlights of competition came during the first round of Circle. After routines had ended, I was a little chilly, so I went and put on my Pippen jersey on top of my t-shirt, and put on gloves too. Before comp began, we asked Pete (one of the judges) for clarification on the passback rule, and while he was clearing that up, he decided to give a brief overview of the basics of comp: first 3 rounds are judged on variety, last 3 rounds on difficulty. Then he said: "we're also taking into account personal style." Eyeing my color-coordinated jersey- t-shirt combo, gloves, and shorts, he added: "...and right now Ken is clearly beating you all."
Definite highlight of the day.Awards ceremony rolled around, and I wasn't really holding my breath. I expected 3rd in Circle and 2nd in Routines, but the results really didn't matter to me, since I already knew how my performance went. The main event was routines, so when they announced Dave took 3rd, I got ready to get up and accept 2nd place. Then Pete made the unexpected announcement that, for the first time in his memory in an East Coast event... there was a tie for first place?!? Whoa. Scott and I exchanged "what the?" glances, but I went up and accepted the props. Like I said, I didn't care how I placed, but it was nice for me to see that other people enjoyed my routine enough to split first place between me and Scott. In a funny development, Age had made out award certificates ahead of time, so there was only one first place certificate. Since the certificates featured a picture and a paint hand print of Savvy, I told Age she should just cross out the word "second" and write "first, " and do so in crayon. She obliged me, which made for a very cute award certificate. I ended up winning a very cool pair of golden/silver rod lavers from Pete, but since they were too big for me, I ended up trading them to Clavens for a pair of PF shorts.
I also won 3rd in circle. Again, I didn't care what place I got, so much as the fact that I competed very hard and well for it. I got some more shorts, and some nice dirtbags which seem ideal for 4square. One of the nicest "prizes" I got this weekend was a beautiful rainbow bag Waylon stitched for me. Thank you very much for this Waylon, I have high hopes for this bag.
Once awards were over, many people headed to Adrienne's for dinner. I was pretty torn between sticking around and playing basketball, or going to my favorite noodles place (Check out their amazing website) with Chris. I decided that basketball with NYFA was a rarer opportunity, so Chris went and picked me up dinner, which was awesome. Basketball ended up being one of the biggest highlights of the weekend. I figure we must have played for at least 45 minutes. First we did a 3-on-3 game, then a 2-on-2. In the first game it was me, Ian Brill, and Drew Martin against Barrett, Jake Milofsky, and Drew Krause. It was kind of cool to see how people naturally fit into certain positions. Drew M, for example, was an obvious natural power forward, while Drew K was more of a long small forward. Drew K uses his length well, which meant I couldn't sneak sloppy passes through. Barrett struck me as more of an undersized combo guard than anything, with the ability to take contact and still finish. In the first game my shot was off, but I was rebounding well and had one good psyche out: I threw the ball off the glass to myself, and while everybody was distracted I assisted to Ian off a bounce pass. That moment alone was almost as enjoyable to me as Circle comp was.
In the second game my shot magically reappeared, and we won that one. Basketball was super fun, but also exhausting. I'm not used to playing more than 2 hours tops of footbag, so playing for 4+ hours, and then adding about an hour of basketball on top of that was really pushing it. It was worth it though, considering how rare it is I get to do either. Went to a liquor store with Vince and Barrett, and picked up a bottle of my favorite Canadian beer: Fin Du Monde by Unibroue.
We got to Age's place where I just stretched down for a bit and ate my thai curry soup that Chris picked up for me. It was still light outside, so I was hoping people might want to play 4square, but it wasn't going to happen. I got Clavens to do some card tricks for me, and that was super fun. There were some tricks where I just ended up giggling and clapping my hands... during one trick he started mumbling, and when I looked up from his hands to see why, I saw the card I had picked up earlier was dangling from his mouth.
Too good. There was talk of getting in some Poker, so I went to CVS with Chris, Dave and Barrett to get cards. I picked up some chocolate milk and cupcakes, and as I met up with them they were debating buying the cards since they were overpriced. Chris was like: "f* it, I'll buy them. They don't call me 'C-Dolla-Millz' for nothing!" I responded immediately by saying: "nobody calls you 'C-Dolla-Millz'." A split second later, these 2 weird looking strangers bump into him, and are like: "Chris! What's up!" We all had a fun time joking about how amazing it would have been if those guys came up at that moment and were like: "Yo! C-Dolla Millz!"
Back at Age's place we played some video games and some chess. The worst game was some new version of Mortal Kombat, which was just horrible. I had a lot of fun playing GTA, which I treat strictly as a driving game where I hijack copcars and run away. Chess was fun. I played one game of bughouse which I won for my team. One of the more enjoyable parts of the night was going downstairs and just reminiscing with Pete, Jon and Flash about the best tournies we've been to.
Age made brownies which were great, and at some point Age's folks came over and brought a fantastic "tres leches" cake which was literally one of the best cakes I've ever had. We watched Champion's League and Fourkast, which brought back memories of watching those vids at my friend Kim's place in Tokyo. Olav Piwowar reminds me slightly of Ricky Moran.
I played a bit of poker with Adrienne, and pretty much made her lose all her money. I'm the worst partner ever at poker. During the poker game Chris adopted this very funny, very cocky evil persona which helped him win lots of hands. I dubbed this persona "C-dolla millz." It made me laugh so hard my face hurt. The problem with it, was that I thought he was just putting on a show, but in reality he was getting drunk and I didn't realize it.
This was a good post, and given its length and the time of night, I'm going to end it here for now. In my next entry I'll talk about the incident. I just want to make it clear that I'm not doing it to point blame at anybody, but rather to help me come to grips with what happened and how I feel about things. For now though, I feel happy ending this post on a positive note.
