Mike's - Arizona Footbloggin - I am back!!!!

[zeroman13]

If we do this, the 4th would have to be the day. I'm gonna be busy on the 5th.

[Senor Grommet]

Thanks for the hospitality and pool tips while in Phoenix. I would have had a much less excellent time without your generosity, and thanks for the shirts! I'll wear mine proudly. I hope the event has rekindled your interest in net, even if it doesn't take over your soul. Until the next event!

[mrjauss]

Jeremy great to kick with you and play pool with you too! I will have to make a trip up to see you and the guys up in Cali! I need a good ass whooping on the NET court! Thanks!

It has been a while since I have posted anything. Time sure flies! Do to time constrains with work and my business and such I was not able to go down to kick with Ken in Tucson while he was visiting. That really sucked too. I was really looking forward to kicking with the Man! He is always so honest about my game and helpful too.

The week of the 9th I managed to squeeze in 2 solo sessions for about 1 1/2 hrs each. I just worked the blips. Then the week before the tournament I didn't have a chance to kick. I think it really showed during my freestyle sessions at the Phoenix open (jan. 19th through 21st in Chandler, AZ). Thanks to Amy Westberg and Rob Adams for the tournament!!!! The tournament was amazing and I hated to see it end. I had a chance to see many people I haven't seen in a long time and kick with them too. Chad D and Sam Gregory from the Hermosa Beach, CA OOPs club! Also Amy Westberg, Rob Adams, DJ Adams, PT Lovern, Tuan Vu, Alexis, Jeremy Mirken, , I also meet some great people like Walt, Ken, and Ben from TN, Ted F. from NYC, Chris S., Edwin Veltman, Kirsten (from Germany), Jack, Bob (tall Bob), .. So many people it is hard to remember. I should I have taken more pics. It is always hard to do when you are trying to kick as much as you can. I was battling a cold too. Luckily it didn't last to long and at the same time unfortunate it was on the tournament days. Geesh....

I had a chance to play some freestyle with Chad D. It is so good to kick with him again. He is still tearing it up as always! It will be good for him to start kicking with the San Diego guys again so he can dust some of the rust of. I also played a bit of net with him and Sam. It was hard since my head was pounding. Argh... My net game was pretty rusty. I haven't play net since May '07. I did play one pass a couple of times but it is not the same as a match over the net. I did get a few good spikes in. I worked with Josh over the net and he got a great sole push in and his serves were doing ok too. Blake and Tyler showed up for a bit too. All 3 of the Unity guys want to start playing some net now and then so that will be good so that when I go to LA to play I won't completely suck ass.

I kicked for about and hour before work. As usual my blip is all weird. Just like Chad said maybe I am babying my ankle so I don't really have the right form now. Since I didn't kick real hard the last few weeks my ankle is feeling pretty damn good! yeah!!! I will have to kick more! I want to work the kinks out of my game so I can be completely guiltless!!!

Ok. back to work since I am babbling...
later,

[mrjauss]

A quick post before I have to get to work. It was hard to hold off all my desire to kick after the Phoenix Open throughout the week. I finally had a chance to kick on Wednesday for about 40 mins. The wind was cold so my ears were freezing and it was giving me a headache.

On Thursday I was driving back from northern AZ down the 101. The freeway was already packed. Must have been for the super bowl weekend up there in Glendale. Since I had my footbag gear I called Tyler real quick and Blake down in Gilbert. I met Blake at a park and we kick for about 1 1/2.

Blake was doing great. His runs are getting longer and his Osis is better. He brought a couple around to another trick. Also he hit legbeater on stronge side and footed it on flip. He had some attempts at spinning, zoom set, DLO's, stepping stuff. He said he has been working on slowly down. It has really helped!

I was kicking great. My blip is slowing coming along. I had several runs of 20+ contacts of tiltless. After blake left I played for another hour.

Highlights:
-44 contacts of alt clips (might be my highest to date)
-stepping far osis several times
-good torques on strong side
-smear>sym mirage bs

It was a great session. I felt like my game has stepped up a bit and it getting closer to where it was last year at this time. It seemed like Blake stepped up too! Great job Blake! Drill on your own when you get a chance too!

later all....

[mrjauss]

Again I had to wait till the end of the week to kick. I guess some adds are better then no Adds. I kicked on Thursday for about 30 mins and then about 2 1/2 hours on Friday. The day was perfect out so I had to kick even though I had plenty of things I could have been doing. I just could not help myself. These solo sessions I have been doing have really been helping my game out. I feel like my blip is getting better and I am getting more control and a better grasp at what I am doing wrong. yeah I know I am a little slow. I am a work in progress and so is my game. At the park near my house they where having basketball, football, and tee ball practice for the kids so the park was packed. Then even had some ladies taking up one of the basketball courts doing yoga, running, and doing some leg squats and crab step thing. They must be new moms trying to tighten things up. I did have a lot of people asking me questions and telling me how good I am. I now just say thank you and answer questions. I always try and share information about Footbag with whomever I can. I think it is part of playing and sharing what you love about the sport! Besides like we all know people have that misconception. There was one lady saying she used to play in High School years back. I was thinking can't be that far back since it was probably the same time I was in HS and kicking to. I told her to look up Footbag on youtube.

Highlights: (before I babble to much)
- 8+ solid tiltless runs 20+ contacts w/ good variety
- 5 ducking clips. worked on zulu and weaving. soon very doable in runs.
- spinning clips and a few spinning osis
- atom smashers bs many times and a few legbeaters
- smears all over and a few dimwalks
- consecutive tapping mirages - 3 on strong and 2 on flip

Ankle feels ok. My chiropractor on Monday said the top part of my ankle is still not adjusting completely. ONce that happens then I will get more flexiblity and strength and it should heal up even more. Saaweeet! Also I need to stretch more 2 days before the adjustment not one so it will move more. The only down part of playing on Friday is that I didn't drink enough water and I was getting light headed towards the end of the session and then later had a terrible headache from not drinking enough water. Duh.... Ok boys and girls drink your water and learn from my stupidity. It has happened before since I am so into the session but usually it is just a light headache and goes away after several hours and a lot of water. This time it took a 2 hour nap, a lot of water, 3 acetephem... (however you spell the damn things) and more rest and 6 hours later it went away. Live and learn.

I noticed at the end of my long sessions my flip butterfly gets pretty good. I think maybe my stalling foot gets to tired to do its normal stupid stuff like dropping, lifting, or bumping my support leg. It has a mind of its own. I was just working that blip alot so I can take over the blippin mind.

ok. later....

[zeroman13]

Mike,

We need to kick soon! Hurry up and get off that stupid schedule at work!

Later,

Josh

P.S. Nice highlight's!


Forgot to mention that I went looking for some net shoes today and I think I found a pair! They're the New Balance 1010's. Jeremy recommended them. So hopefully I'll be getting them for my B-day next month.

[mrjauss]

Finally a chance to write something. Maybe this will be worth while to someone. If not that is fine. It will be to me later down the road of this Footbag journey that we all come to love. I just got done reading some of a book about learning a new language. I thought I would grab it since it was only 6.98. It is actually pretty good. It is by a guy named Farber. He is a lingist and knows like 25 languages. Some of you might know that I have dabbled in Japanese for several years now. I am just student so don't be to impressed. For some of you who have read my blog may think I am still a student at English too. I have grown to love language more and more just like I have with History. I also tried Chinese back when I was in LA. Got a bit discouraged and put that on hold. Japanese seems more doable for me and Chinese, Spanish, and German later. Anyway, the book has some good ideas that I will need to put into practice. I can actually use some of the same ideas for my guitar playing and pool practice too. The main point is use the multiple attack method. The is more details to it but that is good enough for now.

I would like to work on language more, Footbag, and everything else that I like to do but life gets in the way. Always something do so the week of the 11th I only kicked about 2 hours total. It was very spuradic too. I just worked the basics and my breathing. On the week of the 18th I kicked with Tyler and Blake on the 19th. Blake had a school interview project thingy to do so I helped him out. After we did that we went to the park to kick. We kicked about 2 1/2 hrs and I stayed and kicked for another hour.

On Monday the 18th I got my ankle adjusted by my chiropractor again. This time he adjusted it a bit different and it helped. It moved more on top this time. I could tell it felt better right when I first stood on it. Then when we kicked on Tuesday my balance was all weird on my flip side. I usually feel like I am leaning back since the ankle injury but this time it seemed worse. This made my clips and butterflys really unbalanced and then my stall foot would flip out more then usual that day. My runs felt shorter and less controlled. I worked through it though. Now my ankle feels stronger now. I haven't had time to kick since then though.

Midlights:

Blake:
- several good runs 5+ (I think I read runs or strings are 10 + but I will call it that anyway)
- several other things but I forgot.... check his blog. when he uses it. Finals week so don't count on it.

Tyler:
- he was doing pretty good considering it has been months
- butterfly off his foot a few times
- 2 or 3 clips in a row on bs

Lowlight for me:
like I said I felt way out of balance. Toe moves where better..
- close to atom smasher> atom smasher (have to figure out how long I should hold the stall before I got into the next move..... weird for me....
- blah blah.... not much else. I want to kick now.... have to work every night till Wednesday morning...

One good thing is my ankle feels stronger and stronger! Yeah.... it has almost been a year! Damn....

I really have to get my Taxes done and one other major thing before I can feel like really focus on my game and start back with Kung fu. Ahhhh life.... I am staying positive though. There are many challenges that we face and it depends on how you face them and work though them that will determine how your attitude will be.... Maybe I am hungry now. That sounded better in my head.....

Anyway.... later all....

[zeroman13]

Damnit Mike! The full Unity Crew needs to get a session in and soon!

Can't wait to kick with peeps again.

Later......

[C-Fan]

The consensus seems to be that Chinese grammar is way easier than Japanese, but that Chinese pronunciation (since it's a tonal language) is way harder than Japanese.

Spanish is probably your easiest bet.

Glad to hear the ankle is finally making progress.

[mrjauss]

Well it has been awhile. I have kicked a bit a few weeks ago but decided to take a couple weeks off to see if I can get a better adjustment on my ankle since it is not 100%. Yeah it is better but my Chiropractor keeps telling me that it is not moving as much as he likes. Then after the last adjustment he says try not to do any activities that has a jarring effect on your ankle. DOh! That is what I have been doing for a while now. I guess that is why it is not all the way healed yet. Well I could not wait. The love for the sport makes it to hard to wait. So here I am seeing if 2 weeks off will give the ankle time and then maybe it will adjust better. Anyway we will see....

Let's see a quick update from the last few kicks I did have. What week is it? damn! Time flies!! How pesky! The week of the 18th I kicked a few hours. SoS.. Then the week after I kick on Wednesday the 27th for about 1 1/2 hours.

Finally on the 29th I had a session with Blake and Conrad. It has been a while since I seen or kicked with Conrad. I guess school has made him pretty busy. he was kicked good considering he doesn't kick much. I think his ass is getting flatter since he does kick or maybe because he sits and programs. Not that I am looking. He had a few good long runs with some great variety. I love his pixies. They never get rusty and the same goes for his rips and drifters. I need to get mine like that.

Blake was doing good. Longer runs with some variety too. NiCe job! You two need to post more too.

For me I was doing ok. it was hard to concentrate since they had a 5k run going along the river there in Tempe. The ladies started out so we had to take a break to watch all the runners go by for about 5 + minutes! Oh yeah!!!! Yummie ! haha... Ok now few things I actually did for the session.

- great run with dyno, smear, blur, atom smasher...
- a few 20+ runs.
- many spinning and ducking clips.

Had few probs w/ butterflys on flipside again. My balance is getting better though... Anyway I have to get back to work....

later...

[mrjauss]

I am almost back. I waited 3 weeks or there abouts. Damn that was hard. I had a couple of light kicks on Friday (1 hr 15 mins) and Saturday(1 hr 30 mins). I just worked my blips and drilling stuff like mirage>lo or illusion>lo and clips and butterflys. I did ok. My ankle was a bit sore on Saturday but ok. Today it is a bit worse then yesterday. I will try and work on exercises and heat/cold stuff.

highlights for the last 2 sessions:
- very easy and clean eggbeater a few times on strong.
- downtime drifter on strong. 1st that actually worked.
- several 20+ tiltless runs.
- infinities 8 or 10 once. several 3 & 4's. far cry from Josh's 60. seems like I have a better rythmn and timing lately on flip butterfly.. and now I have to take it easy. Just when I thought I was making progress on my blips...
- 4 ducking clips several times
- alt clips: several 20 +.... flip iis getting pretty easy and controlled now.

Since stretching didn't help a day or two before my appointment and the chiro said it would tighten it up so... I will also try and use a heating pad before my chiropractor appointment to see if I can get a better adjustment on Wed. Seems like that is what I should have been doing since he puts the electrode therapy and heating pads on my back which definitely relaxes the muscles before the adj. Anyway, I will do that and ask him about it. Might have to take more time off, again. wtf! This is getting very annoying..... I just don't want to go backwards from where I am so that is why I should take the time off again and do the r.i.c.e thing or the ankle sprain ideas that andrew g. wrote up in David's blog. Ok back to work...

later all....

[zeroman13]

Dude, come on. Your ankle should've been better years ago!!!! When are you gonna start being able to kick on a weekly basis again? We miss having the stereo when we kick

Hopefully it won't be too much longer till you can get out and kick again. It'll be sweet!

Take it easy!

Josh

[mrjauss]

Ok an update is in order! Since my last post a few things have happened. I talked with my chiropractor and told him that my right inside of my knee hurts. It has been hurting for several years. I had an MRI and it was fine. My Chiropractor said that my arch maybe falling. (Old I may be) He checked them out and ordered me some shoe inserts. He can scan your foot and email to this company that makes them. Luckily I have insurance that covers them. They cost about $200. Damn! They have really good arch support. It feels like there are small balls under my arches. I got them on the 23rd. At first they where are bit awkward. So far my knee does not hurt anymore and my ankle feels pretty good. I can get out of bed and not worry about putting weight on it right away. I used to have to be careful because it would ache a bit in the mornings. Probably because of lack of blood flow or something. well anyway...

I kicked a little last week and this week. It was mainly kicks the first week. This week I did some tricks but took it easy. My ankle feels pretty good. Maybe in a couple of weeks we can have a Unity session. I know quit teasing.

Over the last month I have been doing a lot of strength training and kung fu. Thursday I got 1087 kicks in a row! Yes, using all kicks and some knee kicks in there too! My brain starts to wonder and I miss it. I got 564 last night and decided to do a few tricks instead of consecs. Kicking feels so natural. I want my tiltless and guiltless that way too! Soon!

It feels so good to kick again! I noticed with the inserts I play on my toes a bit more and have better balance. Amazing how that works. I can't wait to get my game back and improve. I really think with these shoe inserts I can do that! anyway take care all!

later,

[C-Fan]

Glad you got orthotics. I hope they help you continue to get better, and avoid injury.

[mrjauss]

Thanks for the good luck KEN (Mr. Youtube)! Good luck to you too! Congrats on school and your job! Stay safe and have fun!


Friday we had a 4 hour session at Tempe Beach park. It was Blake, Bruce, Conrad, and myself. Josh could not make it. I didn't even get an email from him. Geesh...

It was a great evening for Footbag. At least it is staying lighter out now but unfortunately one of the lights where we kicked was burned out. Damn it...

We did have a surprise guest. Channel 5 news was doing interviews with random people about how hot it is getting out. Hmmm.... this is Phoenix? She asked Blake some questions and then filmed us playing some. We all had camera legs. haha..... Some of us had a few good tricks. As soon as they left we called a couple of people so we could have them record it. Hopefully someone got it and the news station didn't cut to much out.

Now for the kickin part...
Conrad was doing good. He was getting longer runs. maybe it was because he was finally done with school and does not have to worry about a school project anymore. Nice! Our little Conrad is all grown up now! Ok.... after some of the things he says it still makes some of wonder. Also that air guitar he plays in between his kickin really makes growning up seem impossible.

Bruce is a new guys that Conrad works with. He has pretty good control and uses all his kicks. He call also toe stall, flying clip, and a few other tricks. Not to bad with pants on. We tried to show him mirage and ATW. He had very close attemps at it. He is also into martial arts. How cool is that? We actually started to talk about kung fu and then started to spar. I think Conrad and Blake where surprised and then went to kick on their own. We will save that for later! It was definitely fun though! We will get together to spar and work on our mad skills later.

Blake is getting way better. He is getting longer runs with more control and a few bigger tricks in there. He also is pretty even on both sides. I am jealous!

As for me I was doing ok. I tried to take it easy and just do mostly tiltless which is really hard since I have a a lot of 3's I want to practice. I think taken it easy was a good idea since my ankle feels ok today! Yeah!!!!! I did ice it when I got home and then put some heat on it later. Slowly but surely the shoe inserts are helping!! I did have a twinge in my right knee at the beginning of the sess and then stretched and it felt a little better. I did feel kinda tight the whole sess. Then at the EOS my left knee had a twinge. That was a sign to stop for the day! All ok now though.

Ok enough babble. I am almost off work now! yeah....
wow people read my fblog... must be that C-fan reply.... or the zeroman.. how cool! Hope you all stayed awake through it all....

until next time....
later all......

[zeroman13]

A GIANT bump from the 3rd page!

How's it goin' Mike? How's your ankle dude? Can you kick yet?

You more than likely read my blog, I've been kicking on and off for awhile. It kinda gets tiring kicking my myself. I don't get emails from Conrad or Blake, so I don't know if they kick.

Hope all is well dude!

Josh

[mrjauss]

Well finally time for an update. I have been pretty busy at work, trying to do some strength training and getting other stuff done. I got my shoe inserts (orthotics) about the middle of June. I can really tell now that they have helped my ankle and my knee (still working that one). For about the first 3 weeks there was a muscle deep inside my calf muscle abt 1 inch wide full length of the calf that would be real sore. It would wake me up out of a deep sleep aching. Then it took abt 2 wks after getting the inserts for the ankle to release but then it would go back to where it was. finally after 4th wk it released & adj. It slowly got better after that. I was at the chiro abt 2 weeks ago and he said that it is still out just a bit. It feels really good! My knee it still a bit sore though.
Lately learned that I have to have more of a muscle balance on both sides. Not just left and right but back and front. I knew this for my stomach and lower back but never really thought about it for my upper back and also my legs. Strengthening my back really helped my bad shoulder and I actually feel stronger.

When I first started freestyling I learned about how bad shin splints hurt. So I incorporate shin splint exercises 3 days a week into my workout routine for quite a while now. I also I noticed when I did some training with my hamstrings my knees would not hurt so much. Talking with my chiropractor he just reiterated about strengthening both back/front. Since I do a lot of standing at work (10+ hours a day sometimes 3 or 4 days a week), kung fu, and FOOTBAG I have really strong quads. So lately I have been really working my hamstrings and it seems to help my knee. I also have to ice a bit, use a heating pad and stretch a lot! So far it seems like the soreness in my knees have shifted a bit. I think from my shoe inserts helping my ankle and strengthening my hamstring my knee is getting better. It just takes time.

exercises for hamstrings: good mornings- hard to do right so my lower back gets a bit sore. A better exercise is using a exercise ball and laying flat on your back, putting your heels on the ball, lifting up hips, and then pulling the ball in towards the butt. Here is a link for the exercise with some helpful information:
http://www.menshealth.com/cda/article.d ... 0013281eac____

I have been kicking more now. About 2 months ago I was doing about 30 mins 2x/week. Then 3 weeks ago I bumped it up to about an hour 2x/week. Now I am up to abt 1 hr 15 mins 3x/week. Ankle feels great but knee is a bit sore. Good thing is I am kicking!!! Yeah! Go me!
I noticed that my balance is different but stronger too!

I did kick with Conrad and Blake about a month ago. It was on a whim when I was driving back from seeing my gf I decided to call Blake. Conrad is getting back into his old form before he had all his finals for school. Blake is getting really good. He had ripwalks, more butterflys, blurs, longer runs, etc.
Josh did not make it. Those guys need to email or call him!

Maybe a kick this Friday?? I will email all the unity guys! Ok back to work! Take care all and remember to find your balance in life and in your body!

[mrjauss]

Wow people read this...
Ok I have a few minutes before I have to go into the fab to do a clean. Yes, I work in a bunny suit in a cleanroom. High tech stuff... Good times...

I kicked a couple of times last week and one of the times was with Blake. We kicked for about 2 hours at a park by my place since Conrad and Josh could not make it. I got munched on by Mosquitoes. What a pain in the ass this last few weeks. Itchy...

Blake hasn't kicked in a while so he was a bit rusty but managed to hit a few things. He has monster high set ripwalk on his strong side and he footed the other side a few times. He also had a few runs. He was off for 3 weeks since conrad was taking some time off for his knee and he does not kick by himself at all. So many injuries in this sport. I definitely want to keep playing so I have to keep up with my workout (strengthening) routine. I think it is helping!

I have been just working the basics. My blip is starting to come back slowly. I will have to do some personal records just to see where I am at. I have been hitting LO>illusion>rpt several times and LO>atw>rpt. I throw in some mirages to mix it up too. My pixie and atomic still works... yeah. I can almost get that tapping mirage 2x on flip. anyway..

This week I only kicked on the 27th for about 1 1/2 hours. I kicked in the garage and it is really hot & humid since it has been raining a little bit. Yes, not as humid as the east coast but humid for here. I really wanted to kick more but I was hanging out with the gf enjoying life! She kicks with me now and then but only for a while and she only does kicks. She uses all her kicks and keeps it going for over 10 contacts. nice! When she was younger she used to play shuttlecock (chinese name?) in China where she grew up. How cool is that!? And she plays a mean game of Table tennis too! Yeah! I have to start to teach her more kung fu so she can kick some ass if she needs to. It is always good to know some self defense just in case.

Well ok back to work.... yeah...

Friday kick??? we will c....
later all....

[mrjauss]

The unity crew finally had a session on Friday the 1st. We kicked about 4 hours. Josh, Conrad, Blake and myself.

Josh was going off. Check his blog. Blubberman, ripwalks, swirls, twirls, barroque, etc. damn. He is getting so good.

Conrad was playing ok concidering he sits at a computer most of the week. At least his knee is not hurting. He is definitely a gaming fanatic.

Blake was doing great. He is slowly getting better too. He hit some nice whirls. He just has to watch his knee position.

As for me I was doing pretty good.

Almost had smear>plo>rpt
DATW bs in a run.
a few 20+ runs.

My endurance is a bit down tho. At the EOS josh gave me some pointers on my form for my clips and butterflys. I have to work on them to see if the ptrs help. Anyway back to work.

later all....

[mrjauss]

Ok here we go. I typed a long update about a wk ago and the computer locked up and I lost it all. Finally I have the motivation to write it up again. Well lets see, I kicked back on 9/10 for about 2 hours and that was the last time. Then on the 11th I threw my lower back out. Doh!

Well at least I learned some more things about exercise and myself. I think the reason it happened was because I fell asleep in an office chair for about 30 mins 2 diff times. Stupid me.. All the pressure is on my lower back and neck when I do that. duh... Also my chiro said my pelvis is tilted back and to the side because my lower back is stronger then my lower abs. Geesh. I thought things were getting better. More of lifes lessons. So when I was working out on the 11th my back went out. I couldn't bend over or get up so I took 2 wks off work. No no it is was not fun it was very boring because I could not do anything and I was going crazy.

Now my doctor has me doing some strength exercises and knee raises (hanging from a pullup bar or resting on your elbows and letting your legs dangle. There is a apparatus for that or you can use ab strap and hang from the pullup bar) for my lower abs which does not put stress on my lower back. I like these better then the leg lifts and seem to isolate the lower abs better. I think doing the hamstrings exercises and the reverse situps I was strengthening the lower back way more then the abs. Now I have to change that and find the balance. I am doing the exercises about 5x a week. I just use my body weight. I have to discuss more which exercises to do w/ and w/o weights and when with my Doctor.

I should be able to kick in about a wk or 2 since I have been working at getting back in shape and going to the chiro about 2 or 3x a wk. I have to look at the bright side because it gives him a chance to work on my ankle, shoulder, and knee more too. At least other things in my life are going great. I have been back to work now for 2 wks and things are pretty much the SOS. My house is getting in order. Also it is going great between my gf and I. Her name is Pingsha and she is amazing! She is from Shanghai and knows several dialects of Chinese, Japanese, and English. Good for me that she knows Eglish since I can barely speak it. We have so many things in common and look at things in the same way. Also the most important thing is we communicate a lot about everything. There is also other bonus'. Finger that one out yourself.

Alright then I should get something to eat and then head into the fab.

Later all....