Frank Sinatra Lives

[CIC flurry]

while eating a wrap and rapping.

[Frank_Sinatra]

Nice Tom. I hope someone helps that man out of his jacket, he seems to be having a hard time.

Hey thanks for the kind thoughts Reid. Digging your write up. You are a man of many talents.

So another week of kicking & preparing for the season to come. Hope it comes soon. For those not aware, my new year's resolution was to give up saying "that's what *** said," but I totally want to write it after that last sentence. Recap:

Apartment session 3/9
100 wraps each side
100 flip clippers w/o tapping
50 strong clippers w/o tapping
50 flip pixies

I drop about one in ten wraps, maybe a little less. Only on about one in 30 hand toss clippers do I slip up & tap the floor. Figured I might as well throw some flip pixie in as well, since I've wanted to even that out with my strong side for quite some time.

Des Plaines YMCA session w/Shawn, Tom, Tommie 3/10
pdx whirling heel (1st time)
dlo first (only) try
terrage, smear, plo>dimwalk bsosed in different strings
plo> symp mirage> rpt

Also had a number of strings I felt good about - ten to twelve contacts of easy guiltless or any string with a solid flip osis makes me feel pretty good right now. Still tapped on between half and two-thirds of my clippers during strings, but the tapping wasn't as hard. Long session, like two & half hours. Hit the sauna afterwards.

For those who don't know, Shawn was a really active Chicago kicker back when I first stumbled upon CIC, but due to an injury quit for a while. The season after his injury, I really started putting effort into doing things correctly. It was nice to get props for all the improvement, since sometimes I feel like I'm always stuck on basics and not improving much from one year to the next. Correct my perspective a bit.

Shawn & I are already talking about after-work sessions downtown, I'm looking forward to it.

Apartment session 3/11
50 wraps bs
100 strong clippers no tapping
200 weak clippers no tapping
100 flip pixie

Glad I took two days off after this, felt like something in my lower right ass cheek was pulled or strained or hoiven. The apartment sessions usually take about 40 minutes, I don't have to get ready, grab my gear, and go anywhere, and come back, and all that crap. So its pretty easy to slip them in.

Welles w/Zeke & Tom 3/14
cold
plo> symp mirage> rpt> bop string

Tapping was still there, but less so. I've been attempting a slicing trick, and after listening to Tom & Reile talk about slicing, I tried the trick with a different method. The slice is probably better, I think this technique has promise, but its gonna be awfully hard to do this trick. Might fluke it out once & call it a day.

Portage w/Tom 3/15
plo> symp mirage> butterfly> osis> pdx mirage> rpt > 4 more easy guiltless
pixie muted clipper> pdx whirl
dimwalk> ps mirage> paradon
terrage> terrage> paradon
blur 1st (only) try
DLO 1st (only) try
PLO> Dimwalk many times, maybe BSOS once

We kicked for about two hours. Just to coax him into remembering, I'll post a highlight of Tom's that I really liked: paradox barrage> merlin. Shit Jesus so ridiculous. I gave him a challenge, it'll be soooo fun.

Flip pixie did seem improved. Higher than before, but still needs more snap so I can get the leg planted. I tried Merlin, motivated by a conversation w/Reile. Didn't really feel close to it, but way more realistic for me than Legeater. Put some effort into flip osis, its too spinny/clippery and not very osissy. Need a straighter set and a flatter catch.

Couple nice days coming up, then it cools off again. Got my apartment sessions for a while but I think there's a definite limit to how much I can get out of them. Happy that they are showing some results so far.

[Frank_Sinatra]

And here's some more crap:

Millennium Park 3:16 w/Tom
flip pdx whirl
48 contacts tiltless
butter> infinity> osis> pdx mirage> rpt
whirl BSOS multiple times
attempted blender & flip dyno
midstring heel
drilled pixie muted clipper> infinity> osis> pdx mirage before Tom arrived upon it

Evanston 3/17 w/Tom & Reile
whirling heel> infinity x3 (trying to BSOS whirling heel)
stepping ss clip on strong, couldn't get it on weak
whirl out of osis
attacked by a blind woman??

Really bad on the whole not tapping thing this session. I was le tired.

IP 3/21 solo
drilled these clipper tricks individually to learn how to not tap: pixie muted clipper, dimwalk, butterfly, pixie ss clipper, whirl
butter> pdx mirage> rpt to... a lot? Didn't count
dimwalk> pdx mirage> rpt x7 contacts
pixie muted clipper> pdx mirage> rpt x7 contacts
pixie muted clipper> whirl> infinity> whirl> osis> pdx mirage> pixie muted clipper> fall on whirl> end session (but I was fine)

Butterflies have been giving me the most problems with not tapping, just because I was doing them so lazily for so long (falling over the bag). Worked on jumping into the dex & delay. Way more effort required than the old way.

Welles 3/22
tried to drill solo, gave up (tired, cold, windy)
won a few games of squares

I really wish I could've used this session to work on butterflies. Just wasn't feeling it. Took a pretty laid back attitude towards squares (for once), played good, then played bad, then everybody else caught up to how bad I was playing.

Apartment session 3/27 (about 40 minutes)
equal parts wraps/clippers & pixies
tried some fairy sets both sides

I also tested out some different ideas I had about osis. Determined that I need to turn my knee in more on my flip side, and wait longer to start turning on both sides. I tried out about a half dozen each side with great success but really need to get outside and drill so I don't drive the neighbors crazy.

Apartment session 3/28 (maybe 25 minutes)
wraps, clippers, pixies
heel stalls - about 50% from hand toss both sides

I was trying to do my pixies more with a clean hippy motion than a little ankle flick, when I realized that I could (theoretically) combine both into a solid terraging set. Tried a few, but each time I hit the bag with my knee in between dexes. Not really sure how to overcome this. I'd be really happy to hit one terraging move on camera or in a comp. MIDWEST REGIONALS BAYBEEE

Apartment session 3/29
more of the same
muted magellan both sides
a probably not clean enough muted reverse magellan
about 30 heel delays each side

Also attempted swirl, hit like 4 the-ass swirls on my strong side. I kept pulling my dexing foot in towards the body at the peak of the dex. So I must not understand the dexing motion, what the knee and hips are supposed to be doing, and all that.

And I watched some film from October when Zach is in town. I have terrible, terrible style. I couldn't even watch all the way through. No wonder everyone's eyes bleed when they play with me. It all makes sense now...

I will now explain something in a needlessly complicated and probably not very clear manner. Imagine the inside surface like a cartesian plane. From the ankle to the arch of the foot is the X axis, from the heel to the toe is the Y axis. For me, there's a tradeoff between the two. If I flex as much as I can at the ankle, I'll pull the X axis closer to parallel with the ground, but the Y axis becomes a steeper point towards the ground. If I focus on a level inside surface (floppy ankle style), the Y axis becomes closer to parallel to the ground, while the X axis points towards the ground more.

Not really sure which way has more benefit. I think floppy ankle style looks shitty. But it gives me better consistency. Meh. Anyway, its all part of the whole awful eye-bleeding style I've been rocking. I guess if all this work on clipper form doesn't pay off I can become a toe-to-toe player (I hope!).

[CIC flurry]

all ur drilling will burst bubbles and make sammiches when the summer gets here.

I've been playing a bit too.

[Frank_Sinatra]

What kind of sammiches?

Four sessions since the last update.

Monday March 30 - short apartment session.
little bit of everything (pixie, clipper, heel, wrap, fairy)
far heel (never thought to try it before)
far legover heel - very weird dex, if its even really a dex, like refraction

Wednesday April 1 - Indy
osis & butterflies

Saturday April 4 - Millennium Park w/Tom & Tommie
symp mirage > symp pixie > rpt (first try) > run
osis > barrage
just did easy stuff mostly
only like 4 good flip osis all day

Wednesday April 8 - Millennium Park w/Tom & Tommie
paradox tap (first time)
plo > smear > rpt > run
datw > terrage
paste > something (multiple tricks? don't remember) > blurry pickup
still doing mostly easy stuff in my runs

Getting rid of the tapping is going well. Probably tapped on 10% or less of my clippers in the last two sessions. Strong clipper feels/looks to me much flatter than I'd been getting it before, think its because I'm letting myself monkey claw. I'll take good looking clippers over good looking hands if I have to. Flip clipper is about as consistent as strong, but probably not as flat.

Flip osis is really the big hole, which I've probably written at least half dozen times over the last half a year. But I know what to do to improve it. Just waiting for it to warm up, so I can beat the living shit out of it in some solo sessions. I want to approach it as learning a completely new trick so I don't get myself too frustrated.

I've also made the decision (for now) to include tiltless in my strings. I don't have a lot of variety in my guiltless runs, and its almost all single dex downtime stuff anyway - not a huge gap in difficulty. Plus its the beginning of the season, or the pre-season even since it doesn't fucking warm up until May, so no need to go berserk with the standard I hold myself to.

[Rieferman]

I think some tiltless is fine - I think it will stretch your runs longer and actually help you improve faster. Plus, I just think that a lot of tiltless stuff looks flowy and nice. In fact, I'm going to tilt with you, so there.

edit: does advil help your cheese hangover?

[Zjeezy]

pdx tap what what!!

im glad to hear your working your clippers, even tho its boring and frustrating. I dont think im going to be able to leave the state for a while. So you should come up to MI to visit if you can.

Exactly how long does a cheese hangover last? I'm still feeling the effects as well.

[CIC flurry]

dear april,
i hate you b/c ur too wet or cold or snowy to play footbag. I liked March much better.

[Frank_Sinatra]

Fine, I updated my blog title guys. Thanks for stopping by & saying hi.

Bob, I think my new thing is gonna be 20 contacts tiltless > guiltless. Should make for a good workout.

Zach, I've been thinking about going to the Montreal Open in June. Not a sure thing yet, but if I do go, I'd prolly swing through. If that doesn't happen, maybe CIC could go to a Michigan jam or sumfin.

Tom, I too hate April. It hasn't gotten out of the low 50s in like three weeks and I'm getting edgy & impatient. I know that in a few weeks it'll be nice consistently. Just waiting for it sucks.

I kicked yesterday. Soooo coooold. Had fun hacking with Zeke & Ronnie for a long time. Played some squares, won the first game but I don't even know what happened, just started playing for shit & quit during the fourth game. Too frustrating. Then I worked on flip osis a bunch. Latest problem I noticed - tend to set the bag behind me.

A friend of mine told me that you have to do something 10,000 times to master it. Approximately 9900 flip osis w/good form to go.

[Rieferman]

the key with tiltless is to do tricks/combos that are still difficult, and to mix things up to keep yourself a little uncomfortable (because that's what'll build new skills and improved balance/awareness etc.). for example, i was throwing stuff like this in my guiltless runs last week:

pdx pickup > flying bent knee kick > illusion > rest of my normal run

I think that's tiltless at least.. close enough for example purposes

just tell me to shut up if this is lame/boring advice

edit: what'd that poor lil cloud ever do to you?

[Zeke]

A friend of mine told me that you have to do something 10,000 times to master it.

Then I'm a master of bait



























and switch.

[Zjeezy]

A friend of mine told me that you have to do something 10,000 times to master it.

9,995 court dates till I'm a master.



I was playing disc golf today, and had a god awful shot. I had to lay down to try and make my put, Army style. As soon as my arms hit the ground I thought of you!

[Frank_Sinatra]

Wow, look at these great comments! Which I am spending a long time trying to think of a response to...

Bob, I am trying to work fairy (just op toe, not the set) and heel delays into my tiltless. Other than that I guess its just permission to bail so I can keep my string length up. And find a rhythm with the bag before going for newer stuff.

Zeke, I had no idea you were ambidextrous. I've heard the term "the Stranger"...?

Zach, please don't master appearing in court unless you decide to go into law/law enforcement. But definitely work on your military crawls. A valuable skill to have when too drunk to drive. And when there's barbed wire everywhere.

Had more sessions. Been in a slump. Kicked poorly in Millennium Park on April 15 & 16. I worked mostly on flip osis. I did improve my set for the osis, but that's about it. Struggled. Played out of flip osis 20 times each session.

Basics were inexplicably terrible these sessions. The worst part of playing this bad is all the second-guessing, looking for explanations, looking for a reason to keep putting myself through the shitter. Anyway.

April 17 I kicked with Tom at IP. Got a little better as the session went on but need to be more consistent. Footbag isn't fun when you start mysteriously failing at things you've been doing for two years. Did hit butterfly> infinity> osis> pdx mirage> rpt to 15 contacts. And got some pointers on pdx whirl. Then hung out w/Tom for a while. Sammich time.

April 18 kicked with Reile & Tom at Welles. I also snuck in about 20 minutes solo to test out a new lacing on my lavers. I like it. Session was better than the previous ones but still felt off/inconsistent on some basics. Highlights, why not:

a very dancy triforce drill through level 5
osis> whirl bsos
run w/strong DATW, flip Terrage, and osis> barrage before the other guys arrived. Not sure how clean that barrage was.
pdx tap again
DATW> terrage> terrage
whirling heel both sides

Its supposed to get nice again for the second half of the week. Looking forward to playing better.

[Zjeezy]

a very dancy triforce drill through level 5

What in the world is the triforce drill? I hope it has to do with princess Zelda or Gannondorf

whirling heel both sides

Very very nice!

Its supposed to get nice again for the second half of the week. Looking forward to playing better.

Did it rain there today like a flood was coming? I thought about building an arc its been raining so much here.

[gMoney]

a very dancy triforce drill through level 5

What in the world is the triforce drill? I hope it has to do with princess Zelda or Gannondorf

link>zelda>rev zelda>gannondorf>spinning attack>silver arrow>rpt

each level you accomplish you get another heart container. so since you start out with 3 hearts, and nathan got to level 5, he has 8 heart containers. this isn't including any heart pieces he got along the way.

[Frank_Sinatra]

so since you start out with 3 hearts, and nathan got to level 5, he has 8 heart containers. this isn't including any heart pieces he got along the way.

That's exactly right. Medical science is hard at work on the problem. The problem that is my dancing.

Actually its like clipper> op clipper> op clipper> ss clipper> op clipper and so forth, increasing the number of same side clippers each round. I got the phrase from Ben Benulis's blog. So 30 dancing clippers, ten lords of leaping, and so on and such.

So I kicked yesterday & the day befo. In chronological order:

Session w/Tom at IP. Had a couple good guiltless strings, was closer to my 'normal' level of mostly easy guiltless. Still noticed toes were off - flip toe sets were sometimes unpredictable or set towards my body too much, but I was missing a lot of toe delays for no really good reason. I remarked to Tom that its like my toe couldn't find the bag, and I'm repeating it here because it was apt and I'm so goddamned full of myself.

Most fun part of the seshola was fucking around with weird moves for like 15 minutes. And I brought music with lots of swearing to a park with lots of kids, so that was also amusing.

The session yesterday was solo at Welles while waiting for a friend's guitar class graduating performance at the Old Town School of Folk Music. Highlights:

stepping ss heel (new - both sides)
stepping op heel (new - both sides)
stepping ss osis (new - one side only)
blender (new - one side only)
blur (2nd time that side)

Strong/flip doesn't really apply to my stepping sets I guess. I'm both-sidedly mediocre. If flip osis were better I'm sure I would've nailed stepping ss osis & blender by now. Tried some flip rev whirling heel & flip dyno, not quick enough with that dex yet but I'll get there.

While I was kicking, somebody asked me if what I was doing had a name. I said "freestyle footbag" and then he said "freestyle fruitbag" and I thought "well fair enough."

Wish I'd had more time to attempt stepping ss osis at least, but had to run. Then after the guitar performance I did a little footbag demo for my friends, nothing spectacular but they were impressed.

Playing w/music has really made the sessions more fun for me.

[Reid]

props on blender.


Summer is almost here.

[Asmus]

I like the heel stuff! Freestyle fruitbag for the win!

[Frank_Sinatra]

Thanks guys. Summer! Fruitbag!

So for a day or two there this blog was sandwiched between David & Jorden. Just like in my dreams.

I'm dividing this post into normal recaps in the beginning, and a big write up of Sunday's big session at the end. Feel free to skip ahead.

Recaps. Some fun sessions, some not so fun sessions. Still trying to work on flip osis, which is the most discouraging thing I've worked on yet. Generally trying to improve my consistency. Weather hasn't always cooperated, did a couple of these sessions in between/during rain.

Independence Park solo Saturday the 25th
osis> pdx mirage> butter> infinity> rpt to 16 contacts (record for this drill)
stepping ss osis (on the side I hadn't hit before)

Welles Park Sunday the 26th w/Zeke, Ronnie, Tom, & Tommy
blender again

Had like one good string. Didn't push myself that hard I guess. But had a lot of fun kicking in the courtyard after getting some food.

Welles Park Thursday April 30th w/Tom, Zeke & Ronnie
blender again
osis> whirl> rpt
pixie muted clipper> muted diving clipper
blurry pickup bsos
PLO> dimwalk> stepping legover> PLO> dimwalk > stepping drop

Portage Friday May 1st w/Tom

This was a tough session for me. Lots of little things weren't very favorable to footbag, and I let it get to me. Had some problem where a contact was sliding off my eye during strings, I didn't like the surface, it was a little chilly & windy, and then a bird shat on my shoulder. It's too bad because during warmups I felt pretty good, and so I thought I could have a pretty good session.

Independence Saturday May 2nd two solo sessions

I turned the bad session into motivation to get consistent. And we all know how to get consistent - drill your brains out.

1st session
25 sets of butterfly> pdx mirage> rpt (best was 3 sets & change)
5 sets of osis> pdx mirage> butterfly> infinity each side

2nd session
5 more sets of butterfly> pdx mirage> rpt
10 sets of pixie muted clipper> pdx mirage> rpt (best was 9 contacts - new record for that drill)
pixie ss clip x25 each side
5 sets of osis> pdx mirage> butterfly> infinity just on flip osis side

Sunday May 3 at the Pier w/a whole crew

So this was the day that we knew James Risden & Daryl Genz would be in town. Hooray! Met up with Tom & Tommy for the trek to Navy Pier at a little after 1. And Zeke actually got on the same bus as us on the way into the Pier. Rarely does transportation in Chicago all come together so nicely. We got to the Pier and headed up to the net spot, which was actually in Jane Addams Memorial Park in between the Pier and the beach. Pretty great spot. Tom & Tommy went to scope out freestyle spots, I went with Zeke up to the net spot.

I said hi to the net guys who were already there - Scot, Cory, and Ted Martin. I may play net one day, who knows, but definitely not right now. I kicked with Zeke to warm up, then Ronnie, Tom, & Tommy rejoined us. Zeke jumped into net, and we got some foursquare going. I played like two games but wasn't feeling it. I'm not really into squares lately. Watched Zeke play some net, it had been the better part of a year since I'd seen him play, and his game looked so much improved.

Reile showed up, and not too long after that, James & Pauline. I'd never met James before, but I had seen video & heard tales of greatness from the crew. So I was pretty excited.

We (Reile, Tom, Tommy, James, Pauline, myself) went down to the spot Tom had scoped out. It was an overhang that jutted out into Lake Michigan from a walkway along the beach. Lots of room, very nice scenery, nice breeze. We didn't lose a single bag over the railing. Got some music going after a bit.

We played for quite a while. Reile & Tom hit symp torque! James hit spinning symp torque. I had some nice symposium drops. The only highlight I remember from me: symp mirage> terrage> rpt> run. Had a tiltless/bop string that James said looked smooth, so that was pretty cool to hear.

And we did a quick demo/explanation of freestyle footbag for a tour group. They had this jackmo tour guide, somebody asked what we were doing and he was like "uh, its called hackysack, I think it was popular in the 90s" so I was like "actually..." (and by "actually" I meant "fuck you tour guide") and did the little spiel that we all know by heart while doing around 20 contacts tiltless/bops, then passed to Reile.

It was fun. Didn't play great, strings were pretty short & inconsistent for the most part, but at least I tried to play at a challenging level.

We went back to the net spot where most everyone had cleared out. Barbara had shown up, Ronnie & Zeke were still there, and soon Tony & Dean (jugglers) and Steve (a kicker from Oak street I think?) showed up for a bit. We took a CIC photo, you can see it over in the CIC blog.

Then we got pizza from Giordano's. Ohhhh yeah.

So I never did meet up with Daryl (he got in around 8, and I needed to head back home). Maybe it'll work out to meet up while he's still in town, it would be cool to meet him. Had a good talk with Zeke on the train ride back up North.

That's it.

[Zeke]

Reile & Tom hit symp torque! James hit spinning symp torque

Ha! Just like the good ol' days!