Fanzine

Muffinman · Post by **Muffinman** » 17 May 2009 11:07

You play hack a lot.

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 17 May 2009 17:35

I really try to. Beyond being the only way to get better, it also keeps me sane. Or at least borderline.

Got in a solo session today at GW. The heavy rains of last night resulted in the sewers being flooded, so my practice spot stunk of urine.

There was also apparently a drowned rat 30 feet away from where I played, but I didn't have the desire to check it out.

Given the fact that my spot was stinky and it was barely in the 60s (uh, aren't we supposed to be in the middle of May?) I played decently. Spent the entire session just drilling components. I've been really bad about routine practice lately. I need to change that.

Highlights:

*gyro clipper-gyro osis [rpt]
*Gyro clipper x12
*Reverse swirl x5. The sixth rolled off.
*Dyno x10
*PLO x25. New personal record.

I also had some super close looks at torque-GDLO.

I think this next week at work should be a lot easier and more fun than last week, which I'm looking forward to. I'm gonna be on the road, so I probably won't update the blog for a few days.

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 21 May 2009 18:54

Spent the last four days in Denver on business, and now I have a four day weekend to look forward to. Denver was great; I mentally needed a change of scenery, and this trip provided it. I got to hang out a lot with Dan Chick (an old footbagger who I met last trip) and his girlfriend, I played some footbag, and I watched a bunch of movies at my hotel.

Fun things I did:

*Watched Dan Chick play ice hockey, and score one of his team's eight goals.
*Watched Superbad, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Knocked Up, and Spiderman 3. My hotel had free DVD rentals, so I took advantage.
*Played in a free poker tournament, and did pretty well.
*Played pool and learned a lot of technique from Dan.

On the footbag tip the most exciting thing for me was discovering I can hit hard gyro tricks out of one of my drifters.

Monday highlights:

*rev. swirl-drifter-pdx drifter [rpt]
*rev. swirl-pdx drifter-drifter [rpt]
*blurry drifter-merkon-symp dlo
*smoke-vortex
*smoke-GDLO with vortex bsos in the seal
*whirling ss calf-kicking pdx drifter
*fog-smoke-mobius

Wednesday highlights:

*smoke-GDLO
*vortex-spin osis-isis. Almost on flip too.
*psw-GDLO-smoke-pdx torque off my foot.
*spin clip-spin butterfly-spin osis [rpt]-inspin clip-spin clip-merkon-symp dlo

I also tried doing some routine practice on Wednesday, and was shocked by how tired I was getting halfway through. I knew I had been neglecting routine practice lately, but I was still shocked how bad my stamina was. I started to get pretty bummed and frustrated about it when I realized: "oh yeah, I'm in Denver"

The plan for the long weekend is to hit NYC. I can't even recall the last time I was there...feels like forever ago. Excited to play with NYFA.

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 22 May 2009 08:29

Got in a shred yesterday when I got back to DC.

Highlights

*dyno x8
*gyro clip x10
*smoke-vortex
*pdx drifter-GDLO, with a mobius in the seal
*blw-blw-blur, then later GDLO-smoke-pdx torque
*GDLO-smoke on flip
*whirling ss calf kicking pdx egg-smog
*spin butter-spin clip-spin osis-spin clip-gyro clip-gyro clip-spin butter-merkon-gyro mirage-spinning osis =10 unique spins.

Heading to NYC now.

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 26 May 2009 14:41

Finally back in DC. After spending Monday-Thursday of last week in Denver, I spent Friday-Monday in NYC. The change of environment did me a lot of good. My trip to NYC was particularly nice, because after all these years I still feel like the City is home. I learned to play footbag in Washington Square Park. Spending a few days in NY, hanging with NYFA, and shredding in WSP really helped me recenter myself and remember who I am.

The busride into the city took forever. I left DC at 1, and got into NYC around 7:30. We didn't make any stops either, so that was 6.5 hours solid in traffic. Luckily I brought an iPod and a comic book ("American Born Chinese," which I highly recommend), but still. Hung out with Bruce and Stan at Bruce's place, where we played videogames and watched Game 2 of the ECF. When Turkoglu put the Magic up by 2 with one second left, I was certain the Cavs would lose (and likely not make the finals). Then LeBron hit the ridiculous game winning three and we all flipped out. Its so much more fun to share these moments with friends.

Saturday was an ideal session. It was the first weekend that Washington Square Park was opened after its three year renovation, and it looked great. It looks airier and cleaner, and the new footbag spot where we play gets better exposure. The weather was also nicer than I'd hoped for. Not too hot or humid, but warm enough for me to walk around in NBA jerseys and girls to dress for summer. The only negative of the session was that there was lots of construction dust on the floor. It was a little slippery and got the bags dirty in a hurry, but for the most part it was easy to ignore.

Shred highlights:

*GDLO to darkwalk/phoenix/pixie torque, all firsts for me
*blw-fog-dark-blw-psw-psw-tomahawk-pdx torque
*spin butter-spin clipper-gyro clip-gyro clip-spin osis-spin clip-spin butter-merkon-gyro mirage-spinning...drop.

Mental fart.
*A run with GDLO bsos and Vortex bsos

*GSDLO

Trip highlights:

*Finding $7 cash on the floor in the subway
*Playing Street Fighter games in Chinatown.
*Setting a new Wii bowling record: 256!
*People-watching in Washington Square Park
*Delicious indian buffet
*Playing pool and hanging out with NYFA on Saturday night

This weekend I also traded the Waylon bag I won at East Coasts in exchange for a custom-made one. Since I've changed my style from dex/shuffle heavy to more spinny-ducky, I've preferred bigger, slightly floppier bags. Waylon made me a good one a month ago, but this left me with the problem of having to juggle different size bags during routine practice, which I don't want to have to worry about. Now I have two Waylon bags that play the same, which makes me feel better about my routine.

Speaking of my routine, I did a few practice run-throughs this weekend. Stan gave me some good advice and feedback on it on Sunday, which was very useful and helpful. The main thing he pointed out was that my routine was mostly shuffle with almost no spins or ducks, which is pretty much the exact opposite of what I've been skooling these last few months. I need to have confidence in my new style, and not be afraid to use more of it in my routine. I took that advice to heart during my final run-through, and ended up doing one of my best run-throughs of this routine to date.

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 28 May 2009 08:42

In a nice change of events, the weather sucked during work yesterday, and turned beautiful once I got out. Why can't it be that way more often? Got in a long, solid solo shred. I used my new and old Waylon bags for about equal amounts of time, with the intention of breaking in the new one. I spent the first half of my session working on inspinning, and the second half of my session toying with GDLO. I did some routine practice, but that got cut short by a phone call. I still managed 2 run-throughs... stamina and pacing are still issues. There's still time for me to get it in good shape for Worlds though.

Gyro practice: I've noticed that I don't rotate enough when doing flip gyro tricks, and I'm having trouble fixing this. I also practiced strong GDLO to pixie tricks, because I believe that if I can hit a hard pixie trick out of GDLO, that means the GDLO itself must be controlled.

Gyro highlights:

*gyro clip x12
*GDLO-pixie torque
*GDLO-darkwalk-pdx torque
*GDLO-phoenix-psw-psw-tomahawk-pdx torque
*GSDLO again

Inspinning practice: In NYC I was surprised how consistent my inspins were on strongside, and I decided I want to make that a regular part of my game. I also practiced flip inspinning, and was pleased to find that it had improved a lot, even though I haven't put any effort into practicing it.

Inspin highlights:

*inspin butter bsos
*isis-inspin butter
*isis-pdx torque
*pdx torque-isis
*spin osis-isis bsos

I also spent a little time messing around with fearless. My record is 10, which I set like 2 or 3 years ago. I hit 9 about a year ago, but I think it could be fun to hit a new 10 combo.

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 30 May 2009 09:40

Loyal blog readers may recall the up and down story of my camera. I got it about a year and a half ago for Christmas, it lasted a good 8 months, broke, got it fixed, broke again, fixed again, broke again. The last time it was repaired, it only worked for 5 minutes before breaking again. I was therefore hesitant to send it back again, but I did. While in the past they were repairing my camera, this time they actually sent me a new one! Well, it's a refurbished one, but at least its not the one that kept breaking. It came in a box with new cables, new battery, owners manual, etc. I have high hopes that this one will last me longer.

I was therefore really excited to try it out yesterday after work. The weather was really unpredictable though. The hourly forecast kept fluctuating, saying there was a 5% chance of rain at 4 pm, but then a 70% chance of thunderstorms at 5 pm, and then back to 5% at 6 pm, etc. It rained really hard before I left work, so I was hoping that'd be the end of it. I went out to my shred spot, laid out my equipment and warmed up. I made a point to warm up slowly, which was hard for me because the sky looked like this, so I wasn't sure if the weather would hold. Sure enough, it started raining again just as I was getting ready to play. As it turns out though, this was a great thing. I was forced to go inside a GWU building to wait out the rain, and when I did, I discovered a big-ass hallway which had carpeting, was lit, and was abandoned.

Hello indoor footbag spot!

The lighting could be better, and my footbags really blended in with the carpet, but at least I have a rainspot now.

I started the session off by working on some records for Jeremy's world records list, then moved onto just practicing spins, inspins, and combos. My string length was pretty horrid, which I'd like to blame on the carpet visibility issues, but really I was just happy to play. Now that I have a camera again, I'm going to try and get a bunch of my recent highlights and challenges on film. Ideally, I'd like my entire challenge thread to be made up of videos.

(Video!) Highlights:

*GDLO-smoke-pdx torque
*Spinning osis-torque [rpt] midstring
*Pdx torque-isis
*smoke-GDLO
*Bevclickety pdx drifter
*Fog-smoke-mobius

Muffinman · Post by **Muffinman** » 31 May 2009 07:23

Cool. I like the non-hack videos too, it's like that "day in the life of a footbagger" documentary I always wanted to watch/make.

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 31 May 2009 19:14

Played yesterday and today. Didn't do any routine practice either day...I've really been pretty bad about it. Some good news on that front though: Age edited my song, so at least now when I practice it will be with the song I'm actually using in competition. I'm also thinking that maybe I'll be able to hear my speakers better in the rainspot I discovered.

Now that I have a camera again, I want to post a vid every time I post in here. So on that note, here's a run from today:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bN1wm5LRm8U[/youtube]

bdams19 · Post by **bdams19** » 31 May 2009 19:43

Nice ken! Sorry i missed you on your visit to nyc a few weeks back... injuries are too much for me and it looks like I can't footbag anymore =(. Look forward to seeing you at the jam though!

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 01 Jun 2009 18:45

bdams19 wrote: injuries are too much for me and it looks like I can't footbag anymore =(.

Like, ever? I hope not. Maybe if you take some time off and come back with an easier style?

On Saturday I played solo. I spent a lot of the session re-hitting challenges of mine so I could put the videos in my challenge thread. In general my spins didn't feel great, and I feel like playing for the camera was throwing off my rhythm. There were a lot of students around enjoying the sun though, so that helped me keep my temper/mental game in check. Didn't do routines, and didn't really hit much of note. Here's one run:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EazVYYpFJvw&fmt=18[/youtube]

A friend from college is visiting me now, so on Saturday night I took him out to a party even though I was already exhausted. We both had a lot of fun, but I ended up misjudging how much I was drinking. I felt fine, and then next thing I knew I was plastered. Hadn't gotten that drunk in a long time. At the end of the night I ended up hugging and occasionally making out with this white girl with porcelain skin. And by "girl" I mean "toilet."

Ugh.

Woke up on Sunday really hung over. I forced myself to make it out to the Sunday DC Allstar group session. That probably helped me out, as it forced me to get some sun and exercise and get out of the house. For the first hour of the session though I just felt like crap. Towards the end I slowly started feeling better though, and was able to film a few records for the video-verified list. I also got some footage of Ryan Thomas shredding:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxc0zSLS7mM&fmt=18[/youtube]
Such good style.

Here's a run of mine from Sunday:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkiuowKdkNQ&fmt=18[/youtube]

bdams19 · Post by **bdams19** » 02 Jun 2009 09:29

Yea... I have a partially torn miniscus in one knee and something is wrong with the other one too (bad joints). I still play basketball and run and such, but the rotating motion of around the world dexes either way is just too painful and I can't play for more than a few minutes. I'll still school you at basketball though

zeroman13 · Post by **zeroman13** » 02 Jun 2009 10:05

Damn dude, that sucks!

It's great to see you got your camera back Ken. Seeing all of your records and what not has gotten me back into playing. So once I get back into form again be prepared to have some of your records broke

Rieferman · Post by **Rieferman** » 02 Jun 2009 11:19

nice, ken footage again AND ryan footage

I've been a bad reader, so that was nice to see!

tell ryan i said hi

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 03 Jun 2009 10:09

zeroman13 wrote:So once I get back into form again be prepared to have some of your records broke

Better hurry up, cause it looks like Byrin is beating you to the punch

In all seriousness, I highly encourage you (and any other readers) to bust out a camera and break some records. The more records posted and the more people that participate, the better the project will be.

Got in a session after work on Monday. The weather was nice and nobody disturbed me. Overall a good session. I divided it up into four parts: sonic practice, consecutive records, routine practice, and normal shredding.

I was excited to do routines, because this was my first time getting to use my edited song. Sure enough, it helped a lot to hear the parts of the song in the right places, and to get used to that. I only did a couple run-throughs, but I got one dropless and overall I feel like it "keeps getting better."

I've been having a lot of fun shooting consecutive records. It's reassuring to me to see that even after 12 years of playing, I can still beat or match most of my old personal records from the past. It also feels more legit to hit the records on video, since I can check them later for cleanliness. I guess that's sort of the whole point behind the project anyway.

Sonic set felt good. Right now it's sort of a "first trick of the string" concept, but it'd be sweet if I could eventually make it a part of my normal game. Had some good looks at flip, but nothing sealed yet. I think for now it'd be best if I just stick to getting both normal spins solid, and both inspins as well. While it's fun to hit double spinning and sonic, those will come and be stronger once I really nail down my spinning foundation. And frankly, flip spinning isn't close to where I want it.

Here are two runs from Monday:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40a-aifJorw&fmt=18[/youtube]

And a spinny one:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMtyOcuJ2YU&NR=1&fmt=18[/youtube]

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 04 Jun 2009 03:26

Played after work on Tuesday. I know DC is famous for being humid and muggy in the summer, but for some reason I wasn't expecting this amount of mugginess this soon. On my walk to my shred spot I was already regretting not bringing a basketball jersey. Within two warmup runs, I was already sweating. 5 minutes later, I felt my face sweating. Like, gushing from every feature. I'm not used to that at all. I feel bad for players who sweat like this all the time.

I did a little routine practice which was encouraging, but also exhausting given the humidity. I also did some Shred30 practice. I'm kinda doubting I'll compete, but it never hurts to practice parts of your game you don't normally use. I also rehit some more old challenges, and did some more record attempts.

My runs were generally short all day, but given the weather, I wasn't concerned by it. Here's probably the best run I caught on vid all session:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5BEGCAMVcw&fmt=18[/youtube]

colefieldhouse22 · Post by **colefieldhouse22** » 04 Jun 2009 04:34

It looks like spinning is becoming easier for you

SlashC · Post by **SlashC** » 04 Jun 2009 06:44

Beooooooooooooooooooooooy Beooooooooooooooooooooooy

...

It's an ambulance coming to take me away because at the site of you my heart stopped.

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 04 Jun 2009 19:42

Had an excellent session yesterday, and an absolutely horrible one today. If I were to blog chronologically, I'd end this page with a good session and kick off the next page on a bad note. Since I don't want to do that, I'm flipping the order.

All day I had a bad headache that would come and go. After work it was cold and rainy, which combined with my headache, made me feel like taking the day off from playing. But then I convinced myself otherwise and went to my rainspot to play.

I played in a different classroom this time, and the arrangement of desks wasn't as good. In retrospect, I should have switched to the other classroom midsession, but for some reason it didn't occur to me.

Anyway, for whatever reason I played horribly. I pretty much couldn't hit anything on flip, my strongside stuff felt unreliable and shaky, and I felt no inspiration to play. The comic I brought with me to the session was also pretty weak and depressing, which didn't help things either.

Midlights:

*Spin osis-gyro osis-spin osis. New combo for me.
*Uh...
*A run with spinning whirl-pdlo midstring.

The biggest highlight for me though was just the fact that I didn't flip out. I was very proud of the fact that, despite sucking horribly all session, I didn't throw a tantrum, curse excessively, or freak out in any other way.

And hey, at least I got some adds on the shoes. Next post will be a lot better, I promise.

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 05 Jun 2009 13:06

Had a great session Wednesday night:

There was a severe thunderstorm warning in effect after work on Wednesday, which combined with the fact that I'd played multiple days in a row already made me consider taking a day off from shred. Then I thought: with Worlds coming up so soon, I should be playing every chance I get. With that thought in mind, I grabbed my gear and my umbrella and headed out to my rainspot. When I got into the building, I noticed that there were classes going on in many of the classrooms, while last time I was there the place was abandoned. This gave me pause, because playing in the hallway would be very conspicuous. Instead I went into a small classroom and made some space by pushing some tables and chairs out of the way. I ended up with a very small shred space, but at least it was well-lit and air conditioned, and my bags didn't blend in with the carpet as badly as they did in the hallway.

At first I was concerned that the space would be too small for me to do runs, and that I'd have to stick to small combos or single tricks. I told myself it'd be good practice for me to keep my spins under more control. As it turned out, I got used to the space very quickly, and for the most part the tighter quarters didn't interfere with any part of my game. Another unexpected bonus to come from playing in this room, was that filming turned out better. The layout of the room actually made it easier for me to stay in frame, and prevented me from playing too far away from the camera. So all in all, playing in the small room ended up making for a better session than had I played in the hall or outdoors.

I started off the session just drilling basic spins, which is what I should do at all sessions. I then moved onto playing with inspinning, and really focused on the footwork. It helps me to think about how Nasty Nate does them, and to visualize his footwork when I do them. By really thinking about my footwork, I managed to hit a new trick for myself: ingyro dlo! Riding the high from this, I decided I'd go for ingyro torque, which I'd hit last year, but I figured should be easier with my better technique. Sure enough, I hit in-mobius within a few tries, and it felt more solid than last year. I did one run-through of Shred 30, but for the most part just played and worked on my spinning game.

Highlights:

*Torque-spin eclipse-torque
*Tomahawk-PSW-GDLO
*Bevclickety pdx egg-smoke-pdx torque

Ingyro DLO:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDOzpxByxXM&fmt=18[/youtube]