Israel Footblog - Training program

[PoisonTaffy]

I have a recording of myself playing it, but I can make a video. I'll do a couple of tricks before playing and stick it in the videos sub forum

This is week two of my "waking up early" routine.
Yesterday I didn't play at all (beside a few whirls in flip flops). I have a wedding to attend to tonight, and I'm very grateful that it's not costing me a session thanks to my early morning sessions.

I never have hot water in the shower after I train, so I'm kind of like a hermit, waking up early, practicing, eating granola and showering in cold water. But I feel great and I'll keep doing it.

First time I played with my new Quantum 03. The sole is VERY stiff, so after I warmed up with kicks and stalls I removed them and moved to my lavers. I couldn't imagine doing 30+ contacts of anything in them yet. I need to break them in.

I practiced stepping. I feel like they're starting to solidify both sides, but couldn't hit more than a few of stepping->ss clipper->stepping rpt. I'm not discouraged, since all other drills went great. I can already tell which side is my flip, and it's the side I thought was my strong. I'm always surprised when that happens, and it happens allot.

[PoisonTaffy]

So I read the Vasek manual. It's full of great ideas, inspiring, a little
confusing, and I'm surprised no one said anything yet about the latter.

I didn't know Vasek was a vegetarian, meditating ex chess champion. I would've never guessed it. In fact, I distinctly remember Josh Rose telling me a story about how he saw Vasek throwing killer runs after eating pounds of meat at a barbecue at some worlds, claiming that the guy is "a machine". I have no doubt that he is a vegetarian NOW, and into meditation NOW, but I'm wondering, did the stuff he wrote in the book what made him great, or is it a postmortem perspective that could be completely unrelated to how he became great? How much of it is a true accord of his struggle upwards into realizing his full potential, and how much of it is a philosophical extra fat that will do nothing to the game?

It is still an inspiring read and I'll re-read it several times over, but I can't help but take allot of it with a grain of salt.

[PoisonTaffy]

My new Quantum 03:

Painted with Posca markers. Not the best idea... The colors spread to the side and I had to paint with white over it to keep the stripes shape. I probably won't keep the laces, but for now I like the colors

[PoisonTaffy]

Had a good morning session. Warming up in the morning is the toughest part, so I was thinking next time I'll take Vasek's advice and do a 1 km run around the block before.

I brought it all together today by hitting pdx whirl bs, guiltless drills containing both stepping and whirl on both sides, and even footed clipper symposium whirl on my strong side.
I'm challenging myself to hit 20 consecutive whirls both sides. It'll take some time to achieve but I'm sure I'll hit at least 8 next session, they're really coming together. Too bad my stepping isn't coming together as fast, I'd love to start doing consecutive stepping moves. Right now stepping drills exhaust me very quickly. They take allot of physical and mental effort, as I'm still expecting not to hit them, even though I am getting like ~80% success rate at the moment.

In other news, I'm on the verge of finishing the book "The fountainhead". Apparently it's a very famous and popular book, and perhaps that's why I was oblivious to it for so long. If you haven't heard of it or haven't read it, I highly recommend it as your next read. Brilliant writing and ultra brilliant ideas. Any other book I'll read next is going to suck in comparison.

[PoisonTaffy]

My body is having a hard time adjusting to the new "waking up early" schedule.
I get tired at the appropriate hours, but I force myself to wake up even after I get my full allotment of sleeping hours. I even had a dream where I insanely overslept, got worried about being late for work but feeling great about sleeping so much.

On Thursday I had a casual shred at the beach, went there after work with a coworker and met two hacky sackers. On Friday, I had an intense outdoor shred, and on Saturday and Sunday my body begged me not to play, even though I tried.
So four days of no drilling, I thought for sure I'm gonna suck big time today. I spent extra time kicking and working on stalls, out of fear of how my stepping sets are gonna look like...
They actually improved. ALLOT. I hardly dropped a set. On top of good performance on my usual drills, I tried consecutive stepping and found I can do them pretty easily. I also tried osis->Ripwalk bs, Hit both first try.

I need to find an amount and intensity of practice that will not force me to take two days break every week, but will keep me progressing at an acceptable rate.

I started going to work with my Quantums to help break them in. I must've heard "wow nice new shoes" about 10 times. Plus hitting nice tricks at work is allot of fun. I might just keep them as my casual shoes...

[PoisonTaffy]

Just a random showing off picture:



A gorgeous beach near my house. The rocks belong to a history packed crusader fort built on the cliff. Since the cliff is receding, parts of the fort fell in the water.

For some reason few people come there so it's fairly secluded.

[PoisonTaffy]

This is ingenious:




Me, Anita and Tuuka. Taking the first photo is Christoph. The second photo was taken by Caroline.

[C-Fan]

Just chiming in to say I'm impressed how you've stuck with the new training schedule. I bet that dedication will pay off big time with your game.

I started going to work with my Quantums ... I must've heard "wow nice new shoes" about 10 times. I might just keep them as my casual shoes...

Yeah, I sometimes wear my Q3s as casual shoes because they look so nice.

[Rieferman]

I need to find an amount and intensity of practice that will not force me to take two days break every week, but will keep me progressing at an acceptable rate.

You need some break each week. If you don't want two days of break, take just one, and use the other to work on something that requires more coordination (vs. energy). Like funky stalls, osis to osis, swirls, bops, just freestyling lightly to music. Sometimes a day like that is actually really good for you in the long term (you can never be coordinated enough in this game)

So four days of no drilling, I thought for sure I'm gonna suck big time today. I spent extra time kicking and working on stalls, out of fear of how my stepping sets are gonna look like...
They actually improved. ALLOT. I hardly dropped a set. On top of good performance on my usual drills, I tried consecutive stepping and found I can do them pretty easily. I also tried osis->Ripwalk bs, Hit both first try.

Like I said, you need breaks.. mentally and physically. Case and point above

also, drilling is very good for improving, but just freestyling is really what's so fun in the end ain't it? So make sure you continue to get some casual play in - it makes all the drills really feel worth it.

[PoisonTaffy]

Thanks Ken, it's already paying off. I feel like I've taken my game to a new level in just one week.. But I dunno if I can keep up that type of schedule.

Great idea on having a 'coordination' session, Bob. I'll give it a shot! I love the less technical, more show-offy tricks (I privately call them 'parlor tricks'): stuff that involve squeeze, heel stall, sole stalls, and all those little stuff that either surprise the audience or exhibits control over the bag, and I do tend to neglect them.

Yesterday I had a session with Josh in Jerusalem. Josh is an American freestyle player who came to Israel to learn in a Yeshiva. I get to see him only several times a year, since his schedule during the week is very intense, and on weekends he can't play at all (Shabbat). When we do meet, he always tries to talk about religion or religious values, which can drive me up the walls, being a hardcore Atheist.

Anyways, we played at what must be the filthiest, worst lit spot in Jerusalem, which is already a pretty filthy city to start with. He didn't want to play in the better spot since he "didn't want to have to look at girls".

The session went great, though. We both shredded pretty hard and had some good strings. The highlight for me was when I asked him how many consecutive op clippers he can do. He said probably around 13. We both ended up doing 50+, challenging each other to top each other's record.

On the way back we tried to navigate to his place without GPS (Jerusalem is a hard place to drive in, due to the facts that allot of the roads are closed for works on an urban train and allot of the other roads lead to places where Israelis are shot on sight). We found the way and got into the hardcore religious neighborhood he lives in, but when I noticed we got onto a bus only lane I was like "shit, now we're gonna get a ticket". and he said "Don't worry about it, for the next five blocks, authorities have zero influence". I thought that was kind of epic. Jerusalem is one fucked up place.

Here's Josh in action:


Oh and new avatar to me. Yay

[PoisonTaffy]

Home session tonight, no special highlights, only lots and lots of whirls.
I've decided to switch focus from stepping to whirls, as I think I'll reach my whirl goals allot faster. Stepping is on back burner.

An interesting thing I've noticed is that my flip clipper's sets are way more straight and consistent than my strong clipper's. No wonder my strong steppings were on my flip clipper side.

I think what I took from the Vasek manual the most is the analogy of planning training like steering a ship. Looking back on my past training I think I've been aiming at too many goals each practice. I like how focused my sessions are now.

[Iron Clad Ben]

Just wanted to say that I LOVE your new avatar and I LOL'd hard at the J-Rose post above (he's such a freakin' character). Awesome to hear you're really stepping up your game. I'm currently planning my triumphant footbag comeback right now. I think it shall start with the Vasek Manual. Rock on achi.

[PoisonTaffy]

Thanks Ben The avatar is a photo I took of one of the 12 tiny robots sitting on my monitor at work, I got them for like 1$ in Japan.
Do read the Vasek manual. You'll probably be weirded out by parts of it like I did but it's still good for motivation and new ideas.

On Thursday I had a coordination/control session like Bob suggested. I loved it even though I didn't really know what to focus on - I did too many drills, not enough repetitions. I'll start doing them once a week and hopefully figure out a formula.

On Friday I had the weekly outdoor shred/hack, sold one quantum shoe to one of the hackers, although I doubt he'll ever figure out any freestyle move. Today's Saturday, my day off from doing anything intense. I've been casually playing guitar all day.

I've decided to get back to teaching footbag at schools in the upcoming school year. There's a demand, and since I've decided to put Uni on hold, I have time for it. I still don't know how to deal with kids who don't practice and are untalented and lag behind. I need to come up with a way to run the class such that no one feels left out and everyone progresses. I should also find a method for eating cakes and leaving them whole, while I'm at it.

Oh yeah on the control session I thought of a simple yet fun little move I've never done before. Same side illusion without planting the foot. Basically an out to in atw with an op toe stall. I'm surprised I haven't ran into or thought of it before.

[WyrmFyre]

Handling disinterested kids can be a tricky one, I have an 11 year old boy who loves to get involved with us, but he can like all children get very frustrated when things dont go his way.

I have however learned a solution. Instead of teaching them with a view to playing freestyle, give them lessons in the basic kicks, then get them into groups to play some four square or two on two net. Learning to freestyle does have its victories, but outside of a competition those are in learning a new trick, which can take a lot of time. A competitive game such as four square can give a sense of a more instant achievement with every point won.

You are of course then faced with the prospect that in any competitive game there are winners and losers, but if you mix the groups around, make the games short and get lots of them in, no one will have kept track of the overall score by the end of the day anyway ( unless you have that one particularly anal kid who comes armed with a notepad ). The result should hopefully a bunch of worn out, red faced, excited children who will hopefully take the game out elsewhere. They then have the choice of coming to you or going to youtube to investigate further into the world of freestyle, or for that matter, you might have stumbled across an 11 year old net playing prodigy.

Hope this advice helps!

[PoisonTaffy]

The problem is that this is not a single class, it's gonna be a weekly or even a bi-weekly class going on for most of the year. Basic kicks get boring real quick... Kids want to see and learn something new every lesson.

[PoisonTaffy]

A surprise action shot taken by a friend on Saturday:



Yes, I'm playing with

[PoisonTaffy]

I've had whirl sessions yesterday (Sunday) and today.
Originally I was planning to stop drilling them once I can hit 20 consecutive whirls both sides, but seeing that I can only hit 4, while all the other drills are easy already, I think I need to come up with a better way of telling when I can stop drilling whirls... I'm just not very good with consecutives apparently.

Anyways, I was also trying to (unsuccessfully) hit blender. Videoing it helped me see what I'm missing, but I couldn't hit it. I've decided to try the whirl up time and then just spin to osis. Well, I didn't hit the osis part, but I did hit Whirling clipper! That felt great, but I realize that's a drift back to my unfocused session habit. It took allot of energy to hit and ended my session short. I shouldn't have done that.

In other news, Israel might get a very special footbag guest later this year. I can't disclose info yet, but I'm really really (really) hoping it's gonna happen.

[matt_bailey]

roy, glad you're sticking at the whirls

ive been working on mine too recently

try a sort of tri force style drill where you go:

1 x whirl > infinity > 1 x whirl > infinity >

2 x whirl > infinity > 2 x whirl > infinity >

3 x whirl > infinity > 3 x whirl > infinity >

and see how far you can get

or set a target and work backwards from 4 whirl > inifinity rpt > 3whirl > inifinity... and that way you can actually complete it

then you can try doing say a ducking clipper instead of an inifinity and its a great way to practice your whirl links

also for blenders (which ive also been working on recently!!) watch honza! (i love his blenders, you may not)

i did that after reading the vasek manual and watched him do the same blender 5 or 6 times, then closed my eyes and visualised me doing his movements and it seemed to help

anyway, these may not be what youre looking for but they helped me

hope you're well

[JeffOverbo]

what is this vasek manual you speak of?

[PoisonTaffy]

Matt - My problem with whirls right now is consecutives. I can get 2x whirls every time, but the 3rd is problematic and 4th is rare. So Triforce would probably be effective up to the 3rd level which isn't much But I'll give it a shot, thanks for the idea. As for the Blenders, do you have any Honza videos in mind that you can link to? That would be helpful!

JeffO - The Vasek Klouda Manual