Israel Footblog - Training program

PoisonTaffy · Post by **PoisonTaffy** » 13 Sep 2009 23:35

Here's a little flash page with the song we recorded on Saturday. It's hardcore punk, let me know what you think if you're into that sort of music.

http://www.wix.com/NewAndImproved/NationBurning

btw the page was created with wix.com, which is an online flash content editor, and the company I work at

matt_bailey · Post by **matt_bailey** » 14 Sep 2009 02:57

That track is awesome Roy. I love the really strong vocals and kicky beat, hope to hear moreeeeeee! Plus the little flash thing is very cool

PoisonTaffy · Post by **PoisonTaffy** » 14 Sep 2009 05:39

Thanks allot Matt, I'm so glad to hear you like it

We'll be recording the rest of our songs as soon as possible to get a damn demo out, since we can't find a drummer when no one knows us. At this rate we'll be doing shows with a laptop.. How punk

Today I got a call from a representative of Corona. They're organizing a FootVolley finals a week from now at the Tel Aviv harbor and they want me/us/footbag Israel to do a half time freestyle show!
The guy said it's gonna be a huge event and that sports channels will have crews there.
I wish I knew about this sonner, there's no way I'll be able to prepare a routine in time.
At times like these I wish we had a really good, not camera shy freestyle player to make this sport look good in a way that I can't

matt_bailey · Post by **matt_bailey** » 14 Sep 2009 12:28

wow big opportunity, have you accepted?

PoisonTaffy · Post by **PoisonTaffy** » 14 Sep 2009 13:21

But of course

I'll definitely drop, but if I warm up properly and play smart I'm pretty sure I can do 20-30 contact runs even in front of a big audience.
At any rate, it's better to try and suck than not to have tried at all.

matt_bailey · Post by **matt_bailey** » 14 Sep 2009 13:47

amazing, hope you can get it on tape

boyle · Post by **boyle** » 15 Sep 2009 03:56

Roy, that's so sick. I'm so stoked for you. I hope it goes really well!

PoisonTaffy · Post by **PoisonTaffy** » 15 Sep 2009 04:01

Thanks! I got it wrong, it's gonna be 11 days from now, on the 26th. Still a short notice for a routine but I'll pick a song and start working on it.

Any advice?

matt_bailey · Post by **matt_bailey** » 15 Sep 2009 04:10

although i lack experience, the memory of my first routine is still fresh in me, and i think the main thing to do would be if you want to do a routine, do it in front of as many strangers as possible before the big day

i only showed a couple of friends and family members and then playing in front of a crowd was soooo different so practicing it outside and in uncomfortable conditions would be a good move. anyway you've read the vasek manual so you'll be fine

PoisonTaffy · Post by **PoisonTaffy** » 17 Sep 2009 09:03

ARghhghe I HATE religious idiocy!!

So regarding the Corona event. I was planning to do a show with the best hacky sacker we have here, where he kicks a bit, drops, I freestyle a bit, drop and he replaces me so as to fill the time, show different style of game and cover up for each other's fuck ups.
Anyways, i just called him and told him the plan, and he said "Sorry I can't come, it's on Saturday", and he observes Shabbat. From this point on, this is how it went:
me: "OK I respect that. Can you give me a number of some other good hacky sacker?"
him: "No, I can't help you at all."
me: "Why not?" -
him: "Because I can't help others break shabbat".
me: "OK So give me a number of someone who DOESNT observe it!"
him: "no, it doesn't matter. The halakhah forbids me."
me: "But don't you see it doesn't make sense? They'll break shabat anyways. Can't you use your brain on this one?"
him: "The Jewish religion and the halakhah is on a level above brain, it's higher than logic".

That's when I really exploded. I don't care that people believe any crazy nonsense they so desire. I am even willing to turn the other way when that belief somehow intersects my life at trivial matters. But when a person willingly, PROUDLY gives up their BRAIN for this belief, that's the epitome of what I think is fundamentally wrong with EVERY TYPE OF BELIEF I ever ran into. Debate me, argue your stupid position. Don't tell me it's beyond argument, understanding or reason! I don't digest that kinda crap.

Another thing that bothers me is that he doesn't wear a kippa and he doesn't observe a billion other things. So on the one hand he happily ignores rules that don't fit him by saying that "that's how I interpret it", however, his interpretation skills completely fall apart on the rules that he doesn't mind following. Willingly ignorant and unconsciously hypocrite.

So now I'm gonna have to figure out whether I'll be doing this thing alone (I'm not sure I can), or find someone who's not very good even at kicking to help me out. Or whether to take a step back and only show there to perform on the sidelines with a little booth.

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 17 Sep 2009 09:28

PoisonTaffy wrote:Thanks! I got it wrong, it's gonna be 11 days from now, on the 26th. Still a short notice for a routine but I'll pick a song and start working on it.

Any advice?

Do you want advice on picking a song? Practicing a routine? Building a routine for a non-footbag audience?

PoisonTaffy · Post by **PoisonTaffy** » 17 Sep 2009 09:35

Yes, definitely, all three. I think I'll be going with Vasek's "Don't stop me now" by Queen. What do you think?

I've tried practicing with it for one session but I was all around the place, I
didn't really get anything done.

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 17 Sep 2009 10:13

OK, this may be a bit scattered, so I apologize in advance.

I've competed in routines for over 10 years now, but I feel I only really got the hang of them over the last two years. Here's what I got:

Picking a song

1. Not all songs you like are good routine songs.
2. Not all good routine songs are songs you like.
3. The best routines are ones where the music goes with your actions. It's therefore a good idea to decide what kind of show/routine you are doing before you pick a song. For example, if you're doing a demo for beginners, you will probably do easy tricks and do it slow paced so it's easier for the audience to follow. A slow paced song, or a song which slowly builds, would be ideal. If on the other hand you are competing at Worlds, you don't necessarily need to start off slowly or have any easy tricks in your routine, so you could pick something faster paced.
4. Pauses in music are your friend. They allow you to take a pause in the middle of performing to get your energy back. They are also useful if you need to edit your song, as you can cut it up and it's not as jolting. It also gives the judges/audience a moment to digest what you've done so far.
5. Depending on your audience, be careful about the lyrical content. Footbag can be a hard thing to sell to a new audience, and if they are conservative, profanity is an easy way to lose them.
6. In competition you are limited to two minutes. Outside of competition, I'd still keep it short; anything over 3 minutes and you risk losing the audience.

Performing in front of non-footbag audiences

1. If you've never seen footbag before, it's a lot to process mentally on your first go-around. It's always a good idea to give a brief introduction before you jump into a routine. Doing a brief demo where you explain the difference between kicks and stalls, and showing a toe stall and a clipper stall...this all goes a long way towards making the audience appreciate your actual routine.
2. For any routine, it's a good idea to look up every now and then to connect with the audience. It keeps them engaged.
3. No matter how badly it goes, try to look like you're having fun. Drop? Smile at the audience before you pick up the bag and continue. And at the very end, be sure to smile/wave/bow at the audience before leaving the stage.

Practicing routines

1. Video tape yourself, then study the tape. I can't stress this enough. This will help you see how well your moves go with the music, how your stage presence is, what parts of the routine need to be easier/harder, how many drops you had, etc. Videoing yourself and studying the video is the single most important thing I can advise you do to prepare a routine.
2. Perform it in front of friends or in public. In addition to making you more used to performing in front of a crowd, you also often get some good feedback/suggestions.
3. If you have a long time before competing, wear different outfits each time you have a session. If you notice that any are particularly good or bad for routines, make a note of it. If a shirt/shorts are floppy and caused a drop during one of my practices, I make a note of it so I don't risk a similar drop in competition.

Hope this is a helpful starting point.

boyle · Post by **boyle** » 18 Sep 2009 12:49

hey roy, you are definitely good enough to do the routine yourself. That is very ridiculous about the jewish guy though.
Definitely give them an explanation about the different tricks, it's a good way to build understanding. You could also just do a one minute routine as it's your first time- it's not a competition, there are no rules. It doesn't matter if you drop it, the people will probably still think it's sick anyway. As ken said, pick it up, keep going, make it look like you're having a good time.

PoisonTaffy · Post by **PoisonTaffy** » 23 Sep 2009 10:33

Thanks for the confidence boost, Dan

My routine's planned for around 2 minutes shred, and a minute or two speech. I imagine they expect me to do something allot longer but I'll talk to them tomorrow and explain my predicament.

Anyways, I'm on a week and a half break from work, and it totally screwed up with my daily routine. So far I've been busy every day with catching up with people, working on my band's demo, getting annoying chores out of the way, and ruining my 'wake up early' habit.

I managed to squeeze in footbag every day, sometimes very little, sometimes allot. I've been working on my routine using Ken's advices.

Saturday is creeping closer and I'm getting more nervous. I hate all this anxiousness and usually try to avoid it like fire. My imagination is already torturing me with visions of me sucking so badly I'd be lucky to hit a legover. But I believe this experience is good for my game and might be good for the sport, so I don't feel like I should back out of it for the sake of my mental peace.

I'm dealing with this anxiousness in two ways: Working on the routine daily (even practicing my pre routine speech), and planning to get allot of shred done on the sidelines before the event. From previous Israeli championships I remember that getting long but not intense playing sessions done before and close to the routine makes me allot more ambivalent during the routine itself.

I've also started working a little on my out to in datw, as groundwork for double over downs and paradons which I'm planning to drill in the near future. It's been going pretty good.

PoisonTaffy · Post by **PoisonTaffy** » 23 Sep 2009 10:44

Oh another important update. Alex Strassman gave me a call the other day. He's in Israel and he'll soon have some time off to shred. I love this dude, and I love his game, neglected though as it may be.

boyle · Post by **boyle** » 25 Sep 2009 02:12

good luck for tomorrow Roy! You will do a super job. Remember, these people don't know footbag, any tricks you do they will think your great, and that you may surprise yourself with some of the tricks you hit in front of a crowd.

PoisonTaffy · Post by **PoisonTaffy** » 26 Sep 2009 09:50

So the show went pretty good! Nothing went as planned.
I practiced what I'm gonna say before I start the show, and they didn't allow me to speak to the mic, they had their own lame text ready and I couldn't say a word to the crowd. I think I had a pretty good speech prepared, unfortunately.
At the last minute a hacker friend I haven't seen in about a year came and I convinced him to do a little kick session with me before the entire thing starts, because I was desperate to stall for time (they asked me to do a 10 minutes show, I had a 2 minute routine, and 2 minutes talk, and they removed my talk). So I told the DJ to not play the routine song until I signal him. He started it when we were kicking among ourselves.. There goes the routine

After about a minute of kicking (only one drop), I started freestyling. In the beginning I felt great and played well. Halfway through, though, I started getting nervous and dropped the bag a few times in a row. I couldn't even stall. I forgot lots of stuff I wanted to hit, but all in all I felt good, the crowd was cheering, I was happy with my performance and hopefully I've learned how to be better prepared next time.

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 26 Sep 2009 10:17

PoisonTaffy wrote: all in all I felt good, the crowd was cheering, I was happy with my performance and hopefully I've learned how to be better prepared next time.

Sweet. The more shows you do, the more routines you do, the easier it gets. Sounds like a good experience.

Oh, and give a hug to Strassman from me. I miss that guy.

PoisonTaffy · Post by **PoisonTaffy** » 29 Sep 2009 06:42

So after seeing the video I decided it's too embarrassing to share. Sorry

Maybe in a week or two I'll get over myself and upload it. Thanks everyone for the tips and support, it helped.

After the intense week of working on the routine, I took a two days break and now I'm ready to get back to learning. During the week I learned a few mini tricks which names I don't really know. I also hit sailing to nothing almost every try. I think I could easily hit sailing butter, as my atomic butter is pretty strong.

I didn't reach my osis goal by the end of the osis learning period, but I did increase my osis abilities on both sides to the point that consecutive oses is pretty easy, and I can hit almost anything out of it. Improved my guiltless game allot.

Anyways, the master plan for my near-term game are as follows:
(5 consecutive sessions of drilling a concept = Drill Unit. I'll think of a cooler name later)
2 drill units on spinning (most probably spinning clipper).
Then, 1 drill unit on whirls (as a refresher)
Then, 2 drill units on datw out to in (maybe 1 unit, depends on how quickly I master this. I can't wait to start working on paradon!)
Then 1 drill unit on stepping as a refresher

I expect to be able to hit stuff like gyro whirls & blurry whirls by the end of the whirls drill unit. I didn't even try blurry whirl yet, I think I could hit it. I was kind of attempting stepping ss whirls for a while but they seem to be pretty hard. Hopefully by the end of the stepping refresher unit I'll be able to hit those too.
Blazing set would be nice but I'm probably not gonna work on it if it won't come to me naturally. I'd be happy with Ripped warrior, or any stepping ducking trick by the end of this plan. But I imagine I'd need at least 2 drill units on stepping to have it good enough for that.

This lays out my drill plans for about 6-7 weeks from now.