Israel Footblog - Training program

PoisonTaffy · Post by **PoisonTaffy** » 29 Sep 2009 07:08

And to more interesting news, I think it's time to reveal that Jon "The Outsider" Schneider will be visiting Israel on November.
Jon has been an influence of mine ever since I saw him play on TOTT2. It would be redundant to describe what a special player he is, and how excited I am for the chance to kick & hang out with a legend of our sport.

Ever since I started playing footbag, all my trips out of the country involved footbag to a smaller or bigger degree. I've met lots of wonderful people, had nothing but good experiences, and I'm glad for the opportunity to pay it forward to footbaggers visiting my country. Come one, come all

PoisonTaffy · Post by **PoisonTaffy** » 30 Sep 2009 12:03

Back to routine, but to routinal updates

Yesterday (Tuesday) I met with the Raanana kids for an outdoor session. Played for 2 hours but didn't get much done, it was more like fucking around, really. At least they asked me tons of footbag questions and I finally felt that all my hard earned knowledge is being appreciated

I also worked a bit on spinning; I just went for straight up spinning clipper. My strong side is decent, but my flip side is atrocious, the set is always off and the bag is never in the position to be caught after the spin.
So today I worked on making straight sets and spinning (and not worrying about the catch), by placing a footbag on the floor and setting right on top of it. I've discovered that my offset is always forward, so I pretend like I want to set backwards, and the bag goes fairly straight. I hope that within a few sessions it'll sink in and I won't have to pretend the backward set anymore.

Plus, Israel might have a footbag guest for early 2010. Details soon when things are more concrete.

PoisonTaffy · Post by **PoisonTaffy** » 02 Oct 2009 10:46

Another outdoor session, this time with hackers. Got some alone time for my spinning. Thanks to my work on setting straight, my flip side shows some improvement already.
I realize I didn't set goals (i.e describe what I expect to be able to do when I finish working on spinning). Since I failed each goal I set so far (although came close in Osis), I'll be very conservative. Everything here applies to both sides:
* I expect to hit have spinning clipper a safe mid string trick.
* I expect to be able to hit decent tricks out of it, not just bails.
* I expect to feel comfortable trying more advanced spinning tricks, even if I don't control them.
* I hesitate about this since I don't know how hard or easy it really is, but I want consecutive spinning clippers. Minimum two.

I have a 'date' with a group of Israeli jugglers on Monday. I want to see if I can get into juggling a bit and combine it with footbag, similarly to what Jorden and Peter Irish are doing, but to a smaller degree, of course.
In return, the jugglers are interested in footbag. I want to see if I can teach some of them how to combine simple footbag tricks in their sets.

Iron Clad Ben · Post by **Iron Clad Ben** » 02 Oct 2009 13:06

For the spinning clipper thing sometimes it help to think of it as:

CLIPPER spinning CLIPPER.

I say this because you want to make sure you get a solid clipper stall to start, and you take the time to do a solid clipper stall at the end. It's a trick that you can rush and hit sloppy, but that will throw off the tempo of your runs and make hitting them mid run difficult and frustrating. So yeah, try thinking CLIPPER spinning CLIPPER.

PoisonTaffy · Post by **PoisonTaffy** » 04 Oct 2009 11:30

Ben, your tip confused me

I'm used to seeing people do almost half the spin with their head even before the bag leaves their foot. I see that allot, and I kinda do the same, especially on my 'strong' side.
I tried your method and it was easier to set straight but harder to spin fast.
Is the first method considered a slur? Should I avoid it?

Also, as a side goal, I want to hit in warm up pickup x100. I'm at 30 right now.

PoisonTaffy · Post by **PoisonTaffy** » 04 Oct 2009 16:56

Oh I also hit pixie head stall bs.

PoisonTaffy · Post by **PoisonTaffy** » 12 Oct 2009 09:42

Bah.. Finished first unit of spinning with appalling results. Half way through I had both sides equally good and could hit clean spinning clippers bs almost every time. Now I'm lucky to get one crappy on either side. I don't know what went wrong.

Should I let it rest and do the whirl unit before doing the second spinning unit?

Also my string length has gone considerably down. I just play sloppy. I did get a bunch of 4-5 contact two dex strings that I was pleased with. Silver lining.

PoisonTaffy · Post by **PoisonTaffy** » 15 Oct 2009 10:58

Ahh... Got my mojo back

Two of the Raanana kids asked for lavers. BEGGED.
For a while I was bummed that allot of hackers quit hacking apparently because of me, but maybe it's a weeding process, and two kids getting lavers is better than 30 people hacking casually.

PoisonTaffy · Post by **PoisonTaffy** » 19 Oct 2009 10:42

So I kind of figured out what's wrong with my spins.
My sister had a Holmes Place (gym) registration that she transferred to me. I went there yesterday to see if there's a place to shred there before the workout, and outside there's a really nice spot with two directional lights and flat floor. I had a 30 minutes of shred outside and had the best spinning session ever. I even hit spinning ducking clipper and spinning->spinning on first try. I keep being amazed at how tricks that seem far fetched are hit first try once you work on a crucial element they contain. Spinning ducking clipper has been a long time wish for me.

At any rate, today I practiced at home on my parquet floor and had a shitty spinning session. This floor is SLIPPERY! I can't grip the floor to spin fast and straight. Doh.

Asmus · Post by **Asmus** » 23 Oct 2009 03:53

Props for Spinning Ducking Clipper. Its a cool trick.
Have you hit Gyro Clipper > Spinning Clipper [rpt]?
If not, it's a challenge!

PoisonTaffy · Post by **PoisonTaffy** » 23 Oct 2009 04:13

I was gonna ask what gryo clipper looks like, and then thought it's probably on http://Hackrifice.com , and sure enough

It's very similar to osis, so I think spinning out of it will be kinda hard, but I'll give it a shot.

Yesterday I discovered that working on setting the highest and straightest possible from clipper is a huge help with spinning. I think I'll do one more spinning session and then go to work on my stepping (rather than whirls).

PoisonTaffy · Post by **PoisonTaffy** » 23 Oct 2009 07:47

Ok I hit gyro clipper bs. Pretty cool trick! I'll work on the challenge. Thanks Asmus!

PoisonTaffy · Post by **PoisonTaffy** » 26 Oct 2009 07:29

I'm done with the spinning practice, and the results are that I reached my goals on the strong side, but not nearly on the flip side. I trained both with a slight favor to the flip side, and there's still a huge difference.
Overall I'm happy that spins are now a part of my shred and with reaching my strong side goals.

Last session I started my stepping refresher plan, and it went allot better than expected. Ever since I stopped working on stepping, I hardly hit any mid-run or even at all. But last session I did great stepping on both sides. I hope that by the end of these 5 refresher sessions I'll get stepping into my strings, and I'll also try practicing setting high stepping sets, in hopes of hitting stuff like ripped warrior in the future.

boyle · Post by **boyle** » 27 Oct 2009 01:34

hey man, I'm really impressed with your dedication to your drilling (I could really never imagine myself getting into the same system). You seem to be transferring that same dedication from Akido.

I saw something on your facebook about the new AFI album. My housemate has got it, she says it's great, I haven't listened to it yet. They are touring Australia next year for soundwave (with Faith No More, Alexisonfire, Isis, Comeback Kid, Meshuggah, Anthrax, Placebo, Paramore, Enter Shikari and a bunch of other bands in February.

You should come to Australia at the end of January, come to the Narooma Jam (sweet hangs at the beach), maybe pop over to New Zealand, hit up soundwave, then once you're already here, stick around for Nationals in Sydney in April. Sounds like quite a trip to me! The last day of the nationals will have a view directly to the opera house.

If that's not an option, I'd like to see stepping ss clipper>ducking clipper rpt

PoisonTaffy · Post by **PoisonTaffy** » 27 Oct 2009 01:43

I'm actually going to consider this. Narooma jam + kick ass music festival? I can't imagine a more winning vacation plan. Can't stay till April, though.. I've got work and stuff, and a secret footbag visitor to Israel at the end of March.
I have to drill because I'm untalented and that's the only way I can improve. It also makes my shreds noticeably more fun so it's not that bad.

Sweet drill, I'll work on it. I'm also working on Asmus's drill. Spinning from gyro clipper is hard, but not as hard as I thought. I hit 75% of the drill already.

boyle · Post by **boyle** » 27 Oct 2009 01:51

yeah, I've been trying that drill recently too, I have not accomplished it yet, I'll get there eventually.

Personally I find drills a bit too boring for my liking, this is probably a huge detriment to my game, maybe one day I will get over it...we'll see!

Personally I think that 3 month period will be the best Australian footbag has seen, although this year's same timeframe will be pretty hard to beat...same events, we had Flavio, Andrew Grant and Phil Morrison come out.

Asmus · Post by **Asmus** » 27 Oct 2009 07:40

boyle wrote:The last day of the nationals will have a view directly to the opera house.

Denmark represent!

Happy to hear you are schooling the drill. I think it's great spinning practice.
Multiple Gyro Clippers are also really good (and I think really hard).

The Australia trip sounds awesome.

boyle · Post by **boyle** » 27 Oct 2009 14:19

My friend Dan (that was also at Worlds) met some Danish dudes the night before worlds started. They claimed to be the nephew of the designer of the opera house and that they had unfinished business and wanted to complete their uncle's work. I'm really not sure if this is the kind that Danish people make up as a joke to fool silly Aussies, or if these guys were legit.

Also Asmus, and anyone else, should come to Australia also. It will be sweet times.

PoisonTaffy · Post by **PoisonTaffy** » 28 Oct 2009 13:25

Dan, The new AFI album is indeed very good. As expected, even less punk and more emo than previous albums. However, it's hyper depressive mood is harmonizing with my mood lately. This isn't a personal blog, so I'll just say that I'm happy with my footbag game, but not with almost everything else.

boyle · Post by **boyle** » 28 Oct 2009 20:57

that sucks to hear man. Sometimes i find that having a nice footbag session can be a real pickmeup. I hope things get better.
I'm still unsure of whether i want to listen to the new afi, i'm sure i'll give it a run sometime. Is it dark and poppy ala nick cave, or more poppy like some crap recent emo bands?