The big news I want to post here is that I'm moving to Denver on February 1st, and I'll be out there until June 18th. Hopefully that'll mean I get a chance to make it to the Vegas jam. Anyway, if anybody is passing through Denver during those dates, let me know.
I've played a bit since NYJ, but have mostly taken it easy. I bought a new pair of grey G-Units, so I feel less panicky about my supply running out. I now have three pairs of new G-Units, so hopefully that's 3 more years of footbag. I'd like to make it to 15 years in the sport. That'd be pretty noteworthy.
Shredwise the most notable thing for me is that I've made some progress on High Plains Drifter (HPD). I finally hit it flipside, and it's getting strong enough on my dominant side that I can do stuff like step out of it. I've also been working on sunilwalker. I've hit a few stepping five add tricks out of it, which tells me I'm getting the set high enough to do a legit butterfly on the way down. It'd be pretty cool if I could eventually hit archnemesis, considering that I came up with the name for that trick.
I'll end this with a few combos and runs I was happy with recently:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgP9bE7xKCM[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWWJXDgCrLA[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diyf_jxau2s[/youtube]
Fanzine
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crazylegs32
- Egyptian Footgod
- Posts: 1341
- Joined: 02 Sep 2005 19:45
- Location: Palatine/Chicago Burbs
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Sporatical_Distractions
- registered sacks offender
- Posts: 4529
- Joined: 12 Oct 2004 19:14
- Location: Guy's American Kitchen & Bar
You guys do know I have a challenge thread, right? I'll try them all out later, but for now here's Reid's challenge.
I feel like Denver is racing towards me like a bullet, and there's no way I'm going to get everything done that I need to do before going. It's kind of scary. Since I won't be on the East Coast much longer, I decided a trip to play with NYFA was imperative, so I went last weekend. There was a really good turnout at the session; something like 10 people total. I was particularly excited to get to play with Taylor Chantreuil and Matt Isanuk, since I only see them like once a year. Shredwise I played decently, and had fun showing off my HPD stuff. I was also happy that my spins were good despite the fact that I've been neglecting them lately.
In DC I recently got to play with Ryan Thomas, which was loads of fun. He hit so many ridiculous combos when we played, it blew my mind. I'm hoping to play with Brian before I go too. I really hope I can find a decent shred spot in Denver, and not have to play solo the entire time.
OK, I'll end this with one of my better combos from the last couple weeks.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pagqvlo-Qp4[/youtube]
I feel like Denver is racing towards me like a bullet, and there's no way I'm going to get everything done that I need to do before going. It's kind of scary. Since I won't be on the East Coast much longer, I decided a trip to play with NYFA was imperative, so I went last weekend. There was a really good turnout at the session; something like 10 people total. I was particularly excited to get to play with Taylor Chantreuil and Matt Isanuk, since I only see them like once a year. Shredwise I played decently, and had fun showing off my HPD stuff. I was also happy that my spins were good despite the fact that I've been neglecting them lately.
In DC I recently got to play with Ryan Thomas, which was loads of fun. He hit so many ridiculous combos when we played, it blew my mind. I'm hoping to play with Brian before I go too. I really hope I can find a decent shred spot in Denver, and not have to play solo the entire time.
OK, I'll end this with one of my better combos from the last couple weeks.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pagqvlo-Qp4[/youtube]
Last edited by C-Fan on 26 May 2015 09:14, edited 2 times in total.
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Senor Grommet
- Post Master General
- Posts: 3394
- Joined: 18 Oct 2002 20:25
- Location: Greater Santa Cruz, CA
Sick!!!!!!!! Ken. Thanks for hitting that. Perfect cherry on my day.
You know what I'm talking about.
You know what I'm talking about.
"...You have to get, really, practice, like eight hours every day. Then you get good level and then you can compete....There is no money, so players are like big family and that is what I -like" -Vasek-
Reid Strellner
Reid Strellner
The big news is that I've successfully moved to Denver, and I'll be here for the next 4.5 months. If I do my job well enough, and I like it out here, it's even possible I might be here longer. I already miss DC, since it was home for the last two years, but I'm also excited to be in a new situation. I feel like I do well in new situations. It's funny that Mirken joked "too bad you didn't move there eight years ago,"
Last edited by C-Fan on 29 Aug 2016 11:19, edited 1 time in total.
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CIC flurry
- Amazingly Sexy Man-Beast
- Posts: 3426
- Joined: 28 May 2003 16:06
- Location: Chicago
I've been in Denver for almost 10 days now, and overall I'd say the transition is going very well. My life here is very different compared to DC though, with some pluses and some minuses. In no particular order.
1. The air here is super-dry. Maybe as bad as Tucson...but it's weirder, since Tucson is a desert, whereas here I can see snow on the ground. Even so, I need to use lotion on my hands everyday or else my skin cracks.One nice thing though, is the hotel I'm staying at has free lotion, so I don't have to buy any. I also find that I need to be constantly drinking water. When I play footbag, I need a drink after almost every single run, and my boogers dry up all the time, which feels weird.
2. In DC I went to a lot of Happy Hours after work. Here in Denver though, not only do I not know of any HHs, I also live in the middle of nowhere and have a car, so if I do go out to an event, I can't drink. As such, I've been drinking a lot less, which is probably a good thing. It does make it harder to meet new people though.
3. I now have easy access to a really nice gym. This means I now have access to fun exercise activities other than footbag. I've started swimming at the gym, and yesterday I went to my first rock-climbing class. They provided shoes, and somebody to belay me as well. I plan on going to the classes regularly, and may even get climbing shoes myself so I can climb on the bouldering wall when there aren't classes. Anybody have any suggestions for where I can get shoes? Anyway, I'm excited that I can now crosstrain for footbag by doing stuff like swimming, climbing, and basketball.
4. I live alone now. Back in DC, I had a housemate, and he had a cat. I thought I'd be more excited to live alone again, but I actually miss the company. I've got some friends in the area, but I definitely feel like my social life is going to be reduced to more of a weekend thing. I'm guessing that I'm going to channel most of my weekday time and energy into working out at the gym, which hopefully will end up making me a better footbagger.
5. Hopefully I'll get my camera cable this weekend, when I visit my folks in Arizona. I have a ton of footage to upload. Til then, here's a run my friend Dan took on his iphone: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7z3qmPUwUM[/youtube]
6. I've been asked to elaborate on how I think of furious set. I'm hesitant to write anything, since there are so many people who are better at furious set. I currently only do it on one side, and it's still in the "first trick of the string" phase. I also haven't hit anything harder than butterfly, legover, osis, and mirage out of the set, so it's not even that good yet. I'm also still adjusting my technique. So for now I'd rather not write anything, since I'll probably be able to have more useful insights in a month or two.
1. The air here is super-dry. Maybe as bad as Tucson...but it's weirder, since Tucson is a desert, whereas here I can see snow on the ground. Even so, I need to use lotion on my hands everyday or else my skin cracks.One nice thing though, is the hotel I'm staying at has free lotion, so I don't have to buy any. I also find that I need to be constantly drinking water. When I play footbag, I need a drink after almost every single run, and my boogers dry up all the time, which feels weird.
2. In DC I went to a lot of Happy Hours after work. Here in Denver though, not only do I not know of any HHs, I also live in the middle of nowhere and have a car, so if I do go out to an event, I can't drink. As such, I've been drinking a lot less, which is probably a good thing. It does make it harder to meet new people though.
3. I now have easy access to a really nice gym. This means I now have access to fun exercise activities other than footbag. I've started swimming at the gym, and yesterday I went to my first rock-climbing class. They provided shoes, and somebody to belay me as well. I plan on going to the classes regularly, and may even get climbing shoes myself so I can climb on the bouldering wall when there aren't classes. Anybody have any suggestions for where I can get shoes? Anyway, I'm excited that I can now crosstrain for footbag by doing stuff like swimming, climbing, and basketball.
4. I live alone now. Back in DC, I had a housemate, and he had a cat. I thought I'd be more excited to live alone again, but I actually miss the company. I've got some friends in the area, but I definitely feel like my social life is going to be reduced to more of a weekend thing. I'm guessing that I'm going to channel most of my weekday time and energy into working out at the gym, which hopefully will end up making me a better footbagger.
5. Hopefully I'll get my camera cable this weekend, when I visit my folks in Arizona. I have a ton of footage to upload. Til then, here's a run my friend Dan took on his iphone: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7z3qmPUwUM[/youtube]
6. I've been asked to elaborate on how I think of furious set. I'm hesitant to write anything, since there are so many people who are better at furious set. I currently only do it on one side, and it's still in the "first trick of the string" phase. I also haven't hit anything harder than butterfly, legover, osis, and mirage out of the set, so it's not even that good yet. I'm also still adjusting my technique. So for now I'd rather not write anything, since I'll probably be able to have more useful insights in a month or two.
Last edited by C-Fan on 07 Jun 2013 08:11, edited 1 time in total.
Took advantage of the President's Day three-day weekend by going to Tucson to see my family. It was the first time the whole nuclear family was together: my mom, dad, sister, brother in law, and my niece. Managed to sneak in two outdoor shreds during our time together. Last week I tweaked my hip flexor after pushing furious too hard, but by Monday morning my legs felt almost 100%. I hit some decent stuff in Tucson, but more than anything it just felt great to play outdoors again. I can't wait til it gets nice enough for outdoor shred here in Denver.
I still haven't received my camera cable from DC, but in Tucson I was able to get some footage off my camera and onto YouTube.
Here's what my dance studio shred space in Denver looks like:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSFH0Kt6ngU[/youtube]
I've also decided that I'm definitely going to Worlds this year, and have already gotten the ball rolling. I put in a leave request for the first week of August, and got it approved. I also scored a free flight ticket this weekend by volunteering my seat on my flight to Tucson, so hopefully I can reserve a ticket to Oakland in the next few days. In other good news, it sounds like the host hotel at Worlds is a Marriott. I'm currently accumulating a ton of Marriott rewards points, since I'm staying in one for 137 nights while I'm working in Denver. Hopefully that'll score me some sort of discount at the Worlds hotel.
I still haven't received my camera cable from DC, but in Tucson I was able to get some footage off my camera and onto YouTube.
Here's what my dance studio shred space in Denver looks like:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSFH0Kt6ngU[/youtube]
I've also decided that I'm definitely going to Worlds this year, and have already gotten the ball rolling. I put in a leave request for the first week of August, and got it approved. I also scored a free flight ticket this weekend by volunteering my seat on my flight to Tucson, so hopefully I can reserve a ticket to Oakland in the next few days. In other good news, it sounds like the host hotel at Worlds is a Marriott. I'm currently accumulating a ton of Marriott rewards points, since I'm staying in one for 137 nights while I'm working in Denver. Hopefully that'll score me some sort of discount at the Worlds hotel.
Last edited by C-Fan on 07 Jun 2013 08:12, edited 1 time in total.
One of my last footbag goals, accomplished tonight:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7zkDFlr18Y[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7zkDFlr18Y[/youtube]
Last edited by C-Fan on 07 Jun 2013 08:13, edited 1 time in total.
Thanks for the props, Zac and TJ! I had reached the point in my playing career that I was getting resigned to the fact that I might never hit a beast combo. I'm almost 30, and I also have a lot of adds logged on these legs, so I wasn't sure I could do it. Happily though, I've now hit four beast combos in the last week: food-mullet-spender, mullet-mullet-spender, fusion-mullet-mullet, and mullet x3. I'm also pretty confident I can hit a few more, especially if I put some time into skooling some links. Even if I never hit another beast again though, I'm happy with the ones I've hit. I got them all on video, they all are clean, and even if you don't count x-dex, I've still hit three.
As I was looking through my paper journal, I realized that I've been playing a ridiculous amount of footbag since moving to Denver. I've played footbag 19/25 days in February, including the last 10 days straight. Three of the days I didn't play, it was because I was flying somewhere, and one day that I didn't play, I did rock-climbing and swimming. The other notable aspect of this footbag streak is that most of these sessions are pushing two hours. Back in DC, my weekday sessions were limited to an hour due to my situation with the upstairs neighbors. Here, I finish when I can't go anymore. Because of my gym and work situation, I have more time for footbag now than I've had since high school (ie, over ten years ago). I'm definitely enjoying it.
My short term plan is to try and hit a couple more beasts this month, and once March hits, focus more on stamina and my Worlds routine. In related news, today I got confirmation on my tickets to Worlds. So now I have the time off from work, the tickets to go, and my routine designed. I just need to reserve a hotel room and practice my routine like crazy, and I should be in good shape. Making Finals in routines at Worlds is pretty much my last remaining big goal in the sport. It's certainly one of the most ambitious, but I think I could give it a good shot.
Just for fun, here's a list of major footbag goals that I've achieved:
*Hit a quad dex (I've hit 8 )
*Do a dropless routine (4 to date, one at Worlds)
*10 Unique Fearless
*A beast (4 to date)
*Shred 30 Finals at Worlds (4th place in 05, 8th place in 07)
As I was looking through my paper journal, I realized that I've been playing a ridiculous amount of footbag since moving to Denver. I've played footbag 19/25 days in February, including the last 10 days straight. Three of the days I didn't play, it was because I was flying somewhere, and one day that I didn't play, I did rock-climbing and swimming. The other notable aspect of this footbag streak is that most of these sessions are pushing two hours. Back in DC, my weekday sessions were limited to an hour due to my situation with the upstairs neighbors. Here, I finish when I can't go anymore. Because of my gym and work situation, I have more time for footbag now than I've had since high school (ie, over ten years ago). I'm definitely enjoying it.
My short term plan is to try and hit a couple more beasts this month, and once March hits, focus more on stamina and my Worlds routine. In related news, today I got confirmation on my tickets to Worlds. So now I have the time off from work, the tickets to go, and my routine designed. I just need to reserve a hotel room and practice my routine like crazy, and I should be in good shape. Making Finals in routines at Worlds is pretty much my last remaining big goal in the sport. It's certainly one of the most ambitious, but I think I could give it a good shot.
Just for fun, here's a list of major footbag goals that I've achieved:
*Hit a quad dex (I've hit 8 )
*Do a dropless routine (4 to date, one at Worlds)
*10 Unique Fearless
*A beast (4 to date)
*Shred 30 Finals at Worlds (4th place in 05, 8th place in 07)
Last edited by C-Fan on 29 Aug 2016 11:21, edited 1 time in total.
Streak
I recently broke my streak of consecutive footbag sessions. I played 13 days in a row, took a day off, and now I'm building a new streak. I've got good facilities and time on my hands, so I really can't think of a better way to spend my time while here in Denver. I already feel like all this playing has improved my game since I arrived just over a month ago. It's not exactly a secret that playing a ton of hours will make you better. I'm just glad I'm in a situation where I can put in this amount of time into training.
Beast combos
In the last couple of weeks I've gotten really into trying beast combos. For the first 12.5 years of my playing career I hit a total of zero beasts. In the last two weeks I've hit seven cleanly on video. I originally thought that once I hit a couple beasts I'd be satisfied, but I've found that trying for beasts is pretty addictive. Beyond the appeal of hitting something that eluded me for years, I think beasts appeal to me for the combination of strength and precision that they require. The amount of concentration required, and the tiny margin of error allowed, make hitting a beast extremely challenging, and therefore very rewarding too. You need a certain amount of strength to get through 18 adds in 3 tricks, but if you try and just bull your way through, you probably won't get it clean (or have enough control to land the last trick). Striking that balance between strength and technicality has been a fun challenge. I'm probably going to try for a couple more, but I've already started devoting a smaller percent of my session to beasts, and more to improving my string length/stamina.
Furious
I was working pretty hard on furious set for a couple weeks in early February, but have pretty much stopped doing them. I decided to abandon this concept (for now) for a couple reasons.
The first, is that I know furious won't help me at Worlds, and therefore I'd be better off spending my time on stamina training and eventually routine practice. The second, is that I was worried about injuring my knee with it. Don't get me wrong, going for beasts isn't great on my right knee either since pretty much 90% of the tricks in my beasts involve a PSW or blender with that knee. That said, I'm getting more enjoyment and making more progress with beasts than I was with furious, and I also think it's been easier on that knee. I'm hoping that in a couple weeks I'll have cut out both furious and beasts from my regular shreds, and will just focus on getting in shape for routines at Worlds.
Worlds
I've got most of the logistics taken care of already; happy I got this out of the way early so I can focus just on training. I got time off from work, I bought my tickets, and I've reserved a room at the hotel. Now I just need to put the time into getting my routine solid.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWmJ_yvR3GM[/youtube]
I recently broke my streak of consecutive footbag sessions. I played 13 days in a row, took a day off, and now I'm building a new streak. I've got good facilities and time on my hands, so I really can't think of a better way to spend my time while here in Denver. I already feel like all this playing has improved my game since I arrived just over a month ago. It's not exactly a secret that playing a ton of hours will make you better. I'm just glad I'm in a situation where I can put in this amount of time into training.
Beast combos
In the last couple of weeks I've gotten really into trying beast combos. For the first 12.5 years of my playing career I hit a total of zero beasts. In the last two weeks I've hit seven cleanly on video. I originally thought that once I hit a couple beasts I'd be satisfied, but I've found that trying for beasts is pretty addictive. Beyond the appeal of hitting something that eluded me for years, I think beasts appeal to me for the combination of strength and precision that they require. The amount of concentration required, and the tiny margin of error allowed, make hitting a beast extremely challenging, and therefore very rewarding too. You need a certain amount of strength to get through 18 adds in 3 tricks, but if you try and just bull your way through, you probably won't get it clean (or have enough control to land the last trick). Striking that balance between strength and technicality has been a fun challenge. I'm probably going to try for a couple more, but I've already started devoting a smaller percent of my session to beasts, and more to improving my string length/stamina.
Furious
I was working pretty hard on furious set for a couple weeks in early February, but have pretty much stopped doing them. I decided to abandon this concept (for now) for a couple reasons.
The first, is that I know furious won't help me at Worlds, and therefore I'd be better off spending my time on stamina training and eventually routine practice. The second, is that I was worried about injuring my knee with it. Don't get me wrong, going for beasts isn't great on my right knee either since pretty much 90% of the tricks in my beasts involve a PSW or blender with that knee. That said, I'm getting more enjoyment and making more progress with beasts than I was with furious, and I also think it's been easier on that knee. I'm hoping that in a couple weeks I'll have cut out both furious and beasts from my regular shreds, and will just focus on getting in shape for routines at Worlds.
Worlds
I've got most of the logistics taken care of already; happy I got this out of the way early so I can focus just on training. I got time off from work, I bought my tickets, and I've reserved a room at the hotel. Now I just need to put the time into getting my routine solid.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWmJ_yvR3GM[/youtube]
Last edited by C-Fan on 07 Jun 2013 08:14, edited 1 time in total.