Steel City Freestyle

Keep a diary of what you're hitting, what's frustrating you, and your goals.
Post Reply
User avatar
Ian Brill
Egyptian Footgod
Posts: 1463
Joined: 25 Sep 2005 22:03
Location: Pittsburgh PA
Contact:

Post by Ian Brill »

Thank you for the feedback and the clarification. I was confused. I understand, and I agree with you.

There is anxiety in my game. I am trying to eliminate it. Because I haven't taken the time to visualize and predetermine that I will be able to stop all of my momentum and freeze the trick, I bug-out and rush the set. Watching me play footbag is like watching someone try to talk without stuttering. I am doing my best to correct my speech. This is what I look for in my videos, and why I record my strings of 23 pm-inf and hate every single one of them, with the exception of when I string a pixie out of one. The reason this looks good is because I shelf the panic of the pm by thinking about creating a proper form to initiate a pixie. It's like a logic error with a work around. My game benefits from thinking ahead and suffers from not focusing on the task at hand. I need to better manage myself and my resources while I perform. What you have commented on are examples of where I am applying this approach successfully.

What I have been doing differently; a short story called "Blender"

I have a very fast right leg. It's from years of leggy atomic. I also get aches in my right knee. It is probably related to the far-out-from-the-body-set-leggy-atomics and from trying to learn how to push-off for ollies on a skateboard when I was younger. So, although I could make myself hit blender on with this leg doing the dex, it was not a form that I lfelt was healthy. It was fast and crushing on my knee. So, I thought about trying it on my left side where I had no real whirl to speak of and in a more mid-time-fashion. I discovered that I was going way-too-fast. Yes, I still have a hard time hitting this trick, but it is not because of speed at all. It is because I was not waiting long enough for my whirling leg to come up before hopping off of my support leg. Now I just need to learn how to hesitate a split second longer for my foot to come around be for pivoting at my hips and shoulders into an osis. The trick is more about organization and practice than speed. I think.

After a few tries at this I realized that I had finally learned how to make a legitimate whirl on my left-side. It was all about getting my leg "up there" before "forgetting about the dex," and hopping into a clipper- thus popping over the clipper where I previously would hit an imaginary wall of non-mobility. So, the whirls you saw and commented on are these new mid-time whirls applied to my strong side. They look good because they are more like consecutive clippers in my head now. Now that I am organized, with regard to this trick.

This all led to me saying, "if I can hit a clipper with this simultaneous activity occurring, then why can't I make a strong-side simple swirl with this activity also occurring? Immediately after making this observation I hit somewhere between 20 and 30 whirling swirls that session. Then I tried it on my weak simple swirl side. Having to accommodate for this complex trick forced me to reevaluate my weak swirl. Knowing that I needed to hesitate until the foot was high enough before hopping, and knowing that I would need a large window to clear the dex meant that I would have to raise my whirl by raising my leg and knee. This forced me to have better form on my swirl. Now I can swirl with a better window. More dexing range.

So, I said to myself after all this that I wanted to hit internalize the form of spinning clipper and to not freak out by placing it before ws. It was like giving an employee two similar but different tasks instead of the one that they were scared of, as a means of distracting them into completing the other without freaking out about it. I knew if I wanted to do a ws it would take concentration so I knew I had to focus on everything.

I am learning how to better focus, organize my observations, and to hesitate when necessary. Footbag has should be more than a stress reliever for me. It should be therapeutic. I will try to better identify and manage my anxiety through my practice.
User avatar
Ian Brill
Egyptian Footgod
Posts: 1463
Joined: 25 Sep 2005 22:03
Location: Pittsburgh PA
Contact:

Post by Ian Brill »

Hi Internetz,

I spent the weekend coding and drinking. There was a little bit of footbag at home though.

*I hit a couple blenders on my strong side that were fantastic.
*I hit whirl x4 on my weak side and x5 on my strong side
*I weak stepped out of a few whirls
*I hit a couple c-fan challenges but I will post about them once I feel better about them

Times are hard right now. This software I was relying on fell through. Shit the bed on it's recent updates. Crashes more than Bjork throwing cutlery off a cliff because she's lonely. Yeah, so I spent the day pretending to code my own version of what I needed out of that software by myself. And it works. This after a week of try to get things to work through their crap. So, I have a back up strategy if my boss wants / needs to go for it. What a weird fucking day. I haven't had so much to drink in so many days in a row since Jess and I went to Italy for a week, and did 7 cities in 7 days.

So, yeah. It's been a rough week. Things that should have been easy breezy were frothing at the mouth.

The good news:
*I just got a new computer: latest mac mini, 4gb ram-$500 and a $30 adapter for dual screen (24" Samsung LCD and 20" NEC CRT make for a weird combination, but it works)
*I got an iPhone. No comment. It's the closest thing to an indulgence I have had in a while and it will help out if I end up...
*Going to Mexico City in about two weeks for work
*Sitting on tickets to Japan in April
*Drunk as a skunk. Trying to figure out why ws is easier than whirl on my weak whirl side, but I already know the answer. I posted a diatribe about it a few days ago.
User avatar
C-Fan
Rekordy Polski
Posts: 11366
Joined: 23 Jan 2003 23:51
Location: Denver
Contact:

Post by C-Fan »

Ian Brill wrote: Crashes more than Bjork throwing cutlery off a cliff because she's lonely..
LOL :lol: :lol: :lol:
User avatar
Ian Brill
Egyptian Footgod
Posts: 1463
Joined: 25 Sep 2005 22:03
Location: Pittsburgh PA
Contact:

Post by Ian Brill »

C-Fan wrote:
Ian Brill wrote: Crashes more than Bjork throwing cutlery off a cliff because she's lonely..
LOL :lol: :lol: :lol:
:-)

http://www.sanchi.ro/view_video.php?vie ... 2a5408552d

Played a few minutes in my studio to try and stay in shape before my next session

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7YliVHcBNs[/youtube]
User avatar
Ian Brill
Egyptian Footgod
Posts: 1463
Joined: 25 Sep 2005 22:03
Location: Pittsburgh PA
Contact:

Post by Ian Brill »

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiBjr-2lisA[/youtube]

Been playing and not talking about highlights.

*I hit whirl- simp swirl on one side. I need the other (C-Fan challenge)
*I hit whirl to simp swirl bs (C-Fan challenge)
*I hit blender to far butterfly on one side and toed blender to pm on the weak side (would have hit it if there wasn't stuff in the way, I believe)
*sealed a couple paradox whirls yesterday, bs
*Hit strong p-whirl and weak simp swirl in the same string

All of this is in a very confined space so it is helping me stay in a smaller space. String length is very short though. I have learned that my clipper is wrong. I am fixing it. I have some major bugs in my game. I will get to each of them with time.

edit:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fgss9lWk8Rg[/youtube]

Very unedited / raw. Footage of swirling osis, as per C-Fan request.
User avatar
Ian Brill
Egyptian Footgod
Posts: 1463
Joined: 25 Sep 2005 22:03
Location: Pittsburgh PA
Contact:

Post by Ian Brill »

Played a bit in my studio in between the crashing of software.
I learned some stuff.

First of all: my default atw is a pixie set and it is far more energy efficient. Hysterical.

My right ripwalk is lacking in a good clipper and a good support foot set as opposed to a setting foot set.

My blind osis is amazing and could dig a tunnel faster than a TI-83, but I should really just focus on setting the bag efficiently and turning quickly to witness the delay.

I need to learn to appreciate how much fun it is to stall a move and visit with it before sending it back to school.

If I keep with this workout regime I have, I am going to have a fucking six-pack. Even if it has to outgrow all of my excess Shar Pei-skin.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9xy0Gg2-Kw[/youtube]
User avatar
Ian Brill
Egyptian Footgod
Posts: 1463
Joined: 25 Sep 2005 22:03
Location: Pittsburgh PA
Contact:

Post by Ian Brill »

Highlights:

*The car is in my name. I have a car.
*The software isn't buggy as much any more.
*Seafood buffet

And:

*p-whirl, bsos
*pixie legover (weak-side new move) bsos
*spinning clipper-ws, second try (dropped the spinning clipper the first time) (hit weak ws with the heal but dropped it at the end of this string)
*smear-leg beater (new combo?)
*stronger spotted osis' (both sides)
*drifters on one side
*rip out of osis felt real good. Other side with blur felt better than usual too. I am feeling these new osis'
*Pixies are coming together
*Blur out of spinning clipper felt good
*Did a solid spinning duck but missed the eclipse. Anyway, this will be my first 6 add (unless atomic ss torque gets x-dex)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xvOTNoulKI[/youtube]
User avatar
Ian Brill
Egyptian Footgod
Posts: 1463
Joined: 25 Sep 2005 22:03
Location: Pittsburgh PA
Contact:

Post by Ian Brill »

Played today in slacks.

*Spinning simple swirl first try
*qyro bf first try
*weak spinning osis first try
*some of my longest strings in a while. Longer than usual
*felt like I was really getting into something, especially with all of the sunk in delays, and proper ducks and ducking bf's

No footage. Oh well.
User avatar
Ian Brill
Egyptian Footgod
Posts: 1463
Joined: 25 Sep 2005 22:03
Location: Pittsburgh PA
Contact:

Post by Ian Brill »

Kicked. had to stop early. Very short. Very fun.
*Weak stepping set is looking better.
*Ducking clipper-whirl is looking better
*Ducks are cleaning up again
*Stamina is coming back fast
*My exercise regime is panning out well
*Got a haircut. It's kind of plain so I am going to have to account for it by being twice a bad-ass.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxFLJxOH9bA[/youtube]
User avatar
Ian Brill
Egyptian Footgod
Posts: 1463
Joined: 25 Sep 2005 22:03
Location: Pittsburgh PA
Contact:

Post by Ian Brill »

Today
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6aTNaQFyuE[/youtube]

Friday
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1_8IKd3CkM[/youtube]

I will be in Mexico City till the 18th, missing footbag but doing great things.
User avatar
Ian Brill
Egyptian Footgod
Posts: 1463
Joined: 25 Sep 2005 22:03
Location: Pittsburgh PA
Contact:

Post by Ian Brill »

Just came back from 9 days in Mexico. I'll link some videos later. I feel alive again for the first time in a while.

Kicked today for the first time since I last posted.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pA_rv1tp08M[/youtube]

Highlights:
P whirl bsos 1st or second try
spinning swirl first try
some decent strings
running a bunch

I think I hit each p whirl or spin move I tried today, other than mobius.

Oh yeah, and I will be starting my MFA at PSU in the fall.
User avatar
Ian Brill
Egyptian Footgod
Posts: 1463
Joined: 25 Sep 2005 22:03
Location: Pittsburgh PA
Contact:

Post by Ian Brill »

testing
User avatar
Ian Brill
Egyptian Footgod
Posts: 1463
Joined: 25 Sep 2005 22:03
Location: Pittsburgh PA
Contact:

Post by Ian Brill »

testing
User avatar
Ian Brill
Egyptian Footgod
Posts: 1463
Joined: 25 Sep 2005 22:03
Location: Pittsburgh PA
Contact:

Post by Ian Brill »

testing
User avatar
Ian Brill
Egyptian Footgod
Posts: 1463
Joined: 25 Sep 2005 22:03
Location: Pittsburgh PA
Contact:

Post by Ian Brill »

WIsh my the last 3 posts on each page of my blog weren't always broken, or at least that an admin could fix it. I will have to bug 'em some more about my bug.

kicked with matt. I had noooo stamina, but it was early and I was up late. I think I still got it in me, I just need a few more solo sessions a week.

highlights:
*paradox whirl b2b (new)
*spinning osis- paradox whirl (new)
*spinning osis- torque
*paradox whirl- dyno
*paradox whirl- whirl- far simple swirl
*a couple of long strings when I really tried, one of which may have been one of my longest, most interesting ever. I followed the Jay Boychuck-cited Penske-quote: paraphrased: have fun doing what you know
*a couple blenders
*paradox blender (seems about the same as blender)
*consecutive weak whirls felt strong
*spins are feeling so much better on both sides- I came close to weak-spin-weak ws and strong gyro blender.
*EDIT (I forgot): Spinning clipper- paradox whirl, bs (both new)

I look forward to having more time to kick. I love this game so much. It is really wonderful that I will have the opportunity to go back to school, have support in doing what I want to do and have such great talent as Nathan Pipenberg to kick with. Of course it sux that Dave will be gone, but at least there will be somewhat of a scene.

I am a bit sad about how much time and effort went into developing a scene here in PGH, but what can you do? We reached a bunch and Matt and Jake are two of my best friends, far beyond interest in this sport. I love this community.
User avatar
Ian Brill
Egyptian Footgod
Posts: 1463
Joined: 25 Sep 2005 22:03
Location: Pittsburgh PA
Contact:

Post by Ian Brill »

Kicked briefly. Fiending to kick. Every day. Had to take a break from programming.

Highlights:

*Hitting weak paradox blender with my heal on the second try
*couple decent strings
*blenders are feeling better. Both sides. Strong is getting there. Weak is coming along
*funny how I can hit quantum out of camo units but not the larger green ones I have. Same "size," but clunkier in real life

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_6PNv_apVI[/youtube]
User avatar
Ian Brill
Egyptian Footgod
Posts: 1463
Joined: 25 Sep 2005 22:03
Location: Pittsburgh PA
Contact:

Post by Ian Brill »

Short solo session. I wish I could play 4 times a day. Perhaps I will when I am in grad-school.

Highlights:
*4xSpinning clipper, twice on strong side
*Spinning clipper was looking solid on weak side. At least once x2
*Finally learned proper whirl form on weak side
*Some long strings with good stuff in them
*Blender-string, second try
*Spinning (weak-side) Whirl (New Move). 2x it grazed my calve but fourth was clean and sealed
*(Weak) Pixie Whirl (new move)

EDIT:

Hoping to meet up and kick with some of the local talent in Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo!!! Got permission to bring the g-units!!!
User avatar
Ian Brill
Egyptian Footgod
Posts: 1463
Joined: 25 Sep 2005 22:03
Location: Pittsburgh PA
Contact:

Post by Ian Brill »

Met up with TJ, an expatriate of the US, living in Osaka for some sight-seeing in Kyoto and footbag. He had plans to meet up with a british footbagger named Nick (last name escapes me at the moment. It was cool that we were able to give some gas-Â¥ to TJ rather than take a train to Kyoto from Osaka. He was very helpful with showing us around and is clearly a bright dude. Jess and I both had a fun time in Kyoto. She was exceptionally and stayed around while the three of us Kicked.

This session was a lot of fun, but I get squeamish watching it. I shaved once I got back to hotel and watched this!!! All of the kg's I put on eating THE MOST AMAZING FOOD I EVER HAD (tied to Mexico City, of course) will have to come off this week. Much of it is muscle though from carrying things and walking around all day. I may decide to keep it, bulk up and carefully tone my midsection gradually.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wd7V3hUkgcU[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLudF6M2CGo[/youtube]

From Friday:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loF5JEq0kJU[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kG0AppRkWsQ[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9dliWyORw4[/youtube]

Met up with the Tokyo crew as well. Taishi set things up and we kicked in the most picturesque park ever, complete with the cherry blossoms (that we somehow timed our visit to see) and brazen ravens stealing two girls' food by force 8O

Kung Ho Chiu from Hong Kong/Canada was here as well. The Japan crew consisted of Taishi, Takumi, a new student from China- Yoshin (sp?) and one other new player (whose name I forgot, since I speak no Japanese and had little conversation with) who was extremely nice and has exceptional control of basic kicks (ie: consecutive toe kicks, which I can barely do).

Taishi and Kung both have speak english well, so we ended up talking a lot. Taishi escorted Jess and I to a museum prior to shredding. It was the world's only "Parasite Museum". What a blast :-) -I got a great T-shirt :P

Takumi is studying english and he is getting there. We were able to communicate pretty well. He is a very down-to-earth and laid-back guy. The Japanese are very modest and polite in general, but even after taking this into consideration Takumi's consideration and hospitality stood-out.

Takumi's game is so impressive. While it is evident that he is one of the best in the world, his talent seems like it is barely even tapped. His shred comes across as effortless, even when he is slamming out 6-add combos. I wasn't able to get a chance to find out how much he has been kicking but I believe he recently started to get back into it a bit heavier. I hope he can make it to worlds this year.

Taishi's game has come along so much since I met him in Funtastiks 2006. His game has gotten to be much more aggressive, stylish and loaded with bigger tricks. There were a number of linking-concepts that he threw-down repeatedly in a world-class style.

Kung Ho has a bunch of impressive concepts down. His string length varies a lot like my own. I both him and myself progressing a lot more if we keep at it. We both need to dial our key concepts. I like his double-dex toe tricks a lot. I am inspired to school these now.

There was drinking and great food afterwards. I got drunk :-) . Rambled about whatever I could. You know the drill if you know how I drink
:-)

So, to cap it off:
*TJ has a solid game, great form and "hooked-it-up"
*Tokyo crew is a solid group of cats and their skills are off-the-chain. I hope Taishi, Takumi and Kung Ho can make it to worlds.
*I loved my stay in Japan
*Oh, and BIG-UPS to C-Fan for his role in developing this Japanese scene and for helping me contact everyone! Thanks Ken!

more to come to this post as videos upload
User avatar
Ian Brill
Egyptian Footgod
Posts: 1463
Joined: 25 Sep 2005 22:03
Location: Pittsburgh PA
Contact:

Post by Ian Brill »

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgE3qdPEhJ8[/youtube]

Getting better at pwhirls. Hit pixie whirl again, first try even but I couldn't get it on tape. Total fluke, unfortunately. I did hit it sloppy on the other side though.

Also:
*flip symposium mirage is on its way
*hit a string with quantum osis (first time maybe?) and weak swirl in it
User avatar
Ian Brill
Egyptian Footgod
Posts: 1463
Joined: 25 Sep 2005 22:03
Location: Pittsburgh PA
Contact:

Post by Ian Brill »

Woke up at 5, after a 14hr work day. Japan continues to deliver- I love my new lease on life :-)

At around 8 I went to the surface lot near my house. The weather was so cool. My brain was alert of from having paced myself through coffee and a home-made order of vegetarian nachos grande.

I kicked for 30 minutes. Hopefully tomorrow I can get there at 7.

Highlights:
*frozen left side dynos.
*about 10 or more osis' b2b first try
*weak blender 3rd try
*solid right side pixies
*3 or 4 of the cleanest, most impressive weak pixies yet
*ducking clipper-osis-p. illusion-butterfly-repeat: 11 contacts-string
*bunch of whirls
*consecutive rev. whirls on right side, multiple sets of four
*couple decent weak stepping sets
*spinning clipper bsos first try either side this session
*spinning clipper-frozen
*weak pm- weak symposium mirage-butter fly
*ended on hand-caught string with torque bsos, first trys both sides
Post Reply