footbag passion, the art of balancing fun and drilling

[thedudeman]

so lately ive been feeling a bit burnt out, i practiced way to much and was constantly yelling at myself and getting anxious when drilling, we all know how stressful drilling can get, but i love getting together with the stanford crew and just shredding and having fun, so what is the balance? what are your guys philosophies and things you try to stick by in order to keep yourself from burning out and keeping the passion to keep drilling and shredding?
would be much appreciated
as a new footbagger learning this could be the difference between sticking with this for good and losing it due to improper training management

[Kimbe.]

Most often I just play normally and try to include as many concepts on both sides in each run as possible. Though, from time to time I decide to use trickbased training programs for 5 sessions in a row with drills focusing on some 6-7 tricks or concepts. It's really these programs that give the most result, but as for me drilling tricks you can hit, say 50 % of the time, gets both physically exhausting and sometimes frustrating. That's how I function .

I guess if you really want to become the best you can be, having some sort of training program at all times is the choice. That is if you can keep yourself motivated all through. Well I can't, so I just occasionally use training programs and "shred" most of the time to keep footbag fun.

[Jazzkid]

Read the Vasek manual . Be friends with the drops, learn from them . Hit the mobius while drunk......

[FlexThis]

I stopped competing with myself and allowed for an "anything goes" attitude to keep me interested. I was always under the impression that you had to push hard every time you got the bag. If you wanted to be good you had to one up yourself and practice, practice, practice. This is all well and good if you have a goal to be the best one day. But honestly, for me it was not caring that made it fun again. If I hit a series of 2 adds, so be it. If I hit a gnarly 6 add followed by some 2's, oh well - it's all good!

I also started playing in varying shoe types, different bag sizes and weights. I have a 200 gram soccer ball bag that is more fun than any other bag I have ever played with, but it is huge, heavy and takes a ton of energy to play with. But it is fun!!!

It is called "freestyle" and sometimes just reminding yourself of this can relieve the pressure to have to bsos every Janiwalker combo you try.

~peace