The Inshredible Bulk: Not Trending, Not Roll Spiking Either

Senor Grommet · Post by **Senor Grommet** » 15 Apr 2010 18:30

Nice to see you again Zeke. Let's get Tom playing net already damnit! He's way too cool to keep playing freestyle in his late 20s.

Zeke · Post by **Zeke** » 19 Apr 2010 11:21

Ronnie and I have been practicing for the last 5 days straight. Each session has been at least about 2.5 hours of drills. We're going to gradually focus more hardcore on form and technique but casually (giving a few tips but not being overbearing) doing many reps seems to be a good balance for now. Taking off the next few days to rest then start if up again Wednesday.

gaining more confidence with my left after it had been a constant sore spot during the winter

serve returns showing slight improvement

Getting the last few pieces to put my PC back together later this week. Gonna need an OS.

Zeke · Post by **Zeke** » 28 Apr 2010 21:51

Ted managed to set one of my shanks back into the court. I spun and tried a toe reverse but ended up hitting a sunback about 2 feet off Greg/Cory's front left corner. Cory kindly offers some tips on my positioning. The very next play, Greg sets Cory who smashes a sunback of his own into my right shin. He had a noticeable smirk on his face as if to say, 'that's how it's done newb sauce!'

"I see how how it is... that's how you sunback..." I mutter to myself as my shoulders slump.

Next, Ted receives the serve from Greg and pops it to the front right corner. I give chase. Quick step with the right foot. Deep step with the left then take off. Get in the air, tilt my hips, and cock my leg back for the swing. Quads flex. Core tightens. Toes extend. Contact. The footbag rockets down their left side just past Cory's dig attempt.

The split second after that bag hit my foot I found myself yelling as loud as I could

"AND THAT'S HOW YOU FUCKING TOE JAM!" I swear I got that all out before i hit the ground.

The laughter dies down on both sides and Greg says, "but that was out!"
Goddammit, Greg!

Edit:
I think I like my reality better than reality's reality...
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjvn-FGcItc[/youtube]

Zeke · Post by **Zeke** » 17 May 2010 13:22

I've hit the wall early this year...

I've been inexplicably bored and unmotivated at practices lately. Games with the rest of the club have only served to showcase my reliable inconsistencies. I'm shanking sets and whiffing serve returns & spikes. What the fuck? I thought all this god-damned practice was supposed to improve my game and that just simply isn't happening at all.

I take that back. I am feeling a bit more comfortable digging with my left after back peddling vs standing in place and just swinging. Yay.

I don't know whats going on. I do appreciate having Ronnie to practice with but even then I blame myself for not being able to iron out the rough spots in his game. When a drill becomes to difficult he gets down on himself and just quits. Or he just keeps doing the same thing wrong over and over and over

and over

and over. Perhaps I m expecting too much out of someone that kicked his first footbag barely 5 years ago. I kinda wish I had an open level player to help push me during practices.

BTW I think its funny that neither Scot nor Tommy wanted to try any of our drills. Well considering the results I guess I can't blame them, lol.

Scot gave me a copy of The Inner Game of Tennis. Hopefuly that will get me motivated again.

Zeke · Post by **Zeke** » 19 May 2010 11:42

Today CIC turns 10. While it would be a stretch to say that we are still a fully active footbag freestyle club, I am extremely grateful that footbag has given me the most colorful and diverse set of friends that I would not have met otherwise. In the past decade, we've done a few demos, helped with a few tournaments, made a few videos and sold a few shirts. HOF worthy? Hell no. Not even close. What I like to think we're best known for is making footbag fun. Looking back, some of my favorite moments have little to nothing to do with with actual footbag but about endless hours of hanging out after events (or even local sessions) and eating tons of food while talking mad shit about anyone we didn't like. Believe me, there were (& still are) a lot of of you fucking bastards!

Footbag is merely what brought us together but it does not define Chicago Inner Circle. Although we rarely have big sessions together anymore we are still really good friends and we're going to be around for a while longer

CIC flurry · Post by **CIC flurry** » 19 May 2010 12:20

awesome 10 zeke

Laroche · Post by **Laroche** » 19 May 2010 12:53

CIC 4EVER

Zeke · Post by **Zeke** » 25 May 2010 13:15

from this vid

CIC flurry · Post by **CIC flurry** » 25 May 2010 22:44

boosh nice still image.
video was quite dry

Zeke · Post by **Zeke** » 26 May 2010 06:58

Totally. The ONE brief part in the vid I'm in and I MISS the spike!!!!

got some big air though...

CIC flurry · Post by **CIC flurry** » 26 May 2010 09:19

can't tell though

Zeke · Post by **Zeke** » 01 Jun 2010 07:05

Here are some vids from a practice session on 9-7-09. The rest can be seen on my youtube channel

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHGig4wd_Dw[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDOD9CxiMq0[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RKFEdDU5PE[/youtube]

Senor Grommet · Post by **Senor Grommet** » 01 Jun 2010 22:02

your timing is off for 90% of those pulldowns . . . you're swinging a bit too late, but maybe you already knew that?

I think a better way to drill the pulldowns is for someone to toss you oversets from the other side of the net. How far off the net would you say you were hitting those shots? Looked like 5-6 feet at least. Lean back slightly as you raise your leg to achieve greater levels of drive and depth of your pulldown.

Remember, if you can jump and do a pulldown, it is always better to do so. This typically requires a set within 2-3 feet of the net though.

Have you tried a schtattaft-like kill for a straight in front of you pull-down like set? You might try it.

Zeke · Post by **Zeke** » 02 Jun 2010 08:13

I was hoping you would chime in.

I'm aware there is something wrong with the swing, just not specifically what it was. I'll have Ronnie set them from the other side of the net at practice today. I might be 4-5 feet away from the net with the sets coming 2-3 feet off the net.

Leaning, or lack thereof seems to by my general problem. My body really wants to stay vertical and stable and its hard to overcome that. It took me a long time to learn side axe for that same reason.

I'm hitting more schtataffs lately. Its been my shot of choice for almost everything now. I just have to be smarter with where and when to use it. I hit one here at 03:37

Thanks for all your input. It always helps. BTW I've been reading Scots copy of The Inner Game of Tennis, interesting stuff so far. I'm gonna tape some of my pulldown swings to get a better picture of my timing issues.

Edit:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hx5rmQC8KJ0[/youtube]

Zeke · Post by **Zeke** » 26 Jul 2010 12:59

Net blah blah blah

bbq's blah blah blah

players moving to chicago blah blah blah

accident prone blah blah blah

I wonder who has the biggest 'I told you so' internet penis?

Zeke · Post by **Zeke** » 31 Jul 2010 12:05

There are days in the schedule that I can see are going to be bad. Really bad. But there's nothing I can do about it. Just relax and hope for the best.

Then the day comes

And its worse that you could have imagined.

Thank god it's over. I need to kick something

Zeke · Post by **Zeke** » 23 Aug 2010 09:24

45 minute bike ride to a 10am downtown net session Sunday

3 hours of net
--won the first 4 games
--lost the last 3

1 hour bike ride home against the wind

10 minute bike ride to Welles with my big backpack that carries my 3 piece court

Another 3 hours of footbag at Welles
--1.5 hour of games with Ted, Ronnie and a new guy
--New guy hit 2 spikes and dug one of mine
--1.5 more hours of drilling with Ronnie and the new guy

Rode home and passed out at 6pm

Woke up today sore as hell, just getting out of bed was unbelievably difficult

Practice after work today with Ronnie and the new guy

Fuck

I love net

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXiPQ9NF8h4[/youtube]

Zeke · Post by **Zeke** » 30 Aug 2010 08:40

Can't go to Funtastiks

Hurt my knee this past Sunday

I'm also the new organizer for the Chicago Takraw meet-up group

Something in my knee popped at 6:14. Managed to finish out the game but sat out the rest of the afternoon with a record of 0-4.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCnGhWYlkD4[/youtube]

Zeke · Post by **Zeke** » 07 Sep 2010 07:50

My knee is a little better but I've really had to try and stay grounded while playing recently. Had a short uneventful practice with Ronnie on Wednesday.

Practice with John, the new guy, last Thursday. Had we known there was a concert going on at the Welles Park gazeebo we would have opted for another park entirely. It was a retarded baboon clusterfuck of roving mindless toddler minefields all up in our court (that made more sense in my mind). How we managed to NOT decapitate anyone's child is beyond my comprehension. BTW I wanted to shoot my leg into the faces the all the fucking stupid smiling parents there.

Very short practice with John Saturday after work. Unfortunately, he sprained his ankle 15 minutes into the session. He may be out at least a week. I did solo spike practice until Twitch showed up then tossed my disc around until I got it stuck up in a tree. Dammit I loved that frisbee. Stupid.

Anygay, 6 players at Jane Addams Sunday. I'm setting well and getting more digs playing the 'I' formation. Serve returns on my left are still an embarrassingly low point in my game and I just can't seem to fix it. Less jumping means more bitch slaps. It's now my go-to shot on the right side. For what it lacks in power it's compensated for by more reliability. I'll hit this spike 4 out of 5 times. Pulldowns are getting a little easier to hit as I seem to be slowly finding the timing to the swing. Ultimately, they're just way easier on my knee. Ronnie was playing solid. He tattooed Cory, hit a side axe and dug one of my spikes for a kill. He was also plagued with service returns problems.

BBQ with the family afterward. I watched my twin nieces play freeze tag with some other kids and could not help but die laughing every time Drew got tagged and did a ballerina pose while she was frozen, lol.

Five players at Busse on Monday. Ronnie played like stir fried ass cheese. Free point. Just about every time the footbag came to him he whiffed, shanked, or kicked the bag into the net, almost predictably, a foot below the tape. I dunno. It made the games we played with him almost painful to be in because they were such lopsided victories. One of the games managed to be a little enjoyable because Cory just put on a spike clinic as I was setting him against Ted/Ronnie. Can you say demoralizing? For 7-8 straight points it was bump-set-kill or simply dig and kill as Cory just murdered everything in reach. It was like watching a dunk contest with a front row view. Too bad his video camera died in somewhere in the middle of it.

I should be working.

Edit:
After watching some of the session videos Cory put up I guess Ronnie didn't play as bad as I thought but it definitely wasn't a great session for him. I've been sweep serving a little more which also means I've been serving out more often as well. I'm not that comfortable playing in the rear of the 'I' formation and sometimes I'm just flat out in the wrong place up front. Makes me wonder if kills are due my bad positioning or it was just purely a great shot from the offense.

Random highlights from the vids:
-Hit a game winning bitch slap that nearly tagged Cory in the face
-Ronnie winning an exchange with Greg at the net
-Ted hitting a really Nasty pulldown
-Lost a big joust with Cory. He blocked my shtataff with one of his own. When the vid is frozen at the right frame we are mirror images of each other. It was pretty cool.
-Wicked pulldown where I come from out of frame, appear for a split second then nail the spike immediately after

Zeke · Post by **Zeke** » 08 Sep 2010 07:16

I found myself playing softball (piggy, more specifically) with Marty, Cuba, Twitch and one of their friends at Welles a couple weeks ago. Cuba is at bat and after a few pathetically week hits his friend screams from the outfield, "Cuba... take your tampon out and hit the damn ball!"
Cuba did not hear so Twitch responds for him, "He says no! In fact, he's putting on another one!"
I add. "And he's cutting off the strings!"
Cuba, still oblivious to the entire conversation we're practically shouting about him asks, " What the fuck are you guys talking about?"
Laughing gets even louder... time out.

Later that night, well after we stopped playing there was the usual 'what are we going to do now>we should eat> but no one takes initiative> nothing happens> repeat' period of the day. I don't quite know how the subject of us getting jumped (assaulted) at the park got started but Marty seemed pretty confident. "Man, there's five of us. We got bats, we got *Zeke..."
I cut him off and add, "and we got Cuba... Cuba, tell them about Star Wars!" Marty's head immediately dips into his folded arms but I can still hear him laughing. You've got to know Cuba to really appreciate that. I don't dislike the kid but I honestly don't know why I rip into him so much.

Man, I miss skwerz at Lane

*I'm not quite sure how I managed t be an asset in that situation so I was equal parts shocked and flattered. What would have been truly shocking would be them discovering how fast I could do a quarter mile while screaming at the top of my lungs!