-=October 16th 2010=-
Had a session with Sam and Ianek.
Always a pleasuer to see Samuel (Sam). the guy with who i started to play. Here is a funny story about Sam. Something like 5 or 6 years ago, is was in a relationship with his sister. I was 17 or 18 years old. We stayed together for one year. But she was living far away from my place. I was using public transport and i needed soething like 2 hours of bus to get to her place. So sometimes, i was going there, and while she was working for few hours, i was simply hanging in his house. And i ended up spending tons of time with Sam. He was probably 15 back in the days. So yah, we played tons of video games together : counter-strike, Tony hawks and stuff like that. We talked together a lot. Then here sister and I broke up together, and i basically stop to talk to Sam. We kept talking like once or twice a year on MSN, only taking news. Then, like 3 years later, i was talking to sam and i told him : yah man i started to play footbag. I can do few stalls now. I just bought my first pair of laver few days ago. I haven't met any of the montreal player yet. And Sam answered : yah, i started that too. I can do toe stall, clipper stall, butterfly (down)... I was like : no way man! Then i found on internet that the montreal player were having weekly session at the tamtams. So i went there. I just saw Sebastien Duchesne and Ianek Regimblad having an hardcore two man session. I was a beginner, i was like : yah, i can hit most of the tricks they do. But i didn't talk to them that day, i was too shy. I just kept playing alone at my place. And i told to Sam : Man... there are some good players at the tamtams, you should go there one day! The next weekend, he get at the tamtam jam. And he played with them. So when he came back, he told me : man, in played with them. That was awsome! We should go there together next week end! So yah, one week end later, i went there. I saw Kolo and Mathieu Gauthier busking together. kolo obviously saw my lavers. He came to me and throw me the bag. That was the beginning. Then we moved to the tamtams. Played with Ianek, Julien, Koa, Mathieu, Kolo, Sam (yah that was the first time we played together). Had an awsome time. I came back home more motivated then ever. Ianek gave me few tips and few drills. So i started to drill.
Ianek is an amazing person/player. He is the one who showed me basically everything about footbag. In the first month i was playing footbag, Ianek made a list of all the basic tricks. And we met up 2 or 3 times a week to have sessions together. He took Sam and I appart, and show us every basic move. I was sucking hard at that time. I remember Sam hitting basically every move within few tryes. On my side i had to came back home, try them for a week, and then hit it next session haha. The objective of Ianek was to show us every move, so we can decide what we want to drill and hit. So yah, i owe him a lot.
It was probably the time were footbag was the most amazing for me. There was still plenty of active footbag players in montreal : Kolo, Mathieu Guathier, Ianek, Sebastien, Me, Sam, François and more... We had few group session every week. It was awsome to show up at the place-des-arts 2 times a week and play with them. Also big tamtams session were the thing i was waiting for for the whole week. Then, Sam pretty much stopped to play, Ianek suffered so many injury, Kolo and Mathieu moved out of the town, Sebastien started to be much more dedicated about net. So yah, within 1 year, i became pretty much alone. It's a weird feeling. I still really enjoy footbag. I like the game. I like to drill, to feel i improve, to hit new tricks, to show up at tourneys. But on an other hand, i miss that friendly community that we used to have (and i guess it was probably even bigger few years before i srated to play). I think the departure of Matheiu Gauthier was a hard shot for the scene. He was the one shredding every day at the place des arts, he was the one reserving the shred spot for the winter and go there even if no onelse was there. Whenever we wanted to play, we simply had to show up at the shred spot, and we had someone to play with. Now i play mostly alone, except few session with James or François once in a while. Had a session with Ianek this week, we are suppose to have one session every week, but our schedule is pretty hard to fit together. On an other hand, i go to much more tourneys then i used to. I'll probably do between 6 to 8 jam this year, wich i a lot considering Montreal is pretty far from everywhere. Except for the kingston jam and Montreal spring jam, the clost jam is 6 hours away
.
Finally, i think Sebastien is the player that had the biggest influence on my game. Sebastien he pretty quiet when he playes. He is not the kind of guy to trhow advice everywhere. He is not the kind of guy to comment a lot my game or something like that. but i just feel i play a bit like him. He is super consistent, but don't throw 150 000 different tricks in every string. Even if he can hit much more things then i expect... I will always remember that reverse nuclear that he did out of no where. So yah, Ianek show me everything, but he is more into variety. I feel i'm more into consistency
. I also feel that my trick selection is getting closer and closer to the Sebastien one. Anyway!
So yah, that's a long post. No super coherent, but tons of things i am thinking about these day. tons of thing about the past, few about the future. Footbag is fun.
Finally, yah, we had a session Ianek, me and I. I was feeling the same i used to 2 years ago. We talked much more then we plyaed. In fact i had to ask them the bag while we were talking to make sure i keep warm haha. Ianek is still really good even if he hasn't played much in the last year. I don't think he lost much of his game. Sam is Sam. So yah, it was cool to have a session with them and talk a lot about different things. I always said that if we would have lived close to each other, we could have played and hand out together all the time haha
That's it! Not a super coherent post, but i had good time writhing that one! See you at NYJ for sure guys.
Mat
.
. The first few minutes were fine. The end wasn't fine at all... I will need at leas tone more week off, maybe 2... In fact i don't see any progress since 2 weeks; my knee is a the exact same point. That sucks. 
do one at Queen's? 
