Erik Chan wrote:I'd really like some feedback on my game. I didn't really want to start a new thread somewhere, so figured this is the best place, even though I moved my blog to Hackrifice.
Please elaborate on your poll option. Especially if you would like to combine things. Like, "Nice trick selection and combos, but bad style", or vice versa, or whatever. I feel that a lot of the time I just do the same tricks and combos and that everything is so bothsided that my runs are jujst big drills and BSOSes... I'm particularly concerned about reverse whirl tricks (since they are probably 50-75% of my "big trick" vocabulary), and things like too many ducking clippers, or always bailing to the same trick on the same side... that sort of thing.
I'm looking for anything negative so I can clean up. I also would love ideas on how to spruce up my game, since I lot of the time I can never think of what to do and like my repertoire is so limited. Are there tricks that I never do that I probably could?
I have a bunch of videos of my at http://www.youtube.com/user/Hackrifice where you can see kind of the better stuff I probably do. Though it's not super accurate -- so people who know my shred in person would be most helpful! Thanks a bunch!!!!
Your game is rockin the way it is, seriously. But if you want something "new" to try, why not try rev whirling sets? it'd be cool to see a fully reverse whirlwalk, or something like that.
But anyway, your game is cool the way it is. You have enough variations of everything to have a "larger trick selection" and such.
I think you've got killer style. I love watching all your videos.
You have a style like no one else's, also. I'm confident that any regular modified video watcher could watch a video of the silhouette of the lower half of your body while you shred for less than 4 seconds, and identify you.
So, don't kill yourself over technicality! you're super super technical as it is, and you've got great style. Sure, there's players who can do more dexes or faster dexes, but no one has your style.
Hmmm...
These types of questions always bother me, so I didn't vote.
First off i'll say that you should play for you. Forget what other people say about your game. It shouldn't matter. What should matter is that you are happy with your game. If you don't like your trick selection, change it. if you don't like your flow, change it. if you don't like you mechanics, change it. if you think your tricks are too the, change it. But, only change it if you feel it is something worth doing, not because some one else says they don't like your tricks/ flow/ game.
That being said, i think i know your game pretty well, and if you would like some criticisms about what i see in your game i will send you my thoughts via e-mail.
Erik Chan wrote:There is a funny thing about hack for me. I draw, and drawing has always kinda been my thing, but I don't really enjoy the drawing so much as the product of having a pretty picture to look at that I have made with my own hands. Footbag most of the time (especially lately with a broken body) is the same for me. I bust harder on camera because I enjoy watching what I can accomplish, more maybe than the actual accomplishment itself. And so because of this I'm thinking of putting together a DVD of myself of all of my recent footage too, because like you, it is the peak of my game, and I don't think that will last much longer. Luckily for me I have almost every session of mine from the last year-ish on video.
I think it's interesting that we both reached the peak of our games so late in our careers. I wonder why that is?
I also found your point about product vs. process very interesting. I think for me I actually value process (hitting the combo) more than the product (seeing the combo on video), but I like having the video later on so I can sort of relive the moment. My decision to learn to spin and just have a flowy game is definitely my attempt to fully embrace process, and forget about product.
If you do end up making a DVD of "the best of Erik Chan," would you sell it? I'd buy a copy if it were under $10.
I think I will start posting here again.
I'm struggling with my game as you can see from my latest thread in the video section (http://modified.in/footbag/viewtopic.php?t=22127). I had moved my blog to Hackrifice.com a few years ago, but I feel particularly now that feedback would be very valuable and motivating for my game. My Hackrifice blog wasn't very interaction and convenience friendly. I also feel that recording simple goals will result in more satisfaction in posting here. This is kind of inspired by a couple of recent posts by people like Jay and Radek who seem to have very specific training regimes.
I don't have much at the moment, but I'll post a couple of highlights from today's session:
-Stepping same symple swirl > hand catch > repeat
-Dimwalk swirl both sides(Swirls are very new for me!)
-Double spinning clipper BSOS(not new, but something I need to rework)
Not much, and I've been filming, so, yeah.
I should set some goals. That would be fun and productive.
Actually, maybe I will set some basic goals and then reopen my challenges thread for ideas from others. Though that thread is so back and forth due my injuries that it might be more practical to create a new one. The good news is that I'm more or less injury free currently. I've been stretching a lot before and after every session. And I've been playing quite a bit, though my game is not currently reflecting that.
I'll read your blog now that it's here. I don't think I knew you had a blog at Hackrifice so I wasn't reading it there. Glad yo hear your injury free right now. I hope you stay that way.
I have really bad sleep hygeine. So I'm laying in bed at 6:40 in the morning writing footbag goals on my phone for my next session. I'm super excited to try these and think about what I should add and remove to forge a progressive training strategy. These are pretty rough notes, but I'm interested to see my first attempt results at my next session (hopefully this evening if I ever fall asleep).
-inside stalls (contacts: 28 ) My flip inside hurts my knee a bit. I don't crank it properly and twist my hips enough. I don't cross my stalling foot in front of the support leg enough.
-ducking inside stalls (contacts: 3) Hindered by flip inside
-legover (contacts: 40)
-pickup (contacts: 40)
-mirage (Rcontacts: 40) (Lcontacts: 40)
-atw-in (Rcontacts: 7) (Lcontacts: 5) Bad balance? Right leg knee points in -- difficult to spot the bag
-atw-out (Rcontacts: 5) (Lcontacts: 10) Right leg knee points in -- difficult to spot. Also, I keep ATWs too far from my body which loses control and cleanliness, surely.
-jester (contacts: 3) I've always sucked at street tricks 3 actually is probably my best ever, and I was surprised I surpassed 2 :p
-cloud kick op clip (contacts: 9) I love how this feels. I also did spinning knee bump > clipper > gyro knee bump > clipper [repeat]
-paused osis (contacts: 17) So hard. I was surprised I got this many, but I feel promise!
-far osis (Rcontacts: 16) (Lcontacts: 7) Haha. Awww..
-spinning osis (contacts: 6) I could feel the power! I know how to control these with a little practice.
-diving osis (contacts: 5) Surprised I got more than 2.
-gyro clipper (contacts: 9) Surprised I didn't get more
-spinning clipper (Rcontacts: 15) (Lcontacts: 13)
-stepping clipper (Rcontacts: 19) (Lcontacts: 9) Flip was so forced.. wow.
-stepping osis (contacts: 3) Tough!
-gyro butterfly (contacts: 2) Tougher!!
-same eggbeater (contacts: 2) Not sure what I should do with this trick..
-reverse swirl (Rcontacts: 2) (Lcontacts: 2)
-swirl (Rcontacts: 2) (Lcontacts: 1)
-leg > osis > mir > osis > pick > osis (contacts: 36)
-butt > osis > pdx mirage (contacts: 85) That felt good
-osis > spinning/gyro clip (contacts: 21) Kept stopping 'cause of close quarters
-far osis > trq > osis > trq repeat (contacts: 8 ) Fun! Can't wait to get good at torques!!
-osis > far osis repeat, adding per rep (contacts: 28 )
-spin > gyro repeat, adding per rep (contacts: 23) Definitely easier than just spin > gyro repeat. The extra spinning clippers give me some control.
-pix osis > pdx m > p ss osis > pdx m repeat (cons: 6) I love osis. I want to school everything osis. This was fun, though I still very much dislike my flip pixie set
-pdx m > inspin clip repeat (contacts: 3) Fail
-osis > inspin clip > butt repeat (contacts: 5) It'd be cool to be able to throw more spin variety
-smear > p ss m repeat (contacts: 9) Probably the most beneficial of the 4 pixie drills for my sucky pixie
-tap > as repeat (contacts: 5)
Observations:
-Wow, so few ATWs. I would feel embarrassed, but I never really practiced them. I always did sameside legovers and pickups. My bad. This might help me with things like swirl? Certainly double dexes like DATW and barrage, which I wanna school.
-This is far too much stuff to practice on a sessionly basis. I need to break it down and weed out a bunch. This took me 1:45 hours, with no time for shred except for my One Shot.
-My flip stepping sucks!
-A bunch of these numbers were just single tries of which I've done more before. I just wanted a basis from which to build for future practice sessions. I think I will make a separate post when I've thought of a better system.
-Repetitive spinning in my small basement shred area is dangerous!
-It was really fun And the longer time (which didn't seem longer) must've made for a much more productive workout (a main reason for why I play these days)!
Any recommendations/suggestions/insight?
Last edited by Muffinman on 17 Feb 2011 20:10, edited 1 time in total.
Oh no.
Not pushing! Trying to get back to where I was, slash redirecting my game. I'm not on par with you three guys at all. I'd value input from you though, since you seem to have really structured goals.
I remember talking to you about the toe thing at worlds, with the knees pointing in different directions. I still think it's something you should rework, even though it will probably mean devoting a few sessions to doing thousands of toe stalls. It's worth it in my experience trying to fix the same problem. One added bonus is that my atws are way better on both sides now.. not really sure how it's related but i think it is.
Just food for thought-- it makes tricks like toe set dlos and torques way easier because i'm not battling to get my knee on the setting foot out of the way. It also made my toe set ducks look wayyyyy better and opened up tricks like merlin and ss eggs.
-pix osis > pdx m > p ss osis > pdx m repeat (cons: 9-10)
-pdx m > inspin clip repeat (contacts: 3-4)
-osis > inspin clip > butt repeat (contacts: 5)
-smear > p ss m repeat (contacts: 9-6)
-tap > as repeat (contacts: 5-7)
-blurry osis > step osis repeat (contacts: 3)
Observations
-Well I did more ATWs today. I just stopped at 20, 'cause that felt like my kind of "fatigue point" for that trick right now. My better ATW-out gets far awy from my body into later repetitions and the dex begins to get less and less deep to the point where I'm sure it's the like bad barrages (also my the barrage side...). My other ATW side just felt and looked really awkward, though I managed to get to a same number of reps. I think just practice every session will help unkink my ATW troubles. I didn't get around to ATW-ins, as my knees were starting to hurt at the end of the session.
-Freaking stepping osis tricks @_____@
-I get lazy on my better spinning osis and don't actually spot the bag on the osis, and I want to remedy this. I never really drop that one when I don't spot, but I want to be consistent and adhere to good form.
-My bad pixie set was feeling okay today. It was actually my "good" one that kept failing on the pixie drill..
-Torques are so fun, but they take so much energy! I thought about what Anssi said in the mobius advice thread about "doing the osis", and that really helped! I look forward to doing more torques next session. I also might want to incorporate more torque drills to really nail this trick. I'm obviously pretty far, as I can only do 2 each side.. but you know...
-The gyro clippers was more what I was expecting than last time. 20 is pretty average I think for me. Well, maybe not average, but... a good indication of my prowess over the trick.
I think what might be most efficient would be setting a schedule where I have certain goals for certain days that cycle. So, maybe 2 or 3 days. Every day I would work osis and basics (toe stalls, inside stalls, ATWs), then one day I would work set-dependent tricks and drills (pixie, atomic, stepping), one day I would work downtime (torque, rev swirl, swirl, anything else?), and then one day would be spins. I kind of prefer to do it all every day, but it takes so long, and I don't have time for shred or anything else. I didn't even get through everything today.
Also note that I changed the goals from last time. I eliminated goals with which I wasn't struggling as much (or felt weren't as necessary for my desired game redirection), and added a few based on replies to the blog. Also, the blue and red indicate the contacts, more or less than the previous [or the best overall] day respectively.
Workout/school
I started doing the 100 pushup and 200 situp programs on my iphone, which is cool. I feel really fit overall lately. I think my biggest downfall is eating. I live with my girlfriend and her parents right now and we eat, like, Chinese takeout almost every single day. It's a struggle to try to get enough vegetables in my tummy. I've applied to go back to school, so hopefully I can use some of my student loan money to fund healthier eating. I'm working right now, but it's with the lamest-ass employer you could imagine. I work, like, 10 hours a week. The job front is equally lame-ass here in the small suburbs of Toronto.
The long-term goal is library school, as it's been for a while. I had been working in school libraries for the past 3 years in Winnipeg, and I love it. So I've applied to University of Toronto's post-degree Education program (1 year), General non-degree Study in the faculty of Arts (I have a minor in English) at UofT, and General non-degree study in the Faculty of Arts at Western (the University of Western Ontario). I have a really good shot at Education, as I've been working in schools (previous to the 3 years in school libraries too) but that is always a popular faculty. After a single year of non-degree study I can apply for my Master of Library and Information Science at Western, for which I should be a shoe-in. That should be a blast. I have a friend currently in the program and everything she is studying I already know and enjoy. The program is a year, though it offers professional salary paid co-op, which should be an awesome way to get into the industry and to also begin paying off the immense student loans I'll have incurred.
-pix osis > pdx m > p ss osis > pdx m repeat (cons: 9-10-8)
-pdx m > inspin clip repeat (contacts: 3-4-3)
-osis > inspin clip > butt repeat (contacts: 5-5)
-dsc > duck clip repeat (contacts: 2)
-smear > p ss m repeat (contacts: 9-6-6)
-tap > as repeat (contacts: 5-7-5)
-blurry osis > rip > step osis > rip repeat (contacts: 6)
I'm typing on my girlfriend's Mac right now. This is so foreign. I changed my major in school from Graphic Design to Painting because I couldn't use Macs. I did all of my projects at home on my PC and it was a real pain not to be able to use the lab at school.
Observations:
My hip got a real workout from the 30 ATWs. That was pushing it, but it was to a hand catch again. And then I got a real workout with my other hip on the inside stalls, as my flip is just incredibly weak. Knee pain was bearable, which is good, as I went into the session with a bit of a nag. That's the reason I haven't played for the past few days.
-The stepping clippers seem to be coming along. The form was less of a flail into the later reps as previously.
-ATW-ins (is orbit in or out?) were just a disaster. I think the one side it really due to the one-sided in-pointed knee problem I have that Nathan mentioned.
-I was happy with the paused osii. It's like a complete stop for a second that I'm doing on each. It feels so good to have control and balance for this.
-I've changed a couple goals: Diving osis felt a bit too isolated, so I changed it to the duck and dive drill, which didn't really prove too much easier. I got less reps actually.. haha. I also changed blurry osis > stepping osis to add ripwalks in between every trick. Again... still tough. And I added the double spinning drill. I figured why not, after trying the stupid inspinning. They must be equally difficult, really... only I feel I have more control over double spinning.
-I think I'll just continue to add the most recent day's reps with the colour code to kind of track my progress. The more blue I see the happier I will be. The more red means that I need to train harder. Or that something is wrong.
Hey Nathan, what exercises did you do to fix your toe set problem? I found that my alternating toe stalls aren't so bad, but it's once I start doing things like DLO or toe ducking that it's difficult to control. I tried ducking toe stalls and they were really forced. Any suggestions would be super helpful! Also how far along are you in fixing that for yourself? Did you get over it completely?
I've never been much of a TV watcher, but I've been watching this cooking show, "Kitchen Nightmares" lately. I don't know. It's just really fun. Actually, lately, I have been watching more TV than I ever have before. I used to only really watch a single show here and there. I was big into Friends, and have seen the whole series, like, 4 times over. And I've watched every episode of The Office, like, 6 times. This is my current lineup, though:
-The Office
-Big Bang Theory
-The Walking Dead
-Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Oh yeah. My One Shot was really good today. I felt really solid. It was one of two runs I did all session. Haha. The second was an attempt at 30 contacts to end the session, but just made 16. Also pretty good considering my lack of runs lately! I've been recording One Shots since December, every session I have. I'm gonna just do a compilation video.. soon-ish, I guess. Some of them are so sad. So very sad.
Oh, I'm so happy that we have 3 similar shows! I've never heard anyone else ever talk about Clone Wars before. It is so excellent! I am a huge fan of the 2D animated Clone Wars series that came before, and never thought that the 3D series could live up to it, especially after the reception of the Clone Wars 3D movie. Have you seen the 2D series? Man alive. That is how Mace Windu became my hands-down favourite Jedi:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7A07WNupEXk[/youtube]
Because I don't really watch TV, I don't know anything about the shows you mentioned that I didn't also list. Well, except for that Glee has a big following and was on The Office I watch on my computer, so that probably limits my connection to the present pop culture world. Did you watch the BBC Office? One of my favourite recent Office moments was when Ricky Gervais made that cameo!
Ya, I own the 2D series. It was awesome! That Mace scene is so great. The 3D movie was... interesting... My journey to see it opening day was way more fun than the actual movie. Me and some co workers had our lightsabers in hand at the local theater 3 hours before show time when the manager came out and asked what we were doing there. We were like, "Clone Wars! Duh...." and he said they didn't get it there. We hopped in our car and drove 2 hours to get to another theater in another town where no one knew who we are. We were simply known at the star wars geeks battling in the aisles. Good Times indeed. The Series has totally blown me away after that lackluster start, but it has been awesome.
I never watched the BBC office, but for some reason I caught the cameo anyway. Not sure why I recognized him. I watch all my show's on TV too, or rather I download them and then watch them with my WD TV so I can watch them on the TV.
Glee - a silly feel good show. Teenage drama with some singing. I'm a bit of a sucker for musicals so this show is a good fit.
How I Met Your Mother - Sitcom centering on a guy recounting the tale of how he met his kids mother to his kids. It's funny.
Chuck - An average nerd working at a retail store similar to future shop or best buy suddenly gets thrust into a spy world. It's got action, humor, and enough geek references to keep me happy.
1. Stoked to see your blog back on modified. I tried hard to follow it on hackrifice, but it was too much effort/time to go to a different website to track one active blog. Welcome back; I look forward to following you more regularly now.
2. I went to a Phoenix Suns game last week, and the cheerleaders were dressed as Slave Leia. I wasn't complaining, but was confused...until I saw that it was: "Star Wars: The Clone Wars Night." There was lots of star wars themed crap with the entertainment that night, which was kind of funny.
3. Challenge: gyro clipper-DSC rpt, or the opposite if it's easier.
Cool, thanks for the kind words, Ken!
The DSC drill sounds a but too much for me at the moment. I'll work on it, and it's certainly doable, especially since I plan to actually practice double spinning now, when I never did before.
In the meantime if you, or anyone, has any more basic challenges [particularly involving osis tricks], I'd appreciate the creative input. Maybe some stuff around the level of my current list of exercises. Torque stuff would be neat, osis anything, and spinning and ducking, pretty much. Also, DLOs I can do. Or anything else, and I'll see how I feel about it.
And the longer time (which didn't seem longer) must've made for a much more productive workout (a main reason for why I play these days)!
I watch on my computer, so that probably limits my connection to the present pop culture world. Did you watch the BBC Office? One of my favourite recent Office moments was when Ricky Gervais made that cameo!