Fanzine

Keep a diary of what you're hitting, what's frustrating you, and your goals.
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RipWalker
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Post by RipWalker »

Ugh, Fin du Monde is so good -- I want some after reading that post. Looking forward to the rest of the writeup!
Mark Bull
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Post by Muffinman »

Haha. That's illegal.
Yeah, I usually have to pick up my bags behind security before I meet people, but when I landed in San Francisco Dave just found me before I got that far. Was he not at Green Cup, by the way?
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Ian Brill
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Post by Ian Brill »

No pressure or anything, but as of right now this write-up is about the funniest, well-written blog-post I can remember reading around here. And, I'm not just saying that because you mentioned hamburgers or one of my favorite beers...
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Rekordy Polski
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Post by C-Fan »

Thanks for the nice words guys; I’m glad to see people are enjoying reading this as much as I am writing it.

Green Cup: Saturday

Slept really well, but when I get up off the floor, my knee feels worse than it did the day before. It’s the first time since the injury that my knee didn’t feel better the next morning. I figure there’s nothing I can do about it, and that I should just play things by ear. Brian and I eat some cereal, then hit the grocery store. I pick up some Gatorade and some eel+avocado sushi. The event site is further than I expected, but Brian and I have good conversation and make it without getting lost.

When we arrive, I meet Janis from Australia. The event site is on an indoor basketball court, and just walking around on it in my normal shoes, I know I made the right decision to bring my new G-Units. They aren’t as comfortable or broken in as my old pair, but the traction makes me feel more confident I won’t slip, which will allow me to focus just on playing. I grab a basketball and shoot hoops as I wait for other players to file in and get ready.

The worst part of a tournament is always saying goodbyes at the end, so now I’ve started making it a point to savor the hellos at the beginning. It was cool seeing Bear, Gatesman, and Jay again, since we’ve all been at Worlds, NYJ, and Vegas jam over the last year. It’s great when you get to see and compete against the same group of people repeatedly over a short period of time, because you really get to know them. Bro hugs all around. It was also nice to see some old friends, like Chris Dean and Justin Dale. I don’t think I’d seen Justin since 2008 Worlds, which is kind of crazy.

I warm up slowly, taking care to build up to certain concepts, and to try out the different motions cautiously. I come to the same conclusion that I did during my test session on Thursday: lay off symposium, double dexes, and dyno/blender motions, but everything else is OK. Warming up, I notice a few things:

• Justin’s form is a lot sharper. His back is straighter, which makes everything look more controlled. I make a note of this, since I feel I could tighten up my form.
• Chris Dean’s nuclear looks more efficient. It’s always been good, but I see him hit the best nuke torque I’ve ever seen anyone do. He later also hits 69-food right in front of me, which is likely the best link I see all weekend.
• Evan is listening to his routine song on his headphones with an intensity I haven’t seen before. Sure enough, less than an hour later he confirms my suspicions with a routine that he’s clearly spent hours choreographing and practicing.

The first event up is routines, which is perfect. I’m still unsure at this point if I’m going to do Circle, so I’m happy that the first event is one where I can control how hard I play, and generally doesn’t require the same amount of exertion as circle. There’s only 7 or 8 competitors, there are no cuts, and it’s Day 1 of a regional tournament. Because of these factors, I didn’t expect routines to be that good…but I’m wrong. Bear improvises his routine, which 9 times out of 10 equals a bad routine. Instead, his goes super well. I think Evan is up next, and his routine is amazing. His first dropless ever, and with obviously well-practiced choreography to boot. This ends up being one of the top 5 moments of the tournament for sure:

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=VSrz7Gw3Vo0[/youtube]

As a friend, I’m thrilled for Evan, and give him props. As a competitor, my mind goes through the following thoughts:
1. Evan is going to be very hard for me to beat in Routines in the future.
2. I wonder how Evan will respond in Finals? At 09 Worlds, my goal was to go dropless. Once I did that in the first round, it was tough to not mentally exhale too much. In semis I didn’t have the same urgency, and didn’t do as well.
3.By doing a perfect routine, Evan’s now raised the judges expectations for him tomorrow.

I push these thoughts out of my head, and remind myself that I need to focus on doing a good routine myself. In a way though, I feel like pressure is off me, since I know I’m not beating that routine. My goal is to just go dropless. As I’m thinking this, Jay goes up…and Jay goes dropless!

When I get up to compete, Steve jokes on the mic something to the effect of: “and our next dropless routine, no pressure, from Ken Somolinos!”
My plan is to do an old NYJ routine of mine on Day 1, and my new routine on Day 2. Even though I hadn’t practiced my old routine in over a year, I still remembered most of the key cues, and it went very well:

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=te5fFgYOuCI[/youtube]

While I didn’t go dropless, and I’m clearly not keeping my top seed in finals, I’m happy with my routine for a couple reasons. More than anything, I’m just glad I was able to compete in an event and not worry about my knee. Even if I scratch from everything else, at least I can say I did one good routine. I’m also happy because I did a better job of this routine than I did at NYJ 6 months ago.

I’m lucky all weekend, in that Steve keeps the competitions moving briskly. We start circle comp within 30 minutes of my routine ending, which makes it a lot easier for me to stay warm, and stay competitive. Two circle are announced, and top 2 from each circle advance to finals the next day. The second circle is Evan, Chris Dean, and Brian Bear. The first circle, is Jay, Justin Dale, and myself. Ouch. I figure both of them will crush me in the density round, so I try to come out strong in the variety round. I don’t remember much of what I did (though I got most of it on film, so look for a video later), but I do remember throwing WHAT!?!-eclipse to open one of my turns. Between to the two rounds, I think we all averaged 4.5 or 5 strong turns out of the possible 6. It was one of the most intense circles I’d been in. At one point, Justin kicked off a string with alpine gig! What a dogfight.

Towards the end of the density round, I’m watching Jay lay down a super long string, and I have a bit of a revelation. Lately, I can’t escape feeling like the old man at the dance, as it gets harder and harder for me to do well in competition. I feel like these days I compete for the sake of the tournament (i.e. to raise the level of play, to put on a show), and not for my own sake. This makes it hard for me to stay motivated, because I’m not playing to win, so much as I’m playing not to be embarrassed. Because of this, I don’t look forward to competing, especially in events like Circle. But as I stood there watching Jay burn a hole in the gym floor, it occurred to me: while the level of competition makes it harder for me to achieve good results, it also forces me to play as hard as I can. Competing is harder and more stressful than it used to be, since everybody is so good these days. It’s hard for me to hang with this level of play. But precisely because everybody is so good, it forces me to be my best. I never play as hard as I do in competition, so I should be thankful when I’m in a competition where my friends push me to play my best.

When our circle ended, I told Justin and Jay that, and I thanked them for making that circle so intense. We all agreed that we all played hard, and that really any two of us could make the cut, and it would be perfectly fair. No regrets on any of our parts.

Next: Sick 3, Request, and party.
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Post by C-Fan »

Green Cup: Saturday, Sick 3 and Request

Despite the fact that I had just pushed my body in Circle harder than planned, I felt energized. There was a good energy in the Circle with Jay and Justin, and I rode that adrenaline, combined with my revelation about competing, into the next event.

I hadn’t done Sick3 in years, so I wasn’t that familiar with the format. Each player wrote down three combos before stepping on stage, and had 3 tries to hit each combo. I understand some of the strengths of this format (it certainly makes it easier for the judges, since they know what to look for), but it took some getting used to for me. I only really wanted to hit one combo, and it was feeling good in warmups. I wrote that as my first combo, since I figured I’d have my best shot at it early on. I decided to write a safety combo as my second, and then a challenging combo (which I’d never hit) as my last.

I’m up first, and promptly blow my first three tries at my first combo. This throws my game, because in my head I can’t stop thinking: “if I had one more try, I’m sure I could hit it.” I nearly blow my safety combo before I get my head together, and hit it. That takes some pressure off, as now I at least have a combo on the books. Alex reads out my last combo: “next combo is HPD-mullet-spender. Quite the combo.” I respond back: “hey, ya gotta dream big.” Even though I’d never hit that combo before, I had hit the first 2/3s, and the back 2/3s, so I knew it was do-able. It was also all easy links (e.g. no stepping out of blender, zooming, etc.), so I just focused on hitting each trick solid. I missed on my first two tries, but on my very last turn…BAM! I was so surprised and happy, I literally started jumping up and down. I think I was the most surprised person in the room. :lol:

Most people hit their safety, but not their challenge sick3s. Evan tried some crazy crazy ones, but unfortunately didn't hit any. Here’s a video of most of the combos that were hit. Jay hit jani-isis-flurry, but I had a technical problem filming, so it’s not in there. Sorry.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aixCi7g0m-E[/youtube]

We take a five minute break, then go straight into request contest. I appreciated that the early rounds weren’t ridiculously easy (e.g. atw-legover for 4 rounds) and we kinda jumped right into intermediate links. I kept waiting for there to be a link with nuclear or shut set, but they never came. I actually don’t remember request combo very well, and I didn’t film it, so I can’t cheat and go to video to refresh my memory. I outlasted Jay by one combo, when I hit reactor-blurry drifter. I got out when my choices were motion-mobius, or maelstrom-blurriest. I’ve never hit either, but they were both do-able. Evan hit the latter to win it, and then hit a few more combos afterwards. Evan’s a natural at request.

Once request was done, I played some basketball with Bear, Alex D, and Abraham Santana. It felt good knowing that competition was done for the day, and that even if my knee felt bad the next day, at least I got in one solid day, and even managed to win a (minor) event. Basketball was super fun. We played 21, which is weird with four players, since rebounding is even harder. I also feel my biggest strength in basketball is my passing, which doesn’t get used in 21. I had some good drives, but every time I built up points, I’d lose them all in tip ins. Bear ended up crushing us all with his hot outside shooting. When it was done we were all exhausted, but it was super fun.

We go to Steve’s place to relax and get food. We order pizzas (jalapeno and pineapple for me), I get a tour of the house, and I meet Steve’s cats. Then Evan, Jay and myself enjoy the outdoors hottub as we soak in the view of the bay. It’s a surreally good moment, as we all exhale the pressures of the day, and wax philosophical about our experience with footbag. There’s even a rainbow arcing over us, clearly defined, and touching down in two spots. If I saw it in a movie, I’d blast it as fake. But for Day 1 of Green Cup, it was perfectly in place. 8)

Next: Party, and Sunday
Last edited by C-Fan on 16 Apr 2013 12:21, edited 1 time in total.
TokenHippie
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Post by TokenHippie »

There are no words.... Magnificence at its highest degree. Incredible job u guys, wish I coulda seen Jays
Why circle jerk when you can circle kick??

(Nick Charles)

NYFA in the building baby
F.O.B.- Footbag over bitches
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sen
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Post by sen »

As always, thanks for the write up Ken. I live tournaments through your write ups. Props on your performances too. Can't wait for more video!
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Pyroman924
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Post by Pyroman924 »

Loving the write-ups. It was good to finally meet you too man. You're an incredible player to watch. Oh and I believe I've got the full sick 3 competition as well thanks to Janis so I may be able to fill in any gaps. I don't really have any way to get the footage up though. May have to do some problem-solving there.
Alan Underhill

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"The more you drop, the better you get." -Ben Rinowski
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Jazzkid
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Post by Jazzkid »

Ken,

love the writeups .....now I realize how super awesome your blog is......I really wish to be at a comp with you guys soon........Congratulations on your sick three...thats awesome.....i jumped up out of my chair when I saw your excitement......enjoyed your routine also......

8)
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C-Fan
Rekordy Polski
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Post by C-Fan »

Thanks for all the comments guys; it makes me happy that people are reading and enjoying the write up. Due to work and other scheduling challenges, I didn’t have a chance to upload more videos to YT until tonight, so sorry for the delay between entries. Back to the write up:

Green Cup: Saturday night party

After hot tub and pizza, people largely split off into two groups. One group stayed near the kitchen to talk and watch YT videos, and the other went to the shred room to play foursquare. I had a lot of fun playing foursquare, though I didn’t do particularly well. I don’t even think I lack the requisite skills/trickiness, so much as it’s just hard for me to invest that much in doing well. After a while foursquare peters down, and a few players actually shred some to entertain us. My camera was recharging, so I didn’t get anything on film, but Evan and Bear were throwing down. This was a fun session to watch, since there was no pressure and they were just going for crazy stuff, with little concern for dropping. Evan had swirling drifter b2b off his foot many times… he may have even sealed it once, but I don’t remember. I think I saw Brian hit marius to void as well. Eventually Brian, Janis, and myself go back to Bear’s place for the night.

Green Cup: Sunday

Waking up on the second day of a tourney is always an interesting experience. Beyond the initial disorientation I always have when I wake up in somebody else’s house, you also have that immediate curiosity: how do my legs feel? Or just as often: am I hungover? I was therefore very excited to stand up and find that the answers to both those questions were good. My knee felt better than it did the day before, my muscles all felt fine, and the only trace of a hangover was some stiffness in my upper back (I tend to get this when I drink a lot, and don’t get headaches). Turns out all three of us feel in good shape, which is a positive sign starting the day. The other positive omen happens in Bear’s driveway. He has an 8 ft hoop, so before we get in the van I find a ball and throw down a satisfying dunk. Suitably pumped up, we pick up some coffee, and start the drive to the rec center.

In the car I DJ my ipod throughout the trip. I make us listen to my routine song 3 times, going over the choreography in my head. I’ve never done this routine in comp before, and only practiced it a couple times. Still, I feel optimistic. Janis was a math major, so I make a point to play him the song “Mandelbrot Set,” which he appreciates.

We get to the site 15 minutes before the schedule says events start. I try the front door and…it’s locked? Brian calls Steve, and it turns out they’re just leaving his place (45 minutes away). It’s beautiful out, so we wander around some, and encounter the greatest lost item poster I’ve ever seen. I guess it’s more of a post-it than a poster, but still:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uIRwAAIzVY[/youtube]

Definite highlight of the day. Janis and I kill time by playing some rummy, using the deck of cards from Canberra casino that Caroline Birch gave me for winning poker at Vegas Jam. Everybody eventually shows up, I warm up shooting some hoops, and soon enough names are being called for routines. Since Jay and Evan went dropless the day before, I was seeded third in routine finals. I feel surprisingly relaxed. Part of that is probably because I only expected to play one day, so this feels like a bonus. I also know that I’ve already done one good routine at the tournament, so even if I mess up in finals it won’t be a disaster. I step up, and:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQXQWLZvUh8E[/youtube]

I take a bow, and walk offstage very happy. In the past I might have beat myself up some for coming so close to dropless and missing the last trick, but for some reason I don’t take it that hard. I’m happy enough just knowing I did a good routine, and excited that for the first time ever, I did two different routines at a tourney, that both went well.

Jay’s up next, and his routine goes well. When the final trick slips and he catches the bag between his feet, there’s a similar groan to when I dropped my final trick of my routine. I have flashbacks to Mulroney’s final routine in 2000, where he had a near identical almost-drop. Evan is up last, and unfortunately has 3 drops. Even with the drops, it’s still a strong routine. I hope he does well at Worlds with it.

We go directly into Circle Comp next. Evan, Jay, me, and Chris Dean seeded in that order. After my revelation in yesterday’s circle, my goal is to feed off everybody else’s level of play, and try to enjoy pushing myself. In other words, don’t just play not to get embarrassed. I’ll try and post some video later, but for now this is mostly from my recollection. Chris Dean came out on fire in the variety round, which was awesome to see:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXSarTvsMA4[/youtube]

Then in the difficulty round, Jay caught fire. He had a couple runs in a row which must have been in the 40s, and almost completely genuine. Evan had some great starts, but with unlucky drops 5 or 6 contacts in, which really hurt him. I felt pretty consistent throughout, though nothing stands out. I don’t feel like I played particularly hard, but I usually do well in variety rounds, so that likely helped me out.

When Circle ends I’m relieved, thrilled, and sad all at once. I’m relieved because all competition is done, and any pressure is off. I’m thrilled, because I was able to compete in all the freestyle events on both days, and my body more than held up. Finally, I’m sad, because I know I likely won’t play any more footbag the rest of the tourney. I probably pushed my luck a bit by competing so hard, so I make the decision to stop playing for the rest of the weekend. I end up taking a total of 4 days off from any exercise.

Next: Post competiton fun, including Yves Kreil shred!
Last edited by C-Fan on 16 Apr 2013 12:23, edited 1 time in total.
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Rekordy Polski
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Post by C-Fan »

Quick non-Green Cup entry.

I took four days off from any exercise to let my legs recover from Green Cup. I’ve only played freestyle twice since then, and not very hard either time. I also got in one solo net practice session (me vs. The walls of a racquetball court) and one group net session. In the group net session, I got to play two games against Dan. Our games are still awkward, since our strong points don’t line up well. My serve is way ahead of the rest of my game, and I need to improve my reception/net game. Dan’s game at the net is great, but his serves are inconsistent and he has trouble receiving my serves. This has the effect that our games tend to end up with me scoring multiple points in a row off of serves, which doesn’t help me improve the part of my game I want to improve, and must be frustrating for him. I’m not sure how to solve this going forward, other than dumbing down my serve, which is not something I want to do.

My knee still doesn’t feel right. I have no pain walking, or even when I play. But whenever I kneel for any reason, it feels notably weak and shaky when I try and get up. I’m hoping this will be self-correcting, and that it just needs more time to get stronger. In positive health news, I don’t have net legs at all today.

I dug out my old mismatched pair of G-Units, one black, one blue and white. The tread is in way better shape than my last pair of G-Units which I retired before green cup. I’m gonna use the mismatched pair all summer, except for the week before Euros and the week before USO. That way I’ll preserve the sole of the new pair...it’ll be like my tournament pair of shoes.

Slapped together a video of the circle qualifiers from Green Cup over the weekend. Now my only remaining footage is Circle finals, as well as some Yves Kreil sideline footage. Hoping to get at least one of those videos done tonight.

Summer is moving along very quickly. I should make a point to practice my routines periodically. I was surprised at how well my routines at Green Cup turned out, but I know the choreo could be a lot tighter in both of them. I may try something new at Euros or USO, but in any case my goal is to get one more dropless routine this summer, with good choreo. Now that I've said that here, hopefully it'll motivate me to put some work into it.
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Post by C-Fan »

Went to Sacramento for a couple days for work, so no progress on Green Cup videos. Almost no internet use at all during the time, and only one freestyle session. I tried to pack light for this trip, so I didn't pack freestyle shorts, instead opting for my swim trunks. That turned out to be a bad decision, considering I didn't swim at all, and the trunks are horrible for freestyle. The length didn't bother me much, but the inner netting on them is loose, and kept putting my junk in awkward positions while I shredded. Super duper annoying.

Anyway, due to the inconveniences of business travel, I earned almost an entire day of travel comp time, so this'll end up being a 2.5 day weekend. Hoping that means I'll close out the Green Cup write up, and have time to shred and work on routines this weekend.

Here's a short vid of my session in Sacramento. The blistering heat discouraged me from long strings, but the long shorts encouraged me to work on some tricks I don't normally throw, like reverse swirls and dynos.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2FrUhdIt0Q[/youtube]
Last edited by C-Fan on 16 Apr 2013 12:30, edited 1 time in total.
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Jazzkid
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Post by Jazzkid »

^ loved the reverse swirl>tomahawk repeat....spins look great as always...the last link was great too :D
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RipWalker
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Post by RipWalker »

Love the shoes! :lol:

Really digging all of the swirl, reverse swirl, and dyno combos and the double peeking stuff is always fun to watch. Looks like it was a great day!
Mark Bull
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Post by C-Fan »

Thanks for the comments guys. Reverse swirl is a great trick. I think the reason I don’t throw it much, is that my flip is so far behind my strong, which embarrasses me. Something to work on for sure.

Had a fun weekend of footbag. I had a brief session on Saturday that got cut short by rain, but was going well up to that point. Worked on stepping/blurry drifters, and stepping out of them. Also worked some on flip phoenix. I’ll likely make a video sometime this week if I can find the time. I’ve got such a backlog of unedited video now… On Sunday I got in a net session, which turned out to be our best so far. We enlisted two friends of Dan who played a ton of hackysack back in the day, so they took to Takraw/net more naturally and quickly than any others so far. This is a very promising development. I think we’ll be able to get 2 on 2 games of Takraw every Sunday from now on, and from there it shouldn’t be hard to transition them to footbag net as well. The other thing that made Sunday super fun, was that Dan taught me how to do aerial spikes! Apparently I was jumping with the wrong knee first, since I was trying to piston my legs. Once I started leading my jump with the knee on my kicking leg, I found I can get my foot over the net. I spent the rest of the day going for aerial spikes at every opportunity, and even had some jousts with Dan at the net. It was a huge rush.

Anyway, figured I’d wrap up my Green Cup write-up before I completely forget what happened. Sorry for the delay:

Green Cup: Post Competition Sunday

Once Circle Finals ended, I felt a sense of relief. I pushed myself really hard in competition on both days, and felt lucky my legs held up. I didn’t want to put any more adds on my bad knee though, so I knew I was done for the weekend. My plan was to spend the rest of the day filming others so I could put together a video. Since my camera sucks indoors, I asked if people wanted to play outside. Right before we head out, Jay hits a beautiful flurricane first try. Probably the best trick I see all weekend. We step outside, and Steve says he has results ready. I start to film the medal ceremony, when my camera says it’s out of memory. Damn! I didn’t bring my laptop on the trip, so I wasn’t able to trim down clips from day one, which meant my memory filled up a lot faster. I frantically went through my camera and deleted a bunch of solo clips of mine from Denver, so I was able to film the ceremony. My big mistake on this trip, was that I didn’t empty my camera’s footage before coming. I therefore had around 30 minutes of G-Unit modding tutorial footage taking up space there, which I couldn’t delete since that’s my last pair of G-Units! Argh.

Anyway, the medal ceremony was cool. It’s nice having a physical trophy to take home with you, and these were small enough to take home easily.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLvq7SYDcHo[/youtube]

After the ceremony a bunch of us piled into Chris’ car and went to pick up food. I splurged on some Whole Paycheck sushi and a beer. When we got back to the site, I spent a few minutes freeing up space on my camera so I could film some sidelines shred. In a bout of good timing, Yves Kreil showed up right around then, wearing Lavers! Readers who are new to footbag may not recognize his name, but Yves is a German player who used to be one of the best shredders in the world. Completely flipsided, dense shuffle strings, and great style. Over the last few years though, he hasn’t competed in freestyle at tournaments, and instead has developed an enviable net game. Green Cup is primarily a net tournament, and there was a very strong turnout of world class players this year. Yves ended up taking 4th in doubles, and first place in singles. Given that Yves now focuses primarily on net, I was blown away when I saw he still shreds so hard:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiNL5dIM804[/youtube]

Justin Dale showed up after competition was over, so I had fun watching him shred it up with Yves. My camera filled up again shortly, so I didn’t get much outdoor footage at all. Some high schooler shows up at the site asking where the pickup ultimate Frisbee is, and while I can’t help him find others, I end up tossing disc with him for a while. I see Ahren Gehrman and Tu Vu arrive at the site, so I go over and catch up with them for a while.

My left knee starts to feel tired, so I go into the gym and watch some matches. Frankie Pelletier and Luc from Montreal vs. Eric Wulff and Tuan is a good one. I also watch PT and Mirken in an early doubles match. PT’s sunback is just insane.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3FpsU95qp4[/youtube]

The tourney organizers managed to get beer sponsors for the event, which is amazing. I go up to buy a cup, asking how much. Cris Cruz is running the till and asks me if I’m a competitor or not, since competitors get free beer (!?!). I quickly run to my backpack, put on my three medals, and run back for my beer. I end up having 3 or 4 different good ones. Mike Hansen shows up, and we catch up while watching more doubles net. Sitting there, watching amazing doubles net, sipping a good local beer, catching up with an old friend, and knowing competition went well… I feel completely at peace, and I savor the moment.

Shortly thereafter, I hear that the singles final between Yves and Jeremy Mirken will be starting shortly. I really wanted to see that match, since both players are role models for me, as high level shredders who made the transition to being high level net players. Unfortunately, all the freestylers are heading to Steve’s place to hang out, so I need to go with them since they’re my ride.

Back at Steve’s place I hit the hot tub again, this time with Jay and Justin. We talk about the state of freestyle in the US (not enough intermediate players), where we see the game going, what we hope to get out of it, and other freestyler BS. I mention that I’m losing the fire to compete, and that now I mainly compete to help raise the level at tournaments I go to. Justin points out that the last couple years have probably yielded my best results in competition, which I later realize is true. On my flight back I counted the number of top three finishes I’ve had over the last three years in routines (9, 7 firsts) and circle (8, 3 firsts), which makes me feel proud that I didn’t give up competing after Worlds 07. My routines went so badly at Worlds 07, I remember thinking I was too old to do well in comp anymore, and contemplated retiring from competition. But then I decided that I couldn’t quit until I was sure that I’d given it my best shot, which meant putting in real work to get more consistent, as well as developing a reliable mental game while competing. While I'd seen that work pay off at specific tournaments, it hadn't really hit me that that training had helped me become a better competitor overall, and over a longer stretch of time.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, it’s easy to get caught up in the details of each individual tournament as it comes up. You prepare for one tournament, go to it, compete, and when it’s done write it up. Then the next tournament. Then the next. But sometimes it’s useful to step back and take a broader view of where you are with your game (or with competition, style, etc.) and assess where you are.

After I get out of the hot tub I watch some foursquare, and then head back to Brian’s place with him and Janis. The next morning Brian wakes up early to take me to the airport, which is super nice of him. I tell him how nice it’s been to get to see him, Evan, and Jay every couple months, since we get to know each other better, and it also makes goodbyes easier. On that note, I get out of the car, say “see you at USO!” and board my plane.
Last edited by C-Fan on 16 Apr 2013 12:33, edited 1 time in total.
Muffinman
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Post by Muffinman »

I love the last paragraph.. I wish I could relate to that experience.
Also thanks so much for the Yves video. I can't stop watching it.
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Asmus
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Post by Asmus »

Haven't had time to read through much but your tournament write-ups are legendary and keeps the footblog section alive.

Thanks for the Yves footage. So good to see him play again.
Wish Max would release all of the amazing footage I am sure he has lying around.

Hope all is well,
A
MathieuGM
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Post by MathieuGM »

Thank you sooo much Ken for editing so many videos, and also keeping track of every single tournment you go.

your blog is my footbag magazine.

See you soon!

Mat
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Post by C-Fan »

Thanks for the comments guys! It makes me happy that people watch and enjoy my vids, because I kind of hate the process of putting them together.
MathieuGM wrote:See you soon!
Does that mean you’re going to Euros? Cause that’d be awesome. I hope you do.

Not too much new on my front. Last Sunday I learned how to do aerial spikes in net, and way overdid it. Legs felt trashed through Thursday. I ended up playing some pretty intense basketball on Tuesday and Wednesday, which trashed my body even further. Got a nasty hip bruise when somebody tried to run through a pick I’d set, but that’s finally feeling better. Gonna try and freestyle today for the first time since Saturday. Net again this Sunday will be a bit of a test. I’m hoping that with enough turnout, and enough restraint on my part (with some active stretching once I’m warmed up), I’ll be able to play and not have net legs for once. Net is fun, and I understand my body isn’t used to it yet, but it’s really annoying when you play once a week and then spend the rest of the week recovering from it. I’d rather just play basketball everyday. Too early to make any rash decisions though.

Took yesterday off from any physical activity. Used the extra time to find a good routine song for Euros. Now I need to DL it and start practicing it, but I think it has a lot of potential. I also used some of the time off yesterday to throw together a video. It’s 50% made up of highlights from my session last Saturday, and the other 50% is of clips I forgot to use from Green Cup, and a couple clips from Vegas. When I put together my Yves Kreil special I kept thinking: “I thought I had more footage of him?” Turns out I did, but those files weren’t in the same part of my camera as most of my Green Cup files. When I found the new clips though, I’d already deleted my old Yves project, so I couldn’t expand it. Oh well, at least I found them.

Here's the video, which features Evan Gatesman, Jay Boychuk, Yves Kreil and myself:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH1ws-8ydso[/youtube]
Last edited by C-Fan on 16 Apr 2013 12:37, edited 1 time in total.
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sen
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Post by sen »

Nice. Thanks for making and posting!
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