Frank Sinatra Lives

Frank_Sinatra · Post by **Frank_Sinatra** » 05 Jun 2011 22:35

500th post in this blog. Gotta do this up right. Gotta put time and attention into it, like a Mr. Cool Ice tattoo.

Ok. Thanks for stopping by & commenting, Reile. I was thinking the same thing about spins while I was putting that video together - more spins would look really good mixed in with the other stuff I'm doing. Also, on the illusions, I think I'm gonna work on making my other illusion look like the one ending on right toe - clean, deep, and cool looking today sounds better than reworking them so that I can maybe have an easier time with harder tricks later. If that means I don't hit eggbeaters, so be it.

And thanks to everyone else for the comments here, on facebook, and on youtube. I really wasn't expecting such a positive response to that last video. It went straight to my head. Like a bunch of cool ice.

I've played ten more times since the last post, including the last nine days straight. Lately I've been laying off the coffee before sessions, which has helped. Also, I've been setting a timer to work on one concept or trick for ten or fifteen minutes. I'm trying to do a variety of different drills or combos, instead of work the same ones over and over. Also also, I've been working on freezing all of my clipper tricks, to work on control. All this stuff seems to be helping. I've had a couple really good sessions lately (of course I didn't film, so it goes). The last few sessions haven't felt quite as "on."

The big news is, soon I'll be working full-time again. I feel really good about the situation, the pay, the company, the work, and so on. Its consulting work, which is what I was doing before grad school, and doing freelance during grad school.

So footbag is gonna get de-prioritized once again. But I do want to keep playing when I can. Obviously I won't be playing nine days in a row once I start working. In honor of that news, I give you this video, backed with a song about quitting your job:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1Xude99VpI[/youtube]

I think 3:30 might be too long. A lot of my runs here are kind of samey, I just couldn't pick which ones to cut. And lastly, it seems like I can have a good drifter run, a good whirl run, a good ducking run, but a good run with all three of those tricks is really elusive. Don't know why. Maybe it'll all come together in the next one. And the next one won't be coming out next week I can tell you that much.

Frank_Sinatra · Post by **Frank_Sinatra** » 13 Jun 2011 21:42

I really could have tightened up the editing on that previous vid, to get the beat & the tricks to sync up better. I got lazy.

I've played six times since the last post. The weather is still wildly fluctuating from day to day, but at least today was nice out.

I've been working on getting ducking clippers more naturally into my runs, and also stepping. First run is my current BOP record - so close to 50. My other goal was to get ducking clipper, whirl, and drifter all bsos in the same run, still working on that. I'm pretty close.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH5h4o1QsBs[/youtube]

I think ducking & stepping could help fill some gaps in my game, in terms of variety, having more options for clipper to clipper and also for getting back to toe from clipper. Osis> ducking clipper is a lot more interesting than the umpteen osis> pdx mirages I tend to do in a day.

Today when I kicked I worked on the whirl> drifter> rpt drill. I hit that drill a few times, and also whirl> drifter> osis> infinity> repeat. My approach to drilling lately is not about repetitions hit in a day, its about playing for a set period of time, eating right, and coming back to it the next day. Shit's always better the next day. I also worked on ducking.

But enough about me. This weekend Jon Schneider was in town, as were Donovon Thakur and James Risden. We had ourselves a shindig. We kicked at Blues Fest - kicked for about four hours on Saturday and three hours on Sunday. The bands were a lot better than I remember from previous years, maybe due to the homages to Stax Records & Alligator Records? The bands seemed fresher & more distinct than last time I went to fest.

So we had (at various points) Jon Schneider, Reid Strellner, Donovon Thakur, Tim Werner, Tommy Arianoutsos, Tom Kotsakos, James Risden, Scott Davidson (and family), Matt Churney, Lucky, random hackers, and myself. Sometimes we struggled to get past the five man circle, but it was nice to see more than one circle going on at the same time. I hope that's going to become a more common sight in Chicago, since there's more regular to semi-regular kickers in the area that couldn't make it out.

Considering the fests aren't generally my favorite thing, or my favorite setting for kicking, it was still a good time. I could have done more circle kicking but I wanted to freestyle a little bit with everyone, and I think I did, at least for a little bit. Always good to see friends from out of town, thanks for making the trip guys. It was fun hanging out with Jon more & getting to know him.

Alright, now back to me. This is, after, the footblog section on modified. Enough of this friendly friendly happy happy shit. Time to complain about how I've been playing.

I didn't play great during Blues Fest or the day before. I guess I had some ok strings but in general I dropped on lots of bread & butter type of tricks. Today I switched to a new pair of lavers, so that was also kind of an awkward session.

I haven't filmed since last week when it was in the high 90s, and I don't think I'll film much for the next week while I break these shoes in. I wish I had a video of awesome shit from Blues Fest, but I didn't film at all. Most of the spots we kicked would not have been good for tripod filming, plus on the first day everybody seemed kind of off because of the shit weather. Maybe some random observer video will surface at some point, but its always hard to track down that stuff.

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 14 Jun 2011 07:47

Nice stuff Sinatra. I wish my trip hadn't been canceled, but I really had no choice. Also digging the videos in the blog. It's one thing to read about progress, it's another thing to see it. I agree that ducking would make a nice addition to your game in terms of variety. Stepping...eh. I think it's overrated, and kinda looks like every other dex. So yeah, my vote is for spinning and ducking being added to the repertoire. I'd also like to see stuff like pixie ss osis thrown in. Stuff like that can be a nice directional changeup that people don't expect.

Any chance you make it to US Open?

Post by **Zac Miley** » 15 Jun 2011 09:54

Just to disagree with Ken, I'd say pick stepping over spinning. While there is really only a minute difference, I think stepping makes tricks look way harder.

edit: or all of 'em.

also:

C-Fan wrote:Any chance you make it to US Open?

Zjeezy · Post by **Zjeezy** » 15 Jun 2011 19:58

Frank_Sinatra wrote:eating right, shit's always better the next day.

Regular diet lead to regular bowels

Frank_Sinatra · Post by **Frank_Sinatra** » 15 Jun 2011 20:42

Hey guys. Slim chance on US Open. It seems like it will be awesome and I don't want to miss it, but... I'll be starting a new job about six weeks before the Open. So I'm not sure if getting the time off would be ok. And then the biggest thing is I don't know if I can fly (I get brutal, incapacitating headaches).

Spinning is coming along at a crawl. Especially on flip. So that's not gonna be much more than an occasional spinning clipper (one side) in my runs for a while.

Stepping is a little bit more likely, since I am capable of a handful of stepping tricks both sides. But it'll be a few months to get those dialed & bsosable, realistically. Right now I'm having a hard time with stepping midstring from my right-foot clipper, and only stepping out of pixie ss clipper on my better side. I mean, yeah, everybody's seen ripwalk and blur a million times, but everybody's seen whirl a million times too. Ripwalk and stepping ss clipper can look pretty cool when done well, now I just need to do them well.

Ducking is probably going to be the first thing that you see more of. The last couple of sessions I've been working on ducking butter, ducking pdx mirage, ducking osis, ducking legover, and some diving tricks. Ducking legover is pretty awkward but the other stuff just needs some drilling.

Regularity is important to me.

Anyway, I've played twice since the last post. No film worth sharing. Did lose my one good footbag.

Sucky thing is whoever found it isn't going to appreciate it. I mean if I lost the equivalent in money I'd know its gone and spent. My bag is just out there, somewhere. Alone. Probably afraid. Duct tape covering its mouth, a dirty mattress in the corner. Occasional gun shots in the distance, followed by police sirens. The sirens get closer, and it wonders if it will be rescued. But then the sirens fade away, and my bag learns, slowly, to give up hope.

Well I guess I could share some highlights but I'd rather leave you all with that.

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 15 Jun 2011 21:46

Frank_Sinatra wrote: Did lose my one good footbag. Sucky thing is whoever found it isn't going to appreciate it. I mean if I lost the equivalent in money I'd know its gone and spent. .

Had the same thing happen to me recently, and the same reaction on my part. You just know that whoever found it won't value it close to as much as you would.

Frank_Sinatra wrote:
Regularity is important to me.
.

Reid · Post by **Reid** » 16 Jun 2011 13:07

I liked that bag a lot. When did you lose it?

Zeke · Post by **Zeke** » 20 Jun 2011 20:31

IMG_1373 by airzeke, on Flickr

Lookin' sharp there, chief. Thanks for stopping by, even for a little bit. It means a lot.

Frank_Sinatra · Post by **Frank_Sinatra** » 23 Jun 2011 21:49

Hey there guys. First of all, Ken - wow. Stimulant and laxative? Truly this is a golden age. Reid, I lost it the Monday or Tuesday after Blues Fest, at around 3:30. The trail has gone cold. The only hope is Batbag. Zeke, I'm glad I could stop by, even if it was just for a second, and stroll around in those ridiculous robes.

I've played six times since the last post. I got to play with Tim & Reid a couple of times, which is good. Its nice to have regular sessions with people again. I just forgot how much effort it takes to stay in touch with so many people on a regular basis, and figure out schedules or locations that work, and figure out who is really coming out and who is saying maybe & then no-showing. Its definitely easier to just play solo, whenever I want, but its not as fun. Then its just a workout.

Once I start work (a week from now) I'll probably do solo sessions during the week, unless people are already gonna be downtown at around 5 or 5:30. There's a whole list of factors why this is the best plan for me, but fuck it.

Anyway, I played for over three hours with those guys yesterday, then two hours solo today. I needed a long session today to really focus on where my game is at, what's going wrong and what I can try differently.

Like I've mentioned in the last few posts, I've been trying to improve the variety in my runs. I'm finding it difficult to balance variety with consistency. For instance, if I spend three or four days just trying to drill & refine some newer stuff, stringing is a struggle. But when I just string the same tricks over and over again, I get bored. So, like I said, I need to find some sort of balance.

I think my course of action is a couple days of working on strings. I want to be able to start my runs strong, transition with easier stuff I have dialed, and then go into another section of hard tricks. I think working on my breathing and on staying relaxed deeper into the string would help me accomplish that. Then maybe set aside 20 minutes to work on improving a specific concept. I don't know. Just have to see how it goes.

One thing I've been consciously trying to do more of is ducking in runs. I've been able to duck well enough for a long time, but I just never thought to throw it in while I was in the middle of a run. So the good news is I've gotten a lot better at adding it in, but I'm dropping on it a lot. It takes time, and patience.

Stylistically, there's a few things I want to improve on. DLO should be less crispy, flip whirl needs to be cleaner, and flip pdx illusion could be cleaner too. Ducking sets are a bit too high sometimes. Ducking paradox mirage would look better without a plant.

Enough jibber-jabber. Here's a video where you can see exactly what I mean.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4JpF_0W38g[/youtube]

RipWalker · Post by **RipWalker** » 24 Jun 2011 05:50

Hahaha, I love the ending... seriously.

Also, I think that your ducking is looking great! Very impressed by the drifters too -- that move has been proving difficult for me since I started trying to get it on both sides. Keep it up man!

Post by **Zac Miley** » 24 Jun 2011 12:25

Hey Nathan, that video is great. It's obvious that you've improved. Like, seriously.

A couple tips after watching it:

- Stay confident after your ducks - it appears that you get really tentative, like your head and the rest of your body slows down as soon as the bag peaks. Try to keep a constant rhythm - it's the same trick as without the duck, just with a littler higher set.

- Osis - you're pretty good at them, but I think they're actually a hindrance to the stability of your runs. They're closer to your body than your regular clippers, which most people would say looks weird if it were any other trick, but because it's osis everyone just seems to accept it. Whatever. I think you need to turn more before you delay, instead of waiting for the bag to almost hit your foot. Think of it as just a regular clipper, if that helps. Doing it this way will look better and also make it easier to play out of (I think).

- For drifter, although you're definitely making good progress on them and they definitely aren't bad, I would suggest concentrating on keeping a tight, straight abdomen - don't let yourself fall backwards at all (this is most important), but also don't let yourself hunch/lean forward.

- Take your shirt off.

edit:

You know, those tips were really generic. To be more specific, I think you hold your head in the same spot for too long on ducks - give it a 'normal' position, then always bring it back there after the duck. You don't have to wait for the duck to finish to start the next part of the trick.

Oh Ken.

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 24 Jun 2011 12:41

Zac Miley wrote: - Take your shirt off.

+1.

Oh wait, are we just talking footbag tips?

Frank_Sinatra · Post by **Frank_Sinatra** » 24 Jun 2011 20:16

Zac Miley wrote:Take your shirt off.

I can't do that. I have a really embarassing tattoo. See the top post on this page.

EDIT: Let me amend that. I don't actually have Mr. Cool Ice tattooed on my back. Its on my chest. And its Mrs. Doubtfire.

The best thing is, I could edit your post to say something like:

Zac Miley wrote:Take your shirt off. Slowly.

The comedic possibilities are endless. Or already exhausted.

Anyway, thanks for the constructive criticism. I hadn't noticed that thing with my ducks, so thanks for pointing that out. I guess I just kind of freeze afterwards because I don't want to hit the bag with my head or shoulders. Totally agree with you on drifter. I noticed the same exact thing on whirls when I played today - I need to keep my abs tight, to keep my back straight, so that my center of gravity is right above my hips instead of slightly in front of my hips. So now that I know it, I just have to rock my sizzling slabs of ab into submission.

On osis, you're probably right. I could turn earlier a lot of the time. Especially on that ducking osis, its all scoop. Where I disagree with you is, I actually feel like they continue my runs pretty well. And I'm not sure if I'm willing to put in much effort to rework osis at this point. I ain't no spring chicken.

Thanks for the props, Mark. And "thanks" for stopping by and asking me to strip, Ken. All the comments really made my day. Seriously.

I kicked today. Nyah.

Frank_Sinatra · Post by **Frank_Sinatra** » 10 Jul 2011 14:26

I don't have any video to post, because I haven't got the time to film or edit. But I've been kicking a lot. 14 times since the last post. Part of that was a continuation of a 14 day streak of playing, which I think is the most days in a row I've ever played. Mostly the sessions have been long - a lot of 2 to 3 hour sessions, pretty close to a 2 hour per session average. Some of the sessions have been good, some haven't. We all know how that goes. I guess I'll just summarize:

New drills:
osis > drifter > osis (repeat) inspired by Jon Schneider
pixie muted clipper > whirl > paradox illusion (repeat)
butterfly > dlo > butterfly > paradox illusion (repeat)
butterfly > dlo > plo (repeat)
terrage> pixie ss clipper> paradox illusion (repeat) finally got this today

New/memorable links:
osis > paradox dlo
stepping pickup > terrage (bs - maybe hit this before?)
ripwalk > dyno (bs)
terrage > dlo
osis > zulu clipper
swerve > drifter (not new)
swerve > dlo (not new)
swerve > terrage (not new)
terrage > swerve (new!)
pixie ss clipper > drifter > drifter > dlo

New/memorable runs:
48 osii back to back (new personal record - may have been more, but it was at least 48.)
40+ bops (not a record)
60+ tiltless (new personal record)
dlo bsos (set from toe)
osis > dlo bsos (maybe not new, but its been a while)
swerve bsos (not new)
paste > pixie muted clipper bsos
maverick > diving mirage> run with ducking paradox mirage & osis > ducking butterfly
stepping pickup bsos
dyno bsos (not new)

New tricks:
diving rake (both sides)
zulu rake (both sides)
zulu clipper (flipside)
zulu osis (flipside)
merkon (one side)
atomic ss pickup (one side)
eggbeater (one side)

And the hardest trick in the world: flip spinning clipper. First time this year, and my footwork is all fucked up on it, but whatever.

I still drop on dumb shit. I mean, I thought I had mastered the "all-bail" trick vocabulary, and then I don't bail effectively.

Tim suggested that I try to take my toe-to-toe game to the next level, so I've been working on that more. Most of this summer I've worked on clipper tricks, so a change up is good right about now.

I've been having fun playing with everybody, we've got a pretty reliable core group of players now (who don't hate each other - oooh, is that controversial? Like I give a shit). It'd be nice if we could break the five man circle curse. We've got the potential to get there, with about half a dozen semi-active players on top of the core group.

So yeah, to condense about 30 hours of playing into one sentence: its been a lot of fun, I'd like to stop dropping on easy shit.

Balancing footbag and work hasn't been a problem, yet. If a conflict arises, work wins. That's how it is. I'm traveling for business to a footbag city, but I'm not gonna try to meet up & kick, because I really have to focus on why I'm out there. I don't want to stop my business. HINT: It's not Kansas City, or Denver.

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 15 Jul 2011 07:14

Yeah, it sucks when you get to do business travel to a footbag city, but then don't have time to call up the local players. It's a bit easier when you travel solo, but when you go with your boss/coworkers it's kind of understood you have to go to certain social functions with everybody.

Glad to hear you have a regular session going with other people.

Post by **Zac Miley** » 15 Jul 2011 13:04

well thank god it's not Kansas City.

Frank_Sinatra · Post by **Frank_Sinatra** » 20 Jul 2011 18:39

Yeah, who would travel to Kansas City for business?

Lately, work has been winning. I haven't been kicking much (six times in the last week & a half) & the sessions haven't been anything to write home about, shred-wise. Good thing I'm not writing home.

I spent a session refining osis, it took me about 20 minutes to hit 500. Not terrible. I also broke my record, which is now 54. Another thing I've been working on is staying up on the balls of my feet, and being more focused on doing footwork and support leg stuff properly. Not paying attention to this causes a lot of my dumb drops. Also hit zooming clipper, but I don't feel like I had enough rotation to really do it correctly.

Frank_Sinatra · Post by **Frank_Sinatra** » 02 Sep 2011 13:01

Wow, it has been a long time since I updated this.

So back in the beginning of August I went to Vegas for work. That resulted in nine days off, which then turned into a slump for most of August. I had some truly terrible sessions upon my return.

During the last week or week & a half of August I started putting some better sessions together, with the goal in mind of getting 12 - 14 contacts guiltless regularly. So that was coming along, and I was throwing more difficult toe-to-toe stuff deeper into runs, and bopping effectively (but not excessively). I was playing pretty hard & had lots of longer sessions. That was fun. I started filming again.

I was working on dlos a lot, and also getting more comfortable with stepping, and really went to town with diving mirages. I was also mixing up my pixie combos & getting my flip side back up to par with my strong side pixie.

This past Sunday I hurt my ribs. Being manly. (Playing kickball.) Basically the ball was landing right in the baseline between first and second, and I didn't see the guy catching it until the last second - though I knew he was near me and the ball was near me, so I was kinda thinking if I could break up the play that would be awesome - and bam. I got to second base, but the pain later on wasn't worth it. (Story of my life.) The other guy ended up bleeding from his mouth. (Also the story of my life?)

I tried to kick on Wednesday, not realizing how much pain I was about to put myself in. Anyway, I definitely made my ribs much worse. It hurts to breathe deeply, laugh, sneeze, or roll over in bed. My four favorite things.

So I'm gonna take a couple weeks off at a minimum. This happening at the end of the season is obviously better than the beginning of the season. But there's so little nice weather left & I'm gonna miss out on an unknown chunk of it, and then be rusty for whatever's left (if anything). Of course, if its nice out, and I'm able to play, I'll probably go for it, even if I'm rusty & shitty.

I don't want this to be a bitch session. So I'll change the subject... here are highlights from whenever I last updated this blog:

- terrage > dlo bsos
- dlo > dlo bsos
- plo > dlo bs
- ripwalk > spinning clipper > run with other spinning clipper
- diving mirage bsos
- zulu legover (new - one side)
- torque bsos
- diving symp mirage (new - maybe only one side though)
- clip & toe set dlos bsos
- 33 contact with run w/pdx illusion, symp mirage, pixie muted clipper & pixie ss clipper bsos, plus bops
- tap bsos
- toe drifter > whirl> dlo> bs
- run with toe drifter & terrage bsos, and dlo either one side or bsos
- terrage > tap bs
- pixie ss clipper > drifter > ripwalk bs
- pixie ss clipper > diving clipper > dlo rpt
- pixie ss clipper > dlo > terrage > dlo bs

Lots of stuff I would have loved to get on camera.

Anyway, the other big news is CIC has officially made Reid Strellner a member. Birthday jam was fun, as always. Got to kick with Henry, which is more fun than twirling a toupee while sodomizing a canadian and griptitting an elderly woman. Shared some of that Wisconsin wisdom on how to effectively grill. Also got to meet some newer players from the area, hopefully won't be the last time we see them.

Frank_Sinatra · Post by **Frank_Sinatra** » 28 Nov 2011 20:00

It's been a long time, blog. You're looking well.

I don't know how many times I've kicked since the last update. It hasn't been very frequent. The rib injury kept me out until about a week into October. After that I pretty much just played on weekends, and then it got cold and now here we are. I did take some notes so here are highlights from that:

Zulu butter (new - both sides)

legbeater (new - one side)

smog (it had been a few years since the last time I hit it)

smoke a couple times (had also been at least two years)

spinning butter (only hit it once or twice before)

dimwalk & ps mirage bsos

pixie ss osis > pdx dlo

pixie osis > torque

pixie ss clipper > diving mirage > drifter bs

dlo > terrage bs

I'm really looking forward to NYJ. It's going to be downtown, near all kinds of fun and convenient things. Like food. We have a spectacular view of downtown and the New Year's fireworks. It's going to be the classiest event this side of wine and cheese. I almost don't want to sully it with a bunch of footbag.

If I start getting back into shape for NYJ, expect more updates. Either I'll find the time for that or I won't, hard to say. Life is very full and it's full of good things, so it's not like I'm suffering by not playing. I could use the exercise, and I do miss the CIC comaraderie.