Fanzine

[C-Fan]

Here is a wish i do : I hope we will have a session together in an other 14 years !

What a nice sentiment. That would be totally awesome if we both play 14 more years. Man, 14 years. It really feels like just yesterday that I started. At the Jizzam somebody asked a question about the types of shoes people play in, and I launched into my standard speech about the types of shoes available. When I got to Lavers, somebody made a joke to the effect of: "Ken remembers when they first came out."

My time in Vegas is fast approaching an end. I knew 30 days would go by fast, but even so it's surprised me. Due to Evan's schedule, I probably will only get one or two more chances to play with him before I go. Part of me wants to just enjoy those sessions, but part of me also wants to get some good hand-held footage of him to improve my Gatesman video. Right now I think I could make a good video, but I want this one to be one of my best. I have a good song lined up, and I already have a ton of good footage. But if I had a couple more angles and a bit less tripod, I think I could make a classic.

Tomorrow is my last day in the office, so this whole week has been crazy. The Jizzam officially ended 4 days ago, and I know I don't have the time to do it justice with a good writeup. Maybe when I get back to Denver? Won't be as fresh in my mind then, but better than nothing. At least I managed to post a couple videos from the jam.

My legs got blown out pretty hard from the Jizzam, but I took a couple days off and they feel almost back to normal. While Evan isn't free to play today, I think I'll try and get in a solo shred in a park if it's not too hot. I got a couple good challenges in my challenge thread which I'd like to try, and I'd also like to start training up my fearless again, partially inspired by Phil's new video. But really, I think I'll just warm up and see what my body feels like doing.

[C-Fan]

Back in Denver now, and buried in work. I knew my month in Vegas would fly by, but even so I’m surprised by how quick it went.

I’ve been in a bit of an introspective mood lately. Probably due to my Vegas experience coming to an end, but also because Monday marked my 1st anniversary living in Denver. Even my car has me feeling reflective, as it just cracked 10K miles. I’m also injured and taking some time off from playing, which always makes me stop and take stock of where I am.

One weird milestone which I was surprised to hit, is that my blog has now cracked 150K views. The reason this is strange is the following:

1. I started my blog in July 2004.
2. I hit 100K views in August 2009, around post number 2010 or so
3. Modified has been in serious decline since at least 2008.

So how is it possible that I got 100K views in my first 2000 posts, but somehow got 50K views in my last 300, especially with the decline of modified? One possibility, is that with so few new posts being added to the site everyday, my blog has gotten more attention, just because there’s less to choose from. That’s a bit of a depressing thought.

On a related note, I wonder how much I’ve benefitted from the shrinking of the footbag scene. This past year I put up better results than I ever did in my career, despite the fact that I’m 31 and have been playing for 14 years. The optimist’s explanation might be that, as a grizzled vet, I’ve gotten better at competing, and hence am more consistent than I used to be. Or maybe I got lucky a bunch of times. The more pessimistic explanation though, would be that many of the best players have either retired or no longer compete, and therefore my strong results this year say less about my skill, and more about the depleted nature of the footbag scene in 2011.

If that is the case, I shouldn’t beat myself up for it. Timing matters in sports, and I have no control over it. There are some NBA hall of famers who are only there because their careers had lucky timing, like playing in the NBA pre-integration, or playing during the ABA years when the league was diluted. All you can do is train and compete your hardest, regardless of who else is in the field at that time.

Both of my knees are in bad shape. I don’t feel anything wrong when I play (I avoid some concepts and tricks as a preventative measure), but afterwards they ache. They also ache and feel weird after I sit down, or squat for too long. I should try and get them checked out…the footbag season is over, and I want to be in a position to compete in Poland next year. On the other hand, I’m a bit scared to hear what my doctor might say. I’m in the middle of a busy patch at work, and I’m also apartment hunting since my lease is up in 2 weeks. So I’ll probably wait until I’ve made a decision on housing (either I stayed put, or I moved into a new place) before I get it looked at. I’m not super optimistic, since I feel if it was self-correcting, it would have healed by now. But who knows.
I plan on taking some time off footbag. It’s still nice outside here in Denver, so it’s kind of hard to resist playing, since I know the weather won’t last forever. I think it’s a good idea though to lay off footbag until I see a doctor about my knees. Then, depending on what he says, I can decide how much time to take off during the winter. The important thing is to keep my ultimate goal in mind: make routine finals at worlds next year. It’s been a goal too long now, and I feel like if my knees hold up and I train hard, there’s no reason I can’t do it.

In the meantime, I have a bunch of footbag videos I can work on. I’d like to make a Vegas Jizzam vid, and I still have footage from USO and Euros. I also want to make a video of all the new tricks I hit while in Vegas. In the 30 days I was down there, I hit more new tricks than I normally do in a year. One of the many benefits of playing with other people. The project that I’m really excited about though, is making a Gatesman special. I have great footage, a good song lined up, and enough time to do a killer job. I don’t want to make a good video…I want to make a classic video. So that’s my longer term project.

NYJ isn’t that far away, but I don’t want to buy tickets before getting my knees checked out. I had a great time the last 3 years, but I don’t want to push things if it’ll hurt my chances at healing my knees.

[boyle]

I think you've hit a few nails on the head in your post Ken. However, you have to remember that saying that many mums have- "you've gotta be in it to win it".

Having read your blog for a fair few years now, it seems it the last few years you've put a whole lot more prep into your routines and other parts of the comp. Maybe in the past you were trying to many "big tricks" in the routines, meaning more drops.

As for the reading, I think the fact is that many people might just check in once a month or so these days. They will go to the players they know, or to blogs they have read before, and normally from you there's a good tournament story....the other option is people have been reading your entire history...who knows?

All I know is I like to read your blog and hope you keep it up. Good luck with the injuries.

[C-Fan]

Knees are still bothering me. Part of me wonders if it’s just arthritic knees, and taking a baby aspirin a day is the solution. But then part of me also wants to get them zapped so I know for sure I’m not dealing with a torn ligament or particulate in the knees. I should just go get them checked out. Even if the doctor says it’s just minor arthritis, my plan for the winter months is still going to be to take it pretty easy. I’m not sure yet if I plan on going to NYJ, but even if I do, I probably won’t train hardcore for it. Speaking of which:

Having read your blog for a fair few years now, it seems it the last few years you've put a whole lot more prep into your routines and other parts of the comp. Maybe in the past you were trying to many "big tricks" in the routines, meaning more drops.

You’re definitely correct that I’ve put a lot more preparation into my routines in the last few years. I also agree that that preparation is what has helped me get better results as well. That said, I think the improvement in drops has less to do with big tricks, and more to do with pacing and energy management. In the past, my routines had a loosely planned structure, but I’d improvise within that structure. For example, I’d know to do shuffle during a section, and then fliers in the next section, but I wouldn’t have the specific strings planned out. While this would sometimes result in a good routine, and I wouldn’t stress as much about a missed cue messing me up, it also made it hard for me to pace myself. I found that usually by the 80 second mark I’d be exhausted, and then I’d either have to tone down the end of my routine, or I’d drop. Once I started planning out my routines to the move, and practicing it the same way every time, I found I could do a full two minutes without having my energy flag towards the end.

Anyway, the main reason I’m writing here, is because I had a session. On Sunday I played for the first time since leaving Vegas, which was a full week ago. Taking off 7 days from playing helped, as my legs felt fresh. My knees still felt off, but staying away from problem concepts helped. I only pushed it a couple times, which in retrospect was dumb, but today I don’t feel any pains so I guess I didn’t overdo it.

My main goal for the session was to get a Sick5 on film. Given the state of my knees and the time I’d taken off, I didn’t expect my best, but I at least wanted to submit a combo, even if it totaled less than 20 adds. Mostly though, I was just looking to play and get a bit of exercise. As it turned out, I had a very pleasant session and had a lot of fun. I did manage to get a Sick5 on film, which I was pretty happy with. Could I have hit something harder? Probably. But I was pleased with the variety of elements I got in there: one whirl, one spinning trick, one trick with a single leg double dex, a triple dex ending in toe, a triple dex starting from toe, a ducking trick, and no repeated sets. I submitted my Sick1 a week ago. It's incredibly difficult, but I think it'll end up doing very badly in the comp, since it's pretty non-traditional, and also it's hard to know how hard it is unless you've tried it. But I think it's cool, and I wanted to show it off.

The other goal for the session, was to try and hit a couple tricks for my next video. During my stint in Vegas I got to play regularly with Gatemsan and Skaggs, and I also got to play with Bear a bunch since he came early and left late from the Jizzam. During my time there, I hit a ton of new tricks, so I decided to make a video featuring all of them.

Yesterday, I managed to hit three new tricks. While I technically didn’t hit them in Vegas, I did get the ideas for them while I was there and had tried them all while I was there. Two of them weren’t that hard, but one of them I was very excited to hit. I don’t mean to be cryptic, I just don’t want to ruin the surprise, especially since I’m going to try and get the video done tonight.

The last piece of news on my end, is that I’m moving out of my current apartment at the end of the month. I found a very cool loft that is downtown, which I’m excited about. This’ll mean new outdoor backgrounds in future videos, and hopefully an indoor spot too.

I might play today, but I think tomorrow is more likely. With any luck, I’ll get to making my Vegas tricks video tonight, and post that soon.

[dolercoaster]

have you tried icing your knees when they ache? I never thought icing them would be effective for my type knee pain, because there doesn't seem to be very much inflammation, but it really does seem to help. I think it just helps your circulation in general.


I've also been reading up on how building up the vastus medialus and perhaps more importantly the hip flexors and extensors can take stress off the knees...icing may help your knees recover from shred, but maybe there's some specific PT exercises you could do to stop them from aching in the first place?

[C-Fan]

Tonight I hit an invention, which I'd easily put in my top 3 coolest tricks ever. My camera? Ran out of batteries less than 60 seconds before I hit it. Le Fuck.

The weather should hold for another week, so I'll make it my mission to get it on video again. So annoyed.


EDIT: Felt guilty about making a video-less post in the blog, so here's a quickie of some two-bag and flapper kick stuff.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGI6GNEno6w[/youtube]

[DubleDex]

Footbag keeps drawing me back in (I got started back in the 10th grade - so 1991 or 1992) and I've recently started kicking again after a couple years hiatus. It's nice to come on modified and see some other guys who still do this well past their teens and play at a high level (I'm not anywhere near your level even, but I can hold my own).

Mostly I poke around on modified and read things just to keep up on the sport, and I came across this thread. Looks like I have lots of reading to do. But I also saw this:

Knees are still bothering me. Part of me wonders if it’s just arthritic knees, and taking a baby aspirin a day is the solution. But then part of me also wants to get them zapped so I know for sure I’m not dealing with a torn ligament or particulate in the knees. I should just go get them checked out. Even if the doctor says it’s just minor arthritis, my plan for the winter months is still going to be to take it pretty easy.

Yeah... age + footbag + knees = pain as far as I can tell. I schooled quantum sets one night and my knees haven't felt the same since. It sucks when you really feel inspired about how your game is going and you really want to go out and play, but you know you shouldn't because your body doesn't hold up like it used to. Blah.

Anyway, keep up the posts and the videos. They are awesome and inspiring.[/i]

[C-Fan]

Thanks for the post. You should put your name in your signature. It makes for a better online community, and also makes it easier when you’ll inevitably meet people in real life. When you show up to tournies you won’t have to introduce yourself by your screen name.

I went to the doctor to get my knee checked out yesterday. Based on the fact that I can walk without pain, and that I’m able to still do footbag, he was pretty sure I didn’t tear a ligament or have any loose particulate in my knee. He didn’t think xrays were necessary because of that. Instead, he prescribed taking a month off over the winter, and then doing knee and hip exercises every day to strengthen that knee. I hope that does the trick.

For the next week or so the weather should still be good enough that I can play footbag outside after work and on weekends. I’m going to keep playing through then, and then likely take off 2 months from footbag. It’s really hard to stay away though. Footbag gives me a high that I can’t get from anything else.

While I was in Vegas I had a burst of creativity, which led to a ton of new tricks. I haven’t played that often since getting back to Denver, but when I have, the flow of new tricks has continued. Maybe it’s because tournament season is finally over and there’s no pressure, but whatever the reason, I’ve hit more new tricks in the last two months than I probably have in the year preceding. I’m just overall feeling more creative, which is a lot of fun.


In my last post I referred to a new trick I hit, which I didn’t get on video. I’m happy to say that yesterday I was able to hit it again, in good light, well-framed and everything. Now that I’ve seen it on video, I really can say that it’s one of my favorite tricks of all time. I’ll put it on a video soon.

Last bit of blogworthy news: the Stride gum contests ended on Tuesday night. I submitted entries to the two contests which were hacky related, and as of this morning, they both are still on the site identified as the “current world records.” That said, I haven’t received official notification that either has won, and in one case people are trying to get the entry disqualified on a technicality. We’ll see how this plays out.

The first contest was to see how long a group of 3 people could hack a crumpled 8x11 sheet of paper. Brian Bear, Gatesman, and myself did this at Vegas jam, and got a couple good goes at it. Our best was 53 seconds, which Stride disqualified because we didn’t show the paper being crumpled or uncrumpled (when we submitted it, this wasn’t a rule. They added the rule after we held the record for a week, and retroactively disqualified it. Classy ). Luckily, I had another attempt of ours which showed Brian crumpling the paper, and at 39 seconds, it still ended up being a winner. Now people are saying that since there’s a copyrighted song playing in the background, we should be disqualified. I’m going to submit the same clip without sound and see what happens, but based on their track record, I wouldn’t be surprised if they bitch out again. Crossing my fingers this won’t happen.

The other Stride contest related to hacky, was kicking a duct tape hackysack as long as you could. Based on my experiences with the paper challenge, I entered this contest with crazy documentation. I made a video of me making the hack, and then when I set my record, I showed myself peeling the hack apart. Thankfully, I did this on the tennis courts by my house, so I don’t think they can get me on any technicalities (unless of course they retroactively change the rules again). As far as I can tell, no other true footbaggers submitted entries to the contests, which I don’t understand. I mean, the paper one required three people, but the duct tape one could be done by anybody. Were footbaggers not aware of the contests? Or was $500 not enough to motivate them?

Crossing my fingers I’ll hear official word from Stride soon. In the meantime, my short term footbag goals are to play while it’s still nice out, and then make some videos while I’m away from the game. Some projects I have on deck are: Gatesman special, another new tricks video, a Euros video, a video from a session when I was tipsy/drunk, a USO sick 1 video, and a G-Unit modding tutorial. Plate’s pretty full.

[C-Fan]

Feel like things are going well footbag-wise.

Now that I saw the doctor, I feel like I have a plan for recovery. The plan is to play footbag until daylight savings, and then take off between 1-2 full months from footbag. Sometime in the middle of that, I'll start doing knee strengthening exercises, and then at the end I'll ease back into footbag. Hopefully by spring my body will be well-rested, and then I'll be able to train hard and peak for Worlds.

It's fall here in Denver, which means the weather is weird. It'll be in the 40s in the morning, and then in the 70s in the afternoon. Today it was in the 80s. Not complaining, since it extends the outdoor footbag season. I've been playing a lot this last week, and it feels good. My knee doesn't feel any better, but it also doesn't feel any worse.

I've spent my last few sessions trying to hit new tricks, and I've been very pleased with the results. I now have enough tricks to make another video in the style of my Vegas Tricks one. This one has some tricks which might be inventions too. More than anything though, it's just exciting to me that I've been able to hit so many new tricks in the last couple months. I'm going to try and get a video made this weekend.

I saw that Stride Gum contest results will be officially announced on facebook on Monday. As of now, I still hold two records on their hosting page, but I think it's possible one of them might get invalidated on a technicality. Nothing I can do about it now, so just going to cross my fingers, and check on Monday.

I slapped together a video today, with some strings and random links I had lying around. Most of these are from my last few sessions, when I was working on new tricks. I didn't want to just throw them out, so I thought I'd make a quick and dirty video:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0CQFfYDCRc[/youtube]

[C-Fan]

According to my health spreadsheet, I’ve played footbag 7 days in a row, and 8 of the last 9. That streak was enabled by an Indian summer where the temps were in the 70s and 80s over that stretch. It’s cooled off again, which makes for a good excuse for me to take off a few days to let my body recover. It’s supposed to get back to the high 60s by the end of the week, so hopefully I can get in some sessions then.

Had a lot of fun playing footbag this weekend. There’s nothing better than having a relaxed session, where you aren’t racing the sun or worried about the temperature dropping, and just letting the ideas/tricks come to you. I had two of those sessions this weekend, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I hit 4 new tricks this weekend, two of which are possible inventions. Exciting as that was, I think the highlight for me was hitting open everything. I’d wanted that for a long time, and the fact that I finally did makes me feel like I’ve come a long way with my flip pixie set. Hitting a big trick is a rush, but hitting a 16 trick drill where half of it uses a set you used to suck at…that just felt very rewarding.

The plan was to make at least 2 videos this weekend, and I did. I still have like 5 projects on deck though. I also don’t feel super accomplished, since neither of the videos I made this weekend required any real editing (e.g. title cards, song, etc.). Tonight I’m going to shoot to finally do the USO Sick One video, which should be pretty easy.

My “post-Vegas new tricks” video has kind of taken a life of its own. Originally it was just going to be all my post-Vegas tricks, both easy and hard. Since I’ve continued to hit new tricks, I’m now afraid that’d be too long, so I’m probably going to cut it into two videos: silly tricks, and hard tricks I’m proud of. I’ll probably make the former video without a song or editing, but I’d like to make the latter a good video.

Here’s the second video I made this weekend. It’s from a session I had like 4 months ago (longer?), where I decided to play after getting home from a happy hour. I was pretty tipsy throughout, which I think affected my trick selection and style. No real editing, but hopefully still enjoyable:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w17LOojW9OE[/youtube]

Stride gum was supposed to officially announce contest winners on Facebook today, but I still haven’t seen anything. Annoying. I just want to find out either way and be done with it. If we win though, all this waiting and frustration will have been worth it. Crossing my fingers.

[C-Fan]

On a break at work I started poking around some older threads on modified. Found one from Danny Boyle where people took stock of their 2010, and laid out goals for 2011. Here were my 2011 goals:

Building on these highlight, some of my goals for 2011 are:
1. Make at least two more videos.
2. Stay injury free.
3. Attend at least 3 tournies/jams.
4. Start building a local scene here in Denver.

Mixed results on these.

1. I made a ton of videos this year, but I think my goal was to make at least two well-edited videos I can be proud of. Upular and my Japan fundraiser vids fit the bill. Maybe even my Montana shred video. If I get my Gatesman special done before the end of the year, that’d qualify as well. So I’m very happy with how I did on this goal.

2. Didn’t do so well on this one. Hurt my left knee in May, and still dealing with that. That said, I was able to deal with the injury well enough to pull down some good results in comp, so it’s not a total loss.

3. Killed this one. Green Cup, 2 Vegas Jams, Euros and USO. One of my best years in terms of tourney attendance.

4. Not so great. Between all my work travel, and training for the 5 tournaments above, I didn’t invest as much effort as I could have towards this goal. I have a few promising contacts, and we have the makings of a net scene, but freestyle-wise I have nothing to show.

I’ve taken two days off from playing, thanks to the weather. Was really hoping to play today, but looks like we won’t crack 60, and it’ll likely be low 50s when I get out of here. Forecast is predicting the next few days will be in the high 60s though so I’m just gonna rest today and hope for some fun sessions this weekend.

Picking up a CD from the library today, which has my song for the Gatesman special. I may start planning out that video in greater detail this weekend.

[C-Fan]

Since I got back from Vegas, I'd been spending most of my sessions hunting for new tricks. New tricks are a lot of fun; it's cool to try stuff you're not sure you can get, and push yourself until you can. There's also that "new trick high," which is more intense than the high you get from a long run. That said, the new trick high is kind of like a sugar rush. It's intense, but it's brief, and ultimately doesn't help your game get much better. The high you get from a hard drill or long combo is less intense, but more satisfying, and ultimately probably better for you too. I think I got a bit addicted to that sugar rush lately, and I wasn't thrilled with it. Since I got back from Vegas, the only non-new-trick achievement I could point to was hitting open everything.

Beyond that, I now have too many new tricks, and it's going to be hard to edit a short video with that.

So on Friday and Saturday I went into my sessions with the goal of getting back to basics. Work on all my basic concepts on both sides, get them into drills, and firm up the weak points in my game. For the most part, I stuck to this game plan. Towards the end of my session on Saturday I got a little tired and bored, so I played with some new tricks and got a couple. But for the most part I worked on my basics, both sides. In some cases I was pleasantly surprised to find some concepts were better than I remembered (eggs and dlos, for example). In other cases, I was a little horrified to find how inconsistent and inefficient some of my concepts had become (atomic and quantum sets, some double dexes).

Here's a vid compiling some hilights from this weekend's back to basics sessions. I plan on playing tomorrow too, and I think I'm gonna focus on even more fundamental concepts, and not even film it. Hopefully tomorrow I can make some time to knock out another video as well. Maybe a Euros shred vid?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1wMXE8P0fk[/youtube]

[worldbound]

Dude you are posting from the future! It is still October 22nd here. Love to read though!

Edit: Nevermind. My time zone is effed up.

[g00d33]

I really liked that you put different versions of similar drills together to make a bigger drill

[C-Fan]

Last night I dreamt I was at Worlds in Poland. I was seated at an outdoor picnic table during the medal ceremony, and I was crying in joy that I had made it to routine finals. I was also shocked to learn that I took silver in Sick3. That seems like an odd detail to dream about. It’s also a bit weird that I’m having dreams about Worlds already, considering they’re like 9 months away and I haven’t even started training. On the other hand, I think it’s good my self-conscious is already aware of my goals, and is psyched for them.

Footbag on my front has been mostly good. I spent October pushing myself with new tricks, which was a fun and eye-opening experience. After playing for over 14 years, you’d think there wouldn’t be many tricks left to hit, or that I’d be too old to hit anything new. At least, that’s what I thought. Instead, I found that I could hit a lot more stuff than I thought possible. A lot of times the only thing keeping me from hitting a new trick, was spending a little more time on it, or pushing myself that little bit harder. Too often I’m guilty of underestimating what I can do, and that can end up being a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you don’t think you can hit something, you won’t push yourself to try, and then consequently you won’t hit it. I need to be careful to not fall in that trap. The last two months of new tricks have shown me that I still have a lot of gas in the tank, and that I can do a lot more than I think if I push myself.

The one bit of bad news on my front, is that I pinched a nerve in my neck again. This seems to happen every 8-12 months now. The one commonality, is that it always seems to happen while playing footbag. I think it’s a result of pushing too hard before I’m warmed up, or if I didn’t get enough rest the night before. In good news, I forced myself to stop playing the second I felt a twinge of pain. In the past, I ignored the first twinge, and made it worse. So at least I’ve learned some from past mistakes. What makes the injury tough this time, is that Denver is in the throes of the last days of playable outdoor weather. Today is supposed to get to the low 60s, and then Wednesday we expect snow again. So I likely won’t be in game shape until the weather sucks for outdoor shred. But then, time off is likely a good thing.

I’m moving apartments next week. The new place has a space in my apartment that looks good for footbag, though it’s likely I’ll just get a gym membership. I miss playing basketball, and it’d also be good to do some weight training for my bum knee. I’ll see what’s available once I’ve taken care of my move.

Two weeks ago I wrote:

Some projects I have on deck are: Gatesman special, another new tricks video, a Euros video, a video from a session when I was tipsy/drunk, a USO sick 1 video, and a G-Unit modding tutorial. Plate’s pretty full.

Since then I've released the tipsy shred video, the USO Sick One, and the new tricks video. Not bad. Now that I'm injured and the weather is turning cold, I should continue to make a dent in my project backlog. Shouldn't beat myself up over it though. I've had my video editing software for less than a year, and in that time I've released more edited videos than anybody else.

Here’s my latest video, with my new tricks from October. I think a couple are probably inventions, which is pretty neat:

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

[MathieuGM]

You blog/videos inspired me to kick today. After a week not feeling like playing footbag .

Thx!

Mat

[C-Fan]

Mother earth heals.

Heals=selah, sacred crypticness.

Strawberry banana oatmeal.

Lots of knee kicks.

Be good to your body, your body will be good to you, furry astrology.

Check out my new video on YouTube. Piece of love, love and peace:


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmDk9DtmmkI[/youtube]

[Nathan]

Good video too, thanks.

[C-Fan]

Thanks Nathan.

Haven’t posted here in 10 days, and it’s been even longer since I made a serious post. This can mostly be attributed to two things:

1. Fall weather in Colorado
2. I moved apartments

Fall in Denver is actually pretty nice. We get snow very occasionally, but we also still get the occasional day when you can play outside in shorts and t-shirt. Sometimes the window for playing is only an hour in a day, but that means you can usually get in a session on weekends. Usually by the time I get out of work, it’s already too cold to play outside. I’ll eventually address this by getting a gym membership, but I wanted to wait until I was settled with my move before doing that, and the weather has let me get away with putting that off.

Moving apartments was challenging, but I think it’ll pay off as a good change. From the footbag perspective, I lose having a footbag tennis court right outside my apartment. That said, I’m closer to the park where we play net. I’ve only done a little exploring near my new place, but so far I’ve yet to find an ideal outdoor shred spot. I haven’t given up hope yet though; if weather permits this weekend, I’ll do some more poking around. I’ve played in 3 spots so far, all with pros and cons.

The other part of the move that affected me footbagwise, was I had all sorts of problems with the cable company migrating my internet. That resulted in no internet at home for about a week, which meant I couldn’t upload videos to YT or post to modified. Glad I got that taken care of. Of course, now that I’m playing less, I have fewer vids to upload. Really though, I should start focusing on making my Gatesman video for the Joulukalentari.

Shredwise, I’ve spent my last three sessions working on a self-imposed goal from my challenge thread. I was looking over the first page on a whim, and noticed the challenge: “ten unique fearless again.” I don’t even remember when I put that there, but it’s been in the back of my mind for a while. The last time I hit ten unique fearless was close to five years ago, in January of 2007. I’ve hit several different combos of nine since then, but it sticks out to me that 10 fearless is one of my few milestones that I don’t have on video. So my short term goal then is to get 10 unique on video, or better yet, break that record on video. I feel optimistic. I played everyday over the three day weekend, and each day I got to 9. This was in suboptimal temperatures and shred spots, and I hadn’t worked on fearless in a while before that weekend. If the weather’s good enough this coming weekend, I think I can break it then. If not, maybe over Thanksgiving break when I go someplace warmer.

Token video clip to close out the post:
[youtube]http://youtu.be/9DU5KmRdOm0[/youtube]

In other news, my knees are feeling better. I'm doing some exercises, but mostly I think it's just from playing less often. I'm going to keep up the exercises, cross train with basketball over the winter, and maybe take all of January off. But hopefully if I'm careful, I'll be in good shape by Worlds next year, and won't be thinking at all about my knees.

[C-Fan]

Fill post, so new post is top page.