Nick "Houdini" Polini

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

So, I really gotta start taking it easier for freestyle. My legs are more wasted than Charlie Sheen during those interviews with ABC. Shit. I mean, yeah I definitely had to get those Pixies in gear, but I really need to take some time off of footbag now. My legs can't take this much. Needless to say, I played hard this weekend. Jackson came up to the camper with my parents, and Tim Harper, Josh Haper, and Derek Gooderham came down to shred. Good, fun session.

Tim's stepping and Pixie shuffle got SO MUCH BETTER! Josh has some stepping now. He was hitting Ripwalks. Derek had a few legovers and mirages. Jackson was shredding REALLY WELL!!! So stoked on his always-improving game. He had some longer strings this weekend, plus he's got Paradon bs. Also, this morning before we left, I taught him Dyno and Flail and he hit both of them!

Highlights:

Meh.
Pdx Drifter> Pdx Whirl... Definitely kinda stoked on that, since both of those tricks from me are horrible and the p whirl are almost always THE :\ This time, however, it was so clean! I could feel it! I just pivoted more and it felt great. Pretty happy about that.
Gyro Barrage midstring
29 Guiltless to end session

Tim, I know you said your phone was messed up, so if you're reading this, you left your crappy purple and white "no one likes to use this bag for Pixies" at my camper. I have it with me. I'll get it back to you next time we kick. I'm sure you won't really miss it lol

Good news though... My parents brought up my ankle weights. While I'm letting my legs heal up, I plan on messing with them a bit. Not too much though, because I figured that might be counter-productive. But I'll be doing leg exercises a lot in the near future.

That's it... It really sucks knowing I won't be playing much, if at all, this week.

[teh120793]

Hey Nick, thanks for keeping my bag safe until we meet up again, where exactly did Derek leave it? lol

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

No prob, Tim. He left it right next to the stairs to the camper.

This post is going to be not very... good *sigh*

So I have pain in my left shin again... same pain that was there before East Coasts, then I played through it. It hurts to jump off of my left leg. Not like brutal pain, but it's enough to notice it. I need to take a break from the sport that I love so dearly. Not just any break, a longer break... Certainly the longest I've ever taken. I know people (Kevin, in particular) have had to take much longer breaks than I am about to take, but this will be the longest time I will have ever been away from footbag. My record is 1 week and it was bad. I started going through withdrawal. Sounds stupid, but I'm sure some of you can understand what that's like. Anyway, I apologize, specifically to Kevin and Erik Chan, for this whiney post saying that I'm quitting for 2 or more weeks, because I know you two had a rough time with this sorta thing. My props go out to you guys for dealing with that shit. I can't imagine how that feels.

But, I have one last session planned. Tomorrow at 5. We're being interviewed and video taped for Penn State's campus news program. That is my last session. I am going to take it extremely easy and hopefully still put on an ok show for the viewers. I know it's not good to play on an injury, but I don't want to miss this golden opportunity to promote our sport to the public. It's too perfect to pass up. Maybe some hacky sacker will be watching, join our crew, and become the next Vasek? Who knows?

Anyway, so this is my second to last post until my hiatus from footbag. I plan on locking my bags in a box and putting my Quantums in the back of my drawer after tomorrow's session. I will definitely post and let all of this blog's readers (Whoever reads this lol) know how it went down.

Hoping some time off will do me good, even though it sucks to think about.

Edit:

Highlight from a quick drill session I had after class today:

Smear> PLO rpt (This is usually really difficult for me... Not anymore, now that I fixed my Pixies, sucks I have to abandon them for a while)

[sen]

Sorry to hear you'll have side line it for a bit. I hope you have a speedy and full recovery. And thanks for popping my blog. Truth is I've been extremely lazy lately. Haven't worked out at all in probably over a month. Maybe longer. I need to start up again really quick.

[jay7]

Greetings,

Just wanted to stop in and say I've felt the exact same way as you. I've went through periods where not playing for a day just made the world unbearable. This sport can mean a great deal to you, and can give you as much as you put into it, and it seems like you know that. Now at the technically best point in my career I've had to take huge breaks for my back. Not being able to play 3 hours every day really sucks. Recently I've only been able to kick 3 times a week, and it fucking kills me.

You're not alone, and, more importantly you can use this time to really think about the game. Not playing can give you good perspective on what you want to do, and I encourage you to watch others, talk to as many players as you can, and learn from this. When you get back, take a goal you've made from this relaxation, and just crush it. I have multiple inventions, including a few 5 dexes that I *will* hit once I'm at full health again. The feeling of just dominating something that you came up with entirely in your mind, versus by pushing your physical limits little by little, really helps you realize that much more is possible than anyone else realizes. For someone like you who really likes to push creativity, and your own limits, I'm sure this will be as rewarding for you as it has been to me.

Relish this time that you can't play, for it could be more important for the rest of your game than had you been drilling basics just a little bit more. The amount of strides you can take by expanding what your brain thinks is possible, versus what your muscle memory can slowly adapt to.. Just, that is an important lesson. I feel like given our time at NYFA, you surely know that this is not conflicting with how important schooling is though.

Good luck.

[h0ag3yb3atZ]

i think the best thing for you to do right now would be to focus on school, pick up some fun cross training on the side (slack lining, weight training etc.) and work on something with next to no impact, like two bag juggling. just anything to keep positive and busy.

I think the greatest mis conception people have about players like me or Erik Chan is that our injuries are only the fault of bad form. I know I don’t have the best form, but I also know that even if I did mirages every day for a year my leg would still break. It is possible just to get dealt a shitty hand with your body type. Honestly, I’m blown away when I good players with less then stellar form in videos that play a lot because I know if I played anything like that my bones would break because that’s the way may genes are. That’s VERY lucky. Only thing I can do is play less and try to round out my game more. I can’t really take anything anyone says about this subject seriously only because I know 99.5 % of footbaggers haven’t been there.

My guess with you is that your getting good really, really fast and your body just needs to adjust. Two weeks isn’t a long time at all. I bet even money you’ll have a few rusty sessions and be killing it way more then you were the 2 weeks before that. You remind me of my thinking almost 2 years ago when I was pissed I had to take a week off your so good nick and only getting better. Jay had injuries, matt K had injuries and dave made BAP with a broken back, you’ll get threw this son. Just keep your head up, realize two weeks is nothing and you have a great footbag career ahead of you.

edit- holy shit jay you hit some 5 dexes? im not suprised but godamn, thats insane.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Tony: Thanks for posting dude. Get back into it. You were doing so well for a while. I Had so much faith in you... I still do. You can still do it.

Jay: Thanks for the heart-felt post, man. I really got a lot out of that. You helped me actually be somewhat excited for my hiatus You gave me an idea.. During my break, I plan on writing and and all footbag thoughts down in a log book. I'm already starting to analyze some things. Very cool that you and I are on the same page with the unbearable feeling of missing even one day. Now I don't think it will be as unbearable. I really appreciate those words. And yes, our talk at NYFA about schooling has actually been the primary thing pushing me to drill harder and harder.

Kev: Dude, thanks for your post too. That also means a lot to me. I was stunned and flattered with some of the things you said like about me actually being "so good" ( I feel like I'm way off from that label though lol). Also, I plan on doing weight training for my legs during my hiatus. But yo man, thanks a lot for this post. Definitely means a lot, because I know the gist of what you've gone through. Still can't wait to see more spinning tricks from you on tape. That was looking sick last time I checked.

Anyway, oh man.. Last post in here for a few weeks... Here it goes...

Tonight, we were filmed and interviewed for the campus news! So sick. I hit a "Mobius> Hand Catch> Walk out of camera shot" in back of Nathan as he was giving some words to the camera. I will post video when it is up on youtube. It will be on the local channel on Friday, sometime in the afternoon. Not positive yet exactly what time. Hoping some hackers see it and contact us.

Recently, I started calling Mike Toolan and insisting that he play footbag, and he has been. He hit Blurriest Swirl yesterday! Glad he's got some motivation to play again.

I stashed my footbags and my Quantums earlier. Now, we wait. You people playing footbag these next few weeks, you better hit some crazy shit. I'd like to see some shit get thrown down from everyone.

On a kind of really shitty note, when I got home from my session, I saw something on my back. A little black knob, which turned out to be a deer tick, burrowed deep within my back. I got most of it out, but the head was still remaining. My room mate, Matt, even took a pocket knife to it and it still wasn't budging. So I rushed to the emergency room, they made me wait about 2 hours before they could see me, then the doctor laid me flat and took off madd plays of skin from my back with a scalpel. No fucking anesthetic in this office obviously. Holy shit, that hurt. Then once it was all out, they gave me some meds to reduce the risk of Lyme Disease. So I guess I find out in a few days if I got away clean or I get to be bed-ridden for months with no footbag, even if I wanted to come back to it by then I'm crossing my fingers that the meds do their job. They said it's a slim chance, but still a chance.

Before I forget, my last 2 tricks I will have done in footbag, for the next few weeks, was Flapper> op Flapper

Until next time... Nick Polini.. Signing off.

[h0ag3yb3atZ]

Very cool that you and I are on the same page with the unbearable feeling of missing even one day.

i feel you there too, but i definitely feel like that feeling died for me a LONG time ago. the point of telling you that is to prevent you from doing the same. Go to the doctor, find out whats good, what you can/can't do, what will help you build up leg strength and allow you to do what you love.

I said your really good cause you are. you've pushed yourself past alot of concepts that i know plenty of players cant do. I think it would easily take me 10-20 sessions before I could hit revstein once or twice. I'll take quantum ducking whatever over that shit any day of the week. You seem like you pick up concepts fast and although i think your form on alot of stuff could be tighter, its great you understand the motions. I know what that feels like too, you feel like a in a candy store with all the different shit you can cook up if you want.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Just an update on me...

First of all..

CLICK HERE TO VIEW OUR NEWS SEGMENT

(If you don't see it on the home page under "Latest Stories", click the right arrow and look for it.)

So that was pretty cool. They interviewed Nathan too, but unfortunately they didn't use any of his clips :\ Bastards.

Last time, I posted, I said that I found a tick in my back. News on that is still in the works. I won't know for sure until... sometime next month. It could take up to 30 days for me to know anything :\ Sucks ass. I keep convincing myself that there's a bulls-eye forming around it, but it's just scabbing over. It really sucks just checking every day and waiting until I either see something or I don't. Fuckin whack.

My shins are feeing better. Toe taps feel like they're helping. A footbag hasn't touched my feet for too long already. I hate it. Buttt..... I've been keeping a journal of all the thoughts I've had since I stopped playing. I have a whole page filled already. Also, Mark M called me the other day and we talked for a bit before his gig. He gave me some really good tips and ideas. When I come back, I plan on changing the way I play COMPLETELY. No more 5 adds for a while. Hell, no more 4 adds for a while either. An email from Bob helped me realize how stupidly I've been playing. Thanks again Bob. Also, I figured out what was causing my shin pains. I watched some old videos, studying my form to figure out what I was doing wrong. And there it was, plain as day. In my one video with Tim Harper, and some of the Harrisburg new guys, I do a Spike Hammer and SLAM my support leg FLAT-FOOTED to the ground. I paused it and face-palmed so hard. I was landing improperly on a lot of my tricks. I felt so dumb. So that will change when I come back too.

I've also started re-reading the Vasek manual. Since I can't play footbag, I might as well read footbag.

Oh and another thing that will change is that I will be playing in my new Lavers. I cried and modded them, simultaneously, the other day because I couldn't play footbag Didn't actually cry, but it was sad lol I just thought that would be a priceless mental image... me crying while modding my Lavers that I knew I couldn't play in for weeks haha what a loser! Anyway, they look so sick. I didn't bullshit either.. I also removed the outside fabric too. Fuck yeah. I can't wait to play in Lavers again... Oh wait.. I can't wait to play again PERIOD.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Not playing can give you good perspective on what you want to do, and I encourage you to watch others, talk to as many players as you can, and learn from this. When you get back, take a goal you've made from this relaxation, and just crush it.

Jay, this meant so much to me during my time off. I re-read some of the Holy FootBible (Vasek Manual), took a shit-ton of notes, talked to Mark Monistere, Bob, Nathan, Kevin, Mike Angeski, Jackson, Jeremy Mellor, and a few others and got a lot of input from them. Most importantly, Mark and Bob. They helped me realize some crucial things. On top of this, Mark helped me come up with some goals and I "CRUSHED" a few of them today (I like that word choice a lot). Also, I found the cause of my problem... I watched some old footage of myself and noticed that some of my bigger tricks like Ripped and Spike, I was landing HARD on the flat of my support foot... BAD SHIT. I cringed when I saw it, and I already started fixing my landing form, as well as my slight hunching problem. Anyway, this break apparently did be a world of good.

After getting texts from Nathan, Mike A, Mark, and Jackson, I knew it was time to get back to it. Had a great comeback session today.

Highlights:

Dragon> Snapdragon (I felt like The Outsider)
In-Gyro Clipper bs (New on bs)
Inspinning Clipper bs
Pretty long DLO theme-run
Double Switchover BS
Sonic Clipper! (So sweet. Been trying to hit this for a while. First one)
Whirl> Butterfly rpt (20some Contacts) *~CRUSHED~*
50 Contacts Guitless! *~CRUSHED~* (Big 'ol Milestoner)
Spinning Clipper> Ducking Clipper rpt (20some Contacts) *~CRUSHED~* (I felt like Lon )
Spitfire BSOS (Never BSOS'ed this, rarely hit it flipside)
Pdx Drifter BSOS (2nd time sacued)
PLO> DLO rpt> string (First time hitting the rpt... always struggled with this one)
Stepping Clipper> Ripwalk rpt (5 Contacts in dim light :/ Better than my old record, which was 4 lol)
Since I had such a great comeback session, I wanted to try just 1 new 5 ADD... Tried it once, expecting to get no where, but I dexed it, 2nd time, footed it, 3rd time, hit it thin.. 4th time hit it pretty clean... Superfly! Inspired by John Goode and Mike A.
Most importantly... I had so much fun, just kicking the bag I forgot what it felt like. I love footbag <3

Other news, a bunch of new guys just joined us. One of them already ordered Lavers, and another one is going to try Nathan's old pair on. We think he's going to fit.

Tomorrow, we have a Crew session with Guests, Ted Fritsch and Andrew Santucci (New guy from Loch Haven). Saturday, we're all meeting up at Nathan's place for shred movies, pizza, dranks, and maybe a little bit of shredding.

So glad to be back! I'm doing it differently this time.

[g00d33]

Haha damn dude. Way to heal quickly and come back to have a boss session. Props on superfly!

[sen]

Congrats on a great sesh!

[C-Fan]

Your first session back from a shin splint injury...and you work on superflies?

Glad to hear you are feeling better, but I'd recommend you be careful with your trick selection as you ease back into playing. When I come back to playing after impact injuries (shins and knees), I avoid symposium (especially high impact stuff like superfly and symp torques) until I have a few lighter sessions under my belt. Taking any amount of time off invariably weakens your muscles, so before going for high impact stuff, it's a good idea to build up or at least check that your normal footbag muscles are built back up to where your body can withstand that.

I guess my challenges for you now that you've come back are stuff like:

No high impact symp tricks for a week (superfly, psw, big apple, etc).
Break your spinning clipper record both sides
Break your ducking clipper record
Run with as many unusual tricks as possible, low impact.

Good luck, and be careful.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

John and Tony, thanks a lot guys! Feels great to be playing again.

Ken, I did not "work" on Superfly. It came pretty naturally. I spent a total of 1 minute on the trick, and I also did it on my strong symposium leg. But I understand that this could be considered as being careless, since I just got back from an injury. I will definitely take you up on those challenges.

Last night, we had a session with EVERYBODY EVER in the rec hall. Nathan, Ivan, Ryan, Ian Brill, 2 new guys (Doug and Luke), Ted Fritcsh (:D !!!!!!!! !!!!!! ) and myself. Great fun. The new guys are learning quickly and everyone was helping everyone. Ted is going to start showing up Fridays from now on, because he works in Loch Haven (30 minutes away). Nice to kick with him again. We're going to teach him some new tricks before he retires. Ian hit Pixie Ducking Clipper last night! Nathan hit Blurry Drifter> Blurry Whirl bsos.

Highlights:

Reaper and Double Switch Over in the same run. Didn't want to try flipside, because he has knee problems. Whoa, I referred to my flipside as a person... That's deep.
Nothing else really, I had a lot of good DLOs and Pixie toe shuffley runs. My Pixies will improve greatly soon, to the point where I can use them reliably midstring. Not trying to sound cocky but I can just feel the drastic improvements in my Pixie game lately, and I know that they are only going to get better. I can't wait. I really like Pixies now
Messed around with some 2 bag tricks. Spinning Flapper, Whirling Swirl, and some others. Kinda neat.
Mobius> Mobius I don't think anyone saw it, but I was happy to get that once again. Actually, first time I hit it in Lavers. Oh by the way, I'm kicking solely in Lavers now
Ended on 32 contact guiltless.

In a few hours, 7-9 of us are meeting up at Nathan's for some footbag, shred videos, pizza, dranks, and some good times. Pretty excited. Ken, I intend on breaking those records tonight, or at least some of them. Anyway, holla at you later, blog.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

So tonight was really sick. That Footbag party was a great success. Ordered some Pizza, watched Champion's League, went down to the basement to shred. What a blast. Everyone had some sick highlights. And this new guy, Mo, came. He's almost always on-call for his job as a delivery guy, but he really seemed inspired by the video tonight. He said he's going to order Lavers soon.

Anyway, first off, NATHAN HIT NUKE TORQUE. Yeah, let those chills roll up your spine. Fuck. That was gnarly. I was stunned when I saw it. Ryan hit Mirage BSOS! First time on flip tonight, and he also nailed near mirage, and ATW. He was killing it tonight. The look on his face was priceless. Tonight was easily his best (also probably his breakthough) session. Ivan was KILLIN IT, too. Shit, I think he had a run that was like 8-10 Tiltless with a Pdx Mirage in the mix. Madd sick. He's catching on so quickly, it's scary. Doug hit his alternating Toe stall record. It was like 20 or something. He just started yesterday. He's starting to figure it out. I was pleased with my stuff at the end of the session:

Highlights:

Best run in a while... Some stepping shuffle, Spinning Flapper> Rev. Swirl, Solestice> Symp Butter, some Whirls, DLO, Spinning Dragon, Vortex, and a Legbeater. Yeahhhh.. I was pretty stoked on that.
Finally learning how to keep my back straight. That holds me back a lot, and I realize this :\ Going to fix this.
Some other alright runs.
I took Ken's advice and my last string was 8 flipside consecutive Spinning Clippers. My old flipside record was 7 :\ Progress, nonetheless
Oh oh oh! And best highlight... Nathan's mom remembered me from Funtastik's lol

We're going to be doing these footbag parties from time to time. Can't wait til the next one.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Whoa... so, this is new.. blogging via my smartphone? The future is now bitch! I had a session last night in my basement. I drilled a lot. Crushed one of my drills...

Highlights:

Butterfly> Blur rpt (over 20 contacts, but under 30) happy about that, since my old record was 7 contacts or so
Gyro Clipper x8 (gonna fuck this record up tonight)
messed around a little... realized I got better at Zippers (xbd toe)... and I hit Zifter (miraging xbd to or drifter ending on zipper)
gyro diving clipper BS (new on both sides)
gyro flapper BS & bsos (new on both sides)
Gyro diving flapper (new) could manage flipside.. not good enough at flip gyro yet, plus my flip flapper needs work
Vortex BSOS

Drilling with Nathan tonight. Gonna wreck some drills.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Drilling with Nathan tonight. Gonna wreck some drills.

Don't ask

All I wanna say is that I need a session like this to snap me back into gear and rub my face into the shit I really need to work on... Which happens to be everything

Please read Nathan's blog though... My jaw was dropped the entire session.

On a brighter note:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jX3iLfcM ... ideo_title[/youtube]

[C-Fan]

and rub my face into the shit I really need to work on... Which happens to be everything

What helped me when I was working on everything, was chunking it into sets of 4. So all of the mirages in one section, all the illusions in one, etc. That way you don't skip over anything, and don't waste too much mental energy keeping track of what you've done already. I also recommend mixing up where you start, both between sets (i.e. dont always do the sets in the same order, like mirages followed by legovers) and also within sets (i.e. instead of starting with right toe set legover, do right toe set atw first). This way you'll get comfortable doing it in many different orders, and then in no time you'll be able to add sets like shut/open and get the cool everythings.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Thanks for that, Ken. I intend on doing just that. Though, I've realized something today... I've hit 89 different 5 ADDs... 42 of them on BS... BSOS'ed 12 of them... THAT SUCKS. I was all about hitting big tricks for such a long time. I'm not even gonna use half of those in my game when I get to that level! I wasted so much time on insignificant big tricks, when I could have just been working on 3's and 4's. Fuck. Whatever, starting over and doing it right this time... like Lon. I've been watching his new video throughout today, and realized, he's got maybe 7 5 ADDs that he uses in his runs and 1 or 2 6 ADDs and he RIPS. That's how you play footbag, boys and girls.

So I just had a mini "ok-fuck-this-I'm-gonna-look-like-Lon-now" session. Pretty successful, for my first day. I'm starting to mimic Lon's style and I actually feel like a Lon that is just learning his Guiltless stuff, which is certainly a start.

Also, I talked with Mark again and we discussed some crucial mistakes we've both been making with some tricks. I learned a lot from that chat.

Highlights:

Copied a part of Lon's string (couldn't make much noise since this was in my room): Diving Osis> Osis> Infinity> Blur bs
Osis (frozen a split second, like how Lon does it)> Pdx Whirl bs
My old style (if you could even call that bullshit a style) of ducking and diving went out the window. I've been concentrating on doing Lon ducks and dives... He mutes them. I hit a bunch of variations of that. Hard to catch on to, but I'm getting there.
I even changed my spinning so that it looks like I just don't care too much, like how Lon does his.
Muted Ducking Clipper> Diving Clipper rpt (NEVER HIT THIS BEFORE lol) Plan on crushing it.

Not going to be kicking too much until next weekend when I come home for Thanksgiving break. Trying to have new legs to shred with Bob, Jeremy, Jackson, Nick Pasquarello, Drew, Corey, hopefully the Q-Town Rejects, and the rest of the crew. Also, pretty cool to know that 3 of the guys that got into fotbag this year at PSU live only like 30 minutes away from me back home, so they'll be coming down. Plus my old friend who got into footbag this year at PSU lives 15 minutes from me, sooooo it looks like we have a footbag jam on our hands! Stoked!!!!

[Pasquar]

Turkey jam!! (or cranberry jam??)

stoked!