Experienced Players' Regrets (New Players: Learn From This!)

F[uns]tylin' Eclectic · Post by **F[uns]tylin' Eclectic** » 14 Nov 2011 21:36

I've been thinking a lot about this, and if I can save any new players from having to deal with the things myself and other players have dealt with, then I would love to help...

Basically this thread is for experienced players to post in and new players to read and learn from us...

Post any regrets you have about your game that you would like to warn new players to be conscious of as they start to get into Freestyle...

Never ADD-Hunt (AKA: Try to hit big tricks when you can't consistently hit the smaller tricks) I was an ADD-Hunter for a while, and it shows in my Guiltless game. Edit: NOTE: Another player pm'ed me about this and helped me realize that we ADD-hunt because it keeps us interested. Let's face it... we wanna hit some cool new tricks... HECK YEAH! We just need to watch out for EXCESSIVE ADD-HUNTING!!!! It's nice to reward yourself with trying a new 3, 4, or 5 ADD after a session.

Always make sure to treat your Freestyle game like a castle... IF YOU WANT TO BE A GOOD PLAYER, BUILD YOUR CASTLE WITH A STRONG FOUNDATION and continue to built it with a strong structure as you move forward in your game. Spend as much time on the 1 ADDs as possible... once you are very confident in your 1 ADDs and you can string at least 100 contacts (doesn't hurt to push for more) of 1 ADDs together, move onto 2 ADDs... Do the same with 2 ADDs and once you can hit 100 contacts (again, doesn't hurt to push for more) of 2 ADDs together in a string, move onto 3 ADDs... Once you can hit at least 30-50 (But always push further) Guiltless contacts in a string, you're ready to move onto 4 ADDs... You should have a pretty strong Guiltless game by now, so you can figure the rest out. I jumped ahead quite a bit, when I first started playing, and I spent a while trying to go back and solidify my tiltless game when I was already hitting 3's, 4's, and 5's

ALWAYS USE BOTH SIDES AS SOON AS YOU START PLAYING!!! I can't stress the importance of this enough. A good rule to follow: IF YOU HIT A TRICK ONCE ON YOUR STRONG SIDE, HIT IT TWICE ON YOUR WEAKSIDE BEFORE YOU HIT IT STRONG SIDE AGAIN. I was pretty much tiltless on only one side for my first year or so of playing. I would hit a new trick and only hit it on one side, then move on... Once I realized I needed to be both sided, I had to go back and spend a lot (too much) time hitting all of my tricks on my weak side. This was not fun. You DO NOT want to do this.

When you first start playing, PLEASE look in the clubs list (on www.footbag.org) for any clubs that may be in/near your town. I was playing for 2 years and then I finally decided to check footbag.org to see if any players lived near me... Turns out a Guiltless player lived 15 minutes away from me and when I met up with him, he turned into my weekly shred partner and after a year or two, he taught me everything I know. He also turned into one of my best friends.

When you start to do moves with a Paradox or Spinning concept, PLEASE be extremely conscious that you are not twisting with a planted foot too much and, therefore, causing your shin to twist a little... I've been doing this for a while and I only just realized it and now I have an annoying injury... A minor injury, but still annoying and doesn't let me play/practice as hard as I used to.

This should save some of you new guys from dealing with some crappy situations that I've dealt with, and I know other experienced players have also dealt with. Hope this does you some good.

Other experienced players, feel free to add regrets you've experienced in your game.

Corey · Post by **Corey** » 22 Nov 2011 22:11

"Do what you love and fuck the rest." Little miss sunshine
Don't just learn or spend hours of your time working on something that you do not even value. Work for what you want and yeah if you ever want to learn the other stuff do so when you actually have the desire to do so. I'm sure tons of people disagree with this but yeah doing this keeps it fun.

Zeke · Post by **Zeke** » 24 Nov 2011 08:06

Now you tell me...

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 27 Nov 2011 18:46

I was thinking about add hunting the other day, actually watching our new player, who is hitting a few moves that are probably beyond him.

What I was thinking, is that if you watch early footage of some of the best footbaggers in the world - Vasek, Felix, Ales, Honza, Jorden, Milan, for example (and I'm sure others), they all were hitting hard moves very early on.

It makes me wonder whether the paradigm of working on basics and not hard tricks is really true. Obviously you need good basics, and those players had those early too, but I'm starting to think maybe a combination of challenging yourself with "too" difficult moves and working on basics at the same time is a better strategy. The only player I can think of who I think spent a long time slowly working their game up in the manner that is often suggested is Lon Smith.

Sorry if this is a hijack.

Frank_Sinatra · Post by **Frank_Sinatra** » 28 Nov 2011 19:38

Interesting thread. Here are some things that I wish I had done earlier:

got contact lenses. I really think it helped me improve my posture, I don't have to point my face straight down and look through my lenses to see the bag. Peripheral vision is really helpful.

got Spenco insoles. I use the full support and like them so much better than the stock laver insoles or the Dr. Scholl's that I had been using.

started paying more attention to my diet - particularly loading up on protein after a session.

varied my drills. I used to drill the same things every session... for like a year or two. The only thing I got good at were those drills.

played with music. It helps me focus more, and drown out distracting background noise.

gone to a tournament outside of where I live. Not that it changed my footbag game, just that I wish I had done it earlier and could do it more.

h0ag3yb3atZ · Post by **h0ag3yb3atZ** » 28 Nov 2011 21:03

i don't think all add hunting is bad, especially when you gradually build up to a harder trick session by session.

a big one for me is to not compare yourself to others in an unhealthy way. Nothing wrong with friendly competition but jealousely because another player's ankle cranks more then yours or someone can do more you then you can do is not cool. I have been guilty of this before and feel like a clown for doing so.

Also always start off with the right equipment. I circle kicked in lavers for like 3 months before I had a 32 and that was a stupid choice.

Zeke · Post by **Zeke** » 29 Nov 2011 15:56

7evinkogan wrote:a big one for me is to not compare yourself to others

Excellent point. I've noticed this with just about every group of people I've kicked with. One of them starts to excel and others easily get discouraged by it. There will always be someone "better". Focus on your own progress and ask yourself if you are a better player now than you were a year, month or even a week ago

F[uns]tylin' Eclectic · Post by **F[uns]tylin' Eclectic** » 30 Nov 2011 11:49

7evinkogan wrote:a big one for me is to not compare yourself to others in an unhealthy way.

Good points, Kevin & Zeke. I'm finally going to come clean with this... I did this same thing too. A while ago, a friend of mine was excllening much quicker than I was. He was hitting Ripped Warrior, while I was just learning Ripwalk on my strong side. It was really frustrating because he also used to brag about it :\ Some of you may know who I'm talking about... But I aimed my jealousy to help me... I just trained so much harder and I actually started to pass him in skill level. Although I agree with Kevin with not comparing yourself to others in an unhealthy way.. I do believe it helps to compare yourself to someone better than you and try to beat them... especially if he's being a dick about it

Also, thanks to everyone for contributing to this thread. I hope this can help some new player avoid some of the things we've dealt with.

Muffinman · Post by **Muffinman** » 30 Nov 2011 15:28

Not stretching.

g00d33 · Post by **g00d33** » 09 Dec 2011 10:59

Not using shred mats / playing on a slippery surface.

I didn't even realize it, but the surface I played on for my first two years, and then summers after, was simply too slippery. And to boot, I might've benefitted from a bit more space cause it was pretty limited. I found a lot of my time wasted on simply trying something over and over because I kept on slipping. Someone might say it can be beneficial cause you have to learn perfect form and stuff to not slip, but that really is just a waste of time. That time can be used to learn stuff properly in a shorter amount of time.

Shred mats can be a solution to this. They were for me (even though I was kicked out of my slippery shred spot anyway). Shred mats will help preserve your knees and shins a lot. I know footbag is a sport that is very cheap relatively to get into, but make the investment early on.

7evinkogan wrote: a big one for me is to not compare yourself to others in an unhealthy way. Nothing wrong with friendly competition but jealousely because another player's ankle cranks more then yours or someone can do more you then you can do is not cool. I have been guilty of this before and feel like a clown for doing so.

I think the keyword there is "unhealthy." I think comparing yourself to others is good at the right levels. It is simply setting another goal. However, it's all too easy too fall into the end all be all "I have to be better than so and so." Moderation is key.