April 23, 2012
Just finished a very short session with Trevor. Very bad idea. About fifteen minutes in and my shin splints are acting up (fucking great -- I am so excited to deal with this again), and within the hour I don't even want to stand up anymore.
I didn't even really get enough playing time in to figure out which things were feeling strong or weak. I am really just posting here because I've posted about every single session since I started this blog, and I don't want to miss a beat.
The only thing I can say about this session is that I learned exactly how bad my flip around the world is. I really need to think about how much time I should be allocating to getting my strong double around the world better when I can't even consistently get a single dex in on my flip. Strangely, my flip open set seemed a little stronger than it has in recent sessions. Even though those two things feel so connected they sure aren't improving in a parallel manner.
Hopefully it goes without saying that I did not film! We're scheduled to play Wednesday. I'm going to talk good care of myself for a couple days and see how I feel. I'll probably play regardless, but if I have any lingering discomfort in my legs I'll avoid more taxing drills.
Edit: hooray, page two!
Reilley Adamson's footblog
April 25, 2012
It took all of about twenty minutes into today's session for my right leg to acting up with shin splints. But it ended up being a very productive one. Having a weak leg is a pretty good incentive to work on easy stuff.
The majority of my session incorporated working on my osis in some way or another, and I am relieved to say I've finally made a huge breakthrough on the concept. Justin offhandedly mentioned early on that my outside shoulder was sort of dragging behind the rest of my torso during its rotation each time I went for osis. A couple test runs of keeping my shoulders more squared during the rotation and my form transformed from that of an erratic new player to giving the illusion that I actually somewhat understood the mechanics of what I was doing. In any case I am pretty excited to see some tangible improvement for once.
I agree with Justin in that I need to get rid of my pickups. They're my mindless bail move, and to boot mine look like shit. I guess it's time to really start putting far mirage/paradox mirage in and practicing the most overused guiltless combo ever.
From the start my strong double around the world was good so I didn't spend too much time on it -- I think I hit four of five attempts, and a couple of them were pretty deep. I've accepted that my flip side is so bad I'd have to be delusional to think I have any chance of hitting double around the world on it for a while yet. I worked my flip around the world quite a lot (both in-out and out-in). Before today I don't think I had ever even bothered doing as much as around the world bsos. I ended up with both sides in both directions in one string (on my first try) after a few rounds of really working on my flip side.
I tried to take that momentum and work on my open sets too. I know I should really be doing like three sets on my flip for every one on my strong side, but even a 50:50 ratio is a step in the right direction for me. I didn't even really try for tricks out of them -- just back and forth open sets to opposite toe. Baby steps.
And that's pretty much it. I did record the whole session, but because I never really hit anything monumental I don't know if it's worth digging through and finding my best stuff (I usually stop the video when I do something good so I can just skip to the end of each clip). This is probably really boring to read without even the tiniest reward of some video, but I'm kind of happy with steady improvement in my performance each session rather than having a couple freak links or tricks that stand out as video material. Here's a short string that pretty much represents most of my turns:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Akau0c- ... e=youtu.be[/youtube]
It took all of about twenty minutes into today's session for my right leg to acting up with shin splints. But it ended up being a very productive one. Having a weak leg is a pretty good incentive to work on easy stuff.
The majority of my session incorporated working on my osis in some way or another, and I am relieved to say I've finally made a huge breakthrough on the concept. Justin offhandedly mentioned early on that my outside shoulder was sort of dragging behind the rest of my torso during its rotation each time I went for osis. A couple test runs of keeping my shoulders more squared during the rotation and my form transformed from that of an erratic new player to giving the illusion that I actually somewhat understood the mechanics of what I was doing. In any case I am pretty excited to see some tangible improvement for once.
I agree with Justin in that I need to get rid of my pickups. They're my mindless bail move, and to boot mine look like shit. I guess it's time to really start putting far mirage/paradox mirage in and practicing the most overused guiltless combo ever.
From the start my strong double around the world was good so I didn't spend too much time on it -- I think I hit four of five attempts, and a couple of them were pretty deep. I've accepted that my flip side is so bad I'd have to be delusional to think I have any chance of hitting double around the world on it for a while yet. I worked my flip around the world quite a lot (both in-out and out-in). Before today I don't think I had ever even bothered doing as much as around the world bsos. I ended up with both sides in both directions in one string (on my first try) after a few rounds of really working on my flip side.
I tried to take that momentum and work on my open sets too. I know I should really be doing like three sets on my flip for every one on my strong side, but even a 50:50 ratio is a step in the right direction for me. I didn't even really try for tricks out of them -- just back and forth open sets to opposite toe. Baby steps.
And that's pretty much it. I did record the whole session, but because I never really hit anything monumental I don't know if it's worth digging through and finding my best stuff (I usually stop the video when I do something good so I can just skip to the end of each clip). This is probably really boring to read without even the tiniest reward of some video, but I'm kind of happy with steady improvement in my performance each session rather than having a couple freak links or tricks that stand out as video material. Here's a short string that pretty much represents most of my turns:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Akau0c- ... e=youtu.be[/youtube]
April 29, 2012
I performed below average today, which is a shame considering this was the first time Galen come out to kick in months -- and the last time for over a year (he is leaving the country to travel). I had shin splints from the beginning and despite being in and out of our circles (it's awesome that we're starting to need two circles on our club days) I think I might have to take off the upcoming Wednesday session to again let my shins heal a little bit.
The U.S. Open still seems so far off. I feel like I have so much time to prepare, and that if I was doing three or four sessions a week I'd be killing it come August. But as it is I apparently can't even handle a rate of playing twice a week without getting shin splints that really prevent me from moving forward. Perhaps I should consider Nick Polini's advice and really take a whole month off. I have a month until Folklife so I don't want to stop now. I don't see myself stopping during the middle of summer -- not only is it most fun to play when it's warm, but I think getting out in the sun is pretty good for my mental health too. That doesn't really leave me with a convenient break to heal and focus until after the U.S. Open is over. Decisions...
Anyway, I pretty much sucked today. I felt pretty stiff and wasn't really hitting torque well on either side. I don't think I got more than ten contacts in any run. My osis felt like it had regressed a little bit. I think I just skipped working on open stuff like smear entirely after I dropped the first few attempts. My tiltless was terrible, and I was falling forward just trying to do consecutive legovers. I think it really comes down to the leg pain -- because of the shin splints even the tiniest magic hops were uncomfortable to try and cushion. I spent about as much time in circles as I did sitting out. Definitely an off day.
The only thing that felt good was my strong side double around the world. Because nothing really felt natural today I ended up spending the end of the session working terrage. I had failed to hit terrage in a previous session or two, but I could tell I was ready today:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSSDiVTn ... e=youtu.be[/youtube]
Looking at that terrible mindless string I kind of wish I had just sealed it with a hand catch like I did with a couple others...
I performed below average today, which is a shame considering this was the first time Galen come out to kick in months -- and the last time for over a year (he is leaving the country to travel). I had shin splints from the beginning and despite being in and out of our circles (it's awesome that we're starting to need two circles on our club days) I think I might have to take off the upcoming Wednesday session to again let my shins heal a little bit.
The U.S. Open still seems so far off. I feel like I have so much time to prepare, and that if I was doing three or four sessions a week I'd be killing it come August. But as it is I apparently can't even handle a rate of playing twice a week without getting shin splints that really prevent me from moving forward. Perhaps I should consider Nick Polini's advice and really take a whole month off. I have a month until Folklife so I don't want to stop now. I don't see myself stopping during the middle of summer -- not only is it most fun to play when it's warm, but I think getting out in the sun is pretty good for my mental health too. That doesn't really leave me with a convenient break to heal and focus until after the U.S. Open is over. Decisions...
Anyway, I pretty much sucked today. I felt pretty stiff and wasn't really hitting torque well on either side. I don't think I got more than ten contacts in any run. My osis felt like it had regressed a little bit. I think I just skipped working on open stuff like smear entirely after I dropped the first few attempts. My tiltless was terrible, and I was falling forward just trying to do consecutive legovers. I think it really comes down to the leg pain -- because of the shin splints even the tiniest magic hops were uncomfortable to try and cushion. I spent about as much time in circles as I did sitting out. Definitely an off day.
The only thing that felt good was my strong side double around the world. Because nothing really felt natural today I ended up spending the end of the session working terrage. I had failed to hit terrage in a previous session or two, but I could tell I was ready today:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSSDiVTn ... e=youtu.be[/youtube]
Looking at that terrible mindless string I kind of wish I had just sealed it with a hand catch like I did with a couple others...
May 9, 2012
First session this whole month. Short post. As is often the case after not playing for almost two weeks, I felt very fresh but out of practice. Today was just Justin and I, and the idea was to play for a short time so I didn't wear myself out. I've also had a bit of a cough this week.
After a few weeks of choreographing my routine in my head on the bus each work day morning I finally got a chance to work on some things. As I continue to work on this I'll continue to make sections easier that I can't consistently do closer to August. I know exactly what concepts to work on, and I think having that focus will yield some real results over the next few weeks (assuming that I am healthy enough to keep kicking). I really want to have simple things like toe bumps down as soon as possible. Most of all I was pleased to see Justin liked my routine song -- I was pretty sure I had made a good choice but now I know for sure.
One thing I didn't really foresee giving me trouble is pausing after catching tricks (like for the end of a section). After a year of instinctively setting the bag again after every trick it's hard to just stop without as much as a hand catch seal.
I didn't really put any time into harder moves like torques or anything, but my few attempts felt stronger than average because for once my shins weren't totally fucked. I'd like to work on blur > torque over the next few weeks if I get really tired of simple tiltless drills.
I worked on wraps and walk overs quite a bit while we tried to perfect a section of my routine, and after an hour straight my ankles were really feeling the burn. I wonder if doing this will actually improve my very average crank.
First session this whole month. Short post. As is often the case after not playing for almost two weeks, I felt very fresh but out of practice. Today was just Justin and I, and the idea was to play for a short time so I didn't wear myself out. I've also had a bit of a cough this week.
After a few weeks of choreographing my routine in my head on the bus each work day morning I finally got a chance to work on some things. As I continue to work on this I'll continue to make sections easier that I can't consistently do closer to August. I know exactly what concepts to work on, and I think having that focus will yield some real results over the next few weeks (assuming that I am healthy enough to keep kicking). I really want to have simple things like toe bumps down as soon as possible. Most of all I was pleased to see Justin liked my routine song -- I was pretty sure I had made a good choice but now I know for sure.
One thing I didn't really foresee giving me trouble is pausing after catching tricks (like for the end of a section). After a year of instinctively setting the bag again after every trick it's hard to just stop without as much as a hand catch seal.
I didn't really put any time into harder moves like torques or anything, but my few attempts felt stronger than average because for once my shins weren't totally fucked. I'd like to work on blur > torque over the next few weeks if I get really tired of simple tiltless drills.
I worked on wraps and walk overs quite a bit while we tried to perfect a section of my routine, and after an hour straight my ankles were really feeling the burn. I wonder if doing this will actually improve my very average crank.
May 13, 2012
Today was the Seattle club's first Alki Beach session. Alki is unofficially our favorite place to play -- the nice weather brings out great crowds. This is where we are playing in the new Chris Dean guest videos that Justin released. There is no spot with such perfect atmosphere elsewhere in the city.
I wouldn't say that I focused on anything in particular until the end of the day. I mostly just worked on the same guiltless-ish sort of strings. It was frustrating at first -- I don't know if I've actually been stuck in a bit of a rut for the last month, but dropping on osis > mixer links or stupid tiltless tricks a few moves into a string is all too familiar at this point. I did have a few strings earlier in the day where I was able to get through two or three diffferent repeat combos and seal it off.
I did start using more open sets again today, and both sides felt pretty strong. I only really hit smear and the occasional open switch to start off strings though. Shut was pretty shitty though... I don't even think I hit a single fear. My stepping was the worst it's ever been since I originally became fairly proficient at it. I'm really hoping it's because I only started trying it a little ways into the session (after my right knee started acting up and making it painful to fully cushion the setup catch), but I wasn't even clearing the set on either side. It just went straight into the back of my knee every single time.This really put me in a bad mood for a while, considering everyone else has started to step up (pun intended) that set. At one point I was hitting blur bsos relatively easily early last winter... what happened?
After taking a twenty minute break I came back to redeem myself. My triumph of the day was definitely hitting ducking far/paradox mirage on my very first try ever, sealing it, and doing the exact same thing on my flip. I think the only other move I've hit on my first try was far/paradox mixer last winter. Watching Dan and Justin Stephens work their tripless inspired me to try some slightly more dense repeat combos than normal such as dimwalk > far/paradox mirage, rpt. I didn't hit that one because after a couple rounds everyone encouraged me to go for a dimwalk > ducking far/paradox mirage link. It took me a while, but hitting it felt really good. My flip open set wasn't quite good enough to do this on the other side (for some reason it was a lot better when I just had the repeat combo in my head). I think I will try to hit this again next week.
I actually put some time into trying to throw in regular around the world (both sides and both directions) in strings here and there. My flip side is just so bad at dexing and catching right now... no matter how much I focus on dexing on a totally horizontal plane (I really like how Anssi Sundberg's look) my flip side inevitably wants to go vertical. Double around the world felt pretty good today, and on a whim I decided to try to hit the out-in version I've so far neglected. Took a round of practice, but I got it!
Torque sort of sucked, but I only really tried a few before I was really warmed up. If I get into doing them next week I'm sure it'll go much better.
I really love the video capabilities of my iPhone, but the field of view is fairly limited. In public places I am never quite comfortable just leaving it ten feet away (or more if we have a big circle going) and not paying too great of attention to it. I'll try to get something good on video within this next week.
I've given a lot of thought to my current physical limitations. Justin, Dan, and I hit the hot tub after we played and discussed it too. Getting more fit is obviously the end goal. In the meantime I might improve faster by limiting how much and how hard I play so that I can do it more often, and therefore lose less momentum each week due to downtime. In my experience daily classes are better than those two-days-a-week-for-three-hours classes if you actually want to learn the subject matter... maybe footbag will be a similar experience. It will be very hard not to shred for the full extent of our sessions when everyone kicks together. As I've said elsewhere on the forums the social element of our cub is important to me and keeps me plays. But I see footbag as a long term hobby for me, and coming to our club sessions a little late might be key to getting better at getting better.
Today was good, but the best part was a hot chick calling my dimwalk > ducking far/paradox mirage attempts "fucking sick" and watching from her little group of friends a little ways away for a while. I should really find a girlfriend.
Thinking about bringing back the bright red hair next week.
Today was the Seattle club's first Alki Beach session. Alki is unofficially our favorite place to play -- the nice weather brings out great crowds. This is where we are playing in the new Chris Dean guest videos that Justin released. There is no spot with such perfect atmosphere elsewhere in the city.
I wouldn't say that I focused on anything in particular until the end of the day. I mostly just worked on the same guiltless-ish sort of strings. It was frustrating at first -- I don't know if I've actually been stuck in a bit of a rut for the last month, but dropping on osis > mixer links or stupid tiltless tricks a few moves into a string is all too familiar at this point. I did have a few strings earlier in the day where I was able to get through two or three diffferent repeat combos and seal it off.
I did start using more open sets again today, and both sides felt pretty strong. I only really hit smear and the occasional open switch to start off strings though. Shut was pretty shitty though... I don't even think I hit a single fear. My stepping was the worst it's ever been since I originally became fairly proficient at it. I'm really hoping it's because I only started trying it a little ways into the session (after my right knee started acting up and making it painful to fully cushion the setup catch), but I wasn't even clearing the set on either side. It just went straight into the back of my knee every single time.This really put me in a bad mood for a while, considering everyone else has started to step up (pun intended) that set. At one point I was hitting blur bsos relatively easily early last winter... what happened?
After taking a twenty minute break I came back to redeem myself. My triumph of the day was definitely hitting ducking far/paradox mirage on my very first try ever, sealing it, and doing the exact same thing on my flip. I think the only other move I've hit on my first try was far/paradox mixer last winter. Watching Dan and Justin Stephens work their tripless inspired me to try some slightly more dense repeat combos than normal such as dimwalk > far/paradox mirage, rpt. I didn't hit that one because after a couple rounds everyone encouraged me to go for a dimwalk > ducking far/paradox mirage link. It took me a while, but hitting it felt really good. My flip open set wasn't quite good enough to do this on the other side (for some reason it was a lot better when I just had the repeat combo in my head). I think I will try to hit this again next week.
I actually put some time into trying to throw in regular around the world (both sides and both directions) in strings here and there. My flip side is just so bad at dexing and catching right now... no matter how much I focus on dexing on a totally horizontal plane (I really like how Anssi Sundberg's look) my flip side inevitably wants to go vertical. Double around the world felt pretty good today, and on a whim I decided to try to hit the out-in version I've so far neglected. Took a round of practice, but I got it!
Torque sort of sucked, but I only really tried a few before I was really warmed up. If I get into doing them next week I'm sure it'll go much better.
I really love the video capabilities of my iPhone, but the field of view is fairly limited. In public places I am never quite comfortable just leaving it ten feet away (or more if we have a big circle going) and not paying too great of attention to it. I'll try to get something good on video within this next week.
I've given a lot of thought to my current physical limitations. Justin, Dan, and I hit the hot tub after we played and discussed it too. Getting more fit is obviously the end goal. In the meantime I might improve faster by limiting how much and how hard I play so that I can do it more often, and therefore lose less momentum each week due to downtime. In my experience daily classes are better than those two-days-a-week-for-three-hours classes if you actually want to learn the subject matter... maybe footbag will be a similar experience. It will be very hard not to shred for the full extent of our sessions when everyone kicks together. As I've said elsewhere on the forums the social element of our cub is important to me and keeps me plays. But I see footbag as a long term hobby for me, and coming to our club sessions a little late might be key to getting better at getting better.
Today was good, but the best part was a hot chick calling my dimwalk > ducking far/paradox mirage attempts "fucking sick" and watching from her little group of friends a little ways away for a while. I should really find a girlfriend.
Thinking about bringing back the bright red hair next week.
May 20, 2012
We were planning on playing at a local street fair today but the weather was pretty shit. A good joke went around about there always being a solar eclipse in Seattle because of the clouds. We ended up playing at the gym -- hopefully we don't have to resort to that too much more as we enter summer.
I arrived to the session late and probably only kicked for an hour or so. As I said in my last post I've resolved to start kicking on more days for less time. I haven't really decided if (and how) I'll alter my blog posts to reflect this. Having long sessions just twice a week or so leaves me with at least a few paragraphs to write (and I think it's good for me to write regularly) each time, but if I switch to just taking a half hour each day to do consecutives of one trick that's going to drastically change. I would like to avoid just having a bullet point list of shred highlights and/or totally irrelevant crap. I guess I'll worry about that when I actually man up and solo session daily.
Anyway, because I was fairly fresh today I played pretty strong. Double around the world and both open sets started pretty strong -- I don't think I've been able to get smear bsos (albeit very ugly) without really warming up my flip until now. I had never really tried open same side mirage until today, and I think I like the feel of it more than other open tricks.
I'm at the point with my strong double around the world that I'm working on playing out of it. This means adjusting all my sets so it's more under me. I would like to get some open tricks out of it next time I really work on it. I need to do more flip side around the world in both directions.
My guiltless shred was pretty strong today, which is encouraging. It's probably because I hardly even fuck with normal legovers and mirages anymore... which is a different story. Mixer was pretty both-sided, and strings were overall a little longer than I would have expected for having not played in a week.
I spent the biggest chunk of the session working on torque -- my flip side! In a rare moment of wisdom I decided not to just do my strong side over and over, and to my surprise I found I could now hit flip torque again and again. Playing out of it was a problem (just like how it was when I first started catching the bulk of my strong side torques). I thought I might be able to get torque > down, rpt today, but it wasn't quite there. Regardless, if I keep this up it's a matter of a couple weeks before hitting this move bsos is a regular thing. That would be nice considering I apparently cannot do that with blur anymore.
Hopefully I will have some sort of update within the day.
We were planning on playing at a local street fair today but the weather was pretty shit. A good joke went around about there always being a solar eclipse in Seattle because of the clouds. We ended up playing at the gym -- hopefully we don't have to resort to that too much more as we enter summer.
I arrived to the session late and probably only kicked for an hour or so. As I said in my last post I've resolved to start kicking on more days for less time. I haven't really decided if (and how) I'll alter my blog posts to reflect this. Having long sessions just twice a week or so leaves me with at least a few paragraphs to write (and I think it's good for me to write regularly) each time, but if I switch to just taking a half hour each day to do consecutives of one trick that's going to drastically change. I would like to avoid just having a bullet point list of shred highlights and/or totally irrelevant crap. I guess I'll worry about that when I actually man up and solo session daily.
Anyway, because I was fairly fresh today I played pretty strong. Double around the world and both open sets started pretty strong -- I don't think I've been able to get smear bsos (albeit very ugly) without really warming up my flip until now. I had never really tried open same side mirage until today, and I think I like the feel of it more than other open tricks.
I'm at the point with my strong double around the world that I'm working on playing out of it. This means adjusting all my sets so it's more under me. I would like to get some open tricks out of it next time I really work on it. I need to do more flip side around the world in both directions.
My guiltless shred was pretty strong today, which is encouraging. It's probably because I hardly even fuck with normal legovers and mirages anymore... which is a different story. Mixer was pretty both-sided, and strings were overall a little longer than I would have expected for having not played in a week.
I spent the biggest chunk of the session working on torque -- my flip side! In a rare moment of wisdom I decided not to just do my strong side over and over, and to my surprise I found I could now hit flip torque again and again. Playing out of it was a problem (just like how it was when I first started catching the bulk of my strong side torques). I thought I might be able to get torque > down, rpt today, but it wasn't quite there. Regardless, if I keep this up it's a matter of a couple weeks before hitting this move bsos is a regular thing. That would be nice considering I apparently cannot do that with blur anymore.
Hopefully I will have some sort of update within the day.
May 21, 2012
The first of hopefully many solo sessions. I limited myself to a half hour of consecutives and tiltless repeat drills to avoid making my shin splints flare up. Because I've been so prone to getting frustrated during solo session I avoided really counting too much or paying attention to contacts.
Worked on consecutive osis for the bulk of it. I doubt I even got past ten in a row. It's hard to rework form and push contacts at the same time, and I decided it was better to do it correctly and drop it a lot.
I'd say the runner up in time invested was flip clipper. I don't even know how I do anything on my flip sometimes. It's fucking pathetic. I think my best run was around twenty. None of them ever feel natural no matter how closely I try to mimic the form of my "good" side. Tomorrow I should really just film myself doing single clippers to hand catches on each side and look at things like my hip position.
Other than that I just mindlessly BOP'd to kill time. I did get one freak run of around twenty mostly guiltless improvised contacts. No other real highlights.
The first of hopefully many solo sessions. I limited myself to a half hour of consecutives and tiltless repeat drills to avoid making my shin splints flare up. Because I've been so prone to getting frustrated during solo session I avoided really counting too much or paying attention to contacts.
Worked on consecutive osis for the bulk of it. I doubt I even got past ten in a row. It's hard to rework form and push contacts at the same time, and I decided it was better to do it correctly and drop it a lot.
I'd say the runner up in time invested was flip clipper. I don't even know how I do anything on my flip sometimes. It's fucking pathetic. I think my best run was around twenty. None of them ever feel natural no matter how closely I try to mimic the form of my "good" side. Tomorrow I should really just film myself doing single clippers to hand catches on each side and look at things like my hip position.
Other than that I just mindlessly BOP'd to kill time. I did get one freak run of around twenty mostly guiltless improvised contacts. No other real highlights.
May 22, 2012
Another half hour solo session. Once again I avoided counting contacts too much to avoid getting frustrated. I really lowered the density of my drills too. How useful is practicing consecutive legovers or osis when I don't even have any control (and therefore bad form)? I diluted my legovers with a couple toe stalls in between each one and easily got to thirty multiple times. They felt more controlled. I could focus on keeping my arms from flailing and fingers doing anything weird.
Instead of just going for consecutive osis until I'm barely saving every single one I just did one or two to a hand catch seal. Once again I was able to watch my rotation and hip position much more closely.
Warming up and those basic drills took most of the session, but I spent the end just improvising. I'd be exaggerating if I said those few minutes of drills magically made my shred more solid, but I did get a couple decent runs in (probably about fifteen to twenty contacts each). I am always surprised to get that far in a string... which is a bad sign. It did, however, remind me that I need to think of more longer repeat drills to go through during runs so that I'm not reverting to my typical bail combos or dropping because I can't think of what to do next.
I really hope that these solo sessions kind of put me through the wringer. When I first start a solo session I fume every time I drop on something stupid and easy. This doesn't typically turn into anything audible, but the further I get through the session the less tempted I am to yell expletives when I make a mistake. I am hoping I will acclimate to the pacing of kicking by myself before too long. I want a more zen mentality while I play.
I might get a quick session in with Justin tomorrow before he leaves for Green Cup 2012, but if that doesn't happen I'll still kick.
Oh yeah, I dyed my hair bright fucking red today.
Another half hour solo session. Once again I avoided counting contacts too much to avoid getting frustrated. I really lowered the density of my drills too. How useful is practicing consecutive legovers or osis when I don't even have any control (and therefore bad form)? I diluted my legovers with a couple toe stalls in between each one and easily got to thirty multiple times. They felt more controlled. I could focus on keeping my arms from flailing and fingers doing anything weird.
Instead of just going for consecutive osis until I'm barely saving every single one I just did one or two to a hand catch seal. Once again I was able to watch my rotation and hip position much more closely.
Warming up and those basic drills took most of the session, but I spent the end just improvising. I'd be exaggerating if I said those few minutes of drills magically made my shred more solid, but I did get a couple decent runs in (probably about fifteen to twenty contacts each). I am always surprised to get that far in a string... which is a bad sign. It did, however, remind me that I need to think of more longer repeat drills to go through during runs so that I'm not reverting to my typical bail combos or dropping because I can't think of what to do next.
I really hope that these solo sessions kind of put me through the wringer. When I first start a solo session I fume every time I drop on something stupid and easy. This doesn't typically turn into anything audible, but the further I get through the session the less tempted I am to yell expletives when I make a mistake. I am hoping I will acclimate to the pacing of kicking by myself before too long. I want a more zen mentality while I play.
I might get a quick session in with Justin tomorrow before he leaves for Green Cup 2012, but if that doesn't happen I'll still kick.
Oh yeah, I dyed my hair bright fucking red today.
Learned this in anger managment, but try snapping your fingers whenever you wanna rage. Kinda helps get rid of that negativity, so when you drop or screw something up, you can retry without having some mental blockage. Zen mentality is the bomb diggity fresh!
GOtta post a pic with the red hair, all I think about is Ken's Ronald McDonald post shredding it out.
GOtta post a pic with the red hair, all I think about is Ken's Ronald McDonald post shredding it out.
Live, Love, Footbag
Derek Littlefield
Derek Littlefield
May 23, 2012
Hour and a half solo session late at night (which is why I'm writing this today). Although I had shin splints within the usual time frame -- a half hour -- they weren't crippling for some reason. It feels weird not trying big, stupid moves because I never have any tangible highlights to post. I still ended up really enjoying myself as a whole (which frankly is a first for a solo session), and only stopped because apparently my new housemate could hear me playing from two floors above. I swear this house is such a piece of shit. I feel terrible too... I've been doing all I can to be completely out of his hair since he replaced my old house mates a month ago.
Anyway, I got quite a lot of work in. I also feel like I discovered a couple very fundamental flaws in my game that I wouldn't have found unless I started these solo sessions:
I focused quite a lot on my around the world. I ended up working primarily my flip. After about ten minutes I was consistently getting it bsos going both directions. It felt awesome, but I know I have to keep up that work to prevent my flip in particular from regressing to square one. I didn't do a single double around the world, but I was definitely thinking about how badly I wanted to hit it on my flip side. Although I don't see myself regularly throwing around the world into runs it seems like one of those things you want for any routine or public performance.
I put some work on doing consecutive osis again. Overall I didn't get any abnormally high contact runs that I am proud of, but I certainly had less times where I do one or two and then drop despite feeling like I am in control. I think my form was sometimes good and sometimes bad, but that isn't yet a determining factor in whether I hit a lot of them or not because focusing on my form pries my attention away from actually catching the bag.
Stringing doesn't feel physically easier or more natural, but getting fifteen or so contacts on my own is becoming common enough that I don't pat myself on the back for it so much. I am definitely hitting a wall there because I can't think on the spot of what to do next. I should start adding far mirage/paradox mirage into strings early because I always forget about them later on.
I should play sooner than later today in order to avoid last night's scenario. Man, I still feel like shit for that. I'll try to put something on video whenever I play next.
Hour and a half solo session late at night (which is why I'm writing this today). Although I had shin splints within the usual time frame -- a half hour -- they weren't crippling for some reason. It feels weird not trying big, stupid moves because I never have any tangible highlights to post. I still ended up really enjoying myself as a whole (which frankly is a first for a solo session), and only stopped because apparently my new housemate could hear me playing from two floors above. I swear this house is such a piece of shit. I feel terrible too... I've been doing all I can to be completely out of his hair since he replaced my old house mates a month ago.
Anyway, I got quite a lot of work in. I also feel like I discovered a couple very fundamental flaws in my game that I wouldn't have found unless I started these solo sessions:
- When I am stringing I tend to set the bag to every dexing window or catch, and don't do enough of that work by repositioning my body. I ended up spending a lot of time just working on an otherwise easy link (down > ss mirage, rpt) because this problem seems to be the worst when I am going between toe and clipper tricks. Hopefully with some more effective practice moves with a paradox element will get a little more comfortable.
- My overall motions are slow. This is mostly because I'm pretty physically weak... so it comes down to me improving my fitness. But I think if I'm fairly fresh coming into a session I can work on the form component of this too. Even for very easy concepts like alternating toe stalls I move a lot slower than I should. After I noticed this issue I started all of my strings with a more jerky (that probably isn't the right word because I kept the sets as controlled as normal) set and ending up feeling like I had more time to adjust for the next move.
I focused quite a lot on my around the world. I ended up working primarily my flip. After about ten minutes I was consistently getting it bsos going both directions. It felt awesome, but I know I have to keep up that work to prevent my flip in particular from regressing to square one. I didn't do a single double around the world, but I was definitely thinking about how badly I wanted to hit it on my flip side. Although I don't see myself regularly throwing around the world into runs it seems like one of those things you want for any routine or public performance.
I put some work on doing consecutive osis again. Overall I didn't get any abnormally high contact runs that I am proud of, but I certainly had less times where I do one or two and then drop despite feeling like I am in control. I think my form was sometimes good and sometimes bad, but that isn't yet a determining factor in whether I hit a lot of them or not because focusing on my form pries my attention away from actually catching the bag.
Stringing doesn't feel physically easier or more natural, but getting fifteen or so contacts on my own is becoming common enough that I don't pat myself on the back for it so much. I am definitely hitting a wall there because I can't think on the spot of what to do next. I should start adding far mirage/paradox mirage into strings early because I always forget about them later on.
I should play sooner than later today in order to avoid last night's scenario. Man, I still feel like shit for that. I'll try to put something on video whenever I play next.
May 24, 2012
I love footbag, but I am never exactly itching to play when I first wake up in the morning. But today the first thing I wanted to do was start kicking. That's a pretty good sign. Played for about an hour and a half with very few breaks. My legs started aching pretty quickly, but I think as long as I am doing easy stuff I don't have to worry about really serious injury. I don't think I've even attempted a single 4-add over the past several days.
I forgot to mention in my post for yesterday that on a whim I had decided to go for a weird trick -- miraging pickup -- and got it first try. When I looked at it on film it looked so ugly that I decided not to keep it. I was unsuccessful in making the trick look any better later on. Is it just an ugly trick? I still haven't hit merlin, so that might be a better looking video highlight for next time.
Today I worked on down > paradox mirage, rpt a bunch. I don't know if I really made any tangible progress on improving my setting/body positioning. My best run was 17 contacts of that combo. Once I was tired of doing that I went through more down > ss mirage to work on my form. In contrast that feels much more natural now that I'm consciously trying to set/position myself differently. Most of the time I just sealed with a hand catch after one single link to make sure my form didn't degenerate.
I did a lot of toe stalls. I'm hoping that honing this will make my pickups much less "scoopy" than they are currently. Doing 100 or more without dropping is more of a mental concentration exercise at this point than one of physical endurance.
The last thing I spent a good chunk of time on is getting my clippers more symmetrical. Admittedly some of this was air shredding. When I was using the bag I usually stuck to doing a single clipper, catching the bag, and trying to do the exact same thing on the other side. My consecutive flip clippers felt much better than normal after warming up this way.
I can't really think of anything else notable from today. I'll hopefully get some good clips of the red hair over this weekend at Northwest Folklife.
I love footbag, but I am never exactly itching to play when I first wake up in the morning. But today the first thing I wanted to do was start kicking. That's a pretty good sign. Played for about an hour and a half with very few breaks. My legs started aching pretty quickly, but I think as long as I am doing easy stuff I don't have to worry about really serious injury. I don't think I've even attempted a single 4-add over the past several days.
I forgot to mention in my post for yesterday that on a whim I had decided to go for a weird trick -- miraging pickup -- and got it first try. When I looked at it on film it looked so ugly that I decided not to keep it. I was unsuccessful in making the trick look any better later on. Is it just an ugly trick? I still haven't hit merlin, so that might be a better looking video highlight for next time.
Today I worked on down > paradox mirage, rpt a bunch. I don't know if I really made any tangible progress on improving my setting/body positioning. My best run was 17 contacts of that combo. Once I was tired of doing that I went through more down > ss mirage to work on my form. In contrast that feels much more natural now that I'm consciously trying to set/position myself differently. Most of the time I just sealed with a hand catch after one single link to make sure my form didn't degenerate.
I did a lot of toe stalls. I'm hoping that honing this will make my pickups much less "scoopy" than they are currently. Doing 100 or more without dropping is more of a mental concentration exercise at this point than one of physical endurance.
The last thing I spent a good chunk of time on is getting my clippers more symmetrical. Admittedly some of this was air shredding. When I was using the bag I usually stuck to doing a single clipper, catching the bag, and trying to do the exact same thing on the other side. My consecutive flip clippers felt much better than normal after warming up this way.
I can't really think of anything else notable from today. I'll hopefully get some good clips of the red hair over this weekend at Northwest Folklife.
May 25, 2012
Today was the first day of Northwest Folklife. Folklife is the best free annual festival in the city, and the best possible place to find casual kickers that may be molded into footbag players. It runs until this Monday. I was only able to attend late this evening today due to work, and tomorrow will be the same. But if the weather holds up Sunday and Monday I'm hoping to get lots of new players on our club's mailing list. Maybe the volume approach to recruiting will pan out. It seems like seven or eight years ago there were always tons of circles all over the place, but in recent years kickers and jugglers are less plentiful. It's still a great place to come and see old acquaintances -- right off the bat I saw that a couple of my friends had drawn a pretty big crowd whilst rap battling over a bucket drummer kid. Lots of jailbait girls commented on my dyed hair.
I pretty much just showed up and blew minds with a few contacts of tiltless shred (and the occasional toe torque) followed by a pass, but for coming from work and dinking around in the grass for an hour I was actually stringing pretty well. Because it was getting later I had to start kicking by myself to get a circle going, but after just a minute or two I had several others join in. Most of the kids who joined in were the mallgoths/tweakers/ravers that I won't bother with, but one guy in particular was a pretty good kicker (and wasn't dressed like a spaz). So I have one lead on a potential new player. I also kicked with a guy I met last year who has very sporadically come out to play with the club over last fall and winter.
I did lots of consecutives to let the motions of each trick sink into peoples' heads. My consecutive downs were very strong, and I believe that is due to the fact I've been solo sessioning throughout the week. I am pretty tired and am going to end this post early. I really hope Sunday and Monday are at least partly sunny so this year's festival isn't a wash.
Today was the first day of Northwest Folklife. Folklife is the best free annual festival in the city, and the best possible place to find casual kickers that may be molded into footbag players. It runs until this Monday. I was only able to attend late this evening today due to work, and tomorrow will be the same. But if the weather holds up Sunday and Monday I'm hoping to get lots of new players on our club's mailing list. Maybe the volume approach to recruiting will pan out. It seems like seven or eight years ago there were always tons of circles all over the place, but in recent years kickers and jugglers are less plentiful. It's still a great place to come and see old acquaintances -- right off the bat I saw that a couple of my friends had drawn a pretty big crowd whilst rap battling over a bucket drummer kid. Lots of jailbait girls commented on my dyed hair.
I pretty much just showed up and blew minds with a few contacts of tiltless shred (and the occasional toe torque) followed by a pass, but for coming from work and dinking around in the grass for an hour I was actually stringing pretty well. Because it was getting later I had to start kicking by myself to get a circle going, but after just a minute or two I had several others join in. Most of the kids who joined in were the mallgoths/tweakers/ravers that I won't bother with, but one guy in particular was a pretty good kicker (and wasn't dressed like a spaz). So I have one lead on a potential new player. I also kicked with a guy I met last year who has very sporadically come out to play with the club over last fall and winter.
I did lots of consecutives to let the motions of each trick sink into peoples' heads. My consecutive downs were very strong, and I believe that is due to the fact I've been solo sessioning throughout the week. I am pretty tired and am going to end this post early. I really hope Sunday and Monday are at least partly sunny so this year's festival isn't a wash.
May 26, 2012
Day two of Folklife. I wasn't totally sure how much time I'd have to come today or if I'd have much energy to spare after work.
Today was a complete contradiction of what I have come to expect of recent Folklife years! The circles were as numerous and widespread as I remember them being back in high school. The kids were really good too! The very first circle of six that I joined had players who could all either clipper, around the world, or even mirage. I don't think I've ever walked up to a circle of random circle kickers that with luck could get a hack with everyone doing an around the world on their turn. One kid had very good flappers and heel delays.
Because I had come straight from work again I just did a few moves here and there, gradually building up to relatively impressive things like double around the world or torque. My ducking was pretty strong today, and that concept definitely impressed. For the first hour or so I wasn't really dropping at all which was cool. I even got a request for swirl ("around the world, jester-style") and hit it on my second or third try. The first group really liked the way far mirage/paradox mirage looked, and one guy with an admirable clipper almost wrapped his brain around it (which is more than I can say about that trick when I was completely new to footbag).
People were very receptive to the idea of a club that kicks regularly, and I explained to those that stuck around the longest more and more about footbag as the evening went on. I went over things like the different etiquette of a footbag circle, proper bags and shoes, this forum, and competitions. When I asked where people lived I was please to hear many of them lived near our regular kicking locations. Convenience is extremely important for new players.
Most of the players said they would be kicking on either Sunday or Monday... this will give me a chance to reinforce how much we want them to take that first step and come to a real session after this whole thing is over.
When I got home I had already gotten an email from a guy Dan (who had been making the rounds since 2 p.m.) recruited. The thought of having like four or five new guys showing up to the next batch of sessions after Folklife really excites me. If even one or two people out of the many stick with it our club will be looking better than ever. And it will awesome to not be one of the new guys anymore. I also met one of the main contacts for Seattle's local juggling club. If we don't kick on Wednesday I might go to one of their juggling sessions.
Tomorrow isn't forecasted to be as warm as it was today, but I hope there are still lots of random kickers. I had lots of promises of showing up Sunday from past/inactive kickers on our club email list. We'll see...
Day two of Folklife. I wasn't totally sure how much time I'd have to come today or if I'd have much energy to spare after work.
Today was a complete contradiction of what I have come to expect of recent Folklife years! The circles were as numerous and widespread as I remember them being back in high school. The kids were really good too! The very first circle of six that I joined had players who could all either clipper, around the world, or even mirage. I don't think I've ever walked up to a circle of random circle kickers that with luck could get a hack with everyone doing an around the world on their turn. One kid had very good flappers and heel delays.
Because I had come straight from work again I just did a few moves here and there, gradually building up to relatively impressive things like double around the world or torque. My ducking was pretty strong today, and that concept definitely impressed. For the first hour or so I wasn't really dropping at all which was cool. I even got a request for swirl ("around the world, jester-style") and hit it on my second or third try. The first group really liked the way far mirage/paradox mirage looked, and one guy with an admirable clipper almost wrapped his brain around it (which is more than I can say about that trick when I was completely new to footbag).
People were very receptive to the idea of a club that kicks regularly, and I explained to those that stuck around the longest more and more about footbag as the evening went on. I went over things like the different etiquette of a footbag circle, proper bags and shoes, this forum, and competitions. When I asked where people lived I was please to hear many of them lived near our regular kicking locations. Convenience is extremely important for new players.
Most of the players said they would be kicking on either Sunday or Monday... this will give me a chance to reinforce how much we want them to take that first step and come to a real session after this whole thing is over.
When I got home I had already gotten an email from a guy Dan (who had been making the rounds since 2 p.m.) recruited. The thought of having like four or five new guys showing up to the next batch of sessions after Folklife really excites me. If even one or two people out of the many stick with it our club will be looking better than ever. And it will awesome to not be one of the new guys anymore. I also met one of the main contacts for Seattle's local juggling club. If we don't kick on Wednesday I might go to one of their juggling sessions.
Tomorrow isn't forecasted to be as warm as it was today, but I hope there are still lots of random kickers. I had lots of promises of showing up Sunday from past/inactive kickers on our club email list. We'll see...
May 27, 2012
It's past 5 a.m. and I had originally planned to wait until tomorrow evening to write this, but I have some pretty excruciating leg pains keeping me awake. I had one last Aleve saved for a moment like this... maybe once it kicks in I'll be able to sleep. I went between circle kicking and footbag stuff for about eight hours today. I am definitely paying for it now. If the weather turns out passable I was planning on going for the last day of Folklife, but I might have to throw in the towel if my legs feel like this in the morning. Kind of a bummer considering I told a bunch of very enthusiastic potential new players that I'd show up for the last day.
Although I had kind of billed the third day of Folklife -- Sunday -- as club day I ended up doing about the same thing I had done the previous days. I joined random circles and selectively told kickers about footbag and Rain City Shred. This weekend has been very good experience for me as a diplomat of our sport -- I've learned things like which moves are most impressive to the layman, and I have also developed a more and more refined spiel as I've explained footbag a bunch of times. As I suspected coming into the weekend double around the world is the most intuitive and easy to follow crowd pleaser in my arsenal. I don't know if busking is ever going to really be my thing, but I think knowing how to showcase our sport effectively is important knowledge to have.
As the day drew to a close I was left with sort of a core flock of kickers -- the ones that only came to the festival to kick around. Dan and I really pushed a couple guys. One hit five consecutive around the worlds, and another one started getting legovers and pickups. I have some video of them that I may upload with their blessing. I almost got a drunk guy who could barely toe stall to hit mirage. Strangely I had a lot of people tell me today that they remembered me from last year... which was before I had started really playing footbag again.
I did some more dense stuff today than I had the past couple. I started throwing in some more rusty elements of my game like stepping and atomic. The former was pretty weak (consistent with how it has been since I all but dropped doing it a couple months ago), but I can say I hit fog first try after I saw Dan hit spinning whirl. I started some work on mobius, but my gyro needs a lot of work before I am ready to hit it. I had plenty of strings with stupid drops on osis just a few contacts in, but I also got through stuff like down > osis > mixer/double legover, rpt plenty of times. I cleared some pretty nice nuclear sets for a demonstration. I have to say I am most proud of back stall > pickup.
Even if I can't make it tomorrow I feel like this weekend was a success. I really hope that cute chick with the dreads contacts me...
It's past 5 a.m. and I had originally planned to wait until tomorrow evening to write this, but I have some pretty excruciating leg pains keeping me awake. I had one last Aleve saved for a moment like this... maybe once it kicks in I'll be able to sleep. I went between circle kicking and footbag stuff for about eight hours today. I am definitely paying for it now. If the weather turns out passable I was planning on going for the last day of Folklife, but I might have to throw in the towel if my legs feel like this in the morning. Kind of a bummer considering I told a bunch of very enthusiastic potential new players that I'd show up for the last day.
Although I had kind of billed the third day of Folklife -- Sunday -- as club day I ended up doing about the same thing I had done the previous days. I joined random circles and selectively told kickers about footbag and Rain City Shred. This weekend has been very good experience for me as a diplomat of our sport -- I've learned things like which moves are most impressive to the layman, and I have also developed a more and more refined spiel as I've explained footbag a bunch of times. As I suspected coming into the weekend double around the world is the most intuitive and easy to follow crowd pleaser in my arsenal. I don't know if busking is ever going to really be my thing, but I think knowing how to showcase our sport effectively is important knowledge to have.
As the day drew to a close I was left with sort of a core flock of kickers -- the ones that only came to the festival to kick around. Dan and I really pushed a couple guys. One hit five consecutive around the worlds, and another one started getting legovers and pickups. I have some video of them that I may upload with their blessing. I almost got a drunk guy who could barely toe stall to hit mirage. Strangely I had a lot of people tell me today that they remembered me from last year... which was before I had started really playing footbag again.
I did some more dense stuff today than I had the past couple. I started throwing in some more rusty elements of my game like stepping and atomic. The former was pretty weak (consistent with how it has been since I all but dropped doing it a couple months ago), but I can say I hit fog first try after I saw Dan hit spinning whirl. I started some work on mobius, but my gyro needs a lot of work before I am ready to hit it. I had plenty of strings with stupid drops on osis just a few contacts in, but I also got through stuff like down > osis > mixer/double legover, rpt plenty of times. I cleared some pretty nice nuclear sets for a demonstration. I have to say I am most proud of back stall > pickup.
Even if I can't make it tomorrow I feel like this weekend was a success. I really hope that cute chick with the dreads contacts me...
May 28, 2012
I had decided at some point during my relatively sleepless night that I was going to skip the last day of Folklife and save my shins and ankles. The weather wasn't supposed to be any good anyway. I woke up early in the afternoon prepared to do nothing but kill time on the computer the whole day. I couldn't help but look outside in the early evening (I have the window in my room covered up to help me sleep at night) to see the sun shining. I was suddenly inspired to go to the last day of the festival for a few hours and try to hand out the last of my batch of Rain City Shred business cards.
There weren't as many people there today as there were on Saturday and Sunday. By the fourth day of this year's Folklife I've gotten pretty good at explaining footbag to casual kickers. Whenever we play in public as a club I usually take back seat and let someone like Justin explain footbag to intrigued pedestrians, but now I feel like I could comfortably step up and assume that role. Because my strings of footbag tricks stood out a little bit the conversation rarely left footbag -- I could wait for certain things like shoe selection to come up without endlessly bombarding them with information. I repeatedly stressed that while my strings may look a little daunting they are the modest result of treating hacky sack like a real hobby for less than a year. Even if none of these kids really follow up in the short term on playing with the club I feel like I've pointed a lot of people in the right direction this weekend.
Despite my bad shin splints and tender ankles I still managed to string pretty well (almost entirely guiltless). If I got past a few contacts I broke double digits and sealed with a hand catch. I saved torque, leg beater, and blur for examples of more intermediate footbag tricks when the situation was right.
I left once it was literally too dark to play anymore, and I noticed I had one business card left while I was waiting for the bus. One of the guys I had kicked with a couple times over the weekend walked up to say hi and mention that he didn't get a card earlier. Gave him the last one. Pretty good end to a pretty productive weekend.
I'm also pretty happy to break over a week of playing every single day. I might take a break tomorrow though.
I had decided at some point during my relatively sleepless night that I was going to skip the last day of Folklife and save my shins and ankles. The weather wasn't supposed to be any good anyway. I woke up early in the afternoon prepared to do nothing but kill time on the computer the whole day. I couldn't help but look outside in the early evening (I have the window in my room covered up to help me sleep at night) to see the sun shining. I was suddenly inspired to go to the last day of the festival for a few hours and try to hand out the last of my batch of Rain City Shred business cards.
There weren't as many people there today as there were on Saturday and Sunday. By the fourth day of this year's Folklife I've gotten pretty good at explaining footbag to casual kickers. Whenever we play in public as a club I usually take back seat and let someone like Justin explain footbag to intrigued pedestrians, but now I feel like I could comfortably step up and assume that role. Because my strings of footbag tricks stood out a little bit the conversation rarely left footbag -- I could wait for certain things like shoe selection to come up without endlessly bombarding them with information. I repeatedly stressed that while my strings may look a little daunting they are the modest result of treating hacky sack like a real hobby for less than a year. Even if none of these kids really follow up in the short term on playing with the club I feel like I've pointed a lot of people in the right direction this weekend.
Despite my bad shin splints and tender ankles I still managed to string pretty well (almost entirely guiltless). If I got past a few contacts I broke double digits and sealed with a hand catch. I saved torque, leg beater, and blur for examples of more intermediate footbag tricks when the situation was right.
I left once it was literally too dark to play anymore, and I noticed I had one business card left while I was waiting for the bus. One of the guys I had kicked with a couple times over the weekend walked up to say hi and mention that he didn't get a card earlier. Gave him the last one. Pretty good end to a pretty productive weekend.
I'm also pretty happy to break over a week of playing every single day. I might take a break tomorrow though.
Good work promoting footbag at folklife. It's always more fun to play than to teach/promote, but without doing the latter the scene stagnates. So way to take initiative promoting, and also being dedicated enough to do it all three days of the festival.
I think you've earned a day off from playing for sure.
I think you've earned a day off from playing for sure.
May 30, 2012
Two-man session with Justin. He was exhausted from Green Cup and I was weak from kicking so much at Folklife. Today was one of my best sessions in a while though. We filmed the whole day so I planned around doing stuff that would be useful to see later.
I think consistently playing for the past week has really paid off. It's usually pretty obvious when I'm not warmed up at the beginning of a session, but today I was putting together contacts from the start. I focused less on long runs as the session progressed because of my legs acting up a little bit, but I am sure I broke twenty contacts a couple times. If I had any attention left to sift through my own footage from today I'd post a couple runs, but I'm going to be able to put together these longer strings all the time pretty soon anyway.
I don't know if I care enough to keep miraging pickup as part of my game, but I hadn't gotten one on video last week and wanted to quickly do it today. I think I got it second try:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmwUbDQpQ64[/youtube]
Sort of weird that Mark Monistere just posted this too.
My mixer/double legover felt pretty strong. During a particularly good round I decided to do a bunch of isolated ones with varying set heights. Watching them later I've decided that I really like how they look when I set the bag low. I think I can expend less energy doing them that way too. I want to work on my flip side a lot in an upcoming session, and this is something to keep in mind.
Around the middle of the session I decided to start working on quantum for the first time. I was clearing the set after the first round of attempts or so, and started going for toe blur. Even though some attempts were clearly better than others it felt awesome to know that I've progressed to the point where I can just decide to start working on a brand new set and start to figure it out immediately. I kept this is mind the whole session and had no problem staying in a good mood. Optimism is super helpful. I seriously need to remember this whenever I'm getting frustrated or feel like I'm not pushing past the pre-tiltless wall. By the end of the session I had footed toe blur a bunch of times, and finally hit it before we packed up to watch the Celtics lose in overtime:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RCWOMDXPcU[/youtube]
By far the biggest breakthrough I had today was on my flip open set. Maybe days of really working on my flip side coordination is paying off. I started by doing strong side open sets to hand catches and then trying to do it exactly the same on my flip side. It was okay for the first few rounds of attempts, but once Justin made a comment or two I was suddenly clearing every set damn near perfectly and ready to do moves out of it. I came super close to dimwalk > far mirage/paradox mirage, rpt. That doesn't sound that special, but my flip open has been unusable even starting off strings up to this point. To suddenly know I'm ready for repeat combos involving my flip open set is awesome. If I play tomorrow I'm going to get that on video.
Ken -- I think promoting footbag was really good for me. It's true it involves explaining a lot of the same things over and over, but for instance demonstrating far mirage/paradox mirage for some casual kickers to help them wrap their brains around it really made me think about the trick a lot. By the end of the weekend I think I was doing BOP stuff with much greater economy of motion than I typically could.
I'm going to be in Portland this weekend, and hope I get a chance to shred with Chris, Nick, Jake, Joe, or anyone else.
Two-man session with Justin. He was exhausted from Green Cup and I was weak from kicking so much at Folklife. Today was one of my best sessions in a while though. We filmed the whole day so I planned around doing stuff that would be useful to see later.
I think consistently playing for the past week has really paid off. It's usually pretty obvious when I'm not warmed up at the beginning of a session, but today I was putting together contacts from the start. I focused less on long runs as the session progressed because of my legs acting up a little bit, but I am sure I broke twenty contacts a couple times. If I had any attention left to sift through my own footage from today I'd post a couple runs, but I'm going to be able to put together these longer strings all the time pretty soon anyway.
I don't know if I care enough to keep miraging pickup as part of my game, but I hadn't gotten one on video last week and wanted to quickly do it today. I think I got it second try:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmwUbDQpQ64[/youtube]
Sort of weird that Mark Monistere just posted this too.
My mixer/double legover felt pretty strong. During a particularly good round I decided to do a bunch of isolated ones with varying set heights. Watching them later I've decided that I really like how they look when I set the bag low. I think I can expend less energy doing them that way too. I want to work on my flip side a lot in an upcoming session, and this is something to keep in mind.
Around the middle of the session I decided to start working on quantum for the first time. I was clearing the set after the first round of attempts or so, and started going for toe blur. Even though some attempts were clearly better than others it felt awesome to know that I've progressed to the point where I can just decide to start working on a brand new set and start to figure it out immediately. I kept this is mind the whole session and had no problem staying in a good mood. Optimism is super helpful. I seriously need to remember this whenever I'm getting frustrated or feel like I'm not pushing past the pre-tiltless wall. By the end of the session I had footed toe blur a bunch of times, and finally hit it before we packed up to watch the Celtics lose in overtime:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RCWOMDXPcU[/youtube]
By far the biggest breakthrough I had today was on my flip open set. Maybe days of really working on my flip side coordination is paying off. I started by doing strong side open sets to hand catches and then trying to do it exactly the same on my flip side. It was okay for the first few rounds of attempts, but once Justin made a comment or two I was suddenly clearing every set damn near perfectly and ready to do moves out of it. I came super close to dimwalk > far mirage/paradox mirage, rpt. That doesn't sound that special, but my flip open has been unusable even starting off strings up to this point. To suddenly know I'm ready for repeat combos involving my flip open set is awesome. If I play tomorrow I'm going to get that on video.
Ken -- I think promoting footbag was really good for me. It's true it involves explaining a lot of the same things over and over, but for instance demonstrating far mirage/paradox mirage for some casual kickers to help them wrap their brains around it really made me think about the trick a lot. By the end of the weekend I think I was doing BOP stuff with much greater economy of motion than I typically could.
I'm going to be in Portland this weekend, and hope I get a chance to shred with Chris, Nick, Jake, Joe, or anyone else.
June 4, 2012
Just got home from Portland an hour ago. Getting home was sort of mentally exhausting so I'm going to keep this brief.
Earlier this afternoon I got to kick with Chris Dean on his own turf (for once), and after that I went for an encore solo session at the coolest shred spot in Portland. I don't remember much from the 2007 U.S. Open, but the "Water Temple" rocks.
It had been a couple days since I really played footbag, so everything but the most basic moves felt a little rusty. I don't even think I did a single drifter today. My osis form was pretty bad, but I think I'm definitely over the hill with this move -- I'm not dropping nearly as much as I used to despite my less than ideal posture. I worked my flip side a lot today, and for once it wasn't terribly frustrating!
I had high expectations for my flip open/pixie set considering I had such a breakthrough with it the other day. It regressed a little bit over the weekend, but I noticed that despite not having the quick flick of my strong side, my flip was reset and ready for a downtime component faster than usual. I spent my last couple rounds with Chris going for my first of two challenges I gave myself this weekend:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mu90H5Vz ... e=youtu.be[/youtube]
Chris eventually had to go to work, and I had over two hours to kill before my bus left for Seattle. I decided to bus downtown to play a little bit more at Keller Fountain Park. I started doing lots of flip torques. Over the course of about fifteen minutes I went from not hitting it to hitting it into string a few times, and I finally accomplished something I've really wanted for several weeks now:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQkprADz ... e=youtu.be[/youtube]
I had a couple longer strings from the fountain session I considered posting, but I think I can do way better. I really want to get more than links and single tricks on this blog. My biggest problem is how comfortable in my mind I am with mixer/double legover despite the fact I've noticed all of my potentially good strings end with a drop on it. Time to work those again.
Sam King hung out with me after I got into town a little earlier than I had originally intended on Friday. He showed me some cool rope dart tricks and we watched a good chunk of "Freestyle Reality", which is awesome because I fucking love watching Chris Pinkus' crazy toe game style. Thanks Sam!
Nick Landes kindly hosted me Saturday night. We didn't have a chance to kick, but we did talk about footbag a little bit. Hopefully I can absorb a little bit of his more general advice on really being deliberate about developing a repertoire of tricks that complements my physical build.
Just got home from Portland an hour ago. Getting home was sort of mentally exhausting so I'm going to keep this brief.
Earlier this afternoon I got to kick with Chris Dean on his own turf (for once), and after that I went for an encore solo session at the coolest shred spot in Portland. I don't remember much from the 2007 U.S. Open, but the "Water Temple" rocks.
It had been a couple days since I really played footbag, so everything but the most basic moves felt a little rusty. I don't even think I did a single drifter today. My osis form was pretty bad, but I think I'm definitely over the hill with this move -- I'm not dropping nearly as much as I used to despite my less than ideal posture. I worked my flip side a lot today, and for once it wasn't terribly frustrating!
I had high expectations for my flip open/pixie set considering I had such a breakthrough with it the other day. It regressed a little bit over the weekend, but I noticed that despite not having the quick flick of my strong side, my flip was reset and ready for a downtime component faster than usual. I spent my last couple rounds with Chris going for my first of two challenges I gave myself this weekend:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mu90H5Vz ... e=youtu.be[/youtube]
Chris eventually had to go to work, and I had over two hours to kill before my bus left for Seattle. I decided to bus downtown to play a little bit more at Keller Fountain Park. I started doing lots of flip torques. Over the course of about fifteen minutes I went from not hitting it to hitting it into string a few times, and I finally accomplished something I've really wanted for several weeks now:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQkprADz ... e=youtu.be[/youtube]
I had a couple longer strings from the fountain session I considered posting, but I think I can do way better. I really want to get more than links and single tricks on this blog. My biggest problem is how comfortable in my mind I am with mixer/double legover despite the fact I've noticed all of my potentially good strings end with a drop on it. Time to work those again.
Sam King hung out with me after I got into town a little earlier than I had originally intended on Friday. He showed me some cool rope dart tricks and we watched a good chunk of "Freestyle Reality", which is awesome because I fucking love watching Chris Pinkus' crazy toe game style. Thanks Sam!
Nick Landes kindly hosted me Saturday night. We didn't have a chance to kick, but we did talk about footbag a little bit. Hopefully I can absorb a little bit of his more general advice on really being deliberate about developing a repertoire of tricks that complements my physical build.