I usually start a drill with weak side, 'cause that means that you get a ton of practice every time you drop it, andmonce you get through it, you can rely on good side. As for the hands thing, that's something I need to work on too. Jorden Moir made a video about it. I find that trying to relax my hands doesn't work, 'cause it just lets my hands do their natural weird thing. I think balling would be better, or maybe concentrating on just keeping all fingers straight and extended -- I think that was one of Jorden's suggestions.
Take care of your shins!
Reilley Adamson's footblog
July 4, 2012
Kind of a bad day for me. I hadn't played in almost a week, but for some reason my shins were feeling pretty weak from the start. I found myself dropping on easy stufff like inside stalls while I was warming up, and none of my toe stalls felt even. I was just kind of practicing off to the side while the rest of the local freestyle crew busked. I had only kicked enough to get sort of warmed up, and already I wanted to just take off and figure out my plans for the evening instead of inevitably frustrate myself. I sat watching everyone else do their thing for about an hour while seriously considering just taking the two months off of footbag I need to let my legs fully heal starting right now. It would be interesting to see how I played if I took a long break and came back to playing footbag just a day or two before going to Portland.
Luckily Megan showed up just as I was about to leave, and having someone I could shred with out of the spotlight gave me a second wind.
Highlights: I worked on stepping for the first time in a while, and despite my shin splints they felt pretty good. I hit blur bsos for the first time in months, and managed to throw in ripwalk mid-run a few times. My consecutive downs were about average, but I still haven't managed to break 30. I briefly worked swirl, and hit more than I would typically expect to. I hit bubbabeater in string once. A couple of longer strings too, but I'm never counting contacts. That's about it.
By the end of the day I decided that I should keep pushing through as best I can until after the U.S. Open (if nothing else it seems stupid to take a break while the weather is at its best), but at this point I have all but ruled out seriously competing this year. My only consistent overarching goal throughout this spring has been to get my BOP stuff a little stronger (and maybe develop a little more ambidexterity) in time for the U.S. Open. I think I could be satisfied going and doing terribly in August if I knew I had really put my all into training for it. But I have been having so many ups and downs with kicking lately because I physically can't put time into kicking. How much better can I even get if I can't even manage playing two days a week without hurting my shins? Two months seems like a long time until I realize that translates into maybe 15 pain-ridden sessions. Thinking about footbag while I go about my day doesn't really put me in a great mood lately.
So yeah, I guess I'm a little bit disillusioned about my short term future in footbag. Right now I have my work schedule and social life planned around kicking, but sometimes I wonder why now. Because of how my physical limitations are really coming to a head with my desire to improve I don't have the same itch to play each week. Even tentatively planning around competing in August just to get some experience performing under pressure seems like a really good way to kill my desire to play outright.
The weather is starting to get really nice though. I'm going to do what I can to stop giving a shit about competing for a couple sessions and see if it changes my outlook.
Kind of a bad day for me. I hadn't played in almost a week, but for some reason my shins were feeling pretty weak from the start. I found myself dropping on easy stufff like inside stalls while I was warming up, and none of my toe stalls felt even. I was just kind of practicing off to the side while the rest of the local freestyle crew busked. I had only kicked enough to get sort of warmed up, and already I wanted to just take off and figure out my plans for the evening instead of inevitably frustrate myself. I sat watching everyone else do their thing for about an hour while seriously considering just taking the two months off of footbag I need to let my legs fully heal starting right now. It would be interesting to see how I played if I took a long break and came back to playing footbag just a day or two before going to Portland.
Luckily Megan showed up just as I was about to leave, and having someone I could shred with out of the spotlight gave me a second wind.
Highlights: I worked on stepping for the first time in a while, and despite my shin splints they felt pretty good. I hit blur bsos for the first time in months, and managed to throw in ripwalk mid-run a few times. My consecutive downs were about average, but I still haven't managed to break 30. I briefly worked swirl, and hit more than I would typically expect to. I hit bubbabeater in string once. A couple of longer strings too, but I'm never counting contacts. That's about it.
By the end of the day I decided that I should keep pushing through as best I can until after the U.S. Open (if nothing else it seems stupid to take a break while the weather is at its best), but at this point I have all but ruled out seriously competing this year. My only consistent overarching goal throughout this spring has been to get my BOP stuff a little stronger (and maybe develop a little more ambidexterity) in time for the U.S. Open. I think I could be satisfied going and doing terribly in August if I knew I had really put my all into training for it. But I have been having so many ups and downs with kicking lately because I physically can't put time into kicking. How much better can I even get if I can't even manage playing two days a week without hurting my shins? Two months seems like a long time until I realize that translates into maybe 15 pain-ridden sessions. Thinking about footbag while I go about my day doesn't really put me in a great mood lately.
So yeah, I guess I'm a little bit disillusioned about my short term future in footbag. Right now I have my work schedule and social life planned around kicking, but sometimes I wonder why now. Because of how my physical limitations are really coming to a head with my desire to improve I don't have the same itch to play each week. Even tentatively planning around competing in August just to get some experience performing under pressure seems like a really good way to kill my desire to play outright.
The weather is starting to get really nice though. I'm going to do what I can to stop giving a shit about competing for a couple sessions and see if it changes my outlook.
July 5, 2012
Big surprise -- writing about my bad mood put me in a bad mood. I decided to try and redeem myself a little bit/blow off some steam earlier tonight after making such an emo footblog post. Solo session at the park. Mixed success.
My string length was terrible. I don't think I got 10 contacts of anything harder than toe stalls or something. Lots of drops on flip clipper-set mixers, which piss me off more than most things because it's one of the first concepts I picked up after starting up a year ago, and I attempt my flip all the time. Seriously -- how long do I have to fuck around with this until I can just do it with any reliability? If I could think of a more efficient way to train this other than opening strings with flip clipper > mixer I would totally get down on that...
A couple of stupid drops on far mirage in otherwise promising strings prompted me to spend a couple rounds trying to improve it mechanically. As expected turning away from the bag before the catch lessened the chance my dexing leg would have to make an exaggerated motion to clear the bag... but catching the bag at a slightly different angle will take some getting used to.
Did a little bit of osis work too. Kind of feels like same shit, different day at this point... for some reason I just can't get myself to start turning more on my flip. I had a few good ones though.
Derek -- I spent a chunk of time trying your open switch > smear, rpt combo (I think open same side -- not opposite -- switch is Magellan, by the way). I got as far as you have... I got to the last trick a couple times, but couldn't seal the deal. I'll try to film the full thing next time I play. It was hard to appreciate how strong my flip open set was at the time considering I couldn't get the full combo, but I don't think I could have even hit two flip open tricks in a row a couple weeks ago. I guess progress is measured in micrometers. Pretty soon I will try flip open stuff in string.
Today's session wasn't quite the pick-me-up I was hoping it would be, but at least it wasn't like yesterday. Despite my best efforts to be pissed off by the session I couldn't help but be put in a good mood by the league of drunk people across the field who were dressed in animal costumes and playing kickball.
Big surprise -- writing about my bad mood put me in a bad mood. I decided to try and redeem myself a little bit/blow off some steam earlier tonight after making such an emo footblog post. Solo session at the park. Mixed success.
My string length was terrible. I don't think I got 10 contacts of anything harder than toe stalls or something. Lots of drops on flip clipper-set mixers, which piss me off more than most things because it's one of the first concepts I picked up after starting up a year ago, and I attempt my flip all the time. Seriously -- how long do I have to fuck around with this until I can just do it with any reliability? If I could think of a more efficient way to train this other than opening strings with flip clipper > mixer I would totally get down on that...
A couple of stupid drops on far mirage in otherwise promising strings prompted me to spend a couple rounds trying to improve it mechanically. As expected turning away from the bag before the catch lessened the chance my dexing leg would have to make an exaggerated motion to clear the bag... but catching the bag at a slightly different angle will take some getting used to.
Did a little bit of osis work too. Kind of feels like same shit, different day at this point... for some reason I just can't get myself to start turning more on my flip. I had a few good ones though.
Derek -- I spent a chunk of time trying your open switch > smear, rpt combo (I think open same side -- not opposite -- switch is Magellan, by the way). I got as far as you have... I got to the last trick a couple times, but couldn't seal the deal. I'll try to film the full thing next time I play. It was hard to appreciate how strong my flip open set was at the time considering I couldn't get the full combo, but I don't think I could have even hit two flip open tricks in a row a couple weeks ago. I guess progress is measured in micrometers. Pretty soon I will try flip open stuff in string.
Today's session wasn't quite the pick-me-up I was hoping it would be, but at least it wasn't like yesterday. Despite my best efforts to be pissed off by the session I couldn't help but be put in a good mood by the league of drunk people across the field who were dressed in animal costumes and playing kickball.
July 6, 2012
Even later than normal, but I just wanted to document this so I can look back in a year or two and laugh. Very deflating solo session. Less than a half hour in and I knew it would just be the same story each week -- very negative footblogs and very few milestones.
I've definitely hit a wall with these shin splints. It's time to seriously take some time off before I ruin footbag for myself entirely. Or ruin my legs. Whichever comes first. I really didn't want to have to stop playing footbag during the precious period of time in Seattle where the weather is gorgeous and everyone is kicking strong. I also didn't want to give up playing during such a critical window to train before the U.S. Open. I still haven't figured out exactly how I'm going to spend this extra free time. I've become very accustomed to the mental/emotional benefits of regular exercise over the past year... and I don't know yet if I have the willpower to engage on non-footbag exercise. I still want to go to sessions and hang out with everyone, but I'm not going to want to sit and practice juggling for three hours straight.
I have about five weeks until Taylor Hamilton visits Seattle and we all really start gearing up for the U.S. Open. I still haven't decided how active I'll be during that time, but I am for certain not going to kick before we're a couple weeks into August.
I'm definitely going to utilize the list of recovery tips Nick Polini gave me. I also think a month of daily yoga will make a world of difference -- I don't remember a time since childhood that I've been able to comfortably bend over and touch my toes.
I am a little bummed out, but I'll be back very soon, and maybe I'll actually have something optimistic to say again!
Even later than normal, but I just wanted to document this so I can look back in a year or two and laugh. Very deflating solo session. Less than a half hour in and I knew it would just be the same story each week -- very negative footblogs and very few milestones.
I've definitely hit a wall with these shin splints. It's time to seriously take some time off before I ruin footbag for myself entirely. Or ruin my legs. Whichever comes first. I really didn't want to have to stop playing footbag during the precious period of time in Seattle where the weather is gorgeous and everyone is kicking strong. I also didn't want to give up playing during such a critical window to train before the U.S. Open. I still haven't figured out exactly how I'm going to spend this extra free time. I've become very accustomed to the mental/emotional benefits of regular exercise over the past year... and I don't know yet if I have the willpower to engage on non-footbag exercise. I still want to go to sessions and hang out with everyone, but I'm not going to want to sit and practice juggling for three hours straight.
I have about five weeks until Taylor Hamilton visits Seattle and we all really start gearing up for the U.S. Open. I still haven't decided how active I'll be during that time, but I am for certain not going to kick before we're a couple weeks into August.
I'm definitely going to utilize the list of recovery tips Nick Polini gave me. I also think a month of daily yoga will make a world of difference -- I don't remember a time since childhood that I've been able to comfortably bend over and touch my toes.
I am a little bummed out, but I'll be back very soon, and maybe I'll actually have something optimistic to say again!
Well that was a bummer entry. 
Taking time off is probably a good idea. I seem to remember the first year of footbag being painful, but I think I was doing a bunch of dumb things you are avoiding (insufficient hydration, no stretching, etc). Maybe your body needs to heal first, and then slowly develop the muscles to make footbag easier.
Maybe in the meantime you can join that drunken animal kickball league. I was going to suggest juggling, but it sounds like you already do that.
Are you still planning on going to USO? I hope your healing goes well and we can play some then.
Taking time off is probably a good idea. I seem to remember the first year of footbag being painful, but I think I was doing a bunch of dumb things you are avoiding (insufficient hydration, no stretching, etc). Maybe your body needs to heal first, and then slowly develop the muscles to make footbag easier.
Maybe in the meantime you can join that drunken animal kickball league. I was going to suggest juggling, but it sounds like you already do that.
Are you still planning on going to USO? I hope your healing goes well and we can play some then.
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F[uns]tylin' Eclectic
- Post Master General
- Posts: 4092
- Joined: 05 Feb 2010 19:53
- Location: Drumore, PA
Yo dude. When you called me the other day and told me you were out for 6 weeks, I was really happy to hear it. You're being really smart with this one. You'll be surprised. When you come back, you'll be a little bit rusty, but you'll get everything back quickly. I guess I'll be proving that to you once I step into my lavers again in a few weeks. I'll definitely be making a video once the rust is off, so hopefully that'll give you some hope after you watch it and see that I overcame the splints with my break.
I would agree with Ken with the juggling, and even try contact juggling (that's what I've been practicing), do a lot of swimming if possible... However, I disagree with kickball because that involves running. That would be pretty bad for your legs.
Can't wait to see what color Zensah Leg sleeves you'll be rockin
Good luck man. And seriously resist the urge to play.. I know it's hard, but if you even do like spinning clipper or butterflies... your shin splints will impacted further and you will need more time to heal... TRUST ME BEEN THERE DONE THAT. Just be patient. You'll be killing it again in a handful of weeks.
Text me if you start to go insane from not playing. That will help. I've been texting Kevin Hogan whenever I start to go crazy from lack of shred. Also, feel free to text whenever really, if you have questions about anything, or just wanna chat. Peace man.
I would agree with Ken with the juggling, and even try contact juggling (that's what I've been practicing), do a lot of swimming if possible... However, I disagree with kickball because that involves running. That would be pretty bad for your legs.
Can't wait to see what color Zensah Leg sleeves you'll be rockin
Good luck man. And seriously resist the urge to play.. I know it's hard, but if you even do like spinning clipper or butterflies... your shin splints will impacted further and you will need more time to heal... TRUST ME BEEN THERE DONE THAT. Just be patient. You'll be killing it again in a handful of weeks.
Text me if you start to go insane from not playing. That will help. I've been texting Kevin Hogan whenever I start to go crazy from lack of shred. Also, feel free to text whenever really, if you have questions about anything, or just wanna chat. Peace man.
It's a real bummer, but use the time to strengthen your body with toe raises and even pre-empt other footbag-related injuries by doing, like, hip flexor stretches, knee strengthening, hamstring stretches, core strengthening, etc. I've gone from injury to injury almost non-stop over the course of 8 years now and I can tell you it's not fun to have to take almost every second year off due to something or other. I haven't had really bad shin splints in maybe a number of years, but I've been doing toe raises semi-regularly inspired by Nick to prevent them from coming back -- just in case. Also, swimming is a great idea. Biking is an okay alternative too. Good luck.
Re: Reilley Adamson's footblog
August 14, 2012
Today was my first session in over a month. Not only have I not played footbag during that time period, but I've hardly done anything that could put strain on my legs whatsoever. I probably should have done some low impact strength training, bought some sort of shin compression sleeves, or air shredded swirls during my break, but I guess what it comes down to it I'm not attached enough to footbag to overcome my own laziness. My legs felt (and still feel) fantastic, but the fact it took me a good chunk of the session just to start hitting flip clippers as well as I did before was a little disconcerting. Footbag might not be like riding a bike, but if I had truly mastered anything it should have been a matter of a few rounds to get in my groove.
I played with Justin and Taylor (the latter of whom is visiting from Alaska and staying until after we all go to the U.S. Open together). We got sort of a late start and by the time we got to our planned shred spot the sun had practically set. We played until we could hardly see the bag anymore. I don't think it gave me too many problems, but I wasn't really doing any spinning, ducking, or otherwise hard stuff. There was a really annoying douche bag with an acoustic guitar playing nearby and, while I can't use that as an excuse for my bad shred, it was really fucking annoying listening to some chubby guy loudly cover Jane's Addiction. At some point we left and continued on at Justin's place.
Overall I kicked about as well as I expected to. I kind of predicted during my break that upon my return I'd quickly hit some moves that I have zero consistency with. I hit bubbabeater on my second try or so, and it was also in the middle of a string. Legeater was another one that came quickly. Eventually my legs did tire out a little from general soreness, but I am sure that not playing on excruciating pain helped me today. On the flip side I kind of squandered the session doing stupid moves. I did some consecutive downs and osis here and there, but I also wasted a bunch of rounds just doing sets I had no business practicing the first day back... nuclear and quantum in particular. They aren't particularly painful for me, but I just feel stupid for having wasting a perfectly fresh pair of legs trying to do sets I can't even clear more than one out of every ten tries.
I was pretty unimpressed with how average my mixers were. That's always been a move I can chalk up to shin problems if I'm doing poorly. After reviewing what we had filmed I could tell that my core was the biggest problem with them today. In fact I wasn't keeping my stomach muscles tensed at any time during the session. The result was that I was super hunched over, and generally just looked like a frail kid going through the motions of tricks and hoping for success. If I didn't regularly do core work on the side before I probably won't do it now, but at the very least I can remember to just tense up my stomach muscles and stand up straighter when I'm playing.
I did really want a new big trick today. I know that working on fundamentals would have been more productive, but I just love the satisfaction of getting a cool looking move on video. One of the first things I did in today's session was try a couple shut sets, and the first one probably went a foot over my head. Had I been expecting anything like that I would have done something with it. While none of my later shut sets were anything approaching ducking status, I was clearing most of them. I spent a couple rounds feeling out whether or not shut torque was a possibility. It wasn't there.
I haven't yet figured out how much I should play, and how I should delegate my time during sessions. I have the options to play after work tomorrow (Wednesday). I would like to kick as much as possible in preparation for the U.S. Open, but I don't know how I'd handle another immediate shin splint injury. For now I'm happy to report that my legs feel great after today. It was fun just having a fairly unstructured return session, but I think if I can avoid any out of the ordinary leg pain I'll be sufficiently inspired to stay disciplined from here on out.
Today was my first session in over a month. Not only have I not played footbag during that time period, but I've hardly done anything that could put strain on my legs whatsoever. I probably should have done some low impact strength training, bought some sort of shin compression sleeves, or air shredded swirls during my break, but I guess what it comes down to it I'm not attached enough to footbag to overcome my own laziness. My legs felt (and still feel) fantastic, but the fact it took me a good chunk of the session just to start hitting flip clippers as well as I did before was a little disconcerting. Footbag might not be like riding a bike, but if I had truly mastered anything it should have been a matter of a few rounds to get in my groove.
I played with Justin and Taylor (the latter of whom is visiting from Alaska and staying until after we all go to the U.S. Open together). We got sort of a late start and by the time we got to our planned shred spot the sun had practically set. We played until we could hardly see the bag anymore. I don't think it gave me too many problems, but I wasn't really doing any spinning, ducking, or otherwise hard stuff. There was a really annoying douche bag with an acoustic guitar playing nearby and, while I can't use that as an excuse for my bad shred, it was really fucking annoying listening to some chubby guy loudly cover Jane's Addiction. At some point we left and continued on at Justin's place.
Overall I kicked about as well as I expected to. I kind of predicted during my break that upon my return I'd quickly hit some moves that I have zero consistency with. I hit bubbabeater on my second try or so, and it was also in the middle of a string. Legeater was another one that came quickly. Eventually my legs did tire out a little from general soreness, but I am sure that not playing on excruciating pain helped me today. On the flip side I kind of squandered the session doing stupid moves. I did some consecutive downs and osis here and there, but I also wasted a bunch of rounds just doing sets I had no business practicing the first day back... nuclear and quantum in particular. They aren't particularly painful for me, but I just feel stupid for having wasting a perfectly fresh pair of legs trying to do sets I can't even clear more than one out of every ten tries.
I was pretty unimpressed with how average my mixers were. That's always been a move I can chalk up to shin problems if I'm doing poorly. After reviewing what we had filmed I could tell that my core was the biggest problem with them today. In fact I wasn't keeping my stomach muscles tensed at any time during the session. The result was that I was super hunched over, and generally just looked like a frail kid going through the motions of tricks and hoping for success. If I didn't regularly do core work on the side before I probably won't do it now, but at the very least I can remember to just tense up my stomach muscles and stand up straighter when I'm playing.
I did really want a new big trick today. I know that working on fundamentals would have been more productive, but I just love the satisfaction of getting a cool looking move on video. One of the first things I did in today's session was try a couple shut sets, and the first one probably went a foot over my head. Had I been expecting anything like that I would have done something with it. While none of my later shut sets were anything approaching ducking status, I was clearing most of them. I spent a couple rounds feeling out whether or not shut torque was a possibility. It wasn't there.
I haven't yet figured out how much I should play, and how I should delegate my time during sessions. I have the options to play after work tomorrow (Wednesday). I would like to kick as much as possible in preparation for the U.S. Open, but I don't know how I'd handle another immediate shin splint injury. For now I'm happy to report that my legs feel great after today. It was fun just having a fairly unstructured return session, but I think if I can avoid any out of the ordinary leg pain I'll be sufficiently inspired to stay disciplined from here on out.
Last edited by rjadamson on 27 Aug 2012 22:57, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Reilley Adamson's footblog
August 17, 2012
Spontaneous two-man session with Trevor at the park near my house. I wasn't even really that excited about the prospect of kicking after a long day at work, but I felt sort of guilty for planning on just sitting on the computer all evening after waiting for over a month to start playing again. I had some difficulty getting my momentum going. My basics feel very weak, and my leg muscles must have somehow atrophied to become even weaker than they were before. I couldn't string for the life of me, but my consecutives were all right. I definitely had a few frustrating rounds where I just couldn't even start with a flip down, but for the most part I was getting 10 or 15 down contacts consistently.
Once we started going for more fun stuff things picked up. I hadn't hit my first 4>4>4 before my break, and once Trevor started trying stepping tricks I was inspired. We both ended up spending the end of the session pushing each other going for tripless links. I had a couple good attempts of dimwalk > spinning down > torque (including one that started with shut down), and footed dimwalk > ripwalk > ripwalk a couple times. No seal.
My open sets have really gotten sloppy. A month ago I was clearing basically all of the sets on my good side, but I think I've kind of lost the flicking motion. If I do clear the set it's not going straight up or I am not quick enough to tack on the downtime component at the end. My flip side hasn't ever been very good so I'm not too worried about lost progress in that regard.
No shin splint issues so far. I was, however, really bummed to get a text from Nick Polini detailing his latest bout of shin splints. I've decided that the universe is broken because the guy most into footbag has to deal with this curse.
I will likely play Sunday.
Spontaneous two-man session with Trevor at the park near my house. I wasn't even really that excited about the prospect of kicking after a long day at work, but I felt sort of guilty for planning on just sitting on the computer all evening after waiting for over a month to start playing again. I had some difficulty getting my momentum going. My basics feel very weak, and my leg muscles must have somehow atrophied to become even weaker than they were before. I couldn't string for the life of me, but my consecutives were all right. I definitely had a few frustrating rounds where I just couldn't even start with a flip down, but for the most part I was getting 10 or 15 down contacts consistently.
Once we started going for more fun stuff things picked up. I hadn't hit my first 4>4>4 before my break, and once Trevor started trying stepping tricks I was inspired. We both ended up spending the end of the session pushing each other going for tripless links. I had a couple good attempts of dimwalk > spinning down > torque (including one that started with shut down), and footed dimwalk > ripwalk > ripwalk a couple times. No seal.
My open sets have really gotten sloppy. A month ago I was clearing basically all of the sets on my good side, but I think I've kind of lost the flicking motion. If I do clear the set it's not going straight up or I am not quick enough to tack on the downtime component at the end. My flip side hasn't ever been very good so I'm not too worried about lost progress in that regard.
No shin splint issues so far. I was, however, really bummed to get a text from Nick Polini detailing his latest bout of shin splints. I've decided that the universe is broken because the guy most into footbag has to deal with this curse.
I will likely play Sunday.
Re: Reilley Adamson's footblog
August 21, 2012
Today was the session I had been wanting to have for well over a month -- before I had even started my healing break. I got to play with Dan and Taylor and Justin on a weekday, I shook the rust off my legs, I hit a couple things old and new, and when I focused on something my form was visibly better. Maybe that's exaggerating how well I played. Mostly it was just refreshing to have such a fun evening kicking. We played for four hours straight.
I hit legeater on one of my first tries, but couldn't replicate it in order to get a shut set out of it.
I felt the most productive just trying to hit a few select links/combos Justin called out such as shut down > mixer or shut near mirage > drifter (which I did muted). Eventually he gave me mixer > down > ripwalk, rpt which ended up being my white whale of the session, but by far the most fun thing to work on. I footed the last ripwalk several times, and was able to get through both sides quite a bit. After a while my less coordinated flip side also started to suffer from fatigue. I bet I will hit that next session.
Watching Taylor hit crazy shit makes me really want to work on bigger stuff. I put some more attempts into shut torque, but it still isn't very close. If I hit it anytime soon it'll just be luck. I also tried symposium torque because it's always seemed like a move I could manage, but my support leg was a little too weak to get the kind of turn I needed. Maybe it'll come along in future sessions. I started messing around trying to hit re-fog because my stepping was so good today, but after a few tries decided it wasn't meant to be. I also tried to hit my flip side fog for the first time and got just as close. My flip side stepping side is equally reliable as my strong side, and the far mixer should technically be easier. The only "big" move I really had success with was symposium blur, which I hit both sides within a round or two:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kecICOl8b2s[/youtube]
I hadn't hit my flip side before today!
Justin also reaffirmed today something that I've been wanting to really work on in my game -- narrowing my variety a little. I've been all over the place testing the waters of different concepts since I started playing a year ago. Everyone else in the club seems to have naturally found a move here and there that they enjoy. Then they use the shit out of it. But I erratically go from practicing one thing to the next. I've hit atomic drifter, but I have never actually practiced atomic sets or drifters consistently and therefore cannot form real strings around them. Maybe every drill I do for the next couple months will involve mixer > down as the foundation.
I'm not going to lie. My legs are trashed. I totally can't sustain this kind of playing if I want to keep my shins in good condition. But even after giving myself the green light to play a week ago I hadn't really found any momentum to do it regularly. To be honest I've been very on the fence about going to the U.S. Open all things considered. I've felt unmotivated since returning over the last week and had pretty much decided against competing as far back as early July. But this was exactly what I needed. We will all probably kick together once more before leaving for Portland on Friday.
I'm pretty sure Rain City Shred will have seven or eight people in Portland this weekend. Talk about a strong showing. I just hope there's some good sideline shred.
Today was the session I had been wanting to have for well over a month -- before I had even started my healing break. I got to play with Dan and Taylor and Justin on a weekday, I shook the rust off my legs, I hit a couple things old and new, and when I focused on something my form was visibly better. Maybe that's exaggerating how well I played. Mostly it was just refreshing to have such a fun evening kicking. We played for four hours straight.
I hit legeater on one of my first tries, but couldn't replicate it in order to get a shut set out of it.
I felt the most productive just trying to hit a few select links/combos Justin called out such as shut down > mixer or shut near mirage > drifter (which I did muted). Eventually he gave me mixer > down > ripwalk, rpt which ended up being my white whale of the session, but by far the most fun thing to work on. I footed the last ripwalk several times, and was able to get through both sides quite a bit. After a while my less coordinated flip side also started to suffer from fatigue. I bet I will hit that next session.
Watching Taylor hit crazy shit makes me really want to work on bigger stuff. I put some more attempts into shut torque, but it still isn't very close. If I hit it anytime soon it'll just be luck. I also tried symposium torque because it's always seemed like a move I could manage, but my support leg was a little too weak to get the kind of turn I needed. Maybe it'll come along in future sessions. I started messing around trying to hit re-fog because my stepping was so good today, but after a few tries decided it wasn't meant to be. I also tried to hit my flip side fog for the first time and got just as close. My flip side stepping side is equally reliable as my strong side, and the far mixer should technically be easier. The only "big" move I really had success with was symposium blur, which I hit both sides within a round or two:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kecICOl8b2s[/youtube]
I hadn't hit my flip side before today!
Justin also reaffirmed today something that I've been wanting to really work on in my game -- narrowing my variety a little. I've been all over the place testing the waters of different concepts since I started playing a year ago. Everyone else in the club seems to have naturally found a move here and there that they enjoy. Then they use the shit out of it. But I erratically go from practicing one thing to the next. I've hit atomic drifter, but I have never actually practiced atomic sets or drifters consistently and therefore cannot form real strings around them. Maybe every drill I do for the next couple months will involve mixer > down as the foundation.
I'm not going to lie. My legs are trashed. I totally can't sustain this kind of playing if I want to keep my shins in good condition. But even after giving myself the green light to play a week ago I hadn't really found any momentum to do it regularly. To be honest I've been very on the fence about going to the U.S. Open all things considered. I've felt unmotivated since returning over the last week and had pretty much decided against competing as far back as early July. But this was exactly what I needed. We will all probably kick together once more before leaving for Portland on Friday.
I'm pretty sure Rain City Shred will have seven or eight people in Portland this weekend. Talk about a strong showing. I just hope there's some good sideline shred.
Re: Reilley Adamson's footblog
August 24, 2012
Justin, Dan, Taylor, Trevor, and I left Seattle around noon. Because it was a weekday there was a little bit of traffic driving south to Portland, but it was nothing major. I had a lot of time to think during the rather uneventful car ride. The last session days before had brought about my shin splints again so I tried to keep in mind that this weekend might not be a very strong showing from me.
Once we hit Portland we had a little while until the check in party at Gordon Bevier's house started so naturally we hit the hot tub at the hotel to kill time. After getting some food we picked up some beer and made our way over. Joe Karasek and Sam King greeted us on the porch. Nate Linscott and Mark Monistere were already tearing it up inside playing some jazz. The near-constant supply of music from those two at parties would end up being one of the coolest motifs of the weekend. They are both so good at improvising. More people began to trickle in, and Taylor wasted no time showing everyone what he could do. Eventually the kitchen became a proving grounds where him, James Chance, and a couple others would go for some big tricks. It was a lot of fun to watch. I managed to stay myself from kicking because I knew all too well that I had to wait for as long as possible to begin inflaming my shins. The car ride back was going to be painful either way, but shin splints is a very cumulative injury so the less I played when I didn't really want to the better.
I consider last year's U.S. Open my first real event despite attending back in 2007. I got acquainted with a lot of people but didn't really talk a whole lot. Over the past year I've gotten to see most of the Portland people a couple times and I've also become much more active on here. So socializing this year was a lot of fun. I was happy to finally interact with Bevier a bit. Every time I've been down to Portland I've just shied away from introducing myself or saying anything to him. Many of us found out he was leaving Portland in a week... good luck in Colorado, Flash!
At the check in party Chris Dean found me after a while and told me that they needed one more competitor in both intermediate events in order for the new ranking system to work. A little bit of back story: Justin Dale had quickly made a routine for Green Cup back in May out of the song I had been planning on using for this event. The qualifying round at Green Cup turned out to be his first dropless routine performance at a tournament! I stopped playing shortly after that period because of my shin splints while he continued refining the routine via busking. While I was out due to injury I decided I would have a much better time at the U.S. Open (and leading up to it) if I opted to not compete. I only started kicking again a week or two before this weekend and Justin felt most comfortable using that song. I really didn't want to compete now that I had no song or anything, but of course I am going to take one for the team if it helps the event! So with about 12 hours until the intermediate-level events started the hunt was on to find a routine song. It actually wasn't that hard -- I knew I wouldn't have any chance to choreograph or drill so it was really just a matter of finding a song I liked with a 90-second section.
August 25, 2012
As is the case at most hotels I woke up early but couldn't bring myself to get out of bed. Eventually a group of us went down to hit the hot tub to better prime our legs for the thrashing that would be competition day. I was excited to get out the door because the only thing I had eaten the night before was part of a box of Cheez-Its. We did have several other members from our club slated to make the drive up Saturday, but they canceled. It would have been awesome to have that much bigger of a Seattle presence.
I got a Subway sandwich on the way to the event site. When we arrived at Colonel Summers Park pretty much only the Stanford crew or the Portland organizers had showed up. Last year I really liked Jim Penske's Fourkast gear, but Stanford's matching jerseys look really good. I think if Trevor, Justin Stephens, and I can get closer to the skill level of Stanford's up-and-comers we should really look into getting some new matching gear. I didn't get a chance to say hi to Steve Goldberg the night before so I took the opportunity to do so. It was really gratifying when he expressed his thanks for participating and his sympathies for my shin splints. He explained a little more about the condition which made me feel much more optimistic about the prospect of getting past them.
I should have immediately began warming up for competition stuff, but I ended up hacking a soccer ball with Nate and Daryl Genz instead.
The intermediate events started early and went by very quickly. I placed 3rd in both routines and circle contest. My routine was pretty much me getting a few contacts through clippers and pickups before dropping and starting again. From a competitive standpoint this was probably the worst possible introduction to competing I could have imagined. Maybe the trial by fire will turn me into a better player (now I really know how it feels to be up there doing a routine), but between having my shin splints bothering me and having to improvise my first ever routine (when I could have spent all summer practicing) I literally can't think of any other external factors that could have further deterred me from being prepared. I've certainly learned that planning ahead of time is difficult; in May I found a routine song to choreograph and drill all summer, in July I had to stop playing for the summer because of injury and therefore ruled out competing, and just yesterday found out I was competing anyway. In footbag the gaps between player skill levels can be enormous so it's important to not be too attached to winning. I would have really liked to represent the full extent of my year's worth of playing, and feel like coming into the event unable to land many tricks properly because of shin splints sort of did myself a disservice in that regard. I could have edged out Sunny... maybe next year! On the upside Taylor Hamilton is the new U.S. intermediate champ in both routines and circle contest!
Lamenting how poorly I performed does not at all reflect how fun Saturday was! After the intermediate events were over I was warmed up and ready to kick for a while. Justin Stephens unexpectedly showed up and made up for our other guys bailing. I spent a good deal of time kicking with David Owen Beyers (who is definitely on my list of favorite people to hang with from this weekend). He continually impressed me with his style of shred... links like flying clipper > ducking clipper looked super awesome. I spent a little while trying to prepare my strong nuclear set to fluke out a 69 sometime over the weekend. I was getting most all of them to clear for a while, but I couldn't quite set the set straight up enough to warrant any real attempts. I started filming once we had a good circle going, but stopped playing soon after because my legs were really hurting. I forgot my phone was recording, and now I have like an hour of sideline footage from Saturday to look through and see if there's anything worth posting for people.
At one point I was sitting out resting and Sunny came over to hang out for a while. She is so cool.
Joe did a very good job with the event schedule. Evan Lovely really nailed the sound too -- the music was great. I ended up getting a chance to help out by filming all of the open-level routines. I think I did a pretty good job keeping the camera steady, but there were a couple times where I was so focused on that I didn't even notice when a player was getting out of frame (sorry in advance to Brian Sherrill). I got all of open circle contest on film save a few opening runs. There were a lot of ups, downs, and close calls this year. Justin Dale and Nick Landes both went dropless in the qualifying rounds of open routines, but didn't in finals. It was hard seeing Nick so disappointed. Everyone was ecstatic when Bevier went dropless in his finals performance, but Jim Penske apparently beat him with a more technical routine with two drops. I disagree with that ruling, but that's not my call to make. Jorden Moir recently made this comment in Ahren Gehrman's Facebook thread regarding routines:
I expected the open circle contest to be neck and neck between Ken and Justin, but was very surprised to see that Bevier had beat Justin for the silver medal. I feel Justin's superior number of contacts in variety more than made up for how many bails there were (similar to how the regularity of mistakes makes a dropless routine special I feel that all of the events being on one day made longer runs more impressive). Maybe not enough to clearly beat Ken, but enough to net 2nd for sure.
I overheard Red mention he was going to try to convince the rest of the Portland guys to set up Sunday kicking at the esteemed "Water Temple" (Ira Keller Fountain) instead of on Monday. Many of us were leaving at some point on Sunday. I'm glad he made that happen. After a long afternoon of shred we went back to our hotel to once again hot tub. We spent a while deliberating on what food sounded good until Justin remembered there was a Chipotle nearby. Done.
The after party at Chris Dean's house was a blast. There were a few people absent from the check in whom I didn't introduce myself to a few hours earlier at the event. I got some of that done. I wasn't really in a beer drinking mood so when I overheard James and Eudora planning a trip to the cider house down the street I weaseled my way into the journey. I don't know anything about cider so I just let them both choose a few things for me. The only thing more impressive than James' juggling skills was the fact he was probably doing a lot of it while inebriated. I got to talk to Dustin several times over the night. I should really try to emulate Dustin's footbag style over the coming year or so. Nate and Mark played music off and on.
As it got late there was a movement to go out to a bar. It ended up being Evan Lovely (who is also one of my new favorite people in the footbag community), Jake Wren, us Seattle guys, and later some footbag groupies (if such a thing exists). That was the pinnacle of the night. Evan bought all of us a beer or two (I am a pussy and took the whole time to get through my hefeweizen). I also had a really good talk with him about his web design gigs. Programming is a field I've been considering for a long time. I've been on computers since I was a kid and although I don't know any languages I can quickly pick up things like syntax. He had a lot of advice for me on how to get started. Although I do think I have the aesthetic sense to get into creating sites, I think I would be even better at the functionality part of programming. So thanks to Evan for giving me what may be the push I needed into finding a real career. Jake Wren is always a pleasure to hang out with. We hobbled back to Chris' house and left shortly after.
August 26, 2012
Hotel check out was at noon, so we woke up with just enough time to get one more dip in the hot tub, get packed up, and get out. We got breakfast at the Village Inn diner not too far away. The food was all right but I was really tempted to complain. Our waitress kept being interrupted and/or corrected by her manager -- a gangly middle-aged Asian lady that hardly spoke English. As someone used to being on the bottom of a totem pole I could tell the problem was in the manager lady's need to micromanage and get in the way more than the incompetence of her employee. That kind of shit really pisses me off. I think it took over a half hour for our food to arrive because of it. Whatever.
We got to Ira Keller Fountain in the early afternoon. Unfortunately my legs were feeling pretty spent already. I suited up but spent a lot of the day sitting and watching all of the pros do their thing. I really want to get a good camera so that even if for whatever reason I am not kicking at an event I can be the guy who gets all of the best strings on film. I don't think I'll ever be remotely interested in stitching bags, but filming is a different story. I slowly got more into the idea of playing... taking several painkillers helped a lot. I played a little with Sunny. She had a couple long strings well above 20 contacts.
I didn't film a whole lot, but I did get a pretty nice run from Jim Penske that included scorpion's tail > osis > motion > far blender > motion > barroque. I really like watching Mark Monistere hit far torque.
I finally got to meet Nathan Andersen, whose playing style is exactly where I want to be right now. His execution is smooth and he is very bothsided. Not a lot of big, showy tricks, but his harder stuff didn't stand out in a bad way the way mine would (if I had any big tricks). His terrages looked effortless on both sides. Really nice guy too. Hope your trip along the coast is great!
People slowly trickled out until it was just our Seattle crew, a few Portland guys, and a couple of the people the Portland guys were hosting. It is really fun calling out ridiculous nuclear tricks and links only to see Nick Landes nail them.
All of us in the Seattle crew went to Deschutes Brewery for dinner. I practically played better in my Sambas and baggy shorts while we waited outside for a table to open up than I did the rest of the weekend. After that we briefly stopped at Nick's place. We found out Ken was planning on going out to a "barcade" in the Chinatown district.
Ground Kontrol was cool. Seattle has a similar venue called GameWorks, but it has less emphasis on the bar part. The games here were also more old school. I did much better at the video games at Ground Kontrol than I did playing footbag, but I still wonder why so many of them were easy when I was like seven years old and are impossible now. I'm really glad Ken made it out to socialize for a while (I should also mention that I was so hesitant to accept your offer for a beer because I still haven't figured out what kinds I like). I can't imagine a better end for the weekend.
The drive back was uneventful. It sure did feel awesome to fall in my own bed again. I haven't figured out where to go from here. I have shin splints again. I might take some time off again, and I might just play as much as I can before summer is over. Right now I just want to sleep.
Justin, Dan, Taylor, Trevor, and I left Seattle around noon. Because it was a weekday there was a little bit of traffic driving south to Portland, but it was nothing major. I had a lot of time to think during the rather uneventful car ride. The last session days before had brought about my shin splints again so I tried to keep in mind that this weekend might not be a very strong showing from me.
Once we hit Portland we had a little while until the check in party at Gordon Bevier's house started so naturally we hit the hot tub at the hotel to kill time. After getting some food we picked up some beer and made our way over. Joe Karasek and Sam King greeted us on the porch. Nate Linscott and Mark Monistere were already tearing it up inside playing some jazz. The near-constant supply of music from those two at parties would end up being one of the coolest motifs of the weekend. They are both so good at improvising. More people began to trickle in, and Taylor wasted no time showing everyone what he could do. Eventually the kitchen became a proving grounds where him, James Chance, and a couple others would go for some big tricks. It was a lot of fun to watch. I managed to stay myself from kicking because I knew all too well that I had to wait for as long as possible to begin inflaming my shins. The car ride back was going to be painful either way, but shin splints is a very cumulative injury so the less I played when I didn't really want to the better.
I consider last year's U.S. Open my first real event despite attending back in 2007. I got acquainted with a lot of people but didn't really talk a whole lot. Over the past year I've gotten to see most of the Portland people a couple times and I've also become much more active on here. So socializing this year was a lot of fun. I was happy to finally interact with Bevier a bit. Every time I've been down to Portland I've just shied away from introducing myself or saying anything to him. Many of us found out he was leaving Portland in a week... good luck in Colorado, Flash!
At the check in party Chris Dean found me after a while and told me that they needed one more competitor in both intermediate events in order for the new ranking system to work. A little bit of back story: Justin Dale had quickly made a routine for Green Cup back in May out of the song I had been planning on using for this event. The qualifying round at Green Cup turned out to be his first dropless routine performance at a tournament! I stopped playing shortly after that period because of my shin splints while he continued refining the routine via busking. While I was out due to injury I decided I would have a much better time at the U.S. Open (and leading up to it) if I opted to not compete. I only started kicking again a week or two before this weekend and Justin felt most comfortable using that song. I really didn't want to compete now that I had no song or anything, but of course I am going to take one for the team if it helps the event! So with about 12 hours until the intermediate-level events started the hunt was on to find a routine song. It actually wasn't that hard -- I knew I wouldn't have any chance to choreograph or drill so it was really just a matter of finding a song I liked with a 90-second section.
August 25, 2012
As is the case at most hotels I woke up early but couldn't bring myself to get out of bed. Eventually a group of us went down to hit the hot tub to better prime our legs for the thrashing that would be competition day. I was excited to get out the door because the only thing I had eaten the night before was part of a box of Cheez-Its. We did have several other members from our club slated to make the drive up Saturday, but they canceled. It would have been awesome to have that much bigger of a Seattle presence.
I got a Subway sandwich on the way to the event site. When we arrived at Colonel Summers Park pretty much only the Stanford crew or the Portland organizers had showed up. Last year I really liked Jim Penske's Fourkast gear, but Stanford's matching jerseys look really good. I think if Trevor, Justin Stephens, and I can get closer to the skill level of Stanford's up-and-comers we should really look into getting some new matching gear. I didn't get a chance to say hi to Steve Goldberg the night before so I took the opportunity to do so. It was really gratifying when he expressed his thanks for participating and his sympathies for my shin splints. He explained a little more about the condition which made me feel much more optimistic about the prospect of getting past them.
I should have immediately began warming up for competition stuff, but I ended up hacking a soccer ball with Nate and Daryl Genz instead.
The intermediate events started early and went by very quickly. I placed 3rd in both routines and circle contest. My routine was pretty much me getting a few contacts through clippers and pickups before dropping and starting again. From a competitive standpoint this was probably the worst possible introduction to competing I could have imagined. Maybe the trial by fire will turn me into a better player (now I really know how it feels to be up there doing a routine), but between having my shin splints bothering me and having to improvise my first ever routine (when I could have spent all summer practicing) I literally can't think of any other external factors that could have further deterred me from being prepared. I've certainly learned that planning ahead of time is difficult; in May I found a routine song to choreograph and drill all summer, in July I had to stop playing for the summer because of injury and therefore ruled out competing, and just yesterday found out I was competing anyway. In footbag the gaps between player skill levels can be enormous so it's important to not be too attached to winning. I would have really liked to represent the full extent of my year's worth of playing, and feel like coming into the event unable to land many tricks properly because of shin splints sort of did myself a disservice in that regard. I could have edged out Sunny... maybe next year! On the upside Taylor Hamilton is the new U.S. intermediate champ in both routines and circle contest!
Lamenting how poorly I performed does not at all reflect how fun Saturday was! After the intermediate events were over I was warmed up and ready to kick for a while. Justin Stephens unexpectedly showed up and made up for our other guys bailing. I spent a good deal of time kicking with David Owen Beyers (who is definitely on my list of favorite people to hang with from this weekend). He continually impressed me with his style of shred... links like flying clipper > ducking clipper looked super awesome. I spent a little while trying to prepare my strong nuclear set to fluke out a 69 sometime over the weekend. I was getting most all of them to clear for a while, but I couldn't quite set the set straight up enough to warrant any real attempts. I started filming once we had a good circle going, but stopped playing soon after because my legs were really hurting. I forgot my phone was recording, and now I have like an hour of sideline footage from Saturday to look through and see if there's anything worth posting for people.
At one point I was sitting out resting and Sunny came over to hang out for a while. She is so cool.
Joe did a very good job with the event schedule. Evan Lovely really nailed the sound too -- the music was great. I ended up getting a chance to help out by filming all of the open-level routines. I think I did a pretty good job keeping the camera steady, but there were a couple times where I was so focused on that I didn't even notice when a player was getting out of frame (sorry in advance to Brian Sherrill). I got all of open circle contest on film save a few opening runs. There were a lot of ups, downs, and close calls this year. Justin Dale and Nick Landes both went dropless in the qualifying rounds of open routines, but didn't in finals. It was hard seeing Nick so disappointed. Everyone was ecstatic when Bevier went dropless in his finals performance, but Jim Penske apparently beat him with a more technical routine with two drops. I disagree with that ruling, but that's not my call to make. Jorden Moir recently made this comment in Ahren Gehrman's Facebook thread regarding routines:
I agreed with this sentiment at first, but the more I thought about it the more I felt that the fact a routine has so many individual tricks only increases how valuable a dropless performance really is. (I still think the event format itself is kind of tacky, but that is another story.)Jorden wrote:Drops in footbag are much different than falls b/c they are MUCH more common (probably 5-10 times more), they are often subtle and don't interrupt the flow of the routine, and are an accepted consequence of the physics and overall difficulty of our sport. Our failure rate is much higher (and should be) because our tricks per minute are tens of times higher.
I expected the open circle contest to be neck and neck between Ken and Justin, but was very surprised to see that Bevier had beat Justin for the silver medal. I feel Justin's superior number of contacts in variety more than made up for how many bails there were (similar to how the regularity of mistakes makes a dropless routine special I feel that all of the events being on one day made longer runs more impressive). Maybe not enough to clearly beat Ken, but enough to net 2nd for sure.
I overheard Red mention he was going to try to convince the rest of the Portland guys to set up Sunday kicking at the esteemed "Water Temple" (Ira Keller Fountain) instead of on Monday. Many of us were leaving at some point on Sunday. I'm glad he made that happen. After a long afternoon of shred we went back to our hotel to once again hot tub. We spent a while deliberating on what food sounded good until Justin remembered there was a Chipotle nearby. Done.
The after party at Chris Dean's house was a blast. There were a few people absent from the check in whom I didn't introduce myself to a few hours earlier at the event. I got some of that done. I wasn't really in a beer drinking mood so when I overheard James and Eudora planning a trip to the cider house down the street I weaseled my way into the journey. I don't know anything about cider so I just let them both choose a few things for me. The only thing more impressive than James' juggling skills was the fact he was probably doing a lot of it while inebriated. I got to talk to Dustin several times over the night. I should really try to emulate Dustin's footbag style over the coming year or so. Nate and Mark played music off and on.
As it got late there was a movement to go out to a bar. It ended up being Evan Lovely (who is also one of my new favorite people in the footbag community), Jake Wren, us Seattle guys, and later some footbag groupies (if such a thing exists). That was the pinnacle of the night. Evan bought all of us a beer or two (I am a pussy and took the whole time to get through my hefeweizen). I also had a really good talk with him about his web design gigs. Programming is a field I've been considering for a long time. I've been on computers since I was a kid and although I don't know any languages I can quickly pick up things like syntax. He had a lot of advice for me on how to get started. Although I do think I have the aesthetic sense to get into creating sites, I think I would be even better at the functionality part of programming. So thanks to Evan for giving me what may be the push I needed into finding a real career. Jake Wren is always a pleasure to hang out with. We hobbled back to Chris' house and left shortly after.
August 26, 2012
Hotel check out was at noon, so we woke up with just enough time to get one more dip in the hot tub, get packed up, and get out. We got breakfast at the Village Inn diner not too far away. The food was all right but I was really tempted to complain. Our waitress kept being interrupted and/or corrected by her manager -- a gangly middle-aged Asian lady that hardly spoke English. As someone used to being on the bottom of a totem pole I could tell the problem was in the manager lady's need to micromanage and get in the way more than the incompetence of her employee. That kind of shit really pisses me off. I think it took over a half hour for our food to arrive because of it. Whatever.
We got to Ira Keller Fountain in the early afternoon. Unfortunately my legs were feeling pretty spent already. I suited up but spent a lot of the day sitting and watching all of the pros do their thing. I really want to get a good camera so that even if for whatever reason I am not kicking at an event I can be the guy who gets all of the best strings on film. I don't think I'll ever be remotely interested in stitching bags, but filming is a different story. I slowly got more into the idea of playing... taking several painkillers helped a lot. I played a little with Sunny. She had a couple long strings well above 20 contacts.
I didn't film a whole lot, but I did get a pretty nice run from Jim Penske that included scorpion's tail > osis > motion > far blender > motion > barroque. I really like watching Mark Monistere hit far torque.
I finally got to meet Nathan Andersen, whose playing style is exactly where I want to be right now. His execution is smooth and he is very bothsided. Not a lot of big, showy tricks, but his harder stuff didn't stand out in a bad way the way mine would (if I had any big tricks). His terrages looked effortless on both sides. Really nice guy too. Hope your trip along the coast is great!
People slowly trickled out until it was just our Seattle crew, a few Portland guys, and a couple of the people the Portland guys were hosting. It is really fun calling out ridiculous nuclear tricks and links only to see Nick Landes nail them.
All of us in the Seattle crew went to Deschutes Brewery for dinner. I practically played better in my Sambas and baggy shorts while we waited outside for a table to open up than I did the rest of the weekend. After that we briefly stopped at Nick's place. We found out Ken was planning on going out to a "barcade" in the Chinatown district.
Ground Kontrol was cool. Seattle has a similar venue called GameWorks, but it has less emphasis on the bar part. The games here were also more old school. I did much better at the video games at Ground Kontrol than I did playing footbag, but I still wonder why so many of them were easy when I was like seven years old and are impossible now. I'm really glad Ken made it out to socialize for a while (I should also mention that I was so hesitant to accept your offer for a beer because I still haven't figured out what kinds I like). I can't imagine a better end for the weekend.
The drive back was uneventful. It sure did feel awesome to fall in my own bed again. I haven't figured out where to go from here. I have shin splints again. I might take some time off again, and I might just play as much as I can before summer is over. Right now I just want to sleep.
Last edited by rjadamson on 03 Sep 2012 22:17, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Reilley Adamson's footblog
Enjoyed the write up. I feel like I've gotten to know you a lot better since the last USO, both through TF2 and your blog, which made USO a nice milestone. Sorry I wasn't able to hang out more, but I needed to balance footbag with keeping the girlfriend happy. Ground Kontrol was one of the weekend highlights for me for sure. We have a similar bar in Denver too, but the games are worse as are the drink prices. Shooting it up in Area 51 was pretty sweet.
Anyway, hope your shins heal up. I remember my first couple years playing seriously I had issues, but once you develop those footbag muscles you'll be fine. Hopefully I'll get my TF2 fixed as well, and we can get in some gaming at that too.
Anyway, hope your shins heal up. I remember my first couple years playing seriously I had issues, but once you develop those footbag muscles you'll be fine. Hopefully I'll get my TF2 fixed as well, and we can get in some gaming at that too.
Re: Reilley Adamson's footblog
September 2, 2012
Cal Anderson Park club session on Sunday including Rory Dawson visiting for the PAX Prime event. I had given my shins the week off. Most of my shin splint pain was gone, but since coming back from Portland I've had a weird tension in the muscle(s) on the outside of my right ankle. But frankly after dealing with shin splints for so long pretty much any other discomfort is completely negligible. All things considered my legs feel pretty good. I want to finish the summer off strong while we still have some nice weather. Depending on how I feel I may take another break in fall and try and do a better job nursing my shins and better preparing them to play a bunch of footbag. I got a lot of good advice last weekend, and the main thing I took away was that generally the more I deal with shin splints the less likely they will show up in the future. I'm not discounting the fact I should be careful about playing, but hearing so many people confirm it naturally went away for them through regular playing leaves me optimistic.
I started off feeling very light on my feet. When this is the case my mixers from strong side clipper are just effortless. If I got both mixers in one string I would go for my strong bubbabeater to mixed success. I think I hit a couple. Moves like whirl and illusion where the dexing foot doesn't catch the bag give me so much trouble for some reason. I just can't figure out where to set or dex for the best window or ease of catching the bag. I did hit whirl bsos after just a couple tries, but it looked and felt so bad I was not really inspired to practice it anymore. I really want to focus on tricks that I am already good at, or things I'm a little more naturally proficient in until I can easily hit well into double digit contacts every string. Then I'll start expanding my repertoire.
I really enjoy watching Rory's toe shuffle. It didn't look like he expended a lot of energy doing atomic stuff.
I spent most of the session working on my mixer > down > ripwalk, rpt combo (or something related to it). I got through one side many times and footed the entire combo a couple times... but still no cigar. My flip mixer never seems symmetrical relative to my strong side (I end up feeling really hunched over), and I think it's because my flip clippers are bad and can't set accurately/confidently. Maybe next session I'll just spend a while practicing mixer > ss down, rpt to work my flip side a lot.
I filmed most of the session, but nothing really stood out. I'm okay with that. We played for over two hours and my legs feel pretty damn good.
Cal Anderson Park club session on Sunday including Rory Dawson visiting for the PAX Prime event. I had given my shins the week off. Most of my shin splint pain was gone, but since coming back from Portland I've had a weird tension in the muscle(s) on the outside of my right ankle. But frankly after dealing with shin splints for so long pretty much any other discomfort is completely negligible. All things considered my legs feel pretty good. I want to finish the summer off strong while we still have some nice weather. Depending on how I feel I may take another break in fall and try and do a better job nursing my shins and better preparing them to play a bunch of footbag. I got a lot of good advice last weekend, and the main thing I took away was that generally the more I deal with shin splints the less likely they will show up in the future. I'm not discounting the fact I should be careful about playing, but hearing so many people confirm it naturally went away for them through regular playing leaves me optimistic.
I started off feeling very light on my feet. When this is the case my mixers from strong side clipper are just effortless. If I got both mixers in one string I would go for my strong bubbabeater to mixed success. I think I hit a couple. Moves like whirl and illusion where the dexing foot doesn't catch the bag give me so much trouble for some reason. I just can't figure out where to set or dex for the best window or ease of catching the bag. I did hit whirl bsos after just a couple tries, but it looked and felt so bad I was not really inspired to practice it anymore. I really want to focus on tricks that I am already good at, or things I'm a little more naturally proficient in until I can easily hit well into double digit contacts every string. Then I'll start expanding my repertoire.
I really enjoy watching Rory's toe shuffle. It didn't look like he expended a lot of energy doing atomic stuff.
I spent most of the session working on my mixer > down > ripwalk, rpt combo (or something related to it). I got through one side many times and footed the entire combo a couple times... but still no cigar. My flip mixer never seems symmetrical relative to my strong side (I end up feeling really hunched over), and I think it's because my flip clippers are bad and can't set accurately/confidently. Maybe next session I'll just spend a while practicing mixer > ss down, rpt to work my flip side a lot.
I filmed most of the session, but nothing really stood out. I'm okay with that. We played for over two hours and my legs feel pretty damn good.
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bustinjustin
- Fearless
- Posts: 577
- Joined: 15 Dec 2003 09:39
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Re: Reilley Adamson's footblog
Awesome USO write up. Now I don't have to do one. You rock!
Justin Dale
Videos
Videos
Re: Reilley Adamson's footblog
September 5, 2012
It feels good to be playing pretty regularly again. Spontaneous session at Justin's place. But I am not very good about coming right home and writing these right now... so here I am doing it the next day. To be honest I dreaded writing this one, but it's for a good reason: Trevor and I had a great session and there were a lot of potential film highlights to find and edit. I may have to post on the Rain City Shred footblog too.
I warmed up quite a bit with toe stalls because they have regressed a little bit. They made for pretty boring footage, but Justin was able to spot one or two problems I can now focus on. Once I get them looking totally symmetrical again I want to figure out how to better keep that good form in place while I'm actually playing. Right now my toe tiltless looks scoopy -- especially my shitty pickup bails from clipper.
I got osis > ripwalk on my first try, and hit the other side after just one drop:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugw2jrVDgKU[/youtube]
I had never stepped out of osis until today. My osis still looks really bad, but maybe hitting stepping moves out of it will naturally fix my execution. Along with try to fix things like unnecessary arm movement or hunching my back I am really interested in finding links that will help improve my form. I realize putting in lots of reps on a concept will develop more efficient execution... but I think removing form issues has to be a deliberate effort in training. I also think some moves are more easily improved with huge amounts of repetition (far mirage) while some just won't improve well very unless I constantly acknowledge the form problems and continually work on fixing them (osis). Simply doing a million mirages might help me be able to do more of them without dropping, but reviewing video of myself doing them and proactively tweaking my style is the only way I'll probably get them to look a certain way (like if I wanted them to look like Takumi performs them). Mathias Blau will be visiting us later in the month. I want to look like him when I play footbag.
I spent most of the session facing off with Trevor doing ducking clippers and links involving them. I've never really buckled down and worked on ducking... so today was the day. And it was fun. It wasn't too long before I was starting to hit them back to back, but I don't know if I ever got back three in a row. It felt really good to work on something that would force my flip clipper to get both stronger and more accurate. By the end of the session my setting height was pretty ideal -- Justin noted that between Trevor and I my sets looked better, but his catches were better. After I've had a day to digest what I learned from the session I kind of feel like while I more intuitively know how high to set it I have more difficulty physically doing it. I don't know if that makes sense. I guess I'm doing the sets okay, but in the moment I can't tell because it's difficult... so I don't trust my set height and am left hanging and unprepared to make a catch at the right time. In any case I still hit ducking clipper > down > down > ducking clipper, ducking clipper > drifter, bs (one side first try), and probably a couple other similar links I've already forgotten. I think I'll keep working on ducking for at least several more sessions to come.
I got a couple strings over twenty contacts today, which felt really good. One was about half inside stalls and therefore not worth posting. The other doesn't isn't very flattering from a form standpoint, but it's something:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHh4gEOjRYg[/youtube]
I once again got through one side of mixer > down > ripwalk, rpt a number of times throughout the session, but I still haven't been able to seal the full combo. I know I'll hit it within another session or two, and after that I'm just going to see how many times I can hit it per session. Dan has made a huge leap lately so I will try to play more like him. No more hitting something once and moving on.
It feels good to be playing pretty regularly again. Spontaneous session at Justin's place. But I am not very good about coming right home and writing these right now... so here I am doing it the next day. To be honest I dreaded writing this one, but it's for a good reason: Trevor and I had a great session and there were a lot of potential film highlights to find and edit. I may have to post on the Rain City Shred footblog too.
I warmed up quite a bit with toe stalls because they have regressed a little bit. They made for pretty boring footage, but Justin was able to spot one or two problems I can now focus on. Once I get them looking totally symmetrical again I want to figure out how to better keep that good form in place while I'm actually playing. Right now my toe tiltless looks scoopy -- especially my shitty pickup bails from clipper.
I got osis > ripwalk on my first try, and hit the other side after just one drop:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugw2jrVDgKU[/youtube]
I had never stepped out of osis until today. My osis still looks really bad, but maybe hitting stepping moves out of it will naturally fix my execution. Along with try to fix things like unnecessary arm movement or hunching my back I am really interested in finding links that will help improve my form. I realize putting in lots of reps on a concept will develop more efficient execution... but I think removing form issues has to be a deliberate effort in training. I also think some moves are more easily improved with huge amounts of repetition (far mirage) while some just won't improve well very unless I constantly acknowledge the form problems and continually work on fixing them (osis). Simply doing a million mirages might help me be able to do more of them without dropping, but reviewing video of myself doing them and proactively tweaking my style is the only way I'll probably get them to look a certain way (like if I wanted them to look like Takumi performs them). Mathias Blau will be visiting us later in the month. I want to look like him when I play footbag.
I spent most of the session facing off with Trevor doing ducking clippers and links involving them. I've never really buckled down and worked on ducking... so today was the day. And it was fun. It wasn't too long before I was starting to hit them back to back, but I don't know if I ever got back three in a row. It felt really good to work on something that would force my flip clipper to get both stronger and more accurate. By the end of the session my setting height was pretty ideal -- Justin noted that between Trevor and I my sets looked better, but his catches were better. After I've had a day to digest what I learned from the session I kind of feel like while I more intuitively know how high to set it I have more difficulty physically doing it. I don't know if that makes sense. I guess I'm doing the sets okay, but in the moment I can't tell because it's difficult... so I don't trust my set height and am left hanging and unprepared to make a catch at the right time. In any case I still hit ducking clipper > down > down > ducking clipper, ducking clipper > drifter, bs (one side first try), and probably a couple other similar links I've already forgotten. I think I'll keep working on ducking for at least several more sessions to come.
I got a couple strings over twenty contacts today, which felt really good. One was about half inside stalls and therefore not worth posting. The other doesn't isn't very flattering from a form standpoint, but it's something:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHh4gEOjRYg[/youtube]
I once again got through one side of mixer > down > ripwalk, rpt a number of times throughout the session, but I still haven't been able to seal the full combo. I know I'll hit it within another session or two, and after that I'm just going to see how many times I can hit it per session. Dan has made a huge leap lately so I will try to play more like him. No more hitting something once and moving on.
Re: Reilley Adamson's footblog
Dope shizz man, glad to see you are tearin' it up again. Totally jealous of everything you are hitting 
. Keep it up!
. Keep it up!Live, Love, Footbag
Derek Littlefield
Derek Littlefield
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h0ag3yb3atZ
- Egyptian Footgod
- Posts: 1161
- Joined: 03 Jul 2008 09:05
- Location: Shaolin
Re: Reilley Adamson's footblog
awesome progression man, lookin' solid. cool writeup of the USO aswell, i'm going to do my best to go next summer sounds like a blast.
also be careful with landing on your heels. i noticed you did it a few times in that DLO string, once you stop doing that you'll feel like you have wolverine shins.
also be careful with landing on your heels. i noticed you did it a few times in that DLO string, once you stop doing that you'll feel like you have wolverine shins.
Kevin Hogan
BSC
BSC
Re: Reilley Adamson's footblog
September 9, 2012
For once the uphill battle that is improving in footbag seems to be plateauing a little bit. Today was definitely the strongest I've ever played. And my shins feel fucking great. Maybe I'm getting a better sense of what I can realistically push myself to do, and what will just hurt me. Maybe I'm just more physically ready -- I did plenty of mixers and torques without any problem. If nothing else it's great to know what I can play enough to make them flare up (like I did in Portland) and they'll quickly heal over the next couple weeks as long as I am not a total idiot about it.
I don't really feel like posting a great deal about my shred or agonizing over the links I got on video because I think this is just the beginning. Every link I would have sealed with a hand catch a couple months (or a couple weeks) I could do into string after a couple tries today.
Lots of strings with higher contact counts. My form seemed a lot better than it did the previous session. After my legs got really warmed up I could delay my toe stalls very deliberately and make them super even. I took the opportunity to work on my pickups and try to remove the scoop factor. I was pretty successful by the end of a round or two. I could also tell far mirage > down, rpt looked much stronger than it ever has when reviewing the footage.
I was a little nervous about working on my flip open set because I was on such a high from everything else going so well. I haven't worked on it in a minutes, and I didn't want to suddenly be back to not clearing the majority of my sets. Talk about a momentum killer. But sure enough with just a reminder to keep my setting toe pointed up as much as possible and I was hitting most of my flip dimwalk attempts. I need to add dimwalk > far mirage, rpt to the list of repeat combos to try and get through at least once a session. I gave Dan Reed a challenge of parkwalk > mixer, rpt not too long ago, and practiced my own parkwalks a little bit. Sure is harder than dimwalk.
They don't seem like a difficult move at all, but I tried symposium down for the first try and got them back to back. I hear everyone thinks they're lame like dada curves, but I might have some fun just going for consecutives next session for the hell of it.
I rarely drop my strong side mixer at this point, and I'm ever so slowly narrowing down the problems with my flip side. My flip clipper still sucks, but hopefully it'll improve with the combination of reps and focusing on an accurate set. I got into far mixers for a little while... the side I consider stronger had much more trouble than my flip.
Did some more ducking clippers. I didn't spend nearly as much time on them today, but I felt my catches were a little more on than they were last session. With some proper attention I might be able to hit something like ducking clipper > drifter, rpt.
I might try to squeeze in some solo sessions so long as my shins keep feeling good.
Kevin -- thanks for the advice. I've kept it in the back of my head over the last couple days, and hopefully that is part of what helped today. I will say I found that landing on my toes while I had terrible shin splints was infinitely more painful than the alternative. I think my shin splints helped create a really bad habit of playing somewhat flat-footed. But if I don't have shin pain anymore I don't have to worry about that. I hope to see you next year for sure. Wish I could make it over to the east coast before then though.
For once the uphill battle that is improving in footbag seems to be plateauing a little bit. Today was definitely the strongest I've ever played. And my shins feel fucking great. Maybe I'm getting a better sense of what I can realistically push myself to do, and what will just hurt me. Maybe I'm just more physically ready -- I did plenty of mixers and torques without any problem. If nothing else it's great to know what I can play enough to make them flare up (like I did in Portland) and they'll quickly heal over the next couple weeks as long as I am not a total idiot about it.
I don't really feel like posting a great deal about my shred or agonizing over the links I got on video because I think this is just the beginning. Every link I would have sealed with a hand catch a couple months (or a couple weeks) I could do into string after a couple tries today.
Lots of strings with higher contact counts. My form seemed a lot better than it did the previous session. After my legs got really warmed up I could delay my toe stalls very deliberately and make them super even. I took the opportunity to work on my pickups and try to remove the scoop factor. I was pretty successful by the end of a round or two. I could also tell far mirage > down, rpt looked much stronger than it ever has when reviewing the footage.
I was a little nervous about working on my flip open set because I was on such a high from everything else going so well. I haven't worked on it in a minutes, and I didn't want to suddenly be back to not clearing the majority of my sets. Talk about a momentum killer. But sure enough with just a reminder to keep my setting toe pointed up as much as possible and I was hitting most of my flip dimwalk attempts. I need to add dimwalk > far mirage, rpt to the list of repeat combos to try and get through at least once a session. I gave Dan Reed a challenge of parkwalk > mixer, rpt not too long ago, and practiced my own parkwalks a little bit. Sure is harder than dimwalk.
They don't seem like a difficult move at all, but I tried symposium down for the first try and got them back to back. I hear everyone thinks they're lame like dada curves, but I might have some fun just going for consecutives next session for the hell of it.
I rarely drop my strong side mixer at this point, and I'm ever so slowly narrowing down the problems with my flip side. My flip clipper still sucks, but hopefully it'll improve with the combination of reps and focusing on an accurate set. I got into far mixers for a little while... the side I consider stronger had much more trouble than my flip.
Did some more ducking clippers. I didn't spend nearly as much time on them today, but I felt my catches were a little more on than they were last session. With some proper attention I might be able to hit something like ducking clipper > drifter, rpt.
I might try to squeeze in some solo sessions so long as my shins keep feeling good.
Kevin -- thanks for the advice. I've kept it in the back of my head over the last couple days, and hopefully that is part of what helped today. I will say I found that landing on my toes while I had terrible shin splints was infinitely more painful than the alternative. I think my shin splints helped create a really bad habit of playing somewhat flat-footed. But if I don't have shin pain anymore I don't have to worry about that. I hope to see you next year for sure. Wish I could make it over to the east coast before then though.
Last edited by rjadamson on 17 Sep 2012 07:31, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Reilley Adamson's footblog
September 12, 2012
Session at Justin's. Got to play with Danny Williams for the first time in like four years. It was a fun session, and most importantly I feel like I have a shred partner now. We're at precisely the same level with just a slight variation in concepts. It's really great being able to play the way I am right now. My shins were sensitive by the end of the session, but it wasn't anything remotely crippling like before. I strategically take Thursdays off so I can recover from midweek sessions, but I honestly have a feeling I'll be totally good in a couple days. I should probably try to get in a non-macaroni and cheese meal in over those next two days to assist with that. It's also really great to be able to just decide to hit something that would have been unrealistic before -- I hit my first 4-4-4:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbaKBP_Zi74[/youtube]
My stupid grin wouldn't suggest it, but it only took a couple tries and was therefore kind of anticlimactic. I immediately tried to turn that into five tripless (shut down > ripwalk > ripwalk > stepping osis > torque), but I was pretty spent from playing for two hours. But yeah, I can hardly think of any tricks or links I'm really trying to hit that I'd be super enthusiastic to post about even if I did nail them. Everything I'm trying seems appropriate for pushing myself just enough, and it all feels like stuff I should have been hitting months ago. I feel like I'm at the point Dan Reed was one year ago. So that means I'm on the right track.
I could have gotten through my white whale combo (mixer > down > ripwalk, rpt) but I sealed the string five moves in like a dipshit because I was so exhausted I wasn't paying attention. I accidentally just tried to type "dipwalk" because my mind is sort of mush at this point in the evening. Also, I'm christening a premature hand catch "pre-Reilleying" a move (to "Reilley" something is to drop a hand catch seal).
Session at Justin's. Got to play with Danny Williams for the first time in like four years. It was a fun session, and most importantly I feel like I have a shred partner now. We're at precisely the same level with just a slight variation in concepts. It's really great being able to play the way I am right now. My shins were sensitive by the end of the session, but it wasn't anything remotely crippling like before. I strategically take Thursdays off so I can recover from midweek sessions, but I honestly have a feeling I'll be totally good in a couple days. I should probably try to get in a non-macaroni and cheese meal in over those next two days to assist with that. It's also really great to be able to just decide to hit something that would have been unrealistic before -- I hit my first 4-4-4:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbaKBP_Zi74[/youtube]
My stupid grin wouldn't suggest it, but it only took a couple tries and was therefore kind of anticlimactic. I immediately tried to turn that into five tripless (shut down > ripwalk > ripwalk > stepping osis > torque), but I was pretty spent from playing for two hours. But yeah, I can hardly think of any tricks or links I'm really trying to hit that I'd be super enthusiastic to post about even if I did nail them. Everything I'm trying seems appropriate for pushing myself just enough, and it all feels like stuff I should have been hitting months ago. I feel like I'm at the point Dan Reed was one year ago. So that means I'm on the right track.
I could have gotten through my white whale combo (mixer > down > ripwalk, rpt) but I sealed the string five moves in like a dipshit because I was so exhausted I wasn't paying attention. I accidentally just tried to type "dipwalk" because my mind is sort of mush at this point in the evening. Also, I'm christening a premature hand catch "pre-Reilleying" a move (to "Reilley" something is to drop a hand catch seal).
Re: Reilley Adamson's footblog
September 17, 2012
Short entry because I have a job interview in less than eight hours. The job itself probably isn't really an upgrade, but my commute would go from one hour (40 minute on the bus and 20 minutes walking) each way to a five minute walk.
Dan, Justin (who wasn't previously scheduled to make it), and I kicked at one of the most scenic spots to date. It's basically Seattle's answer to Ira Keller Park in Portland: concrete structures creating lots of waterfalls and white noise. Except ours has more surrounding greenery.
So I've been on a huge upswing lately... marked improvements each session (about twice a week), and the best part is that every highlight feels like the tip of the iceberg of things to come. I still have lots of unwanted hand/arm movement that I want to fix, but I think it will be pretty easy to get under control once I am overall a better player.
I started working far mixers today. I usually don't really touch them, but I almost never even drop mixers on my good side anymore. I hit far mixer bsos pretty quickly (even though they looked pretty ugly), so I began try to hit open sets out of them. The result was one of several new 4-4-4 combos:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rp8Ehjxssag[/youtube]
I was hesitant to post it because I'm very aware I didn't seal the torque. However I can truthfully say this was purely because I am so confident in my rate of improvement that I simply didn't care enough to seal a combo I could hit every day now. Why bother when I can do it with better form later this week? But here I am posting it anyway.
I also hit another much harder trick for the first time:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7fbTtflWgU[/youtube]
I worked my mixer > down > ripwalk, rpt combo at the end of the day. I was pretty tired, but knew I was ready. I've been starting from my flip ripwalk so that I both constantly work my flip and have a chance to reset myself before the flip mixer. Sure enough after several close calls I finally hit it. Ironically my phone had run out of hard drive space so I do not have it on video. Whatever -- I'll do it better next time and start from a different spot in the combo.
I usually stop the camera after someone hits something cool. This makes cropping the video much less time consuming later. The downside is that sometimes we forget to start recording again. My other two new 4-4-4's didn't get on film for this reason. One of them was blur > dimwalk > torque, and I've already forgotten the other. Dan challenged me to hit dimwalk > ducking down > torque at some point in the day. I trust mess flip torque less than everything else so I ended up doing lots of (flip) open sets. I couldn't quite seal the last torque (and this one I actually would have liked to) so I will remember this one for next time.
My blurs look fucking awesome! Expecting to dimwalk out of them today really pushed me to do good ones. The only thing stopping me from dimwalk > blur, rpt is my flip dimwalk... but maybe I'll get lucky next session.
I have kind of been neglecting tiltless stuff. Now that my legs feel good enough to do ripwalks and other more energy intensive things all session I pretty much do just that. But I really need to reach another plateau on both sides with the fundamentals soon. I especially need to do illusions more. I could probably count my lifetime flip illusion attempts on one hand.
Short entry because I have a job interview in less than eight hours. The job itself probably isn't really an upgrade, but my commute would go from one hour (40 minute on the bus and 20 minutes walking) each way to a five minute walk.
Dan, Justin (who wasn't previously scheduled to make it), and I kicked at one of the most scenic spots to date. It's basically Seattle's answer to Ira Keller Park in Portland: concrete structures creating lots of waterfalls and white noise. Except ours has more surrounding greenery.
So I've been on a huge upswing lately... marked improvements each session (about twice a week), and the best part is that every highlight feels like the tip of the iceberg of things to come. I still have lots of unwanted hand/arm movement that I want to fix, but I think it will be pretty easy to get under control once I am overall a better player.
I started working far mixers today. I usually don't really touch them, but I almost never even drop mixers on my good side anymore. I hit far mixer bsos pretty quickly (even though they looked pretty ugly), so I began try to hit open sets out of them. The result was one of several new 4-4-4 combos:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rp8Ehjxssag[/youtube]
I was hesitant to post it because I'm very aware I didn't seal the torque. However I can truthfully say this was purely because I am so confident in my rate of improvement that I simply didn't care enough to seal a combo I could hit every day now. Why bother when I can do it with better form later this week? But here I am posting it anyway.
I also hit another much harder trick for the first time:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7fbTtflWgU[/youtube]
I worked my mixer > down > ripwalk, rpt combo at the end of the day. I was pretty tired, but knew I was ready. I've been starting from my flip ripwalk so that I both constantly work my flip and have a chance to reset myself before the flip mixer. Sure enough after several close calls I finally hit it. Ironically my phone had run out of hard drive space so I do not have it on video. Whatever -- I'll do it better next time and start from a different spot in the combo.
I usually stop the camera after someone hits something cool. This makes cropping the video much less time consuming later. The downside is that sometimes we forget to start recording again. My other two new 4-4-4's didn't get on film for this reason. One of them was blur > dimwalk > torque, and I've already forgotten the other. Dan challenged me to hit dimwalk > ducking down > torque at some point in the day. I trust mess flip torque less than everything else so I ended up doing lots of (flip) open sets. I couldn't quite seal the last torque (and this one I actually would have liked to) so I will remember this one for next time.
My blurs look fucking awesome! Expecting to dimwalk out of them today really pushed me to do good ones. The only thing stopping me from dimwalk > blur, rpt is my flip dimwalk... but maybe I'll get lucky next session.
I have kind of been neglecting tiltless stuff. Now that my legs feel good enough to do ripwalks and other more energy intensive things all session I pretty much do just that. But I really need to reach another plateau on both sides with the fundamentals soon. I especially need to do illusions more. I could probably count my lifetime flip illusion attempts on one hand.