Fanzine

[Muffinman]

That's sad.
It reminds me of internet trolls. People who say stupid things at the drop of a hat for no reason. I just don't understand why. Like, seriously, I'd like to know what people like this think in their heads... Maybe, "I am so angry for wasting my time outside or on the internet when I could be shooting people in Call of Duty."

[rjadamson]

Footbag is a lot of fun, and obviously lately I’ve been putting a lot of importance on it, and the achievement of my goals in the sport. Yesterday though, kind of put things in perspective for me. Getting better at footbag, and achieving my goals in competition are important to me, but they are not the most important things in life. Being grateful for the life I have is important. Contributing to my community is important. Making an effort to be positive and patient in my interactions with the world, is important. I’m going to continue to train and train hard for Worlds. But I will also make a point not to lose perspective, and to try and put in as much effort into the rest of my life as I do into footbag.

It's kind of interesting for me to read this as a beginner of this sport. Playing footbag is a test I gave myself to prove that I can stick with a hobby even after reaching that threshold where it's suddenly much harder to improve. It's relatively easy to learn a few 3-ball juggling patterns, but one has to invest a lot more time to improving to the point where they never drop.

You have been playing footbag for a long time and have (presumably) really matured as an athlete. At this point you know what to train and how to train it to really play at your best. And now you are looking at how to apply that wisdom to all aspects of life.

[C-Fan]

At this point you know what to train and how to
train it to really play at your best. And now you are looking at how
to apply that wisdom to all aspects of life.

While I agree that footbag has taught me some lessons which I apply to
life, I have to disagree with the first sentence. It's notable to me
that I've played for 15 years now, and I still haven't truly mastered
training. That said, I certainly feel like I train a lot smarter than
I did even 5 years ago. Mostly it's a question of putting myself in a
position to succeed both physically (adequate sleep, stamina training,
caffeine when necessary) and mentally (practicing enough to know I can
do it). But even with my prep, I still have a lot of days where I'm
shocked by how badly my routines go. Or footbag in general goes.
That said, my standards for performance are a lot higher now than they
were back then too. So are my goals.

On that note, I've been training pretty hard recently. 4 weeks from
today, I'll be competing in Poland. The thought both excites and
terrifies me. It'll be my first major competition since USO last
year, and my first Worlds since 2010. I feel like last summer I
raised the bar for myself in terms of competition (Green Cup, Euros,
USO all went well), which I'd really like to continue through this
year. With routine practice this year, I'm taking a bit of a
different approach. In past years, I'd dedicate entire sessions to
obsessively doing routines over and over. This year, I'm consciously
doing less of that. On average I'll do 3-4 runthroughs per session,
usually one or two of each routine (I'm prepping 2 routines for
Worlds). If I get either dropless, I'm done with that routine for the
day. The idea is to get at least one strong runthrough of each
routine every time I train. Normally I warm up, do some light shred,
then work routines, and then reward myself with some fun stuff. It
can be tough to balance though. Some days I can’t let go and have fun
with shred, because routines are too much on my mind. Other days, I
shred too long and don’t have the energy left to do good routines.
I’m hoping that in the next few weeks the frequency of my dropless
routines will go up. I could probably do that by sacrificing some
difficulty, but I think the only way I’ll make Finals is if I keep my
routines at their current level, but lower my drops.

I’m also trying out a couple new things to help me with my
preparation. The first one, is practicing consecutives of tricks that
I know I'm using in my routines. The idea being that doing
consecutives helps me make the tricks more efficient, and hence less
likely that I'll drop them in a routine. I'm also practicing some of
my easier routine tricks outside of routines, since I don't normally
do them in my guiltless shred. Here's a short vid of some consecs
I’ve been working on:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-LjT5qJVBc[/youtube]

The other thing I’m working on is my mental game in the routine. Just
really practicing that feeling of being in the moment, not letting
drops or mistakes take me out of my flow too much. On a related note,
I’ve been watching bowling tournaments in YouTube. Obviously the
pacing and pressure is very different in bowling than in footbag, but
I still feel like I can learn something from watching the good players
under pressure. You can see them approach the pressure shots by
entering their zone, calming themselves down, and blocking out
distractions. If I can learn to do the same (consistently), that’ll
be of great help when I’m competing.

Over the weekend I watched Justin Dale’s new video, and was struck by
how nice his blenders looked thrown in his game. It inspired me to
revisit an old favorite drill of mine, and to try and hit it from all
4 starting points. Pretty sure I’d never done that before. Here’s a
short vid of the result:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjQGG3wg38o[/youtube]

Denver’s heatwave hasn’t broken yet, and isn’t forecast to. I’ve
managed to keep up my training pretty well despite the heat, but I
hope it cools down some anyway. This whole month I’ve resolved to
reduce my drinking, and increase my sleep, as ways to help me avoid
injury before Worlds and get ready. 24 days til I get on that plane.

[Muffinman]

I think everywhere has a heatwave right now? I know Luis Monhollon was complaining about it in his blog too. I have especially crazy humidity where I am now. I'm going to do some research into window air conditioner units... Anyway, fun drill, and a really great idea to do it from all points -- I never really thought to do that before. I'm gonna try that some time. Also, I always find it interesting that your shred is so pro-level in person, but in your own blog videos your personal highlights seem like things that you would easily hit in a shred circle at an event. Does that make sense?

[CIC flurry]

I agree with you on the training.
Half of June we've had days over 90, and this whole week we have highs in the mid 90's. Last week we played at night, and it was so humid it was hard to breathe.

I remember I wanted to ask/confirm about something you wrote in a previous post that you only eat meat once a month. Is that so?

[Tjuggles]

Hi Ken,

Since I have been juggling a lot more than footbag, I appreciate the consecs video. Once I get my schedule back on track for summer, i.e., more shred because I won't be working, I plan to do a lot of them.

Also, I hope it's ok to give you some advice on your drifters, because I think one thing that will make you go a lot longer with them is if you hold the clipper position longer. When I do consecutive drifters, I notice that when I am forcing myself to slow down the set (i.e., hold the clip longer), they are smoother and I don't get as tired as fast.

Also, your p drifter > blender drill reminded me of this drill that I really like:

p drifter > p torque > rpt

Really fun drill. I have hit p drifter x 5 > p torque > rpt, but my goal is 10 p drifters instead of 5.

Good luck at the tourneys. Your game is looking really good and I trust you will do well.

[C-Fan]

Thanks for the comments guys.

Not much new on my end. If all goes according to plan, my footbag life should be pretty boring and predictable leading up to Worlds. If there's anything flashy in the blog before Worlds, it's hopefully me reporting on stuff Pipenberg is hitting. But even in that case, ideally I'm filming any sessions we have, and that footage would go towards a Pipenberg video later. I'm also hoping that any video I post in the blog before Worlds, is compilations of old backlog footage. Between now and Worlds, I'm going to endeavor to use my camera only for routine practice.

Due to all that, I'm hoping most entries in my blog before Worlds will look something like this:

"Played yesterday. I'm playing about every other day. I didn't try any new tricks or combos. I didn't get injured. I worked on routines. Both routines are becoming automatic, and my drops are going down. Getting lots of sleep and taking care of my body."

Sure enough, that sums up my last couple sessions. My drops aren't going down as much as I'd hoped, but I think my choreography is getting tighter. There's less improvisation, and I'm doing better at always knowing where I am in the routine. I'm hoping this will eventually result in fewer drops. I used to be pretty obsessed with going dropless, but in theory I'd rather do a very strong 1 drop routine than a dropless routine that's too easy or full of bails. In a perfect world, the 1 drop routine would win. In reality (and from experience), I know that going dropless can actually be more important. One year at Chicago NYJ, I did a routine where I dropped twice. One drop was on a juggle, so it didn't hurt the routine flow much, and the other was on a major cue. When the results were announced, I did a lot worse than I expected. I asked the judges why I scored so low, and they responded that it was because I had 5 drops. Now, while that clearly was due to the drop counter messing up, it also highlighted to me that judges have to keep track of a lot of things, and therefore 2 drops can turn into 5 in their mind. Going dropless makes it easier for the judges to focus on all the good things you did in a routine, and removes one factor entirely from their consideration. Dropless is dropless. In a way, going dropless gives you the benefit of the doubt.

Of course, the real hope is to do a perfect routine. Dropless, difficult, and without bails. Man that'd be awesome. I haven't done that in a couple years now, but I know I'm capable of it.

Some quick responses to comments:

Erik: difficulty in footbag is both subjective, and also the result of what we have practiced. If somebody asked me to hit 4 fearless, that'd be easier for me than hitting 3 blenders in a row. Similarly, there are concepts that I'm good at but I don't find challenging (e.g. fliers) which I don't mention in my blog, precisely because they aren't new or challenging for me. I'm glad you think my shred at tournaments is good (or more importantly, I'm glad the judges think so), but really, that kind of stuff is pretty conservative and boring to me. I get a lot more enjoyment and satisfaction out of learning new stuff, even if it's considered basic or easy to most players, as long as it's new to me.

Tom: For the last few years I've made a concerted effort to reduce the amount of meat in my diet. I'm doing this more for environmental reasons than anything. I actually have been keeping a health spreadsheet for the last 282 days, where I track things like hours of sleep, number of alcoholic drinks per day, meat/soda/caffeine consumption, and whether or not I played footbag. I have different goals for each category, born of different motivations. For example, my goal with soda is to cut it out entirely, since it's bad for my teeth and health. My sleep goal is to average over 8 hours a night, since this likely reduces my chance of injury, and should help me have better shred sessions. With meat, my goal is to buy it infrequently (currently at 81 days). That said, if my coworker is going to throw out half of a sandwich with meat, I'll happily eat it. My logic there is that the environmental damage of producing and shipping the meat has already been done, and that by eating the sandwich I prevent it from being garbage, thereby not wasting it and also preventing it from having to be shipped to a landfill (gas costs) where it will rot and take up space. This is a long-winded way of saying that I don't eat very much meat, but that I'll eat it when I think doing so has a net positive impact for the environment. Make sense?

TJ: Good advice on holding stalls longer. I think that would also help me conserve energy in routines, which is something I'm working on. I'll try it out.


Here's a short vid of some footage backlog:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rabr_7YffWU[/youtube]

In exactly three weeks I get on that plane for Poland...I kinda wish it were tomorrow already. I'm at the stage where I feel ready already, and the waiting is killing me. I just need to maintain where I'm at, not get hurt, and see if I can't refine my routines a little bit more.

[C-Fan]

I was reading over random old blog entries at work the other day, and came across this entry, from a few months before Worlds 2010:

I'm also hoping to use this time off to re-evaluate where I am in my footbag career, and what my goals are. I'm four months away from my 13th anniversary in the sport, which is just before Worlds. I feel like over the past couple years I've been playing at or near my peak. On one hand I'm happy I'm still achieving milestone goals, but on the other hand I'm aware that my window for reaching some goals is probably closing quickly. If my career were to end right now, I'd say the only goal I haven't achieved is making finals in routines at Worlds.

The real question that I need to evaluate is: why is this goal important to me? The common thread behind all my goals in footbag so far, has been to set a high bar that would really challenge me and push me to my limits. Given the level of competition likely to show up at Worlds this year, making finals certainly would push my limits. Realistically, I'd need to prepare enough that I would get out of the first round with a high seed, and then do a perfect semis routine. Even then, I might need to get lucky to make finals. Vasek, Clavens, Damian, Phil Morrison, Penske, Milan, Bevier and Honza are all likely to compete, and I'd need to beat one of them to make it. I'm also sure there will be a slew of other good players competing, and any of them could knock me out too. From a difficulty (challenging myself) standpoint, I actually like the fact that I'll need to prepare well enough to try and beat this level of player to achieve my goal.

What makes this goal fundamentally different from past goals, is that it is not fully under my control, and also places value on the opinions of others. Both of these aspects make me uncomfortable. Goals like hitting a beast, blurry flurry, a dropless routine, 10 unique fearless, 200+ pts in Shred 30, etc. were all things that I had full control over. I either hit them, or I didn't. An objective observer could verify this on video. Making finals at Worlds though, isn't fully under my control. Theoretically, I could hit my routine perfectly in the first and second round, and still not make it. That would be really tough to take, and it's distinctly possible. Even without the variable of subjective judging, it's possible that the competitors in my pools just do better routines than me, and I don't make it to Finals.

The other part of my goal that I haven't come to terms with, is that by trying to make routine Finals at Worlds, I feel like I'm acknowledging the right of other people to judge me and my game. My whole career in footbag, I've prided myself on tuning out the opinions of others, and playing for myself. I've always played to have fun and to challenge myself. If people liked what I did, or I won events along the way, then fine. If people didn't like me or my style, so be it. If I had listened to the haters, I would have given up a long time ago.

And yet, in order to make it to Finals, not only will I need to execute my routine well twice, I'll have to submit to the subjective judgment of others.

Based on all this, I suppose I could redefine my goal, to make it more under my control. I could make it something like: "Do a good enough routine in the first round that you earn a good seed in semis, and then do a dropless routine in semis." Difficulty-wise, this would likely end up being on par with my original goal. It would also have the benefit of being completely under my control. All that said, if I were to ask myself truly and honestly what my last remaining goal in footbag is, I wouldn't say "go dropless in semis." I'd say "make finals." Ultimately I probably shouldn't worry too much about things beyond my control.

I enjoyed the following quote I read in an NYT column. It was in reference to the Cornell basketball team's unexpected cinderella run in the NCAA tourney, but it could just as easily apply to my aspirations at Worlds:

There is nothing tragic about attempting a great leap and falling short. The tragedy is not even trying.

Reading this over two years later, I still share the same concerns. Making routine finals at Worlds still is my biggest remaining goal, and I still am a bit uncomfortable setting a goal which relies on the subjective opinion of others. My thinking about this goal is slightly different now than it was then. For one, I'm not going to bother trying to figure out how many people I'd need to beat, or who I'd need to beat. I'm just going to hope my performances are good enough that I just make it. The other change in my thinking, is that I now realize that "make finals at Worlds" and "do a perfect semis routine" are not the same thing. While doing a perfect semis routine is a good goal, the real goal is making finals. Achieving the former goal would likely make me achieve the latter one, but it's possible for me to have a little luck in the pools for a change, and end up making finals even without going dropless. Not that I'm counting on that.

Stumbling across this two year old entry made me reflect on a few different things. First and foremost, I feel happy that two years later I'm still playing, and that I'm probably playing better now than I was back then. At some point my game will decline, but I'm not there yet, which makes me happy. The other thing that post made me think about, is how long I've had routine finals as a footbag career goal. I blogged about it two years ago, but I think it's been a goal since 2003, where I just finished outside the cut (back then Finals was 10 players, so I actually had a better result in 2010 when I finished just outside finals). Not only is that a long time to have a goal, but every year that passes theoretically makes it harder to achieve. While I don't think this year is my "now or never" moment, I know the window is closing. Not that I needed more motivation to train hard, but finding this post definitely helps.

On that note, I'm gonna go train right now. Two weeks and one day until I get on that plane. Train hard.

[Air]

Good post Ken. I share many thoughts with you on the matter. I feel like my goal this year will also be to make to finals. I did it for the first time last year and was really happy about it, especially since couple months before Worlds I didn't really believe I could do it, having never been a good routine player.
While I think there are many top players who have the skills to make a routine difficult enough to qualify for finals, what it really comes down to is execution. That's what fascinates me about routines. You need to keep your head cool and stay focused the whole time.
I have a new routine this year that I think is better then the one I did last year but I need to execute it well. For the next two weeks I will focus only on that.

Having seen your routine at Euros last year I feel like you are a strong finals candidate. How many times you've practised your routine so far? Are you using the same routine for all rounds?

See you in just two weeks, cheers.

[C-Fan]

Hey Aleksi! Thanks for the post. Weird that it's been a full year since we were hanging out in Madrid...doesn't feel that long ago. Excited to see you in a couple weeks for sure.

While I think there are many top players who have the skills to make a routine difficult enough to qualify for finals, what it really comes down to is execution

Well said. And that's part of what scares me about Worlds. Like, I've put in soooo much time and effort into preparing, but it all comes down to how well I play for a total of 4 minutes on the trip. If I dont execute during those 4 minutes, that'd be tough to take.

.How many times you've practised your routine so far? Are you using the same routine for all rounds?

I'm doing two different routines this year. In 2009, I had only one routine, which I hit almost perfectly in the first round. In the second round, I only dropped twice, but it was a letdown because everybody had high expectations after my dropless first round. This year I figure that if I have two good routines, if I go dropless in the first round, i can reset expectations by doing a different routine in semis, if that makes sense.

I've been pretty hardcore with my routine training. I'd say both routines total, I've done well over 70 times. My attitude at this point, is that training can never hurt me. That is to say, if I train properly (warm up, listen to my body, warm down, dont get hurt), training can never be a setback. It will always either help me, or at worst maintain my level.

Token blog video:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrjKYfix8Zs[/youtube]

[C-Fan]

First post in the blog since Modified had it's makeover. It's weird to think I visited the same website for almost 10 years, and it never changed substantially in appearance. I can't think of any other website that I've visited over that timeframe that stayed so consistent. It really was like the internet equivalent of a living fossil. Much props and thanks to Allan, for his work on this. In footbag it's common to see people complain about things, but it's rare to see somebody actually take the effort to make change happen. I know a lot of people will benefit from this change, so thank you Allan.

The big news on my end, is that in exactly one week I will be at the airport, waiting for my flight to Poland. It almost doesn't seem real. At this stage of the game, I'm feeling cautiously optimistic. My body feels strong and healthy. I've trained hard and smart, and long enough. I've taken care of most logistics, and feel focused on my goal. Now I just need to stay healthy, get to Poland, and take care of business. If I do, there's no reason I can't achieve my goal.

I'm hoping most entries in my blog before Worlds will look something like this:

"Played yesterday. I'm playing about every other day. I didn't try any new tricks or combos. I didn't get injured. I worked on routines. Both routines are becoming automatic, and my drops are going down. Getting lots of sleep and taking care of my body." .

I wrote that almost 2 weeks ago, and I've been very good about following it. It's kind of funny how my footbag sessions have changed over the last couple months. A couple months ago my sessions would be around 90 minutes, and I'd spend most of that time playing for fun. At best I'd do one routine runthrough, and I kinda had to force myself to do it, like a child eating vegetables. As Worlds has gotten closer and my preparation has become more serious, I've found my sessions shortening drastically. My average session now is between 30-45 minutes, and is almost exclusively routine focused. Playing for fun has now become something of a chore. My sessions these days consist of a slow warmup, followed by drilling easy routine tricks (which I don't normally throw in runs), followed by sections of my routines, followed by runthroughs of the actual routines. Sometimes I'll try a trick or link in between routines, or I'll work on consecutives, but for the most part it's all about routines.

As I mentioned before, I'm preparing two routines for Worlds this year. Ideally, both routines would be completely refined and ready by this stage. In reality, one routine is at that level of readiness, while the other routine still needs tightening up. The strong routine I'm getting dropless in practice pretty frequently. The other routine is averaging 1-2 drops, which is too high. I think the problem is that the weaker routine isn't planned out to the trick level. That is to say, I know the major cues and I know which sections come when, but some of those sections aren't mapped out exactly. Any time improvisation is involved, the risk of drops goes up for me. I've hit it dropless, but I know I can make it more consistent before Worlds. That will be my primary goal for the next week, but I need to be careful to keep my strong routine sharp too. I'm hoping to do my weaker routine in the first round, and have it turn out well enough that I'm placed in a semis pool I can get out of. That way, if I do my strong routine well, I'll have a decent shot at Finals.

My girlfriend is out of town next week on a business trip. On one hand, that means I can train longer on weekdays. On the other hand, it also means I need to be more disciplined about going to bed at a reasonable hour, which is something I've been bad about when she's out of town (damn you, Team Fortress 2!). Given that Worlds is on the line, I'm hoping I can use that as motivation to take my sleep schedule seriously.

Closing out with this random video from yesterday's session. The people in the background acted like they weren't watching me, but I think they were. In fact, I think the blonde makes fun of my handcatch at the very end:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qg5Z34kO98o[/youtube]

[Muffinman]

As Worlds has gotten closer and my preparation has become more serious, I've found my sessions shortening drastically. My average session now is between 30-45 minutes, and is almost exclusively routine focused. Playing for fun has now become something of a chore.

I'm curious what it's like to compete. How does it feel to dedicate so much time and energy and stress to "non-fun" footbag? I've never been a competitor and the reasons were because it's stressful and especially at my first Worlds in 2007 it felt like competitors were restricted by various schedules not only for competition itself but player meetings and registration and such, whereas non-competitors could come and go at leisure, sight-see, wake-up late, etc. I know it's something that's really important to you personally. I'm curious if it's something that I'd enjoy. What are the pros and cons of competing in your eyes? I can't imagine dedicating months just to routine practice. I've never done a routine before, either, though. Is it awesome? I imagine winning events feels amazing, but what else pushes you to participate? Do you feel a duty to the sport to increase the level of competition?

[sen]

Have fun in Poland Ken. I can't wait to live through you when you do your write up later. haha. One day I'll make it to Worlds. I swear.

[C-Fan]

Poland feels like it was a lifetime ago. I got back to Denver on Sunday night, and wisely took Monday off to recover. I beat the jetlag almost immediately, which might be due to the fact that my body never adjusted to Polish time when I was at Worlds. Taking Monday off was smart, since this workweek was absolutely insane. Maybe the busiest/hardest work week of my career...hell of a "welcome back" to my normal life.

At Worlds I kept a notebook for blog details, and I'd like to do a write up. I find that write ups serve two purposes for me:

1. I can read them in the future and reminisce about a fun trip.
2. Doing the write up helps me process the whole experience.

Work promises to be pretty intense over the next couple weeks, so it might be tough to do the write up to the level of detail I'd like. Next week I'm in the office with a full workload, and the following week I'm going to Arizona for a work trip. The day I get back from my worktrip, I immediately fly to Portland for USO. So not a lot of time for blogging... not to mention not a lot of time to prepare for USO.

Worlds was a mixed bag for me. On one hand, I was disappointed in that I did not achieve my goal (making routine finals). On the other hand, my results were technically my best finishes ever for routines (T9) and for circle (T5). I enjoyed taking a whole week off from work/life/internet to play footbag, but on the flip of that I never beat my jet lag or slept well the entire trip, which left me feeling like a zombie. Seeing friends and making new friends was great, but I also missed home and my girlfriend a lot. So by no means was it a bad trip, but it also wasn't my best trip ever either.

One interesting takeaway I had from the trip, was a clearer understanding of my goal of making routine finals. In the abstract, I feel like I'm good enough to be able to take one of the last spots in finals. So by that logic, if I show up to Worlds having trained hard and am in a good mental state, I should be able to make it. In reality though, my chances are a lot lower. Here's why:

1. Finals is only 8 players.
2. At this stage in my career, and with footbag at the level it is, there will almost always be between 5-7 players at Worlds who I cannot beat. By this I mean, even if I did dropless routines where I hit my cues, these players are consistent enough and have enough difficulty, that I would still likely lose to them. This group includes people like Honza, Milan, Vasek, Anz, Aleksi, Clavens, Damian etc. I don't think this is me being pessimistic...I think it's fair to say that the chances are very slim for me to beat out any of these top players to make finals.
3. Assuming that there are around 6 people at any given Worlds who I cannot beat, that only leaves 2 slots in Finals that I could take. Going by my old logic, that doesn't seem that bad, as I just need to beat enough people outside of the top 6, to make it to Finals. Right?
4. Wrong. In actuality, if there are 6 people at Worlds that I cannot beat, I only have a 50% chance of making finals. Here's why: Finals is made up of the top two finishers in each of the four semifinal pools. If there are 6 people I cannot beat, that means four of them are top seeds in semis. That also means that two of the four semis pool also have a second player from that group of 6, which effectively shuts me out from Finals if I end up in those two pools.
5. If there are 7 people at Worlds I can't beat, then I only have a 25% chance of drawing a semis pool where I could finish in the top 2. On the flip of this, if there are only 5 "unbeatables" at Worlds, I then have a 75% chance of getting a semis pool where I could advance.
6. All the previous points assume that only the top 6 or so players will beat me. In reality, every year there are also other players vying for the last couple Finals spots, and I still have to beat them.

So based on all of the above, in any given year at Worlds my chances of making Finals are probably somewhere between 20-30%. This number will probably go down in the future, as I get older and the hungry new players get better. But really, the main takeaway I get from all this is that I need to be a little lucky to make my goal. It's a bit demoralizing to realize that I'm not in full control of my destiny, and that I need luck in addition to training to make my goal (and if that I train less hard, my chances are even worse), but that's just the reality of where my game is at in 2012, as well as where footbag is too.

The question that emerges from all this then, is: does it make sense for me to train routines hard and travel to Worlds each summer, if the chances of me making my goal are so low? For now, I'd say the answer is yes. But maybe I will reconsider how hard I train, or whether its worth going to Worlds if its in a place I'm not interested in traveling to. I'll revisit this next year.

In the meantime, I should be focusing on preparing for USO. I haven't had much chance to play since Worlds, and the business trip the week before I compete isn't going to help either. That said, I'm not going to worry too much about it. I'll play when I can, train my routine, hope my trip doesn't injure or exhaust me too much (though it will be a lot of walking, in boots no less), and hope for the best. While there are times I'm bitter that work keeps me from training harder, at the same time I'm grateful I have a job and a career. Really, who knows if I'd be any better if I didn't.

[PoisonTaffy]

I love the whole mix between the facebook thread and the olympics and worlds all at the same time, it really has me thinking about footbag, the macro of the sport and competition/competing from perspectives I never considered.

You're asking "does it make sense for me to train routines hard and travel to Worlds each summer, if the chances of me making my goal are so low?". From my perspective, it's a huge achievement to be in a level where you do have a chance to make finals. But I'm curious to know, what was your answer to the question way back when you weren't at a level to make finals? Does it make sense to compete?

[boyle]

Some interesting thoughts, Ken. I guess there is always the chance that one of these "unbeatables" have a bad day (or in our sport, that they don't even come to the tournament). I think you could definitely make it to the finals, but of course it's not only about one competitor.

I think the best thing is that you have trained hard in the last couple of years for the routines, so even if you do train less, you have done the hardest parts of the training and then you may need to do less physical training in the future, and more mental preparation.

I think it would be great to see you in the finals... hopefully next year.

[C-Fan]

But I'm curious to know, what was your answer to the question way back when you weren't at a level to make finals? Does it make sense to compete?

The last time I competed at Worlds, and didn't think I had a chance at Finals was probably Worlds 2000. I'm not sure I honestly remember my mindset for competition back then. I do know that I've always competed, mostly because it seemed like fun. It's much cooler to be able to tell your friends you competed at a tournament than just showed up. As for whether or not it's worth training intensely, when you think you have little chance at winning....I'd still say it's worth it. I feel like any hobby that is worth spending time on, deserves your best effort. If you don't push yourself hard, how will you ever know how good you can be? I definitely never thought I'd end up at the level I am now, and while that's probably mostly attributable to stubborness, I'd also like to think that training had some small part in it too.

Haven't taken much of a break from footbag since I got back from Poland. My training motivation for USO has waned, which somehow surprises me. I would have thought that missing my goal at Worlds would motivate me hardcore to do well in Portland, but it kind of hasn't. Yesterday I forced myself to practice my routine to music, and was happy to find it's still pretty sharp. Had a few one drops, and the choreo is solid in my mind. I think my stamina needs a bit of work though. If I get a second wind of routine training motivation, then I'll ride that before USO, but I'm not going to force myself to train otherwise. I think part of what's hurting my motivation, is the fact I have a weeklong business trip that literally ends the day before I compete for USO. It's insane...I fly from Arizona to Denver on Friday morning, and then Denver to Portland in the evening. I think I might just stay at the airport. But yeah, I'm not optimistic about my training possibilities while in Arizona, especially since I'll be spending the daytime walking around a massive powerplant in boots and a hardhat. We'll see though. Maybe it'll end up being good stamina training, and with some luck and caffeine I might kick butt at USO. I feel like last year I came so close to winning it, that it'd be amazing to seal the deal this year. I've never won a major tournament like USO or Euros, so that'd be a milestone if I could pull it off. This year won't be easy though, what with Penske, Bevier, and Landes all competing. Anything's possible though.

On Sunday I drove up to Boulder to get in a farewell session with Pipenberg. Is internship is over, so he flies out this week. I'm glad we got to play a few times over the summer, though I didn't get nearly as much footage as I wanted. I still may make a video of him, but it'd likely be short, and not to the shred level I know he's capable of. Our session on Sunday was fun. I filmed a couple runs of his, and then we spent the rest of the time just playing 4 square with Luis and Ben Sarvey. I laughed so hard. Afterwards we went for beer and food, and then said goodbye. I'll see Nathan in 6 weeks at East Coasts, so that made it easier.

On Saturday I put on white clothes and found a plain wall backdrop, and shot a bunch of move demos for the move vault at Shred Global. Because of the intended audience and purpose of the videos, I felt I had to hit everything perfectly. It was kind of eye-opening to me, to try and hit tricks textbook perfect. I was surprised (ashamed?) by the number of tricks I can hit, and hit well enough to link out of, but could not hit textbook perfect. I did surprise myself though by hitting a couple 7 add tricks better than I ever had before. It was funny too, because for all my tricks I began by holding the bag out in my hand, announcing the trip, then dropping to clipper and immediately doing the trick, followed by a handcatch. With one of the 7s, I did this, and had to force myself to not look surprised when it came up in my hand perfectly.

I'd like to do my Worlds write up this week, but work's been busy. Maybe I can sneak in some time tomorrow and do a super-abridged version. With my trip next week in AZ I don't expect to have much free time, and the following weekend is USO followed by a couple vacation days in Portland. I'll see what I can whip up in the next couple days. On one hand, it frustrates me that work interferes with my blog writing and with my tournament preparation. On the other hand, I feel very fortunate to have a job, as that's the only reason I can travel to tournaments and compete. If it's a double edged sword, then the edge with the footbag negatives is definitely duller than the side with the positives of having a career.

Unrelated to this, I spent some time today going through my blog and fixing the embedded YouTube links. Kinda hammered home how much video I've shot over the last couple years, and how much I've posted.

EDIT: Shred global posted my 7 add demo to YT, so might as well put it here. Observe my impressively non-surprised reaction:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgh3yjxHPU8[/youtube]

[C-Fan]

I'm at Lake Powell this week (AZ/UT border) for work. I'm doing an inspection of the dam and powerplant, which means a lot of walking in uncomfortable boots all day. Not ideal training before a tournament. It's hot out here and my schedule isn't fully under my control, so this morning I woke up with the sun to play footbag before going to work. Playing on a shuffleboard deck in front of the lake as the sun came up was beautiful. Couldn't bring my camera on this trip, so I can't film it , which is a shame. Not that I play very well first thing in the morning. Still, better than nothing. In good news, at leas this lake is still at high elevation. Apparently, athletes who train at high elevations have a slight advantage over sea level athetes with endurance, so living in Denver (5280 feet above sea level, or a mile) has probably helped me in recent years. Lake Powell isn't quite that high, but at 4000 feet hopefully I won't lose that edge entirely.

My hotel here doesn't have internet in the rooms, which is ridiculous. I can't even get it by paying extra. So I'm relegated to checking email in the lounge. This doesn't bode well for me doing a Worlds write up.

I just got news my sister gave birth...I have another niece! Funny, when my first niece was born I was also on the road on a business trip. I guess it's a tradition. I'm thinking 10 years from now I won't be competitive anymore, but maybe I can teach my nieces to get good at footbag.

OK, gonna go get some sleep so I can get up early and train at sunrise again. Here's a video of some backlog footage I cobbled together before leaving Denver:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emIO3GPzY30[/youtube]

[Muffinman]

You can always write your write-up in a text document and just copy and paste it later
Congrats to your sister, Uncle Ken.

[sen]

1) I'm glad I'm not the only one not on my game early in the morning. Been trying to play before work and it's always iffy at best.
2) .txt files work great for typing strings of text. At a later date you could copy and paste it to a web site.
3) Congrats uncle Ken! Uncle Kenny? Uncle Ken-Ken?
4) Teaching footbag could be a great retirement project and a great way to have some quality time.