Israel Footblog - Training program

[PoisonTaffy]

I'm trying to practice according to a 4 days a week regime, where it's two days practice, rest, two days practice, rest... First day is drills of basic and new tricks, I have no concrete idea for what second day is about yet, but it's definitely more about freedom and fun than the first day.
So far there are two problems with this regime, one is that every disturbance in my usual schedule can potentially ruin it, and having a session with someone else is something I need to know well in advance in order to schedule it on a second day.
The nice thing is that I feel better doing boring drills knowing that the next day I'll reap the benefits, and on the second day I know I can burn my strength on long runs & symposiums, as I am guaranteed to rest afterwards. Also, having a regime helps with not skipping sessions out of laziness

Today I taught toe stalls to two of a coworker's kids, boy & girl. The girl was really into it and we talked for about 30 minutes as she tried toe stalls continuously. In the mean time, i tried furious out of curiosity and sort of got it. I wonder if I can do Janiwalker.

Earlier I speculated that if I can hit a trick 4 times bsos, then I should consider it "learned", and then I should commit it to regular strings. Now I'm thinking, 4 times bsos is really half the job, and committing it to strings is the other half, it's something that requires work and attention as well. I'm going to test that hypothesis with my newly learned flip dlos and flip quantum set.

We got a table-tennis table at my office, and me and a coworker friend started practicing together regularly. I saw a video that recommends getting consistent by hitting as many shots on the table as possible with a partner, and it immediately made my brain go , just like footbag! I convinced my friend to keep a count of our record, and every day we practice consistency before we have a game. It's been about two weeks now and apparently there's visible progress, as people who watch our games say that we really improved. If someone told me to do this when I was 14 and just learning ping pong I might have not sucked at it for all these years.

I'm rereading this post and correcting some sentences, and all of a sudden I'm very self aware that English is still a second language to me. Despite about 15 years of regular practice, it's still not nearly as fluent & natural as my first.

[boyle]

I would love to be able to hit Janiwalker. I think it's something I might work on soon. I like this idea of your on/off schedule. I think for people like us (who are mainly playing alone), a session with another player can be an outlier and it's best to just play.

It is interesting with languages, I think there is always much, much more to learn. Sometimes you feel that you have mastered it, but even still, there are mistakes to make or you have "bad form" (just like footbag).

Good luck with the table tennis - there is your Olympic path A Chilean woman qualified for her fourth Olympics, she was 41 or so. Just like the previous three, she lost in the first round.

[PoisonTaffy]

Yesterday I beat the best player in the office, so maybe there is a hidden potential! I love it how I can learn things like Table Tennis off the internet these days. Makes me think how limited the world was when I was a kid.

[PoisonTaffy]

On the last day-one session I did a lot of quantum bsos, and at the end my back felt a bit strained. I thought I should probably skip day two, and stupidly, I didn't. Now my back is a lot more strained and I will have to skip the next pair of sessions to let it rest. It was a very short sighted thing to do, and by now I realize that to get better at things one has to abandon short sighted goals and frame of thought, which is not something that comes naturally to me.

This is something I must remember.

[PoisonTaffy]

Rene Ruhr is now in Israel, he just spent the weekend at my place, and next weekend he'll be over at my place as well.
I hurt my back again on our first session, so I decided to stop doing quantums and atomics altogether, and Rene suggested I play more tiltless. On the day after that we had a very long session, I did no quantums/atomics and it actually felt therapeutic. My back felt better after the session than it felt after a week of not playing at all. I guess I'll have to drop these sets altogether, which sucks because beside pixie, they were kind of the pinnacle of my ability to play dense.

Watching him play up close was a great experience, and it's also an opportunity to remind myself how much my game is different than what I usually am capable of telling myself. When I'm away from other players I can't help but feel like I'm better than what I really am, even though I consciously know it's an illusion. Very interesting frame of mind that is apparently beyond my control and may be a factor in my ability to learn.

On the first day we played on a wave breaker. It was super hot and we all got back from the session light headed, but it's such a great spot for filming. Lots of people gathered to cheer.

The second day we played at a playground on a recycled rubber (I think) material that is much softer than concrete. It was super awesome. We had a very long session. I must get some mat to play on, I can't believe what a huge difference the soft material made.

Rene says there's a chance he may transfer for some time to study in Israel. I'm really crossing my fingers on this one. Beyond being happy to share shred time with him, I'd be really happy to have him around as a really awesome, friendly person I have a lot in common with.

[boyle]

I've never met Rene, but he is an awesome player. Would be great to have someone like that around. I hope some players are considering moving their studies to Chile

Interesting angle on the "illusionary mindset". I guess the best thing about concentrating more on tiltless is that you can go on seemingly endless runs, which of course help with the harder tricks. It is also good to play on not-concrete. Something I should do more often too.

[PoisonTaffy]

Regarding the mindset, I posted this on July:

I once again am in a spot where it's been so long since I played with anyone better than me that I have the illusion that I'm doing great, even though I probably am not.

Two sessions with Rene and my understanding of where I am and how what I should be doing really changed, so the illusionary mindset is a strong force for me. Another impact this thing has is that breaking the illusion can shatter my confidence (as it is basically leaning on illusions) which after worlds got me to stop playing for an entire season. I should find a way to weaken the illusion.

[boyle]

I think the only way is to dominate the trick illusion illusion>ss illusion is something that I find a lot harder than it should be. Something good to train, and maybe you can defeat the illusion!

[PoisonTaffy]

illusion->ss illusion rpt or mirage->ss mirage rpt are total mind fuckers, just visualizing it can give me a headache. Had another epic (for me) session with Rene yesterday. I am a happy camper.

[PoisonTaffy]

Rene left yesterday. Over the course of his stay we had 5 sessions together, and the last one was particularly good for me.
Here are some of the tips he gave me:

1) Left clipper is too fast
2) Turn hip into barfly
3) First dex of barrage is a miraeg
4) First dex of barfly is a butterfly
5) Work on reverse swirl before/instead of swirl
6) Work on long tiltless runs

Here are a few insights I got from talking and playing with him:
1) Don't try to learn everything
2) Asymmetrical links are only half done (i.e. work on symmetrical links for drills)
3) In circles, he seemed to hit a specific concept both sides in a couple of links, and when he got it good, he moved to a different concept. i.e. even in casual freestyle his trick choice usually had a purpose.

One particularly odd moment was when he was doing consecutive inside stalls and I've noticed that he does them extremely consistent. I used to think my insides were awesome and consistent, but compared to his they're all over the place. He hits them the same way every time, mine land slightly different, are set slightly different, I have to move a bit in order to compensate for these changes, etc. I'm inclined to believe that this slides to the realm of talent rather than hard work. If I work on this level of consistency I'd never get beyond clippers.

[PoisonTaffy]

Worked on slowing my left clipper, on symmetrical runs and on infinities.

Last session I got x27 infinities, my current goal is to get to 50. I wonder if that's enough to own the trick. I want to set the goal of a 100 but I fear that's not realistic, as my current stamina will not last that much, and I never got that many clippers either.

Symmetrical runs: I'll admit I don't like seeing those on video, but doing them feels great. I want to keep some sort of a list. Either of tricks I can and can't do symmetrically so I know what to work on, or of symmetrical runs I've done, so I can come up with new ones.

At Rene's recommendation I got something to add to regular water to make a sports drink . I tried reading online if there's any serious research on it, and there's a small, positive amount. It didn't help me with my stamina during the practice, but it helped with the recovery afterwards.

Tomorrow I'm going on a week long vacation to Crete, Greece. Hopefully the hotel staff won't frown on me getting my shred on at the premise.

[rjadamson]

A vacation to Crete sounds awesome. Will you have video capability? Scenic shred would be great.

[PoisonTaffy]

Good idea, I'll definitely try to get some video! I haven't had a video of myself playing in a long time and I know I'll regret it in a few years if I have nothing to look back on.

[PoisonTaffy]

I didn't film or play at all in Greece, as I caught a cold on my second day there The long break helped my back to completely heal, so I guess it's all for the best!

I played yesterday for the first time in what felt like ages. I read my previous sessions' comments on my blog before playing, something that I never do, and it helped me to pick up practice from where I was when I last played. I worked on my slowing my left clipper, symmetrical drills, long tiltless runs and continuous infinities. It felt good, but I'm wondering whether I'm falling into that solo player illusion again.

While digging around my hd to scavenge code for a game I'm working on, I found this silly thing I wrote a long while ago:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/197373/Footbag ... gGame.html

[PoisonTaffy]

Working on infinities. I've noticed it's hard to take the goal of 50 contacts seriously when I'm dropping on much lower numbers, so I set my goal to the most contacts I've hit so far. It is obviously an achievable goal, as I have already achieved it.

So far my best was 37 contacts, which is pleasing, but on the other hand slightly more than half of my attempts are dropped at or below the 10 contacts line.

I've also noticed that most of my drops are a missed right clipper, which is funny as I've been trying to improve my left clipper.

Finally, I've noticed that I cannot control how I set the bag. I want to set it straight up and move my entire body to do the butterfly, but I cannot prevent the bag from flying sideways when I know I'm doing a butterfly. If I do a link that stays on the same side of my body, sure enough it goes straight up. If I'm doing a cross side link it will fly sideways despite my best attempts to prevent that. I'm guessing that the same uncontrollable body movements that make dowsing work are in effect here. I'm contemplating whether I should launch a training goal of reducing or eliminating this thing. I am not totally sure I'll be able to decrease it in the long run and I am not sure how important it is for my game anyways.

[rjadamson]

Finally, I've noticed that I cannot control how I set the bag. I want to set it straight up and move my entire body to do the butterfly, but I cannot prevent the bag from flying sideways when I know I'm doing a butterfly. If I do a link that stays on the same side of my body, sure enough it goes straight up. If I'm doing a cross side link it will fly sideways despite my best attempts to prevent that. I'm guessing that the same uncontrollable body movements that make dowsing work are in effect here. I'm contemplating whether I should launch a training goal of reducing or eliminating this thing. I am not totally sure I'll be able to decrease it in the long run and I am not sure how important it is for my game anyways.

I've noticed I do this too. I think more than a mental thing it stems from the fact my flip clipper is not very precise, and inevitably after several contacts I'll throw it across more than I want. From there I have trouble correcting the trajectory of the next one and it just gets worse and worse until I drop it. Perhaps an op butterfly > ss butterfly, rpt drill would help? This would mean having to essentially set it straight up every other contact.

I think my best is something like 28. Shall we make it a race to 50? All of the other serious players in the Seattle club have already beaten me to it.

[PoisonTaffy]

The race is on

Good drill suggestion, I'll try that! I think I'm gonna modify it to op butterfly-> ss clipper, it would be a great way to warm up for the infinities drill.

[PoisonTaffy]

Another sessions pair over. This is the 3rd pair since I got back from Greece, which I think is the longest consecutive I had since I got the idea of session pairs.

I purchased a mat so I can play at home without worrying about my neighbors and without destroying my shins. I also started to regularly spice my water with a sports drink. Both combined leave me in a much better shape after a session than what I'm used to.
The mat, however, doesn't have enough friction with the floor, so I don't just drop anymore, I slide AND drop. I think I'm getting used to it, though. Perhaps the sliding is a beneficial feedback.

I haven't mentioned it before since it's still experimental, but I'm trying to keep an account of my sessions in order to produce statistics that will hopefully expose data that'll help me understand my practice better. I keep track of how many contacts I do every time I do a drill, so I know what my worst, my best and my average are every session. I keep track on why I dropped each time, that's how I figured my right clipper is actually worse than my left. I also keep track of how much time I spend on each drill.

My butterfly work sees little improvement.My average is on the rise, but for some reason also get a lot less than my current top, 37. I guess that's an improvement in consistency, but if it keeps compressing towards a slowly rising average, I'll never see 50.

I'm also working on long tiltless runs. It is mostly a mental practice, in that I've had a hard time not sliding to harder tricks after several contacts. So far, I see a gradual, consistent improvement - My total contacts per session is increasing nicely for the same amount of time I put in. I'm kind of day dreaming about reaching a 100, but I'm itching to move to working on longer guiltless runs, so I'll abandon the tiltless practice when my progression plateaus, at whichever point it'll happen.

On the downside, working on these two things, I no longer find the time to work on new tricks at all.

[boyle]

I think with all the counting and stats, you should make sure to have some "free" sessions, where you just shred and go for it without worrying about the stats. I think it's important to have the right balance between serious training and playing for fun, particularly when you are playing by yourself.

[PoisonTaffy]

Definitely. I have a guy I play with. If it wasn't for him, I couldn't afford all this seriousness in my solo shred. I guess I'm enjoying the novelty of the statistics for now so I really don't mind the lack of free play at the mo. After every session I run to my computer to feed excel the new data and see how I'm faring. It's as if I can now score my sessions.