Nick "Houdini" Polini

[DubleDex]

Visit Columbus and I'll give you tips on flurry! Basically, everything about your game is better than mine, but I REALLY like flurry and it's one of the rare "harder" moves that I can hit consistently and fluidly (strong side... my flipside is a lot less consistent, but doable). Recently hit flurry to eggbeater a couple times and that makes me smile.

Otherwise, your highlights are sick. Nice stuff!

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Yo Darren, My grandma lives in Akron, and she just moved into her new place so I'm thinking that my family and I will be going up for a weekend sometime in the near future. I'll hit you up when we do! It'd be sweet to shred with you finally! I'd like to get tips on Flurry too

So tomorrow is the Gradmpionships lolz AKA: the graduation party/footbag jam my parents are throwing for me. Mostly just the usual east coaster dudes coming but it should be grand lot of fun :3 2 kegs, unlimited food, kayaks & a river, camping in tents, live dj, bon fires... footbag

Anyway, real stoked for it and I thank all of the east coasters who are coming... We're gonna have a good time.

Had a mini session just now to prepare for it just a little...

Highlights:

Pdx Torque> Spinning Clipper bs! That's what I ended on.,, Super happy with it... I feel that Mobius won't be too much harder out of P Torque than Spinning Clipper
Easy BSOS Toe Far Blink... Amazed how easy flipside is now.
Spinning Whirl BSOS (first time bsos'ed well)

That's kinda it. A few other tricks I hit bs first or second try just to see how consistent they were, like Whale Tail, Mobius, Pdx Blender, Toe Inspinning Clipper, and Gyro Blender.

Pretty happy with what my game is moving toward. By Worlds, I think my game may actually be fun for people to watch Eh, wishful thinking

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Dude.

Nick's Gradmpionships.

Dude.

Best tournament ever imo.

Highlights:

Everyone told me that my game is starting to explode. I couldn't stop smiling
Toe In-Mobius!
BSOS Marius
Gyro Swirl b2b, 2 separate times.
Pdx Torque> Mobius BSOS!!!
Pdx Torque> Mobius> string> seal with Whirlwind!
Fog> Inspinning Clipper
Toe Inspinning Pickup> Inspinning Clipper> string
Knee bump> Inspinning Clipper
Reverse Swirling Blender... 3rd one I've hit.
Cloud Kick> Ducking Clipper BSOS
Ryan: "I gotta get going" Me: "This is for you" *hits Big Apple, few people get stoked and give props* Ryan: "What was it, I didn't see it! Do it again?" Me: "You didn't see it?!? OK.. hold on.." *Hits Big Apple again* Fuck yes.
Mind Bender!!! finally
BSOS Spinning Whirl a few times
PS Whirl> Mobius in Nike shoes
Singularity> Pdx Torque in front of Schneider, first try.
Outside Maverick (Outside Pixie ss Osis)
Flipside Dragonstein!
BSOS Ripstein.. getting easier and easier.
Broke my Gyro Clipper record.. 40!!!
Mobius x3 again


Some people said I'm going to level up after Worlds. I've never been more excited about footbag that I am right now. Now to let my legs chill for a few days. I'll probably do a write up later.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Played a session with Jackson today. Had grand fun and hit dope shit.

Highlights:

Gangsta Party!!!!! First try!!!!
Blurry Whirl b2b! First time hitting it clean!
Blurry Whirl> PS Whirl
PS Whirl BSOS! No way I've ever BSOS'ed that one before. Really didn't feel too hard on flipside, I just need to learn the proper way to land after a PS Whirl, so I don't hurt myself again. My landing on this one wasn't bad though, it felt pretty smooth for the most part.
Gyro Twirl BSOS!
Double Spinning Osis BSOS!
Swirling Monsters on bs
Flapper kick> Gyro Flapper kick (Thanks Jon )
Montage twice! Montage is now much easier which feels scary to say.
Gyro Reverse Swirl BSOS
Spinning DLO BSOS that felt like a Spinning Legover BSOS
Reverse Swirling Blender bs!!!! Brand new on flipside
Revstein> longish string.
Threw in some random 6's midstring and it felt great to be able to string out of them well.

Seeing many improvements in my game. Just gotta keep practicing. My Pdx Whirl game has caught up on flipside, so that feels great. Need to keep working on my Double Down game, Stepping game, Pixie game, and Pdx Drifter game, then I might be pretty satisfied. Also, wanna work on some more of my weird/unusual stuff a little more here and there, just to mix it up a bit and not be a full shredbot.. Don't get me wrong, shredbots are great, like Anz is so sick to watch, but that's not what I want to be exactly. I'd like to have sick tricks that make people say "whoa", but in those runs I always want to include something that no one expected.. Almost like a really funny joke a comedian just told you and you were like "WOW! I did NOT see that coming!" So kinda like that. But man, it feels good to be playing how I've been!

Playing with the Toolmaster and Ben Babyfuck tomorrow...


Forgive me, father, for I have sinned. I called Ben Babyak "Ben Babyfuck". That was a tasteless joke and it was inappropriate for this hacky sack forum. Ben does not fuck babies... I don't think so, at least.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Hey blog!

Today was dope. Jeremy and I drove to kick with Toolan, Ben and Ben's friend Taylor. At first we park at a spot at this one place to shred at the tennis courts, and when we get out of the car... People are fucking playing hacky sack in the next lot. So we walk over and we demonstrated freestyle. The one kid really seemed to like it and he could already hit ATW on one side and toe stallls bs. His name is Moon. We exchanged numbers and then soon both of our crews departed due to stormy weather. Later Moon texts me "Can I refer your number with 2 friends who are interested?" "Well, absofuckinglutely you can." So we might have some new blood in Bethlehem. Anyway, so then we go pick Taylor up which took about 10 minutes then we got back on the road and there is a black car driving in front of us... Moon waves at us out the window. BIZARRE. Somehow they ended up in front of us. Moon threw a dollar at us and I was tempted to go get it, but it was all wet and rainy. Anyway, then we parted and got to our shred spot. Just thought that was an interesting anecdote to share..

Ben was very impressive. I was astonished. He had been drilling. he was stringing really well today. Saw him hit his best string ever with cloud kick> ss toe, mirage bsos, and a squeeze> pickup and some outside stalls and clippers. Taylor had gotten really good at Toe stalls, he hit like 10-20 b2b. Looking great. Also bsosing Outside stalls and clippers. Jeremy hit flip Fear and some other good stuff.. lots of good toe tiltless, which he's been working on. Toolan keeps improving. He hit Smog> PLO rpt today and some other good strings. Also flip Whale Tail. Dope. I was very happy with my session.


TL;DR: Footbag new blood. People played footbag and got better.

Highlights:

Dimwalk> Whale Tail*rpt! So stoked on this.
Diving Clipper> P DLO> Dimwalk*rpt! Definitely happy with this too, very surprised I hit it.
Diving Clipper> Diving Osis*rpt
Blurry Drifter BSOS (first time bsos'ed.. 2nd time on flip)
Tombstone BSOS (first time on flip)
Stepping Whirl BSOS (first time clean on flip)
Haze BSOS (first time on flip) and in that same run BSOS Vortex
Smog BSOS! Yay. Finally... Really happy about this one. Flipside got way easier, which I AM SO THANKFUL FOR. Thank you, Antichrist Viking Footbag Deity for letting Smog get easier on flipside.
Blurry Whirl b2b
Pdx Drifter BSOS a few times
Grave Digger bs a few on each, but too dark to get the BSOS
Kinda neat little combo I hit: Swirling Cloud stall> ss Symp Swirl

Ended up letting Taylor use my old Lavers til he orders his new pair. Taylor also hit his first few 2 adds today... Pickup, Legover, Clipper, Orbit and ATW. Taylor is going to get good. So are Ben and Jeremy. Mike is already good, but I know he will get better. His drilling has really been paying off. Fun session. Wish it could happen again soon... Oh wait, they're coming down this Thursday

ECFU! (East Coast Footbag United!)

[C-Fan]

Good job on all the BSOS stuff. Are you competing at Worlds?

[Muffinman]

Really nice highlights, Nick!
Really impressive!
Video?

[boyle]

Your game sounds like it's really going crazy. I think you really enjoy Worlds...wish I was going...

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Ken: Thanks for the props! I heard you're competing, so no... JK, Hell yeah I'm competing. Will you be attending/competing at Worlds? I'd be sweet to shred with you again.

Eric: Thanks a ton dude! I've been blown away with where my game is. Feeling a level up soon I hope... well, I'm really working my ass off for it, at least. Video soon hopefully. Just have to stop being lazy and actually film for a few sessions

Dan: Thanks man! And bummer you're not going, but I think you're right, I think I'm going to find Worlds very inspiring and funtarded

Today, I ripped my abs a new one by going to the gym and killing them. I'll feel that one more tomorrow. Then afterward, I played some footbag.. (AKA: Drilled my stupid ass off ) I really still suck a Pixies so I figured I could help patch up that hole in my game.

Highlights:

Gyro Mirage> Smear> Dimwalk *rpt
Spinning Mirage> Parkwalk *rpt> string with Pdx Blender, Revup on one side, Twirl on the other.
Gyro Clipper> Stepping Mirage> Pixie Clipper *rpt
Pixie ss Mirage> DLO *rpt
Merkon> Magellan> Dimwalk *rpt
Maverick> Pdx Illusion *rpt
Pixie Ducking Clipper> Pdx Mirage *rpt
Dimwalk> Revup *rpt 6 contacts
Swirling Mirage> Pixie ss Clipper *rpt> string with Pdx Torque BSOS
Pixie op Cloud kick> ss Legover *rpt

Then the inventor of the "Hacky Sack" called me. Made my day, week, year... life.

[boyle]

Have you tried "pixie everything" - that's something that can really work on your both sides for the pixie. I think a good drill, which is a bit easier to complete is magellan>smear>plo rpt. Good for building pixie sets.

What is Maverick? Aside from a character in Top Gun..

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

I have thought about trying Pixie Everything, after seeing Nathan successfully own that drill several times this year. I could probably get through some of it, but I wanna school my basic drills first. I plan on trying it eventually, once I'm hella confident in my pixies. Maverick = Pixie ss Osis

Didn't kick today, trying to take today off.. but I went to the gym and I'm starting to see big improvements in my abs. Hoping to have a nice 6 pack for Worlds so I don't look like a poop-sniffer to all of the ripped Europeans and whatnot

I've been volunteering for Aububon Bird Sanctuary recently and I was doing a bird education thing for some pre-schoolers today and they cracked me up. Just wanted to give a few of those highlights:

-When asked what the education barn smelled like, one little boy held his nose and replied: "Penis!" I wanted to high five him so hard.
-When I showed the kids some Tree Swallows flying above, I asked them what they might be eating in the sky... One child replied: "Bacon!"
-We asked them what bird was the heaviest in PA, they replied with a ton of names but not "Turkey", then when we gave them a hint and said: "Think about what you eat for Thanksgiving.." One little girl replied: "Oh, a hawk!" We probably should have arrested her on the spot.

Oh and on top of that, I identified my 2nd Northern Flicker! It's a less common species of Woodpecker.

It's fun there, but I really hope one of the wildlife places that I applied to calls me back.

This may be the first non-footbag related post in my blog ever.

Oh, I probably should have said this earlier, but I love birds too, by the way. Footbag is better though

[C-Fan]

-When I showed the kids some Tree Swallows flying above, I asked them what they might be eating in the sky... One child replied: "Bacon!"
-We asked them what bird was the heaviest in PA, they replied with a ton of names but not "Turkey", then when we gave them a hint and said: "Think about what you eat for Thanksgiving.." One little girl replied: "Oh, a hawk!" We probably should have arrested her on the spot.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Well, that was quick! A few hours after that post, I got a call from one of the supervisors...

They wanted to hire me!

Took the job in a heart beat. Fuck yeah. Birds.

I start Monday!

[boyle]

Nice work man - congratulations. There are a few keen birdmen in the footbag world. I think you already mentioned Kenny on here or Facebook. Jeremy O'Wheel is also very much into the birds. Want to say a big congrats in getting something in your field straight away. It's not easy...I'm sure if your passion for the job is anything like it is for footbag, they would have hired you on the spot.

[slapdash21]

good stuff.

lawl I've been working out for worlds too (abs and arms.....oh yeah and footbag...)

youre def leveling up kid.

Ive got free time this weekend, like tomorrow especially if you want to brainstorm some ideas

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Thanks guys I'm excited to hear everyone noticing my improvements and saying I'm going to level up.

Pete: Text me dude, we can brainstorm through text. I'll be kinda busy hanging out with Nadiah today but should be able to text every now and again.

So my game has been very exciting recently. I have so much in my head that I want to drill and I want to drill all the time, but I know I can't because I have to take care of my legs. Anyway, been trying to drill lightly a few days then harsh the next, then breaks in between. That seems to be working.

I'm at PSU visiting Nadiah right now and while she was getting dressed, I went out and drilled some ducking, not much, but I like these drills and want to get really good at both of them...

Highlights:

Diving Clipper> Ducking Clipper *rpt 12 contacts!
Ducking Clipper> Spinning Ducking Clipper *rpt

That is all.

We're gonna catch some breakfast now and then go on a birding trip. Peace!

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Session with Jeremy and Corey Gerges today. Both of them are improving a lot. Corey finally fixed his toe set problem and was showing improvement already just from fixing that. He hit his first B>O>P bs, Flipside Ducking Clipper, strong Dyno, and was hitting other good stuff like Terrage midstring, Whirls and Swirls midstring, DLO midstring, BSOS Pixie Clipper, and Spinning Clipper. Jeremy fixed hit Mirages and now his tiltless toe game looks like it will be unstoppable soon and once he finishes his physical therapy, his game is going to slowly start to explode...

Highlights:

Diving Clipper> Weaving Clipper> Ducking Clipper *rpt
Diving Clipper> Ducking Butter *rpt
Magellan> Smear> PLO *rpt 8 contacts
Pdx Blender> Gyro Clipper *rpt
Maverick> Shmoe *rpt
Terrage b2b
Ducking Mirage> PLO *rpt
Zulu Mirage> Dimwalk *rpt
Stepping ss Osis b2b 5 contacts
Symp Whirl> Gyro Clipper *rpt
Spinning Osis> Stepping Osis *rpt
Pixie ss Clipper> Stepping ss Clipper> Stepping Legover *rpt
Spinning Pdx DLO BSOS... againagainagain.. This might just be my easiest 5 ADD now. I can't miss the BSOS on this anymore.
And the longest rpt drill I've hit to date... Magellan> Smear> Pixie ss Clipper> Schmoe> PLO *rpt

I start my first real ass day of big boy work tomorrow. Pretty excited. They gave me a bunch of Audubon stuff today like a hat, rain coat, rain sweater, polo, and 4 t-shirts. Fuckin dope. I love the polo. It looks awesome.

I spent this weekend at Nadiah's as I said... We went o Black Moshannon State Park and saw our first wild-growing carnivorous plants, which was absolutely surreal.

Also, one super cool thing that happened... I talked to Kenny Shults and since he's into birding and wildlife and stuff, I asked him if he was going to Worlds and would want to go on a birding trip with me. He replied yes to both of them! If anyone wants to join us on our birding trip(s), we'd love for you to come along. Don't know where/when, but we'll discuss it more at Worlds.

Btw... WORLDS!!!!!!

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Tried to get to bed early last night for work today but that did not happen. I played footbag instead. Not too long though because all I had to shred under was a really dim street light. Anyway, had few highlights but one I was very pleased with.

Highights:
Hit a bunch of Mavericks bs as well as Favericks bs.
Maverick> Diving Osis BSOS.. Maverick is quite possibly my new favorite 4 add.. Ripstein: "So.. I saw you hitting Maverick last night.. when were you gonna tell me?!" Nick: "I'm sorry, just now that I can do Pixies better, Maverick is a lot of fun to mess around with..." Ripstein: "More fun that me!?! I'm a difficult same leg double dex! Maverick is a single dex ending on an OSIS! Every noob can hit her! Are you kidding me?!" Nick: "She just feels so nice to hit, I'm sorry Ripstein. You'll always be fun to hit though.." Ripstein: "..." Nick: "Maybe I can BSOS both of you in the same run? " Ripstein: "Ooo, I'd like that " Nick: "Who's your player?!" Ripstein: "Oh you are! Grab your balls and squeeze! Yeah! Hit me to a 69!"

Damn, I made it weird. Sorry readers. If it helps, I probably will never hit Ripstein> 69...

Anyway.. Gotta stop playing for a few days to let my legs heal.

Edit: I also hit Pixie late Ingyro Toe bsos last night. Really cool trick.

I've been bored and re-reading my posts in my blog from day 1 and it's really sad. Bob's sessions used to be so fun and now he doesn't play anymore and it seems like he's too busy to even grab a beer. I called him again a bit ago and left a message. hoping he returns the call. Also, there haven't been many people who I've gotten involved with footbag that actually stick with it... So many free bags stitched and given away, so many old lavers lent out and never returned... I'm so sick of that. It sucked to be reminded of all my quitter-ass footbag students. Glad I got a good couple who wanna get good now. Like Ben, Corey H, Ivan, Ryan, Marc, etc... Lets hope they all stick with it.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

This morning, I woke up at 5 and went on a solo 20+ mile birding bike ride at 5:30. Saw a ton of cool stuff but won't bore anyone with details here because that would be like talking to a non-footbagger about hitting a bunch of 4's and 5's (If you somehow are interested to hear what I saw, I can pm you) Anyway, afterward, I was bored, so I had a drill session..

This session was totally inspired by Ivan btw, because he challenged me step out of mobius... So I figured.. to do this, I should probably be able to easily step out of a bunch of easier Osis tricks... And here is what I came up with...

Highlights:

Smear> Maverick BSOS
Magellan> Maverick BSOS
Maverick> Ducking Clipper BSOS
Maverick> Stepping ss Clipper BSOS
Maverick> Blur *rpt
Maverick> Ripwalk BSOS
Twirl> Stepping ss Clipper *rpt
Blender> Ripwalk> Ripwalk> Blender starting on bs
Torque> Ripwalk *rpt ! yay
Maverick> Blizzard BSOS
Pdx Torque> Ripwalk BSOS!!!!!! First time hitting the link on flipside, then juist strung into strongside. Felt so boss.
Also hit something more in sync with Ivan's challenge, but don't wanna reveal it until I hit it flipside

It's weird, Ivan described his flip atomics just all of the suddent "being there". With my Osis> Stepping, it was the same deal... It was all of the sudden, just "there" on both sides. I have been always been terrible at it, but today for some reason, it was ON. So stoked I stepped out of Pdx Torque... Blurry Torque b2b is totally on my mind. But I won't try that yet... not for a while.

Also just realized my Pixies are much stronger now because I rarely missed a Maverick today.

Am I actually starting to get ok at footbag? Perhaps, but I still have a lot of holes in my game that I'd like to patch up before worlds. I wanted to seal up Pixies and Stepping from Osis because I always throw my pixies across the circle and I need something new to hit out of osis because I almost always zoom or BOP.

[boyle]

what about ducking from osis? Particularly osis>ducking osis or add a duck do your zoom. or how about osis>rev swirl>swirl>rpt or a barfly from osis also. There are plenty of options, of course.

Sounds like you are getting really good - but the fact with footbag is that there is always more to learn. Every player has more to learn and it's important to go back and fill in the gaps all the time.