Nick "Houdini" Polini

[Cass]

Drifter>whirl rpt. is one of my favourites.

Your approach to drilling is very similar to mine (although my difficulty is a bit lower).

It definitely pays off



Edit: Sorrrrry for taking the top of the page!

Here's a worlds picture

[isirc10]

Nick, are you in your boxers here? I wouldn't put it past you.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Ryan: Ok, cool. Glad it's benefiting you a bit I'll keep posting them as I create them. A new on every month or so.

Cassy: All good, top-page-takers are a-okay in my book. Even some of the greats, like Martin Luther King Jr. or Bill Nye the Science Guy took the top page at one point or another. Awesome picture of me in boxers doing a Flapper Good luck with your drills! Looking forward to seeing you progress!

Ivan: I was in casual shorts, but I had to roll the up so I could play footbag. BUT, if you want to pretend I'm wearing boxers, I won't judge. Whatever floats your boat jk Looking forward to seeing you at "EAST COAST FOOTBAG CHAMPIONSHIPS!" on September 27 - 29!


Hey allverybody,

Drill update:

Drills:

I did my every other day drill again today.. However, Anssi told me Fairy Muted Clipper> Merkon was stupid and he recommended I change it to Fairy Muted Clipper> Gyro Legover> Pixie Muted Clipper> Gyro Pickup bs. I fucking love that link. The "action foot" never touches the ground and it feels super boss. Started doing ATW-Orbit Suicides with no plant foot movement. I saw Anssi doing it in his new drill video, so I figured I might as well learn that way from now on. Fairy Mirage> Fear drill has been getting really easy. I used to have to say "Fairy" out loud every time I did the set, now I don't have to say it anymore, my sets feel effortless, and I have way more control of the bag. I love that drill. Whirl> Drifter drill is too easy :/ I hit it every time, but I know I suck at Drifters, so I need a better way to get better at them. Maybe add a stepping trick between the Whirl and Drifter so i know it's a good delay? Maybe Drifter> Symp Whirl?(advice?) P Illusion> Atom bs has really started to work out for me. My legs are starting to like P Illusions, and if I hit the Illusion, the Atom is almost every time. Just need to work on foot placement of where I end my P Illusions, so I know I have a good Atomsmasher out of it every time.

Trick Attempts:

Swirling Mirage is getting way easier on both sides. That trick I figured out, where I keep my swirl leg pretty stiff and set with the support leg, really works well.

Fairy Rev Swirls are feeling so tight. Few kinks I need to work out of my flipside, but strong side is just about 10 for 10.

Spikehammers were goin off tonight. My flip step duck was on fire and it felt great! Every stepping set was ducked, I even strung out of a few of the drills because they felt so good, and I hit some other alpine stepping tricks in the run on each side. Cant wait to see my stepping ducking in a few months..

DOD, bang. Felt great on bs. Easily can work this into my runs from now on I think. Still need a little work on them, but so far so good.

Barrage was good, still a few kinks, but I expected that. Will be working on them. Really hoping that once I have a damn good Barrage, that Barroque and Flurry will be easy for me. I'd kill for those to be in my game. Maybe not kill, but maim.

Pdx Drifters... Oh boy.. Pdx Drifters.. Such a bitch on flipside. But I got a bunch of them. I did try more than 10, just because I hated my attempts so much. Definitely hit at least 10. I think I figured out that I just need to jump to the side a bit more, so i can really line up that dex, then slice away at the drifter and freeze the clipper. Makes sense in my head and started to make more sense tonight.

Warm down was fun, did a bunch of fun kicks in the dark.

Good session, over all.

Highlights:

Yes, so I experimented a bit just to keep it interesting and to give myself some goals for the future..

Swirling ss Legover bs (new on flip)
Fairy ss Reverse Swirl> Swirling ss Mirage (that felt cool, I'd like to repeat that eventually)
Casket (Fairy ss Drifter) bs (new on each side)
Just to test out my Pdx Drifters, I hit Pdx Drifter> Ripwalk *rpt, second try.
Glaucoma (Fairy ss DLO) feels really nice on strong side finally. Weakside needs work, but I hope to hit it b2b sooner or later.
Messing with Fairy Gyro a bit, and I hit a fun new trick that I really wanna put in my game to style things up a bit.. Fairy Gyro Outside rakething bs. Madd fun. Super stylish in my opinion.
Fairy Gyro Osis bs Way to scrape some ADDs off of the underside of the desk, Fairy Gyro Osis. New on both

Oh and I told Kevin this a while ago, but I'm officially naming FS Atomsmasher "Skullfucker", since it goes well with FS Legbeater being "Legbreaker". Come on, how cool does it sound to hit Skullfucker> Legbreaker? Kinda like 2 pilots talking on a radio together... "Skullfucker to Legbreaker.. what are you doing? *chh* over" "Legbreaker to Skullfucker.. I'm in an airplane. *chh* over." "Skullfucker to Legobreaker.. oh cool, me too. *chh* over."

[Strix]

Thanks Nick. Im learning plenty from reading all the posts like your last one. But I need a footbag dictionary to keep up with the moves. I think if there were an actual book with images and descriptions it would easily surpass the size of the english dictionary.

Skullfucker > Legbreaker sounds perfect hehe...

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Hello Footjawn...

Sooo.... I was PSU Footbag Club's Special Guest Surprised everyone up there which was cool. Will do a write up later about it, just wanted to capture my highlights..

Highlights:

Madd shuffles. Hell yeah.
Flipside Frankenstein!!!! Felt so easy! First one on flip. More where that came from. (on tape)
Flipside Surfing Pickup!!!! First one on flipster
Ripwalk> Ripstein *rpt!!!! (on tape)
A real sick run with some cool shit in it. (on tape)
Muerte (Fairy ss Torque) bs (first time on each side)
Fairy ss Blender bs (not new on either but uncommon)

Having a good time so far!

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Bangin session today with the PSU dudes/gals.

The PSU crew is blowing up, like for real. Scary shit. They may all be tiltless but they're gonna show the world that tiltless doesn't matter and they're all going to push themselves through.

I just wanna call a little attention to each of their footblogs specifically.. If you haven't check them out, you really should. They're all good reads and you can see them improve every session. They really are killing it.

(in ABC order)

April Tou (bluevampire)
Ben Babyak (krustykrakk)
Ivan Iakimenko (isirc10)
Khoa Nguyen (anhkhoashevakt)
Marc Peralta (lykabaus) (sitting next to me, creating his blog as we speak
Ryan Morris (Ryan_Morris)

There are a good handful of other pretty serious players in the club right now, but these guys are some of the most serious. Ivan, Ryan, and Marc live in the shredhaus together (where Nate, Ivan, and I lived last year).

Anyway, so yeah, check out some of their blogs. Worth the read for sure. Also, show their blogs some love and give a comment to encourage them a bit

Highlights:

Avalanche bs (new on both, hullz yeah) (on tape)
Double Spinning Clipper SAUCED!!!! Finally got the sauce in it, It's also on video too.
Full Symp Sidewalk bs (new on both)
Fairy ss Whirl> Ripwalk> Blur *rpt
Fairy Muted Osis> Gyro Blender> Mobius bs (that felt so good)
Full Symp Stepping Mirage bs (new on both)
Mobius> Blur BSOS (That feels surreal to read back, I've always wanted this)
Rubberman again! Yay! Felt way easier than befores.
Spinning Clipper> Ducking Clipper *rpt> Diving Clipper> Ducking Clipper *rpt> Gyro Clipper> Spinning Clipper *rpt (my first multiple drill link

So I'll start my write-up now I guess... These few days have been a lot of fun. As I said, I was the "secret guest". No one knew... Except for Ben ...and Ivan (He's who helped me set up the whole thing). I had to tell him because he wasnt going to be able to make it to a session. So when I arrived at PSU, I went to Ben's place and kicked with him a bit. He was hitting some cool stuff. He likes my style a lot, like how I do some unusual surfaces and weird stuff, so I wanted to help inspire him and teach him. I helped him out with Whirls and Osis, and spins/zooms. He is going to be an excellent player one day. Funniest dude too. Anyway, shredded with him for a while, then paid for a parking pass at his place and then biked to the shredhaus. I had a key to the apartment still because.. well... I lived there. So I wanted to be all sneaky and surprise the guys... I go in ready to freak them out because dat shit funny. NO ONE IS THERE. You kidding me? I go in, make myself at home and start to chill and take madd naps. Then Ivan comes home! Great to see Ivan again! Oh man... My memory gave out.. So then there was like something hour memory block... So then all of the sudden, we were at the session! It was so nice to see all the old faces! It was also great to meet one new player who, I SWEAR TO YOU, reminds me of Carol Wedemeyer in too many ways. Same style, same appearance... just.. a freshman in college. She's so serious about becoming good too. Only been playing like 3 weeks. Already hitting Mirage> ss Mirage, ss Mirage> Mirage, Butterfly BSOS like x5 in a run I saw (what?....), Easy clippers bs, Pickup bs, ss Mirage b2b, Clipper x5 on each side, and she has a PERFECT magic hop in all of her tricks. Just keep an open ear out for the name Kat Cryan. Anyway, everyone was going ham. I'm not going to say how each person got better, but everyone has made MAJOR improvements in footbag, and it almost brought a tear to my eye to witness what our little footbag club has turned into. I havent met a few of the new players yet, because they havent been able to make it to one of the "Le Alfred Sessions" yet They called me "alfred" when they were announcing the secret guest... Alfred is my middle name Anyway, footage was taken quite a bit so you'll see everyone. Then another mental block. I think we got some cheese ass breadsticks after the session and had a nice little pizza'esque party. Then another mental block for a few hours. Shit. I have such bad memory. Well, I basically chilled with Ivan, Ryan, and Marc last night. Then I woke up this morning around noon when Ivan came home from class. We hung out and then went to the session later. The session was a blast. Everyone hit some new shit (read their blogs) and Ivan filmed a good bit. Then a few of us got dinner afterward at a chinese restaurant. Then we all split up and biked home. Wow this is boring sorry. But Then Marc, Ivan, Ryan, and I all did pull-ups for a while on Marc's pull-up bar. Ivan and Ryan didnt wanna do work out with Marc until I started doing it at first with Marc, then Ivan and Ryan joined in. But afterward, they said they'd start cross-training for footbag by working out at the shredhaus every few days between sessions. Then we all chilled in the livingroom with some beers and conversed and celebrated my 2nd place in the Sick 1 modified video! I can't believe I got 2nd still. I'm so pumped on that. That will be pushing me so hard to get better. But yeah, soon after that, I helped Marc make a fooblog and we all kinda blogged at the same time, minus Ryan, who had to do Physics homework. So yeah, so far so good! I've missed these guys so much!

This is our dinner. Khoa was there in the beginning, but had to leave early :/

[Cass]

Props on the double spinning stuff that's nuts!


Suggestion: Your blog would be a little nicer to read if the big blocks of text were split up into smaller, more manageable paragraphs

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Thanks Cassy, and I normally do try to split it up, but I didn't really care to do it this time Partially because I was just doing a quick write up and partially because my ADD was kicking my ass.

Anyway, PSU was really great! Video of everyone should be coming very soon.

My farewell session yesterday was sick. I met Lauren, who is getting better at toe stalls and inside stalls and Aidyn, who is a freestyle football player and recently made the transfer to footbag at the beginning of the year. Aidyn has a little brother that plays footbag already and actually has Lavers, and lives in Bethlehem. He's trying to put him in touch with Toolan. Aidyn has basic tiltless stuff already, which looks really good. Mirage> Legover *rpt +1 extra contact. The kid's got crazy potential. I was helping him with Inside stalls and he got several b2b. I also helped Lauren with inside stalls. She learned toe> (plant) ss inside bs, as well as Wrap

Anyway, I also got to kick with George for a while there. Haven't seen him in a good bit. He hit Tap> hand catch> flip Tap> hand catch, which was real cool.

I helped April with Clippers! She was getting so much better at them and she really gave in with her foot this time and sunk a perfect delay. Both sides too. She's got some fucking crazy crank... in all directions lol You might have seen the picture she posted on the freestyle footbag facebook of her doing a Front Anchor *facepalm* I know she's on the verge of some new tricks, like Butterfly, Osis and some others. She just has to keep pushing and she'll be a really good player with a style that will be a lot of fun to watch.

Kat was on fire. She just gets footbag, I don't know how else to put it. She kept throwing around butterflies like they were nothing. So after seeing this, I challenged her to hit Toe Butter> Infinity. She got it first try. First Guiltless link. Won't be her last. No fucking way. The PSU crew is trying to encourage her to start a footblog, so hopefully that happens.

The rest of the club was killing it. Can't really name what they were hitting since I mainly kicked with those few people to try to teach them.

I had a great session with a bunch of highlights..

Bunch of highlights from great session:

Blurry Whirl x4
Dimwalk> FS Blur *rpt
FS Dimwalk bs (new on both)
FS Fairy Butter bs (new on both)
Backside Fear BSOS
Pdx Torque> Blur BSOS to a sick run with BSOS Symp Whirls & BSOS Mobius, and some other stuff, sealed with the second Mobius> hand catch. That felt great.
Rubberman> sick run
Sweet run with Gyro Whirl> Spinning Whirl BSOS
Tapping Blender (strongside only, new). I should try Tapping Torque tomorrow.
Swivel bs (brand new on flipside, so happy I finally got this one!)

After the session, around 10 or 11 of us went out to eat. We got some calzones from this place called DP Dough. Bangin calzones. Khoa got yelled at by the manager for doing a toe stall with his soccer ball inside the eatery The dinner was really awesome. Like unstoppable awesome. This club is this shit. They are more than just a club, they are a tight-knit group of friends that are bonded by footbag. It is the coolest club to hang out with. And they're all doing so much to try to improve at footbag, which is really sick. If you're ever near the center of Pennsylvania, PLEASE stop by and chill with them. You'll be inspired. They've all inspired me so much. If you guys are reading this, I had a blast. Thank you guys and gals so much for hosting me and having "Le Alfred Sessions" with me. It's been a true pleasure.

Speaking of being visited by a player... I was at work today and I get a call from someone from Idaho. I look at it and I'm like, "wtf, the only people I know from Idaho is Daryl and Sunny Genz" I answer the phone... "Yo Nick, this is Daryl Genz.." *thoughts: "no way, fuck yeah"* "I found your number on footbag.org and I'm in York, PA this weekend and wanted to see if you would be able to get together for a session." "Shut up, stop talking, yes, I will meet up with you for a session" (well, I was only thinking that, I actually sounded like a giddy little girl that has just been told by her parents that they are buying her a pony... with lasers on it's head... that dispenses more laser-ponies). I was excited.. I actually just got off the phone with him and we have no clue where we're going to meet We'll figure something out soon.

Speaking of

[Outsider]

"Yo Nick, this is Daryl Genz.."

Thats very cool. Genzu is the man --- he is my sensei, from whom I learned Dragons and many other things. Tell him I said hi.

[isirc10]

Nick, you sir are awesome. You da bes man! Thanks for stopping by and shredding with us, and really inspiring us to keep going at it.

Also, video: http://youtu.be/6kpzLXbO5VA

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

That picture is my visit to PSU in a nutshell.

This video is also my visit to PSU in one more nutshell, which is a little cooler because the pictures in this one move around and do cool tricks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kpzLXb ... dded#t=260

Just fyi, that Frankenstein I hit in the video was on flip and so was that Surfing Pickup. First one of each on my flipside.

[isirc10]

Nick, you are so silly - look right above your post and you will see that I posted the same exact video in my post under the picture

JK, its a fun video so you can post it again.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Lol yeah, I literally JUST noticed that and felt dumb. I didn't see it before

SO I had a fun session with the one and only Daryl Genz! Toolan and Corey Corey Corey joined in for the session too.

Jon, don't worry, I told Daryl you said hey! He says hi back!

He was hitting some cool stuff, nothing huge, just fun tricks and links. Really fun to kick with. He said he'll be around again in a month or so and he's gonna contact me again. Looking forward to that. I asked him if he could give me tips on Nukes. He gave me one that I was not doing... I tried it and it immediately worked. My flip Nuke used to hurt my knee a lot, but with Daryl's tip, no more knee pain. He told me to pivot 90 degrees into the bag. I never pivot, I always jump sideways into the bag. Will definitely have Nukes in my future game. No doubt about that. Thanks for the inspiration, Daryl.

Mike and Corey had some sweet runs that were very prop-worthy.

Highlights:

Tapping Torque bs (pretty easily and first time on each)
Stepping Ducking Osis> Mobius> toe stalls> same link flipside
Blurry Torque> Mobidrop (bag fell right next to my Osis!)
Legbeater> Matador (could only manage on one side :/
Finally BSOS'ed Sumo! Did this in 2 runs.
Pdx Tap BSOS (2nd or 3rd time... easy this time)
Matador BSOS (second time)
Atomsmasher> Inspinning Clipper
Tried to do Ripsteinflapper for Corey. Tried twice, ended up hitting Dragonstein both times by accident

Legs were still in recovery mode today, so I probably shouldn't have kicked. But Daryl was here, so I had to

Taking about a week off now.

[krustykrakk]

Tried to do Ripsteinflapper for Corey. Tried twice, ended up hitting Dragonstein both times by accident :p

Fuck you. :p

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Hey blog and people who read blog...

I've been having a tough life recently. Shit hit the C-Fan and my life has formed into a downward spiraling Vortex.

I haven't played footbag since my last post with Daryl. That is quite a long time for me. A few of the lesser things that effected me... Hole in toe of my Lavers, ingrown toe nail because of that hole... But I took Matt Cross's'ss advice and Ripped Warrior'ed it out the other day. Girlfriend issues, but they were easily solved, now she's coming to ECFC this weekend with me But most of all, family issues. Mainly my mom. We just didn't get along. She's also got mental problems that my family agrees on, but she wont listen or believe a word of it. She just denies. So I moved out the other day. I'm now living with my grandmother, 40 minutes away from my old house. I was kind of upset about it at first, but I am loving it now and I've only been here for one day. I have my own office, a long desk to lay my stitching equipment out on, have my laptop next to it, and have my zen garden next to that with my sage right behind that. I use the office as my gym now and I mounted my pull up bar in the door way and my ab roller has a perfect area of use in that room. On top of that, I have a bedroom that looks out into a huge patch of forest and I wake up to a bunch of semi-rare birds sometimes.I have my own bathroom too. I also have my own huge outdoor shred spot, surrounded by a really beautiful garden. And when it rains, I have an indoor shred spot with just as much room.

So I'm actually a lot happier here for the time being. Then Nadiah and I are going to try to find an apartment together.

Anyway, had my first footbag session in a while just last night. Didn't do anything great. Realized my Fairies sucked and I was doing them wrong, so I'm going to be focusing on those for a little while.

I got really frustrated last night because I was under a light and I couldn't see the bag sometimes due to my shadow over it. So I stopped after a few drills and hit BAP drill to end the session. Displeased, but happy to be kicking again.

About to go have another session now.

Good to be back.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

I just realized I've been miraging incorrectly...

After a few come back sessions since my short hiatus, I realized my game doesn't look like Jim Penske's.. nor does it feel like how I imagine his feels... or Gatesman's.. or Kemmer's.. or Johnny's... or anyone notable who is at a high level and has great form. I'm going to be spending a lot of time this week and after East Coasts to perfect my form. Yeah, it's gotten better over the years, but holy shit, it still sucks. I know once my form doesnt suck so badly, I will become better at footbag, in general. Anyway, some semi-highlights from last session..

Semi-highlights:

Spinning Ducking Osis x7 (yay... 7 Fearless. woo I'd be excited for 7 Uniques though.
a few DDD's bs
Barfly BSOS (also schooled the set of this trick more, feels much easier now. I think once I have this set, I will get better at Pdx Drifters too.
Barfly> Ripwalk bs (3x each side)

My flip stepping ducking (which used to be my strong stepping ducking as of 2 weeks ago but now my flip again) really took a shit too.

I've started (like an hour ago) marathoning my tiltless like Kemmer told me to do a while ago, but I kind of ignored it til now, because I'm a shithead, I guess.

East Coasts is coming and I'm excited. Hoping my Quantums come soon.

[Strix]

Hey blog and people who read blog...

I've been having a tough life recently. Shit hit the C-Fan and my life has formed into a downward spiraling Vortex.

Good to be back.

Good to hear your back. Sorry to hear about the drama in your life. What dont kill us makes us stronger.

Work and shredding ( Exercise ) are 2 good medicines.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Good way of looking at it, Ryan. And it's all good. Thanks for the concern.

As for footbag, well, not having Lavers without holes in the toes has kind of effected me playing footbag, duh. I managed to drill some basics inside on carpet the other day, but I missed going outside to shred. So today, I was bored and I wanted to kick. I remembered seeing Allan Hagget playing with some dude who shredded in Nike Lunarlons. He tested them out and said they weren't great, but they were alright. I decided to try to have a session in them. So glad I did that.

Nike Highlights:

Clipper Far Blink bs! Feeling super easy on strong side, not terrible on weak. (this is new on either both sides or one side, I forget, but stoked either way!)
Clipper Far Twirl bs! (this is also new on either one side or both Memory of an ephelant.. spelling of a poopsmith)
Blurry Twirl!!! This has been a dream trick for a while, so happy to finally have gotten this one. Only one side though :/ Will get the other soon. (what's the ADD count on this? 5 or 6? just curious for my own knowledge.)
Spinning Twirl bs!!! New on both! I never even thought this trick up before today. It never occurred to me to try to do the full spin and twirl, just Gyro Twirls. Got strongside first try too (ADD count on this one too? Thinking 6, but not sure if it gets a Schrodinger's Dex. (btw, I'm unofficially changing "Cross Dex [XDEX]" to "Schrodinger's Dex [?DEX]" because there is both an extra add and not an extra add given, so it's just a more logical name )
Fog BSOS (with my better way of doing mirages ) with Blurry Whirl and Spinning Whirl in the run
Flip Barfly is getting more managable.. Bsos once and also hit Pdx Whirl> Barfly bs and Near Butter> Barfly bs. Work in progress on this trick.
Pdx Whirl> Blender> Twirl bs Almost got the repeat! Will work toward that. Cool drill.
Fairy Muted Ducking Clipper bs (Johnny-inspired... Well, to be honest, all of this is Johnny or Evan-inspired. I've been slow-mo'ing their videos lately, trying to study exactly how they execute things. More on that later...)
Toe Muted Far Swirl BSOS (EASY this time. It's all in the hips with a 90 degree turn into the bag
Toe Far Blink BSOS (EASY again, all in the hips and the pivot
Super controlled Twirl b2b a few times. wanted to try to set a record but I got distracted by more Twirlzzzz
Fucking Rubberman? Really? (keep in mind: in Nikes!?!?)

Can't wait til I get my Quantums or Lavers (whichever comes first), I really wanna practice more Twirls and stuff. I love that trick.

I advise everyone to start picking your favorite videos on the youtubes, using downloadhelper to download them, then watch them in slow motion as many times as you can. Study the tricks you want to learn and understand how that player controls the bag and how high they set and how much their hips pivot, and if they put any arch on the bag, and if they have a certain spot where they set the bag for pdx tricks or something.... ANALYZE! I've been doing this lately. I can feel it benefiting me already. My Pdx tricks (whirl, drifter, far twirl, etc..) have gotten so much better now that I slow mo'ed the crap out of this video and studied the crap out of it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWNMht8-rKg

I'm going to study it some more now.

Oh! I bought East Coast bus tickets for Nadiah and I! So excited!!!!

Good night!

[Strix]

"Can't wait til I get my Quantums or Lavers"

Where did you get Quantums from?

[C-Fan]

I'm not sure how much "pdx twirl" gets officially, but I definitely give it the paradox. There's way more of a hip twist involved in doing "far" twirl than in "far" whirl, and far whirl gets paradox. So I consider blurry twirl a 6, even if it might not get that score in a shred30 count.