Ben, it's not as fun of a journey if you just download tricks into your body... maybe Furious sets is to download
Keep working on Pickups then Whirls and eventually, if you want Blazing badly enough, it will kick in
So I haven't kicked today, just done a lot of thinking and noting and watching and studying.
First off, Matt Kemmer said I'm too good to be doing so many BOPs... I thought about it and I realized he's totally right. A few years ago, Bob told me I had to push to get rid of Pickups in my tiltless game because I relied on them too much. Then a bit later, I was full tiltless and pretty close to guiltless and Bob make me get rid of my Near Mirages and turn them into Pdx Mirages. It took a while, but I pushed and pushed and finally got rid of them and went basic Guiltless. I think it's now time where I push myself through to the next level. Bigger tricks, like Symp Whirls, Revups, Twirls, Pdx Whirls, etc feel easy enough to play out of.. I rely so much on my Zooms it's not even funny. They've become my new Pickup or Near Mirage like in my Tiltless game. It's time for that to change.
I put together a list of 10 strings, each of them is 10 contacts long, oozing with as much f[uns]tyle as I feel comfortable putting into them right now... and most importantly... no BOPs. I'll be trying to work my way through these. This is the only way I can push through right now, otherwise my game is going to be so boring. However, one thing I noticed as I was creating these 10 strings... Illusions are barely used in here. I'm not confident in them yet. I've been doing consecutive Illusions after each session and they're getting better. I'll feel better about them soon and be able to do better Illusion tricks in my runs. I can feel it.
Anyway, thats my first thing... Secondly, I've been watching a lot of Gordon Bevier today. I've slow mo'ed almost every one of his main shred videos. I still love his style, and he's still a huge inspiration to me, but everytime I see him do a Cloud trick, a little bit of the excitement I used to have is now gone... I used to think that stuff was impossible. Now that I can do those whilring cloud kicks, it doesn't seem far off anymore. In fact, most of the time, I know I can do what he did. It's kind of a disappointment and almost makes me wish that I never learned whirling clouds and just let it be Gordon's thing. Some of the links that used to baffle me like Whirling Cloud> ss Legover> Pixie Clipper *rpt are now slightly more... I don't know.. accessible? I understand Gordon's trick to getting good at Whirling Clouds now... Practice the shit out of them
It's so weird to have control over that strange and ridiculous trick now. It almost doesnt feel ok. Like ok, as in, I almost don't feel good about hitting them. They used to be something only Bevier could do. People didn't touch them because "oh, that trick is too hard for anyone but Bevier" Which reminds me of that part in the Vasek manual, where Vasek said Symposium Whirr is viewed as his thing and since people view it as that, they can't hit it. I viewed Bevier's Cloud tricks as possible and I put in the time to learn them and now I barely have to think about them when I do them. I don't want this bit to sound cocky at all, I'm just reflecting on this weird concept that I used to think was so impossible which is now so easy that it almost degrades the trick itself. I know how Bevier must feel about the trick too since he's damn good at it. Anyway, I'm going to stop rambling now. Sorry if this was boring.
I plan on making this concept a bit new though, as to not completely steal from GBev. I have some fun ideas in my head that I've been messing around with a little bit here and there, such as Whirling Cloud> Ducking, Whirling Cloud> Spinning (only got the a Gyro toe off of this so far..), as I mentioned earlier, Whirling Cloud Stepping, Symposium (Flying?) Cloud, Far Symp Cloud, Whirling Cloud Blink (came so close last time I kicked), etc... That is only the top layer of what I plan on exploring. A few things I'm going to try for soon are Pogo ss Symp Cloud and Symposium Blazing Symp Cloud.
I don't want o make this sound like I am better than Bevier, I know I'm not. His style will always be one of a kind and his core tricks will always be harder and way cooler than mine
That's all. Sorry, no highlights today, just some thoughts.
Afterall, "Yeah dude it's all mental. Then it's physical" ~Evan Gatesman
Mobius> Spinning DLO 
really? I thought it was always a good thing bug it really fucks with my shuffle.