Ivan I's Footblog

[C-Fan]

Osis is still osis - forget to drill it one day and then next day it feels as if I am hitting it for the first time.

I hate that feeling. Flip spinning is like that for me.

Oh, and hey! Top post.

[isirc10]

Yes! Haha, I always look forward to the top post of my footblog to see what picture will appear next - I don't think I will ever be able to guess the next one... kinda like that States game from Worlds That still bugs me to this day and probably will be engraved on my tombstone when I die "the man who never figured out the State game"

Speaking of tombstone...



nah, I didn't even come close to hitting it. Bet I had you for a moment there. Oh well. It's a fun trick to try on both sides so I will keep doing it every now and then till I hit it eventually.
So I kicked on Monday and worked on whirls to the point where they felt almost natural. After the session I was biking home in the dark and hit a patch of ice, on a turn that I usually take at a very steep angle with loads of speed. The only thing that stopped me from skidding 20 feet down the road was the curb I hit about 10 feet into my slide. I was fully clothed so I just got some rugburn on my knees, a bruised hip, shoulder and knee. Unfortunately I am an idiot who does not appreciate the risks I take and wasn't wearing a helmet (and still don't when I ride on campus) and my head must have hit the pavement pretty hard. I had a headache for the following two-three days. I had two minor concussions before this playing hockey and soccer so I was all too familiar with the feeling. Thankfully, it wasn't too bad as I could track things well immediately after the impact and I wasn't nauseous at all. Regardless, I took everything with any sort of impact out of my daily routine for the next 3 days, including footbag. I have played through injuries in the past, but head injuries scare me shitless and I didn't want to risk a second impact.

Thankfully, the headaches and empty feeling in my head tapered off Thursday morning so I decided to ease into footbag during Friday's session. Over break, Kat reminded me of symp mirages and how bad I sucked at them so I spent some time watching Nathan and threw some questions at him on Friday. I started jumping higher, landing softer, and raising my knee more (I was almost straight legged when I started) and symp mirages got easy all of a sudden. *Easier* may be a better word. I almost lost a race to symp ss mirage bsos to Kat (In reality, she beat me by two years) but it still got me to hit that link which was way overdue. Immediately after that I hit a 5-6 of the easiest PS mirages I have ever hit on both sides. Still don't know how it looks on video and whether it is as nice to look at as my more practiced elements, but its a helluva lot of fun to hit. Also, probably not the best trick to go for right after coming back from a minor concussion... but the highlights man, the highlights!

Symp ss mirage > symp ss mirage
Frontside toe blur BS
Witchdoctor BS
Symp bubba BSOS
Symp ss mirage > Symp mirage (screwed up the rpt part, still need to hit it)
PS mirage BSOS
tried superfly and didn't break my ankle!

Best highlight - head didn't hurt after the session. Bruises still suck though.

Looking to kick more next week before finals start and I regress into my shell of "probably the worst student that ever walked the face of the earth". I guess for now I will be "most likely the worst footbagger that ever touched a bag". But seriously - when the person you are teaching footbag hits a trick better than you can, its time to kick your ass into gear and get better. Besides the obvious awesomeness of teaching someone and seeing them improve, the selfish benefit is that it gets you to revisit concepts you had given up on and become a better player yourself. Hooray for selfishness? Eh, why not!

[isirc10]

Today's session was all about symp mirages. All 3 hours of it. Ryan, Kat and I all drilled them and got some decent results. Derek hit some nice stuff, as did Khoa. I think I may have inadvertently changed where I place my osis (not so much on the toe any more, but more in the clipper rail) and it really made a difference today. I felt like I was in control of them, even if they were not frozen. Did I mention I drilled symp mirages?

osis > osis x 24
osis > symp ss mirage BSOS
symp ss mirage > symp mirage rpt
ss butterfly > symp ss mirage rpt
symp mirage x 5 BS
ripwalk > symp ss mirage BSOS
stepping far symple pickup BSOS
pixie symple legover
symp dlo (was convinced I was going to screw it up, hit it first try right after I told everyone that I wasn't gonna hit it) couldn't get flip though
symp mirage > legover rpt
symp mirage > illusion > symple pickup rpt
threw my shoe at a wall...

Now lets see how bad my legs feel in the morning. Probably did something along the lines of 200+ symp mirages today after neglecting the trick for the longest time

[Matt K]

Great highlights. Does Osis>Osis x24 mean that you hit 24 osii or 48?

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Wow. I think it's safe to say you have now done more Symp Mirages than I have ever done.

Crazy highlights dude. I'm real excited to see where this takes your game. Keep focusing on Symp Mirages. I think it will really benefit you. Your game is going to be really sweet soon. Also, huge props on Symp DLO. That's crazy man.

I wanna see video of that last highlight. That sounds so stylish.

[isirc10]

I should clarify. I hit osis x 24.
...but 48 shouldn't be too far off in my future.

And no, we were not filming, and I will not be repeating that last highlight. It was the result of me trying to get 6 symp mirages back to back and dropping the sixth one for seven or eight attempts...

The subject of catwalks came up during last session and I sent Adam Greenwood's calendar video to some of our members to show what a catwalk was. Then I realized how much I want that trick and ended up watching the first string 30 times on repeat. SO COOL. I think now that I am getting better at symp mirages, catwalk should also become easier for me, but we will see next session. I still have a big fear of hitting my stalling foot and faceplanting when I think about that trick. It will be fun regardless of the outcome. Now back to writing this stupid paper...

[derekmikesell]

You should try Shrodinger's Cat with me tonight. (I made that up. Look at me being creative - EDIT: I can't English). Quantum Catwalk :p

[isirc10]

Well, got some catwalks in, they felt weird. Still have to practice them a bit more, but from what I filmed, I was happy with how they looked. Hit catwalk >symp ss mirage as well.

Today was weird - I was super pumped to kick, but halfway through the day my hamstring felt a bit of a pull and didn't really recover. I couldn't hit a lot of tricks on strong side and that really bummed me out during the session. Oh well. I did hit a few flip quantums, slap, and a lot of osis, which is starting to feel and look a lot better on film. Today I used it a lot as a filler trick, something to hit when I ran out of ideas during runs. There is hope for me still. Now I just need to stay healthy.

[C-Fan]

You should try Shrodinger's Cat with me tonight.Quantum Catwalk :p

That trick is both hit and missed until you try it.

[isirc10]

Whoah! I actually understood that!

Kicked for 4 days in a row, taking today off because of finals. Worked on osis a bunch and it is starting to show. Hit a 25 contact guiltless strings of BOPs, drifters and DLOs which I was pretty happy with. Gonna start taking the BOP drill more seriously now that I can actually hit osis 9 times out of ten on both sides. Finally stopped being terrified of pixie - the last few sessions I have been putting in 200-300 attempts at it on weak side. Still no results, getting maybe 10 good ones per 200. It is gonna take some time, just like osis, but hey, ya gotta start somewhere, right? Whirls seem to be getting better and better every time I try them - haven't really thought about them much, my legs are just starting to figure out the timing. Drifter is pretty cool on both sides as well - Nathan fixed my flip one by just looking at it...

Overall, a good time to be kicking. Being positive during sessions really helps. Even if you suck. That way you come away from that session with a list of things you need to work on, instead of a foul mood and a hatred for the sport. Plus everyone else doesn't get affected by your negativity and plays well.

Working on a few videos right now - Christmas calendar is filled up but I suppose I can unofficially extend it by a day or two

[Asmus]

Sounds like you are putting in hard work. Props for that.

Good outlook on the positivite/negativity thing. I kinda like the sessions with hatred once in a while but I know it's not a good idea.

Looking forward to videos.

[boyle]

This is good

Overall, a good time to be kicking. Being positive during sessions really helps. Even if you suck. That way you come away from that session with a list of things you need to work on, instead of a foul mood and a hatred for the sport. Plus everyone else doesn't get affected by your negativity and plays well.

Particularly in a club like PSU, which is full of new players who are keen to learn (something not all that common in this little sport of ours), it's important to make people want to stick around, particularly when the new players are going to be looking up to you as an influence.

[isirc10]

Agreed! Plus I also notice that instead of yelling obscenities when I miss a trick I think I shouldn't have missed, saying positive things like "I'll give that another shot" or "maybe next turn" ends up with me progressing and getting better with each consecutive try.

Anyway, had a 2-hour session today to celebrate the fact that I am 3/4 of the way done with finals. Attendance of sessions recently has been horrible, but it's finals week so I am not surprised. We had 4 people, which is probably awesome for most clubs, but it was kinda lonely for us. I hit a bunch of drifter links and some other stuff.

Drifter > Osis rpt bs
Symp mirage > Symple pickup rpt
Drifter > Symp ss mirage bs
Symp mirage > ss drifter > pdx mirage rpt
Osis > pdx illusion > ss butterfly rpt
Osis > pdx mirage > ss butterfly rpt (this was repeated 5 or 6 times, probably the easiest drill of the day)
Osis > blur > toe drifter rpt (this is hard, only hit it once - needs to be revisited)
ss toe drifter > pdx mirage rpt

Had a few other drills I hit, but they were the usual osis>osis warmup and other boring stuff. BOPs are starting to make more sense, just need a month of practice on them before I can use them as the framework for my runs. Drifters are getting a lot faster and I can actually hit stuff out of them which is really exciting. Need to try stepping out of them and then hitting them after uptime sets. Right now the only uptime sets I can hit confidently are stepping, but that doesn't worry me at the moment. I must say, it is nice to start phasing out a lot of my 2-add bails in my runs.

[boyle]

Do you guys have an official club, affiliated with the uni, getting funding, etc? If not, you should.

[isirc10]

We do have an official club. We haven't tried getting funding for trips or competitions, but we are working on it - sometimes being a student takes up so much time its hard to find time to kick, let alone jump through the hoops required to get funding from our university.

Had an awesome session today, played for 3 hours. First I kicked with George and then he left and Greg came. I hadn't kicked with both of them for over two months now, so it was really awesome to kick with them before the year was over. Both of them are really fun to kick with and I think I had one of my best sessions to date. Most of my runs were 35-40 contacts long, mostly BOPs, some 2 add filler, and drifters and whirls. Also drilled flip pixie and saw some improvement. Actually had about 20 decent sets out of 200 attempts so things are looking better. Flip pixie attempt count is nearing 1000 for the week. Osis was super solid again, and I was able to hit pdx mirages and illusions really smoothly out of it today. Both tricks were really relaxed and flowed well, so I was happy with most of my runs. According to Greg, I had a run that lasted between one and a half to two minutes long, and I can remember that one having about 20 contacts of tiltless in the beginning and then all guiltless after that. Oh, I also hit fear really easily... not sure where that came from, but hey, I will take it.

Even though I am not guiltless yet, I am really happy with where things are headed, especially since I can integrate tricks that I just learned into my runs without sacrificing run length and increasing density. I played around a bit with adding strong pixies into my runs and they fit in flawlessly after pdx mirages and illusions, and even symp mirages, so I can't wait till I get my flip side up to par. Anyway, enough rambling. Might have another session tomorrow, might not. Depends on how much studying I get done during the day. G'night to you all.

[boyle]

yeah, I had a footbag club when I was at university. We managed to get a reasonable amount of funding, despite not having so many players. It can be worth jumping through the hoops, particularly to put on a good event. Sounds like you're getting some nice long runs, which is awesome.

[isirc10]

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

A little video of my session two days ago. Got some good advice already, any more is always welcome!

Stuff to work on:
Not dropping ripwalks
Fixing flip clipper so it doesn't point towards my shin (Thanks Ianek!)
Footwork on whirls is off sometimes
Hops sideways more on drifters, don't turn as much
Don't hunch on stepping sets

[isirc10]

Well, I am on break. Have been for the past two weeks. Kicked with the Bethlehem Crew and Dave Clavens. Words cannot describe what I witnessed. Not even gonna try. First time I saw someone hit nemesis BSOS in person. Had to ask permission to give props because he hits that so regularly now... permission granted, props accepted. UGH.
This is what Dave threw down during that session.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loO-z2neJ2M[/youtube]

And here is a video with two of my best strings.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dv5qbdBScqQ[/youtube]

In the circle with Dave, Nick and Mike, I was definitely the little puppy, but I was happy with most of my runs. Towards the end, I kinda convinced myself that I didn't belong and started dropping stupid stuff and decided to kick with people closer to my level. Sometimes I feel bad having long boring runs in circles like that because I know it's not impressive, but I guess it's just me being self conscious - regardless, it was a great privilege to kick in the "big dawg" circle and feel inadequate. It is a great motivator.

Overall, that was a pretty awesome session. I must have hit 95% of my ripwalks. Laid off on the drifters a bit because my mind kinda went into "safe" mode and threw out any tricks I didn't feel completely comfortable with (don't ask why I hit blurriest to end that run - I guess I thought it was a noble trick to drop on). The ones that I did hit, Dave said were good, so I guess I will just keep hitting them until they feel better. Dave also told me to fix the location of my clipper, moving the stall back from the toe and to start curling my toes into a monkey fist more. He showed me how/where my foot should be during a clipper, and I tried to hold it there for more than a second - it really hurt. Guess it's time to stop saying that I have bad crank and do something to get some. Back to drilling clippers we go. This ought to fix the problem Ianek noticed as well.

After the session in Bethlehem, I haven't kicked at all. I don't have any space indoors to kick in. I didn't make any new years resolutions because it's not really something I find to be useful. I just hope to be able to keep kicking and get better, if only marginally. Every semester is getting harder and harder, and my schedule right now looks like absolute shit. Here's to hoping that I can get it straightened out before the semester begins.

In other news, I have been feeling lonely and sad the past few days. Miss having a girlfriend (yeah, its been two years since my last serious relationship). Just realized how much footbag means to me, considering that I go and post on my footblog when I am feeling depressed... You guys all rock and it would be so cool to just be able to have jams every weekend, but priorities always end up winning out. I guess I am just getting bored of sitting at home making stuff and want to go back to school *shudder* I never would have thought that during finals week. Anyway, sorry about the segmented post, hope this feeling of sadness lifts sometime soon.

As a parting shot, Jay Boychuk is the fucking man for doing the Christmas Calendar again. If he reads this (which is highly unlikely) please know that that is one of the few things that gets me through finals week. Thanks for the inspiration everyone - even if I haven't met or talked to you, chances are you inspired me to kick last year. Highest on this list are the current and past members of the PSU Footbag club. Lets all get better at hacky this year.

[isirc10]

Well, break is pretty much over and I haven't kicked at all these past 3 weeks, besides the 3 sessions early on. On Tuesday I pulled a muscle in my upper back going skiing/snowboarding. Still can't walk straight let alone do a single clipper. Oh well, will have to wait it out and just have fun watching the rest of the club kick. Still gonna have a good time.

[DTank126]

Hey man, looking good in that christmas calendar vid. Your games looking a lot stronger since worlds. As for the whole "feeling like a puppy in the big dawg circle" thing, don't sweat it. We've all been there and a lot of us (well me at least) still feel that way whenever we play with guys like Dave or Jordan or whoever.

Also that's not even a big dawg circle, I mean Toolans right there. He's the equivalent of a chihuahua, or like, a pug. Yeah a pug but with a disproportionately sized head. Anywho what I'm trying to say is that Toolan is a pussy... Oh and don't feel intimidated about trying harder moves around really good players. They'll often be impressed that your attempting certain tricks and help guide you on how to better hit them.