Nick "Houdini" Polini

[acxel22]

so much structure for training, I'm unable to do that! unless my session is very short and I want to try one trick or one concept I end up all over the place and just play 'freestyle'

don't stop it will pay off for sure

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Thanks Mat! I appreciate the comment!

Happy new year! First blog post of 2014! Figured I'd start with some long term goals for this new year.

2014 Footbag Goals:

EASY:

[ ] Blender x10
[ ] Barfly x10
[ ] Red Ribbon (Zulu Clipper) x10
[ ] Ripwalk x50
[ ] Solestice x10
[ ] Ducking Butterfly x20
[ ] Drifter x50
[ ] Near Butterfly Swirl> Infinity Swirl *rpt
[ ] Fog> Dimwalk *rpt
[ ] Bed Wetter BSOS


MEDIUM:
[ ] Ripped Warrior x10
[ ] Double Spinning Clipper> Ripwalk *rpt
[ ] Inward Tobius BSOS
[ ] Gyro Reverse Swirl> Ripstein *rpt
[ ] Plastic Man
[ ] Rubberman x2
[ ] Xanabox (Reaper> DSO> Paradon *rpt)
[ ] Pdx Whirl> Pdx Drifter *rpt> Barfly b2b
[ ] Tombstone> Blurry Drifter *rpt
[ ] Stepping Whirl> Blurry Whirl *rpt
[ ] Jacknife> Ripped Warrior *rpt
[ ] Vortex> Void *rpt
[ ] Blurriest b2b



HARD:
[ ] Mobius> Pd. Torque> Pdx Torque> Mobius
[ ] Scorpion's Tail> Spinning Whirl> Mobius bs
[ ] Beast (hit one already, but I wanna get a better one this year)
[ ] Blurry Drifter> Blurry Whirl *rpt
[ ] Blurry Whirl> Spinning Whirl *rpt
[ ] Riptide b2b
[ ] Ripstein> Ripped Warrior *rpt
[ ] Spikehammer> Alpine Legbeater> Ripped Warrior *rpt
[ ] Reverse Swirling Blender b2b
[ ] 10 Unique Fearless


I think these are all within my grasp. Will update more soon.

[boyle]

Good to see you motivated. Some pretty hard tricks in this list. Looking forward to seeing where your game goes this year.

[acxel22]

race you to 50 drifters.. although my record is like 13

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Hey Dan and Mat, thanks for the comments I'm also excited to see how far I'll get this year. And Mat, I'm down with a race to 50 Drifties

So I had a few sessions recently, but failed to blog them. They were all planned drill sessions, which have been going really well. I did change a good bit around on most of the dills.


Day A:

Warmup:

Atw x3> orbit x3> atw x2> orbit x2> atw> orbit (3x each side)

Drills:

Gyro Reverse Swirl> Swirl bs (3x each side)
Blur> Legbeater> Ripwalk *rpt (3x each side)
Pdx Whirl> Reverse Swirl *rpt (3x each side)


Record:

Symposium Mirage *rpt (attempt to set record.. 5 attempts)
Stepping ss Osis *rpt (attempt to set record.. 5 attempts)

Trick Attempts (10 attempts each side):

Swifter
Pixie Muted Swirl
Inspinning Clipper
Whirling Swirl
Ripstein
Xbd Heel Delay

Unusual Surface Link (3x each side):

Spinning Flapper> Spinning Butterfly bs

Warmdown:

Infinities


Then the next day is Day B:

Day B:

Warmup:

Atw x3> orbit x3> atw x2> orbit x2> atw> orbit (3x each side)

Drills:

Barrage> DOD bs (3x each side)
Atomic Muted Clipper> DLO *rpt (3x each side)
Revup> Far Muted Swirl bs (3x each side)
Schmoe> Parkwalk> Drifter *rpt (3x each side)

Record:

Dyno *rpt (attempt to set record.. 5 attempts)

Trick Attempts (10 attempts each side):

Jacknife
Barfly
Toe Inspinning Osis/Clipper
Bubbabeater
Clipper Far Blink
Solesis


Unusual Surface Link (3x each side):

Swirling Cloud Kick> ss Legover bs

Warmdown:

Infinities

Did about 5 drill days so far... Feeling improvements already, but definitely too soon to tell much. Now that I think about it, I guess it's not exactly 5.. 2 of the newly revised days. Still, a good start.

Really tapping in on the methods to hit Swifters, Toe Far Muted Swirls, and Pixie Muted Swirls. Moving/hopping to the side, like how David does Drifters seems to be key for these tricks.

Out of all the trick attempts, Jacknife was the best, almost a full 10/10, I missed about 2 of the ducks and one time I missed the Butterfly. But that trick is working really well so far.

Figuring out tricks for Stepping Osis *rpt, like that I need to narrow my window and keep my dex tighter (hit 8, new record) Learning that I need to flow with Dynos and not rush them (8.. record is 16, like 2 years ago :/) Symp Mirages were bad :/ Only hit 5 on each side. Getting a feel for them now, though.

Started to click into Barfly a little bit on flipside. Bubbabeaters were surprisingly good, much better than usual. Loving that trick.

Drills all seemed pretty ok. Hardest one was Atomic Clipper> DLO *rpt. That took me a while, but I needed to learn how to Atomic out of Legover better. Started awful, ended great, with Atomic Clipper being really easy and the Atomic from the Legover feeling easiER. Schmoe> Park> Drifter *rpt was surprisingly good. Got those knocked off quickly. Revup> Far Muted Swirl was tough at first, but got easier with the hop to the side trick. Plus I think that link oozes style.

I learned to set higher on flip Far Blinks and cut the dex a little later and I managed a good amount on flipside. Strong side is basically locked down. Pdx Whirl> Rev Swirl drill was better once I realize that Dave C snaps into his pivot as quick as possible and lines up the dex just right for Pdx Whirl. Have to mess with Pdx Whirl more.

Will be drilling Day A tomorrow.

[C-Fan]

I sense a big year for you. I look forward to reading/seeing it happen.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Thanks, Ken! That means a lot coming from you, since you're like.. really good and stuff really though, it does. Thank you and I hope I don't disappoint. I can feel a lot of those goals, even in the Hard category.

Anyway, Drilled Day A tonight.

Drills:

Drills went quickly. Figured out how to get a quicker spin to my Gyro Rev Swirls and got those 6 quicker than usual. The shuffle drill was not great at first, but then I Kemmerized it and started slowing it down and that helped a shit ton. Got 3-4-5-6 all to hand catches without dropping in between. Pdx Whirl> Rev Swirl *rpt.. Good on strong side, but wonky-feeling Pdx Whirls on flipside still. Mike said he would help me with those this week.

Records:

Stepping ss Osis: I had troubles at first, then it got really easy once I started putting more effort into the stepping sets. I hit 8 or 9? Couldn't count them. Too focused.
Symp Mirage: Got 10 on bs. New record for each. These feel easier now.

Trick Attempts:

Swifter: Feeling easier. Still not good yet, but I'm getting about 1 out of 3 on each side. Did a few more than 10 attempts and ended on Flipside> Hand> Strongside> hand
Pixie Muted Swirl: This trick.. Oh man. Killer. I'm starting to get it down. I only missed a handful on flipside. I hit al but one on strong. Also BSOS'ed it once. Feeling good enough to throw into my runs soon. Still need to get better Pixie set with flipside though.
Inspinning Clipper: Not great. I need to use more footwork on this to spin. I did one really prime one like that and that felt right. Just have to work the kinks out. I have plenty of time.
Whirling Swirl: So stoked on these. They got way better.
Ripstein: These were pretty on today. I hit 10/10 easy on strongside, but maybe 7/10 on flip. Still, some crazy progress on them since I learned them. I really never thought I would be hitting them on flipside.
Xbd Heel:I really love this trick. Jon got me into it during B-Hem Jam last week. It takes some fineness to get these down.

Unusual link: Not bad, had to rush through these but if I had taken my time, it would have been much better. Not worried about it though. They feel decent right now.


Other random Highlights:

Far Rev Whirl b2b (never hit this trick on either side.. just a fun little session-starter to prove to myself I could do it.. Was inspired by Erik Chan, of course )
New trick: Ripstein Osis (Felt pretty easy, just never hit it before.. hit it twice in about a minute)
Gyro Reverse Swirl> Ripstein bs (the repeat on this is one of my goals for 2014 I feel it comin..)
Infinity> Whirling Swirl bs, Ripwalk> Whirling Swirl bs, and Spinning Clipper> Whirling Swirl bs (I have never hit anything besides a clipper before flip Whirling Swirl before today and I got these all pretty quickly.
Outside Heel Delay> Xbd Heel Delay bs.. cool little techy link that would probably make Jon say "Yeah baby!"

Random aside: Couldn't stop thinking about Bubbabeaters today! Wanted to do some so badly, but figured I'd wait til Day B tomorrow. They really feel good and also seem to agree with what my body wants to do.

Stoked for this Saturday. Toolan is driving over here and we're going to DRILL together! No one ever drills with me around here! They all just wanna shred all the time. Such a bummer. You don't get "better" at footbag unless you drill. Also, another fun part about the session.. Mike wants to start listening to more punk music, so we're going to have a punk sound track to our session, which will be cool, because I'm sick of kicking to electronic music all the time Either way, Saturday will be a fun time, for sure. Possibly taking Toolan geocaching afterward.

[boyle]

What sort of punk bands are you into? It's always good to kick to something non-electronic!

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Dan, to quote Streetlight Manifesto, my list goes "On & On & On". Some of my favorites are AFI (everything before Sing The Sorrow), Misfits, Dead Kennedys, Pulley, Bouncing Souls, Guttermouth, Ten Foot Pole (use to know the old drummer), No Use For A Name, NOFX, Rancid, and I'll stop now Stiff Little Fingers, Leftover Crack, Choking Victim, Operation Ivy (look what you did, Dan), 1208, Against Me!, Randy, RamonesSTOP STOP STOP PERIOD. Jesus, that almost got bad. Music is another passion of mine.

Anyway, tonight I ran through Day B drills.

Drills:

Barrage> DOD bs: This is getting a bit too easy, not that I'm starting to figure out my flip DOD (which was my original problem). I think of it as an Orbit-bail to clipper. I think I'll start hitting the repeat on this one from now on for this drill list.
Atomic Muted Clipper> DLO *rpt: Tough at first, then got into the flow. Got 2 in a row once. Others didn't take many extra tries though.
Revup> Far Muted Swirl bs: Banged these out quickly. Might try to make this harder too
Schmoe> Parkwalk> Drifter *rpt: Still feeling like a good challenge because sometimes one of the tricks is off somehow, but it's way easier now.

Record:

Dyno *rpt: 9

Trick Attempts:

Jacknife: Step duck wasnt feeling very strong tonight, but it was a long session since I filmed Pdx Whirls for Anssi half-way through. Hit a handful on bs though.
Barfly: Pdx Illusion-bail to clipper. Much easier thinking this way. Hit a few on flip finally
Toe Inspinning Osis/Clipper: Did clipper tonight from Pdx Mirage. All of them felt pretty spot on.
Bubbabeater: Getting much snappier. Loving this trick. Always hated it, oddly enough.
Clipper Far Blink: Figured out the set height for flipside. Locking these in quicker than I realized. Hit a bunch on flipside for once.
Solesis: Kinda bailed on these a bit, because my legs started to cramp up when my sole would try to catch the bag. Did a few.


Unusual Surface:
Swirling Cloud Kick> ss Legover bs: Took the swirl out because my legs were tired at this point. Got it every try without the swirl.


Random Mid & Post-Drill Highlights:

Reaper> Paradon bs (Getting ready for Xanabox
Fiesta Drill (DOD> Barrage *rpt)> Paradon> DOD> Blender> Hand record for single leg double dexes
Toe ss Revup EZBSOS> stuff> Gyro Twirl> Hand
Pdx Mirage> Toe Inspinning Clipper *rpt (in video)
Blur> Toe Inspinning Clipper *rpt (in video) (twice)
Bubbabeater BSOS twice (separately)
Clipper Far Blink> Toe Inspinning Clipper BS (in video)
New Tricks: Gyro Ghost bs
Got really close to Flipside Blurry Muted Blink (in video) will hit it sooner or later. Feels better than it ever has.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fV2Ph_r32co[/youtube]

Drilling with Toolan tomorrow!

[boyle]

That may have been like asking you on a punk forum: "So, do you ever play hacky sack". I'm more into metal and hardcore but there are few punk bands that I really like. A few of us went and saw Propagandhi during Worlds in Berlin, that was a lot of fun. I may go to the Bad Religion show here, they're coming out with an Australian band called Parkway Drive.

[h0ag3yb3atZ]

Pdx Whirl> Pdx Drifter *rpt> Barfly b2b and ripped warrior x10 both being of medium difficulty....the first one for sure hahah.

you are gonna get good this year and i am going to be proud. burrs.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Dan: I love Propaghandi and Bad Religion too. Just failed to name them BR is doing some goofy shit with their new music, so I don't know how I feel about them atm, but their old stuff is great.

Kev: Thanks man, that means a ton, really. I hope we both get good this year.

Anyway, had a sick session today... Only took me 5 days into the new year to mark off one of my "Hard" level goals! Also some other good highlights in the video.

Video: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXrsz3RH_4g[/youtube]

Highlights:

Swirling Far Legover BSOS but the BSOS wasn't very good, which is why it didn't make it in the video.
Blurry Muted Blink bs! New on flip! Wanted this so badly
Big Apple bs! New on flip! Hit each side around 3-4 times
My first marked off 2014 goal BEAST!!!!! I had to slow mo the reaction, because I thought it was hilarious Looks like I'm performing some sort of seance

Toolan was supposed to come drill yesterday, but his car broke down and he couldn't make it, so we rescheduled for tomorrow (well, today.. Monday) so I'm looking forward to kicking with him. We'll probably drill.

2014 Footbag Goals:

EASY:

[ ] Blender x10
[ ] Barfly x10
[ ] Red Ribbon (Zulu Clipper) x10
[ ] Ripwalk x50
[ ] Solestice x10
[ ] Ducking Butterfly x20
[ ] Drifter x50
[ ] Near Butterfly Swirl> Infinity Swirl *rpt
[ ] Fog> Dimwalk *rpt
[ ] Bed Wetter BSOS


MEDIUM:
[ ] Ripped Warrior x10
[ ] Double Spinning Clipper> Ripwalk *rpt
[ ] Inward Tobius BSOS
[ ] Gyro Reverse Swirl> Ripstein *rpt
[ ] Plastic Man
[ ] Rubberman x2
[ ] Xanabox (Reaper> DSO> Paradon *rpt)
[ ] Pdx Whirl> Pdx Drifter *rpt> Barfly b2b
[ ] Tombstone> Blurry Drifter *rpt
[ ] Stepping Whirl> Blurry Whirl *rpt
[ ] Jacknife> Ripped Warrior *rpt
[ ] Vortex> Void *rpt
[ ] Blurriest b2b



HARD:
[ ] Mobius> Pd. Torque> Pdx Torque> Mobius
[ ] Scorpion's Tail> Spinning Whirl> Mobius bs
[X] Beast (hit one already, but I wanna get a better one this year.. Maelstrom was thin on 1st Beast)
[ ] Blurry Drifter> Blurry Whirl *rpt
[ ] Blurry Whirl> Spinning Whirl *rpt
[ ] Riptide b2b
[ ] Ripstein> Ripped Warrior *rpt
[ ] Spikehammer> Alpine Legbeater> Ripped Warrior *rpt
[ ] Reverse Swirling Blender b2b
[ ] 10 Unique Fearless

[janis]

very nice, congrats on the beast!

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Thanks, Janis!

Quick post... Session yesterday.. Nothing compared to my Beast session the day before, but still fun and I hit some new tricks.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sfJg35bKEc[/youtube]

Highlights:

I hardly consider those PS Whirl> Ripwalks highlights because they were so bad... Trying a few Pdx Whirls every session and keeping track of progress on them..
Hogan's challenge: Gyro Reverse Swirl> Vortex BSOS
Rubberman + 2 contacts... x2 will come soon enough. I feel it. Rubberman is now easy, so that's a nice change. I had trouble with it about a month ago.
Symposium Whipping Swirling Axle bs (Ianek told me the name earlier) Feels cool, but I want Slicing Ss Mirage now.
Hogan challenge: Toe Gyro Reverse Swirl
Toe Gyro Blink

News: Interview tomorrow for just a "not in my field" sorta job at a veterinary place doing package receiving. Need some income, so I'm hoping I can get in, because I'll have a better shot at going to more jams in the future.

Maybe feeling a session tomorrow. If I do, I want to drill again. I still feel like I suck too badly to just shred.

[MetZelRio]

I consider you a drilling expert. With that being said, would you consider drilling kicks important to drilling the basics? I am working my way up to 100 alternating toe kicks and then I was going to drill 100 alternating inside kicks. Would this be beneficial to drill, or should I move on to work on drilling delays? Thank you.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Paul, I answered your question in your footblog Glad to have you back to the sport

Not much new in footbag. Nursing a sore shin, sore back, and sore knee :/ Noe of them are really that bad though. The shin was bugging me the most and it was just slightly painful to land on sometimes. Nothing game-ruining, thankfully.

I drilled a bunch of flip Swirls yesterday and also did a little drill that will improve my flipside a good bit, as well as my balance.

Swirl> Reverse Swirl> Far Legover> Atw> Orbit> op Clipper *rpt Really basic stuff but doing this all muted is a bit of a challenge. Had some improvements with that.

Set my Flip Swirl record to 8. Was tough to get more than 3 for a few tries. I made sure they were downtime Swirls, too, so I could really force my flip foot think and learn.

Other news: My buddy Leon and I went geocaching yesterday and found the most creative cache we've seen so far:

The cache was titled "Amphibian World" and it was found underneath an amphibian information board in a local park..



The log book is in it's butt. We're going to try to hide our own geocaches once it gets warmer.

In other other news: Nadine and my 2 year anniversary is tomorrow We're both really excited. Well, I'm more excited because I got her something that's sure to make her shit all the bricks. Will post pictures once she receives it. She got me tixies to see The Pickets!... Umm... no, wait... tickets to see The Pixies!!!! :D:D:D:D:D:D I'm so excited for that. It's on Jan 24. Then, that weekend, we're both going to go up to State College and visit our friends. She's going to stay with her girlfriends and I'm going to stay with my boyfriends Ivan, Ryan, and Marc are putting me up for the weekend, so there will certainly be some shredding going down.

Anyway, that's all. Excited for tomorrow. I'm gonna go get food now since I literally haven't eaten anything all day. Wtf is wrong with me lately? Anyway, can't wait to actually shred again.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Just a minor drill session tonight... Not my planned drills, since those are a little bit too much impact for me right now and I wanna take it easy for a bit. So I chose some cool Spin Duck stuff that I'd like to improve.

Highlights:

Spinning Ducking Clipper> Spinning Ducking Osis 10x bs
Spinning Ducking Clipper> Spinning Ducking Osis *rpt
Gyro Reverse Swirl> Spinning Ducking Osis bs

Noticed big improvements in the way I Spin Duck almost right away. Sweet.

A few more low impact sessions and my leg should be ok to get back to planned drills.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

My 2 year anniversary was amazing We had a really nice day and just enjoyed everything. My gift to Nahds was a violin When we first met, she told me that her dream instruments were violin or harp. My best non-footy friend, Leon, had a spare violin, oddly enough and one thing led to another and boom. Violin gift. She was so happy, she couldn't hold back tears I had a video of her opening it. Maybe I can get her permission to post it Anyway, yeah, amazing anniversary.

Sidenote: During dinner, I learned a new weird skill that I kind of want to practice. I learned how to tie a cherry stem in a knot with my tongue. I did it 3 times. It's hard at first, but gets easier with practice... like everything in the world

Shout out to Grand Rapids Crew. Hosting their first jam. Great job guys. I'll do my best to get my ass to the one in spring/summer.

Anyway, had a super short, mega mini session when I got home and I wanted to highlight like 2 things..

Highlights:

Spinning Clipper> Spinning Butterfly> Spinning Whirl> Mobius bs (I have been trying this combo for a while now and have never hit it before... finally got it... I'd like to make this a repeater drill soon)
Clipper Far Blink EZ-BSOS This trick got whacky easier since I've included it in my planned drills.

Mmmmmmmmbye.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Jackson wanted to shred last night, so I did. But after not really having a session during my drills, it was awful. Like Anssi, told me, my casual shred was terrible and I got really upset and pissed off and all that good stuff. It sucks. So I kinda stuck to drill-like stuff...

Highlights:

Long term goal, semi-unwritten... 10 Unique Spinning: Gyro Clip> Spin Clip *rpt> Spin Osis> Gyro Osis *rpt> Spinning Butter> Merkon.. It was alright. I know I can do a harder one though. Would like to try to get 10 Tripless Spins this year... That's really easy now that I think about it. Gyro Osis> Spin Osis* rpt> Spin Butter> Gyro Butter *rpt> Vortex> Mobius (or Spinning Whirl> Mobius, or Spinning Ducking Clipper> Spinning Ducking Osis... Damn, yeah, this is more doable than I originally thought.)
;arrow: Current world record for Spinning Osis! (video below)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZzHutLCa0o[/youtube]

Brian Bear, the battle's begun

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

So, I have been trying to break free from my drills (only temporarily), and start casual shredding again. I had about 4 or 5 terrible sessions recently and they have really been getting me down. Every session ended in me kicking something really hard, stomping on bags, hammering my Lavers to the floor, etc.. Just bad-tempered stuff that isn't good to display in sessions. But it's hard to hold back when you can't hit a fucking zoom out of a Blender when it used to be an easy bail. Just ridiculously frustrating and disheartening.

Anyway, tonight was a bit of light at the end of a tunnel. Well, the end of the session was, at least. I honestly spent like 30 minutes in the beginning drilling Infinities. Also messed with Cloud Stepping. That set calls to me.

Highlights:

After reading Anssi's Furious tutorial, I treated it like a Quantum Stepping set and it worked better than usual. Nothing amazing, but I did have a few controlled sets on flipside.. Not really going to try these until I can get at least 50 Ripwalks.
Cloud Blurry Legover bs (new on bs)
Cloud Blur bs (new on bs)
Cloud Sidewalk bs (new on bs)
Cloud Stepping op Clipper bs (new on bs)
Cloud Stepping ss Clipper bs (new on flip)
Taste of some density: Ducking Pdx Mirage> Paradon> Blender> good run
Best run of the night: Clipper Far Blink> shred> Toe Far Blink> Far Blink> shred> Mobius> shred
Session Ender: Nice run starting with Random shred> Toe Far Rev Swirl (strongside)> shred> PLO> Toe Far Reverse Swirl (flipside)> shred. This trick was in my drill list a few months ago and I hit MAYBE 3 or 4 on flipside that whole month :/ Now I can BSOS it with ease. It's all thanks to those Clipper Far Blinks I have been drilling. I'm really satisfied with that part of my drill list.

So yeah, trying to break out of drills and start shredding again because I'll be going to PSU to shred with the crew Jan 24th weekend. Pretty excited. Also, I really want to keep practicing those Cloud Stepping sets. I love those. I want to name it, but I didn't invent it, Matt Cross and Tom Mosher did. I just don't see anyone using it and I plan on getting really good at it. Almost ducked one tonight. More of those in upcoming sessions. Plus, they called it "Whipping", but nowadays, that means "Reverse Whirling".... I'm thinking something like "Lifting set", because it feels floaty.. and Lifting Legover sounds pretty cool.

Oh and I realized a really great tip to play good footbag.. and Matt Kemmer gave this to me a while ago, but it didn't kick in well enough until tonight... "Try". I tried tonight and it was awesome.