Ryan's Footblog: JOULUKALENTERI 2018!

[anhkhoashevakt]

I don't have much to say about myself this time. I didn't play for a week and then kicked three days in a row this past weekend, which kind of sucked. I was very rusty, my legs got sore quickly, and I didn't make any noteworthy progress on my goals. All I can say is that, when you're busy, it's very easy to put off things like footbag until you have spare time. The trouble is, I never have spare time, which is why a week can go by before I realize that I haven't kicked for too long. When you're trying to juggle school or work or family (thank goodness I only have to worry about school), you can't just wait for opportunities to pursue your hobbies. You have to put time into your schedule for them, just like everything else.

That is the truest truth I've ever seen.
If you are trying to juggle multiple things and leave out your hobby to "when you have time", the most likely thing is that you will end up quitting it. I kinda learned that the hard way 6 years ago. Now although I'm still busy, fs soccer (and footbag) will still take up a good 2 hr chunk of my life each day.

[Ryan_Morris]

Can't wait to kick with you again, Nick.
Sorry, Jon, for misseplling your name.

I really don't fee like writing much, but I will say this: I won't be left behind on osis. Mark is already pretty good at them and still getting better, Ivan is improving his at an alarming rate, and mine stay about the same. I have a plan, though. I'm going to drill on my own this week, every day, despite all my schoolwork, even if it's just in my basement for 20 minutes. I'll get some tape or chalk and place down a "T" shape on the floor so that I can measure exactly how far I'm turning when I do osis. My first drill will be frozen osis; if it doesn't come to a complete stop (on my foot, not the floor), it doesn't count. From there I'll try back-to-back, butterfly > osis, osis > pdx mirage, and whatever else I think of with osis in it.

Fuck you, osis. I'm coming for you.

[Outsider]

Sorry, Jon, for misseplling your name.

Yes, you will be... you WILL be...
See ya soon!

As for osis, yes... osis is like a dog --- if your dog is not trained, it can be an unruly beast in your home, making trouble, breaking stuff, pooping in your living room... and dogs don't ordinarily train themselves, they need a certain amount of attention. But, they are domesticated animals, and certainly easily train-able. If you do a reasonably good job of training a dog, then a dog is man's best friend. Train your osis well and it will be one of your best friends too; loyal and fun (and cute!)

"Judge me by my size? And well you should not, for the osis is my ally, and a powerful ally it is..."


"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend: inside of a dog it's too dark to read."

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

The "T" is the key

Just focus on both 90 degree turns. Set bag.. spot bag.. plant clipper foot 90 degrees (making a right angle with your heels.. not touching eachother of course) .. replace clipper foot with new osis foot.. spot to the point where you know your foot in underneath the bag... cushion your osis foot while simultaneously turning your torso and upper body another 90 degrees. I can help more when I come up for halloween if you need more help. You'll get it Ryan. You just have to keep trying them the right way.

[anhkhoashevakt]

Looks like me and you Ryan have the same common goal.
Wanna drill osis together sometime this week?

[Ryan_Morris]

I HIT BSOS DLO! I HIT BSOS DLO! I HIT--okay, seriously, we're not doing that again. But I did hit bsos DLO and it's all because I bet Aidan two peanut M&Ms that I could do it. That was actually just the first accomplishment of the day. I went on to hit a single string with every 3-add I know (pdx mirage/illusion, DLO, butterfly, osis) and ended the session with a new trick: crispy drifter! I know that's just stepping far clipper, but "drifter" sounds cooler. This session also highlighted two things I still need work on: flip stepping and osis. My stepping from the right side of my body is barely more than a same side mirage, and osis, despite all the drilling, has not improved much yet. Key word is "yet."

In other news, Nick has given me a challenge, of sorts. He wants me to pick five tricks that I can't hit and attempt them a few times every session until I can hit them all. I chose DLO, ducking clipper, whirl, drifter, and swirl. It's still a bit early for me to make a good assessment of my progress, but I can at least say I've made progress on one of the five. Oddly enough, while writing this post, Ivan told me I should practice ducking clipper tomorrow (he doesn't know about the challenge yet), so I guess that's what I'm doing. As far as the other three I've tried some whirl and drifter on both sides without much success, and the motion of swirl utterly confounds me. Honestly, I have no idea how I'm supposed to move my legs like that. Nick is visiting in a few days, so I'll have to ask him for some tips then.

That's all for now. Unless Ivan gives me shit for not posting in my blog, I probably won't update until after Pumpkin Jam. See you there or see you later!

[isirc10]

(he doesn't know about the challenge yet)

That's what you think...

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Yeah, no... I told Ivan about the challenge basically before I gave it to you

Also, BOOM. Props on the DLO BSOS man! I read that post and just smiled. I think this challenge will be so good for your game and will get your legs used to working different ways other than just standard dexes. Also, Stepping far Clipper is a good first stepping trick for you. I will help you with more stuff this weekend! EEEE!!!!!! This weekend will be so fun. DAYUM.

[Ryan_Morris]

I haven't posted in a while, but even though a lot of things happened during and since Pumpkin Jam, I just don't feel motivated to write a lot about them. So I'll just take a leaf out of Matt Kemmer's book and keep this succinct.

In the past few sessions, I hit drifter for the first time, improved my flip stepping a little, did some more DLOs, and saw some improvement in my illusions. My osis still sucks, my butterflies have regressed, and though I got really close to whirl today, I didn't quite hit it. That last one especially sucks because my legs won't let me kick again until Wednesday. Also, my next session will probably be a drill session for my weak clipper, which I've decided sucks ass and needs to be re-learned.

More here later. Ryan out.

[Ryan_Morris]

On kicking in jeans:

In true idiot form, I somehow managed to bike all the way to Rec Hall in the bitter cold (shut up, Ivan, it's cold to me) without bringing shorts or a t-shirt to kick in. There was no way I was going to go all the way home and back in that weather, so I rolled up my sleeves, used my lanyard as a belt, and started shredding. The first thing I did was bsos DLO. Then three DLOs in a row. Then some BOP drills (a bit sloppy, but who cares). A drifter. All in all, I hit almost everything I know how to do, and even tried some new things like whirl and pdx DLO (am I obsessed with DLO?). You know what else? Even though it was hardly a spectacular session, trick wise, I had more fun than I've had in a long time. You know why? Because I didn't care. I expected to suck, so when I dropped it didn't matter, and when I hit something it was awesome! I fucking love jeans.

That is not to say that I'm going to kick in jeans every session (I'd have to say good-bye to stepping). Nor am I going to stop giving a shit and forget about my goals. But I am going to hit the save button on this mentality and try to recapture it every time I kick. I've been getting so frustrated lately, and I know it's bothering my friends and fellow footbaggers, not to mention myself. My anger hurts my game, stifles my ability to learn, and I take it out on myself and those around me. But if I can bring the jeans-vibe to my sessions, I know that all that will change.

So here's to jeans, and all that they stand for!

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Nice attitude, Ryan. I enjoyed reading that. Pretending you're wearing jeans all the time might be a good solution for your angries. I wish you could have seen me a few years ago. It was pretty bad sometimes. I used to get so frustrated when I wouldn't hit something. I learned, from the Vasek Klouda Manual, that you need to use that anger to help you get better. Dont let it negatively affect your game. Embrace it...with pants.

Great job on DLO x3 too! Toe Drifter is your ticket. Keep hitting that. Really push yourself to hit it flipside soon. And then do it both sides a few times every session. Trust me on this. Read my blog if you wanna understand my mentality behind that.

Your game is sounding better and better. Keep up the great work bud.

[Ryan_Morris]

Embrace it...with pants.

Lol

[Ryan_Morris]

This is the good kind of pain. This is the symposium mirage kind of pain.

I had a very productive session today with Khoa, Derrek, Kat, and Ivan. The latter two and I drilled symp mirages, and I think all of us got it on both sides from toe and clipper, bsos. We ended the session with a challenge to see how many back to back (one side) we could hit. None of us made our goals, but it was still good practice. I hit three in a row on both sides, so I'm feeling confident that I can learn them fairly quickly. I'm going to start putting symp stuff (including simple legover and pickup) into drills and practice that along with everything else.

Also, I hit whirl a few sessions ago. Actually, it might have been the last time I kicked, which was about a week ago. Stupid end of semester crap always gets in the way of kicking.

That's all for now. More here when I can feel my legs again.

[Ryan_Morris]

I would never have expected to kick outdoors two consecutive days in the middle of December. I also didn't expect to hit my first two four adds during one session. I gotta say, I'm pretty pumped.

Let me start with yesterday, since that's when all the excitement happened. I had an awesome session with Ivan and Kat at Wentz Run Park in my hometown of Blue Bell, PA. Everybody was hitting cool stuff and nice strings, and most of all enjoying the spectacular weather, all of which combined to give me a feel-good, can-do attitude. And that's when ripwalk happened. It definitely took a lot of tries and I dropped most of my attempts, but I got two good ones on camera, one on each side. I also hit pdx dlo at some point, which has eluded me for months. In this beautifully edited video of the session you can see all three of the aforementioned tricks and a whole lot more exciting things from Ivan and Kat.

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

I also kicked earlier today with a much bigger crowd. Nick P, Nick P, Corey, and Jeremy Mellor showed up along the three of us from yesterday, and we had a grand old time. I didn't hit anything big but I at least got a few long strings in, which felt nice. Of course, now my legs are aching because I didn't kick all finals week and forgot to stretch after drilling stepping sets. Ouch. But it matters not. I'll take a few days off (because I won't have time anyway with all this Christmas monkey-junk going on) and then come back with a vengeance. Although, I'm pretty sure I'll be stuck in my basement now that December stopped tripping balls.

Anyway, merry Christmas, happy holidays, and a happy new year to all!

[Ryan_Morris]

Jeez, I can't believe it took me this long to blog about the greatest session of my life. Last Friday, I had pleasure of kicking with David Clavens along with some other Bethlehem/Philadelphia area locals. I gotta say that David is a very cool guy and he even gave me some tips that helped me improve my game. Furthermore, just being in the same room as him seemed to have an inspiring effect on me because I kicked harder for longer than I have in quite a while. Of course, my legs were destroyed for the next few days, but it was totally worth it.

I also hit three new tricks that session: zooming to toe (first zooming set I've ever done), blur, and ps mirage. Thanks goes to Nick Polini for encouraging me to try the first two. I really didn't think I could do them but he kept insisting that I try them until they finally worked. I tried PS mirage on both sides, but I seem to only be able to hit it from my left-clipper. I'll have to keep at it because I definitely want symp (simp?) stuff in my game.

Anyway, now that my legs seem to be working again, it's time to kick some more. Ivan tells me he wants to see bsos blur by the end of break, and I still need to reach my own goal of 10 consecutive symp mirages on both sides. Thanks again to David and Nick for your advice, encouragement, and inspiration. More here when I suck less.

[Asmus]

Sounds like an awesome session from the posts and the videos! Playing with David is always an inspiration.
You should post both when you suck and rock. Blogs are good for venting all kinds of feelings.

It's called symp, for symposium, there is also something called symple. It's when you do symposium but the bag lands on the same foot doing the dex.
It's called Symposium Mirage, and here is a Symple Legover:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYBdB6FX4RM[/youtube]

[Ryan_Morris]

Thanks for the clarification, Asmus. I figured symposium must be spelled with a "y" but I had it in my head that symple was spelled with an "i" (like the real word) and that had me all confused.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Believe in yoself, fool!

I wouldn't tell you to try tricks that I didn't think you would have a shot at. Nice job at the session though. Your game is coming together.

[Ryan_Morris]

I hit bsos blur! But now my right shin hurts. I hope it's just fatigue and not shin splints (don't freak out, Nick), but we'll see. It was a pretty long solo session and I don't think I remembered to land on my toes enough, so I'll make sure to focus on that in the coming sessions. Stepping always hurts my legs but I'll keep practicing in hopes that my muscles will strengthen and not ache so much. If it is a more serious problem...well, I can figure that out when I need to. I know other footbaggers have dealt with it in the past so it shouldn't be too much trouble.

I also tried bop drills using same side butterfly, but both that and my osis are sloppy so it didn't go well. I can't hit same butter or set out of osis consistently. I seriously have to learn how to freeze my osis, but it always just rolls of my foot when I try. On the plus side, my illusion drills were looking very clean and consistent, which is nice. I think I can finally add them my strong tricks list, and maybe try more pdx illusions in my strings.

By the way, thanks goes to Ivan for challenging me to hit blur bsos by the end of break. Speaking of people that I need to kick with again: EVERYBODY AT PENN STATE! I'm gonna be back there on Sunday and I wanna have a totally awesome session cuz I miss yooz guyz. Greg and Aiden said they'd go which is awesome because I haven't kicked with those dudes in ages. See yall soon!

[Ryan_Morris]

Well, this sucks. My legs hurt almost immediately every time I try to kick. This has happened off and on since I started playing footbag, but lately it's been getting worse and at last Friday's session the pain was more sudden and intense than it's ever been before. I tried to play through it, but after half an hour I was done and had to sit out the rest of the session. It sucked. The discomfort is mostly in my calves, especially on the inside of my legs, and a little bit in my shins. This doesn't seem consistent with shin splints (I think), so I guess it must be a strained or pulled or fatigued muscle. This all began pretty soon after I started trying simp mirages and stepping stuff, so that makes sense.

Nate said he had similar problems in the past, so he told me to just take a week off and do a lot of stretching. I've definitely been doing the latter so far this week, but I don't want to stop playing for a whole week. I'm afraid that my muscles would get too weak and the problem would persist when I went back to kicking. So instead I've been doing easy drill sessions where I practice tricks that don't involve much jumping or pounding. For instance, on Sunday night I practiced nothing but legovers and pickups until I could hit 50 and 40 respectively in one string. I'm going to keep doing stuff like that all week so that I don't waste too much time.

More here when I hurt less.