Ryan's Footblog: JOULUKALENTERI 2018!

[C-Fan]

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..

Could be a blessing in disguise. Like those basketball players who break their dominant hand in high school, but then become ambidextrous because of it. Good luck with the recovery.

[Ryan_Morris]

Thanks, Ken! Hopefully by the time I'm ready to shred hard again, I'll have just about mastered my basics.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Sorry to hear about your leg pains dude. Glad to hear it's only a little bit in your shins. I could actually tell at Bethlehem Jam, when you did Symp Mirage x3, you were landing too hard. Anyway, letting your legs heal up while practicing ATW's and Orbits is not a bad idea at all. It sucks for a little while, because you can't "shred" during sessions but I dealt with it too. Ultimately, my conclusion was that I needed a form change and THAT was what fixed me up. Also, Zensah Compression Sleeves were absolutely invaluable for me. They decrease recovery time too, which is a plus. I know you like to do your own research, so I won't tell you anything else about them. I'll just say that I'd be willing to put money on the thought that a pair of shin sleeves plus a form change will fix you right up. Regardless of what you do end up doing, I'm looking forward to seeing you this weekend and kicking with you.

Also, one last thing.. When I developed shin splints, I downloaded lots of shred videos from youtube and watched them in slow motion, trying to study micro-movements, which you can't see well in real time shred. I also practiced the very basics, like perfect toe stalls, inside stalls, inside kicks, toe kicks, atws, and orbits. Try to put 0 spin on the bag. That's the ticket to a perfect set.

Can't wait to sleep on your floor

[Ryan_Morris]

So I'm back to playing footbag full tilt (no pun intended). I've kicked several times since my last post with the help of slightly better form and Aleve, and things seem to be going fairly well, though I feel a bit rusty. I've lost ground on symp and stepping, and some of my basics are sloppy, but I'm not too worried. I'm concentrating on good form again so now all the new things I learn (and old things I re-learn) will be learned the proper way.

Today, I had a small session with Ivan and Aiden. It seems that we were the only ones capable of kicking after Marc's birthday party last night. I only hit a few okay tiltless strings and dropped more osis than I should have, but on the bright side I finally had time and energy to work on my butterflies. Ivan pointed out that I was catching them too far towards my toe. After fixing that, the trick definitely felt stronger, though still not perfect. Ivan also suggested that I learn clipper ss butter, which I did with some difficulty. By the end of the session, I made it through one repetition of an infinity > ss butterfly (repeat) drill and can now sometimes do two consecutive ss butters. It doesn't sound very impressive, by any means, but considering that I started the session hitting one out of every five butters and never having hit ss butter, I'd say that it was a productive day. I'll continue doing drills with both of those tricks.

[Ryan_Morris]

Happy birthday to me.
I drank Bacardi,
then practiced my stepping
and now I'm sweaty.

[Ryan_Morris]

This week wasn't too bad.

We had a session on Thursday where nearly everybody showed up. The squash court got a bit steamy, but it was a lot of fun having that many people around. I kicked again on Friday with George. My legs were a bit tired, but I still managed to hit a few nice strings, including bsos bop x3 for a total of 18 guiltless contacts, which I think is my record. I'm going to take today off because the model rail road club is having an open house this weekend and my legs need a break, but I think I can at least have a quick solo session Sunday evening. I'd like to use the time to drill stepping. If all goes well, I hope to have one or two stepping tricks consistent by PSU Jamps. We'll see.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

WOW. 18 Guiltless? I can't wait to shred with you again. Sounds like huge improvements since last time we played.

Keep it up, bud.

[krustykrakk]

Awesommmmee! I am fully convinced that with your systematic and efficient approach to the kicky sacks that you will make blur and ripwalk your bitches by jamps (assuming the whole education thing doesn't get the way :p.)

[Ryan_Morris]

Nick: Don't get too excited. It was just a fluke. I've improved some, but not spectacularly.
Ben: Thanks, man, I hope so. I'm counting on having crispy DLO and blur, and we'll see about ripwalk.

[Ryan_Morris]

I had a nice session today with Ivan and Kat. Overall, things went well and people hit cool things.

Funny story: Ivan, after hitting a good string, throws me the bag and says, "backside blur." I hit it first try. Lol. Sometimes stuff just happens. In addition to my first 5-add, I hit a 28 contact tiltless string and Ivan said that my stepping sets looked good. All in all, it was a fun session that made me very hopeful for the future of my game.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

First 5 ADD!!! Props, Ryan! Pretty sure Ivan's first 5 was BS Blur, too. Awesome job, though, man. That's a great feeling being able to hit a 5 ADD on your first try, with minimal effort.


Flipside now

[Ryan_Morris]

This is not a proud post.

I have anger issues. Almost everyone who knows me knows that, especially footbaggers, but I've never actually said it aloud. In fact, for a long time I've gotten really pissed off when people said it to me, which really just further proves the point. Quite a few of you reading this have been at sessions where I've lost my cool and started cursing and yelling and generally bumming everybody out. I'm really sorry about that. My actions were, and continue to be, immature and selfish.

The reason I'm posting this is that just broke my footbag a few minutes ago. It was my last remaining footbag (I lost the the other two) and my favorite of all the ones I've owned. I was planning on drilling stepping for a couple of hours but I kept dropping clippers while warming up. I got frustrated, then angry, then enraged, at which point I threw my bag. I was aiming for something something soft, but I've always had poor hand-eye coordination which certainly does not improve with my worsening mood. The bag hit the wall and burst open. It's still lying on the ground on the other side of the room. I don't even want to look at how bad the damage is.

As if that wasn't embarrassing enough, just a week ago I broke one of Ivan's bags that was a specially made gift from Nathan. I thought that incident would have taught me not to treat footbags that way, but I guess I learn slowly.

I don't want to be like this. I need to deal with my anger in a better, more mature way for the sake of those around me as well as my own. I don't know how I'm going to change myself, but I have to. My anger has slowed my progress in footbag, annoyed my friends, and has probably held me back in many of my pursuits. This time, it has prevented me from practicing a critical skill despite this week (spring break) being a perfect time to drill. I will not be kicking tonight or this weekend as planned. I will not be practicing the tricks that gave me problems at sessions this past Sunday and Tuesday. Come Monday, I will be back at school, a little closer to Jampionships, a lot busier with school, and no better at footbag.

I cannot let my anger guide my actions any longer.

[isirc10]

I think I might make you something out of really shitty kevlar/nomex fabric using 20 lb test braided fishing line... that bag won't break, but it won't stall either. I will be making bags next week, so lmk if you want one. Keep kicking, you will get over your frustration soon enough, there has been a lot of improvement over the past year, even though it may not seem like it.

[Ryan_Morris]

Thanks for the encouragement, Ivan. I think I might ask you to make that bag, though I hope I don't even try destroying it. And if it's a 14-panel it might be just soft enough to stall, carefully.

[anhkhoashevakt]

Dude it's completely fine to have anger issues.
Even me who thought I got some of it under control, sometimes I still cursed aloud and then kicked you in the nuts with the bag remember?
I think you are completely like me. We are both control freaks who always want to have things the way we want them to, and get frustrated extremely easily if they don't. Bad news is things screwed up all the time. And we'll have to be frustrated all the time because of it.
One tip that helped me a lot is not to put a whole lot of responsibilities upon myself. I never say "I have to do this or that" any more. I generally say that "Well, if it turns out that way, good. If not, meh...". That helped me. May be it can help you too?
On the flipside though, I noticed that compared to all my other friends in freestyle soccer, I tend to have the best routines because I always want the routine to go this and that way and as a result planned them out, every millisecond of them, and practice them everyday for half an hour 3 months in advanced in every competition. So cheer up dude! We'll always have those best routines xD xD xD

[Ryan_Morris]

I haven't kicked all week. Jamps is coming up soon. My sleep cycle is all kinds of fucked up. Going to the shredhaus basement right now and drilling stuff.

[Ryan_Morris]

Aaaaaaand we're back. I haven't been in the mood to write about footbag for a while now, but I should probably keep up with it for my own sake.

The PSU crew had sessions on Friday and Saturday, which I had to miss because I was desperately trying to figure out my EE homework. For all my effort, I got a 60%. Give me metals, give me fluids, give me graphs of stress and strain, but for the love of all that is good in this world, keep your AC currents away from me. Back to footbag....

Today, Sunday, I finally got to kick. Ivan, Marc, and I biked to Old Main (an excellent warm-up, going at Ivan's pace) where we met up with Ben, April, Kat, and Khoa. People said it was in the low 60s, but out in the sun it felt 70 and beautiful. There was a lovely breeze and it was just the right temperature to keep you cool without making your legs lose mobility while waiting for the bag. I couldn't have asked for anything better.

It took me some time to get warmed up. I hit a few lame strings and started to get mad, but then I remembered: it's a beautiful day and I just want to have fun, so I slapped on some sunscreen, moved out of the shade, and started shredding. I spent most of my time in a circle with Ivan and Kat, occasionally with Marc or Ben in the fourth spot. That circle had a good vibe. We kept trying to push ourselves to hit bigger tricks and harder strings, which got me a few decent guiltless runs with bops and steps. I also hit pdx dlo for the first time in ages, mid-string for time ever. I also did a lot of toe DLOs mid-string, which didn't always go well but felt great when they did. Probably my favorite link of the day was butterfly > blur bsos.

All in all, it was a great session, which is probably why I'm blogging about it. Everybody was enjoying the sun, hitting cool things, and making snide comments about the sororities hoes taking pictures on the steps. Good times.

Before I end this post, I want to mention that I have a plan for tackling my anger problem. A lot of people have given me really sound advice, most of which I will take. However, I don't think it will have an immediate effect on how I act at sessions. In the meantime, so that I don't start yelling and cursing and bumming everybody out, I've decided to impose the following rules on myself:

1. No top tier curses (this includes fuck, shit, cunt, and variations of these).
2. No clapping, smacking my legs, or stomping (these are normal reflexes for me when I miss a trick).
3. No yelling out of anger.

The punishment for breaking any of these rules is 5 push ups. Thanks goes to Marc for helping me enforce them. At today's session, I was pleased that I didn't break the rules too often. Today, despite having a really stressful past few weeks, I kept my cool, had fun, and didn't spoil the session for anybody. I'd like to keep that up.

[Matt K]

That was really enjoyable, thanks for taking the time to write all that out. I'm glad you're making progress on the anger stuff.

Reading all of the PSU blogs makes me wish I could come live with you guys for a month.

[Ryan_Morris]

Reading all of the PSU blogs makes me wish I could come live with you guys for a month.

There's always crash space at the Shredhouse

[Ryan_Morris]

It was another beautiful day today, so we had a session at the hub with Ivan, Marc, Kat, Khoa, and Derrek. Things didn't go completely smoothly. Let's just say that I owe Marc more push-ups that my arms can handle. Nonetheless, I managed to make a few decent strings with some steps and other hard-ish tricks I know.

Highlights:
I kind of hit a duck from clipper, which I don't remember being able to do before. I told Ivan yesterday that he should do more ducks and he listened to me. Now that he and Marc are both stringing with them, it's given me enough motivation to try them myself.
Blizzard. Woo. My groin hates me now. Cool trick, though. I want to have more illusion related tricks in my game.