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Fanzine
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F[uns]tylin' Eclectic
- Post Master General
- Posts: 4092
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- Location: Drumore, PA
Re: Fanzine: NOLA Jam Writeup
Wow Ken, just caught up on everything... I was really shocked to see your opinion on me as a player. I had no idea that you felt that way. That means a lot to me. That's just one more push added to the push I got from competing against you in circle. Seriously, that was great to read. Thanks a bunch. I hope to make you proud and enter elite level eventually. Great write up too, felt like I was actually there!
Sent from my SGH-T769 using Tapatalk
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Re: Fanzine: NOLA Jam Writeup
Yeah man! I kinda wanted to tell you all that when we said goodbye, but that was before I had coffee and I was pretty badly hungover. But wait! We're jumping ahead. Let's close this mother out:
Sunday, post comp
We pile into Mark’s van and speed off to get food. I order a mufalatta sandwich, which is a famous New Orleans cold cut sandwich with olive tapenade. Mark orders a huge crawfish boil, and shares with a bunch of people so they can learn how to eat this classic NOLA meal. I’m allergic to shellfish, so I just watch, but it looks like a lot of fun. Once I have food in me, I feel like falling asleep. The combination of my competition adrenaline coming down, food in my belly, and all that Crown have me exhausted. I don’t remember if we went home first, or went straight to Bourbon Street, but either way I was just content to flow along with the tide of the crowd.
Bourbon street is completely overwhelming to me. The combination of bright lights, loud music, and pungent smells hits your every sense like a tidal wave. The only thing I could compare it to would be Times Square in NYC when I was a kid, before Giuliani cleaned it up and it became a weird Disneyland in the middle of the city. We pop into Paddy O’Brien’s for Hurricanes, which is one of the things I had on my tourism to-do list. There’s a really nice courtyard tucked in the middle of it, which is a much-needed reprieve from the craziness of Bourbon. The bouncer who checks our IDs says “happy birthday” to me, since he noticed it was 3 days away. To me though, just being in NOLA at a footbag tournament is a better birthday party than anything else I can imagine. We all sit down, and Jon graciously buys our first round of Hurricanes! What a guy. A hurricane is basically fruit punch with a lot of rum and ice, which makes it go down dangerously easily.
Halfway through, I’m feeling nice and relaxed, when all of a sudden Jon stands up, looks in the distance, and starts walking purposefully away from the table. I swivel my head to see where he’s going, and I see a beautiful blonde woman in a green dress. My heart soars for a minute, as I think I’m about to witness Jon meeting his future wife in Paddy O’Brien’s. Jon walks right up to her…and keeps going right on past her to the bathroom. The orchestra playing in my head comes to an abrupt stop, as I watch the woman sit down with her table of friends. When Jon gets back from the bathroom, I tell him what I thought was happening, and he laughs. I then point out that she’s sitting at a table of like 8 young pretty women, and that I have a plan for how he should make his move:
Ken: “Remember the monorail episode of the Simpsons, where the monorail guy hosts a crappy training class for monorail conductors? At the end of his class he’s leaving the room when somebody yells at him: ‘Hey! So who gets to conduct the monorail?’ The monorail guy looks flustered, and then vaguely waves his hand over the entire classroom saying: ‘clearly, this one student stands out above the rest.’ Homer then looks at him and says: ‘Who me?!’ Monorail guy: ‘sure, why not.’
Jon (laughing): “Yeah, OK.”
Ken: Well, you should go to that table of girls, wave your arm generally over the entire table, and say: “clearly, you are the most beautiful girl here tonight.” Then whoever says, ‘who me?’ should be the one you hit on.
After hurricanes I think we snag some street pizza? Maybe that was the night before. In any case, we end up back at Mark’s place where we get a $5 game of Texas Hold ‘Em going. I get knocked out relatively early, but it’s not a bad beat and I played my cards correctly, so I can’t complain. Earlier in the evening I had floated the possibility of a morning session with Jon and Mark, but at this stage I’m so tired that I figure it just won’t happen. I watch the poker game until my eyes are shutting on me, at which point I go to bed, happy to have spent such a great weekend with friends.
Monday
While I was able to dodge a hangover from Saturday night, I didn’t have the same luck with Sunday night’s drinking. My body is stiff and I feel slow in every way. I make my way to the kitchen and shoot the shit with Tank/Polini/Toolan, but I’m already feeling sad that farewells are just around the corner. Mark wakes up, and I tell him I want to buy him brunch somewhere as a small thank you for all the work he’s done. Polini’s car comes with us, but when the first place we wanted to go is closed, they decide to get food to take on the road. We exchange farewell hugs, and I tell everybody that hopefully I’ll see them at East Coasts in NYC. Even as I say this though, I’m aware that’s probably not for another 5 months, and that makes me sad too. The rest of us get breakfast, but Johnny Breakdown Sarah snakes me and buys Marks breakfast before I even realize what’s happening. I get a large coffee, because I’m feeling really out of it and I don’t want to be anti-social. The coffee ends up being good and bad. It’s good, in that it wakes me up enough to be social for the remainder of my time with everybody. It’s bad, in that I’m not used to drinking so much caffeine, and when I come down off the caffeine high, it hits me hard.
After breakfast we get back to Mark’s place, and we have like 75 minutes to kill before going to the airport. It’s not enough time to go out and do something interesting, but its also too much time to go to the airport and do nothing there. I propose videogames, but nobody is interested. I see Jon getting his shoes on to shred, and I figure “what the hell” and go get my gear on too. It’s only like 10 in the morning, but it’s already muggy enough that you sweat through your shirt just doing warm up kicks. I’m sure part of that was also the booze sweating out. Mark, Jon and I hop on his shred deck and start warming up. It’s my first time playing on the shred deck all weekend, and I really like it. Mark asks for a lot of tips on paradox whirl and barflies, and I do my best to analyze/explain what I think he needs to do. It’s kind of crazy to think how many different motions and concepts there are to master in footbag. As I try and explain my technique to him on some concepts, it reminds me how many hours went into learning certain motions which are now automatic. It also strikes me as interesting that we all choose certain concepts to invest time and energy into, while ignoring others. Seeing what Jon and Mark do with swirls really hammers that home for me…why did I never learn swirls? I think it’s a cool trick, and I can hit the basics with it, but I never came close to mastering it. Why not?
Its really hot out and I’m sweating like crazy, so I grab a beer to drink during the session. It’s not like I was playing hardcore anyway. Somehow though, I end up playing better after this, and I even manage to get down one run which feels over 30 contacts. I’m surprised by it, and happy I hit it, but I also feel a wave of sadness at the same time, since I know that’s going to be the last personal shred highlight for me for the weekend. I see Jon hit swifter midtime, and Mark hit a bunch of swirling spinning stuff super clean. I request swirling big apple from Mark, and I can tell its do-able for him. I propose the name “big easy” for it, since that’s a nickname for New Orleans and it’s a big apple variant.
Eventually the clock becomes something I can no longer ignore, so I jump in the shower to rinse off. It’s so humid out though, that within 10 seconds of toweling off, I’m wet all over again. I can only imagine what New Orleans is like in summertime. I say another round of goodbyes, then Mark, Johnny, and Haley pile into the car and head to the airport. There’s a symmetry to ending the trip like this, though Johnny has taken Nick’s place. The whole ride to the airport we talk in footbag jargon, which must feel like Chinese to Haley, since she has no idea what we’re talking about. I savor the discussion though, since I know I won’t have another in person geeky footbag talk like this until my next tournament, whenever that may be. At the airport I thank Mark again for hosting the tournament. It really was a fantastic tournament all around, and I finally got to visit New Orleans. I give him a big hug, then head home.
Sunday, post comp
We pile into Mark’s van and speed off to get food. I order a mufalatta sandwich, which is a famous New Orleans cold cut sandwich with olive tapenade. Mark orders a huge crawfish boil, and shares with a bunch of people so they can learn how to eat this classic NOLA meal. I’m allergic to shellfish, so I just watch, but it looks like a lot of fun. Once I have food in me, I feel like falling asleep. The combination of my competition adrenaline coming down, food in my belly, and all that Crown have me exhausted. I don’t remember if we went home first, or went straight to Bourbon Street, but either way I was just content to flow along with the tide of the crowd.
Bourbon street is completely overwhelming to me. The combination of bright lights, loud music, and pungent smells hits your every sense like a tidal wave. The only thing I could compare it to would be Times Square in NYC when I was a kid, before Giuliani cleaned it up and it became a weird Disneyland in the middle of the city. We pop into Paddy O’Brien’s for Hurricanes, which is one of the things I had on my tourism to-do list. There’s a really nice courtyard tucked in the middle of it, which is a much-needed reprieve from the craziness of Bourbon. The bouncer who checks our IDs says “happy birthday” to me, since he noticed it was 3 days away. To me though, just being in NOLA at a footbag tournament is a better birthday party than anything else I can imagine. We all sit down, and Jon graciously buys our first round of Hurricanes! What a guy. A hurricane is basically fruit punch with a lot of rum and ice, which makes it go down dangerously easily.
Halfway through, I’m feeling nice and relaxed, when all of a sudden Jon stands up, looks in the distance, and starts walking purposefully away from the table. I swivel my head to see where he’s going, and I see a beautiful blonde woman in a green dress. My heart soars for a minute, as I think I’m about to witness Jon meeting his future wife in Paddy O’Brien’s. Jon walks right up to her…and keeps going right on past her to the bathroom. The orchestra playing in my head comes to an abrupt stop, as I watch the woman sit down with her table of friends. When Jon gets back from the bathroom, I tell him what I thought was happening, and he laughs. I then point out that she’s sitting at a table of like 8 young pretty women, and that I have a plan for how he should make his move:
Ken: “Remember the monorail episode of the Simpsons, where the monorail guy hosts a crappy training class for monorail conductors? At the end of his class he’s leaving the room when somebody yells at him: ‘Hey! So who gets to conduct the monorail?’ The monorail guy looks flustered, and then vaguely waves his hand over the entire classroom saying: ‘clearly, this one student stands out above the rest.’ Homer then looks at him and says: ‘Who me?!’ Monorail guy: ‘sure, why not.’
Jon (laughing): “Yeah, OK.”
Ken: Well, you should go to that table of girls, wave your arm generally over the entire table, and say: “clearly, you are the most beautiful girl here tonight.” Then whoever says, ‘who me?’ should be the one you hit on.
After hurricanes I think we snag some street pizza? Maybe that was the night before. In any case, we end up back at Mark’s place where we get a $5 game of Texas Hold ‘Em going. I get knocked out relatively early, but it’s not a bad beat and I played my cards correctly, so I can’t complain. Earlier in the evening I had floated the possibility of a morning session with Jon and Mark, but at this stage I’m so tired that I figure it just won’t happen. I watch the poker game until my eyes are shutting on me, at which point I go to bed, happy to have spent such a great weekend with friends.
Monday
While I was able to dodge a hangover from Saturday night, I didn’t have the same luck with Sunday night’s drinking. My body is stiff and I feel slow in every way. I make my way to the kitchen and shoot the shit with Tank/Polini/Toolan, but I’m already feeling sad that farewells are just around the corner. Mark wakes up, and I tell him I want to buy him brunch somewhere as a small thank you for all the work he’s done. Polini’s car comes with us, but when the first place we wanted to go is closed, they decide to get food to take on the road. We exchange farewell hugs, and I tell everybody that hopefully I’ll see them at East Coasts in NYC. Even as I say this though, I’m aware that’s probably not for another 5 months, and that makes me sad too. The rest of us get breakfast, but Johnny Breakdown Sarah snakes me and buys Marks breakfast before I even realize what’s happening. I get a large coffee, because I’m feeling really out of it and I don’t want to be anti-social. The coffee ends up being good and bad. It’s good, in that it wakes me up enough to be social for the remainder of my time with everybody. It’s bad, in that I’m not used to drinking so much caffeine, and when I come down off the caffeine high, it hits me hard.
After breakfast we get back to Mark’s place, and we have like 75 minutes to kill before going to the airport. It’s not enough time to go out and do something interesting, but its also too much time to go to the airport and do nothing there. I propose videogames, but nobody is interested. I see Jon getting his shoes on to shred, and I figure “what the hell” and go get my gear on too. It’s only like 10 in the morning, but it’s already muggy enough that you sweat through your shirt just doing warm up kicks. I’m sure part of that was also the booze sweating out. Mark, Jon and I hop on his shred deck and start warming up. It’s my first time playing on the shred deck all weekend, and I really like it. Mark asks for a lot of tips on paradox whirl and barflies, and I do my best to analyze/explain what I think he needs to do. It’s kind of crazy to think how many different motions and concepts there are to master in footbag. As I try and explain my technique to him on some concepts, it reminds me how many hours went into learning certain motions which are now automatic. It also strikes me as interesting that we all choose certain concepts to invest time and energy into, while ignoring others. Seeing what Jon and Mark do with swirls really hammers that home for me…why did I never learn swirls? I think it’s a cool trick, and I can hit the basics with it, but I never came close to mastering it. Why not?
Its really hot out and I’m sweating like crazy, so I grab a beer to drink during the session. It’s not like I was playing hardcore anyway. Somehow though, I end up playing better after this, and I even manage to get down one run which feels over 30 contacts. I’m surprised by it, and happy I hit it, but I also feel a wave of sadness at the same time, since I know that’s going to be the last personal shred highlight for me for the weekend. I see Jon hit swifter midtime, and Mark hit a bunch of swirling spinning stuff super clean. I request swirling big apple from Mark, and I can tell its do-able for him. I propose the name “big easy” for it, since that’s a nickname for New Orleans and it’s a big apple variant.
Eventually the clock becomes something I can no longer ignore, so I jump in the shower to rinse off. It’s so humid out though, that within 10 seconds of toweling off, I’m wet all over again. I can only imagine what New Orleans is like in summertime. I say another round of goodbyes, then Mark, Johnny, and Haley pile into the car and head to the airport. There’s a symmetry to ending the trip like this, though Johnny has taken Nick’s place. The whole ride to the airport we talk in footbag jargon, which must feel like Chinese to Haley, since she has no idea what we’re talking about. I savor the discussion though, since I know I won’t have another in person geeky footbag talk like this until my next tournament, whenever that may be. At the airport I thank Mark again for hosting the tournament. It really was a fantastic tournament all around, and I finally got to visit New Orleans. I give him a big hug, then head home.
Re: Fanzine: NOLA Jam Writeup
Ken,
thanks for an awesome write up and im super glad you enjoyed yourself. It was a pleasure to have yall here and miss it . I enjoyed the write up... Ive been putting together footage of the jam and will probably finish it soon. Thanks again for the barfly tips....i think I finally am noticing some improvement in that concept for me. I also learned that I need to focus on specific concepts more and dial them in ....so next time i wont be knocked out so early
. I had so much fun though and hanging was awesome....hope to see you again soon
thanks for an awesome write up and im super glad you enjoyed yourself. It was a pleasure to have yall here and miss it . I enjoyed the write up... Ive been putting together footage of the jam and will probably finish it soon. Thanks again for the barfly tips....i think I finally am noticing some improvement in that concept for me. I also learned that I need to focus on specific concepts more and dial them in ....so next time i wont be knocked out so early
. I had so much fun though and hanging was awesome....hope to see you again soonSHRED HARD!
Re: Fanzine: NOLA Jam Writeup
You care too much about ADDsC-Fan wrote:why did I never learn swirls? I think it’s a cool trick, and I can hit the basics with it, but I never came close to mastering it. Why not?
Great write up!
Re: Fanzine: NOLA Jam Writeup
You really make me want to compete in North America again, with this type of post. With you being married soon, I wonder if we'll have another bout of like, 3 tournaments in 3 months at some point..
Thanks for writing about your mental analysis of competition situations. Probably my favourite part to read, given that it is generally tough to get a crystal clear picture of what goes on in other's heads, versus your own. Kiitos.
Thanks for writing about your mental analysis of competition situations. Probably my favourite part to read, given that it is generally tough to get a crystal clear picture of what goes on in other's heads, versus your own. Kiitos.
Jay Boychuk
Re: Fanzine: NOLA Jam Writeup
Thanks for all the positive feedback on the NOLA writeup. As I've lamented in my blog repeatedly, I'm not going to many events this year, so I really wanted to capture how much fun I had at this event. I also hadn't done a comprehensive writeup in a while, so that was a nice change of pace. It's always fun doing a writeup too, cause you kind of relive it all as you write it. And then of course you can go back years later, read it and relive it again. My only regret is that I didn't take any pictures or video of the event, as that really spices things up. I always appreciate, for example, the photos in Cass' writeups. Or like the writeup I did of Green Cup 2011, where there were videos of all the major events sprinkled throughout. I think at NOLA I took like 3 videos total, and I ended up just loading them onto Mark's computer because I didn't have enough material to make my own video.
Speaking of reliving the past through writeups, when I dug up my old Green Cup writeup for that link I had completely forgot that I made a mini Yves Kreil special:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiNL5dIM804[/youtube]
That was definitely a fun era for me, when I was going to lots of tournaments and trips and making lots of edited videos. Maybe after the wedding I'll get a camera and start editing videos again. We'll see. I'm kinda hoping East Coasts is in NYC again this fall, as I'm overdue for a visit with both NYFA, and my sister who lives in Jersey.
Not much new on my end footbagwise. It was my birthday about a week ago, but my first shred as a 34 year old went really well, so I haven't done my usual panicking about getting older and losing all shred powers. My main goal for the session was to film a Sick One for the online comps, since it was gorgeous out and I had already submitted my Sick 3 a couple weeks earlier. I hit a couple clean paradox chainsaw massacres, which I thought would be my entry, but then I surprised myself by hitting a better trick. If somebody told me that my first new trick as a 34 year old would be *********, I never would have believed them. Anyway, hitting both of those tricks in the same session made me feel a lot better about getting older, since my footbag game hasn't been negatively affected by age yet.
In crappy news, the online comps deadline was extended again, so I can't share the new trick with you until mid-May. Who knows, it might be August by the time the shit gets released. Pretty lame.
Anyway, here's the video from my bday shred minus the best trick:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntxAlmCHGqM [/youtube]
Speaking of reliving the past through writeups, when I dug up my old Green Cup writeup for that link I had completely forgot that I made a mini Yves Kreil special:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiNL5dIM804[/youtube]
That was definitely a fun era for me, when I was going to lots of tournaments and trips and making lots of edited videos. Maybe after the wedding I'll get a camera and start editing videos again. We'll see. I'm kinda hoping East Coasts is in NYC again this fall, as I'm overdue for a visit with both NYFA, and my sister who lives in Jersey.
Not much new on my end footbagwise. It was my birthday about a week ago, but my first shred as a 34 year old went really well, so I haven't done my usual panicking about getting older and losing all shred powers. My main goal for the session was to film a Sick One for the online comps, since it was gorgeous out and I had already submitted my Sick 3 a couple weeks earlier. I hit a couple clean paradox chainsaw massacres, which I thought would be my entry, but then I surprised myself by hitting a better trick. If somebody told me that my first new trick as a 34 year old would be *********, I never would have believed them. Anyway, hitting both of those tricks in the same session made me feel a lot better about getting older, since my footbag game hasn't been negatively affected by age yet.
In crappy news, the online comps deadline was extended again, so I can't share the new trick with you until mid-May. Who knows, it might be August by the time the shit gets released. Pretty lame.
Anyway, here's the video from my bday shred minus the best trick:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntxAlmCHGqM [/youtube]
-
boyle
- Post Master General
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- Joined: 19 Sep 2007 23:42
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Re: -Fanzine-
those stars seem to be too many letters for nemesis....
Happy birthday, old man. I think you've still got a few years of high level shred left in you. I don't really see you slowing down, nor changing your focus on footbag (unless the dear wife takes control of you, but you know, she's already coming with you to tournaments and understanding what a major part of most of your life the sport has been...)
Happy birthday, old man. I think you've still got a few years of high level shred left in you. I don't really see you slowing down, nor changing your focus on footbag (unless the dear wife takes control of you, but you know, she's already coming with you to tournaments and understanding what a major part of most of your life the sport has been...)
Re: -Fanzine-
Great write-up! Sounds like the tournament was as great as expected.
In Finland they have another variation of Horse where you can take as many tries on hitting the trick as you want and the opponents then have equally many attempts. Are you struggling to hit your own trick you can downgrade it from for example Ripped Warrior to Ripwalk but your opponent(s) still get as many tries as you used on both variations.It is really fun because it makes people not play as conservatively.
In Finland they have another variation of Horse where you can take as many tries on hitting the trick as you want and the opponents then have equally many attempts. Are you struggling to hit your own trick you can downgrade it from for example Ripped Warrior to Ripwalk but your opponent(s) still get as many tries as you used on both variations.It is really fun because it makes people not play as conservatively.
Re: Operation: Board Game from the 1980s
Thanks for the nice posts guys.
Dan: I don't anticipate married life affecting my footbag playing much in the short term. We've been together almost 5 years now, and as you point out she understands how much footbag means to me. I think things may change some if/when we have kids, as that will eat up my time and attention, but hopefully that's at least a couple years away. I'm more worried about my dearth of G-Units ending my career than anything family related, at least right now.
Anus: that's an interesting concept for Horse. I like it in theory, though I'd still probably want some cap on the number of attempts. If my opponent took 30 tries at a trick, it'd really throw my rhythm/patience, even if I had 30 tries to respond.
Not much new on my end. I went on a run with Haley last week, as she wants to run a 5K in a few months and I want to join her. I haven't done any real running since 2011 when I played basketball regularly at the gym, and even then that style of running is very different from what I'd do in a 5K. As such, I made a point to run with good form (all on the balls of my feet), and sure enough it killed my legs for the next few days. Then the weather kinda took a turn for the worse, with temps in the low 50s and gusty winds, so I haven't played much recently. This week I'm hoping to get back on the footbag wagon, and get in some light shreds at the gym while watching NBA playoff games. Now that NOLA is done, I'm going to go back to working on my furious set. I may mix that up by working on my spinning game too. That's probably a good balance, and better for my body too.
Here's a video from one of the last sessions I taped. I had a good time messing with toe spins, and pixie/fairy/atomic spins. This is the kind thing I'd like to play with for the next few weeks, in addition to furious:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w40YIMYWoWU[/youtube]
Dan: I don't anticipate married life affecting my footbag playing much in the short term. We've been together almost 5 years now, and as you point out she understands how much footbag means to me. I think things may change some if/when we have kids, as that will eat up my time and attention, but hopefully that's at least a couple years away. I'm more worried about my dearth of G-Units ending my career than anything family related, at least right now.
Anus: that's an interesting concept for Horse. I like it in theory, though I'd still probably want some cap on the number of attempts. If my opponent took 30 tries at a trick, it'd really throw my rhythm/patience, even if I had 30 tries to respond.
Not much new on my end. I went on a run with Haley last week, as she wants to run a 5K in a few months and I want to join her. I haven't done any real running since 2011 when I played basketball regularly at the gym, and even then that style of running is very different from what I'd do in a 5K. As such, I made a point to run with good form (all on the balls of my feet), and sure enough it killed my legs for the next few days. Then the weather kinda took a turn for the worse, with temps in the low 50s and gusty winds, so I haven't played much recently. This week I'm hoping to get back on the footbag wagon, and get in some light shreds at the gym while watching NBA playoff games. Now that NOLA is done, I'm going to go back to working on my furious set. I may mix that up by working on my spinning game too. That's probably a good balance, and better for my body too.
Here's a video from one of the last sessions I taped. I had a good time messing with toe spins, and pixie/fairy/atomic spins. This is the kind thing I'd like to play with for the next few weeks, in addition to furious:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w40YIMYWoWU[/youtube]
Re: Operation: Board Game from the 1980s
Man, April went by fast. I managed to play footbag 18 out of the 30 days, which isn't bad considering I took a little time off after NOLA to recover, and the weather has been less than stellar lately.
My last few sessions I've mostly just focused on furious, and improving my spins. My flip spin in particular feels unreliable, though I am able to hit decent tricks/links with it when I really focus. Furious continues to be a set I only do on one side, but I'm optimistic I'll at least be able to get that one side strong enough to hit a few clean quads out of it. My dream list of furious tricks which I think are realistically attainable is:
nemesis
arch nemesis
clownface
nebula
furious drifter
genesis
If I can hit just a few of these, even once, cleanly...I'd be so pumped up. I think it's possible for sure, I just need to keep improving my set and keep at it.
Last weekend was super windy, so I went to the windiest park I know to fly kites with Haley. When we first moved to our new place, I checked out this park and ruled it out for footbag precisely because it's like a giant wind tunnel. Sure enough, it was a great place to fly a kite. In footbag news though, I also lucked out when we got there to see some high schoolers hacky slacking by the skate park! I threw on my gunits, ran over, and kicked with them for about 20 minutes. Only one of them seemed genuinely interested in kicking, and so I gave him my number and told him to contact me if he ever wants to play. I'll shoot him a text this weekend and see if he wants to meet up.
My last couple sessions have been in the dungeon, and man, I had forgotten how poorly my camera shoots in that light. I only bothered to film the first session because of that, and I probably won't film tonight when I play either. In good news, its supposed to be nice out Friday-Tuesday, so I'll try and film outdoors this weekend. Hopefully I can make some progress over my next couple indoor sessions, and that'll pay off when I film this weekend.
In the meantime, here's footage from my last indoor shred:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIR7RCacplY[/youtube]
My last few sessions I've mostly just focused on furious, and improving my spins. My flip spin in particular feels unreliable, though I am able to hit decent tricks/links with it when I really focus. Furious continues to be a set I only do on one side, but I'm optimistic I'll at least be able to get that one side strong enough to hit a few clean quads out of it. My dream list of furious tricks which I think are realistically attainable is:
nemesis arch nemesis clownface nebula furious drifter genesisIf I can hit just a few of these, even once, cleanly...I'd be so pumped up. I think it's possible for sure, I just need to keep improving my set and keep at it.
Last weekend was super windy, so I went to the windiest park I know to fly kites with Haley. When we first moved to our new place, I checked out this park and ruled it out for footbag precisely because it's like a giant wind tunnel. Sure enough, it was a great place to fly a kite. In footbag news though, I also lucked out when we got there to see some high schoolers hacky slacking by the skate park! I threw on my gunits, ran over, and kicked with them for about 20 minutes. Only one of them seemed genuinely interested in kicking, and so I gave him my number and told him to contact me if he ever wants to play. I'll shoot him a text this weekend and see if he wants to meet up.
My last couple sessions have been in the dungeon, and man, I had forgotten how poorly my camera shoots in that light. I only bothered to film the first session because of that, and I probably won't film tonight when I play either. In good news, its supposed to be nice out Friday-Tuesday, so I'll try and film outdoors this weekend. Hopefully I can make some progress over my next couple indoor sessions, and that'll pay off when I film this weekend.
In the meantime, here's footage from my last indoor shred:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIR7RCacplY[/youtube]
Re: Operation: Board Game from the 1980s
Fury>Atomic Drifter and the Little Apple drill were really nice
Matt Kemmer
Re: Operation: Board Game from the 1980s
Matt Kemmer+me+little apple= bad flashbacks of Kemmer injuries I felt partially responsible for. I'm glad to hear you're back playing, and setting a new bar for your peak.
Weather in Denver looks to be improving, so I'm hoping to shred every day this weekend. I had a decently productive dungeon session a couple nights ago. I'd say half of it was spent on genesis/nemesis work. On one hand, it's pretty frustrating to have 90% of your attempts on a trick be clearly the (so bad I don't even have to check the tape). On the other hand, I've been told that the only way to learn these tricks and get good at them, is to hit them badly a million times. I think there's some truth to that, since I can find early video of any number of players with great nems/gens back when their attempts were as bad as mine. I think in most of my sessions working furious, I'll hit like 15 questionable attempts at these tricks, and like 1 attempt which is clearly better, but still not pristine. I do think it's a process, and I'm optimistic that over time I will improve enough to hit not just one, but a few of the furious tricks I listed above. And by "hit" I mean "hit undeniably clean."
Here's a vid from a couple weeks ago when the weather was better. I was pretty happy with the drill at the end:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISqSEygZeCE[/youtube]
Gonna get in an outdoor session in Golden in a couple hours. I'm gonna work on furious, but I'll also try and hit some normal runs too since it's pretty in Golden.
Weather in Denver looks to be improving, so I'm hoping to shred every day this weekend. I had a decently productive dungeon session a couple nights ago. I'd say half of it was spent on genesis/nemesis work. On one hand, it's pretty frustrating to have 90% of your attempts on a trick be clearly the (so bad I don't even have to check the tape). On the other hand, I've been told that the only way to learn these tricks and get good at them, is to hit them badly a million times. I think there's some truth to that, since I can find early video of any number of players with great nems/gens back when their attempts were as bad as mine. I think in most of my sessions working furious, I'll hit like 15 questionable attempts at these tricks, and like 1 attempt which is clearly better, but still not pristine. I do think it's a process, and I'm optimistic that over time I will improve enough to hit not just one, but a few of the furious tricks I listed above. And by "hit" I mean "hit undeniably clean."
Here's a vid from a couple weeks ago when the weather was better. I was pretty happy with the drill at the end:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISqSEygZeCE[/youtube]
Gonna get in an outdoor session in Golden in a couple hours. I'm gonna work on furious, but I'll also try and hit some normal runs too since it's pretty in Golden.
Re: Operation: Board Game from the 1980s
Thanks, and no worries. The first session back where I forced myself to do a few was pretty terrifying, but I'm not so scared of it now (though I'd still be reluctant to try them too fast).C-Fan wrote:Matt Kemmer+me+little apple= bad flashbacks of Kemmer injuries I felt partially responsible for. I'm glad to hear you're back playing, and setting a new bar for your peak.
The drill at the end was nice. How about some mid-run furious or some combos into Janiwalker? bw>jani is a good one
Matt Kemmer
Sandy Golden Shred
Sure, I'll hit some blw-janis for you next session.
I went up to Golden yesterday to take care of some wedding preparations, and got in a shred by the creek. I've played at that spot before, and even though it's not perfectly flat I liked it. Its really scenic, is by a footpath so you get good exposure, and is just generally relaxing. For some reason though, yesterday the whole area was covered in sand. I tried to sweep out an area to play in with my feet, but if I strayed much out of it I was in trouble. I also was having problems with furious set. I think the sand on the surface distracted me, and I wasn't able to attack the foot switch with the aggression I needed. That's a bummer, since I was really hoping to hit one of my dream furious tricks outside with a nice background. I did manage to get a thin genesis that's better than any I've gotten so far, but it wasn't perfect. That whirl dex still really confounds me...I either get good height off my set but no hip rotation, or i get the hip rotation but then the set doesn't pop. Just gotta keep working at it I guess.
I did have a good time at the session trying to hit the request combos from Dzem Jam. I got a few of them first try, and a few within 3 tries, but matador-wet dream took me forever to hit. Fun challenge.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kV6YdzkMy6M[/youtube]
Weather is nice out now, so I'm going to get in a shred near home. The background won't be as pretty, but the footing should be better. I'm hoping my furious feels good today and I can cross something off my dream furious tricks list.
I went up to Golden yesterday to take care of some wedding preparations, and got in a shred by the creek. I've played at that spot before, and even though it's not perfectly flat I liked it. Its really scenic, is by a footpath so you get good exposure, and is just generally relaxing. For some reason though, yesterday the whole area was covered in sand. I tried to sweep out an area to play in with my feet, but if I strayed much out of it I was in trouble. I also was having problems with furious set. I think the sand on the surface distracted me, and I wasn't able to attack the foot switch with the aggression I needed. That's a bummer, since I was really hoping to hit one of my dream furious tricks outside with a nice background. I did manage to get a thin genesis that's better than any I've gotten so far, but it wasn't perfect. That whirl dex still really confounds me...I either get good height off my set but no hip rotation, or i get the hip rotation but then the set doesn't pop. Just gotta keep working at it I guess.
I did have a good time at the session trying to hit the request combos from Dzem Jam. I got a few of them first try, and a few within 3 tries, but matador-wet dream took me forever to hit. Fun challenge.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kV6YdzkMy6M[/youtube]
Weather is nice out now, so I'm going to get in a shred near home. The background won't be as pretty, but the footing should be better. I'm hoping my furious feels good today and I can cross something off my dream furious tricks list.
Re: Fanzine
Gorgeous shred spot and great shred. Loved the request combos 
-
boyle
- Post Master General
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Re: Fanzine
That looks like a great place to play would have been a bit offputting when the fat shirtless bloke appeared behind you...
Re: Fanzine
The creek looked super cold, so I was surprised when he took a dip. Even the kayakers on the creek looked cold, and they were in full gear. That shred spot was pretty frustrating that day due to the sand, but looking at the video now I'm pretty happy with some of the combos I got. I lucked out with the weather last weekend, as it was nice every day.
This week, on the other hand, hasn't been as good for footbag. The weather is sunny and nice in the day, but by the time I get home its overcast, hazy, and often breezy. Work has also conspired against my shredding, as I'm dealing with a work crisis that has made me stay late the last three days. Hopefully I can get a handle on things and get in a shred today and tomorrow...though tonight has to be in the gym since its cold and rainy out. This weekend I'm going to a wedding outside of Philly, but I don't think I'm bringing my footbag gear with me. I already have to pack a full suit and shoes, and if I do have any spare time on the trip I should try and see my sister and nieces if I can. So not a lot of footbag on the horizon either.
Saturday and Sunday of last week I got in good shreds. I spent the majority of those sessions chasing the tricks on my furious hit list. One thing I learned from this, is that it really helps to mix up your furious drilling with just doing normal runs. Since I've only figured out furious on one side, and its an energy intensive set, it can be pretty draining to spend 10 tries in a row trying to hit a hard trick, and my chances of success go down the longer I work at it. Instead, if I do 5 tries and then follow up with a run or two, my furious leg feels less fatigued. On Sunday I had a 20 minute stretch with no success at furious, but after spending the next 10 minutes working on the fairy bronze badge, I came back to furious and it was popping better again. I need to keep this strategy in mind as I continue to chase my dream furious tricks.
Beyond the fatigue issue I described above, chasing furious dream tricks has been pretty frustrating for other reasons too. While my set height and consistency have improved, set placement continues to be a challenge. Even when I get a well-placed set at a good height, the window for a downtime component (double down/whirl/etc.) is still tight. And on those occasions where I do get a good set and attack the window at the right time, the trick still ends up being thin most of the time. It's hard to measure progress too. On one hand, I've "hit" almost every trick on my furious wish list. On the other hand, I've only hit one of them undeniably clean, and to me they don't count if they aren't undeniably clean. So after all this time and effort I've put into learning this set, what do I have to show? One trick that I've hit cleanly once? That's a demoralizing thought. It's also technically true. That said, I think it'd be a mistake to give up now. There's one more trick on my furious wish list which I am supremely confident I can hit cleanly, and I'm hopeful that with a bit more work and luck I should be able to cross a couple others off there too. If I can one day look at my furious wish list and say I've hit 3-4 of those tricks undeniably clean on video, that would make me feel pretty good.
Here's the video from Saturday and Sunday. It's a bit short, since I spent most of both of those sessions chasing furious tricks.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcYBAdubjaE[/youtube]
This week, on the other hand, hasn't been as good for footbag. The weather is sunny and nice in the day, but by the time I get home its overcast, hazy, and often breezy. Work has also conspired against my shredding, as I'm dealing with a work crisis that has made me stay late the last three days. Hopefully I can get a handle on things and get in a shred today and tomorrow...though tonight has to be in the gym since its cold and rainy out. This weekend I'm going to a wedding outside of Philly, but I don't think I'm bringing my footbag gear with me. I already have to pack a full suit and shoes, and if I do have any spare time on the trip I should try and see my sister and nieces if I can. So not a lot of footbag on the horizon either.
Saturday and Sunday of last week I got in good shreds. I spent the majority of those sessions chasing the tricks on my furious hit list. One thing I learned from this, is that it really helps to mix up your furious drilling with just doing normal runs. Since I've only figured out furious on one side, and its an energy intensive set, it can be pretty draining to spend 10 tries in a row trying to hit a hard trick, and my chances of success go down the longer I work at it. Instead, if I do 5 tries and then follow up with a run or two, my furious leg feels less fatigued. On Sunday I had a 20 minute stretch with no success at furious, but after spending the next 10 minutes working on the fairy bronze badge, I came back to furious and it was popping better again. I need to keep this strategy in mind as I continue to chase my dream furious tricks.
Beyond the fatigue issue I described above, chasing furious dream tricks has been pretty frustrating for other reasons too. While my set height and consistency have improved, set placement continues to be a challenge. Even when I get a well-placed set at a good height, the window for a downtime component (double down/whirl/etc.) is still tight. And on those occasions where I do get a good set and attack the window at the right time, the trick still ends up being thin most of the time. It's hard to measure progress too. On one hand, I've "hit" almost every trick on my furious wish list. On the other hand, I've only hit one of them undeniably clean, and to me they don't count if they aren't undeniably clean. So after all this time and effort I've put into learning this set, what do I have to show? One trick that I've hit cleanly once? That's a demoralizing thought. It's also technically true. That said, I think it'd be a mistake to give up now. There's one more trick on my furious wish list which I am supremely confident I can hit cleanly, and I'm hopeful that with a bit more work and luck I should be able to cross a couple others off there too. If I can one day look at my furious wish list and say I've hit 3-4 of those tricks undeniably clean on video, that would make me feel pretty good.
Here's the video from Saturday and Sunday. It's a bit short, since I spent most of both of those sessions chasing furious tricks.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcYBAdubjaE[/youtube]
Re: Fanzine
Really love how often you post videos. Wish I could emulate that. Hope to meet ya at US Open!
Edit: Damn it. You aren't going to Open. Always bad timing. Ha.
Edit: Damn it. You aren't going to Open. Always bad timing. Ha.
Last edited by Derek on 08 May 2014 21:20, edited 1 time in total.
Live, Love, Footbag
Derek Littlefield
Derek Littlefield
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boyle
- Post Master General
- Posts: 3180
- Joined: 19 Sep 2007 23:42
- Location: Canberra, Australia
- Contact:
Re: Fanzine
After close to a thousand years playing footbag, you must be able to hit a few things in a suit and shoes, or at least the casual gear that you are taking along...