Cass shreds - Spring Training 2024

[Cass]

Remember Grand Rapids Jam?! That was a fun time

What's the next competition you're going to?

My next event is the 10th Invitational Pennsylvania Net Championships at the end of May! Not sure I’ll be competing though considering it is a net event

I bought my plane tickets for USO!! So that’s my next real competitive event. I really want to do a good routine for this so I can maybe do okay in Open. I worked on it a little more yesterday. I think I might actually sit down and try to plan it out before I really dive in to it though. I have a feel for the song so I think that approach might work.

The week after USO is the skydiving event! Super stoked for this. I hope enough people get their deposit to me on time to make sure everything works out with the booking the jumps I want to try and start working out the logistics of the whole thing soon. I can’t leave stuff to the last minute since I’ll be at USO the week before.

Then who knows, maybe that IJA event near Chicago? It would be cool to make it to that although I'm not sure if my finances will agree by that point

So much exciting stuff is coming This is going to be an amazing summer!

I had a nice little session yesterday. Nothing too crazy, mostly messed around with routine timing stuff.

Guay>Ducking Guay BS
Twirl b2b


I really want to be able to drill clipper stuff but that injury is still nagging me which is annoying. It's not so bad anymore but I know I will regret it if I push myself. Looking forward to playing again later today.

<3

[boyle]

You should compete in net (especially if they have intermediate doubles or even mixed doubles). Can be good to add a little variety to the training. I competed once in net (South American Champs). I came last, but I gave a reasonable fight. The best part of that was that everybody just competed in what was on. So the best freestyle players were having a good go at net, same for the net players in freestyle (helps that there weren't so many players to begin with, but it was an all round good vibe, no animosity between the different formats of the sport.

That guay combo sounds pretty fun. Can you do the "grifter" version of guay, I can't remember what that's called, but you do an illusion dex rather than mirage. Nice twirl combo too. I have been working on that lately.

[Cass]

Yeah I think Ted said something about mixing net teams so that experienced players would get paired with freestylers or something so that could be fun.

I can do the out-in version of Guay but I don't think it looks as styley and it's a little awkward haha.

[Cass]

Look at all these AMAZING people I know thanks to footbag!! Such great memories




I played footbag yesterday. Nothing too crazy. I find myself spending a lot of time doing basic kicks and stalls. I was feeling creative so my session had good variety. I didn't really worry about hitting anything difficult though.

The global marijuana march is this Saturday and we usually session at Queens Park. It's always a really fun atmosphere and pretty entertaining if you're into people watching. If it's rainy I probably wont bother though.

<3

[Cass]

I sessioned Thursday and Friday of last week. To be honest they were kind of lazy sessions though. Although I wanted to play I was low on energy and motivation.

Saturday I decided to have a rest day and went for a walk instead.



Saturday night I had nothing to do and my friends were all busy or out of town. I decided to go out anyways and hit up a local bar that showcases metal bands. I don’t normally listen to metal but I do appreciate it live and this seems to be the only good live music in Oshawa. I met some pretty cool people and it was a lot of fun so I’m glad I did that.

Ianek posted the level 2 requirements and I was stoked to work on this because it's stuff closer to my level. Sunday afternoon I had a super intense session and sweated out the previous nights PBR's and headbanging. Level two was great motivation and it gave me something to really push for. It’s cool because it really highlights the parts of your game that need work. I was surprised to hit some things pretty easily that I've never really practiced specifically. This included the simple Legovers and Swivels. It’s cool how practicing similar stuff can make certain concepts easy to pick up.

By the time I made it to Eggbeaters I was exhausted! It took me so much longer than it should have so I called it quits after that.

Monday I attempted to finish Level 2 which seemed like a realistic task. Until flipside spinning happened. My first try was my best attempt and it was just downhill from there. The end of the session ended up just being flip spinning drilling and I’m pretty sure I nearly gave myself vertigo. I’m hoping I’ll be able to hit it when I am fresh, it’s the only thing I have left.

It’s interesting that Erik struggled so much with DATWs which I’m pretty sure I got first try. Spinning would have been totally easy for him. It’s interesting that someone that’s a way higher level than me can struggle with something I find easy. I guess that’s one of the cool things about footbag- everyones game and style is unique.

Anyways level two made it pretty clear what I need work on – although I already sort of had an idea. Diving and ducking is sloppy, eggbeaters are inconsistent, and flip spinning is just plain bad.

It’s nice to have something to push towards. This really gave me some motivation which I think I needed. It will be interesting to see how hard level 3 will be. I’m pretty sore (in the good way) which rarely happens except for after events so that’s cool.


<3

[akprice]

awesome job on almost completing level 2!!! hey, wanted to thank you for the tips on mirage. set height helped a ton and then i also took the dex out of the equation and just went through the trick concentrating on the toe stall. hitting them now much easier. now, i just need to hit them from clipper and work on flip. thx again!!! good luck with flip spins!

[Cass]

Thanks Aaron! Once you get the footwork and timing stuff the dex comes pretty easy with Mirage.

I took a rest day on Tuesday. Yesterday I almost didn’t play but then forced myself to and I was happy that I did. I alternated between practicing flip spinning and working on some other concepts. The spinning is getting better and I came close to getting the clip>spinning clip x3 several times. I’m getting used to where I need to set the bag so I can usually get spinning clipper first try. That third one is tricky but I’m hoping I can get the drill during my next session.

Couple other highlights I was happy with:

Guay>Dragon>Pincher>Mirage rpt. All fairly easy tricks but surprisingly tricky to link. This one took a fair bit of practice to get but it’s got some key concepts that I like.

Toe set Pdx Mirage BS Fun new set. Gonna be tough to string though.

Lately I have been practicing a lot but it hasn’t really felt like I’ve made significant progress. Maybe it’s because I’ve been practicing newer concepts and probably also this nagging clipper injury. I also haven’t had a good session with other people for a while. I can’t wait to have a good shred with some people and just let loose with freestylez. It’s those sessions where I’ve been practicing but haven’t played with people for a while that I usually surprise myself. It will be cool to see what I can do.

Looking forward to the PA event coming in a few weeks. I hope everyone doesn’t bail on me..

<3

[Derek]

Quick question, how in the world do you do Toe set Paradox Mirage? Don't believe I've heard of that, and very intrigued.

[Cass]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl6imFbvcI0[/youtube]

[Outsider]

Nicely done --- cool trick, good execution.

I see what you're saying --- a rooted set... crossing the one leg over the other, it is as though the rooted foot/setting foot is now cross-body and thus the mirage becomes paradox.

But, I've never heard this trick refered to as toe-set paradox mirage. Haven't seen it in a little while, but we used to call this A ZOID SET. As in: Zoid-set Mirage. Or just Zoid Mirage.

I always thought these were really cool, and tried unsuccessfully to learn them -- I just couldn't seem to get a good high set off a rooted toe, so I give up long ago.

Nice work. Keep it up. Your over-all variety with lots of different (especially odd-ball) concepts is getting so good!

[Cass]

Thanks Jon!!

I wasn't familiar with the terminology. I knew rooted was called zoid but I wasn't sure if that was rooted haha. Toe pdx just seemed applicable.

Its fun and not too difficult once you get the hang of it but it's kinda hard on the joints.

[Derek]

Whoa, thanks, yo. Ever busted it mid-string? Seems like a pain to get down in the midst of a run.


Zoid Mirage sounds dope.

[Muffinman]

To clarify, 'cause I think you and Jon are maybe talking about two different tricks:
A toe-set paradox mirage would be a crossbody toe-set far mirage (so toe-clipper, not rooted).
Zoid is a rooted toe-clipper set.
Rooted is when you set the bag from a surface that starts planted (like reverse symposium) -- zoid is rooted, but rooted isn't zoid (zoid is crossbody (toe) rooted).

I assumed that you were trying non-rooted toe clipper-set far mirage before I watched the video, just based on the description, but it is zoid-set mirage.

[Cass]

Ever busted it mid-string?

Not yet, I've only hit it twice on each side haha. Like I said it's pretty high impact so I doubt I will be focussing on it too much. It's a fun concept though.


Spent a really nice day in Toronto yesterday


Headed downtown early because I got a good sleep Friday night and was up and ready to go early. The weather was perfect! A little warm but the wind made it really nice. I took the opportunity to walk up Yonge street for a while before getting on the subway at College to head over to Christie Pits.

I arrived a bit early and layed around in the grass for a bit. After that I spent some time on the swings which is always a good time. Those things never get old.



Erik arrived and we got started pretty much right away. I took the two previous days off so I was really looking forward to the session. Soon Camille arrived and we had a really enjoyable 3 person circle. I didn’t mind that no one else made it since 3 people is the perfect amount for a good session.

Erik was hitting some really cool shit, lots of Torques which I really liked. You could tell he wasn’t very happy with his run length but he was hitting pretty hard stuff so it was good anyways. Camille played well also, nice smooth runs with some Whirls and stuff.

I think the walking I did killed my energy a little but I didn’t play too bad. Starting to be able to incorporate some of my newer concepts into my runs which are a lot of fun. Dragons are starting to get more comfortable and rakes feel really good.

I was saying to Erik how I could never do double switch even though I can do DATW out to in. He gave me one piece of advice about thinking about it as partially uptime like atomic instead of trying to do it downtime. Just changing how I thought about it allowed me to hit it within three tries! Then I got the other side first try!!

Double Switch BS

I also got the stupid flipside Clipper>Spinning Clipper x3 for Level 2. Not on video of course. Felt good though and not that difficult so I shouldn’t have a problem doing it again. Spinning is going to be so much fun once I’m good at it

Eventually Camille had to get going and Erik and I relaxed in the grass for a while. I wasn’t in such a hurry to go anywhere because it was SOOO nice out! Perfect.

I took the subway back downtown and did a bunch more walking and eventually met up with some other friends who went to a Jays game that afternoon. We went for some drinks and chilled outside and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon.

Such an awesome day overall! I managed to get pretty sunburned. I’ll have to make sure to sunscreen up today. Got a mothers day family thing this afternoon. The place I’m going has a cement pad thats just waiting to be shredded up. I’ll probably have to take it easy since I played pretty hard yesterday and did a whole lot of walking on top of that.

This is going to be a great fucking summer.

<3

[boats]

Sick Zoid sets!!! i love that concept. Inbetween my circle variety and density phase at psu jam, i hit zoid gyro toe. Weird. Now that you hit double switch, you should try double allusion.

[Cass]

Thanks Boats! Zoid Gyro toe sounds awesome.


Here are a few runs. Mostly me failing at getting the 20 contact run for the level 2 badge.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By0QTmvyu5o[/youtube]

[akprice]

props on getting clipper>spinning clipper on your flipside!!! i also like those zoids as well. they looked easy and when i tried a few i couldn't set the bag at all. everyone always makes tricks look so easy. can't wait to see your level 2 vid!! game looks great! love the rakes too.

[Cass]

Thanks! Rakes are soo fun.

Pretty good session today, here are the highlights:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhS9E8bHf98[/youtube]

I know the first two tricks are kinda thin.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Props on the Near Blink BSOS. They looked nice. Try them from Toe ss now. ONce you start getting good at them from Toe ss, you will understand how to do them from far surfaces.

Props on the new tricks too! I haven't tried Glaucoma (Fairy ss DLO) for a while, and I've been working on my Fairy sets recently, so I'll have to try it soon. Thanks for the inspiration

[Cass]

Thanks Nick! I will definitely try toe ss Blink. I think I need some more rev Swirl drilling before I get any real consistency with those though.

Haha Glaucoma. What a silly trick name. Fun trick though they feel real styley.

I had a pretty good session yesterday. Now that all the undergrads are finished for the year campus is much quieter which is really nice. It makes it much easier to find a good spot to shred. I managed to snag an empty gym for my session.

Nothing too ground breaking but I am making progress on a number of concepts. I was able to really drill Osis for the first time since my injury. This was good because it’s definitely one of the areas I still need a lot of work on.

Osis x50 > Hand catch

I’m still pretty focused on fairly unconventional concepts. I know I could be pushing my guiltless game like a lot of other players at a similar level but this isn’t my priority at the moment. I would much prefer to build a really solid tiltless foundation with amazing variety. Furthermore I find pushing guiltless to be hard on my body so I prefer to focus mostly on lower impact tricks that are interesting. For these reasons I’ve been working a lot on my Dragons, Sole tricks, Rakes, Pinchers and Knee bumps. I’m really looking forward to having more consistency with these concepts because I think it will make for an interesting style.

I decided that I don’t like the routine song that I chose so I’m trying to find a new one. It has to be something I can listen to over and over without hating that I can also shred too. I have a couple songs in mind. I’m a little worried because I’m running out of time. I would like a solid month to work on it before I use it in competition.

It’s the long weekend but I will probably spend most of it in the lab because I have an important deadline coming up. Looking forward to playing with FAT at least once though. I miss Johnny and Alex so hopefully I will see them both this weekend.

<3