Nick "Houdini" Polini

[C-Fan]

Nice work on the drifters! I challenge you to the following 2 drills:

vortex-pdx drifter-drifter rpt
vortex-void rpt

Also, top post:

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Shut up, Ken, you just wanted top post so you could put a picture here! Great picture though.

But hell yeah, I'm down for those. They seem manageable now. Maybe just a bit more work with my Pdx Drifters, but I think I can get both soon. Thanks for reading, Kenneth.

News from tonight's session…

Jackson hit flip Whip! Also, Dyno on one side, footed flipside. He's really improving ever session. It's great to see.

I didn't hit many highlights. Just some good runs that lasted a long time with some really nice shuffle from Fairy, Pixie, Stepping, and Atomic! (<-- Atomic is not usually in my shuffles)

So, after the Boston weekend, I told myself I really wanted to get awesome at 2 ups and 2 downs… 2 ups: Fairy & Atomic, 2 downs: Pdx Whirl & Drifter… I've blown my mind's balls off with how much progress I've made with each so far. Tonight's big hit on progress was with Atomics. At work today, I was watching some shred videos on my iPod during break… I hadn't watched much Johnny Suderman recently, but he's always been a favorite of mine, so I watched the 2009 video with the interview in the middle of it… I noticed that hit Atomics definitely did not look like mine. Mine sucked. His were so crisp. Then I noticed he was putting the bag right at the bend in his knee. I never did that. I tried a few without a bag and it really seemed to make sense… like a lot of sense. I tried some at the session tonight and that was what I was missing. I still need some practice with it, but now my Atomics feel so pure and free of sin. Fuckin' real talk. Can't wait to do more tomorrow.

Session with Ivan, Kat, Bonslaver, Jeremy, Corey, and some old faces and new faces from Quakertown are coming to learn some stuff. Super excited. I'm beginning to see how Alpine Rubberman will be possible for me… in the future lol. I can feel it though.

Highlights:

Easy first links of Rubberman on bs, couldn't manage the whole drill, but it's the best it's ever felt. And yes, Matt, I'm keeping my leg in now!
Blurry Drifter> Fog-no-seal Felt like it could be pretty easy one day.
Catacomb (Pixie ss Drifter) BSOS
Casket BSOS (Fairy ss Drifter) BSOS
Smoke> Blur (one side I'll get the other side soon.
Oh yeah! Pdx Whirl x5, best they've ever felt! Jackson looked at me afterward with a blank face and said "You don't do those.."

Good night alls.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Session was really fun today, and I surprised myself with lots of stuff. Very cool session. 2 dudes from Quakertown, that Jeremy and I met a few years back wanted to get back into footbag, so they came with 2 new players. Everyone hit some new stuff and I think they're going to be changing up their "hacky sack" sessions to "footbag" sessions, so that's awesome. Going to meet up with them again soon. Drew did end up coming, same with Jeremy, and Nathan Bonslaver, so that was sick. Unfortunately, Ivan and Kat couldn't make it. But if Kat is reading this, she should learn Whirls by pretending like she's riding on a horse sideways hahaha I can explain that to you later, Kat. Anyway, The Q-Crew hit some new tricks like Mirage bs, Toe stall x3, Mirage> ss Clipper bs, Clipper BSOS, Osis, etc… I hope to kick with them again soon. Nate hit some good strings. His flip Pixie is coming along. He's really getting good quick. Always cool to shred with him. Jeremy got some new lavers (smaller than his other ones) and, I don't know if it was the shoes, or what, but he's getting so much better. Long tiltless strings from him today. Then I hung out with him after the session and he showed me a new footbaggy program he created. It's amazing and it will change one aspect of the sport. I won't say anymore though. You'll see it eventually.


Highlights:

I tried to appease the footbag rain gods by hitting Avalanche BSOS. It worked
Sick run with Schmoe> Smog> run> Vortex> Mobius> shuffle drop.
Another sick run with Smog BSOS & Tombstone BSOS.. And I think it was my first time saucing Smog.
Alpine Schmoe BSOS
Nate was describing a big bird he saw, as big as him… and I said, "Was it a… PHOENIX?!" and hit Phoenix.. then sauced it. Then sauced Assassin in the same string. That was huge for me. It was apparently a Great Blue Heron, by the way.
HUGE shuffle run, inspired by Hogan. At least 20something contacts. All dense shuffle. All uptime sex-downtime dex shuffle, with a Ripped Warrior somewhere near the end. Man, I was so thrilled.
Mobius> Stepping Ducking Osis bs
Not a really huge highlight, but I hit a nice ducking/diving run with Diving Osis b2b>Diving Osis> Diving Clipper *rpt.
Apline Blurry Whirl (inspired by Kevin and Mathieu)… It was my first clean one hit, but it still sucked! Not happy with it, but it will get better. I just need to drill more Whirls.

It sucks that I have to report this… but I do have minor shin splints right now :/ So does Nate. But we were just talking about how we're dealing with them. I think we should be smooth sail in' in like a week or 2. I played way too hard in Boston. The Boston video Part II should pop up soon! Kevin said he was going to hash it out soon. So stoked.

Anyway, I'm out. Peace!

*edit*

It's several hours later and Ive been really bugged because I keep watching Pdx Whirls in slow motion, but my mind does not get the damn concept STILL! I wish someone would film a verbal Pdx Whirl tutorial. That would be so helpful. If you're reading this *erm Jim Penske/David Clavens erm*, you would make my day if you filmed a Pdx Whirl tutorial. I'm seriously understanding basically every main concept in footbag so well right now… Drifters, Torques, DLOs, etc… The only thing that is totally clueless is Pdx Whirls. Everytime I do one slightly off, I ask if it's clean and someone goes "eh" or tells me it looked funny. I'm so sick of that. By the end of 2014, I'm going to have some of the best Pdx Whirls in the game. I'm not being cocky, just realistic, because I want them so badly and I've learned that if you want a concept badly, you have to work hard for it, and it WILL pay off.

I'm going to bed now. I'll be thinking about what the hell I'm doing wrong with Pdx Whirls.

Happy Mother's Day. Everybody, hit Your Mom.

[Muffinman]

Awesome highlights as always. I will try Your Mom next session! Really liked the alpine shmoe -- sounds styley (like everything else you do)!

[Asmus]

I want a Pdx Whirl tutorial as well. Maybe we should start a petition?

Sick highlights broseph!

[akprice]

highlights looks awesome! sucks about the shin splints. what did you and nathan decide on that? i am getting them in my right leg.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Thanks a lot everyone Erik, that means a lot to me man. Glad people like what I make of freestyle. May not be shredshredshred nemesis>nemesis, but I like what I do.

Ok, so this is a quick one. It's not often I can do a blog entry like this one… so I'm taking it all in now. Quick, short, to the point.

Highlight:

Whirr BSOS.

Have a nice day.

[boyle]

Awesome.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Thanks, Pizza Man!

The footbag Facebook has just been so spammy lately. Lots of good stuff, but lots of stuff that could be put into a blog, maybe?

Which is why I'm throwing this video in my blog. Only people that are actually following my game will see it and it will be a surprise to the rest when/if I see them in person, maybe? I don't know. Just rambling about peanut butter or something. Nevermind me, I'm alright. That's a quote from a song, and I hope someone gets that. I don't know why but the band reminds me of a Fearless drill I almost hit tonight (not in the video, maybe you'll see it in person at River Rock). Oh yeah, because one of their song names is the name of one of the tricks in the drill. If you can guess the band and song name, I'll give you… this pencil (seen below):



Highlights:

Look. A turtle. *edit*

Look. A video.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mBMTz9LURI[/youtube]

This has been a dream trick. You know which one. All inspired by Kevin Hogan. He's the man.

The Flurries sucked. I know. Trust me. Ken helped me out and said I had to be less floaty and quicker. I will try soon.

Those Toe Far Muted Swirling Monsters, however… Like, BANG. Hits you right in the eyeballs and makes you sweat orange soda. Is this an invention when done Muted from Toe? I don't know. Probably not. Ken said he'd never seen it. I'm sure Dave hit it before. Anyway, these are now my jams. I'm going to try to get really good at them. The first time I ever saw one in a video, it took me about 3 years to fully process. Finally processed it this week, by the way If you want to learn them at a jam that I'm at, just ask me. I can teach you.. but I'd have to charge. 1 milkshake in exchange for Swirling Monster tips.. Just kidding.

Speaking of Jams, this Saturday, Ivan and I are driving up to River Rock Jam for the day! So stoked. Hopefully hit some cool junk.

By the way, might as well fill everyone in on this too. I'm trying to stop cursing/stop cursing so much. I've noticed since I've started working my shirtty job at the warehouse, I have been cursing a lot more. Everyone curses there a lot. I think it's because they all hate their lives. Thank crap I should be getting out of there soon. I've just realized that cursing is sort of tasteless, while at the same time, it leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Sometimes it's fine, but when every other word I hear at work is "truck this, truck that", and "no seriously, the truck is here, hurry up and get those packages ready" it just gets annoying. That's why I stopped smoking weed, too.

Back in college, I was a total stoner. Not going to deny it. Then I lived with my one friend who smoked all the pot all day every day. It got super annoying and I found that I gradually stopped smoking because of his obsessive habit.

Sorry for the side story, I thought it was sort of relevant.

Speaking of cool things, here is a picture of a recent geocache my friend, Leon, and I found.



It was under a bridge and strung up to the the underside like it was connected with web. It is a spider by the way. Also, coolness.. there were a ton of big living spiders around the cache, so it was ironic and just the right amount of creepy to find this one at night. Also my first cache I did at night.

Anyway, this concludes my night I think. Really excited for River Rock Jam. See everyone soon!

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Hi everyone,

RIver Rock Jam was this weekend, and Ivan and I did go for just yesterday. It was a total blast and I WILL be there next year, too (as long as something important doesn't pop up). Anyway, It was a frickin' blast and I think everyone had an awesome time. I have some footage to look through tonight and pick out some goodies and make a little highlights video. Definitely hit some new tricks there and some great links/strings. Can't wait to look through…

Ivan and I had a non-stop 4 hour talk about footbag and other things… 4 hours up and 4 hours back. It was awesome. I really enjoyed his company on the ride there and back. We covered a lot of footbag topics. So, today, I had an "Ivanspired" session… Hit/drilled things that were talked about in our conversations…

Highlights:

Barfly x3! Old record was 2.. Starting to get this now.
Scorpion's Tail BSOS (first time saucing it)..
PS Whirl BSOS (2nd time sauce)
Flipside Whirlwind! New for flipside!!!!
Tomahawk b2b! New link! Also, Flip Tomahawk has always sucked so badly. It's gotten a bit better tonight.
Drilled Pdx Whirl> Schmoe 10x bs I finally started to click into my Pdx Whirls more. I figured out another little trick to them

Also, I hit this yesterday and it was one of the best things I've ever done in footbag. So check it out.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDMy12u1nk0[/youtube]

River Rock footage coming soon.

[h0ag3yb3atZ]

yo dawg heard your mobius record is almost double your barfly record :p

in boston i *saw you display some habits of really great players. we are not worthy!

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Yo, thanks Kev!

Tonight, I had a Whirry/Spinny session. I hit some Whirrs and Spins. I also nailed my first Fearless Alpine Shuffle drill! Wow, cool! A video!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8M_kd39IEE[/youtube]

[boyle]

Just watched those videos, you're getting really good. 5x mobius is awesome. That deep stall you have on the clippers really helps you. Some really nice runs in that last video, some big achievements.

[h0ag3yb3atZ]

woops totally fucked up my earlier post and sounded like a douche..i meant i saw YOU displaying habits of a truly great player in boston.

that last vid was off the meatrack. the drill looked nice... such a dense, dank whirr sauce. looks like we'll see whirr>ripwalk rpt from you soon and maybe some ripstein>whirr action? gettin' good kid.

challenge from ya fathah....whirr>alpine bw

[Ryan_Morris]

I am replying primarily in regards to your post from the fifteenth of May. Big props for big tricks! Also props for working on your language. You know I'm working on mine too, so I can toooooooootally relate to that fuckin' shit, bro. Ass.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Holy horse hell, thanks everyone! Only have 10 minutes left on lunch break, and wanted to say some stuff...

Tomorrow is my birthday and I'm having a birthday session with the locals, including the newer Quakertown crew. I have a few things that I am actively shooting for, but I will only reveal 1 of them.. I hope to hit Flipside Predator for the first time, simply because I hit it on strong side for the first time on my birthday last year. I think it would be cool to have that known as my birthday trick.

The other goal is write a big one that I've always dreamt about but never actually thought I would hit it. I almost crossed it of my list at one point because I thought it was so out of reach... But now I'm positive that I can get it. I've been ghosting it at work all day. I usually know when I can hit something. I just feel it. Sometimes I try, but have doubt because I can't feel it that well. Then it doesn't happen... But THIS, my friends... Will happen.

Alas, I return to work now...

Buenos nachos.

Sent from my SGH-T769 using Tapatalk

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

I should have posted this a while ago. Ivan's AMAZING video from Riverrock. It turned out so nice. He's a beast at editing footbag, playing footbag, and stitching them… a true triple threat.

So fill-in about my birthday… It was awesome. I had such a great day.. Only downfall was that my grandmother had E.coli in some food she ate and she was sickened by it and had to be hospitalized that day. She's doing much better now. Anyway, shred was great. It turned out to be Ivan, Jeremy, Corey, Travis, and he brought a new girl who is really into it already, named Maria. She just bought Lavers today, so by the next time we all get together again, she should be good to go.

Travis was hitting new tricks on both sides, like ATW, Orbit, Near Mirage, etc.. He was also linking them. So that was sick to see.

Maria was really getting the hang of it. She even said something like, "Hey, this isn't so hard!", which is something I don't think any of us have ever heard Positive attitude about learning. So awesome. I think she's going to be a good student. She was hitting up to like 5 consecutive Toe Stalls, then she even learned Inside stall bs and Wrap Around bs. So far, so good.

Ivan's new Osis is shiny and spot-free. Kemmer gave him tips on it and holy hell, did they work… His Osis doesn't look funny at all anymore. It just glides along, doing it's own thing. It looks great. He also hit some terrific looking Torques on bs, Blurriests on bs, and his first Dolomite! One trick I've not hit yet.. His Blurriest and Barflies in general put mine to shame.

Corey didn't hit much new stuff. He had an ok run or two.. It really bums me out that he won't listen to me when I tell him he needs to work on basics more, then he'll be able to hit better tricks. But he doesn't listen and still asks me how high to set for a Torque, when he can't hit Osis x3 even :/ I really hope he eventually listens to me and starts drilling his basics.

Jeremy was playing pretty well. He let Maria borrow his Lavers so he used my Quantums, which weren't that much bigger than his feet. Saw him get Dimwalk BSOS and some other good runs. He also footed Sailing ss Mirage. His uptime sets are really good. He just has to work on his downtimes. I swear he still has so much potential. He also just has to keep drilling his basics. Um… Downtime only lol He is bizarre good at uptime stuff and I don't know why

I played pretty well. Had some really long runs with cool stuff. However, I spent a decent chunk of the session chasing 10 Fearless (which was the surprise thing I was talking about in my last post).. I won't reveal how far I got, but I wasn't upset by it. I had to stop because it was getting so boring just chasing that, while everyone else was freestyling. 10 Fearless is probably not a great idea to try when you're at a session with several people.. try twice> pass> try twice > pass *rpt… Not very fun for you or anyone else. So I stopped and just started playing normally. Was a little disappointed because I was close to almost having it (I felt it a few times). If I was there by myself, I think I would have hit it eventually. Also, sadly, I did not hit flip Predator. Not ready yet I guess. Not going to force it either, because I get injured when I do that. I hit one drill I was really happy about, then looked at the footage… 1 trick was 'the' and one trick was thin. That was disappointing. BUT, I am using that failure to push me through this next month. My goal is going to be to work towards owning that drill. I did have a few semi-ok highlights from the session.

Semi-ok Birthday Highlights:

Some ok runs.. one run that had a bunch of shuffle in the beginning with a Blurry Whirl in that shuffle, then some spinnies and duckies and a droopy.
So close to the final contact on a dream drill. In due time.
Mobius x4. That was kinda cool. Wasn't super hard. Really wish I could have pushed at least 2 more. Also in due time.

Had 3 sessions tonight. I was pretty pissed that I beefed up that drill I mentioned, so I worked on some parts of it.

Forced myself to learn DDD on flipside. Finally hit one good one on flip. Pretty happy about that. Hit some good ones on strong side too. Will be practicing that one this next month.

Second session was shorted… just worked on Barflies. Got some ok progress, I guess.

3rd session was about 3 hours later… Was talking to Ivan about Double Downs and hated so badly that I sucked so bad at flipside, but was half decent on strong side… SO I set out to work on Pdx Illusions. Some highlights, but I hit mainly drills.

Pdx Ilusion> Smudge 5x bs
Blender> Pdx Illusion 5x bs
Blender> Pdx IIlusion> Smudge bs
Blender> Infinity> Infinity> Blender *rpt (hit it a few times, because my Blenders suck. Realized I can basically only zoom out of them…)
Might have an invention on my hands.. on both sides.. Weird Pdx Whirl Frigid Monster thing. I have no idea. But I hit it Pdx on bs and Pdx Symposium on one side. I'll film it eventually.
One stupid little highlight, but it actually meant a lot to me.. Pixie muted Clipper> Gyro Pickup> Pixie muted Clipper bs with ease. This is special because 3 years ago, I noticed I could hit it on strong side easily, but not at all on flip. This is actually when I started drilling more seriously, specifically because I couldn't do that link on flipside. So it brought me a little smile when I hit flipside so easily. I guess I'm improving.
Last one.. I know it's annoying to read so many highlights… but this long list is just for me, so I can see that I didn't just suck and make no progression… Flapper> (set) Blender BSOS. This was cool because I have only ever been able to do Flapper> Symp Blenders. Progress.

I have kind of been down on myself about footbag. I keep thinking I'm not improving well, compared to others. Then I remember that I shouldn't compare myself to others. It's just tough, because I almost feel like I'm hitting another wall in my game. Basics are calling my name again, I guess. I'm quite finished now.

[bobgreen]

Hey Nick. You probably feel that way because you see your game every single day and it just isn't feasible for every day to be better than the last. I know I haven't had the chance to play with you yet, but as an external reader of your blog it seems like you post about hitting new stuff pretty frequently. So even if it feels slow to you, it seems like you are definitely progressing along nicely.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Thanks Bob Yeah, I'm bummed we didn't get to kick together when I was in Boston. Hopefully sooner than later.

Today I had a little drill session, where I actually did see improvements. Talked to Kemmer beforehand and discussed some basics drills and other concepts. We both left our computers and went out to drill at the same time.

Highlights:

Hit Matt's (as I call) "BOP It: Extreme" drill. Osis> Osis *rpt xN> Infinity> ss Butterfly *rpt xN> Pdx Mirage> Butterfly *rpt xN (I hit it to where N= 12 contacts… Matt said I should add 4 contacts every week or so. I'm really digging that drill. It will also help me accomplish my big 2014 goal quickly… 100 contacts Guiltless. I also forgot how much I love Osis. It just feels so nice.
Blender> Infinity> Infinity> Blender *rpt a few times
Blender> Blur 5x bs
Blender> Blizzard 5x bs
Blender> Spike Hammer bs, first try both sides.. That was pretty cool, because I thought it would take a few tries.

So yeah, that was nice progress. Can't wait to push that BOP It: Extreme drill.

[Muffinman]

Awesome as always.
Needs more video documentary.
I usually warm down sessions with that super BOP drill