Ryan's Footblog: JOULUKALENTERI 2018!

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

You hit the drill!!! Great milestone, dude! Proud of you. I knew you could hit it.

[DC Clinks]

Toe same DLO > DLO > toe same DLO > DLO.

Woooah. This sounds dank as fucking hell man. Mad pr0ps. Missin yo face at nyfa yams last weekend. Hope Michigan is treating ya well.

[Ryan_Morris]

Thanks, bro. Wish I could've been at NYFA yam, but I'll catch you at East Coasts for sure.

[Ryan_Morris]

I had a productive session today. Here's what I'm happiest about:

Ducking clipper > stepping ss clipper > same thing flip side
Toe drifter > ducking clipper > pdx mirage > same thing flip side

I also worked on pixie stuff at the end. Nothing major to report, but I did manage to bsos magellan in a short string. Whirls were the one major concept on my to-do list that I did not practice today. No real reason for it, except that I just got tired from all the other stuff. I'll hit those first thing next drill session.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

I love that you're now hitting stuff I told you to try a month or 2 ago. The Ducking Clipper> Stepping Clipper bs.. Such a good link. Nice work. And Ryan? Doing Drifters and Magellan bs? Michigan has changed you for the better.

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[Ryan_Morris]

Indeed, Michigan is da bomb. This is definitely the time and place to do the links you wanted me to do while I was too busy getting a college education. I love to please the crowd

[Derek]

Toe same DLO > DLO > toe same DLO > DLO.

Fuck yes.

So much fucking YESSSS.

[Ryan_Morris]

I thought you might like that. But no worries, your DLO record is safe...for now

[Ryan_Morris]

Fast update on today's drill session:

I started with a few whirls, which went okay, and then went on to toe whirls, which were less okay. My knees started feeling funny pretty quickly, so I decided to stop and try again next time. No need to pull something funky right before East Coasts.

I did 200 drifter attempts after that, 100 each side, 60 from toe, 40 from clipper. I make no claims about good form, and I'm pretty sure I landed less than half of my attempts. Ain't mad though, 'cause I've never been able to drill drifters like that before.

[Ryan_Morris]

I had a lovely session today with Anton, Zach, and two new guys who are probably total unknowns here: Robert Lucas and Sean Nyman. Rob started a few years back but quit because he couldn't find people to play with. Now, he's back with a vengeance. Sean is new to freestyle footbag, but has been circle kicking for––get this––17 years. That's as long as Adam Keith has been playing. Sean has his kicks dialed in, and he even has a pretty good handle on toes stalls and orbits. Best of all, he's super stoked to learn new stuff. I'm really hoping that these guys stick with it. Including these two guys, the count of regular players in the Detroit area comes to seven.

I swear, I am so spoiled when it comes to footbag clubs. First PSU, now Michigan, it seems that everywhere I go, a good sized crew pops out of the woodwork.

Anton and Zach were both killing it today, but I gotta give extra props to the former for two reasons. First, he gave Sean some solid advice on stalling and how to drill freestyle tricks, all without being pushy or overbearing. I think Anton's got some skills as a footbag teacher. Second, Anton kept shredding long after the sun went down and the rest of us crapped out. Way to set the bar, man.

The spot he picked was good, too: a small, but well-populated skate park. The skaters proved to be a receptive audience. Several of them came over to talk to us throughout the session, asking us about competitions, our best tricks, etc. No new recruits from it, but lots of positive vibes, which is always appreciated.

Personally, I was satisfied with how I played. There were definitely ups and downs, but overall I was able to consistently bust out guiltless strings. I'm still very BOPy, but I tried to break up the monotony with ducks, DLOs, and symp mirages. Stepping and pixie mid-string is still difficult for me, but I'm pushing myself to do that more. I did manage to get a few very strong weak-side pixie sets today, so that's nice. I also bsosed toe drifter in a string, so I think I'll be comfortable enough with those to use them a little bit at East Coasts. String length is not where I want it to be yet; I'm trying to get to the point where 10 contacts is not a problem, and I'm optimistic that I'll get there soon. So yeah, I've got a lot to work on.

But let's end this post on a positive note, because I'm still glowing from the last string I hit today, featuring ss DLO back to back and bsos pdx DLO. And I hit it when a Pendulum song was playing. For that, I am rewarding myself with chicken, beer, and sleep. Good night.

[MetZelRio]

All it took for Michigan to level up hard was for you to move in as I simultaneously moved out. XD

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[isirc10]

And I hit it when a Pendulum song was playing. For that, I am rewarding myself with chicken, beer, and sleep. Good night.

That's more like it!

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Love the positivity on the posts lately. Sounds like your game has really benefited from playing with the MI crew. Super cool you keep hopping from 1 great club to another.

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[Ryan_Morris]

Let me start by saying you should never eat Cheez-Its before a session. Or anytime, for that matter. I mean really, why does a single guy living by himself need to buy a family sized box of salted orange carbohydrates?

Anyway, once I managed to digest a little, I was able to do some decent footbagging. I did 60 whirl attempts on both sides, and I intend to do more tomorrow. I didn't get even 50% of them, but at least nothing hurts. I ended the session with a drill that Ivan mentioned in his blog, and I thought, "hey, I should hit that too:"

toe ss butterfly > stepping ss mirage rpt

That took me a while, but I'm soooo glad I got it.

[isirc10]

Well done! I challenge you to pdx mirage/illusion out of drifter/whirl. If that's too easy, try stepping. I know you can do it.

[Ryan_Morris]

Well, Ivan, I couldn't get any of your challenges in the past few sessions, but I did manage to get whirl > ducking clipper repeat today. It was a nice end to an otherwise energy-lacking session. But hey, here's to trying again tomorrow!

[isirc10]

At least you're kicking. I've been unmotivated or distracted too much the last week to do anything footbag related. You'll probably notice that I post on social media more when I'm not playing much. So many things to do, so little time!

[Ryan_Morris]

You know, I've never successfully completed a drill that included ripwalk. So today this happened:

toe ss butterfly > ripwalk > pdx mirage, repeat

That went well enough that I think I'd like to try hitting ripwalk back to back before East Coasts. Surprisingly, I've never done that before. Also, the aforementioned drill would be a lot cooler with pdx illusion and a diving clipper, don't you think? I'll see what I can do....

[Ryan_Morris]

I had a pretty decent post-East Coasts session this evening. I spent most of my time working on pixies, which paid off. I got smear > PLO on both sides, although I couldn't quite get it back to back (but I will next time). Towards the end of the session I switched to clipper tricks and hit osis > diving clipper repeat.

I would have gone on longer, but it got dark a lot sooner that I expected. After twenty-two years on this planet it should come as no surprise that the days get shorter around this time of year, yet I'm still caught off guard every time.

East Coasts write up coming up next...

[Ryan_Morris]

Oh, East Coasts, how do I even begin to talk about you? I've been to four of them, competed in three, two as an intermediate. This time, for the first time, I went for open circle. That's a big milestone for me, one that I thought I would reach sooner, but nonetheless I'm so glad to have done it now.

But let's be real here: I sucked ass. I managed to pull out one good string in variety, but all the rest were below what I know I can do. Frankly, I played like shit the whole weekend. Things that I've been drilling since I moved to Michigan in July went right out the window. My strings were weak, full of bops and drops. Fuck it though. I had fun. I reunited with my former roommates Ivan and Marc, drank with my buddy Khoa, consulted with Ben, got a massage from April, received encouragement from my mentor Nick, competed with Matt and Kevin, conquered the New York labyrinth with Corey and Evan, watched Mathieu take on a champion, and had a memorable road trip with Zach.

The only part of that weekend I wish had been different is routines. At the last minute, I got suckered into improvising an intermediate routine, which goes completely against my nature. I want to say that I regret doing it, but in truth, my mind is split on this one. The positive part of the experience is that now I know what it's like to do a routine at competition. No matter how poorly it went, getting through my first routine was a relief. With that done, the next one will be just a little bit easier. I really want to do a routine, but I want to do it right. When I put myself in front of an audience, I want to perform for them, give them a show worthy of their time. This time, unfortunately, all I did was fuck around with some tiltless, drop, drop a lot, and wait for two minutes to end. How else could an improvised routine go? I had zero expectation that it would be good, but I still feel shitty for doing something half-assed for my first routine ever.

But hey, let's go back to the good feelings from last paragraph. I loved seeing all my friends, and I'm so glad that I still live just close enough to visit on occasion. Y'all need to come to New Years Jam. It's gonna be the tits. More on that later....