RCS IN DA CLUB

[bustinjustin]

Hello Modified (*blows dust off of blog),

I've have continued to throw out my back. Haven't been able to kick in over 9 months now, had a few work outs at the gym and that's about it. I keep getting better then get another set back. It's been very frustrating for me coming off of a healthy and prolific period, 2012 and the start of 2013. I was kicking 3 times a week and working out 4-5 Now I'm just patiently waiting for time to heal.
The reason I'm posting at all is I've recently gotten motivated to start working on my footbag videos again. I have about 37+ hours of footage from 2012 that I have started combing through and there is so much good stuff. Lot's of busking, a couple Chris Dean sessions, Rory Dawson, training, drills, and so much more. It was a breakout year for me and I captured it all. I can't wait to start releasing it. So get ready to see a lot of RCS videos in the coming months.

Here's a snippet from the latest video I have been working on.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBSQQ4Kj824[/youtube]

[C-Fan]

Man, sorry to hear about the health problems. You've really had a rough run of luck with the injuries over your career. I do look forward to the impending flood of footage though. I hope you recover soon and can start creating new highlights!

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Hey Justin *frantically rinses dust from eyeballs*

Sorry to hear your still out of commission. I've missed your presence/videos in the community. I hope you can get back on the horse and ride sooner or later. In the meantime, I am definitely looking forward to the videos. Nice busk run in the video above!

[anhkhoashevakt]

Wow Justin!
Sorry about this man. I can't believe I just heard of this now! I should have known about this way sooner!
You had such a run of bad luck with injuries man. It sucks that you are still out of commission like this! It's really not fair.
I hope you'll get better soon man! I wanna shred with you even only for a little bit when I come back to Seattle this summer for the Freestyle Football Comp! Get well soon!

[Muffinman]

Sucky stuff, but im probably one of few who feels your pain (literally). I seem to take off every second year due to back and knee pain. Good luck with everything. I think i have cured my back pain with restorative yoga. Hit me up if you want the poses that helped me


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[bustinjustin]

Kicking again and I've been enjoying posting my progress on Facebook but I don't want to over do it on the freestyle page. So I'm going to periodically post here.
I didn't get to kick this Wed. I accidently got black-out drunk on Tuesday and missed work and was too hungover to hit the gym. Got back in today and I'm working on getting many drills but find I need to step back and hone the individual moves more before I crank it back up. I feel the improvement and I'm getting healthier. I'm starting to be able to do longer sessions and not feel the toll on my back.
My legs have been tired from doing leg work outs the day of my shred sessions. I did a lighter leg workout the day before I kicked hoping it would help but my legs are still exhausted when I kick. I'm hitting the elliptical for about 3 hours a week too. Once my legs adapt it should be sweet. I'll have my endurance and power back.
Okay, working a lot on pdx drifter right now. My flip is off balance but it started to dial in at the end of today's session.
Notable things I hit today:

Barrage>motion rpt
Pdx drift>dyno rpt
Far simple swirl>swirl rpt
Gyro clip>simple swirl>spin clip rpt
20 ripwalk

I didn't film. I want my proficiency up a bit more before I film another drill day. I'm enjoying not doing runs, only drills. I've got to earn a level that I can feel good going back to doing runs that aren't just my bread and butter.

[Allan]

Thanks for the update man. We're very happy to see you playing again, keep up the good work, and keep us in the loop

[C-Fan]

Same as Allan said. Good to see you back in the game.

[Tjuggles]

Ditto. Great to see some updates from you.

[boyle]

Agree with the above, those multiple ripwalks should be really good for building consistency and stamina. Some sort of gyro/spinning swirl combos would be really cool.

[bustinjustin]

Hitting the gym every day is starting to pay off. All my lifts went up in weight today.
Kept Wed. session really short because my back was a bit tight. I was hitting combos right off the bat which was a nice change.
Hit combos:
Symp whirl> dyno rpt
Ducking clip>simple swirl rpt
Open leg over> open ss leg over rpt x4
Open leg over > dlo rpt x2
Lots of flip vortex
I know I'm forgetting a combo...

[bustinjustin]

I'm really starting to improve. Took 4 weeks but today was the first day I felt a leap in improvement rather than the gradual inching along I've been doing.
Hit most combos first try and only had 2 combos I couldn't hit.
Hit combos:
Barrage>whirl>ripwalk rpt
Motion>dyno rpt
Barrage>dyno rpt
Spin duck osis btb
Pdx drifter>dyno rpt
Ducking clip>pdx drifter rpt
Vortex>drifter rpt (3 weeks to get this one and the next one, got both on second try, easy)
Pdx drifter>drifter rpt
Spin duck pdx mirage>drifter rpt
Op down>pdx drifter rpt x3.5
Mobius>op down>op down rpt
26 ripwalk
13 drifter

Every week I'm going to up those ripwalk and drifter numbers until I get to 50 and 40 respectively. I'm doing them at the end of sessions when I'm exhausted to push my conditioning.

Lastly, part of my resurgance in training is getting my body as shredded as my footbag game. Going for Penske level of body fat. I'm going to start posting my weight every session to track that progress as well.
I started at 198.6 lbs. Today's weight was 193.4 lbs.
I hit the gym about every day. Mandatory 30 minute cardiovascular and 10 minute abs. Then I start my workout. I just added 15 minutes on the automated stair machine this week which has been pretty cool.
I've cut out eating sugars and drinking any alcohol. Dinner every night is lean protein and vegetables. I'm allowing a cheat day once every 2 weeks (which is today, Hurray!)
I'm going to a college basketball game tonight and then seeing Star Wars at 1am. Gonna smoke so much weed tonight (I only smoke once a month so I go big on my one day). I'm a big Star Wars fan. Dan Reed (another local kicker) got me into reading the extended universe books. I've read about 50 so far. Dan has easily read over 100. I'm very exciting to see the movie even though it means every extended universe book is now obsolete

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Yeah man! You finally got the most important drill. Drifter> Vortex *rpt. I love that drill with a burning passion.

I'm glad you're getting back on track. Drills are looking good. I'm going to message you on Facebook in a second.

[Allan]

Yeah man! You finally got the most important drill. Drifter> Vortex *rpt. I love that drill with a burning passion.

I agree it's a fun combo; gonna do some today

Your wording is funny: I'm sure Justin has been hitting that combo since, like, '04, '05. He's just been building up to hit it again...

[bustinjustin]

Terrible session today, but I was just very glad to kick. I haven't had a chance recently. Having a consistent schedule of kicking times is so important when trying to make progress. Darn Holidays get in the way.
I mostly worked on toe game. The only combo worth noting was a fun little open ss mirage > smear > open ss leg over rpt I think the best I got was almost 4 times through. Worked a little on flurry, flip ripstein and more flip vortex. I think I figured out something on my flip spin set, I just didn't have the energy to drill it a ton. I had a great work out Monday. I've upped my elliptical time to an hour. I'm generally covering 4.5 to 5 miles and 7-800 calories before starting my workout. Mondays work out was:
10 burpees
15 push ups
20 sit ups
25 squats
30 lunges
35 tricep dips
40 mountain climbers
45 sumo squats
50 jumping jacks
60 second wall sit
x3
Brutal on the legs. Still sore. Took Tuesday off from the gym. Having a down footbag session wasn't really a surprise.
Weight was 195. Made it through the cheat day without much affect but the holidays got me back up a little. I may need to start doing fat measurments. Starting to put muscle back on. I should still be able to get down to my goal weight of 190 though.
Lastly Allan is correct. Vortex>drifter is easy and I've been doing that and harder for a long time. Just getting back into where my game should be.
I would love some more challenges. I accomplished a lot of what was requested on FB and need more ideas. Thanks!

[boyle]

how about pixie everything as a build on from that combo you did in your last session.

[bustinjustin]

Today's session was very frustrating, mostly because I'm pushing so hard and really want to improve my game. I focused most on making a flip spin adjustment. Every time I was able to do the move with the adjustment it was significantly easier and I was able to hit things out of it. My right leg has worse balance than my left and I've been working on improving my balance on that side. I found gyro dlo to be a great tool to hone my adjustment but had a lot of trouble consistently implementing it, but that's to be expected on the first day.
I was really looking forward to kicking, as usual. Today I hit:

Vortex>spin osis>down>down rpt
13 flip smear
10 good smear
Paradon>whirl>step ss leg over rpt
Open everything without illusions (open ss pickup>open pickup rpt>open legover>open ss legover rpt>smear>open ss mirage rpt)
Open ss illusion>smudge rpt low, need to do better
Dimwalk>sidewalk>step ss leg over rpt x4
Down>whirling swirl rpt
Open ss illusion btb x2

I used to do open everything every session at the end of 2013 before I got hurt. I was never satisfied with how clean my illusions were so today I did the open everything drill without them and then decided to work on just the open illusion movements on both sides. Get them deeper and more consistent.
Workout wise I had a very satisfying week. As I said I upped my cardio and it's paying off. I had some of my most productive elliptical sessions ever I think.
Recap 1 hour elliptical:
Friday:
872 calories
6.2 miles
192.6 lbs
Saturday:
913 calories
6.5 miles
191.8 lbs
and after today's session I weighed: 191.2 lbs

I'm hoping to hit 1000 calories in an hour this week which would be a first. I don't know that I've ever broken 900. Although I've definitely done more than 500 in 30 min before. But it's much harder to keep up that intensity for an hour. Definitely helping my footbag game. I can feel it getting easier.

Lastly, this week I reached out to a local football freestyle player named Corey Black. He did pretty well at last years football freestyle world championships and was training pretty hard. Everyone else around here has fallen off. Reilley doesn't really want to play any more and Dan is hard to nail down to get out and play. Also the other football freestylers aren't really training any more either. I love training alone but am at a point I need to play with someone and have 1 occasional session where I can cut loose and freestyle rather than just drill all the time. So Corey and I are going to start getting together once a week to train. We'll also start busking come summer. I feel I play my best when busking is a part of my training. I will probably film our sessions, videos are the best part of blogs and I'm over due.

[bustinjustin]

I've hit a wall in my training. Playing with Corey has been great but it's upset training consistently. Still working things out. Been very frustrating trying to freestyle. My game is still not very good. I have a lot more fun drilling right now. Last session on Wed. I pulled a back muscle and had to take a few days to recover. Got back into the gym today and felt really good.
I don't have anything to report in terms of combos. I did hit paradon swirl first try on Wed. That felt good.
I did have my best elyptical training so far. In 1 hour I covered 7.25 miles and burned 1015 calories.
Looking forward to footbag training again. Hopefully I'll figure out something to push and have something to report.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Glad you're still on the train to drillsville. I just purchased a ticket today. I always hate how drilling ruins freestyle for a few sessions. That's annoying. I'll be right there with you. Stoked to see the final product.

Also, thanks again for teaching Greg so much last summer. As you saw, he hung out with me this weekend, and man, he's really logical about drilling and footbag, in general, all because of you. I taught him his first Ripwalk this weekend, so I think he just opened up a lot of doors by learning that.

Anyway, looking forward to seeing your final shred results in the spring or whenever.

[bustinjustin]

Had a great session today. Getting my freestyle schedule worked out is going to make a big difference in pushing my game.
As I said in my last post I had hit a wall. Whenever I need inspiration I watch my favorite player Phil Morrison. I put together a play list of my favorite videos a while back so I'd be able to access them easily during times like this when I need them:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL552FA17C7DD67A29
I made a list of things I wanted to hit on my bus ride home today. I hit everything and then some except for frankenstein.
Today I hit:
Rev swirl>drifter>rpt>swirl>drifter rpt
Scorpions tail
Rev swirl>symp whirl>drifter rpt
Tap down>blur rpt
Step osis>ripstein bs
Flip open whirl 10 reps
Flip flurry (could be better)
Vortex>mobius good side (finished session working on flip)
Flip blurry whirl>mobius
Jani walker>swirl bs
Nuclear tap>open muted clip rpt
Blurriest btb
Gyro clip rpt 9 contacts
Ss down>blurriest rpt
Eclipse>whirl
Eclipse>whirl>dlo

I was most proud of the eclipse combos. A move I've always wanted but I have a lot of trouble controlling where the set goes out of the move. Today I had a break through and felt for the first time I can get better at eclipse and add it to my game.
I tried doing a few strings in the last 10 minutes of my session. Very frustrating. I was trying easy bop drills and adding swirls, whirls, drifters here and there. I couldn't even get past 20 contacts and it basically sucked. Going to be a while before that part of my games comes back.
I was ready to write today that I haven't been able to get my weight under 191. I've been fluctuating between 192.8 and 191.2 for a couple weeks. Then today my weight was 190.4, HURRAY. Next goal under 190.
Nick, I did notice Greg's ripwalk in that video, I should have mentioned something about it. I was pretty stoked. Definitely looked like a first one. Greg played a lot while he was here. Hard worker, just needed a little direction to makes sure he's maximizing the potential of the work he puts in. Miss that guy. Looking forward to kicking with both of you in the near future.