Muffinman

[Muffinman]

May 2017


May 20, 2017


June 7, 2017

[Tjuggles]

Yay!

[boyle]

Nice to see you playing, some great long runs in there. Who was the first guy in the third video? Alex looks to have really improved as well in the last couple of years, he had some great runs there.

[Muffinman]

Thanks guys.
The first player is Mike Faille

[Muffinman]

Copied from a footblog I have on Facebook:
"I’ve been dying to do the Level 3 video for months now. I never really looked at the requirements until someone mentioned the level videos in the Freestyle Facebook group. Then I remembered level 3. Actually looks like NOBDOY has done it! And it looks way easier than I would’ve expected. I never have time to solo because my body only allows me to play 1-2 times per week and that’s with Alex and Mike.

But I’ll be vacationing in my hometown in a couple weeks and plan on soloing while I’m there. This is what I’m going to work on. And it doesn’t seem like there’s anything that I won’t be able to hit, which is exciting. It looks like the hardest parts for me will be... honestly, it actually seems like the unusual stuff like eclipse, body roll, whirling rake, wauxspin, twirl, revup. All the long runs and drills seem pretty standard and not too tough. Maybe take 2 sessions to get everything though. Will see. Stoked!"



Oh, also, I'm slowly watching through some footage from 3 sessions. Will probably take me a while to get through it, but I think I will end up making individual videos for each of us instead of one big one. So that will be fun. Watched my grim reapers in playback a bunch yesterday. Actually, worth noting: I got really out of shape (just in general) after my last major injury which prevented me from playing for about 2 years. So when I was finally able to get back into any sort of physical activity I started cycling. It was in the winter so I used a trainer I have, which converts my bike into a stationary bike. I got really bored and it was hard to motivate myself to go for long durations, so I found some PS4 games that were playable while cycling (not requiring super focus like the Dark Souls games I love). After beating a couple games (Shadow of Mordor and Mad Max, with Batman: Arkham Knight on deck -- all similar play styles), I started thinking a lot about being able to do other things while cycling and eventually bought a hospital bed table on wheels that raises super high and sits perfectly at the height I need while cycling. Now I can work on my laptop, watch movies, game, read, browse, YouTube, etc and time passes super fast.

At one point I started cycling daily 1+ hours to get back in shape and competed in a fitness contest at work, which I almost won for my city's office, where I had to push to work out way more than I normally would've But now that that's finished I've decided to mellow out so that I have time for other things, plus I'm quite a bit closer to where I was fitness-wise before my last injury. So every second day I work out, and if it's not footbag then it's cycling. All of that to say that I get all of my video editing done while cycling and I only have that time about twice a week when not footbagging. And even then it's been a few weeks because we were playing 3 times per week a few in a row.

I'm sure that was all super disjointed and ramble-y, but I'm not going to bother to read it over again.
Wish I was going to Worlds. This is going to be an amazing one!!



Oh, wait, I was also going to say that I think I'm past my prime and I will probably never play as well as I could again because my body is so weak. Any session recently where I tried to hit big tricks I hurt afterward and had to take a week off. So I'm going to try to weed out most of my bigger (high-impact) tricks like blurriests, spinning whips, fogs/bedwetters, etc and focus more on longer runs with plainer tricks. More spinning and ducking. I think gyro DLOs and mobiuses will be fine -- tricks like that. Thinking long-term. Very sad, but also I'm just happy that I'm still able to play at all! And I want to maintain that as long as I can.

That was all way longer than I intended.

[C-Fan]

I personally like long, stream-of-consciousness type posts.

The whole bit about "I'm past my prime and need to take out hard tricks in favor of spins and longer runs with lower impact" reminded me of a phase I went through about 10 years ago. It did help my spinning, and maybe it prolonged my career, but after a while I went back to the high impact stuff with almost no issues. Don't get me wrong; we're about the same age and have played about the same amount of time, so I get that our bodies aren't as spry as they once were. That said, I don't know that we should write ourselves off as past our prime just yet.

Video in the next post please!

[Muffinman]

Thanks Ken.
Yeah, I had that spinning ducking revolution in my game after my first major injury in like 2004... I think? But this feels like a second time around and more serious like each session lately I feel like I'm getting progressively worse. I'm not sure if I'm able to blame my inconsistency on all of my on-again-off-again injury-affected play, but today's session I really felt like I couldn't do anything. Like I couldn't think outside the box of my comfortable tricks and even if I did I couldn't hit them. Frustrating. I'm not writing myself off, but I see myself playing more like Derrick Fogle in the future rather than Scott Davidson. My legs and my stamina just aren't there anymore. And I've been playing pretty consistently for the past few months. I mean as long as I can continue to play at all I'm happy, but...

No real highlights from today's session, though I did have a pretty dense 49-contact run and a 99-contact where the first 60 was BOPs and the last 40 was pretty dense. Alex is getting really good and Mike is also improving quickly after having not played for a few years prior.



Outside of footbag... really haven't been up to much. Playing a lot of The Witcher 3 and that's super fun. Started drawing daily on my lunch break at work, kind of inspired by a piano challenge that Matt Kemmer has been posting on YouTube every single day for about 80 days in a row now. I haven't actually watched most of them, but just that fact that he's going daily, and they're popping up in my feed, is inspiring. And daily drawing has been really fulfilling. Working on figure drawing from imagination, which I'm not great at, but feels way more fulfilling than just studies, which I've never really enjoyed, though I'm better at.

Watched Spider-Man last night with the GF. I think it was maybe my favourite MCU movie to date. I was just grinning like an idiot the entire time. And being a comics nerd growing up I catch most of the cameos and allusions in these movies, which at the same time is super exciting but also frustrating since I can't nerd out with anyone except my brother (who lives in Hong Kong) about what's going to happen next.



Oh yeah, also been ordering/preordering lots of comics/artbooks and backing a handful of Kickstarters:
-Dark Souls The Board Game (thank you Ken for telling me about this one! I don't know how I missed it!) I got the core game for thuis already, but the stretch goals for backers is going to be more content that the core itself, and is shipping in October-ish


-Nima, which is the first art book by an artist, RossDraws, that my GF and I both follow on YouTube


-Battle Chasers, which is a video game continuing the story of the comics by the artist that got me into comics and art in the first place


-Blasphemous, which is a Dark Souls-like 2D platforming video game




And then I have a vacation coming up in a week that I'm looking forward to. It'll be the first of the year, so I've waited a while to take some time off! oh yeah, I don't remember if I mentioned in my last post, but I'm organizing bubble soccer for my other brother's bachelor party when I'm home on vacation and I'm really looking forward to that! Haha.

Oh yeah, and I'm backlogged on watching back footage for the last 5 sessions... So video won't be for a while unfortunately... Need to cycle more so I can get through watching the footage back...

[boyle]

We're looking at doing bubble soccer for a work thing later in the year, sounds super fun. If you go on the Fogle style, I hope you grow an appropriate moustache!

[C-Fan]

Seconded on the Fogle-stache. Also shirtless from now on too.

Neat you're getting the Dark Souls board game. I almost didn't mention it to you because I was sure either you had heard about it, or endless people would have already told you. I hope it's cool.

Also props on the ridiculous long clipper string. That's crazy.

[Muffinman]

Thanks guys. I will (probably not seriously) consider the stache

Duo session with Mike today. Made up a challenge for myself that I call the 20-20 challenge: 20 runs of 20 contacts. It was nice to work on consistency and also felt good to be able to hand catch a bunch of runs like I owned them. Such a different feeling than going til you drop every time. Especially fulfilling in a 2-man on a killer hot day!

[boyle]

That's a good challenge, I might try that next time I'm playing. Do you just stop after the 20, or do you sometimes go on and do say 40, 50 and include it as a 20?

[Muffinman]

About half i kept going after, and half I just caught. Was thinking if that went well to try 30-30, but I think I will do 20-20 for a few sessions and then work up slowly, like 20x 25 contact, then 20x 30 contact, etc.

First day of vacation: 28/39 items from the Level 3 badge list. Feels good. Actually 28.5 -- I did symp whirls on one side, which Im surprised I was able to! Havent done those in over a decade. Oh also maybe 29.5 becaue I think I did the 30-contact run but got confused between unique tricks and contacts. Have to watch the clip back to see ifI have to do it again. That's honestly the hardest part about a lot of this -- remembering everything you have to do in a run... And most of the things I didnt do were weird tricks eclipse, revup, wauxpin... Hope to check the rest off the list in another session. But also plan to shred with Manna -- not sure if I will have time/energy for both.. It's kind of a packed week of family and friend commitments.

[boyle]

Will there be any shred with Mr A. Grant? That would be cool.

I like this 20/20 idea and building from there. I will try that for sure next session.

[Muffinman]

It looks like probably not Apparently he's moving to Quebec the same weekend...

So i just finished all the challenges for Level 3 Feels sooo good. I swear... The things I left for last, as simple as they sounded, were sooo frustrating.. Whirling rakes especially. Legover inside is surprisingly waaay harder than guay! I actually left one thing, again surprisingly ridiculously hard, drag, one side, for when Im home just in my apartment... Dont wanna waste 20 minutes on that since Im going to meet a friend shortly. Man cant wait to make the video though

Also my brother, amazing videographer, wants to make a video of me playing with his drone and fancy camera and my gopro. I hope this happens. He's amazing. Would link a video of his but aim on the go... Maybe next post.

[Muffinman]

This is the kind of video my brother makes, all edited, filmed, and music done by himself (well, a friend flew his drone for the shots where he was swimming):

[Muffinman]

Did the filming session today with my brother. Filmed for about 1.5 hours and got a bunch of footage for a video that he said will be like 1-2 minutes. Played pretty well, though some of the shots didn't work so well. I'm super excited to see how it turns out.

Then I was going to go out with my brother and his wife, but decided that I would move the session with Manna from tomorrow to today, since I happened to run into him on the street earlier that day and because tomorrow was looking really unlikely with playing two days in a row and also last day with my family probably prioritizing family time. We ended up playing for about 1-1.5 hours. Manna caught up really quickly after having not played in yeears. Obviously not top of his game, but after the session (which I filmed most of) he was, like, "Well I probably can't do janiwalker anymore" -- first try. Then second try on the other side. He's good at hacky... I played really well too. Ended a 50-contact run on a rev mullet > hand catch. Probably boring same old stuff, but was doing it better than in Toronto. And I'm not in pain! Woot.

I'm excited to edit the Level 3 video and the Manna session when I'm back home. The regular FAT sessions will have to wait... such a backlog...

[C-Fan]

Excited about your video! I dunno if the deadline has past, but maybe you can submit it to the Worlds video contest if it gets done in time?

[Tjuggles]

I am also looking forward to the vid. Also second Ken's idea to submit it.

[Muffinman]

Thanks guys!
The video won't be done in time. My brother has a huge backlog of video projects. He may be starting an internship as a video editor soon though! Here's one of my favourite videos of his, though this was before he started doing his own music for them:




Umm, some new videos:
Shredding with Manna in Winnipeg this past weekend. This is basically Manna not having played in close to 6 years -- maybe once every 1-2 years for Canada Day...


And then I finally put together the Level 3 badge video. I'm hyper aware of how incredibly the a handful of the tricks are -- the 3rd symp whirl on each side, the last twirl on one side, probably a barrage or 2... Some tricks were also sloppy, like if you notice the flappers... hahaha. You may only realize just how lazy these were if you've played in Climas before and know what the underside of the shoe looks like... Anyway:




Had a good session yesterday with Mike and Alex. Last session with Alex for a while as he's off to Worlds on Friday. This was my second 20-20 session. Most runs were quite dense. A few 30s, at least one 40+, and most I hand-caught after 20-25 contacts. Normally what I would do is get up to 5 and then have a few goes at some tougher, funner combos, then reach 10 then do the same. I actually did 23x 20s this session, and ended on a 50, so almost 25 if I had wanted. Will try for 25 next time maybe.

Actually, so to end the session, once I hit 20 runs, Mike said, I'm almost done, just want to hit 30 contacts. And then I was, like, "I'm going to try 50." I hit my 50 second try, super dense, barely any BOPs. Some bigger tricks. Mike actually counted 64 once I'd finished and hand-caught. If I had known I would have kept going for longer. Haha. And then Mike hit his 30 on his second try too! 35-ish actually. He may have also hand-caught. Ended with a run that had mobius BSOS, blurriest BSOS, dropped BSOSing gyro DLO. Also did a couple motions, food processor BSOS. I think I will alternate sessions -- one session per week I'll allow myself bigger tricks, and the other I won't. I'm also curious to see if I can add a third session per week on average...

I think I may have found my trick for boosting my consistency overall. This 20-20 thing is really, really helping! I basically turn down my intensity level and focus on safer tricks... which I've tried before, but something about the goal of 20 contacts every run puts me into focus mode where I'm able to really control how I play. I'll see how this goes after like 5-10 sessions of trying this, but I'm optimistic. Consistency is something I've lacked in my game for basically forever. I think I mentioned it in a semi-recent post. So this would be groundbreaking for me! Can't wait to see how it pans out...

[boyle]

Lucky for some to be able to hit ripstein bsos when you have been out of the game for 5 or 6 years! Thanks for sharing that video.