Good to see you playing.
I see what you mean about the shorts. That looks incredibly annoying.
The whole situation sounds frustrating, but it's good that you were able to put a positive spin on your post in the end. Your fall sounds wonky. I think we usually have similar weather in our fall, but this year is just consistent cold really early for some reason. Normally we'd still be playing outdoors into November, but it's been too cold since September!
I hope the video project happens. I look forward to it! It sounds super interesting, similar to RandomCrayon's videos, which are pretty fun!
Hope to see more shred in the near future
EDIT: Here's a painting by a Norwegian artist I really like:
Nice Uldalen! He's got a very cool style for sure. I definitely find the Top Post Paintings to be a fun bonus for making it to the next page. Like, it adds some excitement of not knowing what new art you are going to encounter. Irish has been posting a lot of collages on Facebook lately, and you and Holly Matthews have been posting Inktobers, all which makes me feel like I should make an effort to do more art. I feel like I only draw a few times a year, and that's almost always just to make cards for Haley for anniversaries and birthdays. I should change that.
Dan, I like your idea of me transitioning into judging as my playing career winds down. The problem with that idea is that the main reason my playing career is winding down is that I don't have time to travel to tournaments. So if I had the time to fly out to a tournament to judge, I'd probably just want to compete instead. But this got me thinking. What if footbag started moving in the direction of having judging done using realtime video or videoconferencing? Of course, you'd have to have a lot of faith in the technology to stake the results of your tournament on that. Like, if the feed goes out in the middle of even just one of the competitors' routines, then you're screwed for accurate results. But maybe we can start slowly phasing in remote judging into the sport? What if at Worlds you had 4 in-person judges, but also 2 judges video conferencing in? If there are no technical problems the first couple years, that ratio could start shifting the other direction until it'd be viable to have dedicated experienced judges remotely judging events. Hell, even if you paid them for their time and expertise it'd still come out way cheaper than flying out even just one of them. I wonder if the IFPA has ever discussed this idea.
The big news on my end is that Greg Wenner was in town, and I took a day off so I could meet up with him and Kat to shred. I was a bit skeptical that we'd be able to meet up, but the planets aligned and it was great. Part of the reason I was skeptical we'd play was what I wrote in my last post:
C-Fan wrote: 17 Oct 2018 10:47
We're solidly into autumn in Denver now. It's a weird time of year, since we don't really get fall weather so much as alternating bouts of summer and winter weather until we finally properly get into winter.
Visiting Denver in October really is a crapshoot. Last week we had snow and overnight freezes, but when Greg was in town it was perfect spring weather. It was also looking bad on the scheduling front, since Kat and my work schedules were basically opposites of each other. I decided to take a day off work to make it happen, since it's rare to get visitors to town much less have the weather cooperate like this. We met downtown and played in front of Union Station, which also worked out great. I was able to park nearby and skateboard to the location, it was easy for Greg to find since its a central landmark, we had good crowds throughout and we fed off that energy, and it was near food for the post-shred meal.
I was a little late arriving, but Kat and Greg were just catching up so I didn't feel too bad. Kat hadn't played in a while so she was shaking some rust off, but I could still immediately see the talent everybody had told me about. You can usually just tell by looking at how somebody does BOP how good they can end up being. She also is one of those players who absorbs and implements footbag advice naturally, which is another big advantage. Greg played well; you can tell he's been practicing basics a lot. He's currently living in a super remote part of Texas, so I think he appreciated getting to play with other people.
I was pleased with how I played throughout. My rustiness manifests itself in a weird way. I can pretty much hit 90% of my old hard stuff on strong side, but a lot of my flipside is either gone or way less reliable. I can hide this a bit if I make a conscious effort, like throwing in the occasional flip PDLO or spinning clipper, but if you asked me to BSOS a lot of 5s on the spot it feels like I probably couldn't. I'd never played with Kat or Greg before though, so they had no point of reference to compare my game to. We were all in a good mood and fed off each other's (and random crowds) positive energy.
After shred we got some local Mexican fast food. Downtown is weird, since most of the food options are either low end fast food chains or super expensive nice restaurants. We didn't want Greg to come all the way to Denver to eat McDonalds, but we also weren't dressed for fine dining either. The place we chose was a good compromise, since it was local (pork green chile smother!) but also affordable and fast. I was also pumped they had horchata as a fountain drink. We pounded our food, then found a free outdoor beer garden that had ping poing, cornhole, fusbal, and minigolf. We hung out there for a while playing and talking, and then I had to head home to get the baby. I thanked them both for coming out, encouraged Greg to consider moving here when he leaves Texas, and agreed to meet up with Kat again to play sometime soon. She sounded motivated to get back into playing, so if we can figure out some way to make our schedules play nice, hopefully we can get a regular kick going.
Closeout video is another one I don't even remember making. I should try and get back to this level of comfort with flip spins.
Nice. I have a bad memory. Did Kat move to Colorado? It sounds like it. I know the names of both of these people but can't place their faces or games. Great that you had a jam and potentially have a shred partner going forward! I hope it will be easier to make time with someone else to push you!
The idea of remote judging is great, aside from the potential pitfalls! It would mean more reliable talent instead of relying on who happens to be there, which can be tricky if everyone who would make a good judge is competing and needs to stay warm, etc. I don't really know much about competition, but I've been asked to judge at a bunch of big-ish events I've been to, including a few Worlds, and I probably shouldn't have, especially since I was never given any training on how to. So while I know what I'm seeing in advanced shred, I don't necessarily have the ability to put on judges' glasses. And I imagine the same is true for many other people who have judged in the past. Being able to pick and choose experienced/trained judges better would be good for competition.
Oooh, I didn't realize you'd know Henrik A! He's amazing!
I don't think I've ever seen any of your art, Ken. Would love to see some examples some day. I remember a bunch of years ago you said you found some of your older stuff in your parents' house...
Judging has always been a weak spot in our sport. We've always had a hard enough time getting good players to show up, since there's no sponsorships and historically so many of our elite players have been teenagers or guys in their early 20s without jobs. But even when we did get good competitors to show up, judging them competently has always been a challenge. Most players who'd make competent judges are themselves competing, so you'd have to hope people either were injured (not an outcome you root for) or took a hit for the tournament and forwent competing to judge (also not ideal). I like the idea of remote judges, since it'd give players who can't afford to attend a tournament the ability to still help out. I also think our technology is at the point where this is a realistic option, or will be soon. Unfortunately I also think our sport is at a bit of a nadir when it comes to tournament organization. It sounds like the IFPA is struggling to get good bids for Worlds this year, and the freestyle side of USO looks like its being run as an afterthought. I think remote video judging could help make tournaments run more smoothly and ensure better consistency of results, but maybe now is not the ideal time to introduce it.
In sad news, my green G-Units are basically dead now. The sole on the right shoe has come off so when I try to play in them I can't do any moves that push off the right foot, or have any impact landings, etc. I guess I should feel lucky both that I am still playing after 21 years and also that my preferred shoes lasted me this long. I remember stocking up on these in 2005, and as late as 2008 scouring eBay to find extras. The green pair I received in December of 2008, so even though I only played in them for 20 months, I feel lucky they lasted this long. Considering the shoes were probably made in 2005, the materials were going to be weak even if I wasn't jumping around in them like a maniac. I'm not completely doomed on the shoe front. I still have my white G-Units that preceded this pair. I phased those out because the soles were wearing, and I wanted to go into Worlds 2017 with new equipment. So hopefully I can get some more playing out of that pair, and once they die maybe I can take the green pair to a shoe repair and have them sewed up or something.
Here's a video of my first session in the green pair, from 20 months ago:
They had a good life. It's a shame I didn't do better at Worlds 2017 in them, but that's not their fault. Hopefully I can figure out a shoe solution to enable me to play a couple more years. It'd be awesome to find a new pair of G6s on eBay, but I'm not optimistic that'll happen. And even if I did find a new-in-box pair, they're still going to be 15 year old shoes so I can't expect they'd last me more than a year or two at best. Maybe it's time to get into skateboarding or basketball? If I do need to replace footbag with a new hobby, I'd want it to be something physical. Like, I don't want to replace it with just gaming, since I want to stay healthy for Griffin's sake as much as my own. Maybe my current shoes get me through the next year and by then either the new Quantums are in production or somebody figures out another commercially available alternative (like Clima Cools or G-Units were 15 years ago).
I won't say too much at this stage, but there is another bid on the table for next year's Worlds and I imagine it will win. There are a lot of good footbag players there, it's been there before (that should give enough information away).
Skateboarding is a hard one, especially at this kind of age, as it's very easy to get injured, especially if you want to push yourself into harder tricks, bigger ramps etc (or even if you just hit a rock rolling along). Have you always gone with G Units? Did you wear Lavers when you started out?
That's interesting what you say on the judging Erik - I would have you as one of the most "expert" on all the different tricks, but it's hard if you haven't had the training on what to be looking for. That can also make it difficult to have consistency across the judges, because everyone is bringing their own interpretations of the rules, and there's not like a guiding force on it.
In an ideal world (of which footbag is not), something like that head judge idea would be paid for by the organisation, or by the IFPA (or at least they would cover the cost of travel), and then the head judge ensures that there's a cohesion between the rest of the judges. I know the Shred 30 has been judged online at least once from the Worlds, maybe even more often.
I think the online judging could be good as a kind of video review system. So the regular judges would be doing their normal thing, but then these online judges could note any kind of error along the way. The only challenge is if you have the connection drop out, or whatever else could go wrong. It's a good idea though.
I think when it comes to finals, there are enough good players who are out of contention to be the judge, but in the early rounds there's not. Particularly when there's a low turnout - if you've got less than 20 people in the competition, you don't want to be losing some of those number to be a judge. It's a bit of a tough one and not something that's been solved or I think really looked at in recent times.
We did have a good guide to judging in the Australian footbag scene some years ago. In those good old days when we had quite regular competitions. I might try and find that.
The other issue is in things like Circle Contest, a lot of the rules are completely ignored. For example
2. Start of Turn: A competitor may not start their turn by self-serving, and must receive the footbag with a kick, delay, or other obvious freestyle move (see 507.02-I-3 Self-Service Foul). A competitor may only start their turn when passed the footbag from another player's or referee's hand-toss, or when the previous player passes the footbag from a kick or delay. However, in the latter case, if the pass is not "good" (507.02-I-1 Pass Foul) as determined by the player or by the referee, the receiving player is entitled to a second, hand-toss pass, from any other competitor in the circle, or from the referee. In this case, the hand-toss pass shall not be counted as a "pass-back" as described in 507.02-H, thus allowing the player to receive a subsequent pass-back if they qualify according to that rule.
Everyone gets the bag, does about 10 kicks, or catches the bag from the passback. But nobody is saying "hey, you're breaking the rules" "technical foul, get out of here" etc. So maybe the rules need to change to reflect what's actually happening, or they need to be enforced.
C-Fan wrote: 26 Oct 2018 10:24
Judging has always been a weak spot in our sport.
In addition to what you pointed out, there is a lot of inconsistency in judging in that they're not necessarily rating players based on consistent or appropriate criteria. I think dedicated judge training would help. As far as remote judging, I think the risk of a dropped connection, or even a stutter in the video stream, is still very real even if the internet connection at the venue were to be excellent and reliable.
yeah, just a tiny stutter in the stream could cause a huge problem. The other reality is there is usually enough trouble just to have a live stream of the event (though I guess having a direct feed to 1-2 people would be easier than a proper stream.
One thing that is always complained about, is someone like Vasek is based on his sort of "peak potential", rather than what he has actually presented. I know a lot of people said that in Denmark, but the interesting thing in that finals was there was very little between places 1-4 (from the top of my head, less than 1 point). In this year's Worlds, I think there were actually 4 whole points between 1 and 4. That would have been an easy one to judge as you had Patrik, then everyone else a long way behind. Aside from being a limited field already, you also had the weird occurrences with 2 top players not making an appearance.
What about instead of live streaming, if the judges were given a video after the fact and then judged? That would get rid of the possibly dropped connection issue, and judges would have the added benefit of being able to watch more than once.
Regarding the subjectivity of judging, I think norming would be a good thing to do. I think we talked about this somewhere else, and I have experience doing it for assessing university students' oral English ability and would happily contribute however I could.
Around September I had a 40+ day streak of no footbag, which surprised me. In October I had 4 sessions total, though the last two were real short since my shoes were falling apart. Now I'm in the midst of another dry streak, largely due to me fighting a nasty case of bronchitis. Wouldn't be surprised if I end up with another long dry streak because of it.
In my last post I mentioned how my green g-units finally died:
C-Fan wrote: 26 Oct 2018 10:24
In sad news, my green G-Units are basically dead now. The sole on the right shoe has come off so when I try to play in them I can't do any moves that push off the right foot, or have any impact landings, etc.
But I was optimistic because I still had my white pair from before:
C-Fan wrote: 26 Oct 2018 10:24
I'm not completely doomed on the shoe front. I still have my white G-Units that preceded this pair. I phased those out because the soles were wearing, and I wanted to go into Worlds 2017 with new equipment. So hopefully I can get some more playing out of that pair
In bad news, they weren't in as good shape as I remembered. The instep on the left is basically ripped off, and while its more stable than the green pair, it's not great either. I suppose I was lucky the damaged shoe in each pair was opposite feet, so I can mismatch them to have one usable pair left. But it is pretty sobering to realize I'm down to my last "pair" of g-units, with no backups at all.
There is one beam of hope on the horizon though. I was at a Ross looking at walking shoes, and was completely surprised to find a brand new pair of Clima Cools in my size for $45! Now, I never played regularly in clima cools, and I don't even know if these are the exact model that work for footbag. But I do remember playing in a pair back in 2007 and being surprised how much I could hit in them, and not having issues with the toes as I had feared. If I recall correctly, I think I hit 40+ smears in them. Granted, these aren't the exact same model and I didn't have a footbag with me to test them out, but they look like they could have potential. I bought them since I figured best case scenario I can use them for footbag and buy my playing career some more time with them, and worst case scenario they suck for footbag but then at least I have walking shoes. Next time I play I'll try them out and let you know how it goes.
Here's a short vid of my last session with the green units, and my first session back with the whites. You can probably see some of the issues I described above, in terms of the shoe/sole integrity affecting what I feel comfortable trying.
Nice.
I wonder if you could frankenstein the G-Units even further.
I know when I was helping Josh Gayhart mod his new Climas he said he messed up the instep mesh, and so removed it entirely and replaced it with fabric. Maybe for that unattached bit at the bottom, you could just add a piece of fabric on the inside that you stitch to the current instep and the sole? Probably worth the effort if G-Units are your preferred shoe and they're so hard to find. Especially if the soles are still good, which they look like...
I made a tutorial a few years ago on how to repair instep tears on quantums. If you are willing to spend a bit of time you should be able to repair both sets of gunits using a similar procedure. The tutorial isn't hosted online anymore since bsos went down, but here is a link to a word document:
I agree with you all that there's probably hope my current units could be repaired, so I'm definitely not throwing them out. I'm still hoping the Clima Cools I bought could potentially work for freestyle, but I haven't had a chance to try them. It's been 49 days since my last session, mostly due to me getting a nasty chest cold (tested positive for strep A) that lasted over a month. I think it's finally healing, but even now I'm not 100%. So no footbag at all in September, then no footbag at all in November either. Yikes.
On the positive side, I am ordering new footbags so hopefully there's a session in my future where I have new bags and new shoes (climas) and it gives me hope for the future.
The only other footbag development on my end is that I recorded content for 2 footbag projects. Both require a lot of editing effort, so I'm not promising anything anytime soon. But better to record content and sit on it, than to not have any content at all. Right?
I'm enjoying the Joulu so far, though I feel guilty I didn't edit any videos for this year. I also haven't tried any of the LOTD yet, since I've been sick and not playing. I'd like to participate though, if and when I heal up and play next.
Booze-free streak now at 38 weeks. A pregnancy is 40 weeks, so it'll be cool to get that milestone. At this stage though my sites are set on 1 year as the real goal. We'll see what I decide to do when I hit that.
Haven't posted in a month, so figured I was due for a quick update. It might be nice to do a 2018 summary or even post 2019 resolutions, but that'll have to wait for another post.
Some quick hits: I finally tried out my Clima Cools! Sadly, they weren't very good for shred. Granted, it was pretty chilly outside when I played and I hadn't had a session in over a month but they just didn't feel "right." The toes in particular felt very rolly and slippery, and also the shoes themselves are probably half to one full size too big. I didn't feel like the shoes were tight on my feet in a way that I felt confident with my landings, or pushing off on the toes. Definitely a little disappointed these Climas aren't viable G-Unit replacements for me, but at least it didn't cost me much and at least I can continue to wear them just as comfortable walking shoes.
Since the Climas didn't work out I'm back to my desperate shoe situation. I think in the short term my most viable option is to play in mis-matched G-Units, but you know that's just a matter of time before they both break down like their respective counterparts did. I need to find a long-term solution. It's kind of insane that its so hard to find playable shoes these days.
On a related note, my initial attempt to order bags fell through. I picked out colors and everything and then he never responded when I asked how I could pay him. Decided to go with a different stitcher. In the meantime I'm using an old cheap 8 panel, origin unknown.
I had a 4 day stretch over the winter break when I felt healthy, which is when I snuck in the Climas shred session. I then promptly got another head cold. The past year has just been brutal healthwise. I think part of it is a vicious cycle: I don't exercise because I'm sick all the time, but I'm probably also getting sick more frequently because I'm out of shape.
My booze free streak continues! Honestly, if I can make it through the holidays without drinking then there's really nothing that can stop the streak. 298 days now.
Here's a short video of me trying to play in the Climas. It was too frustrating trying to go for strings so I mostly chased LOTD combos to see if I could fluke a few:
The announcement went out that Worlds will be in Warsaw again this summer. That guarantees that I won't go, which is kind of sad. Part of me hoped it would be in South America and that I could motivate myself to train hard and redeem my Portland debacle. But Poland isn't a viable family trip and I don't have interest in going there solo either (I went in 2012). That means I'll be in my forties the next time I go to Worlds. I think I expected that might be the case before I went to Portland which is why I was so keen on doing well that year. Anyway, at least they announced it early so I could make other plans.
Rumor has it that USO will be in Seattle or Boise in June. If either is true, that's pretty exciting for me, and I will try to go. It's close enough that I could take the family with me, both locations have fun non-footbag tourist attractions, we wouldn't be gone for more than a few days, and competing offers me the chance to get the bad taste of Worlds 2017 out of my mouth. It'd also be relatively low risk too... like if competition DID go badly at least it won't cost me a week of vacation and lots of money. Ideally, having USO as a goal would motivate me to start playing and exercising again. For my family's sake as much as my own, I want to get into better physical (and mental) shape next year, and footbag seems like a good way to do it.
The equipment thing is a real downer of being involved in this sport. Obviously if there were some companies who were selling a few shoes or bags or whatever, then they could put some money into better tournaments and that kind of thing. Have you played in Lavers at all? I imagine you must have at some stage in a long career. Not that they are particularly accessible either, but it seems much more of a possibility in the USA than, for example, where Rod Laver is from...
I really hope for 2020 Worlds in Medellin. We'll see what happens there, but I think footbag is due to expand the horizons. Looking back at the entrants in Prague 2003, there were huge amounts travelling people because it was a bright new thing. Not sure if the same thing would happen with Colombia, but it's certainly something I would love to see.
How are you feeling overall with the not drinking vs not playing so much. It seems you haven't got a "replacement" for the main exercise of footbag, but maybe that's not so necessary.
A friend of mine was doing a lot of training, running marathons, this kind of thing- but this year he really backed down on that, and was just going for a healthier diet and very little alcohol and said all the training wasn't so needed. Though last time I saw him, he said he had quite a few drinks over the holiday period, so he might have to start training again!
Last weekend I hit the gym to renew our passes and got in my first shred of 2019 in the process. I used my mis-matched G-Units and a random 8 panel I had lying around. It's probably the first session I've had using 2 good shoes since...August? Having confidence in your shoes makes such a difference. Not having to worry about the integrity of the shoe when you land hard or push off just gives you so much more confidence when linking tricks. I just hope these last for a bit, or I find an alternative soon. Despite being out of practice and out of shape I had a good time playing. Given the circumstances of the session I chose not to film which I think was a great idea. I played by a climbing wall at the entrance of the gym and that visibility gave me incentive to play easy and not push any hard or frustrating concepts. I mostly went for longer easy strings, though right at the end I did hit a double blender first try which was a nice surprise.
Looking back at 2018 it really was a bad year for me footbag-wise, which also probably made it a bad year general health-wise, which I think contributed to it being a rough year mental health -wise as well. I'm trying to set some resolutions for 2019 to make it a better year, and footbag and exercise are definitely part of that. Last year I had a couple stretches where I went 5+ weeks in a row without footbag and I want to avoid that happening again this year.
boyle wrote: 10 Jan 2019 02:16
Have you played in Lavers at all?
Yes, for the first 8 years of my shred career including my first 5 Worlds. I made the switch to G-Units in 2005 on my trip to Australia... about a week before I met you! It's really weird to think that most active players have only known me as a G-Unit player. But I never liked Lavers, since my feet are short and wide and Lavers are for a longer narrower foot. They never felt like a good fit for my foot shape. I'd almost rather experiment more with other Clima models than have to go back to Lavers.
boyle wrote: 10 Jan 2019 02:16
How are you feeling overall with the not drinking vs not playing so much.
Physically I don't see much difference, at least not weight-wise. I think my metabolism has a lot to do with that. I think the lack of exercise/footbag has impacted me negatively mentally, but cutting out booze has mitigated that to an extent. I'm hoping that if I continue the teetotaling but pair it with increased exercise, I'll feel better on several fronts.
No new video, so here's an old drill from a few years back that I'd forgotten I hit:
I find if I can't exercise, particularly not to be able to play, that really gets me in a bad mood. I think I have a vague memory of you having to adjust to the Gunits when you were here in Aus - sounds like they've done you well over the years though (until now).
C-Fan wrote: 19 Jan 2019 20:34
I'm trying to set some resolutions for 2019 to make it a better year, and footbag and exercise are definitely part of that.
Three plus weeks into 2019 I'm doing pretty well with the resolutions. The dry streak is now at 315 days with the one year mark looking very attainable. I'm doing a bit better about sleeping more but some of that is outside my control (baby). I'm eating healthier, mostly due to Haley eating healthier and me indirectly reaping the benefits of that. And exercise has been going well, with 3 trips to the gym so far this month.
I'm still figuring out various details of how to play at the gym. I've played in different parts of the gym each time. I've gone alone after baby goes to sleep and I've also gone with the wife and baby (they swim while I play). I've used a free pass that only lets me into the cardio room, and I've also paid for admission to the racquetball courts. The hope is by doing all this I'll figure out the optimal routine for getting regular shreds in, and that in turn that will help my physical and mental health.
I'm also still working out logistical details like filming. Depending what part of the gym I'm playing in there is the consideration that I could make other people uncomfortable by filming. I need to figure out if I don't film at all in those areas or am just very discreet about it. Another filming challenge I'm having is that I now use my iPhone to film. As detailed in past posts, it's a lot more convenient than lugging a separate GoPro with me and the image quality is comparable. The annoying thing about it though is that if I get a phone call while its filming it will stop recording and I won't even know it. Considering how many spam calls I get, this is a big deal. The easy solution is to put it in airplane mode while filming, but then I worry about not being reachable in case of emergency. I need to figure something out.
Shredwise, I'm trying to be somewhat methodical with my comeback. While it's often frustrating working myself back into gameshape, I also try and tell myself that this is an opportunity to rebuild my foundation and come back more bothsided than before. To help me with that goal, I'm focusing on drills. I warm up with drills, I motivate myself on video with drills, I cool down with drills. I'm trying to keep them relatively easy too, as that increases the chance I'll do more of them and get more reps on concepts that are weak for me. To that end, I stole a bunch of the easy ones from Rafal's birthday drills video:
Of course, me being me I can't resist chasing the occasional big trick or link, but I'm making a conscious effort to dial that back at least during these first few sessions where I'm just getting back into shape.
If anybody has any easy drills around this difficulty I'd love to hear them.
I finally tried out my Clima Cools! Sadly, they weren't very good for shred. Granted, it was pretty chilly outside when I played and I hadn't had a session in over a month but they just didn't feel "right." The toes in particular felt very rolly and slippery, and also the shoes themselves are probably half to one full size too big. I didn't feel like the shoes were tight on my feet in a way that I felt confident with my landings, or pushing off on the toes. Definitely a little disappointed these Climas aren't viable G-Unit replacements for me, but at least it didn't cost me much and at least I can continue to wear them just as comfortable walking shoes.