I started writing a big long response to this but my computer decided to just crash midway through.
You can see the full playlist from Jakub M from Poland - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQQJSwC ... af&pp=iAQB
There were also some various clips on Instagram (a lot on stories, which are not permanent). I would like to see a cool little edit but I haven't seen something like that so far.
I went to the Australian Champs for freestyle football a few weeks before, quite a few players from Japan and Hong Kong came out for that and I saw some of them interacting with the footbag action.
It is a good opportunity to get involved more heavily with that scene but I don't think it's best to be "all in". What I do think is we should get involved in their "Pulse" series, which are regional qualifiers for the bigger events.
What I also find interesting is that even though the event was mega in terms of participation, in terms of newspaper articles etc, I didn't see much of that. I would say probably people outside of freestyle football still wouldn't know what Superball is. Which I'll come back and touch on in regards to Olympics.
My personal though is it would be a pretty good visual sport, but even though it's come along in leaps and bounds, the organisational side is still not at Olympic level (maybe it is actually). But that comment I just made about it not being known outside the individual sport may give some issues. I think in terms of the organising people, it's still very few people actually running the show, which might be a disadvantage.
Though they have developed a good system with those regional qualifiers, I'm not quite sure they match up to the Olympic level - I'm also not quite sure on their participation numbers - there are certain country/number amounts to qualify. The countries would probably be fine, having actual registered players I'm not sure on. Possibly if they were governed by FIFA that could be a way in, but I don't see that happening in either direction. Even though it's a sensible idea.
They have carved out a good market though in what they are doing, and it seems to be working well. It was good in the commentary on the footbag events, Pekke continued talking about what a big influence footbag was on the early freestyle football days. Probably once we had the kind of Euro explosion around early 2000s, there was a lot of influence on the moves they were doing there - particularly clipper based combos which were kind of unheard of then, now they are super common.
Just on those three sports, they're all kind of interesting for different reasons.
Breakdancing they are not bringing back to the next one and I don't really see it coming back at all. My Australian friend (not actually someone I know, before anyone asks...)
Skateboarding I think is good as an Olympic sport but I think there should be a pure vert event. I don't like the format of the street where they get x amount of turns at a certain trick and there's just lots of crashing (good reflection of the day to day skateboarding, not a good tv product.
Soccer is actually not a great Olympic sport as you have it at under 23 level. I've seen people suggest to bring futsal in instead. Not sure about that.
That's a lot on that.
I had a kick with Dyalan last week in Sydney. Just a short session but it was fun to have a kick around. Because we were light on time we played more like a hack circle with some tricks embedded between. He hasn't played that much, though he also got a session with Tom when he was out.
We went and saw Iron Maiden with Killswitch Engage, that was pretty fun. I then saw Killswitch Engage in Newcastle the next day in a way smaller venue. I will go to Sydney again and see Parkway Drive today. I've been doing some reviews for a music site so I'm getting some of these for free. Which is very nice.
Just kicked now for about half an hour. A few things I've done recently.
magellan>ss dlo rpt
spinning osis>torque bs
came very close to ripped warrior>matador just now. Don't know if I've hit that before I think yes.
Canberra, Australia via SCL - Daniel Boyle
-
boyle
- Post Master General
- Posts: 3191
- Joined: 19 Sep 2007 23:42
- Location: Canberra, Australia
- Contact:
Re: Canberra, Australia via SCL - Daniel Boyle
I got up early and did some footbag in the gym today. I was going for that 20 x 20 - 20 rounds of 20+ contact strings. My personal rules on this are that each trick can just be done twice in a row, although I'm fairly lenient - eg butterfly and ss butterfly are unique tricks for this. I end up doing a lot of the same tricks as you have ones you are most confident in.
It's very good stamina training though and I was finding my stamina is not that great at the moment. I didn't reach the 20 in the time that I had, I ended up I think on 14. I only had about half and hour to play with before having a quick swim.
I had a couple of runs in the 40s, which is good as it gives you 2, but nothing above 50.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DAUD3LgPBoy/
Here's a beachside run from a bit over a week ago. This was very first run after having the camera on.
https://www.instagram.com/p/C_5DTucJriL/
School holidays starting shortly. Just got a new phone today, hopefully it's a bit better on the battery and speed at uploading things, might be able to do a bit more directly from the phone.
It's very good stamina training though and I was finding my stamina is not that great at the moment. I didn't reach the 20 in the time that I had, I ended up I think on 14. I only had about half and hour to play with before having a quick swim.
I had a couple of runs in the 40s, which is good as it gives you 2, but nothing above 50.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DAUD3LgPBoy/
Here's a beachside run from a bit over a week ago. This was very first run after having the camera on.
https://www.instagram.com/p/C_5DTucJriL/
School holidays starting shortly. Just got a new phone today, hopefully it's a bit better on the battery and speed at uploading things, might be able to do a bit more directly from the phone.
-
boyle
- Post Master General
- Posts: 3191
- Joined: 19 Sep 2007 23:42
- Location: Canberra, Australia
- Contact:
Re: Canberra, Australia via SCL - Daniel Boyle
School holidays are coming to a close. I've just done a fairly large roadtrip with my sister and our kids between us (5 in total). Have been back home for a couple of days.
I've been getting in some decent kicking time in these last couple of days.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DAjYDyKPk0D/
Did I kick that much while we were away - probably not as much as on some other trips and not for really long sessions, but every now and then.
Spent plenty of time at the beach and that's always a good thing.
Anyway, been working on a few links.
dimwalk>diving legover b2b
double switchover b2b
For a lot of the time playing in recent days I haven't felt I've got into a good flow, but then occasionally I will get some good long runs, or to finish the session this afternoon I hit pixie ducking motion. So it can't all be bad.
I've been getting in some decent kicking time in these last couple of days.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DAjYDyKPk0D/
Did I kick that much while we were away - probably not as much as on some other trips and not for really long sessions, but every now and then.
Spent plenty of time at the beach and that's always a good thing.
Anyway, been working on a few links.
dimwalk>diving legover b2b
double switchover b2b
For a lot of the time playing in recent days I haven't felt I've got into a good flow, but then occasionally I will get some good long runs, or to finish the session this afternoon I hit pixie ducking motion. So it can't all be bad.
-
boyle
- Post Master General
- Posts: 3191
- Joined: 19 Sep 2007 23:42
- Location: Canberra, Australia
- Contact:
Re: Canberra, Australia via SCL - Daniel Boyle
Modified is back!
Alright - Garrett from New York has put in a bunch of work to getting Modified back up and working again. It should be easy to make new accounts, reset passwords etc.
I went to Japan for Worlds, had a great time. Also a great many beers.
Some of the posts from the last couple of years are missing - some we were able to retrieve. I'll work on recovering some of them in the coming days.
Alright - Garrett from New York has put in a bunch of work to getting Modified back up and working again. It should be easy to make new accounts, reset passwords etc.
I went to Japan for Worlds, had a great time. Also a great many beers.
Some of the posts from the last couple of years are missing - some we were able to retrieve. I'll work on recovering some of them in the coming days.
-
boyle
- Post Master General
- Posts: 3191
- Joined: 19 Sep 2007 23:42
- Location: Canberra, Australia
- Contact:
Re: Canberra, Australia via SCL - Daniel Boyle
At some point (maybe even later tonight) I'll do a write up of Worlds. It's been 10+ years since I've been so it was awesome to go. I just wanted to touch on a few of the things I have been doing in school. I'm teaching year 5 at the moment so they are at a decent age of building up that skill and plenty have a soccer background.
We've been doing a little 3 sport rotation in the afternoons (footbag, pickleball and skipping), with a short (15ish minutes) round for each. The main things I ran were
Week 1 - kicking with different surfaces (mainly toe, inside) trying to kick with both feet, keeping control and trying to pass to one other person
Week 2 - Build on what was learned the previous week then take a look at stalls
Week 3 - Review of the previous weeks, then start with passing to one other and build that to a bigger circle and the concept of a full hack.
This week I just had a smaller group and I did similar and then got them to have a mini competition (top score, equal first with 6 kicks).
I also did a demonstration at our assembly last week. I did a small part of my routine. I only had a tiny segment of space as we had the band set up behind but I had no drops in that little time and people were very impressed - one of the year 6 kids said - that was the biggest applause I've heard for anybody.
I liked Nathan's little 10 year round up of his footbag and other stuff, I feel that's a good point anyone good get back in at - what have you been up to the last 10 years. I might also do that in the near future.
Speaking of school teaching, this is the last week of term and the end couldn't come soon enough.
We've been doing a little 3 sport rotation in the afternoons (footbag, pickleball and skipping), with a short (15ish minutes) round for each. The main things I ran were
Week 1 - kicking with different surfaces (mainly toe, inside) trying to kick with both feet, keeping control and trying to pass to one other person
Week 2 - Build on what was learned the previous week then take a look at stalls
Week 3 - Review of the previous weeks, then start with passing to one other and build that to a bigger circle and the concept of a full hack.
This week I just had a smaller group and I did similar and then got them to have a mini competition (top score, equal first with 6 kicks).
I also did a demonstration at our assembly last week. I did a small part of my routine. I only had a tiny segment of space as we had the band set up behind but I had no drops in that little time and people were very impressed - one of the year 6 kids said - that was the biggest applause I've heard for anybody.
I liked Nathan's little 10 year round up of his footbag and other stuff, I feel that's a good point anyone good get back in at - what have you been up to the last 10 years. I might also do that in the near future.
Speaking of school teaching, this is the last week of term and the end couldn't come soon enough.
-
boyle
- Post Master General
- Posts: 3191
- Joined: 19 Sep 2007 23:42
- Location: Canberra, Australia
- Contact:
Re: Canberra, Australia via SCL - Daniel Boyle
Alright, let's look back on Worlds in Japan. I've held back on this a bit deciding where to actually write it. I've started writing on Substack - https://capitaleyes.substack.com/
I've just been watching some of the vlogs Ken did while at Worlds. For some reason I haven't seen them. He was always the master of a Worlds recap.
I'm actually going to chuck this in because a) I played in one of the circles he mentioned (semi final) which was a really great vibe and b) he talks a lot about the mental game and the fact of being 40+, which a lot of us are this days.
Talking about it to people and saying oh I did pretty well, they say "oh yeah in the Masters division" and I say no, however there are a lot of 40+ players - and that's before we start talking about net.
Anyway, let's get to the story. Many people told me oh it must have been a short flight. It sure wasn't. There were options to make it even longer - some random Chinese airlines with a whole night layover but I didn't want to do that on such a short trip. By the time I booked, direct flights were quite expensive (you can sometimes fly really cheap to Japan from Australia but this was not one of those times).
So I had booked with Singapore Airlines with a stopover there. First I had to get to Sydney and I chose to catch the bus at 5am rather than staying the night before. Accommodation, even for hostels has become super expensive so that's a bit of a mental weigh up on trips like this. I had booked an Uber previously to pick up and of course it never came. I was able to book another one and that took me to the bus.
I did my check in and all and that was pretty fine. I didn't have a huge amount of time to wait but it was a while. I ended up having a decent kick over in the corner. Prior to Worlds I wasn't really happy with how I had been playing or how much time I was able to put in but during the last school holidays I was putting in the time and having some results from that.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Dbt8bkPSBNw/
Towards the boarding time I had thought I had left my headphones where I was kicking (I had just put them in a different pocket of my bag) but these two blokes were like I saw you doing hacky sack, we play hacky sack all the time. So we had a little kick around. I got some of that on camera but I can't see it right now. They were in a punk or metal band but I didn't catch the name (they said they weren't very good).
So the flight to Singapore was fine, though I felt on both my flights they should have served one more meal - might just be the timing but especially the flight from Singapore to Japan. Anyway, I had a pretty good seat, it was a vacant seat next door and then for some reason there was just no seat in the next space and the guy next to me seemed nice enough, we had a brief chat before getting into our movies and whatever.
It was sure nice just to travel alone and not be worrying about kids etc (also way cheaper) but flying is still uncomfortable even with all those positives.
In Singapore I had a five hour layover which was a long time in the end. I didn't really do any kicking there as I was pretty tired by that point. I did have some dinner somewhere around and spent a lot of time waiting. There was a different flight going to Haneda airport slightly earlier which I mistakenly tried to get on. Unfortunately I had to walk much further around to get to my zone, but did that and was back on the next flight. I had made some mistakes with the time difference (moreso hadn't really looked at it at all) and only realised there was another 7 hours to go basically once we were on the plane. That was much more than I expected.
I did watch Project Hail Mary at some stage which has some brief hacky sack featuring although I don't think any character actually kicks the bag, they only throw it around as a talking piece. It seems people have taken to stitching (crochet) the Earth style hacky sack from the movie.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ProjectHailMar ... acky_sack/
https://www.instagram.com/reels/DWaIhKcj66m/
So I got into Japan and it was pretty early, maybe 6:30am though I'd left my house at 4am the previous day so it was certainly not a short journey.
I chose to stay in Itabashi which was a bit out of town. I had arranged to meet a friend who lived on the north side of Tokyo and this particular hostel some of the reviews said there was like a village vibe. I had been a bit worried about being a bit overwhelmed by the downtown Tokyo insanity - though someone told me before going that Tokyo is such a quiet city, which in many parts it is.
I caught the monorail from the airport and then some various trains to get me up there. It was still early enough in the morning once I got there but I was able to check in directly. Having a shower was enough of a game changer and the little curtain to give you privacy was great.
The kitchen and common area was quite nice, lots of books and manga etc and this was a good place to relax a bit the following day.
I decided to explore the area a bit, just started out walking but it was extremely hot. I might actually leave it there for the moment as I don't want it to be an endless wall of text.
I've just been watching some of the vlogs Ken did while at Worlds. For some reason I haven't seen them. He was always the master of a Worlds recap.
I'm actually going to chuck this in because a) I played in one of the circles he mentioned (semi final) which was a really great vibe and b) he talks a lot about the mental game and the fact of being 40+, which a lot of us are this days.
Talking about it to people and saying oh I did pretty well, they say "oh yeah in the Masters division" and I say no, however there are a lot of 40+ players - and that's before we start talking about net.
Anyway, let's get to the story. Many people told me oh it must have been a short flight. It sure wasn't. There were options to make it even longer - some random Chinese airlines with a whole night layover but I didn't want to do that on such a short trip. By the time I booked, direct flights were quite expensive (you can sometimes fly really cheap to Japan from Australia but this was not one of those times).
So I had booked with Singapore Airlines with a stopover there. First I had to get to Sydney and I chose to catch the bus at 5am rather than staying the night before. Accommodation, even for hostels has become super expensive so that's a bit of a mental weigh up on trips like this. I had booked an Uber previously to pick up and of course it never came. I was able to book another one and that took me to the bus.
I did my check in and all and that was pretty fine. I didn't have a huge amount of time to wait but it was a while. I ended up having a decent kick over in the corner. Prior to Worlds I wasn't really happy with how I had been playing or how much time I was able to put in but during the last school holidays I was putting in the time and having some results from that.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Dbt8bkPSBNw/
Towards the boarding time I had thought I had left my headphones where I was kicking (I had just put them in a different pocket of my bag) but these two blokes were like I saw you doing hacky sack, we play hacky sack all the time. So we had a little kick around. I got some of that on camera but I can't see it right now. They were in a punk or metal band but I didn't catch the name (they said they weren't very good).
So the flight to Singapore was fine, though I felt on both my flights they should have served one more meal - might just be the timing but especially the flight from Singapore to Japan. Anyway, I had a pretty good seat, it was a vacant seat next door and then for some reason there was just no seat in the next space and the guy next to me seemed nice enough, we had a brief chat before getting into our movies and whatever.
It was sure nice just to travel alone and not be worrying about kids etc (also way cheaper) but flying is still uncomfortable even with all those positives.
In Singapore I had a five hour layover which was a long time in the end. I didn't really do any kicking there as I was pretty tired by that point. I did have some dinner somewhere around and spent a lot of time waiting. There was a different flight going to Haneda airport slightly earlier which I mistakenly tried to get on. Unfortunately I had to walk much further around to get to my zone, but did that and was back on the next flight. I had made some mistakes with the time difference (moreso hadn't really looked at it at all) and only realised there was another 7 hours to go basically once we were on the plane. That was much more than I expected.
I did watch Project Hail Mary at some stage which has some brief hacky sack featuring although I don't think any character actually kicks the bag, they only throw it around as a talking piece. It seems people have taken to stitching (crochet) the Earth style hacky sack from the movie.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ProjectHailMar ... acky_sack/
https://www.instagram.com/reels/DWaIhKcj66m/
So I got into Japan and it was pretty early, maybe 6:30am though I'd left my house at 4am the previous day so it was certainly not a short journey.
I chose to stay in Itabashi which was a bit out of town. I had arranged to meet a friend who lived on the north side of Tokyo and this particular hostel some of the reviews said there was like a village vibe. I had been a bit worried about being a bit overwhelmed by the downtown Tokyo insanity - though someone told me before going that Tokyo is such a quiet city, which in many parts it is.
I caught the monorail from the airport and then some various trains to get me up there. It was still early enough in the morning once I got there but I was able to check in directly. Having a shower was enough of a game changer and the little curtain to give you privacy was great.
The kitchen and common area was quite nice, lots of books and manga etc and this was a good place to relax a bit the following day.
I decided to explore the area a bit, just started out walking but it was extremely hot. I might actually leave it there for the moment as I don't want it to be an endless wall of text.