Some information about me:
I'm 18 years old boy from Finland, I like summer, my girlfriend and footbag. I've been playing footbag since '98 autumn. There's really not much more about me, I'm quite happy the way I'm doing in life and in footbag :)
It's maybe too late to start this journal, because the now it feels that all the progress I've made in footbag was in autumn after '03 worlds and in wintertime. I've done great (in my humble opinion) and now it feels that I've kinda hitted all the tricks I will hit for a while. Maybe european masters and worlds will give me some extra motivation. Anyway I should probably just practise the tricks I can hit now so they would be cleaner and smoother, not learn new tricks. But I figured out this would also be a good way to improve my english and I when I don't feel like playing, I could always go back and read and memorise a good day when I hitted something new or got a long string :)
Well anyway I yesterday I got really great training session with my dear brother (Juha Linnanen, nickname Pillar, btw my name is Jere Linnanen, but I obey the nicknames mouse or mouseman, which is good 'cause there's Jere Vainikka also in Team Finland, so people won't mix us up). There were these young guys what I hadn't got chance to play with before. They were actually quite good and it made me shred harder than just with my brother. Well anyway I got some long strings with lots of five add tricks both side and I was excited how well it did go even when I didn't feel like playing before the practise. The training were almost over and we started trying new tricks when noone had stamina to play much longer. I nailed following tricks for the first time: blurry drifter (weakside), blurry torque (weakside, 2nd six add trick from weakside), reaper, alpine whirly gig (first seven add trick) and right after that gauntlet (second seven add trick). They were all quite clean, though I could've turned more in gaunlet to make the osis cleaner, but that's the way it is with huge torque tricks. I also got tombstone-tombstone and one great run where I hitted bothside tombstones, gravedigger, blurry torque, flipside pdx drifter, blurry drifter and vortex. That's about all I think.
I've been training alot my drifter and torque moves and now it's finally paying off. Also I've practised my bothside whirls, but they could be better. I usually can hit bothside blurry whirls but ps whirls are pain in the ass for me. Someday I can hit bothside whirly gigs in the same string, somedays just my better side ps whirl is too much to ask. Also I've trained alot my double dexterities both sides, but my flipside blurriest is still kinda slurry. I've got all these flaws and I'm kinda nervous how people will take me in worlds. I've been around for years but I was always the guy who dropped out in the first round. I will probably do that this year also, since I haven't got time to practise my routine much, but still I think that I'm in the level that people will notice me and discuss about my weaknesses. Well is somebody reads this overlong and boring text of mine, I want to say that I know my own weaknesses and I just want to have fun in worlds, don't want to prove anything to anybody :) Another thing that makes me nervous is that although I can write tolerable english, my pronunciation is fairly bad. People will always talk to me like I can understand two words of english 'cause I can't speak so much. The funny thing is I understand all :) Well I just try to articulate through my legs - it's the universal language.
Well this, as I said, overlong and boring post. I'm now off to practise again, even though my legs feel kinda sore. I'll get back to you when I'm done :)
mouseman's journal
It was okay day today. I nailed pretty ugly symposium torque and pixie torque for the first time. One run was speacial, I started with my better side atomic whirl and hitted weak side atomic whirl in the middle of good run filled with five add tricks. I also broke some records. My personal record in rippedwarrior was two and now it's three. The world record in blurry drifter was four and now it's five. Also, the world record in stepping butterfly was 33, now it's 38. I was little tired so I just tried some tricks and didn't do so long strings, so it wasn't the training session I really needed, but oh well, one day off and I'm good to go again.
Bah not used to this "can't modify your post" thingie :\ I also hitted shooting star, which was my first four dexterity move and also third seven adder. Though the trick has that "easy add" stamp on it, I'm quite happy that I got it. I can do cold fusion and that's the one I'll hit midstring etc, just wanted to hit shooting star even once :)
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wolfpac444
- Your Friendly Admin
- Posts: 1890
- Joined: 24 Mar 2003 00:07
crappy training session with my brother today. He just came home from playing tennis and I did play some crazy dancing game on PS2 the other night, so both our legs were tired.
Highlights were blurry whirl-pdx torque-superfly which I probably will try in european masters in sick3 competition. I got that combo few times. Also practiced my routine, some strings I try to hit there. shred30 was awfull, dropped like three times, good if I got more than 140pts :\ Well, two days off and then routine practice on monday, rest and off to denmark!
Highlights were blurry whirl-pdx torque-superfly which I probably will try in european masters in sick3 competition. I got that combo few times. Also practiced my routine, some strings I try to hit there. shred30 was awfull, dropped like three times, good if I got more than 140pts :\ Well, two days off and then routine practice on monday, rest and off to denmark!
Since there are this free computers in the lobby I want to take advantage out of it and write about my first day shortly (we are leaving soon).
The site is cool and all is organized well. I have nothing to complain. I bought a nice hoodie and ate alot ice cream. I also got chance to play with top names like Ales, Honza and even Vasek. Matthias from germany was also there, so I didn't feel so lonely :) It went well and I think the people were little surprised to see me playing so much better than last year. It was a warm welcome to me. I hitted some great stuff, like four 6-add tricks in one run and really great long runs filled with 5-adders. Compared others in the circle, I was nothing, but still I was so happy I could just relax and play good without too much pressure about anything. It was the best circle I've ever been in and they were all really nice to me :) Well anyway, I played really well (there was alot cameras, maybe you'll see me in some videos, maybe) and after that was first round of the shred 30. It went very well, I wasn't dropped at all and got like almost all tricks unique untill I felt sudden pain in my side. I did land the superfly wrong and my bones contacted in my side and it hurted. Not really good explaining what happened with this vocabulary (is that right? vocabulary? can't remember) but anyway it hurted and I just did torch rack in the end and stopped, because I thought it was something serious. I stopped around 25 seconds so I missed the ending, but I think I'll still be able to continue from my poll. My side is okay now and I can play tomorrow, but what I'm more concerned of is that people will think that I just stopped out of arrogance. Well hopefully they did see me grin :> anyway, we're leaving to some crazy island filled with hippies to have a party or something like that. So I'm off now, hopefully I have time to write my blog tomorrow also!
The tournament has been so far near perfect.
The site is cool and all is organized well. I have nothing to complain. I bought a nice hoodie and ate alot ice cream. I also got chance to play with top names like Ales, Honza and even Vasek. Matthias from germany was also there, so I didn't feel so lonely :) It went well and I think the people were little surprised to see me playing so much better than last year. It was a warm welcome to me. I hitted some great stuff, like four 6-add tricks in one run and really great long runs filled with 5-adders. Compared others in the circle, I was nothing, but still I was so happy I could just relax and play good without too much pressure about anything. It was the best circle I've ever been in and they were all really nice to me :) Well anyway, I played really well (there was alot cameras, maybe you'll see me in some videos, maybe) and after that was first round of the shred 30. It went very well, I wasn't dropped at all and got like almost all tricks unique untill I felt sudden pain in my side. I did land the superfly wrong and my bones contacted in my side and it hurted. Not really good explaining what happened with this vocabulary (is that right? vocabulary? can't remember) but anyway it hurted and I just did torch rack in the end and stopped, because I thought it was something serious. I stopped around 25 seconds so I missed the ending, but I think I'll still be able to continue from my poll. My side is okay now and I can play tomorrow, but what I'm more concerned of is that people will think that I just stopped out of arrogance. Well hopefully they did see me grin :> anyway, we're leaving to some crazy island filled with hippies to have a party or something like that. So I'm off now, hopefully I have time to write my blog tomorrow also!
The tournament has been so far near perfect.
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full nelson
- 8-Bit Ninja
- Posts: 884
- Joined: 16 Jul 2003 13:58
- Location: West Virginia
- Contact:
Thanks Brad, you played very well yourself yesterday and today.
Anyway we yesterday we went to this crazy place called christiania. It's like a freetown with totally own style and everything. Old buildings full of graffit paintings and everything. Pretty cool place, something I certainly wasn't seen before :) Anyway there I played some four square and enjoyed the atmosphere. Just some funny raggae music really loud singin' "RrrrAUH we smoke marihuana like we just don't care!" and like 10 cops standing outside the party looking at us :) Yeah it was great time, these "I love ethiopia" guys dancing totally stoned :) Well anyway I, my brother and some finnish net players left early ('round ten o'clock) and went to sleep after relaxing shower.
Today was also a great day. I did really well with my routine, won my pool and got easy pool in semi-finals. I dropped like four times (two of them were silly toe drops) and hit great tricks like blurriest and blurry whirl both sides. My last string was pretty long and I hit ripped warrior and in the end torch rack. I was pretty happy how well I did but I think I can improve my routine still. In worlds I will compete with the same music and routine, so it will be much better than in here, because there I have the experience with me.
Later on, I did hit three combos in sick three. I was to go on stage after Vasek so naturally I was really nervous. Luckily nervousness helped me and I hit blurry whirl-pdx torque-superfly with my first try and in second try I hit ripped warrior-blurriest-blurrier which was my safety. In the last (7th) I nailed tombstone-blurry drifter-pdx torque for the first time ever. I really like that combo, though it's only 4-5-5. After that Felix asked me if I can hit my other side superfly and I said no, I have never tried it. Well, I did hit it on my second try and Felix said it was clean. After that I asked my brother Juha to film me and I hit my flipside torch rack on second try, and now I even got it on tape to check the dexes :) The camera doesn't have slow motion so I need to wait 'till I get home. Well anyway this was a great day, I'm going to strech, sleep and skip the beach party.
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I wrote that in yesterday, but didn't got a chance to post it yet, some people were needing this computer and they said it was urgent. Now it's pretty early, about 11am, and I'm soon heading to the net site to see how some finnish net players are doing. I got a good night sleep (10 hours straight) and because I streched my legs alot, they don't feel tired at all. Well, maybe a little, but not too much. Just ate breakfast and came here on main site just to check some things. I found out that there will be no semi-finals in shred30, but I managed to get to the finals with eleven other guys. There are three finnish guys who made the cut and I'm pretty happy about that, because only three of eight Team Finland freestylers are in Copenhagen now, others are saving money for montreal. It was me, Tuukka and Aaro who made the cut. Well anyway, there's going to be routine semi-finals and sick3 semi-finals in the evening, I'll see if I can give you an update.
Some facts:
Vasek dropped two times in his routine and hitted montage in the end. Really great routine, music was great. Later on Vasek tried some crazy tricks what made me very, very humble. His furious and swirling sets are getting better and it's scary.
In first round of freestyle routine competition the main site was about full, so there was about 150 people in audience. Anyway, we will have this Grey Hall which can hold up to 1800 standing people in Finals and they expect it to be full.
I have to go now, can't write more. Later.
Anyway we yesterday we went to this crazy place called christiania. It's like a freetown with totally own style and everything. Old buildings full of graffit paintings and everything. Pretty cool place, something I certainly wasn't seen before :) Anyway there I played some four square and enjoyed the atmosphere. Just some funny raggae music really loud singin' "RrrrAUH we smoke marihuana like we just don't care!" and like 10 cops standing outside the party looking at us :) Yeah it was great time, these "I love ethiopia" guys dancing totally stoned :) Well anyway I, my brother and some finnish net players left early ('round ten o'clock) and went to sleep after relaxing shower.
Today was also a great day. I did really well with my routine, won my pool and got easy pool in semi-finals. I dropped like four times (two of them were silly toe drops) and hit great tricks like blurriest and blurry whirl both sides. My last string was pretty long and I hit ripped warrior and in the end torch rack. I was pretty happy how well I did but I think I can improve my routine still. In worlds I will compete with the same music and routine, so it will be much better than in here, because there I have the experience with me.
Later on, I did hit three combos in sick three. I was to go on stage after Vasek so naturally I was really nervous. Luckily nervousness helped me and I hit blurry whirl-pdx torque-superfly with my first try and in second try I hit ripped warrior-blurriest-blurrier which was my safety. In the last (7th) I nailed tombstone-blurry drifter-pdx torque for the first time ever. I really like that combo, though it's only 4-5-5. After that Felix asked me if I can hit my other side superfly and I said no, I have never tried it. Well, I did hit it on my second try and Felix said it was clean. After that I asked my brother Juha to film me and I hit my flipside torch rack on second try, and now I even got it on tape to check the dexes :) The camera doesn't have slow motion so I need to wait 'till I get home. Well anyway this was a great day, I'm going to strech, sleep and skip the beach party.
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I wrote that in yesterday, but didn't got a chance to post it yet, some people were needing this computer and they said it was urgent. Now it's pretty early, about 11am, and I'm soon heading to the net site to see how some finnish net players are doing. I got a good night sleep (10 hours straight) and because I streched my legs alot, they don't feel tired at all. Well, maybe a little, but not too much. Just ate breakfast and came here on main site just to check some things. I found out that there will be no semi-finals in shred30, but I managed to get to the finals with eleven other guys. There are three finnish guys who made the cut and I'm pretty happy about that, because only three of eight Team Finland freestylers are in Copenhagen now, others are saving money for montreal. It was me, Tuukka and Aaro who made the cut. Well anyway, there's going to be routine semi-finals and sick3 semi-finals in the evening, I'll see if I can give you an update.
Some facts:
Vasek dropped two times in his routine and hitted montage in the end. Really great routine, music was great. Later on Vasek tried some crazy tricks what made me very, very humble. His furious and swirling sets are getting better and it's scary.
In first round of freestyle routine competition the main site was about full, so there was about 150 people in audience. Anyway, we will have this Grey Hall which can hold up to 1800 standing people in Finals and they expect it to be full.
I have to go now, can't write more. Later.
uhm I haven't really got time to write anything, but I try quickly sum up what happened in the last half of european masters.
Well in semi-finals I dropped four times but made harder routine than in qualification round, so I won my pool and because semi-finals of sick3 and shred30 were cancelled, I was able to be in finals in all three competitions I took part on. I was ranked 3th in sick3, 3th in routine and 8th in shred30, so I was so nervous if I could keep those rankings. Well I hit my routine with only one drop and was able to keep my ranking ending up being 3th in Open men freestyle, which is the best thing I've ever reached! Shred went well, but in the last 5 seconds I tried too hard tricks, because I was in panic and thinking that if I'm going to be in top three, I have to succeed over my own limits. Well I dropped two times in the end, but nailed one torch rack in the end, so it was okay. I think the score was around 170, but it's just a guess, because I haven't seen the scores yet. I know that I wasn't in top three, but I guess I ended up in places like 4-6 in shred30, which is absolutely great and positive to me. In sick three I was been playing straight like two hours (there were routines, then show, shred30, women shred30, show, sickthree, or something like that, I was playing so I'm not sure, but still they were in the row) and was loosing my touch. Yeah after this lame excuse I can say, that I didn't hit anything, except ripped warrior-superfly-spinning butterfly. The spinning butterfly was supposed to be scorpion's tail. Well I hit alot cool combos, but always the last trick failed :) Well can't whine, it was a great day to me. I think that I ended up like 8th with that bail combo, because there were some people who didn't hit anything.
Really great and positive experience. The tournament was really greatly organisized, probably the best tournament I have ever been into. It was so much better than euros 2000 or 2002 what I've been into. The site was inside the city, so everything was in a walking distance. The normal 2 hours walk per day was no more. No more "yeah you got to get to that site, it's in other side of the city" crap. There was bunch of great ideas and you could really see that they had put some money on this tournament. Great job Mads :) There were much great things that I either don't remember or don't have time to write, so if you missed this tournament, you missed alot.
Well in semi-finals I dropped four times but made harder routine than in qualification round, so I won my pool and because semi-finals of sick3 and shred30 were cancelled, I was able to be in finals in all three competitions I took part on. I was ranked 3th in sick3, 3th in routine and 8th in shred30, so I was so nervous if I could keep those rankings. Well I hit my routine with only one drop and was able to keep my ranking ending up being 3th in Open men freestyle, which is the best thing I've ever reached! Shred went well, but in the last 5 seconds I tried too hard tricks, because I was in panic and thinking that if I'm going to be in top three, I have to succeed over my own limits. Well I dropped two times in the end, but nailed one torch rack in the end, so it was okay. I think the score was around 170, but it's just a guess, because I haven't seen the scores yet. I know that I wasn't in top three, but I guess I ended up in places like 4-6 in shred30, which is absolutely great and positive to me. In sick three I was been playing straight like two hours (there were routines, then show, shred30, women shred30, show, sickthree, or something like that, I was playing so I'm not sure, but still they were in the row) and was loosing my touch. Yeah after this lame excuse I can say, that I didn't hit anything, except ripped warrior-superfly-spinning butterfly. The spinning butterfly was supposed to be scorpion's tail. Well I hit alot cool combos, but always the last trick failed :) Well can't whine, it was a great day to me. I think that I ended up like 8th with that bail combo, because there were some people who didn't hit anything.
Really great and positive experience. The tournament was really greatly organisized, probably the best tournament I have ever been into. It was so much better than euros 2000 or 2002 what I've been into. The site was inside the city, so everything was in a walking distance. The normal 2 hours walk per day was no more. No more "yeah you got to get to that site, it's in other side of the city" crap. There was bunch of great ideas and you could really see that they had put some money on this tournament. Great job Mads :) There were much great things that I either don't remember or don't have time to write, so if you missed this tournament, you missed alot.
Found out I was 4th in shred. So great. Too bad I panicked and dropped two times instead doing my flipside blurry whirl and blurriest.. I could've been higher. Well anyway, it's great!
Some TV guys contacted me and they want me on television in Finland :) I'm going to be in sports news with other Finnish guys. There's going to be some interview and they will tape our practice. So great, I'm so happy :) I'll tell how it goes, it'll be out in saturday, maybe someone can capture it and upload, don't know. Well anyway, off to bed o/
Some TV guys contacted me and they want me on television in Finland :) I'm going to be in sports news with other Finnish guys. There's going to be some interview and they will tape our practice. So great, I'm so happy :) I'll tell how it goes, it'll be out in saturday, maybe someone can capture it and upload, don't know. Well anyway, off to bed o/
We (me and pillar) went to Vesa Ruuskanen's house to meet Jere Vainikka, Toni Pääkkönen, Juho Marjo and of course Vesa himself. It was so great to play with those guys. All of us were in flames and I think that will be the fairest and funniest circle I will kick in this week and the next one, too. The level was so high.. Anyway I hit eight tricks of fearless. blurry whirl - blurry whirl - blurriest - blurrier - blurriest - superfly - scorpion's tail - spinning whirl - hand catch. I just stopped because I hadn't thought about anything else. Good for me, my last record was five.
Later on, footbag was on television! Sport news on TV2, saturday in great watching time for everyone. Some of my old gaming friends recorded it for me, so that's why it is named so :) It's all finnish, so most of you don't mind because this version misses eight first seconds of the news guy speaking :) Basicly I just tell everyone how great the sport is and Justin tells how great he is. Or something like that :) j/k :) Anyway, here's a link: http://ikiliekki.org/mousemanontv.avi it's about 12mb's, so not much.
Leaving to worlds in nine hours, I think I'm too excited to get any sleep..
Later on, footbag was on television! Sport news on TV2, saturday in great watching time for everyone. Some of my old gaming friends recorded it for me, so that's why it is named so :) It's all finnish, so most of you don't mind because this version misses eight first seconds of the news guy speaking :) Basicly I just tell everyone how great the sport is and Justin tells how great he is. Or something like that :) j/k :) Anyway, here's a link: http://ikiliekki.org/mousemanontv.avi it's about 12mb's, so not much.
Leaving to worlds in nine hours, I think I'm too excited to get any sleep..
Short report from worlds..
I played five hours the first day I came here, the next day I played six hours. I met great people and had alot of fun. I visited some crazy IMAX theather and La Ronde theme park. Le Vampire raid was awesome. Well anyway on third day my legs were really tired. I tried to eat burana, but especially my right groin was killing me in shred. No excuses, I just sucked. It was my worst shred in competition so far, dropped like four times. Well anyway later on was the turn of my routine. It was okay, I dropped five times but everybody on my pool dropped that much. I will take the same song what I had in euros to the semifinal round, so my routine will be better. My legs feel alright now, ETA 6 hours to routines. All eight members of team finland freestyle made the cut and we were partying at the stake house later on. Hard training has paid of. Let's see what happen next, it would be so great to have a finnish guy in finals for the first time ever. I personally don't care who it would be.
The worlds have been fine, but the cold fact is that the euros were better organized. Too bad there's better and more players here. I'm enjoying my time, it's great.
I played five hours the first day I came here, the next day I played six hours. I met great people and had alot of fun. I visited some crazy IMAX theather and La Ronde theme park. Le Vampire raid was awesome. Well anyway on third day my legs were really tired. I tried to eat burana, but especially my right groin was killing me in shred. No excuses, I just sucked. It was my worst shred in competition so far, dropped like four times. Well anyway later on was the turn of my routine. It was okay, I dropped five times but everybody on my pool dropped that much. I will take the same song what I had in euros to the semifinal round, so my routine will be better. My legs feel alright now, ETA 6 hours to routines. All eight members of team finland freestyle made the cut and we were partying at the stake house later on. Hard training has paid of. Let's see what happen next, it would be so great to have a finnish guy in finals for the first time ever. I personally don't care who it would be.
The worlds have been fine, but the cold fact is that the euros were better organized. Too bad there's better and more players here. I'm enjoying my time, it's great.