mouseman's journal

max · Post by **max** » 30 Jul 2004 10:29

well done. Mouseman is the only finn in finals. His semis routine was insane.
Will be bapped methinks.

mouseman · Post by **mouseman** » 31 Jul 2004 10:08

I got like 2minutes of time so sorry about all the typing mistakes and everything.

I hit my euros routine with two drops. I hit 8 unique five add tricks and one six add trick in the routine. It wasn't just all big add tricks, but they were the leading force in my routine. Anyway, I made it to the finals and I'm sooo happy. No fin has ever done it and it was my dream. I don't really care what happens in the finals, I'm already won. It's good, because I don't have any pressure on me.

Yesterday I didn't play, hope it doesn't affect my hopes for the BAP. I was saving my legs for the finals and also my modification in my shoe was broken. Anyway, gotta go!

King Monkey · Post by **King Monkey** » 31 Jul 2004 20:41

wow Jere thats such a huge achievement! congratulations!! i wouldnt worry about not playing yesterday, its a really good idea to take it easy before ur final big event... and by the sounds of things everyone is already impressed enough by you to make BAP so there should be no worries!
i think u did the same amount of unique 5s in your routine as Vaska! well done!

best of luck with ur Finals routine

Asmus · Post by **Asmus** » 01 Aug 2004 02:00

Congratulations! And good luck (:

shredhead · Post by **shredhead** » 02 Aug 2004 13:06

way to go mouseman, representin' europe. I've been watching your routine over and over, verrrrry diggable. At Euros, your coreography actually clouded the fact that you kicked a lot. At Worlds semis you did that a lot less and it was absolutely beautiful

see you at SM

mouseman · Post by **mouseman** » 06 Aug 2004 09:50

Thanks everybody for your positive and uplifting comments.

I've been away from the computer alot, so I haven't had time to post anything.

Anyway, I was 5th after quite average routine in finals (three drops, had bad feeling in the end). I'm so glad to be 5th, it was so much more than I would have hoped in the spring. I also got in to the BAP, which was a great honour to me, and also a achievement, something concrete that I'm now in the level of good players.

Just now I have keep a small pause from playing, just doing routine to Finnish Masters, which are a little more than one month away. It's going to be my best routine hopefully, and I'm also planning to have different routines in all rounds. My goal is to be in top3 in Finnish Masters. The competition will be tough, since we have 7 BAP members and rumours say that we might enough money to sponsor some of the czechs here. Also the estonian guys are coming! Since the outbreak of Finnish scene, it's going to be a really big tournament. I'm just looking forward to it so much.

If we get the Czechs here, we would have 10 BAP members in the competition, I think it was enough to vote more BAP members to the Posse :) Just playing with the idea, nothing is certain at this point. But come to Finnish Masters, only place in Europe you could get to BAP :)

I'm also trying to get more diverstity in my gameplay. I need toe tricks, flipside spins, blenders, swirls. Stepping ducking/diving and just ducking/diving tricks are coming quite good. Also flipside torque&drifter tricks are under construction :)

It's so nice when you can train so much stuff in footbag. You know, in Tennis, for example, you can train your speed and couple different swings. In footbag, you can train everything and like thousands of different tricks - both side. Footbag is just the perfect sport :)

mouseman · Post by **mouseman** » 06 Aug 2004 09:53

Bah did it again, posted before reading it through. It has alot mistakes, I'm sorry. Hope you'll understand something.

I really wish edit button in blogs area..

mouseman · Post by **mouseman** » 12 Aug 2004 09:16

Today I was schooling my toe tricks again. I've got some certainty to those toe tricks, but it's so hard to concentrate and do those. It's like I can choose to do a run with toe tricks or a normal run. It's hard to combine them. But I'm learning fast I think. I even got one good swirl midrun :) also got one clean pdx blender with second try so maybe those tricks are coming too.

I'm already practicing my routines to Finnish Opens, which are 25. September. I got three good routines, but the two for the first rounds are pretty much improvising. But I've got still the start and the ending figured out in each song :)

Oh yeah, I hit alpine fog for the first time today. Also got some tricks that I haven't been able to hit for awhile, like superduperfly and gauntlet. I think overall I'm slowing down on learning new tricks. I used to hit 3-5 new tricks every session, now I'm happy if I can hit one new trick in a week. Well I think I need to get the certainty and diversity to my play. I got too many "yeahI'veHitThatOnce" tricks anyway :)

We also have a new player near us. He is Bernhard and comes from Austria. It's good to have players from different countries :) He seems active and I think he'll go back to Austria as a pro :) He is staying for ten months.

I had an interview with local newspaper. It went well. I informed them about Finnish Opens, I think they will publish the date, our website (www.footbag.fi) and that Vasek is coming (I think it's now more certain than last time I posted). I slipped in the fact that Helsinki is having worlds the next year and he was exciting. I also encouraged the newbies saying that only thing you need is to be excited about the sport and be able to have fun in order to be a better player. I think it's going to be quite big story, since they took pictures and all and it was quite long interview. Anyway, we'll see on sunday.

Also talked with Adidas Finland today about sponsoring and they said they're interested, but they only make one year contracts so I have to wait untill October or something like that. Anyway they gave me 40% discount to their outlet stores and I'm just about to buy couple pairs of ClimaCools, so atleast I save some money if they are not interested anymore in winter :)

That was about that.

max · Post by **max** » 12 Aug 2004 09:50

Jere: congrats for the addidas negociations! I hope they go well in October!

Colin · Post by **Colin** » 12 Aug 2004 10:53

Things really seem to be heating up in Finland. You've made it so that I'm already starting to get excited about next years worlds, and it's 11+ months away!

Bah!

mouseman · Post by **mouseman** » 16 Aug 2004 12:29

toe toe toe toe toe toe toe toe toe toe toe toe toe toe toe toe toe toe

toe? I had a small practice session with my brother, pillar, and it ended to be quite succesfull, even after a pretty hard day at work. My flipside toe play is still.. Well I think I don't have a flipside :) I think only set from flipside toe is atomic for me.. I've hit pixie, but it's horrible. Anyway, I've done some progress on my better side. Having pixie and atomic sets coming better so I can combine them with different tricks. I try to concern on my toe tricks and weakside spin before Finnish Opens what I'm SO looking forward! I'm actually pushing harder to Finnish Opens than I was to worlds! They're going to be so awesome.. Every new thing I hear just gets me more excited and I don't know if I can be more excited than I am already. Anyway, I hit some new toe tricks today!

Terrage
Flurry
Atomic Illusion
Flipside Atomic Illusion
Atomic Pickup
Flipside Atomic Pickup
Witch Doctor
Toe Blur
Plasma

It's still so weird to go and play with toes, but I'm making some progress and since I'm making it, it isn't so boring to practice it. Climas are also showing that they are excellent for toe play also - it was just plain me that sucked before.

mouseman · Post by **mouseman** » 18 Aug 2004 02:50

Last night I had a training session with Pillar and Bernhard. I didn't feel like a winner and my runs were rather short. Anyway, I hit two new tricks:

pixie fusion (first 4 dex trick, long live clime cool toes :) Pillar and bernhard both said that it was clean)
Slicing butterfly

So can't be disappointed :)

mouseman · Post by **mouseman** » 18 Aug 2004 02:52

Oh I forgot, I've hit shooting ddd, but I prefer nuclear over shooting so I really don't notice the fact that I'm hit shootings tricks. So technically pixie fusion wasn't my first 4dex trick, but I like to think it was :)

Jorden · Post by **Jorden** » 18 Aug 2004 09:03

Props on the slicing dude!!

mouseman · Post by **mouseman** » 18 Aug 2004 09:43

Hmm I did wonder why I got props from slicing butterfly and I realized I got mixed up with all these new sets. I meant _slapping_ butterfly, not slicing :) I'm happy if I ever hit slicing butterfly :> Sorry :>

Maraxus · Post by **Maraxus** » 18 Aug 2004 11:51

I was like O_o when you said slicing. Props anyway.

King Monkey · Post by **King Monkey** » 18 Aug 2004 16:57

and huge props on pixie fusion! massive man!!

mouseman · Post by **mouseman** » 23 Aug 2004 12:46

Today I played after long day at work and with broken modifications so I wasn't in so great mood. Anyway I concentrated on hitting strange tricks and this is what I achieved:

- pixie symp. dod
- gyro pickup
- gyro legover
- flipside gyro mirage
- flipside gyro butterfly
- spinning blender
- ducking clipper-stepping clipper-drifter[repeat] drill

That's about everything, I might forget something.

mouseman · Post by **mouseman** » 02 Sep 2004 10:21

I've been modifying my shoes so I haven't been able to play in a little while. I played once but then my modifications broke so it was a really short session (~1hour). Anyway we had this Leppävaara (the place I live) day and we had opportunity to perform there.

It started pretty poorly. Just I and Juha played in the rain and there were only 20-30 guys watching us. Pillar was in fire though, he got more wow's than I did and dropped alot less. Anyway it wasn't the main stage and we left to play indoors - to keep our legs warm because there was another show just in an hour. We started playing but soon the people stopped watching us and blocked other people so a guard came and say that could you play in other place, where was more room to play. We moved there and got alot more audience. We were just shredding (Bernhard joined us there) and there was still alot people watching constantly. There was about 30-40 people watching us but the crowd changed alot, so there were alot more people who saw us playing.

The time came to us to go and play in the stage. To our surprise, we were the last performers before the fireworks show so there was alot people (~100) even before we came. They welcomed us to the stage loud and it gave us good feeling. We played with prodigy - molotov bitch :) Afterwards there were these 10 year old girls saying "you were really good - but I liked your music better!" haha ! :) We played and it was okay. We dropped alot, but bernhard did some juggling with five balls and we had couple of tricks prepared and they worked. After that the audiance screamed that they wanted more! I was surprised but like "yeah we play if you like to!!" :) So we played with another song also and the crowd just got louder every moment:)
We all hitted alot crazy stuff, but in the end I did one pretty long (30-40 contacts?) string. After that we said that this is our last runs and when the bag drops, it's the end to that player. So it was an ironman contest. I won it and hit a crazy long string! People were amazed and gave alot props to us all :) After the last run (it was 40contacts? hard to say, but it was long) I was so tired that I could barely walk. Still I managed to shout to the microphone the date and place of the finnish masters and invited them all to come :) Also www.footbag.fi site got alot advertisement this day :) It was great to play! First show with my brother in three years! :)

I'm sorry about all my typing mistakes and everything, I'm too tired and too enthusiastic to fix them :)

mouseman · Post by **mouseman** » 29 Sep 2004 14:53

My late small freestyle summary from FFO2004:

Warming up...

The warmups were held at kisahalli, very familiar place for every shredder living in Helsinki. I was surprised how much there were people, how young they were and especially how skilled they were. Of course the star was Vasek. You'll see him on the videos quickly enough ;) The atmosphere was friendly, still somewhat distant. I enjoyed my time eventhough I didn't play so well. It was great to see everybody again.

The first day

The first day of competition was also held at kisahalli. We had two polls of intermediate competitors and four pools of open competitors. I know alot people who didn't participate, but still we had more competitors than last year. No big surprises happened, Vasek, Ales, Felix and I won our pools with clear record - only 1 places given by the judges. I hit my best routine in FFO2004. The shred was awesome, we had seven guys scoring over 170 points.

The main day

The main day were held in the heart of Helsinki, in place called Vanha. The place was perfect and we had nice amount of audience during the whole event. We were little behind the schuedule the whole time, but it wasn't our fault (long story). The media was there and a big story about footbag was published in the next day's paper, which is the most popular newspaper in Finland. Also rocksport was filming there the whole day, so we probably will have something from them also. We were little late with sponsors, but we still had something. A clothing sponsor ripcurl, candyfactor Fazer and redbull were there. The good thing was, that eventhough most of companies had spent all their money that they use for sponsoring this year, they are all interested in sponsoring next years worlds. So we have now alot contacts.

Judges worked very well during the whole event. I heard no complaints afterwards and I personally can't say what could have been done better.

Semifinals went without surprises, the first four from both pools made the cut. I personally was too tense and dropped four times. I still made the cut, but I was worried because I was too concentrated on the technical side of my routine and couldn't enjoy performing. It happened again in the finals, I dropped three times and I didn't just get in my usual fervor-mode at all. Maybe my good summer piled up pressure for me, I don't know. It still went well and I placed 3rd (2nd best fin) but I'm just sad that I didn't enjoy it at all. Hope I can take it little easier next time. Anyway Felix is too much to take when his ankle is better now, can't change that fact :)

I shredded well and placed 3rd again, but this time I was the finnish champ, because there were only czechs before me.

I really enjoyed FFO2004. With nine BAP players and only eight final places, I'm happy that I did so well. I would say that FFO2004 were more skilled than euros2004. Does that make FFO2004 the second most skilled tournament in the world? Anyway, it was great, everything worked out fine. I'm happy I can play footbag and see it grow in Finland :) It was also extra nice to have our buddies from Estonia, Russia and Czech to join us - it made the event special.

Probably hundred and one things I forgot, but if I don't write this now, I don't write this at all.