Fanzine

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 14 Apr 2009 09:12

I've been feeling pretty stressed out lately, both at work and in my personal life. My thoughts are scattered, so this post will also be scattered.

1. I'm still in a footbag slump/rut/funk. The easiest way to describe it, is that I'm not having fun when I play. My last few sessions I haven't played that well, but I also haven't played that badly. But even when I hit something good, I'm not that stoked about it. I think there are 4 factors contributing to the slump, and I'm hoping that when some of them improve, I'll break out of my slump. The 4 factors include:
a. It's been cool and windy for the last couple weeks. Temperatures have been in the mid to high 50s, but with the breeze it feels cooler than that. I've gotten in sessions with a long-sleeve shirt, but most of the time I feel like I don't fully warm up. It's hard for me to play my best in these conditions.
b. I've been a bit injured lately. I aggravated my hamstring trying whirrs, then my knees started hurting from the weather. My knees and hamstring are feeling much better now, and I'm giving them time to heal up.
c. The transition to a spinning game is frustrating. All this drilling is probably good for me in the long run, but maybe I should relax a bit and do less spins and try and have more fun.
d. I'm stressed in work and personal life. Good segue to thought #2

2. I'm stressed at work and in my personal life. I'm in a work crunch now, but I think things will be better in a couple weeks. Adding to my stress, my office is changing locations this year, and I don't know where. My lease is up in July, and I may have to move. I feel very uncertain about the future. 3 months from now, a lot of the things that I value and that comfort me may be gone or changed. I think the stress is encroaching on my ability to have fun when I shred. I've seen it before.

3. The combination of the 2 previous thoughts is worrisome, because footbag is usually my best way of coping with stress. So going into a footbag funk right as I enter a stressful period of my life is bad timing.

4. I got some of my whirrs on video over the weekend, using Age's camera. Looking at them frame by frame, I am not satisfied with them. It's kind of hard to explain, so hopefully I'll just post video at some point and show you all. The short version is that the first dex is clean, and the second dex is thin, but the really weird thing is that instead of my leg staying horizontal for both dexes, it goes more like this: horizontal (dex 1), vertical (dex 1 completes and follows through), horizontal (dex 2), back to clipper position. So if I was playing the frame game, like they did with Vasek's whirrs, I could show you two frames from my whirr that look great for each dex, but when you throw the frame in between them when my leg is vertical, it looks odd. I'm definitely a little disappointed that my whirr doesn't look like how I envisioned it, but I guess I take some solace in knowing that it isn't horribly "the." Given that I'm in a footbag funk, and that I want to let my hamstring heal, fixing my whirr is very low on my priority list now.

5. Jeremy has started a very cool project:a video-verified freestyle world records list. This is a great idea, and I'm going to participate in it by finding videos, and shooting videos. I also think this could be a good excuse for me to try and re-set some of my personal records.

6. I played footbag on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

a. Friday was the best weather, but I didn't have my G-Units, so I played in Quantums. I played with Age at the UMd juggling club, but mostly just messed around. I think we played a total of 20-30 minutes. Osis x13 in Q3s was my only highlight.

b. Saturday was very cool out, but I got in a solo session in DC. I borrowed Age's camera and filmed. Got some whirrs and some spinning ducking on tape, which helped me see what I'm doing wrong/weird. Not particularly motivated to practice or fix either.
Highlights:

*osis x51, then x72. 72 is a new personal record, and was a challenge too.
*dyno x8. New personal record.
*spinning clipper x10 on strong, x7 on flip.
*spinning ducking clipper-pdx torque. Spinning duck wasn't bad, but not great either. Hopefully show you on vid.
*torque-dyno [repeat] -pdx torque
*ducking squeeze-dlo thingy-whirl [repeat]

c. Sunday was cold and breezy. I didn't even feel like playing freestyle. Played in longsleeve shirt and long pants for a while. Eventually ended up playing net, which was the most fun for me. Poached a few serves, and also got in one scorpion sole kick that went over the net. Good turnout from the club, considering it was cold and Easter Sunday to boot.

Weather.com says Thursday and Friday will be better weather. I'm half toying with the idea of going to NYC this weekend, but I'm not sure if anybody will be in town, since it's also GRASS. I looked at airfares for GRASS, and they were ridiculous. The way it looks now, I'd say there's less than a 5% chance I make it to either GRASS or Boston.

Sporatical_Distractions · Post by **Sporatical_Distractions** » 14 Apr 2009 09:33

Hey Ken! Hope all is well

that last drill is super styley
and when you start drilling zooming, spin duck clip>pdx torque>rpt would be sexy

take care of your knee

Wasabi · Post by **Wasabi** » 14 Apr 2009 18:28

The word around NYFA is that we will be in the city ready to kick it this weekend. I don't think there will be any NYFA attendance at GRASS. Drew is thinking about going to SUNY Purchase for this "Culture Shock" music festival and having a small jam there, but I have no real clue what day he plans on going (the festival lasts for the entire weekend).

Weather dot com says that there will be a high in the upper 60s on Saturday, so outdoor shred will be more than pleasant. Let's just hope that Union Square won't be crowded then.

Bring the footfighter that you won at NYJ, and we will do a bag trade Ken.

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 17 Apr 2009 08:00

This entry will also be all over the board.

1. I'm in better spirits than I was in my last post. Part of it is due to me making it through the work week, and the fact that I did very well with a few assignments/presentations that I had. I still have lots to do at work, but I feel like a lot of pressure has been taken off. It's always nice to make it through the gauntlet and realize, "hey, not only did I make it through, I also did a good job."

2. Spring is finally here, and I'm excited about it. The ten day forecasts on weather.com have high temps in the 60s every single day. That should help me play better after work. DC is also just really pretty this time of year. There are cherry blossom trees and tulip blossoms all over, and seeing tourists all over the place admiring my town makes me stop and realize that yeah, it is a pretty nice place.

3. NBA playoffs start this weekend, which is exciting for me. Neither of my teams (Suns and Wizards) are in it this year, but I'm still looking forward to seeing some good basketball. It's a little weird though not having a team to root for, but at least I still have two teams to root against (Spurs and Lakers, in that order).

4. I got my camera fixed for free!

Then it broke after less than 3 minutes of use.

I'm leaning against sending it back again. Shitty. My plan was to use my camera and Jeremy's video-world-records list as motivation to re-set/break several of my personal records. I may still try and do that this weekend with Age's camera, but I was hoping to do it more on my time. Sucks.

5. Got in a light session after work yesterday. The weather was perfect, and my camera hadn't broke yet, so I was excited to try and lay down some records. During my warmup, there was a guy spectating, so I asked if he wanted to hack some. I busted out a freedom bag and we kicked the entire session. He had decent kicks, learned pretty fast, and stuck around for the entire session til I left. That said, when I asked him if he'd practice at all if he had a good footbag, he was like: "I dunno, maybe I guess." All he needed to do was say "yes" and he would have had a free sandbag, but because he sounded non-commital I just told him to check out footbag.org and freedomfootbags.com to get a bag. I felt a bit annoyed, because I essentially sacrificed my entire session to teach this guy, and at the end I felt like he wasn't even that interested or serious. It kinda felt like being led on by a girl...if you aren't serious, then don't waste my time. That said, it was probably good for me that I didn't play too hard yesterday, because I'm hoping to have sessions today, tomorrow, and Sunday if weather permits. Only two highlights all session: gyro clip-gyro osis repeat, and ducking butterfly x24 on camera.

6. A couple months ago I was trying a new trick, but was having trouble hitting it cleanly on video. My cleanest attempts were in Quantums, but because I was playing indoors (slippery racquetball court, gym floors) I didn't have confidence in my footing. I tried in G-Units and had better footing, but these attempts had worse dexes. Now that it's nice outdoors, I'm going to try it again in my quantums on concrete. I'm hoping I'll get a clean one on vid today. Wish me luck!

Zjeezy · Post by **Zjeezy** » 17 Apr 2009 09:54

C-Fan wrote:It's a little weird though not having a team to root for

you can root for the pistons with me. We can be the only two rooting for them. People in Detroit want them to lose, its weird.

I have never seen you play in quantum's, do you have white ones? I would like to see video of you in them no matter what color they are.

Rieferman · Post by **Rieferman** » 17 Apr 2009 10:49

#3
I can't root against the Lakers while Kobe is there. I just enjoy amazing players so much that I can't help but be ok with their team winning. And regardless of whatever else some might say about Kobe, he's poetry in motion on the bball court.

#5
For that reason (and some others), I don't teach newbies anymore until they've demonstrated some committment and resourcefulness of their own. That would have frustrated me as well

Wasabi · Post by **Wasabi** » 17 Apr 2009 12:32

She's calling your name.

Maybe I'll put this bag up as a prize for Beantown Throwdown, just to push you into coming to Boston.

jk. I'll reserve this beauty if you want me to, and we can do a proper trade for that Footfighter whenever the time comes.

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 18 Apr 2009 11:49

Zjeezy wrote:you can root for the pistons with me. People in Detroit want them to lose, its weird.

That IS weird. It's not like losing in the playoffs can help your lottery position or anything. But yeah, I'll root with you for the Pistons. I've always loved Sheed and Prince.

Zjeezy wrote: I have never seen you play in quantum's, do you have white ones? I would like to see video of you in them no matter what color they are.

My Quantums are black. I think the only footage of me playing in Quantums is in the video in my signature, where I hit TATW in them. That said...

C-Fan wrote: A couple months ago I was trying a new trick, but was having trouble hitting it cleanly on video. I'm hoping I'll get a clean one on vid today.

Got in a session with Age yesterday, where I spent almost the entire time trying this trick (in quantums). I hit it 7 or 8 times, and when I got home I checked them for cleanliness. I'm very happy to say that one of them was undeniably clean, so we're going to submit that to the online video contest.

On a related note, I'm hoping to make a video with Age of my biggest tricks ever. As I was thinking about some of my biggest tricks, I remembered there was one trick I hit in January of 2004 when I was in New Zealand, that I sent to Eli to use in Eutopia. I mailed him about it, and it sounds like he still has it on his hard drive!

So hopefully I can add that trick, as well as the one I hit yesterday, to the video. I'm thinking it'll only be like 7 tricks total, but I'm proud of all of them, and I think it'll be a fun vid. Age is super busy with school, so don't hold your breath on the vid, but look for it when it comes out.

Back to yesterday's session. Other than hitting that one trick, I really didn't have any highlights. We filmed one world record attempt for me, but it was a lot lower than I hoped for. Age on the other hand, played really well. I don't want to steal her thunder though, so I'll let her blog her highlights.

Wasabi wrote:I'll reserve this beauty if you want me to, and we can do a proper trade for that Footfighter whenever the time comes.

I won that footfighter on December 28th, and I haven't kicked it a single time. I'm just going to mail it to you, and you can give me your new bag next time I see you. I just feel bad I've had my bag as long as I have, and it's doing nothing with me. For the record, your bag looks super sexy. While it's a near-certainty that I won't make it to Boston, that bag should motivate me to make it up to NYC sooner than later.

The weather is fantastic again today, so I'm gonna go out and get a solo session. My legs are killing me, since they weren't prepared for yesterday's relentlessly masochistic pursuit of a hard trick. That said, I'm so happy that I hit the trick cleanly on vid that even if I can't play well for a week because of it, it was still worth it.

Tomorrow is supposed to rain and be ugly, but there's also a ton of NBA playoff games, so I'm cool with that. I watched the Bulls upset the Celtics in Boston today, and it was everything you hope for from an NBA playoff game. Definitely excited.

slapdash21 · Post by **slapdash21** » 19 Apr 2009 08:13

On a related note, I'm hoping to make a video with Age of my biggest tricks ever.

when i was wondering if my footbag career was over due to my knee, i was thinking very definitively about collecting the best footage of me ever and making a "career video" featuring about 3-5 minutes of the best moves, links and strings i had ever hit (on video). that might be even more difficult for you since youve been playing for so long, but you should definitely look into it sometime around your retirement.

just throwin this out there, and you can quote me on it in a week if you want to, but there is NO WAY the celtics are losing to the bulls in this series

DTank126 · Post by **DTank126** » 20 Apr 2009 20:20

Ken said:

While it's a near-certainty that I won't make it to Boston..."

Soooo you're saying there's a chance!

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 21 Apr 2009 11:18

Excellent long weekend. Had some nice footbag highlights, and a lot of good non-footbag moments too. I got in 3 long sessions which were all fun in different ways.

On Friday I played with Age in DC after work. We played on the campus of GWU, in a nice little courtyard that is surrounded by cherry trees. Though the peak of their blossoms was a week ago, they still were very full and pink and beautiful. As I mentioned in my last entry, Age played well, and I spent the entire session trying to hit one trick. I was stoked when I got home and saw I hit one clean one, which I hope to add to a video of my biggest tricks.

On Saturday I got in a solo session at the same spot. My legs felt blown-out after spending so much time and energy on that one trick on Friday. It was a gorgeous day though, and I was by myself, so I just let the session come to me slowly, and ended up having a fun time. There was some sort of event going on at that part of campus, and there was a succession of live bands that were playing a concert. Happily, they were all pretty good, which made for a pleasant backdrop to my playing. I also brought a Sandman comic, so in between runs I would listen to the bands, smell the cherry blossoms, read my comic, and people-watch. It was an ideal spring afternoon. My primary shred bag ended up getting two more big holes in it during this session, so I spent most of the session playing with a 4 panel freedom sandbag. It took a little getting used to, but I was in a good mental state and ended up playing pretty well with it. I don't remember too much in the way of highlights, other than:

*13 contacts of drifter-spinning clipper rpt
*Spin clip x12 strong, 6 flip
*Gyro clipper x 6 or 7, deep in the middle of a run.

The forecast on Sunday called for rain, so we cancelled the club meeting. But then it didn't rain...so Age and I went to Vince's place and got in a session with him and Ryan Thomas. My body still ached from Friday, but similar to my Saturday session, I was fine once I warmed up. On Sunday I feel like I played harder than I normally do. Maybe playing with Ryan motivates me to show off. Anyway, here are my Sunday highlights:

*flurry-symp dlo
*rev swirl-drifter rpt
*flurry-whirl-pdx whirl bsos
*Bunch of tricks I dont normally do, like ducking pdlo, vertigo,ducking torque, superfly, barroque, spinning egg, etc. Most of them were first or second try too.

Ryan played well. I challenged him to hit torquescrew, which he got really easily. Upon my request, he proceeded to have some decent looks at the gyro version too. My favorite link of his all day was mobius to symp whirl, but I was at an angle where i couldn't see the whirl dex. Still, very cool.

slapdash21 wrote:there is NO WAY the celtics are losing to the bulls in this series

That's one nice thing about not having my teams in the playoffs: watching games is a lot less stressful, and I can just enjoy a game for being good basketball. Before the series began, I was saying Boston wins it in 6 or 7. After watching how close the first two games were, I think the Bulls have a chance. I'd like to see the series go seven, just cause it's been so entertaining.

slapdash21 wrote:you should definitely look into it (making a career highlight video) sometime around your retirement.

I've been talking retirement so long now, that its pretty much become a running joke. That said, I think that my biggest tricks are for the most part behind me now, and I really am more interested in just developing a game that flows well and is easy on my body. I do feel pretty lucky though that most of my career highlights were caught on video.

Routines: I have all 3 of my dropless routines on video.
Shred30: I have video of my Shred30 at Worlds 05 where I took 4th. I also have video of my first dropless Shred30 where I broke 200 at Tokyo Shredder Gathering 2.
Straight up playing: The last four major vids of me (Ego Trip, Rory's basketball vid, C-Fan Raw, and the Ken Special from Cornell) pretty much captured the height of my game. I'm very pleased with them.

I'd say that the only two pieces of footage from my career that I wish I had, but I'm missing, are:

*My Rippin' Run from last year's NYFA Jam, where I upset Jorden in an epic final.
*My stepping ducking ps blender that the Genzes filmed in Denver, back in the Summer of 2001. I remember watching it with Rippin and Daryl and being stoked that it was clean and on video. Unfortunately, the Genz's got burglarized shortly thereafter, and the burglars took the camera with that footage with them.

But yeah, all told, I'm lucky to have most of my best moments captured on film. I think making a vid with some of my biggest tricks ever will make for a nice cherry on top. Eli is mailing me a DVD with some footage of mine from 2003, so hopefully this project will become a reality sooner than later.

Weather forecast is calling for rain starting tonight and going through tomorrow, so I'm hoping I can sneak in a quick session after work today.

Muffinman · Post by **Muffinman** » 21 Apr 2009 11:57

Awesome. How lucky of you

I'd love to see that video that Eli makes some time!!!
I feel the same way about my game. There is a funny thing about hack for me. I draw, and drawing has always kinda been my thing, but I don't really enjoy the drawing so much as the product of having a pretty picture to look at that I have made with my own hands. Footbag most of the time (especially lately with a broken body) is the same for me. I bust harder on camera because I enjoy watching what I can accomplish, more maybe than the actual accomplishment itself. And so because of this I'm thinking of putting together a DVD of myself of all of my recent footage too, because like you, it is the peak of my game, and I don't think that will last much longer. Luckily for me I have almost every session of mine from the last year-ish on video. I never hit any huge tricks like you though. Or competed. Spontaneous props on blurry flurry!

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 22 Apr 2009 11:35

Erik Chan wrote:Awesome. How lucky of you

Thanks Erik. Yeah, I do feel lucky that so many of my best moments and memories in the sport are caught on film.

Erik Chan wrote:I'd love to see that video that Eli makes some time

I think perhaps I was a bit unclear. I'm hoping Adrienne will make a video for me with my biggest tricks on it. Eli is just sending me a DVD with raw video clips of me playing in Japan and New Zealand in 2003/4. I'm hoping we can pull one or two big tricks off of Eli's DVD, and add them to the video Age is making. As far as I know, Eli doesn't make footbag videos anymore. I'm looking forward to seeing that DVD though... I think it'll make me nostalgic for that era, and it should be fun to see how differently I played back then. If the footage isn't too embarassing, I may just pluck the 2 biggest tricks off of it, then send the DVD to somebody like Regamey to make a video, sort of like what I did with Rory. That could be fun.

Snuck in a session after work yesterday. It was my first session since Friday where I felt my legs were 100%, and I just had a feeling it was going to be a good, fun session. Happily, I was right. I feel like maybe I'm slowly getting out of my footbag funk.

The biggest highlight of the session was that I seemed to have rediscovered how to do GDLOs and vortexes. There was a couple weeks there where I seemed to have lost them, but yesterday they were pretty reliable. It's a low, straight set, where you spin slightly faster than in a spinning clipper, and at a certain point you jump a little to get the dlo/drifter. I dunno, it made sense to me yesterday.

Highlights:
*Dyno x6 a couple times. Even though my record is 8, and my goal is 10, I felt like I was getting 6 more easily, and more controlled than normal.
*Spinning osis-torque [repeat]. Felt styly, and is probably good training for mobiuses both sides. I'd like to start using more torques on both sides.
*GDLO-toe whirl-spinning clipper [repeat]. Finally! I'd come close to this challenge for a while now, and yesterday I had a couple tries where the final clipper was off my foot. Thankfully, I managed to hit it solid and to a run. Always feels nice to get rid of a challenge that has been on the list for so long.
*Strong mobius was feeling somewhat consistent in runs. Ideally I want all my cool gyro tricks to be both sides, but mobius is so cool I might make an exception for it, at least for now.

In other big news, I've started seriously considering going to Worlds this year. I don't really have a routine prepared and my game isn't in the best shape, but I've always wanted to go to Berlin and I haven't had a proper vacation since I went to Chicago over New Years. I'd also love to have a chance to do a dropless routine at Worlds... that's one of the few footbag career goals I still haven't fulfilled. If I don't go to Worlds, I'll probably go to USO. Unfortunately, USO is the weekend before Worlds, so there's no way I can make it to both. The final complication I forsee is that my lease ends 3 days before Worlds, so if I decide to go I need to figure out my housing situation sooner than later. But that's not necessarily a bad thing, and I'll probably sort that out long before I go anyway.

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 23 Apr 2009 12:15

It was cool (mid 50s at best) and breezy after work yesterday, but I still got in a session. Played in a long sleeve shirt which got in the way of a few spins, but I played pretty well considering the circumstances. Because of the constant breeze, I knew I couldn't take breaks or else I would cool off completely. This forced me to keep moving the entire time, which is probably good practice for routines. My ipod recently died again, so maybe I'll get a mini and one of those armbands like Byrin has. Whatever I decide to do, I need to get my routine song ready and start practicing it. I still need to feel out the situation at work to see if it's even possible for me to go to Worlds. Competition starts on Wednesday and ends Saturday night, so I'm guessing I may have to take off 6 days from work to go to Worlds. The way flights look now, it's almost exactly twice as expensive to go to Worlds vs. USO, and it requires more days off, but I think it would be a more fun trip for me.

Back to yesterday's shred. My primary shred bag developed two more holes the last time I used it, and even though I patched it up, it lost enough fill that it feels too light and floppy now. That, combined with the wind, made spinning harder than I'd like. I'm gonna refill the bag this weekend, and hopefully get that pretty Waylon bag soon too. Playing with a light, floppy bag and G-Units felt a bit like cheating on stuff like consec dynos. But then, it also made the spinning stuff feel like I earned it more. There's always tradeoffs.

Highlights:

*spinning osis-GDLO, first try
*dyno x9, had my foot on 10
*GDLO-dimwalk bsos
*whirling swirl-far swirl both sides, no luck with sauce
*mobius-pdx blender first try.

I really like the idea of going back and re-hitting a bunch of my challenges. Just because I hit them once before doesn't make them any less valuable as training tools. And that's really what they are; ways to help me develop the kind of game I want.

Weather looks decent today, though it's windy again. On my walk home I'll decide whether or not I play, but right now I'm leaning yes. While I still don't know what my tournament plans are for the summer, it's not a bad idea to get into as good game shape as I can just to be safe.

Oh yeah, yesterday I learned that a close friend of mine scheduled her wedding for labor day weekend, so it looks like I'll miss Funtastiks this year. Bummer.

Zjeezy · Post by **Zjeezy** » 23 Apr 2009 12:30

Yesterday I was playing in mid 40's weather and I had 3 shirts on. I had to keep moving like you said. I played for about 40 minutes and the only time I stopped was when I dropped, which was a lot.

Doing challenges more than once is awesome practice. I'm guilty of only doing them once, and not trying them again. I'm trying to break this habit, because like you said, it helps develop your game.

Wasn't last years funtastiks supposed to be the last one?

I don't think it matters how much we cheer for the pistons, they don't stand a chance against the cavs.

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 24 Apr 2009 06:51

Played again after work yesterday. The weather was pretty ideal, but the entire session I kept getting interrupted/distracted by morons talking to me. Three different people throughout the session, and it was like they were tag-teaming. First guy was some corporate looking dude who was looking to make conversation, even though it should have been clear I wasn't interested in talking. The next was an extremely socially inept med student who wanted to hack with me. I was nice and let him kick with me for 10 minutes. It was grueling. He never seemed to notice that I never self-served. There were times where he'd kick it and the bag would be on the ground, and he'd kind of look at me expectantly like my job was to constantly feed the bag to him. One time I didn't pick up the bag, to see if he'd get a clue and take a turn passing it to me. Instead, he looked dumbly at me and said: "you can get it." I eventually told him that he could continue kicking the bag by himself, but I have a tournament coming up so I needed to practice solo. He left at that point, but said: "I'm here almost every day, so next time I see you I'll say hi and play." Oh dear lord. Once that idiot left, a homeless guy tried to make conversation with me for the next 45 minutes. It was really frustrating. I think next time something like that happens, I'm just going to move away 20 feet. I don't want to be mean, but if people don't have genuine interest in the sport, then I wish they wouldn't bother me.

Sometime during this procession of idiots, I managed to pull my right hip flexor pretty badly. Maybe I warmed up too fast? Maybe I took too long of a break when I humored the second idiot. Maybe I was too stressed out with all the distractions. Whatever the case, my hip flexor went, and my flip spinning went with it. I should take today off (even though the weather is beautiful!) and let it heal. Blergh.

Challenge highlights:

*dyno x7
*spin clip x10 strong, 5 flip
*spin clip-spin butt-spin osis [repeat]
*gyro clip-gyro clip-spin clip-spin butter-spin osis-spinning drop

That last one is the start to my 10 unique spin string. 4/5 of it is my weak spin, so I shouldn't be surprised that I struggled with it yesterday. 5 flip spinning clippers is another indicator that I wasn't spinning well on that side. It was like the bag wasn't coming up completely straight on my sets. I'm not going to worry about it unless it remains that weak after my hip flexor heals.

Highlights

*blurry whirl-gdlo. Very close on flip (again, flip spins were weak)
*gdlo-dimwalk bsos
*spinning osis-mobius

I also spent a lot of time working on zooming out of flip mobius. I need to make flip mobius more consistent, but the fact that in the last month I've hit mobius-spinning clipper, and spinning osis-mobius using the same zoom gives me hope that I will be able to hit mobius x2 this year. I've added that to my challenges.

Two pieces of good news:

1. I found a pair of G-Units in my size in a color that I like, and bought them last night. They are grey with some red trim. For the last year or so I've been looking to buy another pair of G6s as a backup, and was finding it really hard to track down any that weren't hunter green (which is tied with red as the ugliest color scheme). Age got me a green pair for xmas, and I was happy to get them. Its getting hard enough to find G6s in my size in any color these days. That said, finding a cool-looking pair last night felt like a coup, and I was happy to snap them up. They were $60 including shipping, and I likely won't use them for a couple years, but I'd rather pay that now than not be able to find G6s in my size (much less a color I like) two years from now.

2. I asked my boss if I could get off for the week of Worlds, and he was on board with it. Now that that's cleared, I'm gonna look for flights and hotels, and hopefully by next week I'll have my trip set up. Very excited about this.

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 25 Apr 2009 19:06

Friday was perfect footbag weather, but I restrained myself and didn't play. My hip flexor felt good enough that I probably could have played, but I think I made the right decision to give it more time to heal up. It feels almost 100% now.

Saturday was blazing hot. I can't recall feeling that uncomfortably hot in a long time... maybe not since I lived in Arizona. Temps were in the 80s and it was humid. I ended up spending most of the day outside, enjoying the events of "Maryland day" on the UMd campus. Did a ton of fun stuff, including eating liquid nitrogen ice cream, standing in a wind tunnel, making a button, playing assorted trivia, hula hooping, having my baseball pitch clocked (40 mph

), and going to a free BBQ.

When I got home, I was thrilled to find this in my mailbox:

God, what a beautiful bag. It's really a jewel. Waylon is an amazing craftsman.

Temperatures were still in the 80s even as the sun was setting, but I really wanted to get in a session. Age got me the MP3 of my routine song yesterday, and with the arrival of Waylon's bag today I felt like I finally had a real shot to try out my routine. Happily, there was almost nobody at my practice spot, so I wasn't bothered as I played, and I didn't feel like my music bothered anyone.

I had two goals with today's session: figure out my choreo better, and build my stamina for a routine. I feel like I was successful on both fronts. Really though, once the choreo gets nailed down, it's easier on your stamina because you know how to pace yourself. It was also hard to tell at times if I was struggling because my conditioning/stamina was off, or because it was so incredibly hot. I can't remember the last time I gushed sweat like that. At the end of some run throughs I felt like I could puke.
Towards the end though I had a much better sense of my routine, and I even got one run-through without a drop.

I'm going to try and buy my tix to Worlds in the next few days. Now that it's looking like Worlds is a certainty, I'm going to make a point to be serious about my preparation. This probably means no more net practice, less drinking, no more big tricks, listening to my routine song everyday, and practicing my routine every time I play. The goal is to get one more dropless routine this year, ideally getting one at Worlds. I'm looking forward to working hard towards that goal.

james_dean · Post by **james_dean** » 26 Apr 2009 04:03

Hm, 80's? Are you sure? That's not very hot? Some conversion website has that at about 26-31C

Your day at UMD sounded pretty epic... Liquid Nitrogen Icecream??!?!?! Is that good for your health?

Anyway props at pushing through the heat

Sweet to hear you're going to Worlds... pretty jealous!

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 26 Apr 2009 19:15

Thanks for stopping by Jamie. I still need to buy my tickets to Worlds, but I'm pretty sure I'll go.

Spent most of today playing footbag, but I figure I'll blog it tomorrow. Age graciously took some time out of her insane schedule to put together a video of some challenge highlights from my last few sessions. Check it out:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIe2LwhA1e8&fmt=18[/youtube]

The whirr is thin, but I wanted to show you what mine look like. This vid is also good for showing how much stronger my strong spin clips are versus my flip ones. Anyway, more than anything I'm excited that I can show you what my recent highlights/game looks like, instead of just writing about them.

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 27 Apr 2009 08:32

On my way to work today a bee accosted me, and made me a little nervous as it followed me around for a bit. I think the Berlin crew must have sent him as a threatening reminder for me to buy my tickets to Worlds this week. In good news, fares look $50-100 cheaper than they did last week.

Temperatures were in the mid-60s already when I left my house this morning before 8 am. It supposed to make it up to 90 again today, which is crazy considering we're still in April. It's like we got 2 weeks of Spring and dove headfirst into Summer. The ten day forecast predicts that the heat will break in a couple days, and that'll lead to rain, so I'm gonna try and play today and tomorrow. Heat I can deal with, rain I can't.

Despite the heat this weekend, I spent a huge chunk of the weekend outside. Spent most of Saturday outside having fun at Maryland day, and then spent most of Sunday playing footbag with the crew. My sock tan is officially locked in now.

Taking Friday and Saturday off from footbag was a good move; my legs feel healthy and strong now. I need to be careful with my body in the next few months, since I don't feel like my body heals as fast as it used to. I'm going to stay away from net and big tricks/combos, and make a point to stretch more and drink less. 12 weeks until worlds should be plenty of time to get into good game shape, and to get my routine ready for competition.

Sunday was a pretty complete footbag day. I started off by playing some doubles net, then moved on to Foursquare, then got in some routine practice, and finally finished things off with a good two man shred with Ryan.

Highlights:

*blurry whirl x5, ties personal record. I could probably break this.
*whirling calf kicking ss eclipse-drifter. Stolen from the new Bevier vid.
*spin clip-spin butter-spin osis rpt
*flip bed-symple blender
*scoring a point with a scorpion kick in a 4 square game
*scoring a point with a scorpion kick in a net game
*seeing Ryan hit mobius to flapper!

My routine is slowly taking shape. I still need to edit the song down so all the good parts fit into two minutes, and I still need to learn the song better so I don't miss sections and cues. That said, if I had to compete next week I could probably show something decent. My primary goal this week is just hammering down logistics for Worlds, mainly tickets and housing.

Oh, and from the last post on the last page:

C-Fan wrote: Age graciously took some time out of her insane schedule to put together a video of some challenge highlights from my last few sessions. Check it out:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIe2LwhA1e8[/youtube]