Coffmans blog

[ninjo]

Highlights from today's session.

Nelson
hopover>pogo blur.
hopover>blur other side.
blur>legbeater>blurry whirl.
Flying ripwalk.
sole records.
barroque both sides.
Some rubberman contacts.

Teddy
blurry whirl>blurry whirl.
tons of ripwalks.
some kind of torque>ripwalk>blur>legbeater combo.
Mobius everywhere.
double downs.

Luis
Duck practice,ducking drills.
beat some records.
spinning whirl>pdx double legover>blender.
Mobius everywhere.
double around the worlds are super fun.
figuring out flip side osis.
Fairy mirage>legbeater both sides.

hack circle jam

[ninjo]

Nelson hit flurry and more barroque's.

and i hit a cool toe ducking run.
and a load of records.

Teddy hit blurry whirl>whirl rpt almost.and torque>drifter rpt like nothin.

[freestyler4life]

you guys are really good you should let the rest of us catch up

I am now completly sure that footbag is a cycle. after my last post I felt like I was getting better, and now as I have stated once before a while ago, I feel like I am getting worse or least I hate my game, theres no variety of tricks, no matter how much I seem to drill I cant put it all together into a string, I do the same links, and cant be creative at all. I have been drilling tiltless before ver session and it still takes me a million tries before I can even get mirage X15. I read Zebs blog and others and there was a time when I used to be better than them, I'm happy for'em but it just makes me more frustrated with my game. My legs feel horrible with soccer season starting and longer more conditioning practices, theres also robotics taking away some of my time and really dont even enjoy that much anymore with the competitions and the people.I expect the jocks of soccer to be dicks with there big egos but even the robotics nerds can be dicks to. I am sorry if you feel like I'm whining,just the way I feel right now. The only stuff that I have hit that I'm really not even that proud of is
-spinning ducking butter bs
-whirl war, should of hit it a long time ago
-drifter>drifter
-pdx whirl>diving clip>rpt
-infinity X55

I was originally thinkinig about going to worlds, but now I just don't really care to, I might never go to a tournament my entire footbag career.

On the plus side, my new Dutchmaster dada 32 is incredible, and is currently far superior to my others. And Louis is a nice guy, he even threw in an extra sandbag for free.

[beenjammin]

It doesnt matter how good you are, it matters how much fun you have!
Whoever has the most fun wins.

[gangsta]

Havent been playing much these past few weeks due to Helicopter pilot school, lots of sex, and a sore groin.
However when I have been shredding, Ive been working on:
-Stepping links
-Drifters
-Torques
-Illusioning variations (pdx, ss, op side, near, fairy, atomic, nuclear)

The other day I hit some nuclear shit Both sides like Nuclear ss legover, pdx legbeater, nuclear ss butter, pdx tapping pickup.

Also hit all sorts of atomic/tapping/fairy stuff both sides, and the sets are feeling really strong.

Drifters and torques are feeling great. I even hit pdx drifter the other day, and Ive been workin on this drill: Drifter > far osis > rpt.
Hit drifting rake, one side... and torques all still hard as fuck.

Other than that ive been selling a buttload of footbags on ebay, and Im glad you like that bag Matt. Ive been looking for an excuse to make a dada pattern.
Shred on.

[Sporatical_Distractions]

Nelson's hopover>pogo blur is sooper styley

[freestyler4life]

Still only playing like 1 or 2 times a week, needs to change, all I have been doing is drilling

-tap>atom smasher bs
-ducking butter>diving butter>rpt
-rev swirl>dyno, actually not that hard anymore but it was a few sessions back
-28+ contacts of ducking clip>spinning clip>rpt
-41+ contacts of ducking clipper>diving clipper>rpt
-I also hit a very poorly executed blur>tapdown>gybas,

[beenjammin]

Damn you are good at behind the neck!

[Iron Clad Ben]

Damn you are good at behind the neck!

That's what she said!

In all seriousness Matt your dexless game is off the hook. Great stuff! The weather is warming up, I'm sure pretty soon you'll be shredding 4-5 times a week Hope you're entering the online comps this month

Hope all is OK in OK ===========[=[])) <== punch myself in the face for that cheesy line

[gangsta]

Are you guys still footbaggin' it up? I've only been shredding once or twice a week lately, due to my helicopter flying shenanigans and such. I've logged about 6 hours in an R22 heli, and am about a month and a half into ground school.

On the footbag side of things, i've hit a few new tricks like grifter and paradox crispy grifter. Been skoolin the drifters and spins too. That's all folks.

[freestyler4life]

Go to see Louis posting in here, I left on Wednesday for a robotics tournament and overall it went pretty well. I'm so fucking ticked right now because I left my bag with everything in it at the school outside because we got back late and I was in a hurry to get my things and go home. I went back to get it but someone must have taken it home cause it wasn't where I left it. I'm so fucking pissed off right now, I don't think I did a job explaining my situation, but its bad and I almost threw the monitor across the room when I got home.This really sucks because the trip had been so good up to this point.

So since eighth grade I have never taken a footbag to school or even mentioned the fact that I like to play the sport to anyone that doesn't seem to have any interest in "hackysack". So after the first day of competition on Thursday, I wanted to play footbag somewhere where I could be alone and not be called some "loser hacker fagot that thinks he's cool because he can do a few tricks". I went to the fifth floor with another kid who is one of two people at my school that actually knows what a few freestyle tricks are. I started out not playing so great because the lighting was poor and I didn't really warm up. A few other people were roaming the hotel and came to see what I was doing, I wanted to leave and possibly go outside, but to my surprise, they wanted me to keep going. It was the first time that people from my school actually liked what I was doing. They called their friends, and told them to come watch. I became anxious cause I didn't like having to "perform" what I was doing. I didn't play my best but ended up wowing most of the robotics team with what they refereed to as "hackysack master skills".

I am really stressed out right now, damn bags
I have calmed down a little writing this
Louis, if you read this, I'm gonna have another bag order for you soon, for one of my friends, I try referring him to you r website.

[Iron Clad Ben]

Good to see Matt and Louis posting here.

Matt, as a big fan of robots, and being a cyborg myself I'm glad to see you were at a robotics event. Don't EVER let the haters make you ashamed of the awesome stuff you are capable of with a footbag. You have got some serious skills and I'm glad you finally got some props for it. Hopefully you can get some more ppl interested in footbag. How did you get started anyway?

Hopefully some of you guys entered the online comps this time around and we'll get to see your skills

[freestyler4life]

Thanks Ben, I got started with "Hack" at a summer camp where there was one kid who thought he was the best at "hack" and could beat anybody. So I found me a "hackysack" and kept practicing till I could beat that dude. Then I thought I was the best because I could toe stall and even bounce it off me chest. I got onto footbag.com and thought that those were the coolest tricks I had ever seen and that they were the hardest ones you could do. I realized how stupid I was when I eventually found footbag.org and the freestyle section.

I actually now have two people interested in footbag, one of them seems to posses natural talent, I hope he can stay with it. I told them both that I would tell them when we were going to schedule a jam session.

No competition for me, I couldn't hit anything in time.

I was thinking about that tripod competition for fun, but I would just get blown away and end up in last place. I think I might make another video when I can tell I am actually better than I was 4 months ago.

[gangsta]

Matt, did someone take your footbags?!

I've footbagged like, once, in the past 3 weeks. Worked mainly on spins and whirls. Theyre coming along nicely. My hip/groin hasnt been feeling to good so i've been taking a break.

[freestyler4life]

I hate footbag

I also suck at it. Fuck. I know I have felt this way before, but now its reaching the point where I am breaking things around my house, ripping up my t-shirts all the time, cussing my head off, and throwing my bags. I continuously go threw a cycle of 1.trying to get better, 2. getting very frustrated,3. convincing myself to play for fun and not worry about my skill, 4. playing happy for a little bit until I repeat back to number 1. The thing now is, I never find myself playing for fun. I play because I want to get better so I can catch people like Zeb, Munsterman, Miley, and Toolan, whose blogs are all filled with rapid improvement. I play because I watch sick videos of pros and tell myself that if I train hard enough I'll get to their level. I watched the video I made in December, I actually was doing better then than I am now. It makes me extremely sad that it is fucking April and I have wasted everything. Now, my solo sessions always consist of the same thing and limited tricks, not even beneficial drills that I should be doing. I haven't tried to "shred" and been able to get more than 10 contacts since like January. I have been attempting so many spinning clippers in the past month that I should be able to do them on command 100% of the time, when really it feels like I am having to relearn how to spin and do a clipper every session. I waste my time because its the one trick that I will attempt as many times as it takes until I can do every part of it perfect. I have no "session highlights" anymore and I have lost so many components. I have been playing since forever and I still can't do a drifter, torque, or any double downs.

I think I may take a huge break from footbag, or just quit, cause I can't keep doing what I'm doing. Every time I think about footbag, all this stuff comes to mind and I cant get over the fact that I will never amount to anything.

how did I hit all that shit back in February, I don't think I could come anywhere close to it now.

[ninjo]

Hi buddy.It sounds like you're makin it too hard on your self.Freestyle shred is an awesomely hard art,and that's why i keep practicing.I love that it's a challenge.It takes a really REALLY long time to get really REALLY good.
It's more simple than you think.Just do whatever you like to do,and never give up.Always remember,if there were no challenge,it would'nt be rewarding.

Peace,Luis

[habitat]

Hey Matt, welcome to my world

I've been going through the same thing as you for a couple years now. And at least for me, it's not going to change. Footbag is the only thing that can actually get me steaming mad, and believe me it does. To me, it's like if I don't hit everything that I want, what's the point? I suck. It's get very frustrating sometimes, but the funny thing is that you can't stop because you know you can hit the things that you try so it keeps sucking you back in.

The things that get me stoked about footbag are playing with other people, (something I never get to do) and just trying moves that are your strengths. Not everyone can hit drifter x10 or ripwalk x20, try to stick to your style and you will feel a lot better about your shred. It's taken me quite a while to figure this out, but going tiltless for 50 contacts is way better than hit drifter>whirl (drop) 40x in a row. Stick to the basics and you will find your progression rate naturally.

Hopefully you get on the right track man. Peace.

[freestyler4life]

Thank you Luis and Mr. James Randall for these responses to my wining, it means a lot to me, thanks guys. It's nice to know that I'm not the only one that has struggled with this feeling.

I got back on modified last night, it wasn't much of a big "break" from footbag, but it was long enough for me to clear my head. I went out to try and session today and almost immediately got stuck in my spinning clipper frustration phase. I diverted almost all my anger on to some kleenex boxes and came back to reread this and an uplifting pm from Ironclad. I clamed down again and went back outside trying to remember what I had read and it really helped.

This is not all from tonight.

-reverse swirling toe bs
-tomahawk bs, hit it a long time ago, forgot to include it before
-double spinning toe stall, also hit a long long time ago
-paradox whirl X4
-dyno X4
-ducking buttter>rev. swirl>rpt
-muted diving clipper>ducking clipper>nosepicker(I think thats what it's called)>rpt
-flipside spinning dyno
-smear>plo>rpt
-smudge>plo>rpt
-gyro mirage>dimwalk>rpt
-dimwalk>magellan>rpt
-omelet>omelet

[Zac Miley]

I hate footbag
I play because I want to get better so I can catch people like Zeb, Munsterman, Miley, and Toolan, whose blogs are all filled with rapid improvement. I

Wow man, I'm honored. :\

I got pretty pissed at footbag today. Shit session, I actually threw a bag (I try EXTREMELY hard to be nice to my bags).

PLEASE don't quit.

By the way, you're a shit ton better than me.

[Iron Clad Ben]

Matt, glad to hear things are getting better.

Everyone gets footbag slumps! It's all about being conscious of the slumps and knowing they will end. It sounds like you're on your way out of this one. I bet pretty soon you'll hit a crest of the footbag progress wave and bust some really big shit or hit some big milestone. That's the way it goes

Excellent highlights! I had no idea you could hit crap like Tomahawk! That's nuts! And all those sets both sides, that's some sweet shuffleage.

If single concept (e.g. spinning clipper) is frustrating you, just leave it alone for a month or two and come back to it. There is tons of stuff to do in footbag

Keep shreddin' and take care