Dan Reed

[fatbagger]

Still sick so no solo session today or yesterday. I think that makes a week with no solos. But I am feeling better. Sunday fooled me and I probably just made myself get more sick. I'm still doing my morning warm ups anyway so I still get a little kicking, clippers and other stalls in every day. Tomorrow I am going to get back in routine though.

[fatbagger]

Solo Session 8/25
lots of clippers
lots of osis
drilled gyro clip bs(only 10 flip, I am very bad at flip spin so it took me about 100 attempts)
did some work on my stepping but not much, my left ass was sore from all the clippers.
Back in business.

[fatbagger]

Solo Sessoin 8/26
Lots of clippers.....again 100+
lots of osis 100+
lots of stepping 100+(just ripwalks and stepping switch, my set is getting higher so next week I hope to start drilling blur)
lots of gyro clippers(30 on flip, I'm improving and they don't make me as dizzy anymore)
50 whirls on both sides(not consecutive)
100 contacts of down>pdx mirage(not consecutive)
Doin' Work

[fatbagger]

Sunday Session 8/28
Suprise guest Rory Dawson. He was down for PAX and kicked with the crew on Saturday, lucky for me he made it to the Sunday session at Alki Beach as well. It was just Justin, Reilley, Rory and myself so not as long of a session as we usually do but long enough. Reilley hit fog, and was stringing really good. Justin was gased from the day before but still managed lay it down when it was his turn. Rory was as smooth as ever. I love when he is doing one of his super smooth runs and throws in the toe spinning toes out of nowhere, looks so cool. Plus he was hitting some extremely tough simple/smp. combos in his runs. Rory is the man, but he does need to learn how to throw a popcicle stick.
As for me, I didn't feel "on" all day long but I did hit alot of good stuff and had a couple good strings. I hit blurry whirl for the first time . It was horrible but I don't care, I shouldn't be hitting it anyway I still can't hit blur very easily. I also had a pdx torque that was perfect, I could have stepped out of it if I knew I was going to hit it like that. Also pheonix>tomohawk and a bunch of my other usual stuff. It was a fun session but I was expecting to string better than I did.
On a side not I have had a kink in my back just below my shoulder blades for over a week now, I've had kinks in my back before but this one won't go away. So as a last resort to avoid going to see a dreaded doctor I am going to take the rest of the week off from footbag and see if I can get myself back to 100%. If only I could afford to take the week off from work as well. I'm a little worried but hopefully it's all over nothing.

[fatbagger]

It's been a while since I last made a post in here but I still play regularly. I guess I'll start again by quickly recapping the time gap. "I have had a kink in my back just below my shoulder blades for over a week now" So that did not go away, in fact it got a lot worse. I never went to the doctors because I'm an idiot, and it took about 3 months for it to be manageable. I would work all week then try to session every Sunday to keep from getting to rusty and it was not going well. I started doing exercises to strengthen my back and core and that really alleviated a lot of the pain. I still have some discomfort and grinding in my shoulder/back but it seems to get better and better as time goes on. Maybe it will be gone completely by the US open. I started practicing hard again late November I think.

I really wanted to be open level by the US open this year and at various times I thought I was a week or two away. Turns out it isn't that easy and for the last couple months I've been really inconsistent and my moods been up and down. Some days I feel like I'm on top of the world and I'm going to do all this stuff that I want to and other days I feel I can't ever get good at anything especially footbag. My goal is still the same, I want to compete open this year at the US open. I have less than 2 months but despite my inconsistencies and wavering motivation I have also made a lot of progress even if I sometimes feel stagnant in my play. I have a long way to go and a short time to get there but I know I can get over the hump.

I started this blog back up partly to help keep myself motivated for this last push before the US open and partly because Reilley suggested I do so. I'm hoping it will help me out but I know I need more so I'm also changing my diet. Nothing extreme, I just want to add a few things to my diet. As of now I eat cheap not healthy and that has to change. If my body and mind feel good I can do anything. Today was our clubs weekly session and I felt soar, tired and unmotivated so I bailed. I normally go to every one but after a rough week at work and no practice at all during the week I didn't feel it at all. And just like me lately a couple hours later I felt loose and motivated. I hate this up and down bs. I ended up with a 3 hour solo session of pure progress. I have always neglected symposium tricks out of fear that I will hurt my knee but I'm healthier now so that is just an excuse. I really need to have smp mirage locked to help my guiltless game. I spent most of the session putting them into rpt combos(or trying to) and went from needing 2-3 tries just to hit one to being able to open set out of both sides. I also worked torque and mixer and gyro clipper all bs.

My highlights of the day in order(all firsts),
Open pickup>smp. mirage>rpt.
smp. mirage>near smp. mirage>rpt.
open pickup>near smp. mirage>open switch>rpt.
dimwalk>ps mirage>rpt.
dimwalk>ps whirl!!!(first ps whirl ever)

[C-Fan]

Turns out it isn't that easy and for the last couple months I've been really inconsistent and my moods been up and down. Some days I feel like I'm on top of the world and I'm going to do all this stuff that I want to and other days I feel I can't ever get good at anything especially footbag.

I can really relate to this.

And props on the dim-ps mirage drill, that's dope.

Hope USO goes well for both of us; excited to see you there.

[fatbagger]

Thanks for the props ken, keeping my posture on ps mirage is difficult.

Today I was pretty tired so I just played for a little over an hour. I mainly just repeated yesterday but in a lot less time. I hit everything I hit yesterday except for the ps whirl. I also drilled my open pickup(near and far) because I want to start really relying on them instead of open switch.

Not very notable notables,
open pickup>open ss pickup>rpt a few times
open pickup x13.
open pickup>near smp. mirage>open switch>rpt. 1.5 times through

[fatbagger]

RCS played down at the waterfront today but I couldn't make it. I had to work until 6 am today and couldn't wake up in time to go but I played anyway. I went down to the Redmond skate park and had a solo. Clear skies and 70+ made for a good vibe to start out. I didn't really know what I wanted to work on so I just warmed up and started stringing. My sesh lasted just over 2 hours and covered a lot of different concepts. I played pretty well and felt great so after nailing some sweet stuff I decided to switch to consecutives and drill some things.

We have a race to 50 infinity going on between Taylor, Reilley, Trevor, Justin S. and myself in which I will be pretty embarrassed if I lose. Today I got to 44 and dropped only because I got sweat in my eyes multiple times during the string. I'll get it this Sunday for sure(better hurry up guys).

Other highlights(that I can remember),
Whirr(first on first try)
smear>dbl switch>rpt.
pheonix>mixer>open switch>rpt.

[fatbagger]

Had another session, just an hour. Mainly just me trying to get to 50 infinity. I got to 35, 38 and 39 as my best shots and a bunch of 20 somethings. They are getting noticeably better. It's going down in the next few days. I also got pheonix>ps whirl a new fearless link for me.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwCG1ka8 ... ture=g-upl[/youtube]
Is it clean?

[PoisonTaffy]

Sweet combo, props!

[rjadamson]

That's awesome!

Looks like your solo work is really paying off.

I've been working on consecutive down practice too, but I haven't been able to even hit 30 yet.

[fatbagger]

Thanks Reilley and Roy. PS whirl alone is huge for me.
I had a pretty good solo session today(a little over 2 hours). I mainly worked my open sets and BOP but ended up with a few decent strings and links. The highlight of the day was probably 51 infinity I knew I would get it now I need 100.
Some highlights,
Down>mixer>open ss mirage>rpt
dimwalk>mixer>down>pdx mirage>smp mirage>rpt
paste>smp mirage>rpt 2 times through
down>mixer>dbl switch>rpt
pdx whirl>whirl>rpt
tomohawk bs
and some other stuff.

I got a few things on film so I'll post what I have.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2ckq-SNAu4[/youtube]

[fatbagger]

Sunday ended up being a 2 man session. Justin and I went out to Alki beach and tore it up for about 3 hours before exhaustion got the best of us. I wore myself out pretty quickly with mixers and smp mirages but still managed to play decent. One combo that was giving me trouble(open ss mirage>smp ss mirage>open pickup>rpt) I just wouldn't stop trying till I hit and that wore me out. Overall the day was awesome and I feel like I put in plenty of work. I hit all my recent combos and a couple new ones but nothing really noteworthy. Justin on the other hand was laying down the big links. He's playing like a mad man and getting even better. It is fun.

Today was my first sesh since Sunday and I needed the days off. My knees were obliterated after playing so hard on the weekend. My legs were still drained today so I just put on some music and started drilling consecutive BOP's. Then I started doing a lot of drifter and blender work and finally finished off with tiltless to work on endurance. Overall I only played for an hour and a half but I am spent. Tomorrow I'm sure I'll have a little more gas. Not many highlights.
Drifter>osis>pdx mirage>rpt (made it through 10 seperate times, twice through twice)
blender>down>pdx mirage>rpt

[C-Fan]

Challenge: drifter to blender bsos.

[fatbagger]

I haven't played since my last post because thursday at work I rolled my ankle. It wasn't that bad but I didn't want to aggravate it and miss more playing time so I just iced and stretched it all weekend. Today I got back into the swing of things and with the help of some alieve ma ankle didn't bother me in the least. I mainly just went over all the drills I've been practicing and kept the new stuff for later in the week. I tried ken's challenge but not until the end of the sesh. I got drifter>blender bs but not bsos. Tomorrow I'll try it again when I still have energy. It is still hard to play out of blender for me. I also got drifter to pdx whirl bs, my flip pdx whirl is finally coming into existance.
I didn't film much at all but here's a short clip of my drifter stuff. 1 clip cuts short due to bad trimming on my part and the other I trimmed short due to profanity. Both that were cut off I did hit though.(not that it adds much)
Tomorrow should be fun
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqtjJQ4M ... ture=g-upl[/youtube]

[fatbagger]

Today I decided to work on blender, drifter and whirl. I played for about an hour and a half and once again I didn't film until I was sweat drenched and spent. I started out with warm up and bop but quickly moved on to my drifter stuff. With drifter I am much more confident setting from toe than from clipper so I worked on the latter at first. With blender I have issues keeping my posture on the catch and this makes them hard to play out of. This didn't improve too much but I made a little progress. And with whirl and more specifically pdx whirl my arm form is getting better and it is making them easier and more consistent than ever. I'm still working on making them feel real "floaty" but when I get them right they are sooo easy. I really wanted to get Kens challenge so after trying it for a while then finally Reilley-ing it I started filming and ended up getting it. I also wanted to get drifter and dbl switch bsos in the same string but kept dropping on my strong dbl switch I ended up getting that too but had to guilt.
Some highlights,
Whirl war almost twice through
ducking clip>drifter bs
smoke
Here's a short vid of some stuff, sorry for the crappy angle and spacing. I'll get it right next time.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5geahqvx ... ture=g-upl[/youtube]

[Allan]

It says the video is set to private for me ...

[fatbagger]

Oops. Set to public now.

[fatbagger]

Things have been going pretty good lately. My ankle healed faster than it ever has after a roll, I got rid of comcast saving me some $$$, good new diet is working out and I'm in the best shape of my life. I went and saw The Dark Knight Rises and it was to good for me to explain. I have never been that impressed by a movie, it is perfect. I've been playing a little less than I would like but not by that much, it's sometimes hard to feel motivated to play alone. I don't really like playing on energy stuff but lately when I'm not motivated to play I'll go get a starbucks an hour before I play. I don't drink coffee so when I do I feel like superman. Although I might be a little jittery at first it is still better than not playing at all IMO. I do try to keep it to once a week max just because I don't want it to lose it's effect and I don't want to become dependent on it.

Today was one of those days, I hadn't played in 2 days and my knees were still destroyed. So I went out and got a starbucks then came home and took an aleive. Followed that up with some stretching and a quick mini workout. After that I was motivated and ready to go. My knees still felt inflamed so once I got out there I decided to just work on my basics(Inspired by Jay's blog). I started with consecutive alternating inside stalls and got to 50 five times. Then moved on to ss clippers and got 50 bs(took a few tries on flipside). Of course after that I did alternating clippers and got to 50. This one took me forever and I spent more than a half hour just to get 50. I kept getting into the 30's and 40's so by the time I got it I was spent. That was the end of my basics for the day. My knee was finally feeling good by this point so I switched to what I had been working on lately, mainly drifters. Specifically drifter from clipper since I never do them that way. No film, no real highlights but I know I improved a lot because of this session. The best stuff I hit was drifter b2b for the first times starting bs and drifter>whirl>rpt completed 5 separate times. I had fun.

[fatbagger]

Sunday was pretty awesome. It was just Justin and I playing at the Bite of Seattle and the weather was pretty good, mostly cloudy but about 70. We played next to the 206 booth(seattle clothing line) and helped draw in some customers for them. We weren't street preforming but we still made like $20-$30 in our bucket. Justin was spent from a 5.5 hour sesh the day before but he still managed to shred hard for the 3+ hours we were out there. I was totally gassed after the first 2 hours but I tried to hang in there to give J a break between strings. When I'm actually stringing all sesh I get tired way too fast so I think I'm going to change strategy for my club sessions. Instead of trying to play guiltless all sesh I'll just do it half the sesh and the other half I'll work on tiltless string length. For me with footbag I feel my biggest hurdle is going to be just general fitness. Once I can get my endurance up a little I feel I will be able to play at a level I can finally be proud of. My main goal before USO is going to be 100 tiltless somewhat consistently. I have never gotten close to 100 tiltless, the most being around 60. Anyway, I didn't have many highlights, at least not new ones. I hit paradon swirl on one side and dbl down swirl on the other. I also hit smog bs and had a few good strings.

Today was a lot of fun. Not usually how it works when I'm just drilling consecutive's and stepping. Warmed up with insides and clippers, lots of them. Then went straight to blur and made some progress with my stepping. I rarely work on my stepping but it is still getting better bit by bit. I think it has something to do with me loosing weight and strengthening my clippers. After blur I drilled stepping ss clippers and after that consecutive ripwalks. Next up was drifter. I really wanted drifterx3 but couldn't manage it. I hit it x2 10 times starting bs and footed the third a few times so I don't feel that bad about it. Next session I'll get it x4. My flip mixer was weak on Sunday so I worked on that a bit. Drilled down>mixer>mixer on flip, tomorrow I'll drill consecutive mixers. Then I finished it of with consecutive mirages, illusions, pickups and switches.

I still want to compete open at USO but I know I won't be able to do routines. I don't even know if I can make it to that level by then but I'm going to try my hardest/smartest to get there. Only 1 month to up my endurance and get more consistent but I'm up to the challenge.