Begin Phase 1 again

Iron Clad Ben · Post by **Iron Clad Ben** » 14 Aug 2006 18:05

US Open part 1

Thursday 8/10
Waiting for the plane I hit symposium pixie for the first time. I got in about 11pm and Zeb Jackson, Chris Miller and James Randall picked me up from the airport. We ended up shredding until 3am in some parking lot with low light. I hit some decent links, it was cool just ripping with these guys and talkin' footbag.

More to come later. It was an awesome experience.

Iron Clad Ben · Post by **Iron Clad Ben** » 16 Aug 2006 10:10

US Open Part 2

I'm trying to recall chronologically everything that happened, but I can't. My mind has compartmentalized things in terms of people (lots of cool cats were there). So here goes

Zeb Jackson - This kid is awesome. If you haven't shredded with him you have to at some point. Shredding with Daryl and Penske in Boise has really stepped up his game. I saw him hit sidewalk first try and go into a run like it was nothing. Also, he's like the master of the pickup. Very cool, genuine kid and I hope I get to hang with him again some day.

Kyle Hewitt - Wow this kid has gotten good! He's a lot of fun to hang with. He hit Henry's Tail in competition and I couldn't stop laughing about it all night. Just ask James Randall. Kyle's still really young and has a lot of potential to be the next David Clavens if he keeps practicing a lot. Man could he guzzle down those freckled lemonades.

James Randall - Always had something hilarious to say. This kid cracked me up. And his car was the shit. 1984 Topaz with no power steering and no muffler. We had a lot of adventures in that beast. The kid has some serious game when it comes to shred too. Randizz I hope you got home safe in that beast.

Chris Miller - What can I say? It's fucking Chris Miller. He's the shit. Shredzilla. You cannot top the bromance vibe this guy puts out, and I mean that in a good way. He genuinely loves the sport of footbag probably more than anyone. He busted his ass to help out with the tournament and really helped make it what it was. Plus he totally took me under his wing for the event, introduced me to a lot of new people and helped out my game a great deal. I winged with him at Noah JB's party until he got in good with this one redhead chick. Randall, Penske, Daryl and I shot the shit outside while Miller spat game at this ho. Noah comes out and asks us if we're alright. We say we are we're just waiting for Chris and that he's making out with some chick. Noah was like "oh yeah he's all over her on my couch, it's obscene!". Great times. Anyway, Chris, hell of a great guy, if you are ever at an event with him definitely take some time to meet him, awesome dude.

Really busy here in Boston right now... to be continued... much more to come...

Iron Clad Ben · Post by **Iron Clad Ben** » 16 Aug 2006 14:33

US Open Part 3

Ya know, so much crazy amazing awesome shit happened at this event there's just no way I can write it all down.

The shred level was amazing, the people were great, the weather was perfect, what can I say?!?!?!

Other people I want to give a shout out to:
Justin Dale - Getting props from this guy made me feel really good and definitely enriched my overall experience at the event. He said I had really good posture and form, and a lot of potential. That really lifted my spirits a lot because I was getting kind depressed seeing hordes of people who were way better than me. He also gave me some tips on osis and clipper drills which I will definitely put to good use. Justin, you probably won't ever read this, but I just wanted to say BIG THANKS.
Luis Monhollon - dude you fucking rip. You probably had the most style out of anyone at the tournament. I hope you make it down to Texas to shred some time.
Matt Cross - it was great meeting you and drinking some really killer beer. Also I got to see you play a couple songs for us, which was great. Glad I got to hang with you if only for a little bit.
Nasty Nate - only got to meet you for a couple minutes, congrats on making circle comps finals.
Sam Potter - only got to meet you briefly as well. Congrats on getting 4th in rippin run dude.
Clavens - you were really busy being a superstar this weekend. Congrats on kicking ass. I was kind of expecting you to win. Great job.
Daryl Genz - Played a lot of 4sq with this guy. He still rips lemme tell ya. Cool cat, I think I heard him actually speak 5 words the entire weekend
Goldberg - He's the man at 4sq. I ALMOST beat him once. He's just unbeatable.
Alex Strassman - Dude you got skillz. Way to rep the east coast. I will definitely tell James you said hi. As I said, great to see another brother who can rip. Hopefully you'll make it down to Austin some time.
The Las Vegas Guys, Ben and Evan These kids can shred I tell you what. Great fun with you guys.
Pimpske - You rocked dude. Thanks for the hookup at Noah's place, all I needed was one, that stuff was good.

I met John Stallberger and Kenny Shults too! John was mad cool, he wore sunglasses and just sorta stayed out of the limelight, didn't want to attract a lot of attention to himself. He's originally from Austin and was pumped to see that someone had made it from there to come to the tournament. Kenny still rips! On the last day he put on his lavers and jumped in a few shred circles. He could still bust big, he hit PS Whirl and some other big stuff and nearly hit double spinning barrage.

Anyone else I neglected to give a shout-out to I apologize. So much happened I just remember it all in bits and pieces, kind of one big blur. This was a great experience and has really made me want to work on my game even harder.

I'm back home in Massachusetts now. I went on a 7.5 mile hike yesterday and posted some pics from it in the "post your pic" thread pg 77. My legs are sore as fuck right now, way too sore to shred. Tomorrow I'm going biking at Martha's Vineyard! Yipeee!!! Good ol' east coast baby. Love that dirty water, Boston you're my home.

Iron Clad Ben · Post by **Iron Clad Ben** » 19 Aug 2006 16:55

It's my last night back in Boston. The second to last day of my vacation. Man oh man it's been great being on vacation. Every time I thought about work I immediately made myself think of something else. Even though I've been very active, it's been very relaxing.

Monday: Flew in from Portland. It was basically an all day flight. I was dead tired. I got home, ate dinner, hung out with my family for a little while and went to bed early. I was beat.

Tuesday: Went up to New Hampshire with my mom and brother. We hiked Mt. Chocura which ended up being a 7.6 mile hike. Damn! I was really wiped after we were done but I felt great. Awesome time. Here's one picture from it (more in post your pic section)

Wednesday: Rested some more, played some video games. Too sore to shred.

Thursday: Went on a trip to Martha's Vineyard. Good times. Had a great veggie burger and biked 16 miles.

Friday: More biking on Martha's Vineyard. Biked 43 miles!

Got home checked my email and saw that I had indeed still gotten a paycheck direct deposit even though I was on vacation. We must have gotten Q2 profit sharing or something because I got about 1.7x what I normally get

Funny thing is I still have 2.5 weeks of vacation time accrued that I can use whenever I feel like.

Saturday: Went up to New Hampshire with my dad to check out a site he is going to build on. I was sore as fuck still today. I tried to shred but I am getting pretty heavy pain after only 12-14 contacts. Footbag is fun, but I've been cross training this week

Red Eye flight out of Logan Airport tomorrow at 8am. Connecting flight in Chicago and then back in Austin by the afternoon. I haven't seen my girlfriend in a week and a half but it feels like forever. It will be good to be back in Texas.

Well next week I gotta school some shit for the online comps. They're right around the corner. I really want to hit toe ducking symp mirage, I think I could land it in 100 tries or so. If I can get my pixie set working I'd love to hit Assassin or Royal Assassin, that would be dope. As for a sick 3, I'd really like to get symp mirage in there with a couple other 3's, but I'm not sure what just yet. When push comes to shove it's pretty crazy what you end up hitting. Wish me luck.

Peace,
Ben

Iron Clad Ben · Post by **Iron Clad Ben** » 23 Aug 2006 20:05

Haven't played since last week until tonight.

New kid showed up to the Wednesday sesh. He had some natural skills. He could hit clipper and butter one side and ATW too. He had like a natural fairy set and kept going for DATW. I showed him legover and he hit it first try, in low top chucks nonetheless.

I hurt my ankle doing a symposium mirage? WTF that move has been gravy the past couple weeks what the hell happened?

infinity x 6

illusion x 7

Footed ducking infinity again. WILL THIS TRICK ILLUDE ME FOREVER? WHAT THE FUX0R!!!

Had some good tiltless runs. Kept going for whirl couldn't hit it. More attempts at pixie set, nothing doing. Stepping, still not happening. Atomic? I need to tame the dex, then I might have a shot.

Started working on planning the Texas tournament this week. Got a location. Net peeps are emailing me out of the blue wanting to come. I guess there will be net!

Probably going to move in with my girlfriend in the fall. We found a pretty dope house to rent, CHEAP. I'll be able to save up a lot of money and hopefully buy my own house in maybe a year. That will be good. Living with her, I hope it works out. The location is great too and there is like a KILLER shred spot rightoutside. The driveway has this huge tree over it that shades it, should be dopetastic. The neighborhood is great too, I'm pretty pumped.

It's good to be back in Texas. Had Taco Cabana and Thundercloud this week. Mmmm Dr. Pepper too. Texmex baby.

This post is almost stream of consicousness. I can barely think in complete sentences. My brain is fried, not much sleep this week, I don't know why.

Work tomorrow. One of our customers is literally flying into Austin tomorrow to come kick our ass for not giving them any parts. Should be a good time.

Peace out

Zeb Jackson · Post by **Zeb Jackson** » 23 Aug 2006 22:02

sounds like you improving man, thats good to hear, however if your ankle is hurting maybe you should rest for a day or two, i had the same problem with diving butter when i was first learning it, it put so much stress on my knee that i just wasnt ready for, so i decided to step back from it and try it only a couple times a day maybe, and then eventually i could do it, i hope that this helps you in some way.

Ps. your bags are looking awesome for the comps

Iron Clad Ben · Post by **Iron Clad Ben** » 24 Aug 2006 16:15

Thanks Zeb. I should have taken your advice, but I just really wanted to shred again today. My ankle didn't hurt at all today when I got up in the morning or while I was at work. I went home and had a short session and within ten minutes it was hurting again. I tried to just do clipper tricks but it still was interfering. Also, my quads are sore for the first time in a long time, probably since starting freestyle. It got to the point where I couldn't even pdx mirage because my body didn't want to commit to the pain.

Nothing major during the short sesh. Very close to hitting DLO, just gotta find that money set location from toe. I think I hit ducking clip > infinity for the first time. Not sure, may have it before. For my sick 3 I'm going to try to hit:

ducking clip > infinity > symp mirage

It's not genuine guiltless but I think it will be the best I can do by next Thursday. Also, near symp mirage is a fairly rare trick, I don't see it hit much. I like to do it because when you set straight up from clipper, the bag is in a really good position to hop to the side and nail the symp mirage.

For sick 1 I'm thinking ducking pdx mirage which I've hit cleanly a handful of times already. Toe ducking symp mirage would be badass, but I haven't hit it yet. It woudl take probably 100 tries or so, and I dont think I want to put my ankle through that kind of stress, especially now that I may have sustained a legitimate injury.

Inner game thoughts

I used to be of the school of thought of only blogging once a week. Now I'm going to blog every time I have a session. Just to track my progress. I'm really really determined to improve my game and get guiltless. I'd really like to be a legitimate competitor in intermediate at next year's US Open and Worlds... maybe even open if I REALLY progress.

Non footbag / general life section

Well my girlfriend and I are getting the lease on the house, it's official. She's moving in 9/15 and I will move in probably once my lease ends here in November. I'm pretty pumped. This part of town I'm in now is beautiful, but kinda lonely. I'm like practically in the country, to get to anything but the grocery store is a 4 mile drive. This new place is in a super primo location. Soooo many things within walking and biking distance. It's going to rule.

I'm a little bit angry with myself right now. During my vacation I took the time to eat right, get enough sleep and be active every day, and get plenty of exercise. As soon as I got home I fell into my old habits of staying up late, eating barely any or no breakfast, drinking lots of soda and staying up late. It's definitely effecting my footbag game. I felt like on vacation I had really made a breakthroughs in self-control and taking care of myself health-wise but as soon as I got back I reverted to my old ways. I'm really not sure what to do.

I'm turning 25 in 2 months. I think I already had my quarter life crisis though, around when I turned 24, that was probably what drove me to take up footbag so seriously.

Well I had some other ruminations jumbling around but I can't think of them now. I need to go shower and have dinner with Amber. Peace out y'all.

Benji

Iron Clad Ben · Post by **Iron Clad Ben** » 26 Aug 2006 14:59

Regular Saturday session. It was 104 degrees in Austin today

Nothing outstanding. The one highlight of the session for me was that nothing hurt! I think my ankles are healed. Also, I neglected to stretch my hip flexors, yet they did not hurt all session! I think they are finally getting stronger, which is really good to know.

7 illusions (again)

PS Mirage again, YaY! Still no luck on my flip.

pdx mirage > butter > rpt a few times

Lots of ~10 contact toe tiltless

14 contacts of clipper > near mirage > rpt

Butter + Symp Mirage + Pdx mirage BSOS in a tiltless run

Hey symposium mirages didn't hurt at all today!!

I've got reschool my pdx mirages. That trick used to be effortless for me, and I've neglected it. I need to drill it a little.

Sooooooooo fucking close to hitting whirl.

New guy John who has been showing up to our sessions has really got some natural talent. He is so close to hitting DATW it's pretty wild. He is definitely getting into things and wants to get better. He is now hitting legovers b2b.

Cody was on today, let me see if I can remember what he hit

TATW

Paradon

Very solid guiltless run that included legbeater > barrage > toe blur > atomsmasher it was an awesome run

My girlfriend is at some nanny get together. I think I'm gonna play some Baldur's Gate II. Word to your respective mothers

Post by **Zac Miley** » 26 Aug 2006 15:51

How long have you been playing footbag?

Baldur's Gate kicks ass.

Iron Clad Ben · Post by **Iron Clad Ben** » 26 Aug 2006 19:04

Isilwar wrote:How long have you been playing footbag?

Me: 10 months approximately (hacker for 13 years before that)
Cody: 6 years but did not play for 2 years so 4 years
John: 1 week with us, been hacking for a while, not sure.

Iron Clad Ben · Post by **Iron Clad Ben** » 29 Aug 2006 10:29

Session Monday night 1hr.

Session started off great. I felt alright before I got out there. I stepped on to the green, pulled out my bag and felt immediately very good.

145 consecutives

Ok yeah no big deal right? I broke my previous record of 138 (at least that I can remember). While I was doing it I just felt really good I can't explain it. I stretched a little bit. Are you digging the chronological narration of this session? I proceeded to hit

Legover x 24

This ties my standing personal record. I was pissed. I know I can do 30! I realized that I still hop to do my flipside legovers, they're still kind of symple-ish which explains why my strong illusions look much more stylie. Anyway, all those legovers drained me like no other. I was panting and my heart was racing. Really put a damper on my session actually.

I tried doing flip legovers without the hop. It's a totally different feel. I need to work on that. I can do them that way, it just takes more concentration. It will be good for my string length because I'll exert less energy. My strongside legovers require little energy but the hop from the flip ones is killing me. Plus hopefully it will help with DLO (a trick that has been plaguing me for 5 months now).

After that mainly worked on infinities and symp mirages. The latter really drains your energy quickly in a session

SOOOO close to hitting whirl and toe ducking symp mirage!

Hit PS Mirage again, but still no luck on "strong" side. Setting with my left foot is my strong pdx mirage side and dexing with my left leg is my strong symp mirage side, but it all fux up when I do PS. I've only hit PS mirage from right foot set. It feels really unnatural on the other side.

REALLY SORE after about an hour. All muscles. No joints. I think that's a good thing. Pumped to shred again after work tonight. ONLINE COMPS ARE DUE TOMORROW. HOLY S#$%!

SOOOOOO pumped about this 9/9 shred. It's gonna be off the heezy. It'll be cool to finally meet all the San Antonio guys.

Also I updated www.atxfootbag.org this weekend. It's still got a ways to go but it's looking better. A LOT of work to do to get ready for the October tournament. ohhhhhh boyyyyyyyyyyyy.

Back to work.

Ben

shredzilla · Post by **shredzilla** » 29 Aug 2006 14:23

Iron Clad Ben wrote:ONLINE COMPS ARE DUE TOMORROW. HOLY S#$%!

They're due Thursday, please don't scare me like that lol.

Iron Clad Ben · Post by **Iron Clad Ben** » 30 Aug 2006 20:20

Regular Wednesday session tonight. Hadn't seen James since before the US Open. He was back and hit some pretty impressive shit:

pdx whirl b2b > run
blender b2b > run

Plus some other stuff I've already forgotten.

Cody had some good runs, a lot of shuffle and hit spinning was on today too. He footed mobius again, I'm pretty sure he'll hit in the next week or two if he keeps trying.

I didn't hit anything fantastic other than:

clipper > infinity > symp mirage

Which I need to hit as my sick 3 tomorrow (starting with butter or infinity of course)... hmmm, that's gonna be tough to do that again. Would be dope if the symp mirage were paradox too...

I felt sore after like 20 minutes of shred. I ran out of milk a while ago and didn't buy anymore, maybe I'm not getting enough protein. Also I never seem to be able to fall asleep before 2am on Monday and Tuesday nights, which really makes me sleep deprived by Wednesday nights. Then I sleep like a baby on Saturday and Sunday morning. I need to even that shit out.

Long weekend coming up biatch! My girlfriend has to work so I'll probably just play a shitload of footbag. Hoooooray footbag!

Now I'm tired. Sleepy time. Peace out.

morsecode · Post by **morsecode** » 31 Aug 2006 09:16

I ran out of milk a while ago and didn't buy anymore, maybe I'm not getting enough protein. Also I never seem to be able to fall asleep before 2am on Monday and Tuesday nights, which really makes me sleep deprived by Wednesday nights.

Eat more raw nuts, oats, and chocolate. They are high in protein + tryptophan = less soreness and more sleep.

Good luck with that sick 3.

Iron Clad Ben · Post by **Iron Clad Ben** » 01 Sep 2006 10:57

morsecode wrote:Eat more raw nuts, oats, and chocolate. They are high in protein + tryptophan = less soreness and more sleep.

Thanks homes. I still gotta hip up Sunfresh market or whatever it's called on Lamar, get some of that trail mix. But yes I do need to eat more nuts, that's a vegetarian staple, I should know better.

Ahhh so last night I kind of played footbag. The sick comps were due and I had to represent. I didn't really warm up much, just went for tricks on camera and got lucky. Now in the past I used to like to keep my sick 1 and sick 3 a secret, but I don't give a shit right now. Here they are:

Sick 1 = PS Mirage, I hit it really clean IMO. (I also managed to hit it op side and on camera but really sloppy. I bet could BSOS the move with a butterfly if I really kept trying.)

Sick 3 = Symp Mirage > Butter > Osis More psyched that I actually HIT a respectable osis in a run than anything else.

All the hippin and the hoppin doing symposium mirage and symp mirage variants at 11pm last night on the second floor on my apartment complex must have made the neighbors overjoyed. Oh well, fuck em. Footbag rules.

ELVIS ON SPEED PLAYING TONIGHT AT HEADHUNTERS!!! BOOYAH!!!

Session this saturday. I really hope it's not 104 degrees again. It's fucking september now, would be nice to have a day in the 70s where I don't have to sweat 8lbs and of water and drink 10lbs in a single session.

Have a great weekend everyone. Fellow Americans, enjoy your long weekend. Shred it up while it lasts. Peace out

Ben

Iron Clad Ben · Post by **Iron Clad Ben** » 02 Sep 2006 13:00

Good session today. I found out this past August was the hottest month EVER in Austin. So hopefully things will cool down.

I was happy with my shred today. No new moves but Cody gave me a tip with spinning set that helped A LOT. I am soooooo close to hitting gyro mirage now, it's crazy. I sure merkon and spinning clipper will follow soon afterwards.

2.5 Hours

Session highlights

Butterfly > Pdx mirge > rpt: 8 contacts

Illusion x 13

Pdx illusion BSOS

Infinity x 6

Also, new guy John came very close to hitting rev whirl and DATW again. He can also legover B2B now. Oh and he hit pickup BSOS.

Felt good, not very much pain at all. But I'm extremely tired now from not sleeping much this week.

Nap time.

Kljopa · Post by **Kljopa** » 02 Sep 2006 13:16

Props on all the stuff you hit Ben!

Go for btfly>pdx illusion>rpt!

Pdx illusions are hot!Keep them coming and you'll be doing pdx eggbeaters!

Post by **Zac Miley** » 03 Sep 2006 17:38

I got 36 mirages.

September 2nd at about 7:30 PM Central time.

How about you?

Iron Clad Ben · Post by **Iron Clad Ben** » 03 Sep 2006 18:46

I was not expecting you guys to break the record so soon. I haven't even tried since I posted that thing about joining the race to 30. In fact I didn't even shred today. However, there was one highlight of the day

Freckled Lemonade x 6

Zeb Jackson · Post by **Zeb Jackson** » 03 Sep 2006 23:30

nice!

you get an "adda boy" for that one!