The Inshredible Bulk: Not Trending, Not Roll Spiking Either

[Zeke]

I got to work early on Wednesday only to find out that we didn't start until 11:30. I went out and got some McDonald's and spent a nice quiet breakfast in the park. During the meal I must have attracted about a half dozen squirrels. Some of them were even bold enough to jump on the bench I was sitting on to see if I would give them any scraps. I managed to take a few good shots.

I'm really pissed at myself that I was unable to meet with Brad while he was in town. No net for the first part of the week so I could let my knee heal. I've taken to calling it Scabzilla. Thursday was a light session at Welles with Vince, Carrie and Tommy. Scabzilla was irritating me and really kept me from playing well. I was giving good sets off of hand-tosses the whole session. Hit a strong sunback and a good sweep. Nice to see Carrie come out and kick again.

Saturday I was biking towards the lake front on my way to kick with Vince at Roosevelt Park. I was on some tight side street when a car door opened up just as I was passing by. My bar end got caught and I flipped over onto the friggin' street. I swear to god as I was starting to fall I was thinking, "Muthafuck, not again!" I hit the ground pretty hard but I managed to roll back towards the parked cars to avoid getting run over. Thankfully, cars were pretty much stopped to see what had happened. Before I could really take in all that was going on, I was soon surrounded by all these people asking if I was ok. I didn't know which one of them was the one that opened the door until some lady with the most fearful look on her face came up and apologized then asked if I needed an ambulance. "At least your bike is still ok, I think..." I took the bike from her and practically threw it over the trunk of a car and into the grass. I hobbled over next to it so I could get my head together and check myself out. It seemed like a small crowd was gathering and asking questions. I was actually very surprised how genuinely worried most of them were. Some other lady gave back my water bottle that flew down the street. Another woman gave me some wipes to clean up the cuts and a third helped check my back for anything I might have missed. It all helped to calm me down and start telling everyone that I was ok. At this point all I really wanted was to for all of them to go the hell away. The door-er kept asking if there was anything she could do. I said I was ok and she should not worry about anything. She practically vanished ninja style after hearing that. I thanked everyone else for their kindness and they went back to their business soon after.

I called Vince ant told him what happened. I was going to bail on him, ride my sorry ass back home and lock myself in my room for 3 months. Somehow, he convinced me to play anyway and that he would just drive to Welles instead of me going to Roosevelt. I'm such a dumb-ass. So I biked to Welles, cleaned my new cuts and just lay in the shade in the middle of the park until Vince showed up. The outside of my right calf had a good sized bruise and was swelling a little but I managed to play on it anyway. We split 2 boring games. I was surprised that I was able to play at all, let alone winning a game. My serves are what killed him. I practiced sweeps over the net before finally calling it quits. Vince took off and I stayed at Welles for another half hour or so. Part of it was me not wanting to go home early on such a nice day and the other was me being paranoid of falling off my bike into traffic. I finally work up the nerve to slowly cruise back home to shower, clean up my new cuts and ice my swollen calf. Between Scabzilla and the new injuries I found that falling asleep and staying comfortable enough to stay asleep was incredibly difficult.

Woke up early to find the swelling had gone down significantly but my calf was still feeling very tight. Ate breakfast, got my stuff ready to go and watched a bunch of net videos to get me motivated. Tommy picked me up. We drove back to his place to pick up his finance and his net court then drove to union. They insisted I stay in the front seat while she sat in back. For whatever reason I felt weird about it. Kate seemed very cool. There were some amusing moments where she and Tommy were already acting like a married couple. Scot and Vince were the only other CLCK members to come out. Al and his friend John from Santa Cruz came later in the day. I was really disappointed that Alan and Ronny didn't make it. It was still a good session. The mood was more laid back than usual and everyone played well.

My serves are still the most solid aspect of my game at this point. My sets were off at first but eventually got them to where they needed to be later in the day. Spikes are still few and far between but I did manage to tattoo Tommy at the end of a good rally. It was payback since he tagged me earlier with a pulldown that hit my right shoulder. While playing together, I set him for another big pulldown to win game point. Scot had turned one of my sloppy sets into a half spinning toe reverse. Play of the day came when Tommy asked if Al wanted a tattoo. Sure enough, the next play Tommy crushes a big spike into Al who tried to get a block over the net. I literally jumped out of my seat hysterically when it happened! It was so great!.


I ended up with Scot's court since he left early. I want to use it as much as possible before I give it back next weekend.
Monday - spike practice @ Warren Park. Early morning before work
Tuesday - Wall practice @ Welles unless I can arrange a session with the twins at Peterson Park after work.
Wednesday - spike practice @ Warren Park. Early morning before work
Thursday - tentative session with Tommy and Vince @ Welles around 6pm
Friday - spike practice @ Warren Park. Early morning before work
Weekend - depends on Labor day, Jazzfest, and the very slim chance of going to Funtastics

Pics from todays session. Full set here


Photo by Al


Photo by Al


Photo by Kate

Zeke - "He didn't even try to set me in 2 games..."
Vince - "It's Zeke's fault we lost to Tommy."
Tommy - "You guys still fucking suck!"

[Chim-Chim]

I'll come out tuesday, that last pic is hilarious.. you despondent MF's need to beat him someday

[Zeke]

Jere Mirkennnnennnn's Tip Checklist

(X) 1) Kicking power with another person (1 touch back and forth) with about 7-10 feet of distance between you is the BEST way to improve your net game if you have a partner available.

(X) 2) If no partner is available, as boring as you may find it, kick against a wall. You can practice all of your kicks aganst a surface that will ALWAYS return the bag back to you at an angle you should expect. this is the quickest way to get kicks, likely 500 kicks in 5-7 minutes, as opposed to 200 in 5 minutes of power with a partner.

(_) If at all possible, Power kick with Reile 10 minutes each day. Have him toss you bags to your weak kicks and just practice kicking it right back to him. Vice versa.

(_) Have him toss you spikes or toss your own (spikes, not salad) outside.

(_) Dynamic stretching (actually attempting to high kick or increase flex by using kicking motions) is better than passive stretching (sitting down lengthening the muscles)

(X) Call Cory Current and Scot Hansen and see if they will commit to powering/kicking singles with you once weekly, or once every other week, once monthly even.

(_) play squares with a net bag and make the squares a bit bigger

(X) You gotta get outta Chicago for a few days and usurp the resources of others to regain the used-user balance. You're welcome to usurp my living space whenever you feel like flying out!

(X) 1) practice jumping spikes for more net clearance. We short folks are at a dis advantage.

(_) 2) pick your two best kicks and learn to set with them exclusively

(_) 3) take as many serves as possible during warm up before you start playing games during your sessions

(_) 4) When on the court, focus on maximum control over the bag, taking all the power out of others kicks while directing them to your partner, and bump at 8 feet, set at 12.

(X) 5) Learn to hit an effective serve!

(X) -power: 1 touch passing involving 2 people

(X) -power: 2 touch passing involving two people (a set and an over)

(_) -power: 1 touch passing involving three people (V formation with 1 player in the hot spot (i.e., both players always kick back to the hot spot kicker))

(X) -serve practice/ bump practice: 20, then switch.

(X) -spike drills: one player hand tosses, other player practices 1 spike at a time. Alternate form involves practicing 2 spikes at a time, with setter's option to set either spike. Digger (s) on other side is optional.

(_) -spike drill: one hand tosser to 2, 3, or 4 spikers who all practice the same spike in assembly line fashion. Spike, then file to back of line. Requires numerous bags of course, and a shagger.

(X) -dig practice: one player stands at net and throws or paddles bags at a player's feet on opposite side of net, 4-6 feet from the net. Quick throws to increase foot speed and reaction time.

(_) -advanced: power 1 touch passing involving 2 people: one player always lobs, other player always hits low line drive "offense"

(X) Keep in mind that during a practice session you can either play 5 games during which you hit a total of 50 serves or so, or you can drill serves during warm-up for 10 minutes, hitting 80 in that shorter period, and them play your games. The same can be said for all of the basic skills.

(_) you need to do yourself a favor and get about 15 net bags- usually 5 dollars each when purchased in bulk from Manu at footbagnet.com. Increased efficiency for all skills practiced in drill format.

(X) Play with with Scot Cory, and Tommy- that would be a good 4 some.

(_) tell your partners what you want to accomplish in the game, not necessarily winning, but working on a skill such as precise bumping, or improving court positioning for defense, or giving eachother at least 5 spikable sets, etc.

[Zeke]

I rushed through my warm ups since I was running late. I wonder now if I had taken my time to loosen up if I would have had better results. Took me a while to get the net set up at Warren. I planned to set it up close to the wall I practice against so I could drill spikes without the excessive walking to retrieve the footbags. I could not get the stakes far enough into the ground and close to enough to the wall as I would have liked. The net ended up being about 15ft or so away. Not too bad but not as convenient as it could have been.

It's finally sinking in that I really need to jump to execute most, if not all, of my spikes. Early standing sweep and scuff attempts kept hitting the net. So I tried and hit a couple scissor sweeps. I've noticed that it takes a lot of effort and energy to perform this. I was hitting standing sunbacks and toe reverses consistently and did more reps of these than any other spikes just because it felt good to get lots of contacts. Standing pulldowns should be completely abandoned in favor a flying pulldown. I'll need to work on this more to be confident enough to use it though. I practiced side axes and hit a couple good ones. I really should use this more during games. Overall, I missed more attempts than I hit. As frustrating as todays practice over the net was, it seems like the most practical way to learn spikes. As solo practice goes, it's definitely closest to a real game. You know immediately if it's going over the net of if it lands in for a kill. I'm gonna hate giving Scot's court back.

I am fairly pleased at how my serves, sets and defense have been progressing but lately, I have felt like my spike practice against the wall or with the hanging target hasn't been showing on the court. Is my training ineffective? Am I still too tentative on the court? Am I expecting too much out of myself after only a year of playing? I'll get a few good spikes during games and maybe a handful of weak but effective contacts. Most of the time I kick the bag into the net, blast it out of bounds or just flat out whiff. I need to kick the living shit out of the bag every chance I get but it just doesn't happen. What the fuck?

The next next game I play I just need to swing hard at anything that comes near me. Fuck sets. Fuck banging. Fuck placement. Fuck winning on serves up its asspipe. I want kills.

Damn, I'm in such a foul mood...

[Zeke]

Uploaded some video onto flickr of my last spike practice session.

standing sweep
scissor sweep
side axe



BTW, I'll be at Jazzfest Saturday and Sunday around 2pm

[Senor Grommet]

Im not sure if this will make sense to you but:

When doing a "side axe", which is called a "shta-taff" (spelling simplified for pronunciation's sake), you want the kicking motion to go from 10 to 4 (on a clock) or 11 to 5. Although it is difficult to tell, it appears as if your motion is going completely sideways, or 9 to 3. Just something to think about. You motion def. makes the landing easier, but the spike less effective. I'm watchign the other ones now.

[Zeke]

Sometimes I feel like learning to play net is like starting a new character in Diablo and I'm stumbling my way through the dark dungeons alone because the rest of my party can only play once a week and you're like this enchanted item that I find that gives +2 to light and boosts my attack rating. You're totally like a level 56 Jeremancer or Jerbarian.








Seriously though,
thanks!

I think I see what you're saying though, I need to slice it downward. I actually thought side axe and ssssttataaahhfffff (whateverthe fuck you spell that danm phony-ass word) were 2 different spikes where side axe drives straight and sht... ssshhhttaaa - you know which one- is the motion you described.

[Asmus]

Thanks for the comments on my artwork (doodles really). Appreciated!

And thanks for the link to that documentary about footbag I look forward to watch it when I have time.

Hope to meet you someday.

- A

[Zeke]

The fact the they're doodles don't make them any less interesting or worthwhile. It's funny how little things can be inspirational. I've been meaning to comment on your work for some time actually, I've just been away from flickr for a while. For that [net] documentary, the volume is barely audible during interviews but becomes really high whenever there is music on.

Ok, short(er) write ups this time. I promise. Thursday I helped my older brother install a few items into his pc and began to dislike his wife.

Saturday I biked down to Jazzfest and it was dead. Nathan and I hacked for a bit before meeting with Tom then walked to Millenium Park to kick there instead. After Tom left to visit Reile, Nathan and I went back to Jazzfest to hack with Alan. Pretty cool guy even though Nathan taught him to stall [Shaking my fist at the one eight] but he seemed a bit distracted the whole time. It was still fun to kick with him again. We were the only people kicking, no one joined us. I threw a disc around with Alan before going home. The wind was blowing north so the ride was nice and easy.

Sunday it was decided that the suckage of Justfest was to be avoided so Nathan and I played at Welles with the Raye twins instead. Even played some squares afterwards. I was impressed at how well Nathan defended with that left contact messing with his vision most of the time. He and I later ate at Potbelly's and had our obligatory bitter old man rants about footbag. At one point he eye rolled so hard... his contact came off! We also came up with some good ideas for anti-routines.

Today I got a late call from Vince to play some Net at Welles. It never ceases to amaze me how kids just happen to spring up near us whenever we set up a court in that damned park. I finished 3-1 but all the games were pretty close which made them more fun to play.

I may do another morning spike practice on Wednesday and Friday. Thursday I have to babysit my nieces from 12-4.

[Moxie]

Jeremy's check list is okay, but the (not work friendly) check list here is way better for you personally.

[Zeke]

LOL! nice, but don't tempt me...


Continuing with the animal theme of this page I give you Hoagie, the rubber band shooting dog:
Video 1
Video 2 (note the laugh at the end)

[Zeke]

On Saturday I biked up to Roosevelt Park to play some singles against Vince. We played 9 games. I won the fist 4, coming from behind on 3 of the games. Then, astonishingly, he takes the next 4 games in a row!. I won the last one to break the tie. I felt I was playing well. I was able to set myself after receiving 5 successive serves but was never able to capitalize with a spike.

On Sunday Marty, his friend Cholo and Cuba joined Josh, Nathan, Freddy, Tom and myself at Welles. It was great to play a big game of squares. Cuba was as effective (and wierd) as usual but Marty was rusty. Freddy only played a few games. During one round, he screened me against Marty and kicked what was damn near the sexiest shot ever. Freddy was in 1sq screening near the middle of the court while I faded to the right corner in 2sq. Because I was so far back, the pass peaked in well in front of the screener, passing within inches of his ankles (he stood perfectly still, BTW) and landing less than in inch past the line into Ksq for the kill. Even if Marty was tracking the bag the whole time, he would have had to damn near kick Freddy in his square to defend the shot. Nathan continued his solid defense and Tom was on fire with his self screens.

I played 2-square against Tom when it was just the Rav5(-1) left in the park. I served game point and soon dug one of his shots high and about 5 feet out left side of his square. I ran out looking for a save and he stepped out to check me. I jumped up and bitch slapped (a net spike that goes from out to in but hitting with the sole of the foot, aka sole sweep) the bag in an arc over Tom, who had stopped in his tracks to cover up, then dropped behind him into his vacant square for the win. My loud, jubilant celebration was cut short when I found that Freddy & Nathan had not seen what had happened. It's ok. I was there, I remember clearly. He took the next 2 games and I managed to squeak out one more win to tie the series.

[CIC flurry]

Then luscious potbelly's and would you rather ensued.

[Zeke]

That's right! Although I was unusually quite at the end of the day. I think it seeing that lady trying to sell Streetwise papers was getting to me. Still, I did get to see that girl skipping away merrily then suddenly stumbling on the curb. That was pretty funny.

[Senor Grommet]

One thing that I've learned about singles, which you may know already, is that good strategy is to only spike when the set is perfect. If the set is average, or even good, you are better off making a placement shot. Placement shots might be 1) dinks, 2) lobs to the back line, 3) lobs deep to the corners, or 4) just putting it to your opponent's weaker back kick.

Players who spike on average sets get dug, and the dig generally goes right over their heads and falls in a completely open court. The last piece of advice I might give you is that the most effective serve you can use on an intermediate player, even a lower level pro player, is a lob serve to the back line. This is, in fact much more effective than a sweep serve, at least in the singles game.

I bet that if you use these pieces of advice in your games against Vince, that your winning percentage will go from 50% to 80% in about 2 weeks. Try it out and see what happens.

[Zeke]

Overhead of my room done on photoshop. This is to help me plan out my new room when I move in a month. It started out as just plain colored shapes but I got bored and started to add more and more detail.

[CIC flurry]

Yeah, that looks exactly like the deddy.

[Frank_Sinatra]

NYJ t-shirt design?

[Zeke]

That's just the rough draft.



















Here's the final...




















Edit:
Someone please re post this picture when we get to the top of a new page.

[Frank_Sinatra]

I'd buy several.