Mammoth Springs Training Center is open!

Of course, shredding footbag freestyle requires flat, level surfaces.  Ideally concrete, asphalt or hardwood but not slippery like marble or some polished hardwoods.  In the winter I frequently comment on how shredding in a back hallway of polished concrete with a half inch layer of dust, and I whine about it because I know that there is a parking lot nearby that is calling my name.

I call it Mammoth Springs Training Center!  Featuring plenty of sun and real-world wind conditions.  An asphalt surface that doesn't transfer black to your Rod Lavers.  A view of the river, and plenty of privacy to crank up the tunes and shred up a storm.  In reality, it is the back parking lot of the Doubletree hotel here in Oak Brook, but there is a rock with a historic plaque out front that commemorates the rich history that this site contains.  Mammoth Springs is where the people who settled this area got all their ice from.  Before electric refrigeration, they needed ice in the summer, so they build giant insulated ice houses and froze water all winter and distributed it all summer using the river channel that still runs through today.

I look forward to playing everyday, and when I am stuck at work and playing at my "Lunch", usually at the 11:00am hour, this is where you'll find me.

Shred on brothers and sisters!

-enlightener

Shred notes: 5/29/10
Working on routine every day, at least one run-through on tape.  Cool new 'heel' moves leg overs and DLO's ending in Heel.  Cool sole stuff too.  Video being prepped on Spring update with all this fun stuff I've been doing.

Rooted, and the Pure Solo modification

This is a concept that has been literally stumbled upon by many, but until now, not fully embraced as a concept in the Footbag freestyle community. I think Rooted tricks deserve a Body add, much like Symposium gets... and Pure Solo tricks definitely should get an extra add.  Not that I really care about adds.
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Definition of 'Rooted':
When a player both catches and lands with the same foot at the same time while the other leg does not touch the ground.


Modification of 'Pure Solo':
When a player shows balance and control after a Rooted catch by freezing position, ideally with a difficult balancing position, like grabbing the non-rooted foot with other hand.

Almost every trick that ends with a toe delay can be Rooted.  Possible that clippers could be Rooted, but unlikely.  Well I did experiment with that and found it is possible, but since I needed to step down almost immediately after the Rooted inside and walk over it, there was no chance of a Solo modification to this, and it was really hard to see if it was even rooted.  So I'm not going to break my ankles over this.  I suppose someone with complete 'crankle' can pull it off, but no rush there for me.


Today I hit some more new ones:
Paradox Solo DLO,
Nuclear Solo toe pickup

The ultimate would be to do all of them Pure.

Rooted is not a new concept, but up until now it has only been stumbled upon by players as a bail.  For instance, even when I do a clipper set step plus extra mirage and end with Rooted it 'feels' like a bail.  When it is done intentionally, it adds an element of difficulty to the tricks that have been modified by it, and deserves an add when being counted.   It can be applied to any trick ending on a toe.  Pure Solo Rooted indicates a grab and frozen balance position at the point of the Rooted maneuver.


Watch the movie above to see many examples of Rooted and Pure Solo.  Ran out of battery today, but added a few new tricks to this concept.


-enlightener



Shred notes: 5/23/10
Been xooting at every chance, no time to blog.  Too bad, as I've been skooling hard.  Today is 1250 Days in a row shredding!  I'll be at Great America all day, so it should be fun.  I've been alternating indoors and out, as weather is still unreliable.  Indoors I skool new tricks and experimental stuff, outdoors I skool routines.  I've been through routine with 1 and 2 drops and 80% accuracy several times, and on tape.  I've hit many new tricks recently, at least new for me... 
Phobic symp rooted mirage. 
Rooted atom smasher
Paradox Rooted DLO,
Nuclear Rooted toe pickup

Ever get the feeling you've hit a trick before?

Yesterday, I hit Nuclear Paradox Twirl and Fairy Symp. Mirage on film, many times.  I am not sure that never before in the world of footbag freestyle (hacky-sack) has anyone hit Nuclear Paradox Twirl, NOR am I certain that it deserves the Paradox (but I know it should)... just note it is the opp twirl I do from the side I nuclear set on.  So L clipper set, L let nuclear set, R leg Twirl ending in L clipper again.  I think symposium might be possible too.

Sometimes I wonder if I have hit this move before.  I'm going to search my archives here and my notes otherwise, but I remember Allan H. hitting this before.  Somehow this feels familiar, but I love it!

See ya!
Scott 'Enlightener' Davidson


Shred notes: 5/13/10
Today I nearly hit what I can only describe as: "Pixie set, backside symposium toe blur"  Battery ran out, and I had only gotten close, not quite hit it.  I think I need to finish the 2nd dex faster to get time for the pickup.  If I obsess for too long on any one trick, I risk injury so I have to move on for now.

Note: Epic Fail technical error due to 'fat fingers' on iphone accidentally causing premature publication of a blog post that was barely a draft.  Then no known reason, when I try to type in my browser view of blogger.com on my iphone, it makes every character a capital letter, very strange.  Sorry.

11 years late, but never too soon!

I won the 1999 World Footbag Championships, Footbag Freestyle Singles event.   I have only seen my performance twice since then, it is as if no one recorded it.

We did have a great recording done with professional cameras, but that footage got lost immediately after the event, during a move, and I have never seen it.  So I got in touch with our videographer by chance through facebook, and he finally tracked down the footage and is putting it in the mail so I can get it up on YouTube.  I can't wait.  I really can't wait.  

Shred notes: 5/11/10 - Skooled routines today.  Really got into it after about a half hour warmup.  The past few days have been productive... Nuclear Paradox Twirl and Fairy Symposium Mirage.  The first is a new trick as far as I can tell, and the 2nd is new to me.

Sometimes Innovation results from 'playing around the pain.'

(New trick - Phobic Symposium Mirage) I have had some weird pains this past week.  The top of my left foot hurt like I had bruised it, but there is no visible bruise nor injury that would explain it.  Before that my right hamstring has been in pain, so I was playing around that pain.  Soon I should be back at 100%, but I still haven't missed a day.  Today is 1234 days in a row shredding hard!  1234 is one of my favorite numbers, it is also one of my favorite times of day.  I like the way this number looks and 'feels'.

I was playing around the left foot pain, which was there especially when I landed hard on that foot, so a lot of tricks hurt.  I decided to skool tricks that didn't stress that foot.  I got into some phobic sets, and stumbled upon a new trick.  Phobic symposium mirage.  So this sets from my left toe, fairy-style but I turn to the right as the footbag travels behind me, then plant right foot and do a symposium mirage ending back on the same left toe I started on.  It sure was fun to get to a new trick (at least, new for me) and I got it on tape too.  I was able to skool it a lot without even stressing the left foot 'bruise'.  This pain has occurred before, so I hope it doesn't come back.

See ya!
-enlightener

Shred notes: 5/7/10
I've been listening to my music over and over during my workouts, and at least half the time skooling my routine for worlds.  Trying to keep a balance between working on advancing my game and still being prepared for worlds.  Not taking it easy because of the little pains I have, just playing around them and taking a bit longer to get warm.

Fun with advanced concepts...

I was shredding footbag freestyle in my living room today, after playing at Great America yesterday, and I got to thinking about concepts.  A concept is an added level of difficulty or specific motion that can be added to many existing tricks to make them different.  Among the many concepts that are well established are Symposium and Paradox.  I have been working on the Rooted concept for the past week or so, misunderstanding it and calling it Solo most of the time (I'm publishing a video that focuses on Rooted concept with tons of new tricks).  The concept that got me obsessed today was Ducking/Diving.

With most concepts, it is just a matter of time before we get comfortable with them and incorporate them into our daily shreds.  In many cases, concepts can be applied to so many different tricks, that it increases variety potential almost exponentially!

(Shred Notes: 5/3/10) I have hit many, many, many different ducking/diving tricks and today I thought of another one or two.  Probably done by others, but worth mentioning.  I hit Diving Barfly (harder than it sounds) and Diving Down Double Down.  I almost hit Paradox Diving Dyno, so close.