Footbag Freestyle Shred Blog

Shred Lessons from 2011

2012-01-02T18:31:00.001-06:00

Looking back over 2011, we travelled to Florida for vacation, my son is now a teenager, my wife and I have been married for 20 years and life is great. I have been playing freestyle everyday for 5 years and about a dozen days, and I've learned a lot about my game.

After shredding with the Finns, Jay Boychuck and Evan Gatesman at the 2011 NYJ, I realize that while my level of play has increased, my string length has decreased. It has also become apparent that there are some elements of the game that have developed over the past few years that I won't ever accomplish, at least in the context of a string.

I'm committed to working on my string length, starting tomorrow. While it may slow down the progression towards new tricks, I need to work on my endurance. I'm going to shift my training towards 'wind sprint' style. I do a 2 minute jam session followed by 1-2 minutes of kicking... repeat for 30 minutes and complete exhaustion. These jam sessions will produce the stamina I need to get to longer strings. The I'll alternate my trainings with regular jam sessions of whatever I want.

Once I get my endurance back, I'll work on the new concepts that blow my mind like Quantum, Blazing (which I've had some recent success with), Whirring and more! Currently taking suggestions (challenges).

Of course, I'm committed to continuing to play everyday. In early May, I should reach 2000 days in a row playing, I haven't figured out the day yet.

I really wish I could have played with everyone during the afternoon sessions at NYJ, but playing through Midnight on New Years Eve was awesome.

I look forward to shredding with as many others as possible this year, it really pushes my game to a new level each time.

Best regards,
Scott Davidson
-enlightener

Playing at a Handicap

2011-11-22T15:04:00.001-06:00

Given ideal circumstances, I can expect a certain level of play from myself on any given day. So when all the elements of a training session come together, and they usually do, I will generally achieve my goals, and when the stars are aligned, I'll hit new tricks and even innovate newer ones.

There are a lot of elements to a great session, so missing one or two of them isn't a critical fail, but can serve to throw my focus off. The most satisfying sessions have a time and a location, having a set of shred clothes (shorts, shirt, socks, shoes, Spenco insoles, unmentionables and a towel), a few good Footbags, music, speaker, batteries, water, lighting, weather, and a heaping helping of motivation.

When I play, I'll start with warm ups, then work on my personal goals. So if any of the physical aspects of the session are missing, they could have a negative effect on my outcome from that day, but I don't allow that to happen.

Today I forgot a few critical elements of my shred session, namely my Footbags and my kicking shorts. Luckily I carry around a few giveaway Footbags in case I run into kids who play, so I repurposed two of those Footbags into 'demo' Footbags. As for the missing shorts, it just so happens that I wear biz-casual shorts at work, which are longer, have pockets but are not an athletic cut. So I used some new Footbags and a non-athletic cut pair of shorts, and did I mention that Paul Blartt at my mall just told me NOT to kick in my standard double-secret location? So i was worried that I would be asked to leave at any moment. All kinds of things that I could have used as excuses... But I didn't.

Today, even though I was playing at a handicap, I hit all kinds of tight window tricks, like loco (like blurry drifter but the first dex is symposium) paradox drifter on both sides. also tons of eclipses including my first gyro eclipses on my flip side.

So don't get discouraged if things don't go just right. Stay focused and you'll have a great training session.

-enlightener
1799 days in a row shredding. So far.

Closing one door opens another!

2011-10-28T20:37:00.000-05:00

I was skooling my Quantums during a recent session. I found a great tutorial by Matt Cross on youtube and was able to really get an understanding of it. But after two days of intense skool, I ended up tweaking my knee in a weird way. Today I noticed that when I turn into a spin with my right leg as the plant, I felt a shooting pain from the knee.

In order to still complete my 1773rd day in a row of shredding, I needed to divert the focus of the playtime to something that wasn't painful, and wouldn't jeopardize my knee in the long term. I decided to 'close the door' on spinning for a day. Which actually turned out to be a little more of a challenge than was apparent at the moment. If you've seen my videos, spinning is a big part of my game.

As it turns out, when I close the door to one thing, it often opens the door to another. It was a bigger challenge than I thought to 'not' spin in my play-time. For a while, I flailed miserably. I would do a big string of tricks without spinning, then inevitably, I would spin. And I would feel a slight pain in my right knee. After a while I got frustrated with all the spinning just happening, seemingly on its own, certainly without my conscious intent. So I put the clamps on. Every time a spin almost happened, I caught the footbag. It was creating shorter strings, but forced me to NOT spin.

And so it went. I worked on some specific mini-strings. Blur to LegBeater (atomic butterfly), and I eventually hit two continuous cycles on both sides, but not in the same string. I did a lot of blurry whirl and paradox whirl and tomahawk sequences. I hit Tomahawk to Blurry Whirl on both sides too. The biggest thing I hit was Nuclear paradox reverse drifter on my left side (nuclear implies 'reverse drifter' to the initiated).

All in all, I was able to pull off a high-quality training session, hit some long-lost tricks. I really sharpened my blades on LegBeater - Blur sequence on both sides and that felt great. As usual, I had a blast playing today, as I do every day.

Thanks for all your support!

-Enlightener

Athlete first, Street Performer second...

2011-07-31T08:38:00.000-05:00

I have always struggled with the 'freestyle footbag as street performance' aspect of the game. I love playing in front of crowds, it somehow improves my string length, and it is a great experience to even be able to draw a crowd. But when people say, "You should put out a hat...!" I never had a great response until now.

I'm an Athlete first, and a Street performer second! So in that sense I do not rely on income from footbag endeavors, and when I play in front of crowds, I usually play in a casual circle. So looking in from the outside, we are a group of people who each take successive turns and we always pass in the same direction. If you watch carefully, we give each other props for good strings, and there is a fairness to it all, in that we each get equal opportunity to do our best tricks. We play like athletes. When we play in public, we organically draw crowds, people watch us play, but we are playing because we are all athletes trying to improve ourselves, not because we are asking for money. There is an element of 'showing off', but from my personal standpoint, I am really just trying to put together long strings of guiltless tricks while jamming to the music. I'm trying to better my overall game, while maybe getting some of the best of it on video. It's always a great feeling when people give us money when we are not asking for it, they can see the value of passive entertainment.

I've seen my share of effective street performers, and they all have a process. They rile up a crowd. They build up the excitement by engaging passersby to stay for a few minutes for a big performance. With street dancers, jugglers, gymnasts and musicians, they all draw a crowd and build up suspense for an upcoming show. Nothing draws a crowd like a crowd. The whole point of getting people riled up is to get them to open up their wallets and give you money after your performance. The Street Performers have a 'schtick', a short performance, planned which all builds up to a climactic ending and then they ask for money. The street performers day is cyclical because they repeat this process for the next group of passersby. They are organized around the goal of raising money.

I have great respect for Jugglers, Breakers and Gymnasts who can pull off these kind of shows. They not only have the athletic talent it takes to pull off dynamic tricks, but the performance awareness to monetize on it. I really wish I had 1/10th the natural performance ability of someone like Peter Irish or Tim Kelly. They can pull off the hard tricks, with the music and smile looking good the whole time.

So when you see me shredding with my friends next time, please join our circle or watch us try our best tricks, but don't expect too much of an organized show, we're purely shredding for the enjoyment of it! Not to mention that if we put a hat out, the police in Chicago would either give us a hella-expensive violation or they would kick us out, and we don't want either of those!

I'm an Athlete first, and a Street performer second!

Best regards,
-Enlightener

Shred Notes: 7/31/11 - 1684 Days in a row shredding today. Been skoolin' tons of juggles, seamless in and out. osis, spinning osis and twirls into Stepping tricks like blurs, blizzards, blurry whirls and stepping same osis. Still playing at Mammoth Springs Training Center in Oak Brook, IL mostly. Vacation coming up. Keep playing!

How Dragons (and outsider) led me to Heels and Refractions

2011-07-03T20:09:00.000-05:00

Recently, Jonathon Schneider came to town and I spent weeks preparing my dragons. I suppose his openness to body rolls and alternative surfaces led me to reassess my heels and my Refractions.

Since he was here, I've hit an astonishing array of new tricks. Well, modified From tricks I've mastered, but tHis is the basis of my freestyle theory, that freestyle is component based. All my future tricks are the product of my past tricks.

Double leg over ending in heel
Whirl ending in heel
Gyro whirl ending in heel
Whirling refraction
Spinning butterfly refraction.
Stepping opp whirl ending in heel.

That is just the past 3 days.

Then I watched a video of David Clavens and my mind was blown. The guy is a god. Wow. Makes me wonder how. How. How? Wow.

See ya!
Enlightener

Dragon Osis vs. Drag - A Freestyle footbag trick study

2011-06-09T06:47:00.000-05:00

Dragon Osis vs. Drag - A Freestyle footbag trick study

Inspired by a visit by Jonathan Schneider in early June (This Week!), I'm moved to study Dragon tricks, of which Jonathan is the worlds foremost scholar.

What I have been calling Dragon Osis for the past 10 years or so is really a "Drag"... the opposite of Osis because it starts in x-body position and carries to regular position, where Osis starts in regular position and ends up in cross body position.

(Music: "Sweetest Little Feeling MIX" by Matt Cross)

From Youtube:
Traditional Dragon leads to Dragon Siso and then to Dragon Osis...
What I always thought was Dragon Osis is really the opposite. Osis starts in regular position and carries/turns *into* cross-body and I have always considered the 'Siso' tricks presented here as Dragon *Osis* trick prior. In this video I also show my first 'actual' Dragon Osis trick. Jonathan Schneider, the worlds leading scholar on Dragon tricks, thinks of *Siso* tricks as the equivalent of a rake, but I think they deserve their own classification.
This video contains:
Whiling Dragon Siso
Butterfly Dragon Siso
Ripwalk Dragon Siso
Fairy Butterfly Dragon Siso
Fairy Same Dragon Siso
Barfly Dragon Siso
Dragon Siso Juggle

Oh, and Blurry Reverse Whirl. What is unique about this is that I stumbled upon it trying to end in Siso. Just stumbled on it.

Music: "Sweetest Little Feeling MIX" by Matt Cross

Stimpy Concept - Freestyle Footbag evolves steadily...

2011-04-20T13:58:00.000-05:00

Stimpy Concept. New from Enlightener.

A Concept is something that applies to many possible tricks, making them unique. Symposium, Paradox, Atomic and Nuclear are all Concepts. The Stimpy Concept applies when the following conditions are met... When you Leap, Dex, Land AND Catch the footbag with the same foot. So far I have hit 4 tricks that are Stimpy. They are in the video below. Mostly variations on Double Leg Over.

Enjoy!
-Enlightener

Shred Notes: Have had a burst of creativity lately. Hit what I think is Spinning Symposium Swiveling Osis? I have near-hits on film. Other strange tricks like: Nuclear inspinning mirage/torque, I have scratched the back of my leg up pretty good trying this one. Took today off. Gotta look at my camera and see if any of this stuff is worth publishing. cant wait until spring weather, getting outdoors and in the sun and really start back into long strings. Hallway shredding on polished concrete is getting old.

Footbag Unions - I miss ISUFU

2011-04-16T06:58:00.001-05:00

Remember the ISUFU?

It was an official Footbag Club of the Illinois State University. And it had the best t-shirts ever, because they always emphasize the FU part.

Every college student should create a club at their school called, for instance, MSUFU. Where the school's call letters are followed by FU which is a double entendre for Footbag Union and/or Fuck You. Which I think is just edgy and disrespectful enough for todays college footbag enthusiasts. They don't even have to register their FU with the school, although that gives them some benefits, it also creates some paperwork. In the case of ISUFU, Scott Cheno the President actually did make it an official club at the school, and he used those privileges to do philanthropic work. I remember going to an all night kick-a-thon at ISU where we raised money for the AHA. It was a blast to go to, and I was honored to be a part of it.

This club was active in the late 90's. Lets get more Footbag Unions at colleges. It makes for a great t-shirt too!

If anyone knows what happened to Scott Cheno, have him get in touch with me.

-enlightener

Check out my youtube playlists of freestyle footbag videos...

2011-03-24T16:17:00.000-05:00

The reason for this post was to let you know that I have reorganized my 100 youtube videos into playlists, located at my channel:

http://www.youtube.com/footbagenlightener

and click on the Playlists option.

See videos in the following categories:

-Competition Videos (23)

-Contest Videos (8)

-Doubles Freestyle

-Footbag in the News

-Lunch Shred Videos (46)

-Promo Videos (17)

-Youth Outreach

More categories forthcoming...

Happy St. Patricks Day! I was shredding that day and made a quick little video on my phone, but when I published it to youtube, I selected 'private' and so no one saw my video. Honestly, the phone app failed 5 times before it published, so I had to retype, on the phone, all of the details each time, even with copy and paste, it took forever. Frustrating. Now it is up, and ready to view...

Setting from Dragon tricks... how does he do it?

2011-03-04T12:17:00.000-06:00

I have to wonder how Jonathan Schneider sets from Dragon tricks. He keeps the footbag on the cross-body side, but every time I try it, the set doesn't go up so much as hits my body and uncontrollably falls to the ground. No video today of the dragon work, but I'm skooling the hell out of them. Except I tend to spin 'out' of the catch, so I wonder sometimes if my Dragon's aren't really just outside catches. I'll do some filming next week.

Today I was going to take it easy, no high-impact, no big twists, as I did tweak my upper back and neck area from those Stomping Spyro Slalom tricks from yesterday. But then it turned out that all I did was twisty tricks like Dragons. Ironically, I thought I was innovating yesterday, but I had done that trick, and published it on youtube back in January. So all it took was 2 months to forget a new trick. Glad I ran into it again. Check out my video from yesterday...

Now check out the one from a couple of months ago...

High Impact tricks are always high energy tricks...

2011-02-25T12:08:00.000-06:00

I suppose this is pretty basic stuff, but I wanted to make a general rule of toe about this one.

HIGH IMPACT TRICKS ARE ALWAYS HIGH ENERGY TRICKS, but not necessarily the other way around.

When I think about high impact tricks, I go right to Symposium tricks. These tricks are probably the classic example of high impact, just about every one of them, except the little ones. They require one leg to be both the dexterity leg and the landing leg. And honestly, I am still reprogramming my brain to look at atomic and nuclear tricks as medium impact tricks. Why is this important? When I am training daily, I don't want to do 100% high impact tricks because of, well, the impact factor. I know better than that. I want to do plenty of high energy tricks to get the most out of my workouts, and I know that while high energy is a pre-requisite for high impact tricks, I need to keep a balance that keeps me at a high level of mastery of my high impact tricks, while still advancing on the many other high energy tricks.

I have started to notice that when I get to my frontside strings during warmup, that it jumpstarts my warmup period and gets me super warm, super fast. Also, all this extra training of my frontside tricks has been providing the high energy usually associated with Dexterity tricks, and giving me a better cardio workout.

High energy tricks are not necessarily high impact, and the important thing to remember is to differentiate the tricks appropriately in your minds accounting of the tricks. For example, in the context of Atomic tricks, it looks high impact, but is really high energy.

See ya!
-enlightener

Some High Impact examples:

Shred notes: First half of Feb. 2011... I'm at 1528 days in a row today. Already shredded, but plan a 2nd session later. I have hit Gyro Zulu Butterfly on both sides on film, and Gyro Zulu Whirl on both sides but try as I might, I haven't hit it on film yet. I have gotten way more comfortable with Symposium (no plant) Blurry Torques. Also Shooting DaDa's and Symposium Blurry Drifters. Lots of film to go through. I have been trying to film in vertical frame because it shows the whole body in the frame from closer up, yet I still struggle with framing and lighting. It is weird, but when I stand in front of the camera when it is on its side, I have a harder time predicting the right place to stand. The double secret location hallway has fluorescent lighting and I don't have the cash for the proper portable lighting system. The Kodak ZX1 does great in good light, so I really should focus on getting some good lights to offset the fluorescents and see if that works.

Playing everyday is something everyone can do!

2011-02-04T10:56:00.000-06:00

Whatever your favorite sports are, it is important to exercise every day. There is a public awareness of the childhood obesity epidemic in America. We are all responsible for our own health, yet so many are eating unhealthy diets with sedentary habits like TV and video games.

The CDC says: "Childhood Obesity has more than tripled in the past 30 years." They go on to say that Obese youth are more likely to have high cholesterol, high blood pressure, at greater risk to bone and joint problems, sleep apnea, low self esteem and as adults are more at risk for heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, several types of cancer and osteoarthritis. They conclude with, "Healthy lifestyle habits, including healthy eating and physical activity can lower the risk of becoming obese and developing related diseases."

Maybe playing 'everyday' is overkill, but it has worked for me. Please watch and comment on my new video, "No Excuses" on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/footbagenlightener#p/u/1/glzd8shVkJo. It is about my past 4 years (1500 days) of playing footbag freestyle every day in an effort to improve my skills in my 40's, which turns out to be a pretty healthy habit.

Thanks for all your support so far, the movie has had great reviews. Please share the link on you facebook page if you like it.

-enlightener

Shred notes: 2/4/2011
This week I worked on longer strings, alternating with frontside moves. Then on strings that contain frontside midstring. Also tons of Atomic stuff. Gotta get atom smasher to the point where I don't 'rake' it out, but freeze it in a toe delay which will make it easier to get to legbeater, which is necessary for my long term goal of rubberman. I think I hit 'Inspinning Swivel' yesterday... haven't seen the tape yet. I love this sport! Never a dull session.

1500 Days of Shred, 1.5 Million Tricks and Playing everyday!

2011-01-29T21:09:00.000-06:00

Ever since I turned 40, I've been skooling my footbag freestyle game every single day! It keeps the mind fresh and the body young.

This video features highlights with some of my thoughts as voiceovers.

Thanks to Theo 'DaMadGreek' Demeris for letting me use his audio tracks for background music! Check his channel at: http://www.youtube.com/user/DemadGreek

"No excuses."

The dialog from the movie is posted below:

At this point, ive been playing footbag for over 27 years, but when I turned 40 in 2006, which at this point is1500 days ago, I decided to start playing every day, this short film is really just a compilation of clips from practic sessions that we call shreds, with voice overs that reflect my thoughts. I hope you have as much fun viewing it as I had making it.

I'd like to thank the mad greek for providing the background music.

During this time I've been on such shows as America's got talent and local news like wgntv in chicago.

This is my son Alex in a consecutives contest at NYJ at holiday sports festival an annual event that we host.

This is just days after my 40th biryhday when I started playing every day.

My sessions last typically about an hour, sometimes I do 2 sessions a day... but not more than 2x a week. But at a 1000 kicks per session, comes to about 1.5 million tricks over the past 4 years or so.

When I turned 40 back in 2006, I became obsessed with the concept of "Use it or Lose it," and looked at my errratic shred session schedule, and decided to put my obsession where my mouth is, and play every day. So while I have been practicing the craft for the past 23 years, I had undertaken a commitment that was a great personal challenge that would lead to introspecition and some basic truths.

I've come to some conclusions, things like those little pains that never go away, you've got to play through them. They are just a trick that the body plays on the mind as it tries to get out of work. Little pains go away a little after starting. Injuries are different, but I'm fortunate not to suffer from any serious ones.

Sometimes just getting started was the hardest part. The mental game was strong here. I found that after I made it through my warm ups, that I no longer wanted to blow off my session. What I gained from this is an ability to recognize and overcome the mental chatter that might otherwise supply me with excuses to skip my session.

I also couldn't let the lack of a location become an excuse. I boldly walk into hotels and find a spot to play at, sometimes in a forgotten stairwell. Mainly I play at Mammoth Springs with seclusion and wind protection, at the service entrance at my workplace, or in my living room. Whenever possible I play at festivals, concerts and promote the sport.

When I worked downtown, I'd go out in front of my store in full body running thermals, put chemical hand warmers under my toes just to stay warm. And when I'd end, I'd literally have steam coming off of me.

Whenever possible have music to kick to , it really makes it better when kicking with music.

I pretty much always warm up with the same tricks every day, I call them "Warm up strings". 10 in a row, infinity osis, ripwalk, paradox whirl, spinning butterflies and blurs and blizzards.

I always end with a worthy "Out" string, thats utilizes the things that I had been working on that day, along with my other tricks in a really long string that would be worthwhile to publish on like say, the internet.

Speaking to the mental part of the game, I try to think of it as play time, or recess... not really a workout. Work is hard, it's not work, it's fun, it's play, I have a great time doing it.

Early on, back in 2007, my hip started to hurt. But it was a blessing in disguise as it changed my focus in a new direction... I started working on my flipside which improved my game and gave my right hip the time it needed to heal.

I also find, that when I have a goal, something to focus on, when I get into my workout, I get warm faster, it's a strong motivator for me, and when I achieve those goals, I feel a sense of success.

In order to get the most shred time out of a single recess , which most people call lunch... I wear my kicking shorts and shirt under my work clothes, and just shed layers to get started.

I think an hour long lunch is better spent shredding, because a 15 minute break is really twice as long as it takes to eat.

We've kicked at theme parks, like disney world, at parades in Oak park, at the Daley Center and many venues. We'be been kicked out of many places too, by the security there. We call it the 'Security Test" when the Security guard passes us up and keeps walking then we've passed the security test, if not then we have to deal with security and hope we don't get kicked out.

This is footage from Lollapalloza in 2009.

Rob McCloskey inspired me back in the day, when I lost 50 lbs. playing footbag, that was back in 1992. He said 'Kick 1000 Kicks a Day' and I said 'How about a 1000 Tricks a Day." And I carried a counter with me, and after I did my strings, I clicked off how many tricks I did. And I wouldn't stop until I reached a 1000 tricks, which took a little over a half hour to complete.

I did have a lot of accomplishments in the past 4 years or so. Including 2nd in the World with Keaton Halley in Doubles Footbag Team Freestyle. And while we were training for that, we went to California and filmed for Americas Got Talent, but we didn't get on the air.

Here is some rare footage of me kicking in a field

And for the first time, in 2010, I got see the footage of me winning the World Championships in 1999. Thanks to John Hentges for that.

During this time, we attended events such as New Years Jam, Midwest Regional Championships, Windy City Open, several Funtastik events, Taste of Chicago, Blues Fest, USOpen Tennis Championships, several apperances on WGN-TV, WGN Health fairs, jockey underwear contest, America's Got Talent, Snicker kicker, mountain dew spec ads, won a camera from a Cheerios contest and I plan to enter more contests!

It's sometimes hard to get started, always hard to stop.

++++++++++++++

Thanks for checking it out!

See ya!

-enlightener

The Mental Game: Shifting my perception of difficulty makes tricks easier!

2011-01-23T19:57:00.000-06:00

"Baseball is 90% mental, the other half is physical."
-Attributed to Yogi Berra

I have written about this before, but I feel the need to repeat it from my experience today. We all know that the mental game is important. Personally, I need to periodically step back from my day-to-day routine and look at my game from the perspective of 'what might be', as opposed to 'what I believe I'm capable of.'

Today I was challenged by my facebook friends to work on Rubberman, along with some strings I would not have probably thought to attempt on my own. All these tricks are based on Atomic sets, which have always been challenging for me, even though I have spent the past several years actively working on them. So in my mind, I have built up an aura of difficulty in my mind around the notion of Atomic tricks. I have physically worked them to the point that I can hit them 70% of the time, but I was finding myself only working them once a week due to my 'perception' that they were high impact. I was recently skooling Paradox Symp Whirls (rainbows) and caused a compression related impact pain in my right lower back. In my mind, the Atomic tricks were as high-impact as the PSWhirls. In retrospect, after careful physical analysis, I have to say that while Atomic tricks are more taxing on the hamstrings and hip related dexterity, that the impact is minimal because the set foot touches down almost immediately.

Now that I have reset my perception of Atomic tricks, I have allowed myself to obsess on them. I can't stop doing them. I'm hitting Leg Beaters, EggPlant, and Atom Smashers. I'm hitting Atomic tricks from all kinds of sets, and I'm hitting all kinds of tricks out of Leg Beaters now, thanks to my facebook friends challenging me. It has caused some stress on other parts of my legs, but as long as I don't over do it, I should be okay. I'll always rely on my cross body tricks to some extent, but it is nice to escape that. I want to be able to throw atomic tricks in mid string confidently and from unexpected places.

Shred notes: 1/23/2011
I also skooled juggles, particularly Seamless-Legbeaters-out of juggles. I'll keep skooling it and I'll publish a juggling video again soon. Imagine juggle-juggle-juggle-legbeater-blur-juggle-juggle-juggle-legbeater-blur. Working on that kind of stuff. Seamless-in juggle, seamless-out juggle.

Trickle Up Shredology - The best tip ever!

2011-01-21T10:39:00.000-06:00

This is the best tip ever. Thanks to Steve Goldberg, Brat, the greatest benefactor to the sport of footbag.

This has come full circle. I started by skooling the basics. As I got better, I learned the "Economy of Motion" and got better at trimming time off of movement by finding and training more efficient paths. Spending less effort to get more done. Particularly when ending a trick, I have learned over time to catch the footbag with the minimum downward motion possible, which is one of many 'economy of motions.' To make matters worse, I spent about week this summer focusing on 'rooted' tricks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmRXODg6Bzg which are distinguished because the catching foot is the plant.

This reduction of downward motion in catching the footbag in order to complete my most difficult tricks is causing my form to suffer when doing the most basic versions of the tricks. For instance, it is generally more efficient to complete a Paradox Torque by expending as little effort as possible on the catch, and doing it at the last moment. On the other hand, the trick is more 'solid' when I am able to utilize 'economy of motion' during the dexterity part of the trick and spend more time on the 'catching' part of the trick.

One of the side effects of spending years of training to reduce the distance needed to catch a footbag at the end of advanced tricks, is when you do the basic component, it looks rushed and unpolished.

As a part of my daily training (1493 in a row today), I warm up using my 'basic' staple tricks. For instance I don't want to spend too much time training tricks I have mastered, I use those to warm up with. I do 10 osis, 10 infinity's, 10 ripwalks, I do 10 reps of my whirl/osis combo, ripwalks, blurs/blizzards and paradox whirls. I am getting into the zone at this time and generally just gaining the proper focus I need for the rest of my jam session. Thanks to this new tip, I am really gaining better basic form.

In the past few weeks focusing on the depth of my clipper catches and I can really feel a difference in my control and general ability to maintain long strings. I am really happy that a friend like Steve took the time to mention this very basic observation to me at the New Years Jam this past December. I have been working on it every day since then and am really feeling the difference!

Shred Notes: Jan 2011
In addition to working the solidness of my clipper tricks, I have spent a lot of time working on front side tricks. I have particularly been recategorizing Atomic tricks into low-impact. I have always thought of Atomic tricks as high-impact, but have recently discovered that they really aren't. I hit both Atom Smashers in a single string, which was a big barrier for me, but might seem basic for you. I also realized that I have been hitting LegBeaters on both sides (I've been calling them atomic butterflies), and then was challenged by Tuukka to do blur, LegBeater, Blurry Whirl, Blur, LegBeater Blurry whirl and hit all those components with an extra spinning butterfly before the 2nd blur. Very happy.

NYJ 2010 Thank You's!

2011-01-02T08:29:00.000-06:00

Freestyle Footbag enthusiasts from around the world gathered from December 18-20 at the Hyatt McCormick Place to jam until their legs couldn't take it anymore! We played all day and night for 3 days, and I met many new faces, and got to catch up with some old friends in the process.

This event could not have happened without the support of many people. I wanted to put out thank you's to everyone and I hope I didn't leave anyone out...

Thanks to the players that showed up at 10am at the site so we could start teaching and make the site look alive.

Thanks to Chicago's Mayors Office of Special Events for providing the site, fencing, electricity, tables and chairs... and for the whole assemblage of excellent mini-events that make up this amazing event! AWESOME!

Thanks to Kevin Cronk for coming down from Petosky Michigan with his family to join us, just like old times when I met Kevin back in 1990. Two old skoolers, still playing. Time flies when you're having fun.

Thanks to our new friends John and Sarah from Dragonfly Footbags who sponsored our event not only with enough footbags to give out to passersby who tried to play footbag, and for the great prizes... but also contributed cash prizes of $450 to make our players really go for it to win the cash!

We only handed out about 75 footbags this year to kids who took the time to try our sport. Compared to 450 two years ago. But the footbags were MUCH higher quality then the cheapo chinese footbags we were giving away, so that should be a better experience for all these kids who received a footbag from us.

Thanks to our players who jumped in and helped teach kids who wandered by, when I was busy doing other stuff. Even when played casually, our sport offers a great opportunity for kids to socialize with their friends while they get their 30 minutes of moderate exercise every day.

Thanks to our past sponsors such as World Footbag Association and Freedom Footbags who would have sponsored us if I had asked. Sorry I was lazy this year and didn't even ask for their support.

Thanks to Steve (Brat) Goldberg for hosting the Hospitality Suite again! He sacrificed his room so we would all have a place to hang out together and enjoy the times between our shreds. Brat also sponsored the Shred Room, and made that possible! I apologize for leaving on Sunday without specifically thanking Steve for coming out again! I had a great time getting to spend time around the Brat. Always a pleasure, and Thanks again!

Thanks to CIC for drumming up interest, for housing our players from out of town, for raising money to have the extra room the extra Monday to continue to play at the Hyatt Site for a third day! Specifically Tom Kotsakos, job well done.

Thanks to Modern Music of Lisle for providing affordable rental of sound systems. I wish Cory Current would have been at the event, he is the one who told us about Modern Music.

Some missing faces: Scot Hansen, Eric Cokee, Ted Martin, Steve Smith, Jay Claffey, PJ Lareau, Hacky Sack Jack, Larry Doyle (well, he died, but we still miss him terribly)...

Thanks to Valeria and Alex who put up with my obsessive behavior when it comes to the sport of footbag.

Thanks to all the players who took their valuable vacation time and spent it with us in Chicago. You are the reason these events are worth hosting year after year. It is a treat for me to have all these shredders in-town, as it is extremely difficult for me to travel to events these days. I hope I got to shred with everyone who was there, but I doubt it. I had a blast and thanks for coming to Chicago for the 2010 New Years Jam.

We are planning to make it an even bigger event next year, so start planning now!

See ya next year!
-enlightener
Scott Davidson

Training daily pays off daily!

2010-12-28T06:19:00.000-06:00

I learn little things about my game just about every day. You might think that doing something every day might get boring, but it never does because I am always achieving little goals, stumbling upon new (new to me, and sometimes actually new) tricks and generally keeping me interested. Playing freestyle footbag everyday gives me a clear baseline on the condition of my body, and allows me to push 'initiatives' like increasing the amount of frontside tricks that I perform.

During the week of Xmas I found my daily shreds of footbag freestyle to be a great diversion from the hectic pace at my place of work. Peace of mind. Really. I also developed a little showcase trick into a legitimate set... Fairy X-body sole (same) is now being worked into being a set from just about any toe, and it flows like an osis but looks crazzzzzzy! I have been skooling the hell out of X-Body Rake moves, and after watching Evan Gatesman, I realized that indeed Rakes don't 'need' to end in a scooping toe dex, they can end more directly underneath the balance center, and do dex tricks out of them. Thanks Evan for that insight. I suppose I 'knew' that already, but seeing someone do it effectively and mid-string even... very nice. Now I can do it too.

See ya!
-enlightener

Low light shredding ain't so bad...

2010-12-06T13:32:00.000-06:00

I got used to it. I just came to the realization that I am thankful for the great lighting I usually have available to me for shredding. I pretty much don't worry about it. Ever. Well that's not true, it factors into my 'perception' of what is possible, so in a sense my perceptions are limiting me here.

Today, Valeria fell asleep on the couch right next to my living room shred zone, so I had to keep the lights low, and I tweaked my workout towards the quieter tricks today. Lots of juggling and unusual surfaces and short fun stuff. After about 10 minutes, the low light scenario didn't factor into my decisions at all. I got through my warm-ups, and I immediately ran into a personal innovation... Fairy same blender. Probably because yesterday I obsessed on double dyno style moves. So I pulled a fairy set and thought, why not go for a whirl or a blender with the same leg as the fairy dex, of which I hit both on both sides, within minutes of stumbling upon it.. What is the name of Fairy same-leg same-side Blender? And Fairy same-leg same-side Whirl? I'll film them tomorrow. I've hit Fairy-Phobic-(other leg) Blender and posted it to youtube recently, but this easier stuff is new to me.

I also skooled a pattern that is juggle-juggle-juggle, seamless (out) Fairy DLO, to seamless (in) pixie DLO, juggle-juggle-juggle, repeat... I'll also film this tomorrow.

The moral of this story? "Beware of perceptions, particularly those that limit belief. Possibility is still unlimited, it is my mind that stops me most of the time."

Best regards,
-enlightener

Shred notes: See above.

Single tricks from recent days... freestyle footbag...

2010-12-02T10:06:00.000-06:00

I have been focusing recently on single tricks. Actually more like obsessing. I am transitioning to long string training starting today. Here are my recent results. I'd like to hear feedback on the Pixie (same) Twirl...

Pixie Same Twirl & Stepping Same Twirl

Atomic same Whirl

ESPN Classic at Summerfest in Milwaukee

2010-11-23T06:59:00.000-06:00

I was going through my stack of footbag t-shirts and I came across this black ESPN Classic shirt that I got from doing an impromptu demo for ESPN that not many of my friends know about.

I'm guessing 2005 was the year, Alex was young, but out of the stroller. As a family, we try to make it to Summerfest (sometimes jokingly called "Bummerfest" because of all the cops that are there busting down on underage drinking etc...) because it is an amazing music festival, featuring some great performers and bands. I don't know who was playing that night, but I'm sure Valeria will remember. Of course, whenever we go to festivals, our alternative purpose is to shred in public, to make more people aware of the wonderment of footbag freestyle, and to have fun doing it!

We were shredding on the fair grounds when a producer from ESPN came over and asked if we would play near their live broadcast, so they would have something visually interesting to pan across as they come and go to commercials. In return, we would have access to their VIP tent and all the accouterments thereof. So we took a break and went with them to the booth. We met the director and he set us up amidst the crowds of people watching the live broadcast, he put two security guards near us and little orange cones to denote a playing area that we had all to ourselves.

When they weren't filming, we were in the VIP area, which had a gourmet buffet, free beverages, and access to the stars of the live broadcast and their friends/family. We were treated like royalty and it was awesome! We got a signed baseball bat from some famous baseball person (who was really famous, but who I had never heard of... keeping in mind that I know NOTHING about baseball, his name still escapes me, but many of you would know it if I was to be able to pull it out of my hat right now.) and met all kinds of really great people!

It turned out that they had us shredding for at least 3 different half hour sessions, but only panned across us 4 or 5 times. They had us under their boom camera that was on a long stick and they pan across the crowds to show how awesome the atmosphere was at the festival. We were smack dab in the middle of the crowd, they paused on us for a couple of seconds, I can only assume they were filming us at the time. Unfortunately, I never saw the episode so I don't know what actually aired. This was of course, pre-facebook and I had no way to tell my friends to watch. So here I am at least 6 years later waxing nostalgic about it. I'll check their archives and see if I can get a copy of it, but I'm not holding my breath.

Bottom line is: We love to shred in public, and even without any active planning on our part, we seem get on TV quite often. Life is good!

See ya!
-Enlightener

Shred notes: October 2010
Better said by video in this case. Prolific.

Highlight reel:

Details of each trick with corrected names:

I'm a human Rube Goldberg machine...

2010-11-10T06:59:00.001-06:00

The similarities between footbag freestyle and a Rube Goldberg machine (a deliberately over-engineered machine that performs a very simple task in a very complex fashion...) are chilling on many levels. In Freestyle Footbag, a single trick is defined by transferring the footbag from one surface to another surface, with as many elements of difficulty in between. Which is in line with the Rube Goldberg Machine (RGM) concept, but one trick does not a RGM make. When we perform multiple tricks together, back to back, we call that a String of tricks. When we combine the difficulty of performing a single trick, with the added difficulty of stringing them together, this very much resembles a RBM. The big difference is that with RBM's the physics are pre-calculated and the variables are removed through clever engineering, and with Footbag Freestyle strings, our brains are perceiving the next trick and making minor adjustments in order to compete it, but assuming at the end of the individual trick, we are able to set properly for the next trick, an RGM is born.

Footbag freestyle practitioners are human Rube Goldberg Machines! I am a human RGM!
What is more unnecessarily difficult than a well performed footbag freestyle string? I can't think of many things... perhaps Rythmic Gymnastics, that is even close to the self-imposed difficulty thresholds that we place upon ourselves. For us, the more difficult the trick and the longer the strings the better... classic RGM's.

As Wikipedia says (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rube_Goldberg_machine)...

"A Rube Goldberg machine is a deliberately over-engineered machine that performs a very simple task in a very complex fashion, usually including a chain reaction. The expression is named after American cartoonist and inventor Rube Goldberg.

Since then, the expression has expanded to denote any form of overly confusing or complicated system."

Here are some links to my recent videos from Facebook and Youtube:

There's more, I just don't have time right now. More later!!!

See ya!
-enlightener.

Lighting the fire inside...

2010-10-24T09:39:00.000-05:00

My footbag career has spanned several decades, and I'm working on several more. I went to world footbag championships for 20 years consecutively starting in 1985, took 2nd many times, finally won it in 1999 and had a blast in the process. I have had many players who have inspired me to turn up level of my game which takes me in a new direction. Starting with Andy Linder, Kenny Shults and Rippin' Rick Reese who got me truly addicted to freestyle and got my game going, then later there was Ryan Mulroney and Vasek who made me light that internal fire and step it up to the next level. Watching Ryan come up and dominate the shred game, it really made me train hard and took me to the world title. In the past 10 years, after Ryan disappeared and Vasek took over. I have learned different lessons from all of them, and little lessons on the side from my other competitors like Eric Wulff (ducking), Jonathan Schneider (dragons) and too many others to mention. They all had these things in common: They innovated because they could see the possibilities beyond the current reality. They pushed themselves to attain great things and focused on their strengths.

Thanks to all the greats, and to all my friends who make this sport what it is!

Here is a movie I just made with the new movie software on a mac, and even though I didn't spend more than 20 minutes making this one, I think it is one of my better ones. Enjoy!

Shred notes: 10/22/10
I've crossed the 1400 day mark. Looking at end of January for 1500 days, but first it will be December 19th as my 4 year mark. I've been interspersing long strings in with new trick development. In small spaces it is easy to go to new tricks. Gotta consciously work on long strings. I've been filming with a new Kodak Zx1 but not happy with the quality. Been publishing crazy videos very frequently. Using my phone and computer alternatively to publish. Getting confused on which footage is published and what is not. Sooooo much footage. Gotta go through and keyword it.

World Championships 1999 Freestyle Results

2010-10-16T20:18:00.000-05:00

No doubt that 1999 was a great year for me! My son was 1 year old, the economy was great and I was literally peaking in career, my footbag 'game', and my life in general.

I have prepared a YouTube video that contains the performances of the top 4 finishers of the 1999 World Footbag Championships Singles Freestyle competition. With great respect for all my competitors in this video (Ryan Mulroney, Rick Reese and Peter Irish), please enjoy...

I have to credit Ryan Mulroney for lighting a fire under my ass and making me want to win the World Title that much more. And I have to thank Rich Abshire for supplying me with the footbag I used to win the title! Sure I have used, and I still currently use ">Freedom Footbags on a daily basis (1396 today), but in 1999 I was using an Abshire footbag!

Shred notes: October 1-15 2010
Have been stumbling upon some great moves. See: Phobic Da Da, Fairy same Drifter, Pixie opp Drifter [HD] and Phobic Vortex and Spyro para Drifter [HD] . I love the creative process and now that i play indoors more, I am trying to focus on longer strings, ionically.

Pogo Symposium Mirage & Fairy Miraging Symposium Mirage

2010-10-04T10:42:00.000-05:00

If there is something to be said about 'frontside' tricks, it is that I don't think I'll ever stop actively training them. I need to push my game more to the front side, and in that effort, I have been training front side tricks about every other day. Yesterday I worked almost exclusively on my flipside fairy sets and feel the burn from it today. Nuclear, atomic, rakes and pendulums are trained almost daily. Can't over do it on the Nukes or atomics because I have gotten minor injuries from too much of that good thing.

On day 1383 in a row shredding, I hit Pogo Symposium Mirage & Fairy Miraging Symposium Mirage, along with some other stuff, but I published those from my iphone.

Shred notes: 10/4/2010
I have been skooling frontside on alternating days, trying to stay focused on long strings rather than 'new trick development' (which tends to be very short attempts at very had tricks). I have been playing to Talking Heads and find their music very motivating. Especially 'And she was.' Many new juggling tricks and still improving Seamless.

Spinning & Ducking & Phobic & more!

2010-10-01T21:02:00.000-05:00

Specifically: .. Phobic Gyro Symposium Whirl, Phobic (opp) Blender and Reverse Twirls.

I am fluent in many spinning tricks, and in many ducking tricks. And until recently, the only trick I had thought to combine spinning and ducking on, was SDButterfly, as featured on tricks of the trade 2.

Tuukka challenged me last week to hit a spinning or a ducking twirl, and it got me to really skool those tricks. This week so far, I have hit Spinning Ducking Whirls on both sides, Spinning Ducking Barfly's (ducking scorpiontail) both sides.

This movie has: Phobic Gyro Symposium Whirl (from 2 angles), Pixie Same Swirl, Reverse Twirl (thin), Phobic (opp) Blender. The movie was filmed with my iphone4, using apps ranging from 'camera' to 'slomo' to 'imovie extras' (for titles) and of course 'imovie'.

Keep inspiring me! It seems to work!
Thanks!
Scott!

The knack to Ducking Scorpion Tail

2010-09-26T15:39:00.002-05:00

After a series of vacations, including our trip to the 25th Annual Funtastik Summer Classic, I have resumed my normal training regimen at the Mammoth Springs Footbag Freestyle Training Center (the parking lot behind the Double Tree hotel near my work).

I've been working on lots of exciting new moves for me. Some maybe new to the world, like Blurry Symposium Paradox Symposium Twirl (yes two symposium elements), and Ducking Spinning Symposium Twirl

Even just ducking paradox twirl got me pretty psyched. I hit reverse twirl today on my flip side. Ducking Twirl too:

I'm writing today about the subtleties of Ducking Scorpion Tail, which is really a Spinning Ducking Barfly. First, I found that skooling Scorpion Tail with really high sets, rather than the usual mid-body height sets really helped. Second, the perfect set will be just above my head so as I'm coming out of the spin, the duck is just a flick of the neck and it is into the barfly part.

So keep kicking! I've got a new puppy. His name is Harley.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2058260&id=1099314046&l=332d43dfb9

See ya!

Andy Linder's approach to freestyle training helped!

2010-09-12T19:10:00.000-05:00

There is a lot to learn from the great players who preceded us in the sport of Footbag. I was lucky to have seen Andy Linder's performances during the early days of my Footbag development, they inspired me to get better, and to strive for the kind of precision that I knew was possible because he had achieved it. After traveling to many tournaments together, we teamed up to win the Team Footbag Freestyle in 1991 World Championships, and reflecting on the training we committed to is how I came to this particular conclusion...

In a word, it's methodical.
I'm talking about the way he approaches practicing a performance, and how helpful I am finding it to be. Once we had our routine mapped out, we not only did complete run thrus, but broke it down into segments. We would go through each segment perfectly 3 times in a row before moving to the next segment. If we got 2 good runs and dropped on 3rd, we start the count over.

I spent an hour on two separate days getting thru my funtastik routine in this fashion. Today, I had a chance to run thru this performance and I averaged 2.5 drops in 5 attempts. I wasn't averaging quite that high before this training goal, so I think this triggered an improvement in my game.

Now that Funtastik is over, my performances were both mired with 3 drops in different places. You can review my performances at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkUtDTZIGQo
I did like how it turned out overall, and it is still nice to be in the top group of shredders, able to compete with people literally less than half my age! I'm 43-3/4, I've been skooling hard every day for 1362 days in a row, plus about 24 years before that!

Thank you Andy Linder for sharing your training techniques with me, I'm glad I can still use them to better my game!

Shred notes 9/12/10:
-I've been on vacation at New Jersey's Six Flags Great Adventures, Harrisburg's last running of the Funtastik Summer Classic, the US Open Tennis Championships and got to shred in Times Square NY! Today I refined another type of seamless juggle that I'll videotape and post soon. It is juggle integrated with fairy-mirage and seamless back into juggle. Also video to come of our Times Square shred!

We need more Footbag tournaments and events!

2010-09-05T07:31:00.000-05:00

For our sport to properly develop to it's potential, we need more structured events AND we need to do more youth outreach to promote Footbag to kids and parents for it's great health and social benefits.

This means YOU!

I sit here, saddened, outside the home of the directors of the Funtastik Summer Classic, where I can't escape the reality that this family tradition is about to see it's last repetition. Tournaments like this, with now 25 years running have a cult following which draws out all the top players and enthusiasts to a single location, for a weekend of friendly competition and general Footbag mania. So many thanks to Brenda and Joe Solonoski for hosting this event year after year, for opening their home to us, and for bringing together so many of our friends into a single location. It breaks my heart that this is the last Funtastik Summer Classic!

Every self-respecting club needs to run at least one event each year, and do some youth outreach for the good of mankind.

Check www.kickforhealth.org for info about the 'Footbag Challenge' and how this can be a great vehicle to promote the health aspects of Footbag.

If you want to run a tournament, it doesn't have to be a mammoth 3-day event, but I have been running Footbag events for 25 years in the Chicago area and I promise to help coach any aspiring tournament directors who want to have an event in your area.

It all starts right here, right now! We need more tournaments. Period. Contact me now!
Www.kickforhealth.org

-enlightener
Scott Davidson
1999 Freestyle World Champion

Vote Today Only for Valeria and Scott Davidson in National TV Talent Contest

2010-08-26T12:59:00.000-05:00

Footbag on national tv today at 9am central , please vote too!
Live with Regis and Kelly show (in Chicago, 9am on ch 9 WGN) is airing a talent contest, click on "Wild and Wacky Talent Contest" and then "Vote".... You'll have to vote for a hula hoop thing, then for 'fancy footwork' We were definitely on today.
Please go online, watch and vote... Today only-you can win a daily $1000 cash prize, and we could win $30k. regisandkelly.go.com.
Post it to your facebook status!

Update:

They put us up against lame talents. We must win the category as a matter of pride! Vote and u can win $1000 (per day). Maybe toe whistler dude has tons of friends, we don't know. So vote in force! Regisandkelly.go.com. Thanks to those who have voted already, please paste this to your status or tag me. Wasn't Valeria awesome?

VOTE!

www.regisandkelly.go.com

-enlightener!!!!!

BarFlakes and triple-dex blurs

2010-08-22T09:45:00.000-05:00

I came across these tricks that I have visited before, but never got on tape or even discussed them that I can remember. The Barfly has always been a challenge for me to do solidly, and I have been working on them for literally 20 years now. I've been doing a lot of Rakes lately, especially cross-body Rakes. This past week, my peanut butter got into my chocolate and I brought Barfly together with Cross Body Rake and made a BarFlake. I know this has another street name, as I know it has been done before, but because I live in a vacuum I don't know what it is called. I didn't stop there, I have also done versions starting with Fairy, Pixie, Stepping-opp, Stepping-same and spinning. All on this film, and with slo-mo to reveal the thinness. All kind of thin, they look good from above. It is especially noticeable since I had to use an up-angle when I was filming.

I also hit a Blur that has an extra Symposium Mirage before the toe pickup. Also in slo-mo. It was suggested that this is a stepping paratoxic (backside symposium) blur, I don't know what to call it, which is why I put it online for peer review.

BarFlakes & Paratoxic Blur?

Shred notes: 1st two weeks of August...
Played through my injury from last week of July, it is no longer effecting me at all, thank goodness. I've been obsessed with these new tricks. Been lucky with weather! Totally lucky, like cloudy-icky mornings turning to sun literally as I arrive at the Mammoth Springs Training Center. Mosquitos everywhere near the river, but not on the asphalt playing surface that I utilize. I'm going to Funtastik and I have been getting some NICE run-thru's of my routine! I'm gonna be ready again this year and I look forward to a great event!

Vacation Freestyle Footbag Shreds - And a new trick concept

2010-08-09T13:49:00.000-05:00

We couldn't make it to Worlds 2010. We went to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore to have a mini-vacation. I got injured on the last Saturday of July and have still played everyday. This video is my recovery video, it shows how the range of motion improved over the week of recovery.

Congratulations to Milan and Clavens and everyone who succeeded at Worlds 2010 this year! Wish we could have been there. This is what I was up to... This video includes the new trick concept outline for "Spotted Tricks"... I've been doing Spotted Osis on both sides for years, but never saw the potential... check out Spotted Mirage and Spotted Torque, both feel like Gyro versions of their tricks and involve lots of twisting. Please ignore the music.

See ya!

-enlightener

Footbag Youth Outreach - WGN TV Kids Fair August 13, 6-9am

2010-08-08T11:02:00.000-05:00

I've been on vacation for a week, but didn't miss a day of shredding. Had somewhat exotic shred locations and got some film too, I'll publish a video to my "footbagenlightener" youtube channel later today from my phone.

This Friday we are a part of the WGN-TV Channel 9 (in Chicago area) Kids Fair and we'll be there for the 3 hours. The broadcasters all come out and do live shots, they incorporate it into their news show and they are bound to get to us, so watch for us.

For more information:
http://www.wgntv.com/about/station/pressrelease/wgntv-kids-fair-2010-pr,0,6035345.story

See ya!

Shred Notes: Week of Aug 1-7, 2010
Was shredding with Valeria and practicing doubles when I crashed and burned from a collision with her legs. I fell straight onto my lowerback bone and could barely walk the next day, but I got a good shred in because I found tricks that didn't hurt so much and I did lots of them. I will post a videotape of my recovery over the week later today. Still hurts a week later, but of course I'm already planning my shred for today.

Lets win a $5000 Grant for Footbag!

2010-08-01T07:34:00.000-05:00

Lucky to freestyle with my wife!

2010-07-28T16:50:00.000-05:00

When we got married she could barely get 3 kicks in a row. Her Footbag skills have evolved over the years very nicely. She tried her feet at net but the early 90's is when I chose to commit to freestyle and she never could get me to set up a net, so that didn't last long. But she stuck with it, and with me, and here she is 19 years later getting her clipper catches solid and effectively using them as sets for all the toe based tricks she knows. Expanding her game even further!

Seeing the look on her face when she hits that trick she has been working on reminds me of the kind of reaction a child has to achievement. Being there to give her a high-five is icing on the cake. Recently we worked out a doubles keeps string that looks great on video!

Footbag offers a challenging workout with constant potential for accomplishment. Its a kind of glue We are living proof that the family that kicks together, sticks together.

Congratulations Valeria on all you have achieved in your Footbag career! I look forward to many more years of shredding with you!

-enlightener

July 2010 - Short String recaps

2010-07-20T06:57:00.000-05:00

Bummed that I can't make Worlds2010. Physically depressed. But I won't let that stop me.

If I didn't videotape myself at the end of each jam session, I don't think I would remember half of what I accomplish. This 10 minute movie may bore the uninitiated to death, but for me it is my passion. I love freestyle footbag, as it continues to challenge both my mind and body!

These videos serve my sense of posterity. In 20 years, I'll look back at these days in fond memory of how my game has evolved. I fully expect to be playing freestyle footbag into my 60's, and these will serve as a nice comparison...

High speed subject (me) and new iPhone4 video camera. If I didn't make these videos, I might forget what I hit. Long strings coming tomorrow in separate video. This video contains a trick that is NEW to mankind: Spinning Ducking Xbody Whirling Rake. Seamless Juggles from Blurs, Gyro Mirages and Fairy mirages. Whirling Sole to Symposium whirl. Fairy Ducking Barfly. Blurry Whirling Cross Body Rake. Insane threading strings, including new Sewing Machine sets. Ducking Symposium Whirl. Mobius to Double Osis. Pendulum Sets into torque. (Just hit Pendulum set to paradox drifter today, not on tape yet). Fairy Ducking Cross Body Rake. Among tons of other tricks. More daily.

Shred notes: 7/20/10 -
Looks like rain today. Gonna jam outdoors under an overhang. I am going to film again.

Footbag Parade Crashing!

2010-07-06T17:53:00.000-05:00

It was Independence Day, July 4th 2010 in our hometown of Oak Park, IL and we had marched, or shredded, in the parade for the past 5 years running. Our sponsor was not in the parade this year so we decided to just jump in as the parade gets going and fill in the gap between two floats. It turned out that we might have been the most energetic and unique entry, and we weren't even officially there. Check it out!

Later that day, we went to DMB at Alpine Valley and shredded in the parking lot twice and again on the deck waiting for Dave to get on stage. Then we relaxed. Total blast of a day.

Shred notes; 7.6.2010
This week was busy, and as I still continue to recover from my self-inflicted toe injury, I have NOT broken my streak. Today was 1293 in a row! We did Taste of Chicago last weekend, this weekend we did Los Lonely Boys and Los Lobos concert at Petrillo Bandshell shreds, then the Parade and DMB. Yesterday at Great America theme park. Shredded at lunch today, mostly routine stuff. Can't play music and record video from iphone4 at the same time, no problem, time to whip out the old shuffle!

Pepsi Refresh Project - Successful submission of Footbag idea

2010-07-01T06:56:00.000-05:00

On behalf of our youth outreach program, Kick for Health, I would like to announce that we have successfully submitted a grant request for the Pepsi Refresh Project to "Help prevent childhood obesity by giving footbags to people we teach!"

Learn about our proposal by watching this video:

Starting August 1, assuming we get approved, the voting begins. I want to try to use the power of social networking to win this grant, so I am requesting any people with experience in reaching large audiences to please step up and help me with this. They will give me a specific web page to send you to at that time for voting, and you can vote for 10 things or throw 10 votes at a single idea. We will need help... watch for further plea's.

Shred notes: 7/1/10
I had a series of doctor appointments where she first sliced my toe and drained a bad infection. Then it got reinfected. I DID NOT MISS A DAY OF SHREDDING! Like I said, no little hangnail is going to stop this streak. I am now on 1289 days in a row. I have made a series of video errors, bad lighting, bad focus. Learning experiences. Gonna get footage today that is good quality and compare HD to 320p.

-enlightener

Genzu's shoe modifications worked to reduce pain...

2010-06-27T22:27:00.000-05:00

Life is teaching me a lesson about pain. How serious it is when someone is in constant pain, please take them seriously and try to make them comfortable. It is mentally debilitating. It effects my every moment. I work hard, I play hard and I love every minute of it. My intention is to perform my best at every moment, in every aspect of my life. To lead by example. Even in the best of situations, it is difficult to stay in the moment. When pain like this is present, it makes its way to the foreground and hampers my best efforts at excellent performance. It distracts me from my focus on performing well in the moment, and makes me just try to survive it.

I tried to take a short nap before the Argentina vs. Mexico world cup game today, and I thought about how the pain is amplified by landing on my right foot. Really, it was the shoe constricting against the swollen toe that causes the pain. I was in so much pain when I was at work this week, standing all day in tight fitting shoes. I would wear sandals to work, but the new rules there technically keep me from that and I think it is unsafe to wear open toe shoes when riding a xootr anyway. It occurred to me that regardless of how it looks, I need to relieve my pain at work so just standing there doesn't make me cringe in pain, I need to convert a pair of old Rod Laver shoes into Genzu modified Rod Lavers. I looked up Daryl's blog and found the picture that changed my day.

Today I modified a pair of old blue Rod Laver's so the right toe is open like Daryl 'Genzu' Genz's. It worked, an orthopedic success! Especially since the only shoes I ever wear are Rod Laver tennis shoes. I did a footbag demo at Taste of Chicago with Alex and Valeria, and I made it through the two hours with the microphone, and another hour kicking with the CIC guys by Buckingham Fountain. I got some good footage and will publish a movie soon. It was hard to set the footbag off of my right toe because of the intensity of effect caused by my toe curl, but I could figure that out if I had to. My infection did get worse and the swelling went up, but I was able to bear it. I hope this infection passes, because living with pain like this is unfathomable. I can't imagine what it must be like for someone with real problems like Cancer, Diabetes or heart disease. Ouch.

-enlightener

Shred notes: 6/27/10
Just glad to be shredding. Infection still getting worse. Little white dot showed up in the middle of the swollen part. Playing on grass sucks, but when doing youth outreach, you can't be picky. Not ideal, but probably less impact on my toe too.

Injury without honor...

2010-06-27T14:12:00.000-05:00

Hangnails are my worst fear. Every time I cut my toenails I am conscious of the possibility of a painful hangnail, and this one has been getting worse for 10 days now. Doesn't seem to get better. I refuse to be stopped. I have been skooling every day for 1285 days in a row, and I won't be stopped by a freaking hangnail. An injury without honor. I could see that if I got injured by playing footbag freestyle, that there would be some solace in knowing that my own obsession with the sport is the reason for breaking a streak. If this keeps up, I'm going to have to go to a doctor. I hate doctors, I'm pretty sure they hate me too. They seem to be a bunch of pill pushers, or knife wielding madpeople with some hidden agenda to save their insurance overlords money so they can get that bonus and go to the Bahamas.

Today I am studying Daryl Genzu Genz, and how he laces his shoe. My solution is to Genzu a pair of Lavers and relieve the pressure that is caused by my shoes pushing up against my big toe every time I land. I still have another 2 hour demo this afternoon at Taste of Chicago where we shred and teach kids about the basics of footbag.

Shred notes: 6/27/2010
Just trying to be productive and play through the pain. Lots of ice on the toe to keep swelling down, lots of neosporine too. Ouch

Videotaping tips for footbag freestyle... and footbag net

2010-06-26T10:15:00.000-05:00

I have had a videocamera since 1988, thanks to being inspired by Jay Moldenhauer, Greg Nelson, then later Steve Kremer and Josh Casey... also Dennis Jones. I was at the beginning of my footbag career and I saw how Jay was videotaping the finals of events and the sideline shredding as well. They were using it as an effective learning tool and accelerating their footbag game exponentially. It was amazing. I purchased the exact same camera that Jay had, it was a sony hi-8 camera (and I have TONS of footage to convert from the old days, just not enough room to store it, time to do it, or money to buy the thingy that converts it to digital) that served me well for many years. I never get credited with this, but I MADE THE FIRST SHRED VIDEO EVER! I put together the best footage I had of routines and side-shreds and made about fifty copies onto videotapes and I gave them away for free with labels on them that encouraged the recipients to make more copies and give them to their friends. No copyrights, free distribution. I was spreading the word. I still am.

Videotaping has evolved since those days, youtube has made free distribution into a fun pastime. Footbag has gotten more complicated, even faster action and still uses a very small ball that is sometimes hard to see. Here are some tips for making videos of footbag:
1. Get a good camera. HD quality and a wide angle lens is helpful. See comparison of footage between a point and shoot and my new Smartest Phone from a built-in HD video camera (starts with an "i") below, just released into the wild 2 days ago.
2. Pay attention to lighting. When shooting outdoors in direct sunlight, try to keep the sun behind you. It is better to film on a cloudy day than in direct sunlight because the diffused light that the clouds let through is more evenly distributed across your subjects. If you are shooting indoors there can be many shadows depending on your lighting style. In a conference room, the fluorescent lights provide a good diffused light experience, but sometimes causes a kind of harmonic resonance when the frame rate of the camera exactly matches the flashing-cycle rates of the fluorescent lights, plus for reasons of cleanliness, conference rooms tend to have very busy patterns in the carpeting which make it bad for playing and filming. In a garage, you are going to need lights coming from as many angles as possible to reduce the shadowing, but it can get pretty bad if you only have a few lights. If you have a shadowing problem indoors, try to stay with your back to the best light.
3. Learn to stabilize your shots, limit movement if you don't have a self-stabilizing camera or use a tripod.
4. Get the right angle for the right shot. Best is a straight on shot from just below hip level with the sun behind you, or good ambient diffused light indoors. I use a lot of upward angles because I don't have a tripod with me most of the time and I balance the camera on the ground. Angles from above are a nice novelty, but really don't give a good idea of what is going on.
5. Don't shoot from too far away. If you use the optical zoom to 'get closer', be aware it will amplify any movements you make, so if I had to use optical zoom, I would always recommend a tripod.
6. Turn OFF digital zoom, it is useless. Seriously, turn it off! Now!
7. When I am taping, I keep recording until I get something worth keeping, then I stop and restart the recording. This makes reviewing the footage go MUCH faster because rather than reviewing every second of footage, I go to the end of each clip and trim away everything before it to save space and get rid of unusable footage ASAP.
8. When using a tripod, I find that the mini ones are easy to carry around, but are hard to set up to get the right angle, only because I have to pretty much lay on the ground to see what my image frame is capturing. So for the mini tripods, I prefer to set them up on a pedestal to make it easy to check the frame field. Ideally, a medium size tripod puts the camera at the right height to get a good shot and be easy to set-up. I prefer to set my tripod at about 2 feet high.
9. If you are putting your camera on the ground to film, I suggest a slight upward angle. On my Canon point-and-shoot camera, I use the hand strap under the front of the camera which props it up at the right angle so I don't see a lot of ground in front of my feet. On my new Phone4, I had to rest it in my extra shirt to angle it back, but I could not see through the viewing side, I had to guess at what my camera was capturing, but it turned out to be useable.
10. Get the right distance from the player. All cameras are different. Think about how you are going to use your footage. If you are doing a static tripod shot, the closer you are to the players the less range the players have to move around in, and you risk losing good footage when players drift out of frame. On the other hand, if you put it too far away, you lose the necessary detail and sometimes can't see the footbag because it is so small.
11. Choose a solid backdrop when possible. If you have trees, or random objects in the background, the viewers may not be able to see the footbag as it travels across the foreground. So if you are videotaping, and you have any 'say' in the process of picking a location, try to find something as close to a solid color for your background.

Comparison of video camera footage for your review:
Canon Powershot SD630 (about 4 years old) with 640x480 frame size 24fps:

Video from my new phone camera which is HD 720p at 30fps (this popular camera phone was released on June 24, 2010):

(make sure to click on the HD version at bottom right) It seems that youtube knocks my videos down to half quality. Not sure why.

Footbag Net match - Finals from last weekends Windy City Cup 2010 on old Canon camera:

For videotaping footbag net, you really need two cameras that are timestamped together. I would generally like to keep the camera from moving left to right, so a long shot from either end of the court would be great for most of the match, but use the camera that is along the net line to do close ups of the arial dog fights that are the 'meat' of the matches.

Shred notes: Week of June 25th, 2010
I have had a hangnail for the past week that is killing me. Hurts like hell every time I step down on my right foot, but it hasn't stopped me from shredding every day. It seems to be getting worse, which means that on Monday if it hasn't gotten better, I'll be going to the doctor, which are words rarely uttered from my mouth. Either way, we have a Kick for Health youth outreach today and tomorrow at Taste of Chicago from 4-6 and plenty of time to shred then. Been skooling routines a lot. Jay Claffey and his daughter came by the other day to visit me during my lunch shred, that was awesome too.

Inspired by Tricks of the Trade II

2010-06-20T09:34:00.000-05:00

EVERYONE in Chicago area should be at Windy City Cup at Navy Pier north entrance today, Sunday, June 20 whether you freestyle or play net, this is the place to be! 10-5... this is possibly the best location for a footbag tournament that footbag net has ever seen in Chicago! Be there!

A huge storm came through, 100's of thousands of people without power, but our Comcast went out so we had power, but no internet or cable TV. Why did the storm come through during World Cup? Anyway, I was looking through my DVD collection, it was early in the morning, and I threw in the Tricks of the Trade II video (if you have VHS, you can get a copy for $5) from World Footbag Association and Kenny Shults.

I am so proud and motivated by the achievements of others. I am grateful to have been around for many of these milestones. Not many people watch old footbag videos from past World Championships performances and are brought to tears, but I'm one of them. Watching the greats like Sam Conlon, Peter Irish and Rippin Rick Reese do the routines that I was busy judging is inspiring to say the least. Watching Carol Weidemier (sp?) do effortless Blurry Drifters, just amazing. I took 2nd place behind Rippin' in that Montreal dropless routine he did, and I'm pretty sure I took 2nd behind Peter Irish in that Satellite routine too. I love this sport!

Watching all my friends do their tricks and having Kenny Shults describe the details is especially helpful to people like me who struggle to grasp the names of some advanced tricks. It is like having Kenny Shults as my personal coach! Also, with advanced tricks I can pick apart the technical sequence, but I always forget the street-names of tricks and this video helps me to get the names right.

I saw a bunch more tricks that I would like to perfect, it is such a great video that every mid level player should have it, and every advanced player should study it! Get your copy of Tricks of the Trade II video today (if you have VHS, you can get a copy for $5) from World Footbag Association and Kenny Shults. Novice and intermediates should be careful not to try to get to these tricks too quickly. I firmly believe that part of my longevity has to do with the amount of time I spent on each component of the more advanced tricks and my organic approach toward bettering my game.

Side note: Hey WFA! How hard would it be to get this video available for digital purchase through iTunes Movie store? Could be a new revenue stream for you.

To wrap this up, I want to thank all my footbag friends for continuing on this journey of athletic challenges with me!

Shred hard and prosper!

-enlightener

Shred notes: June 19, 2010
It is frustrating to spend 15 minutes on a trick and not hit it. Quantum is my 'nemesis' (excuse the freestyler pun) these days. I can't seem to get close. I need to watch that frame by frame because I am missing something. I can't skool it too hard because I don't want to cause stress injuries from new movements, so I'll keep working on it periodically. Been skooling routines and long strings lately, mostly at Mammoth Springs Training Center.

Being 'in the Zone' is really mastering the moment!

2010-06-18T07:20:00.000-05:00

Today is 1276 days in a row shredding.

In my most recent post, I focused on being 'in' the moment. Mostly because upon further analysis, the moment is all we have. In life and in footbag, being focused on the moment, while having an outline for the future and a fond recollection of the past is what makes a good person great!

When I can complete a trick that has 5 or 6 elements and follow it immediately with a series of other tricks that are similarly difficult, I know that I have mastered that moment, that I was in 'the Zone.'

To reiterate my recent postulation, I feel that my experience with footbag where I am constantly challenging myself to focus as many elements of difficulty into each moment, has helped me to realize that some of my greatest moments are when I'm just enjoying the beach with my family, eating dinner with my parents. Different situations require varying types of mastery, but recognizing that it is the moment I am in, rather than the moment that is (in theory) coming up, which is truly valuable.

I ask myself as often as possible, how can I master 'this' moment? I find myself going through this mental exercise more frequently during my conscious hours... In the morning, how can I be more efficient in getting things done around the kitchen while still preparing for work and enjoying it? How do I get to work? How can I out-perform at work? How do I get the most value from my play time (shred sessions)? What is the implications of my commuting decisions? How can I be the best dad when I'm around the house in the evenings and weekends?

I think living in the moment, allows me to live without regrets. So I find myself asking myself, "Self? How can I be 'in the Zone' in every aspect of my life?"

-enlightener

Shred notes: from Thurs, June 17th
Kicked at Mammoth Springs Training Center and worked mostly on routines for the past 2 days. It has been fun. Nothing new, but still hitting the barfly ending in cross body rake in many iterations daily. Skool it baby!

This moment is all we have...

2010-06-16T21:43:00.000-05:00

If a footbag freestyle performance isn't a great example of 'living in the moment', then I don't know what is. From a philosophical perspective all we really have this moment right now. The past is a memory and the future is merely conjecture. Time is really the passing of a series of moments in rapid succession.

A footbag freestyle trick takes place in about a second and for most people, that is the equivalent of a moment. We cram as much action as we can into the moment that a trick takes place in. Think about it, whether the footbag simply goes from one toe catch or another, or in between delays there were three distinctly unique leg dexterity motions, a half turn and a moving toe pickup like a rake, the same amount of time has passed. The same moment could be a boring toe delay or it could be a blurriest barfly cross body rake, and then followed by another moment of brilliance, and another. To achieve multiple motions in a single moment is to master that moment, and I get to do this every single day!

I believe that my life is enriched by this principle. So many people worry about the future and regret the past. It is important to make plans to conquer the future, and to fondly remember the past. Through footbag freestyle, I have really improved my ability to really kick back and enjoy this moment, the only moment that I am guaranteed, the moment I am in right now!

-enlightener

Shred notes for June 2010:

Have been shredding at Great America, Brookfield Zoo, Mammoth Springs Shred Center, Rehm Pool, my double-secret hallway indoor location and at Oak Street Beach. We've been having a nice summer so far. Also hit some killer stuff recently... I have been going through my routine obsessively every day at the end of my shred, but also on alternating days (mostly) I work exclusively on the routine. What is it called when you do a barfly ending in a cross-body rake? Well I hit that in blurriest, and spinning varieties. And on film too. Spent a day just working on threading tricks... hit threading juggles and threaded blurs. Hit Phobic spinning xross body rake, and a butterfly version of it too. I have a hell of a video to put together with updates on what I've been working on for the entire spring. I love this sport!

Threading - Thanks to Gary Lautt!

2010-06-08T22:23:00.000-05:00

I have been threading for years now. It started literally at the VERY beginning of my footbag experience. It is difficult to put into writing the magnitude of the effect that Gary Lautt had on my understanding of that a freestyle performance is. Back in 1985, in the early days of VHS, it was rare to use videotape for learning purposes. It was rare to see any valuable footage of any advanced footbag freestyle at all. In fact, advanced freestyle at the time did not include the concept of "adds", and did not have any content beyond around-the-worlds and flying clippers. I am not sure where I saw Gary play, probably at a WFA event associated with Worlds, but to see someone so confidently hit repeated rainbow outside kicks with effortless abandon, and spins ending in inside kicks for an NBA basketball crowd at halftime... it was awe-inspiring. Everyone in the audience knew exactly what was happening in his performance, they related to it... I related to it. In a big way!

This is when I first saw Gary thread the footbag his encircled fingers in-between kicks. I have to say, that with all of the advancement in footbag freestyle, I still see the value of what Gary's performances offer. The simplicity of basic kicks with the added difficulty of threading it through his fingers. It was amazing.

It was after at least 20 solid years of shredding that I finally started applying the "Lautt-inspired" Threading concept to more advanced tricks. I wanted to call it the "Lautt" to honor the great-one, but after years of trying, it is better known as "Threading". I have applied the "Threading" concept to so many different tricks, I should make a list.

Today I honored Gary by devoting my entire shred (except for the run-thru my worlds routine at the end) to Threading tricks.

Gary Lautt is a great footbag player and an amazing innovator for the sport, and although I don't know him well, I have the greatest respect for Gary. I consider myself fortunate to be included alongside him in the Footbag Hall of Fame, and I am glad to offer an entire category of trick-modifiers called "Threading" that can be added to just about any trick, 100% inspired by Gary Lautt!

-enlightener

Example of Threading Concept

Shred notes: 6/8/10
It was all Threading, all day today! I hit new Threading moves including Juggle-thread, which is further out front than comfortable. It seems that if I do the comfy-thread then the threads are too close to the body, but if I do the comfy-juggle then the threads are more uncomfortable but because the juggle is tantamount, then it is more important to be uncomfortable with threading so far in front of the body to make the juggle more comfy. Also hit both Gyro Threading Whirls in the same string and each individually several times with the right being ironically dominant. Successful cross-training!
At the end of it all, I did a 3-drop version of my Worlds routine with about 75% accuracy vs. intent.

Footbag freestyle! 'This is not your fathers' Hacky Sack®"

Footbag Freestyle keeps the mind fresh and the body young!

2010-06-02T21:50:00.000-05:00

I suppose all the gray hair is a telling sign of the uncontrollable elements of the aging process. While there may be some genetic certainties, I believe that I am living proof that footbag freestyle is like a fountain of youth in taking care of the variables not predetermined by genetics. It is not only the vigorous exercise element of advanced footbag freestyle, which is comparable to the cardiovascular requirements of high-impact aerobics... but also the mental aspect that requires a high level of creativity to create new tricks and strings of tricks which is not a requirement of most other sports. It is the combination of the constant challenge of improving my physical performance and the constant mental challenges that not only keep the body looking and feeling young, but keep my mind engaged in the creative aspect of trick creation and string building. While other sports like running, cycling and other forms of vigorous exercise include the exercise part but lack in variety. Runners and cyclists can take different routes, but it is still just the same motions over and over. Footbag freestylers use their entire body in hundreds of different positions and on both sides of their bodies. The whole-body requirements combined with the mental challenges of innovation are what set our sport apart from others.

It is a joy to play footbag everyday, I truly believe it is large part of my great appreciation of life. I wish I could play more with my shredding friends, but I am satisfied that I get to play alone on such a regular basis. It is an honor and a pleasure to know so many great people who are involved in this sport. Playing since 1984, I never would have thought I'd be where I am today, but without this sport... well lets just say that "Footbag keeps the mind fresh and the body young!"

-enlightener

Shred Notes: 6/2/2010
I've hit some more fun stuff, new for me at least. I have much on tape and will release a spring update video soon. Today was fairy ducking mirage, fairy ducking butterfly, fairy ducking cross-body rake, fairy diving osis. Other great stuff too, and a pretty good run through my routine.

Mammoth Springs Training Center is open!

2010-05-29T06:49:00.000-05:00

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

2010-05-23T07:39:00.001-05:00

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?

2010-05-12T18:18:00.030-05:00

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!

2010-05-11T18:19:00.000-05:00

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.'

2010-05-07T18:18:00.000-05:00

(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...

2010-05-03T14:10:00.000-05:00

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.

Practice is the mother of innovation in footbag freestyle, Muted (Solo) & Zoid (Rooted)

2010-04-26T10:33:00.000-05:00

I practice everyday, and this I believe leads me to innovation in such a natural fluid process that it seems to happen frequently! I'm very happy about this.

Over the past few days, I've been practicing some concepts that are new to me. Someone told me that one of these concepts was "Muted" but I don't think he was correct after looking at other videos on youtube that mention Muted tricks.

What I have been doing is best described as: "Landing and catching at the same time on the same foot ending a trick" which I would rather call "Solo" or "Soloing" as verb.

I hit Gyro Muted (Solo) DLO and Phobic Muted (Solo) Mirage and tons of other muted (Solo) family members.

I also combined Zoid sets (otherwise may be known as Rooted) with Muted (solo) tricks, on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcciFv21gzA

Another day, another shred... maybe for most people, but today I definitely innovated!

I love the sport of footbag freestyle!

Sometimes clothing determines content for a Footbag freestyle session

2010-04-25T10:54:00.000-05:00

Today I forgot to bring shred shorts to Alex's TKD tourney, so I had to shred in board shorts. It's not devastating, but it is a departure from my normal strategy of doing anything I damn well feel like doing. Not to mention that I am playing in public so I have to do longer strings.

Playing in long shorts keeps me from doing most tricks from the ripwalk family so alot of my bread and butter moves get blocked because the area that represents the upward path the Footbag has to take is clogged with fabric.

Today in addition to hitting some nice strings I rehashed an old concept... To set tricks with little mini pendulums. I have done this with many trix in the past, osis, torques and DLO's, and today I added swirl to the mix. Sweet.

Shred notes: 4/25/10
long rake strings, pendulum set swirl. Yesterday I hit Muted Gyro DLO and Muted phobic mirage on tape, film will be on YouTube tonight or tomorrow AM.

Near-innovation! New for me...

2010-04-23T19:32:00.000-05:00

After another week of cool temperatures. Making the call between kicking at the low end of my temperature spectrum outdoors, or kicking in the double secret location which is temperature controlled but limited on space and has slippery floors. The results were mixed, but when I did go outdoors yesterday I stumbled on a concept that I had never tried before called "Muted."

Of course, I thought I had innovated again, but in the back of my head I thought I had heard of this before. It is when you land and catch the trick on the same toe, no support leg. I hit Muted gyro mirage first, which led me to:
Muted Blur, Muted DLO both sides, and all kinds of tricks that I thought were innovations.

I did have one burst of freshness when I combined a Muted Blur with an immediate Zoid set butterfly. Now that I think about it, the ultimate would be a Zoid set trick ending in a Muted delay. I'll try that tomorrow. Today was 1220 days in a row shredding!

Shred notes: 4/23/10
I have been getting some great runs through the routine, very promising. Also have had some successes getting warm in the cold outdoors, against all odds.

-This is not your fathers' Hacky Sack!
Footbag Freestyle

The day of the duck!

2010-04-19T15:41:00.000-05:00

Today I skooled Ducking related footbag freestyle tricks. I got warm and then started doing ducking butterflies and I decided to dedicate this session to ducking and diving, today was the day of the Duck! Glad I did.

I have been skooling my routine lately and I feel like I have been neglecting the 'pushing my game' part. And today, while skooling ducking tricks, innovation struck again. Well, I bet a few others have hit this, but not many. Zulu Paradox Symposium Whirl! That is L clipper set up past left ear, down over right ear and symposium paradox whirl in the remaining time ending on rt. clipper. The zulu makes the diving part happen quickly. I think I'll publish a video on this, gotta get it on video tomorrow then.

Shred notes: 4/19/10
Ducks, Zulu Paradox Symposium Whirl.

The 50 degree threshold

2010-04-18T08:53:00.000-05:00

My guideline for determining whether I should shred indoors or out, the temperature threshold is officially 50 degrees. If it is under 50 degrees fahrenheit, then I struggle to get warm. If it is right at 50 degrees and breezy, I reserve the right to go indoors, but for the most part anything over 50 degrees is good to play.

The temps this week have been crazy. 80 one day, 40 the next. My playtime happens usually pretty early, around 10 or 11am. Even on a nice spring day, it doesn't get really nice until later in the afternoon. I have had a few sweet 70 degree days lately with no wind and had some great sessions! I have also made some questionable judgement calls... in each case it was right at 50 degrees and breezy, but I had my Xootr (http://www.myxootr.blogspot.com is my new blog) with me and I felt it would be a waste to have brought it all the way to skool (work), and not use it during recess (lunch). In all cases, it took a bit longer to get warm and was uncomfortably chilly at first, but I got sufficiently sweaty and hit enough strings and pretty good runs through my routine for worlds. On Saturday, I went to the double-secret indoor location, as I just didn't feel like fighting the chilly wind and just-barely 50 degree temps.

I have played in so many different temperatures, I have come to the conclusion that 50 degrees is the magic number. If it is over 50 and not windy, I can shred outdoors no problem, under 50 and there better be a good reason I went outside. Some of these reasons might be that there were no other indoor options, a guest was in from out of town and we wanted to kick at a public location with pedestrian traffic or an outdoor tournament. Otherwise, for training purposes, I'll be indoors until it gets up over 50 degrees. My next big concern is sun exposure...

See ya!
-enlightener

The 'trick' to Pixie sets - Little tweaks reap huge benefits!

2010-04-12T06:28:00.000-05:00

This week was a mixed bag of shredding in dusty hallways, and outdoors in windy and chilly air. I worked mostly on my routine, and having some great runs. I figure that until worlds, I'll be mostly working on my routine during the week, and skooling new tricks and flipside stuff on weekends.

I was in my living room doing my Sunday jam and decided to just do front-side tricks. I usually use a mix of clippers and toes to get warm, probably mostly clipper related moves. On Sunday though, I just worked frontside. During this session, it must be noted, took a little longer than usual to get sufficiently sweaty. While self-criticizing my right toe pixie set I realized that the reason I struggle with left pixie sets is the direction that my knee is pointing as I go into the setting motion.

Just about every trick requires mentally separating the concepts of 'set' and 'dex.' In other words, once you get the set out of the way, then it is time to do the dex and whether they require a spin before the dex, or immediate dexterity... they need to be thought of separately. The 'trick' to Pixie sets is that during the set part of the trick is to point your knee across your body as you perform the lifting motion. Simple.

Shred notes: 4/11/10
Plenty of training, nothing really noteworthy. Except mentioned above.

1200 Days in a row shredding...

2010-04-03T20:04:00.000-05:00

Today, coinciding with the release of a new touch screen device from a major electronics company, is my 1200th day in a row skooling footbag freestyle. There is some kind of holiday tomorrow too.

Have I gotten better? Yes, absolutely. Firstly, at my physical age, just a slight daily improvement without losing any ground is the minimum I could ask for... but I frequently hit new tricks, new for me and some of them for the first time ever. I really like being the first human being in the history of mankind to achieve something, I even like being among a small group of people who can do the same. Some days I shine, some days I struggle, but every day that I play keeps my body fine tuned and my mind energized. I love this sport. What more can I say?

Shred Notes: March 2010
I didn't post much during March, but a lot was happening. I have had these strange leg pains, seem to be finally going away. I sought out music that I can use for Worlds 2010 in August, and I found it. Thanks to Marcus from work, an accomplished break dancer, for introducing me to some of his favorites. I did not choose one of his songs for this routine, but it will get used. I have already listened to my the song I picked hundreds of times and have developed a rough outline of how I want the routine to flow. I have hit several new tricks this month too, Phobic DLO, Phobic spinning paradox whirl (in the sense that I set under left leg and dex with left leg after spinning, not set from a clipper) and Double spinning butterfly (almost on both sides, twice to left side).

I notice that I was making more blog entries in the winter, and now that I ride my xootr at breaks, I have to find another part of my day to do my blog entries. I have updated the look of the blog.

I also went through my old footbag t-shirt archive. I'm going to give away most of them to other players who might appreciate them, I've taken photos of all of them and I'm going to add the photos to a web gallery and add my notes to them.

Dusty halls, with a shiny spot in the middle....

2010-03-23T17:51:00.004-05:00

While there is construction going on in my place of daily shred, I suffer in silent hopelessness as I watch the floor gather layer upon layer of plaster dust.

As I get started, I pour a little water on the floor off to the side and I get the bottoms of my shoes wet. My feet seem to be stickier when their bottoms are damp, but not dripping wet, which could be dangerous. Being damp they tend to stick better, especially important when spinning, which I do a lot of.

Over the years, I've had to play on just about every possible surface, and polished are among the worst. If there is any way to use a sacrifice towel to clear the floor, I'll do it. But often instead of cleaning the whole floor, I'll use my towel as a damp rag on the floor that we can get our feet wet with. On a daily basis, I typically just put water on the ground, to save on laundry which I already produce lots of. At tournaments, if not already done by the tourney director, I'll coordinate a pass over the playing area with a wet towel over a broom. I remember in Vancouver 2000, the floor was slippery and I had to use a wet rag on the ground to help. I think I took 2nd that year, another of my many 2nd places at worlds, more than anyone else.

In my double secret dojang, looking from one end of the hall to another, there is a clean spot due to my 'sole grease' every day. The construction workers probably don't even notice it, but it messes with the air quality and sure makes it slippery. I hope to be outdoors for so many reasons, air quality and floor grip are just two of those reasons.

See ya!
-enlightener

Rapid Cool Downs... almost over for the season.

2010-03-20T10:59:00.005-05:00

A Rapid Cool Down is something I have been enjoying during the winter, and will certainly miss during the summer.

I finish my footbag freestyle jam session in my double secret dojang every day during lunch (1186 days in a row today), sweating up a storm. Then, less than 10 minutes later, I need to be at work and ready to go. My rapid cool-down is accomplished by walking from the dojang to my place of employment outdoors in my shorts and t-shirt. This quickly stops the body from sweating, then a simple wipe down and get dressed is all I need to do to get started.

In the summer months, I have to allow more time to cool down because my body just keeps on sweating. During the summer, I Xoot from work to my outdoor dojang (that I call Mammoth Springs) and back again. The wind in my face is as rapid of a cool down as I can get. In the summer I need more time to clean up and to allow for cool down in the summer.

Ironically while it takes longer to warm up in the winter, it is faster to cool down. And in the summer it is quicker to warm up, and takes longer to cool down.

-enlightener

Shred Notes: 3/20/2010
Mobius with reverse direction dex (not sure what that is called), hit it on my flipside easier than on my main side.
Skooling music choices for Worlds 2010 already. Determined to have a solid routine, well practiced and ready to go for Worlds this year.

Finally outdoors again!

2010-03-18T13:25:00.002-05:00

I am uncharacteristically excited about the weather situation here and now in Chicago area.
I am riding my xootr again every day, I'm going to start a blog about xootrs soon.
I'm getting out at breaks on my xootr. I'm wearing shorts almost all the time again. I'm finally shredding outdoors again. I've found at least 3 great songs to do a routine to, now I have to whiddle them down to one.
I get to go to the park more with my son and wife. I suppose I just didn't appreciate what I was missing, until I had it again. Getting back out to the forest trails on my xootr, along the lakefront downtown, shredding outdoors,

Sooooo refreshing. I'm definitely opening all the windows in my home when I get there tonight!

-enlightener

Peripheral Vision... Nature or Nurture?

2010-03-15T20:41:00.006-05:00

It is so important to have good peripheral vision when playing footbag freestyle. It reduces the need to turn your body and neck as much, and increases the chance you will see the footbag out of the corner of your eye enough so that you can complete the trick.

Is good peripheral vision something that people are born with, or is it something that can be improved upon with practice. When I googled it, I got a wikipedia article that has a great quote...

"Peripheral vision can be practiced, jugglers that regularly locate and catch objects in their peripheral vision do have improved abilities. Jugglers do not follow the paths of individual objects with their eyes, instead they focus on a defined point in mid-air, so almost all of the information necessary for successful catches is perceived in the near-peripheral region. Some juggling patterns and disciplines require extraordinary peripheral vision." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peripheral_vision

"...and disciplines." We are foot jugglers, and in that sense we are another discipline that fits into this model. I really had a gut feeling that it was something that is improved upon with practice, and now I am wiki-sure about it.

I am so glad that I am continuing to keep my streak of number of days in a row skooling footbag freestyle going... 1182 today. A little pain is still there in the back of the upper right leg.

Shred notes: 2/15/10
I am trying to get my music together for world championships this year. I have a really good option that I have to go put into my iphone so I can work on it tomorrow at skool.

Clearly focused on ambiguous goals!

2010-03-12T15:47:00.001-06:00

I've established that I get more from a jam session when I have a clear goal. But that is not always the case, sometimes I just flow with the music, get warm and see what happens. Kinda like the funky chicken method... just get into the music and it will be good.

For example, today I am still sore from a past injury, not sure where I'd be able to get to today. I got warm and worked on a few phobic sets and two innovations came to me. Phobic spinning cross body rake, and Phobic spinning paradox whirl (same). I have now hit both of them, AND both sides "Fairy Reverse swirl." As I shred every day, I've noticed that I approach every jam differently. Sometimes based on my mood, and attitude. While I'd love to have a specific goal to work on each day, I'm just not that structured of a person. I'd rather jam, let it flow and see what happens when I don't have specific goals. So while I love the experience of shredding, sometimes just playing is the reward, and some of those times lead to the greatest moments of innovation. Today is 1,182 in a row of serious shredding. Happy for every moment.

On another note:
A funny thing happened a few weeks ago, I kicked my most recent freedom footbag (orange and blue) onto a light fixture out of reach of my shortness. So today, after my jam session, I went on a break and ducked into my double secret shred spot to make a call and eat some grub. I knew if I waited long enough, it would still be there, and I had clearly waited long enough. There was a leak in the ceiling and a worker left a ladder just 20 feet from where I needed it. So I got my footbag back, just had to be patient.

Footbag Freestyle - This is not your father's hacky sack!

Shred notes:
Fairy (same) Whirling X-body rake, both sides! Plus everything mentioned above happened in the past few days. Also wore a pedometer for 3 days, had 4000 steps on day 1, but on day 2 I xooted to work and wore it while I worked out and hit 6000. On day 3, I xooted to and from work, and wore the damn thing during my jam and still only hit 6600.

Why footbag doesn't have sponsors...

2010-03-10T06:18:00.001-06:00

As an athlete, I focus on improving my game. Longer string lengths, better tricks, and integrating new more difficult tricks into my longer strings. In any other sport, or dare I say in 'every' other sport, elite athletes attain sponsorship from companies looking to associate with these athletes. Not in footbag though.

Sports like Snow Boarding and BMX for instance, have industries built around them. Most sports have tons of accessories that the participants need to invest in, companies create these items and sell them to the public. These companies sponsor the best athletes in the hope that the new learners will see their logos on these people, and go buy their stuff. A great win-win situation for the elite athletes in the sport and the industries that supply the products.

One of the greatest things about the sport of footbag is that it is such a low-investment sport, all you need is a footbag that probably costs less than $10 to purchase, and the shoes you already have. This is also our 'sponsorship' downfall. The small companies that make footbags have little budget for sponsorship, as they are barely turning a profit. The large companies that make footbags like Wham-O™ (makers of the Hacky Sack® brand footbag), treat our sport like a game, and they gave up on sponsoring the players back in the early 90's. They rely on their existing distribution channels for their other products to get their products placed on shelves of their vendors, and since they don't support the sport of footbag, they simply don't sponsor events OR athletes.

As an Event Director, I focus on three types of promotion. We need to get the event located into a place that has 'built-in' spectators. We need to get the players to the event, and we need to get sponsors to help pay for the event. Over the years I have been able to get our events located into some great venues like McCormick Place alongside a 50,000 spectator a day sports festival, Taste of Chicago (the worlds largest free admission food festival) with hundreds of thousands of spectators daily and Scot Hansen has been able to run an annual event at Navy Pier. Even though we have placed our events into great venues, we still struggle to get non-footbag related companies to sponsor us. Partially because we don't spend enough of our resources, but mostly because we have given up. The catch-22 is that we have great events with guaranteed spectators, but we have been rejected so many times that we have all but given up on sponsors. We are always looking for companies that would be interested, but because our event directors have had such limited success in attaining sponsors, we just decided that it wasn't worth our time. This of course is an untruth, and we do need to pursue sponsors. I suppose we just have to get 100 NO's for every yes!

I am making a more concerted effort this year to get sponsors for my big event next year, New Years Jam 2010 right after xmas. If you have any suggestions, let me know.

Special thanks to Freedom Footbags (freedomfootbags.com) and World Footbag Association (worldfootbag.com) for all their support over the years. At least they have been able to supply prizes that the players really appreciate. We, the sport of footbag and our athletes, are worthy of major sponsorship, just seemingly incapable of attracting them. I promise to get more aggressive on this and I'll let you know how it goes!

Shred notes: 3/4 to 3/9 2010:
I have been nursing my hammy back to full strength, still shredding hard, just not working so much on symposiums and nuclear stuff. I have been waking up after 5-6 hours sleep with back pain. Solution: Sleep only 6 hrs. max.

Family, Footbag and Earning Power

2010-03-05T10:38:00.003-06:00

Introspection can produce clarity. In my case I have recently thought a lot about how what is important to me in life. The result is, in this order...
1) Family (My wife and son are the apples of my eye)
2) Footbag (My sport provides me the health, meditation and infamy I need to thrive)
3) 'Work' (My job provides me the earning power to keep it all going)

I put 'work' in quotes because I truly work for a great company that I look forward to going to every day, almost as much as I look forward to going home every night to my family. The cliche 'If you find a job you love, you'll never work a day in your life' is true for me.

I am passionate about all three of these areas of my life and I am proud to say it. Another cliche come true for me is 'Playing at 100%'. I am committed to playing at 100% in each of these areas of my life. When I am with my family, I am present and attentive to their needs. I do everything I can to make our time together memorable and high-value. When I play footbag freestyle, I approach it with the attitude that I can always be better than I currently am. I can continue to achieve excellence in my sport, and in the process it keeps my mind fresh and my body young. And at 43 years old, that is saying something. Today will be 1171 days in a row of shredding, plus 24 years before that. When I go to 'work', I look forward to being the best I can be, contributing to every area of the business in whatever roles are necessary at the time. It is a very rewarding job and I frequently have to 'pinch' myself because it sometimes feels like a dream.

Sure our family has issues that we are working on, but looking around, we have it pretty good. Certainly, I can improve my footbag game and do more, and I am always working on that. And while I could stand to make more money, life is not all about money... at least I do what I love! Thanks to all the people in my life! I am always playing at 100% and I'm proud to say it!

-enlightener

Shred Notes: 3/4/2010
Yesterday I was trying to hit fairy set barfly (triple dex) and I pulled a muscle in the groinal area on the left side. Me thinks I wasn't quite as warmed up as I thought. This morning, thanks to my 'buffy-like' healing powers, I feel much better. It is an Injury with Honor, but I am glad it is not bothering me as much today.

How to run a footbag tournament... Part 1: Production vs. Promotion

2010-03-01T11:22:00.001-06:00

As a long-time event director in the sport of footbag, I have hosted events every year for the past 25 years! During that time I have come to a few realizations that I am going to outline on this blog, over several postings.

Promotion vs. Production...
As an event director, you will need to distinguish the differences between Promotion vs. Production.
Promotion happens on several levels, and I will be addressing each of these in future posts as well. Promotion generally happens in advance of an event, where Production mostly happens 'during' the event.

Promotion is easily broken into three parts,
1) Promoting to the athletes to get the competitors to show up.
2) Promoting to the sponsors to offset the costs and hopefully be able to make money on the event.
3) Promoting to Media to make the sponsors happy, and attract spectators to the event.

Production of the event refers to the actual 'doing' of the event, the leg-work per se. Setting up nets (and lines, etc...), sound systems, tents, banners, and all the things that make the event run smoothly, once the event gets started. Most Production items happen on the days before an event, during an event and for a day or two afterward. Some things that are always on my event production checklist are:
Having forms ready to be filled out, having equipment ready to be set up, loading the van (sometimes renting a van). Think about what you need to do AT the event and that all falls under "Production" of an event.

It is also a good idea to send a summary report to all your sponsors individually, letting them know how well the event went, focusing on how well you marketed their brand... how did that particular sponsor benefit from sponsoring your event. I'm not sure if the follow up falls under Production or Promotion, but it still is good form to complete.

Shred notes: 3/1/10
Still not at 100% but getting better. Had some great long strings. Skooled a wide variety of trix but nothing spectacularly unique. Lots of x-body rakes. Used new warm-up strings and got warm really fast.

Footbag Clubs that don't host annual events are missing the point!

2010-02-27T14:23:00.000-06:00

I propose that every footbag club should offer a footbag tournament every year. Thats right, I said it. If you are running a footbag club and you don't host an event, then you really ought to consider hosting one.

When I think of the 'tournament' circuit in the US, I think it has a lot to be desired. There need to be more tournaments, and any club that is serious about the sport should be offering a tournament every year! At least one. They don't have to be elaborate sponsored events that cost a lot of money to produce. They just need to happen. The events don't have to be a multiple-day deal, they can be single day tournaments. We need to offer more opportunity to compete in footbag in the US to be taken seriously as a sport. Don't get me wrong, I take this sport very seriously. I host several events in Chicago every year that are competitions, jams and an opportunity to do youth outreach and expose our wonderful sport to anyone who is interested.

Kudos to those who do offer tournaments! That is GREAT for the sport, we just need more of them.

If you want to learn tips and techniques for hosting footbag events, keep reading this blog, as those topics are coming up! I just wanted to bitch and moan about how many clubs there are vs. how many tournaments are offered. If there was ANYONE within 200 miles of Chicago that hosted a footbag event, and posted it on http://www.footbag.org, I would make it my business to be at that event. You have my support. If you want assistance getting started, contact me directly through this blog. Thanks!

Shred notes: 2/27/10
Pulled a muscle dishonorably in the back of my right leg yesterday. Dishonorable because it didn't happen playing footbag, it happened because I kept having to get under the tables at my newly remodeled place of work to re-wire the place, and one time when I went to stand up... I felt the pull. I was able to skool plenty of cross-body stuff, but it really hurts when I do pixie/fairy moves off the right toe. Also hard to do the 'snapping' motion at the end of the paradox whirl and then still land properly, for instance. I worked on plenty of double spinning osis, and it took a long time to warm up, but I got a good sweat in and generally happy with my performance.

Thunder & Lightning were original (and better) names for Pixie and Fairy

2010-02-26T11:31:00.001-06:00

When Greg Nelson and I were taking one of our many road trips back in the early 90's (may have been the late '80s), we used to theorize about footbag. Surprise. Of course, we both eat, drink, sleep and dream footbag and have for many years. We were freestyle rivals turned partners who drove to middle ground, about 2.5 hours drive each, to meet and shred just about every weekend in Kalamazoo, MI where Steve "Kozmo" Kremer (inducted into the 3rd wave of BAP) used to go to skool. Greg is from Ann Arbor and I'm from Chicago.

On one trip where we drove together somewhere unknown, we theorized about dexterity that could be done before a trick. We knew it could be done, but neither of us had completed it yet. We thought that if we set off of a toe, we could do a dex in either direction from either foot and we even gave them names. MUCH better names than they actually were given once people actually started to do them. We called them "Thunder" and "Lightning". They ended up being called Pixie and Fairy.

Imagine how much cooler a trick name would be if it were Thunderous Whirl vs. Fairy Whirl for instance. Lightning Osis vs. Pixie Osis. Damn did we miss the boat on that one. Who is responsible for naming them Pixie and Fairy anyway?

If I was on TV describing the trick names, I wouldn't dare mention Pixie and Fairy moves as I would be embarrassed. I'd go with Blurriest or Symposium Tricks as they have cool names. But it is too late to change the names of the tricks now, too bad too.

Historically, if you do the trick first you can name it. Our mistake was not believing in ourselves enough to pull the car over and try those tricks on the spot. We both knew the concepts were HUGE, we didn't have any idea how huge. There are SO MANY tricks that use Fairy and Pixie sets and every one of them could benefit from a better name. Like Corpse Grinder is the coolest name for a toe delay, Thunder and Lightning are such better names for Pixie and Fairy. Oh well.

Shred notes: 2/26/10
Almost hit fairy barfly (triple dex). Would have been lightning barfly (see above). :-(
Very difficult to be productive in shredding when feeling down. Have been riding emotional roller coaster lately. I WILL succeed though, eventually. On MY terms, not anyone elses. I am willing to shift, not change. If people around me can't accept me for what I am, then tough shit. I'm me and I ain't changing. Thats just the way it is. If it takes forever, so be it.

Bikram Shredding

2010-02-23T11:20:00.004-06:00

Bikram Yoga is a vigorous style of yoga done in a room set to 105 degrees fahrenheit. While playing in extreme heat in the summer is a challenge that requires a delicate mix of hydration, training and insanity. Playing in my living room in extreme heat is another thing.

Most people have control over the temperature of their home. I live in a condo where the heat is either on or off. When the heat goes on, without my control, our radiators kick into high gear. And since we live in the bottom unit, all the building pipes are routed through our house. We get double the heat. To top it off, our radiator in the washroom is bleeding steam and totally out of control. It is usually very hot in my home. We typically regulate the heat by opening windows when it becomes unbearable. We call it "Oppressive Heat".

When I shred at home in my living room, I try to time it so I play when the heat is off. However, when I play early morning or sometimes when I get the urge, it is during a hot-cycle. When I play in the extreme heat of my home, I call it Bikram Shredding.

I sure get warm fast in this kind of heat, and while I am unreasonable in my commitment to shred every day, the challenge is to keep playing hard for over an hour in a small space, and to accomplish something great in the process. Sweating profusely in my living room has a down-side though, my 65" TV tends to get drops of sweat on it from my spinning. Oh well, just another thing to clean.

Shred Notes: 2/24/10
Nothing spectacular to speak of. Skooled the hell out of flip-side Blender, felt like Brian McKenzie doing blenders back to back all over the place. This is significant because I have a tendency to pull a Dyno when I intend to do a Blender on my flip. Getting better at the flip Blender. Yeah!

New Lavers need tough love to break in...

2010-02-22T07:31:00.006-06:00

(Note: New trick... Zulu Soliosis) I usually break in my new Lavers over a 3 month period, but this time I waited too long to start breaking them in and I need to accelerate the process. When I wait too long, my current shred shoes are in complete disarray. The soles are worn thru, they have cracks in the sole and they have worn out somewhat unevenly, which is very noticable as I switch from new to old Lavers. Anyway, I wore them to work, except they have slate floors at work and they are as smooth as a baby's ass and provide no friction whatsoever. My double secret hallway locations are polished concrete, arguably the only flooring surface smoother than Italian slate... and to make matters worse, there is dust on the polished concrete surface. Aargh!

So yesterday I also wore them outside on the concrete. I did my 2nd jam out on a rough brick patio called Riverwalk in Naperville. I should have brought gloves, because if my hands were warm I could have lasted more than 45 minutes for sure. The ground was gritty and I could feel the shine wearing off of the bottom of my shoes. What I didn't calculate correctly was the impending snow storm. The weather guy was right about the start time, 4:00 but it ended up to be only 5 inches, not 10. I invited Valeria and Alex to lunch, and when we got done eating my shiny new shoes met snow and slush for the first time. My jeans got wet and transferred plenty of grit to the shoes. They are no longer shiny and new, but they are one day closer to being shred-ready. I know Lon Smith says to sand them down with a belt-sander, but I'm not that capable with tools, I'll use the old fashioned way, and break them in myself!

For my 2nd jam today, I'm going to rough up the new lavers again at the same brickwork area in Riverwalk with fliers and scuffing exercises. I don't care if it is snowing, I'll play under the overhang.

Shred notes: 2/22/2010 and 2/23/2010
On the 22nd, I was back at my double secret shred location in Oakbrook. Filmed Splendor, with mixed results. Skooled all kinds of unusual surface content, focusing on Soliosis, spinning soliosis and of course Splendor (Sblender is really a blender ending in X-body sole, still not sure if I should spell it with a P or a B.)

On the 23rd, I had to shred early AM as there is no where to shred in the wintertime without being in the cold in Naperville, short of joining a club. 50 degrees is my realistic threshold, as above that I can do shorts and t-shirt, below that I really need to be indoors. My morning shred wasn't really productive, except to say that I did hit a new trick today! Zulu Soliosis. Really makes the body look funny, but satisfying anyway!!!!

Tips on playing in the early morning...

2010-02-21T06:38:00.006-06:00

Recently I had written about the trials and whining tribulations of shredding in the early morning hours. I have been forced to play early again, as another new location is where I'll be all week for my normal 'work' day. Not knowing I can play at 'lunch' (recess) and knowing there is snow this week, I had to go for the early shred schedule.

A few things I want to remember about early morning shreds... maybe you'll find them useful too!

1) Take a shower before playing, just to wake up. That helps as it mimics my usual routine. I always feel better after a shower.
2) Do more stretching than usual. I usually stretch during and after a jam, but it seems to help to stretch for the early morning jams.
3) When I go back to my basic warm-up strings, not the new fancy strings I've been working on, I seem to get warmed up faster.
4) It will take longer to warm up, allow extra time to 'feel warm'.
5) Shred for a longer session than usual seems to feel more satisfying. I went for an hour and 15 minutes today, which felt much better at the end of the session, than at the beginning.

Felt better today with the early morning shreds becoming necessary to continue my streak. There are no excuses that are honorable, so I had to find a way to get my shred on!

Thanks for listening!
-enlightener

Shred notes: 2/21/09
Skooled plenty of unusuals, and blurr/blizzard combos with atomic endings. I want to videotape "Storque" so I can publicize it. Hit Storque-osis-Storque in one string. Gonna shred fliers today at the Riverwalk!

Another Paul Blart situation...

2010-02-17T16:36:00.003-06:00

Winter in Chicago makes it more challenging to kick on a daily basis. It removes the entire outdoors as possible shred sites. I am fortunate to have found some great spots to shred at, and I really don't notice how good I have it until the situation deteriorates. Case in point, my temporary assignment at a location far, far away from my normal universe. I have been playing in the early morning hours to ensure a good jam that will continue my string of 1156 shred days in a row, which is another challenge all its own. Even though I shredded in the early hours, 5am, I still tried to get a casual kick in at 'lunch' (recess). So I go outside the mall by the bus stop, and within 20 minutes, the local Paul Blart analog 'busted' me. He said because they don't allow skateboarders, that I can't kick there. Clearly I was a public safety disaster waiting to happen, as my 28 years of playing has resulted in so many (0) injuries of passersby. I used to kick on Michigan Avenue every day, but I can't kick in an empty bus stop. After I looked around and saw no skateboarders, I suggested that it must then be ok that I kick there. Then I told him I was going to go kick somewhere he won't find me, and I walked to the old abandoned theater in the out-lot and practiced fliers in blue-jeans, where even the regular police left me alone. Later that day I was told of a back hallway I should try.

So on the 18th, I went to this new double secret place in the mall and had a GREAT shred! Plenty of room in the hallway here, few interruptions, no visits from paul blart.

Now I'm confident I'll get a great shred today, I can't wait!

Shred Notes: 2/17-18/10
Phobic barrage! Hit it on 17th, will film it soon. Also more basic phobic set mirage completions from flip side. Amazed at how consistent my osis to soliosis on both sides is. Skooling osis-ripwalk-osis-osis-ripwalk as warm up strings now, just about everyday. Also twirl to ripwalk is getting very easy on both sides too. Long strings! Great strings today, especially for small space. Tons of blur and pixie mirage stuff today. Blur to Juggle seamless.

Shredding early is better than not shredding at all!

2010-02-16T13:54:00.004-06:00

I'm a big fan of getting to work early and getting home early. I don't mind getting up early, I like it. I have a pretty good routine that gets me off to work on time, but still gives me plenty of coffee and time to do the dishes. I rarely kick when I get up early in the morning, but today I did. I am working at a place where I can't be sure to have a place to shred at lunch, so I kicked this morning solidly, and again at lunch for fun. The morning jam sessions feel more like a workout than later in the day, like I am forcing it. Especially the warm up part.

I know that cyclists and runners get up early and do their 'workouts' first thing in the day. There are a couple of reasons why I try to play later in the day when possible. First, I am more comfortable kicking and enjoy it more in late morning. Secondly, when I play with people who come in from out of town, or with local shredders, it is usually later in the afternoon. I wouldn't want to habituate to kicking early, and make afternoon shreds more difficult.

I would rather kick early to keep the rally going, than miss out because of my work location. That is not a good enough excuse.

Shredding early is better than not shredding at all!

New Trick? Blender ending in cross-body sole? "Splendor"

2010-02-15T19:11:00.006-06:00

In the process of working on Whirr sets, I realized it is the perfect set to do a blender ending in a cross-body sole! Hit it my first two tries. Has anyone hit Blender ending in X-body sole? I call it "Splendor," that is if I have the right to name it. I think it is a perfect name. I'll film it and post it soon. I love this sport.

Shred notes: 2/15/10
Got two jams in today. Skooled the hell out of soliosis, both sides. Small area, living room cluttered, still had some good strings. I don't know what made me do the 2nd session, just felt like it. And as it turned out, that was when I hit the first "Splendor" tricks. Side note, during the second jam, felt the lower back pain I have been getting every morning if I sleep more than 6 hours. Solution, don't sleep more than 6 hours at a time.

I would hire footbag shredders in a second!

2010-02-15T09:09:00.003-06:00

Footbag Freestyle Shredders make great employees! Here's why:
The sport of footbag freestyle offers unique technical challenges that require quite a bit of effort to surpass. Players must learn the basic kicks and basic tricks. They must be self-motivated to get to the point of proficiency, and they must push themselves to achieve the next level play. They are detail oriented, because every minutiae must be considered. When they innovate a new trick, they are leading by example. They must persevere through countless hours of training. Footbag freestylers do all of this, not for the promise of fame and fortune, but for the personal satisfaction that they have achieved something that not too many others on the planet can perform. Footbag freestylers play well with others! They mentor their peers, encouraging greatness and offering suggestions to help others (even their competition) to improve. Shredders rise to the challenge of the day, because their friends make suggestions and the players attempt to achieve. Shredders are constantly improving themselves and getting better at their game. Shredders must get in front of people, and perform their art under the pressure of being judged.

Punctuality would be my only concern, but I believe that once a shredder is hired, and committed to the job, they would see that punctuality is one element in success and they would be able to get to work on time.

My footbag career came up in a recent interview, and I hope they saw the parallels of self-motivation, detail-oriented, perseverance, leadership, mentoring, self-improvement and confidence in group performance. I know that if I was looking for employees, anyone who has achieved greatness in a sport as difficult as footbag freestyle would be a shoe-in for any position.

Shred notes: 2/14/10
Blurry symposium twirl on both sides. Felt very clean too.

Winter Olympics or not, I still wish I could have been there!

2010-02-13T14:00:00.003-06:00

I love the Olympics! It is such an open, fun place to be. There is an energy at the Olympics, generated by the atmosphere of internationalism, literally because sports fans from all over the world descend on this single location for the purpose of creating a historical event. It really is something to do. I really wish I could go to more of them.

I often go to the 'tabletop show' of large running and triathalon events to get a dose of this energy. As there is a similar, albeit less intense, 'athlete vibe'. These shows are also a great place to see what companies are sponsoring events, in the pipedream hope that I can get new sponsors for our upcoming events.

There is something about putting that many athletes and fans into a small area which generates the sensation that something great is going to happen. So much more so than when going to a baseball game, or football game.

I want to do a better job of planning for the next Olympics in London 2012. As for any of my friends who are in the Vancouver area, I would say you are CRAZY if you are not spending every spare moment at the Olympic Venues. I am sure there are public indoor areas that would be suitable to shred at. The appreciation we felt from the audiences on the streets in Atlanta '96 was palpable. Shred in public, and what better place to show off at, than the Olympics... where everyone there appreciates athletic talent.

Shred notes: 2/13/10
Almost hit Blazing Twirl today. Also working on my 'swirls' which I always apparently have been doing reverse swirls all this time. I hit Reverse Twirl today too, but it really feels 'the'.

Olympic Footbag Experience... '96 Atlanta (Camera Magnets)

2010-02-12T17:19:00.006-06:00

When we were invited to Adidas Haus in Atlanta to do footbag demonstrations for the officially sponsored Olympic athletes of Adidas, we were thrilled. It turns out that it may have been the experience of a lifetime!

As the Olympics are about to start tonight in Vancouver, I was thinking about our experience back in 1996, before our son was born. Cory Current was a promising freestyler, we picked him up a few hours late in Chilecothe in the middle of a flood. Cory's uncle lived just outside Atlanta and was willing to put us up in his spare room for the 4 nights we were there. We drove a few miles to a subway each day and took the train into the city. We were surprised to see the bomb-sniffing dogs and military with machine guns as we entered from so far away, but that is what it is like at the olympics. We felt our car should be safe, even though we didn't know the neighborhood.

Oh, a side note, we had a blast at this giant bump near Cory's uncles house. Stone Mountain was the catalyst for our obsession of pin-collecting. At the top of this strange bump in the east side of Atlanta, we met a Japanese guy who was 'crazy for pin-trading' and he saw Valeria's 'Kodak Olympic 1992' pin. He traded us the Nagasaki pin for the '98 Winter Olympics which turns out to be a really good trade, especially since we have another of the Kodak pins still in our collection. We have since expanded into Disney pins, and look forward to another shot at Olympic pin trading. It totally sucks that we didn't win the olympics in Chicago 2016, but it would be nice to go to Rio.

When we got downtown we experienced 'hotlanta' at its best. We got settled at Adidas Haus, a large facility maintained by Adidas for use during the NSGA Trade show and the Olympics. I wonder if it is still there? They had rooms for VIP's, party areas, decks, group meeting rooms and a secure area with all the goods for the athletes downstairs. When we were at Adidas Haus, they would have us playing footbag in the areas where the party was going on. We were the entertainment, and the athletes loved us. The Haus provided us with Adidas clothing, all we could eat in the way of food (as food was otherwise very expensive and not-so-good at the vendors) and we really put on a show. It was where we first crossed paths with David Hasselhoff, and where we had previously held the World Cup in our hands, and met soccer greats Alexi Lalos and Hans Mueller, but that is another story.

When we went out to the public areas of the Olympics and shredded, we were met with stares of amazement from onlookers of all cultures. More importantly we were video camera magnets. I estimate we were shown on tv in over 30 countries, because every time we shredded in a public place, the video cameras from around the world would come to us and shoot from all angles, and we could see in their eyes the appreciation for the coordination and athletic prowess we showed in such a unique and unknown sport. One of the places we kicked was in front of the Swatch booth, just a day before the bomb went off.

We drove home and when we got home is when we heard about the bomb going off. What a bummer, because it was the greatest experience until then. I bet after we left, the whole vibe of international coolness was gone, not because we left but because of the unknown bomber and the thoughts that maybe it wasn't an isolated incident.

Thanks to my wife Valeria for encouraging me for all these years, to Cory Current for coming with us, to Cory's uncle for housing us, and to John Stalberger for making the Adidas contact for us in the first place.

Shred notes: 2/12/10
Tons of swirls and butterfly swirls today. Strange how some tricks are sooooo much harder than others of lower add value. Case in point, 'spinning cross body rake' is 4 adds, but soooo much harder than the 'spinning butterfly rake' which is 5 adds. A strong argument for giving add values in the tenths so we can have a 4.9 up against a 5.0 (a difficult 4 would balance better against an easy 5).

Worlds Smallest Flier... Flying Twirl

2010-02-10T19:48:00.005-06:00

When I do a flying trick, the goal is always to contact the footbag as high in the air as possible. Arguably, the first trick ever done with a modern day footbag was a flying trick... Flying Clipper (incorrectly referred to as the 'Jester' as popularized by a late 80's Video Game called California Games).

This one is called the Flying Twirl, but it is really more like a twirling flying clipper, maybe a good street name would be Twipper. I am probably the only person who cares about this, because so many players dismiss flying tricks from their day-to-day, as well as their performances. Mostly because they are generally 'low-add' tricks, and also because the high-add variety of flying tricks are VERY difficult to link with other difficult tricks.

But any new acquisition is worth mentioning, and here it is. Do a regular Twirling motion, but instead of easing into an opp osis, I leap a tiny leap and snap at the footbag with the other foot. When done correctly, it results in the upward motion of the footbag for which I have so far only been able to produce an osis afterwards. I'll get it on film someday soon.

Shred Notes: 2/10/10
Hit tons of Whirls ending in X-body Sole. Not sure if they have a street name but I'm gonna call them Schwirls What is neat about the Schwirl is that the dex happens on the way up, which allows plenty of time to catch the x-body sole. What is neater about the dex happening on the way up is that hopefully someday I'll hit double whirl (or Whirr, I believe). This upward dexing whirl could be useful for other tricks, but I'm drawing a blank on that now.

9.8 meters per second squared (or 'Snowflakes')

2010-02-06T15:07:00.005-06:00

Footbag freestyle is a living workshop on Physics combined with Physiology. Terminal Velocity of a falling object is 9.8 meters per second squared. That is one of the few things I remember from high-school physics class. I don't know why that stuck, but it did. I quote Wikipedia: "An object falling toward the surface of the Earth will fall 9.81 meters (or 32.18 feet) per second faster every second (an acceleration of 9.81 m/s² or 32.18 ft/s²)." I read a few other cool things at wikipedia on this topic, but most of it made my eyes roll into the back of my head.

When I think about how this plays into my footbag game, I am reminded of how I am truly the master of the obvious. Really, footbag players don't have to deal with footbags at Terminal Velocity (for a human, that is about 120mph). We deal in Apex and the beginning part of the 'falling' process. When we set the footbag, we can somewhat control the height of the set by the amount of energy we put into the set, and the Apex is split second when the footbag stops moving in mid air... think about that. Stopped in mid-air, pretty cool. Really, every trick no matter how difficult contains the Upward, Apex and Downward motions. We refer to the motion that starts the whole process as the "Set."

During the Downward portion of the path, the footbag falls at 32.18 feet per second faster... each second! When I think about how that impacts our sport, I am glad I don't EVER kick the footbag over 32 feet high! Even Net players rarely kick it that high, but because of Terminal Velocity our sports are very different. Our brains can compensate for this with enough practice, that is why not everyone can be an outfielder in professional baseball... it is a learned skill. Footbag deals primarily with the first 5 feet of downward acceleration, which tells me that I have had a lot of practice learning about the path of a footbag because almost every set is the same. Ironically though, they are all unique and I dare say that no two sets are the same. The point in space where the footbag is located at any given moment is only accurately portrayed using X, Y and Z coordinates. Even though I have done literally MILLIONS of sets, I don't think any of them were the same.

By my math, after the Apex, a footbag set at four feet would take 1/8 of a second to fall. So while most tricks have a set height of under 4 feet, that means that most of the trick happens VERY quickly after the Apex. It is amazing how many body motions can be put into such a small amount of time. I mean, I love playing and improving, but look at the last two world champions in the sport and how many micro-motions they put into the strings they do. They are truly pushing the edge. Insane.I think I'll stop now, because I am very impressed with myself and all my fellow shredders.

Shred notes: 2/6/10
Hit Blurry Symposium Whirling Cross Body Rake (7 adds) on film (somewhat thin)... hit it on my first try, pre-camera much more solidly. Also hit Blurry Whirling X-Body Rake on both sides in the same string. SWEET! Tons of rake strings today. Raked the hall.

Settled: Old dogs can learn new tricks (and combos)

2010-02-04T15:14:00.000-06:00

I'm not old, I'm just aging. I hit another pretty unique trick today, I call it 'Storque', it is a torque ending in x-body sole. Proving once again, that aging dogs can not only learn new tricks, but invent them too!

Over the past 1143 days, and the 23 years before that, I have learned from so many great players, taken that physical ability and built upon it. By working on soliosis, and in the same jam, skooling my pixie and fairy sets, my mind put together pixie-soliosis (which might be new too). From there it occurred to me that it should be possible from a clipper set, and Storque was born. Now Storque might not be new, but it is new to me. I have never seen anyone do it, but that doesn't mean it hasn't been done. BTW, I hit it on both sides many times and once on both sides in the same string.

I believe I can achieve, and therefore I do achieve!
And I never know what I will get, but it just comes to me when I'm in the zone. I love this sport!

Thanks to all the great players who have inspired me over the years, and to all the current players who continue to amaze! Keep it up!

See ya!
-enlightener

Freestyle Routines: A Music Map is a guide for development

2010-02-03T13:37:00.004-06:00

I like to use different music for each event I perform at. It has been a personal challenge that I could easily wimp out on, but it keeps things fresh and provides a constant challenge for each event.

When I prepare for a footbag event, I first have to decide on the music. I match the average Beats Per Minute that I shred at, with the pace of the music BPM, and find a piece of music that I can hear over and over and over and over again. I prefer music that has at least a few freezes in it, fast paced but a short slow section is okay.

The Music Map comes in when I am ready to figure out the flow of the routine. The Music Map contains a timeline from 0:00 to the end, and tells me which sections of the music are which. For instance:

0:00 - Open with ...
0:26 -Freeze on Xbody Sole
0:54 - Start fliers string
1:21 - Ripwalks / Blur combo
etcetera.

They help me to visualize the music. I even name the sections so I can visualize them by group, and train the groups independently of each other. When doing a routine, if you should malfunction, get off beat or out of sync with the music, it is very helpful to be able to 'get right back into it' at any point in the music, and I think this helps me to recover from potential disasters.

Shred notes: 2/2/10 - 2/3/10
Spinning Symposium Twirl... I got my foot on it twice, more like a slap than a delay. Redirected the footbag but not in a controlled fashion. It is doable though, so close. Getting warmer faster by mixing up my warmup strings. Also more 'interesting' and satisfying jam sessions too.

When what you have isn't enough...

2010-02-01T14:49:00.003-06:00

Don't get me wrong, what I have is GREAT! And I think I am not alone in saying, "I want more!"

I want more from my sport, as I hope to continually improve my game. I want to do more outreach projects and workshops with kids and introduce more children to footbag. I am shredding every day, and we already have 3 events in the pipe for this year and pitching several more.

I want to spend as much time with my family as possible. Eat more of my wife's wonderful cooking and have more tickle 'fights' with my son.

I want to produce more videos.

I want to travel more.

I want more money, and my current strategy of waiting for it to find me hasn't happened so while it would be nice to capitalize on our sport, I need to figure out a way to make more dollars while getting closer to all the other things I want.

I want more time.

Shred Notes: 2/8/10
Today was 1145. Spent the whole time working on warm up strings. I was very warm. New combos to use like Spinning BTR to Ripwalk to Spinning BTR repeat.

Zen and the art of Balance

2010-01-31T12:46:00.006-06:00

Sometimes I have to watch how things are flowing around me to determine how I am going to get through with the least waves.

For instance, I am shredding in my living room which is a very small area bordered by a life-sized 65" TV, a china cabinet, a couch and the xmas tree, just feeling good about rake and front-side progress I have been making lately. I stumble upon a new version of a trick for me, a toe-set whirling swirl on the same side. I hit it a couple of times, then this last time I hit it, I set it up as I was turning my head away, and I haven't seen that footbag since. Its like it went up, but didn't come down.

In this case, I feel the zen 'gods' of footbag are saying, enough for today. Something is telling me, it's time to stop for today and move on to the other great things in life, like family. I'm taking their advice, and I'm gonna blog for a minute, look for the footbag, go pick at the adhesive stuck to the in-soles of my new Lavers and get ready to go see Avatar again, this time taking public transit to Navy Pier to see it in 3D IMAX.

And the next adventure begins!

Shred notes: Jan 27-28, 09

I juggled a lot yesterday, and did a bunch of the sets that 'stream' fluidly. I came up with a name for the concept of setting into juggle fluidly, and now I have to go search for what it was... there, I found it... I called it "iJuggle", but now I realize how much I don't like that. I'm thinking of calling it 'Streaming Juggle' or 'Seamless'. I like Seamless now.
Today, I hit Phobic (fairy behind the back) (gyro) Blender. Yesterday I hit pixie same reverse swirl on both sides. Fairy twirl on both sides.

Shred notes: 1/31/10
Hit a few variants of xbody rake. Set from opp clipper, under support leg with a switch of support leg and xbody rake with original set foot. Hit toe set whirling swirl. Skooled tons of frontside stuff.

Ted Martin - Guinness World Record Holder

2010-01-29T11:11:00.006-06:00

Ted Martin gives me a call last night out of the blue. Small world alert because his name came up in conversation at work, as one of my clients had been contacted by someone unknown about his agent services... anyway that very night, Ted gives me a call. What's up with that?

Ted Martin is the Guinness World Record Holder in the prestigious and coveted event of Singles Footbag Consecutives. Set at an event I organized back in 1997, the record still stands at 63,326 as the most number of kicks of a footbag that any human being has ever completed in a row. Ted has been featured in a special publication by Guinness called "The Top 100 Most Asked About Records" (paraphrased), and he still plays footbag net on a regular basis, along with many other sports. Ted is a true craftsman, and I consider it an honor to have been a part of his domination of the sport back in the day.

A major Trading Card manufacturer, Upper Deck, has created a card to celebrate Ted's accomplishment, and Ted is signing one for me, Valeria and Alex. We will for sure be framing that and adding it over my desk. I can't wait to see them, so I searched their site and found the image above! Awesome!

I am psyched to start shredding today, right now as I post, for the 1136th day in a row! Still, I don't think I would ever try to attempt a single string of over 63,326 kicks in a row... Ted kicks VERY fast compared to me, what took him just over 8.5 hours, would take me at least 12. That's a long session. Thanks Ted for continuing to inspire!

I've forgotten more tricks than I know...

2010-01-28T13:39:00.006-06:00

"I've forgotten more tricks than I know!"
While this statement is not entirely true, I often struggle with keeping up with myself. I innovate all the time, and part of my process is to blog about it here. It makes my progress somehow seem more concrete and traceable. I can search to find all the instances of a certain trick, people can keep up with my progress even though I basically shred in seclusion, and I can get feedback from my peers. It is pretentious of me to think anyone would want to keep up with me, so my blogging has a dual purpose... I know there are people who do get inspired, and it is always a nice bonus to know I've inspired someone but mostly it is a 'concrete' summary of my accomplishments and failures, which is fully searchable in a way that I very much desire. It is really my diary. A review of my progress. What a great thing. Thank you google for this platform.

I am pretty sure I have hit Phobic Twirl before, and now I can search my blog to see that it has not been mentioned since I started this on my 1000th day of shred. But I am pretty sure I have hit it, now I have to search my YouTube videos because I might have posted it there. This blog lets me tie the information together so I can retrieve it.

Shred notes: 2/1/10
Using new warm-up strings to get warm fast, and really energized from it. Lots of frontside stuff.

Training with mixed sets...

2010-01-26T07:47:00.005-06:00

I have a new theory that I'll test on myself over the next several months. I'm going to step up my warm-up strings by mixing them up.

For the past 3 years I have been getting warm the same way, consistently doing 10 infinities, 10 osis, 10 whirl/osis combos in sequence, blurs, ripwalks, paradox whirls, at least 10 in a row and then I knew I was warm. Kind of boring, but it was a reliable way to quickly warm up. It also helps me when competing to know exactly what sequences I need to do to warm up properly.

My intention is to make my warm-up combos more challenging. Osis-Whirl and Barfly to Barfly are in. Newer combos haven't all been worked out, but I'll be experimenting with these and I'll let you know...

Whirl - blender - whirl - blender
Spinning BTR - Ripwalk - Spinning BTR - Ripwalk
Ducking BTR - PWRL - Ducking BTR - PWRL
Gyro Mirage - Fairy/Pixie BTR - repeat
Barrage - BTR - Barrage - BTR
Pixie Mirage - DLO - Pixie Mirage - DLO
Gotta think about these... Try them out on the 27th. I'll let you know.

I am thinking that by stepping up the difficulty and variety of my warm-up strings that I will then be stepping my game up to the next level, and improve my overall string length and variety.

Shred Notes: 1/26/10
I hit Diving (same) Blender. Still skooling opp pixie/fairy moves, atomic sets, still struggling with Quantum. Getting closer.
See ya!

Picking apart my game: Bails vs. Sets

2010-01-25T15:53:00.008-06:00

When I think about my 'game,' there are so many aspects that go into the whole picture, that today I am just going to pick apart the concept of 'Bails', what tricks I Bail to, and my strategy for managing Bails in training.

A 'The' or 'Guiltless' trick is well-defined, but Bails are different for everyone. A Bail is a trick that a player uses as their go-to trick(s), for a sense of stabilization, to quickly get centered, and to set other tricks from. A Bail also 'happens' when you go to do a big trick and you "Bail" to another (usually easier) trick. Players sometimes 'revert' to these Bail tricks to get control of the footbag. They are necessary for performances because they give the player a way to stay with the beat, still accumulate Adds and keep their difficulty ratio high.

For some people, a Bail might be as advanced as Torque, Ripwalk or Spinning Butterfly. For most people a Bail ranges from a Toe Delay in the case of a newer player, or more commonly a Paradox Mirage, Butterfly, Osis or Whirl. I noticed that in competition, that many players bail to a Toe Pick-up.

In my case, my bails are mostly Butterflies and Osii... also Paradox Whirls, Torques, Ripwalks in some cases. It also depends on the level you hold yourself to. I now play at a Guiltless level, where every trick is worth 3 or more points. For a long time, about 10 years ago, I pushed myself to play at a Tripless level where every trick is worth 4 or more points. I am not sure when I went back to a Guiltless level, but it was mostly to improve my string-length which suffered when I went Tripless. Plus when I designed routines, I never planned a trick less than 3 adds except a few Unusual Surfaces.

The bigger your 'Bail' tricks are, the higher your Add Ratio will be, which is a big part of improving your game.

A Set can force a Bail. A big difference between a Bail and a Set is whether it is employed to recover from a potential drop, or if it was intentionally performed to get to another larger trick. When Sets are executed properly, they make the next trick possible. Since every trick is a Set for the next trick, Bails are inevitable.

Another way to look at it, is that I manage Sets everyday during training by finding the most comfortable sets for specific tricks, and I train them in combination. Bails are when I use those tricks to recover from a potentially uncontrollable moment.

Shred notes: 1/25/09
Blurry Whirling Swirl to the left today. Why is it still easier to do Paradox Atom Smasher (nuclear style), than for me to do a simple Atom Smasher. Atomic tricks to the butterfly are more of a 'bail' for me because my brain thinks they are more reliable. Still not sure why Quantum still eludes me. Closer though. By using daily training of my flipside pixie and fairy, along with continuing to hit Atomic sets and Nuclear sets, and now Barrages, my game is evolving yet again.

Innovation is a natural process!

2010-01-23T12:53:00.005-06:00

I love when innovation just happens. Those moments are priceless!
Today, I hit Pixie op Symposium Twirl. (and yes, on tape).. I have hit the fairy version going to its 'same' side, and I have been skooling twirls and fairy/pixie moves on a regular basis. Then there it was. I just thought, what if... and there it was. I wasn't looking to do a new trick, I was just exploring the tricks I knew and then melded them together.

Moments like this only happen because of extensive training of components (see previous posts about the importance of 'Components' in freestyle) and through the slow expansion of your game over many tries. I say slow, because for me it is a pretty deliberate process that is similar in how I train. At some point though, the proverbial peanut butter gets into the chocolate and a new trick is born.

I love when that happens. And sure, not always is it an entirely new trick, usually someone else has hit it. But sometimes it is truly unique and that is always a good feeling! However some of these tricks are just incremental add-ons to existing tricks, it is always exciting to hit one. Ultimately, while a handful of other people may have hit that trick, it is great to know I am one of the few. I also love it that I continue to innovate after all these years!

Shred notes: 1/23/10
So close to Quantum. So close. Gonna watch the video ToTT2 in slo-mo tonight to figure out what I'm missing.

Is injury lurking around every corner? Or is injury entirely avoidable?

2010-01-20T09:32:00.005-06:00

When I was playing yesterday, I was so excited to be skooling my barfly to blizzard combos. Having fun. Feeling good. Then all the sudden, out of no where, I find myself laying on my back, staring up at the ceiling trying to figure out what went wrong.

One moment of inattention is all it took. It happened so fast and it wasn't on tape, but I think it happened because of slippery floors (see previous blog post). I didn't have the right grip on the ground when I launched and my ankle rolled.

I believe that injury is mostly avoidable. Taking risks is a necessary part of improving your skill level, but taking calculated risks after proper amounts of training is the way to reduce the risk of injury to 'somewhat under control'.

Shred notes: 1/20/10
The pain from yesterday is mostly in the inability to crank my left ankle fully inward and some pain on the left side of the left foot. The fall more seems to have hurt my hip and lower back. Should be ok, not terribly bad.

Shredding on Slippery Floors

2010-01-16T08:04:00.006-06:00

I find myself playing on slippery floors quite frequently. Over the past 25 years of playing footbag freestyle, I have played on just about every possible surface. From grass, sand, polished concrete, blacktop, marble, glass, wood, and even gravel... I have become a 'surface snob' as a result of it. In all cases, the surface must be flat and level. It is best to have a 'predictable' place to land, so there are less variables that could cause injury, like uneven ground or slippery spots.

My favorite and preferred surface is concrete. Rough and grippy, concrete offers the best combination of benefits. Whenever possible, I will play on concrete. I feel I can spin more liberally, and more importantly spin the other direction better.

Hardwood floors, marble, glass and polished concrete all have the same down-side. They are slippery. To counteract this, I usually put down a wet towel, or pour water in an out-of-the-way spot and then I step in it periodically to get my feet damp so they stick to the floor better. Especially good for spinning, which I do a lot of.

Grass may be best for footbag net, but it is horrendous for footbag freestyle. It is naturally uneven, and slippery. Unpredictable and inconsistent landing spots cause additional variables to figure in, and when the variables can't be predicted, it can end in injury. I always hold back on the extreme shredding when playing in grass, which is usually at a festival or large even where an ideal surface is not available.

Concrete near the beach tends to be sandy. I always thought I would not be able to play in those conditions, but as long as it isn't a measurable amount of sand, it tends to be just fine. Keep a small broom in the car at all times and you'll never worry about dirty/sandy locations. One of my favorite places to shred is at the beach, but on the cement 'near' the sand.

Use EXTREME CAUTION when kicking in dirt and gravel, on any kind of an incline, and especially in any combination of the above. Greg 'G-F-Smoothie' Nelson sprained his ankle in 1986 at World Footbag Championships at a campground, playing in less than ideal conditions.

Playing is necessary. Ideal conditions are great if you can get 'em, but be prepared to play on any surface and you'll be prepared to play anytime!

Shred notes: 01/16/10
7am shred time. 40 pushups so far. Amazed at how fast I got warmed up. Skooled flipside pixies and frontside dex's. Spinning Barflies.

Oh, that warmed-up feeling

2010-01-13T20:06:00.009-06:00

For me, I start to feel warmed up after about 15 minutes of play. I have a system, a series of tricks and basic goals to accomplish just getting started. But there is a point during warm up where I just start to feel the pre-sweat, that is the turning point. That is when I make sure to do blur/blizzard drills, ripwalk and paradox whirl drills to get totally warm.

The point of 'first-sweat' is that moment where I can feel the sweat coming on. I am usually breathing pretty hard, and can feel my pulse in my forehead/temple area. I know at that point I can turn up the heat on the workout and really start to push it more. I suppose what I am saying is that I ease my way into my jam session every day. I stretch in small bits in the morning, and more deliberately in the afternoons.

It seems also, that when I have a clear goal to work on, one that I am mentally excited about, that it is easier to get warmed up fast.

Shred notes: 1/21/09
Paradox Torques both sides, Blurry Torques on left, unable on right. Lots of swirls, twirls, blenders and the like. Not so much noticeable pain from the other day. Thank my lucky stars.

Footbag Illustrates Life Lesson: "Believe it can be done"

2010-01-12T14:51:00.007-06:00

I have observed such footbag greats as Ryan Mulroney, Vasek Klouda Kenny Shults and others over the years. One similarity they all have is their belief in themselves. A belief of 'possibilities.' A belief system that allows them not only conceive but achieve. Watching Vasek specifically, I think about the duality between physical ability and will to achieve, and I think maybe I missed the boat on the 'belief in myself' area.

Historically, my advancements have been based on the achievements of others. I see what can be done, and I make sure to learn it. It is how I built my footbag career over the years, with occasional bursts of creativity like Twirls that I can call my own. While I have been an innovator, my successes have been largely due to my incremental growth in the sport, based on components.

I generally work on components that build toward a larger trick, taking the careful approach When maybe I should be just believing in the possibility that just because it 'hasn't been done before' that maybe I can be the one who does it.

Moving forward, I want to keep this new revelation in the front of my mind. I want to ask my friends to keep me in check and to continue to challenge me with what they think I might be able to do. I really appreciate the feedback. Feedback is a gift. Thanks for all the gifts!

-enlightener

Shred Notes: 1/10/09 thru 1/13/10
Baroque (barraging torque) on both sides. More gyro barrages. I can see barraging mobius and sympobius in my future. So close. Crazy about barrages. They are opening up a whole new direction for variety in my game. Tons of new moves for me!

I hit Blurriest x3 today, which puts me in the ranks of Kenny Shults from 1993 at Xmas Jam in Michigan where he skooled us all on what freestyle was coming to. Glad to catch up to Kenny, even if it is 17 years later.

Doubles Footbag Freestyle is harder to train for...

2010-01-10T16:22:00.004-06:00

I was thinking back over the years. I have played my share of doubles freestyle, and I think it is a harder event to train for than singles. Doubles Footbag Freestyle Routines are longer than singles, and there is no room for error at any point through it. In singles, if I have to take a detour, it is between me and the footbag. In doubles, if something unintended happens, both of us have to react in unison and no matter how hard I train, I always fear an unforced error that causes confusion.

Doubles routines are mapped out more intricately, literally trick-by-trick. Singles routines are a bit more flexible in structure. Honestly, I train singles routines with the goal of a consistent end-product. The reality is that somewhere through a 2 minute performance will be an error, but getting back on track is something I can train for. My game-plan in singles is to keep moving forward, get back on track with the intended performance in cadence with the music. In doubles, this is so much harder to do. Getting on track without looking like motley fools.

I can play singles alone, but a good partner needs to live in the same general proximity as me, which has generally meant that my doubles pairings are cyclical based on the players that are strong on the scene at the time.

I can play singles any time I want, but to play doubles requires first having a nearby strong player willing to train, and juggling two schedules to make that happen.

Over the years, I have played doubles freestyle with many players you might recognize... Andy Linder, Kenny Shults, Keaton Halley, Steve Smith and Valeria Davidson. Forgive me if I forgot anyone, it has been many years.

This year I plan to pair up with Valeria for Mixed Doubles Freestyle at Worlds (if it is in the US this year, you can count on us being there.). What a better partner than my own wife, and with that, all the above criteria come together. I'll keep you posted on that.

See ya!
-Enlightener

Results for 25th Annual Midwest Regional Footbag Championships & New Years Jam

2010-01-08T21:01:00.003-06:00

It has been more than a week since we wrapped up the 25th Annual Midwest Regional Footbag Championships & New Years Jam. Thanks to everyone who attended, it was great to shred with you all! Thanks for coming out! We had a blast as usual, and are already planning for next year.

Thanks to our Sponsors - World Footbag Association www.worldfootbag.com, Freedom Footbags www.freedomfootbags.com, www.kickforhealth.org, BRAT, Chicago's Mayors Office of Special Events, Kolo Sports, CIC and all the people who made this another event to remember!

Here is a video of day 1, Routines: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oj5fy8hZlIc
All the photos are at: http://gallery.me.com/enlightener#100693&bgcolor=black&view=mosaic&sel=0

More video to follow.

We introduced footbag to hundreds of interested onlookers during this event!

RESULTS:
Midwest Regional Footbag Championships Results:
Open Singles Footbag Freestyle Routines:
1st Place - Milan Benda
2nd Place - Scott Davidson
3rd Place - Ken Somolinos

Open Circle Contest:
1st Place - Ken Somolinos
2nd Place - Milan Benda
3rd Place - Matt Kemmer
4th Place - Reid Strellner

Novice Consecutive Contest:
Alex Davidson - 32 (and personal best of 102)

Intermediate Footbag Freestyle Routines:
1st Place - Joe Michels
2nd Place - Corey Allen

Intermediate Circle Contest:
1st Place - Joe Michels
2nd Place - Matt Mueller
3rd Place - Corey Allen
4th Place - Freddy Noinaj

We had tons of great prizes thanks to the sponsors!

See ya next year!
-enlightener

Playing footbag at 'lunch' requires preparation

2010-01-06T07:11:00.005-06:00

To optimize the amount of playtime I can squeeze out of a lunchbreak, I carefully prepare every morning before work. I wear my kicking shorts under my pants and carry with me a 'shred bundle' of extra clothes. The bundle has a shirt to play in (It will get sweaty), a change of socks and underclothes & a sweat towel. Always a footbag t-shirt and always a towel from a footbag tourney.

When I leave for lunch, my strategy is to get to my shred site as quickly as possible. Shed the outer layer so I am in kicking shorts, footbag shirt, short socks and my Adidas Rod Laver shoes. I start my warm up strings just as soon as I get the music started.

By the time I finish at :50 elapsed, I rush back to work and do a quick change/cleanup and back to work.

Doesn't leave room for eating time, that is why I always put 'lunch' in quotes. It only really takes 6-10 minutes to eat a light lunch, so I figure 'that's what breaks ate for!'

Skool hard everyday. Prepare properly and it is a breeze.

I have had many times where I didn't prepare properly and had to 'roll with it' to accomplish the goal of daily shred. I've had to buy shorts because I forgot to bring them. I've had to play in work shorts and in pants. Even once I had to play in skateboard shoes, that turned out to be less productive than it was educational. Every morning I prepare my backpack in an effort to guarantee I get my daily shred.

See ya!
-Enlightener

Shred Notes: 1/6/09
Obsessed with Sympobius... Symposium mobius. Sooooo close. Did hit Gyro symposium mirage, or probably not really gyro with the plant so "Spyro Symposium Mirage" is more proper. Hit a bunch of nuclear stuff, Paradox atom smasher, reverse paradox torque done nuclear style on flipside. Blizzards still in daily routine, doing pushups too for upper body. Hit Gyrrage again. Seems Jani Walker is the same as a blender but done in the front with a totally different set of motions.

Getting warm in the cold

2010-01-04T07:15:00.000-06:00

Part of playing everyday is learning to play in adverse conditions. Sometimes in small spaces, on slippery floors, less than ideal lighting conditions, or without my favorite footbag. The most recurring adverse condition, especially this time of year, is playing when it is cold. Half the battle is getting warm in the first place.

Playing Footbag freestyle in the cold is particularly challenging for a couple of reasons. First, it takes soooooooo long to get warm, even in medium temps around 50•. Second, it requires additional layers of clothes which compound the problem of getting warm.

It usually takes me 15-20 minutes playing alone to be fully warmed up, but the cold, at least a half hour. If I was playing in a circle I may never get warm, so I would for sure warm up alone, then join a circle.

As I get warm and start sweating profusely, I peel off the layers. First the sweater, then the thermal running tights, then the long sleeve shirt. I find that a nice thinsulate pair of liner gloves keeps the fingers warm and tricks the brain into thinking extremities are warm. The gloves look ridiculous unless I have a long sleeve shirt on. I have employed chemical hand warmers too, even under the toes to keep the feet warm. I notice that when I walk around outside in shorts in the cold that my knees get frozen first, but by flexing them they seem to be ok. This frozen knee thing is new this year as I don't remember this ever being a problem in the past.

I have shredded in sub-zero temps using these techniques, and when done right, I am literally steaming when I am done. Steam is good.

Today I'm working on frozen moves in a futilly symbolic attempt to pay homage to the cold that has blanketed our region. I am lucky to have found a hovel where they have so far tolerated my mad shredding each day, about 50 degrees but cold when the doors open.

Shred Notes: 01/04/09
Jani walker is easier now, and now that I have the magic hop in my barrages, they are being integrated into daily play now. Also hitting gyrrage regularly, and now attempting Barroque (barraging torque), paradox barrage (which I hit way back in '94 the first time I met Tuan Vu at Heart of Freestyle), and barraging toe pickup.

- enlightener

What keeps me going?

2010-01-01T18:33:00.000-06:00

As 2010 rolls through (1108 days in a row as we start the new year), I think about the question... 'What motivates me? What keeps me playing everyday?'
There is no single element of footbag that keeps this childish exuberance alive. It is a combination of things, among them:
-The near-infinite variety of possible individual tricks and combinations
-The personal challenge of always pushing myself to do better, more difficult tricks and combos
-The friends I have made, the new people I meet, and the future players I might influence
-The knowledge that a very small percentage of people on the planet can do what I do, and I can and do innovate new tricks and combos that no other person on the planet has ever done before. Or at least 'very' few people.
-The meditative value of footbag cannot be overlooked. On a daily basis, I go from the distractions of daily life, into a deep somewhat-meditative state of challenge and possibility in just a matter of minutes as I get through my warmups. And for some reason, if I visualize footbag freestyle strings while I am laying down, I tend to fall asleep.
-To dip into my personal 'fountain of youth' on a daily basis
-To still be playing solidly when someone finally offers a Masters category for freestyle
-To be able to boast that I am 'the oldest shredder' and know that my game backs it up!
-To be able to pull out a footbag at any moment and show off for a camera, knowing that I am still at the top of my game.
-Because I know that while I can't 'give back' to the world from my pocketbook, but I can use kickforhealth.org as a way to position footbag as a healthy activity for kids, and to teach them to play.
-The way my family pulls together to play together, and for all the travel time we get when we go to tournaments
-All the great excuses to travel, when I would otherwise probably come up with excuses.
-For the weight I have taken off, and kept off because of the constant physical challenge footbag offers.
I play everyday because I love the way it makes me feel!

Have a great year!

-enlightener

Last shred session of the decade

2009-12-31T07:01:00.000-06:00

Hurry up and get your shred on today, last chance of the decade!

Today is 1107 days in a row shredding with my favorite Footbags (http://www.freedomfootbags.com). I am only gonna be able to play for an hour today, so my plan is to warmup fast with shred sprints, then work on big add trix. Skool barrages and other versions of same.

Thinking back to the turn of the century, I was the Current world champion in Footbag freestyle routines. My son was 2 years old, I was working with our family business. In that time, I took another two 2nd place finishes at worlds, and managed to stay on top of my game. I now work for a major company, my son is now 11 and just got his first pair of Lavers (http://www.worldfootbag.com) and on that same day he increased his own personal best consecutive score to 102 kicks in a row. I have been married for 18 years and my wife is still a freestyler too. For both of us, Footbag freestyle is our primary exercise, Valeria does other exercise, and I am planning to work on my upper body every other day in addition to freestyle every day. We want to bring Kick For Health to play a larger role in helping to reduce childhood obesity and adult onset diabetes by doing more school workshops and more actively promoting the concept.

Thanks to everyone who made this last decade so great for us, even when the economy didn't do so well. We are fortunate to be where we are starting into this next ten year span.

I can't wait for this next decade! Bring it on!

-enlightener

I can't get enough of this sport!

2009-12-30T14:37:00.000-06:00

Is there such a thing as 'too much' freestyle? If you ask me, no. You might get a different answer from those around me, depending on when you ask the question. I think everyone would agree that my seemingly obsessive behavior surrounding Footbag ultimately has provided nothing but positive results in all areas of my life, with the possible exception of the financial area.

After a busy holiday week and a major Footbag tournament, my legs are surprisingly NOT sore. It may be partially because I gave been skooling hard every day for the past 1105 days in a row, but I think it is because I didn't get 'enough' play time at New Years Jam. As event director, getting to the site early each day and setting up, staying late to clean up is a small price to pay to bring an event like this to life. This event provides a place where other obsessed individuals such as myself can unite in our unique commonality to play together, learn from each other, reach out and teach kids, and even compete with each other. I personally believe every club should host a footbag event at least once a year! Get on it !

I'm going to do a double jam session today, lunch AND evening. Gotta return the sound system too.

Shred notes: 12/29/09 and 12/30/09
Day after a big event is usually hard to play. Not this time. Noticed a recent deficiency in barrages, skooled them. Hit Gyro Barrage. Is that called 'Garage'?

- enlightener

25th Annual Midwest Regional Footbag Championships - Wrap up and Results

2009-12-30T07:32:00.001-06:00

Dec. 27-28, 2009.
25th Annual Midwest Regional Footbag Championships - Wrap up and Results.

About 50 players united for two days of shredding. Milan Benda from Czech Republic, Ken Somolinos from D.C., Brian, Emily and Goldberg from central CA, among others from Toledo, St. Louis, Wisconsin and nearby states!

Thanks to our sponsors!
Freedom Footbags.com
World Footbag.com (WFA)
Kolo Sport
Brat
Chicago's Mayors Office of Special Events

Results (draft)
Footbag Freestyle Routines
-1st Place - Milan Benda
-2nd Place - Scott Davidson
-3rd Place - Ken Somolinos

Circle Contest
-1st Place - Ken Somolinos
-2nd Place - Milan Benda
-3rd Place - (name temp. missing)

More results:
Trick request contest- Milan Benda
Novice Consecutives: Alex Davidson (102, personal record)

Once I get these results completed here, I'll cross post them to Footbag.org and modified.in.

- enlightener