How exercising every day positively effects my work...

When I think about the many benefits that I receive by exercising everyday, I mostly think in terms of improved health and fitness.  And while doing research about daily exercise and the physical benefits, I realized that there are many great reasons to exercise, that are specifically related to improving my work performance.

Exercise has many positive mental benefits: reducing stress and anxiety, improved focus, better mood, increased energy, and better sleep quality!

Every one of these mental benefits translates to better performance at work.  When exercise reduces my stress and anxiety, I go to work more relaxed and calm, and enjoy my interactions with co-workers and clients even more than usual!  When exercise improves my focus, I'm better able to efficiently complete the tasks at hand and helps me to innovate effectively!  And when exercise improves my sleep quality, I arrive at work more alert and feel rested throughout the day!

I exercise everyday, and I have since I turned 40, over 8 years ago.  It has had a positive effect on my work and my family life.  Consider pushing yourself to break a sweat every day!  It is amazing what you might accomplish!

Here is a video showing off what I have accomplished over the last 3000 days of exercising everyday.

Even the US Government has done research to prove the benefits of exercise in the workplace.  Read more about it here.

Thanks for watching!

Find more at www.earlyworkingretirement.com
My youtube channel is /footbagenlightener
Follow me on Twitter: @enlightener1
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Apple iPhone 5s Slow Motion Demo Sample 120fps 720p - Footbag (Hacky Sack) Freestyle amazing example of a great camera

I have been shredding every day for 2472 days straight, and it feels great!  I had access to an iPhone 5s Apple camera for an hour so I shot this video.  I hope you agree, when viewed in real time, footbag tricks are difficult to figure out, but at 120 frames per second (120fps), it is an amazing visual.

I have a gopro with a wide angle lens, but I desire having a camera with this capability alongside my phone, in case I get the urge to film.

Play everyday!

See ya!
-enlightener

Don't forget to breathe when you shred freestyle footbag!

I play every day.  Today was 2234 in a row. This morning, I was shredding in my living room and I noticed that I was breathing only through my nose when I shred.  And once I got a little winded, I asked myself... "Would I be able to maintain longer strings if I were getting more oxygen, by breathing through my mouth rather than my nose?"

I know that one challenge that Josh 'Chizzler' Casey had back when he was shredding was that he would take a deep breath as he started a string, and he would hold it.  He wasn't breathing when he was shredding.  This made his string lengths shorter, and he had a hard time getting past 10 tricks in a row.

When I am in the zone, I don't have time to think about breathing, all my processing power is being used.  When I was trying to discover if I have been breathing properly, it took several strings of drills until I was sure I am breathing when I'm shredding.  As it turns out, I breathe fine, but only through my nose.  Something happens when I start to shred where my throat closes up, and only the nose can be used. It is natural.

So while trying to stay focused on new tricks like Atomic same Eclipse, which I first did yesterday, and others like Atomic Clipper Seamless juggle which I came across last week... I was trying to focus on breathing through my mouth.

The Verdict:
When I'm shredding, I am perfectly fine sticking with my nose-breathing, it provides plenty of oxygen.  When I did long strings and breathed through my mouth, I sometimes almost felt dizzy from, is it possible... too much oxygen?  Now that I know I breathe fine, I'll stick with breathing through my nose when I shred.  One less thing to think about.

Don't forget to breathe!

The bottom line:
It doesn't matter how you breathe, just be thankful you are breathing!

Please enjoy my Atomic Clipper Seamless Juggle video below:

Integrating fliers into strings, and warming up my fliers… Is the most tiring thing I do all day.

I have to say, by adding flyers to my warm-up strings, I get sweatier faster than ever before. I'm also more tired than ever before. I no longer believe I need to include fliers in my warm-up regimen. I can get warm using the normal warm-up strings, and expend the additional energy needed for linking fliers into strings later in the session. In other words, because fliers drain energy there is no need to warm them up, it just expends needed energy.

The trick to doing big tricks out of flyers, is controlling their sets. As with any trick. I have been integrating fliers into my strings for a long time, but I've been treating them like something I need to recover from, rather than something that I need to control. For instance, I already do spinning fliers mid-string, but almost always followed by a recovery osis and butterfly to get 'reset' and continue to the next more difficult strings. What is different here is that in order to do a difficult trick directly from a flier, the set needs to be perfectly placed at mid-chest height and straight up and down, and the body has to be ready to land and snap into the next trick. I am out of film, so I can't video this yet, but I will soon.

So far, I have gotten control of spinning flying butterfly, and phairy flying butterfly so that I can go directly to tricks like Whirl, Torque, Blender and DLO, and it looks unexpected and awesome!

In summary, I plan to be able to pull a flier in mid-string and continue seamlessly onto another difficult trick. If you ever see me do an osis out of a flier, it is unplanned and essentially a bail/recovery maneuver. Combine this with my Seamless Juggling and my strings are going to continue to impress. I can't wait to play today!


Shred notes: I have been breaking the new shoes in. The top of my left foot hurts from practicing those Forklift tricks http://youtu.be/Wvg8qPXKwHE that I re-introduced a few weeks ago, the pain is from the movement, not the new shoes. Day 2080 is today. This type of pain feels like a bruise, broken vessels, and causes me to not be able to crank the left ankle. So I'll only work on those in small bursts, see if I can't build up the strength in my feet to be able to do those cool tricks without penalty of pain.

Why Seamless juggling tricks should get an extra add

Catching a single Footbag on 1 foot equals one add. Juggling 2 footbags at once, even though you're really only touching one at a time, gets two ads. The second add is a Body add and is awarded for having two objects in play simultaneously.

Most people start their juggling tricks after a pause. Seamless juggling is done without a pause. There is Seamless-In, and Seamless-Out. That is to say, that a seamless trick happens as you enter a juggling sequence and/or as you exit a juggling sequence.

The most basic example, is the two bag toe juggle. Starting the traditional way requires a 1 add toe delay and a pause in the action. Seamless tricks still start mostly with toe delays but have the 'added element of difficulty' of throwing a second Footbag into play without any pause in the action. The most basic example of this is starting into a juggle from a kicking sequence.

When teaching Seamless juggle, I start with teaching the timing and accuracy of the hand toss by having students kick insides and go to opp toe delay and start to juggle from kicks, not from toe delay. Once the timing and hand toss are more familiar, then we start integrating more difficult first tricks as the start tricks. The Add should be awarded as a Body Add for the integrated hand toss, and should be applied to the first trick leading into the juggle. That is Seamless-In.

Seamless-Out Happens as the player transitions back to 1 bag shredding. For instance, I'm 2-bag juggling on left toe and I grab Footbag from the air while doing a Phairy infinity with the bag in play (as opposed to another toe delay), is there an extra add there? I don't see it.

The really fun thing about Seamless-Out tricks is how confusing it looks when I integrate directly back to Seamless-In tricks. You will see examples in the links below.

I have been a bit obsessed about developing my Seamless skills lately. I've kept up with my high end game the whole time and Seamless tricks are part of most of my strings. They are more natural than ever before. Here are some of the recent Seamless Juggle videos I've published so far...

Starting from almost two years ago, here are the vids I've published featuring juggling...

August 2010 I published this test of the new camera I had gotten, and below is the result... I've been doing Seamless Juggling for at least 2 years now and I've brought all those videos together here:




















That was the most recent Juggling related video I've made.  Now that Seamless Juggling is a reality, I am working to include Seamless tricks in almost every string.  I always carry a 2nd bag with me, as I can do seamless whenever I want.  I propose Seamless-In tricks should get another ad because it requires an additional element of difficulty in getting the timing right for the release of the 2nd footbag while the first footbag is still in play.

Please comment.  Tell your friends.

-Enlightener!

Freestyle Footbag and Aging

The subtext of this blog is all about aging. It has been all along. Here is an article that addresses 'Aging' in the context of Freestyle Footbag.

Today is day 2004 of consecutive days shredding/training. I apologize for the long delay (and I always joke that freestylers should never apologize for delays) between posts on this blog. With yesterday's retirement of the great Derrick 'Funky Chicken' Fogle, due to knee injury after 30 years of playing, I am recommitted to revitalizing this blog and continuing to represent Freestyle for the aging set. To boldly go to public places and jam. To go to concerts and immerse my shred strings to the beat of the music. To write about it, film it, and promote the sport to anyone who'll listen.

I was recently asked 'Why do you still do this?' and I didn't have a quick answer. But it got me thinking. Why do I play? What is it that keeps me going? For over 20 years the answer was clear... I was training for the World Footbag Championships. My first year was 1985 in Golden, Co and I went every year for the next 19 years and made lifelong friends with all the competitors of the time.

When I turned 40, I was noticing that if I took 2 days off, it took a day to recover, and at that rate it would hold my game stagnant. So I decided to play everyday. This way I could move forward a bit at a time and never fall back. 2004 days later I am happy to report that my game is better than ever! Along this journey, I have greatly improved all areas of my game. I do tons of integrated frontside tricks, more difficult unusual surfaces, I'm light years ahead in juggling, I've invented a bunch of tricks (even recently), I've defined trick categories and expanded on them, I've published 163 YouTube videos at http://www.YouTube.com/footbagenlightener learned Dragon tricks on both sides, expanded the high add tricks I do and I'm in the best shape of my life!

One thing I have noticed is that endurance is down. This may be due to the 'way' I train, but most people would say it is due to me being 45 and a half years old. I'm not so sure which it is, but I'm going to spend the next few months counteracting it through 'Shred Sprints' three times a week. So the first reason I still play I because what I do is a kind of Athletic Magic, and I don't want to lose the magic!

I see myself as a family man, an athlete and a company man. My inner athlete has always had the credo that second place is the first loser. In fact, today I'm wearing the very shirt that inspired my credo. While my athletic career started in the 70's with the requisite baseball and soccer where I realized that in team sports, I was an epic failure. I went to gymnastics and gained flexibility. I broke my right tibia in an embarrassing skiing incident which led me to swimming as a recovery sport.  That is because when the cast came off, my right leg was half the size of my left. It turned out that I was really good at swimming. Varsity team as a freshman, but no state records or anything monumental. I was a swimmer when I first played Footbag. I got into cycling and idolized Eric Heiden for a while. Did some triathlons, and by 1988 had placed 5th in the World Championships for Footbag freestyle. The video of this I find hilarious and can be seen here.

Why do I still play footbag everyday?   First, I fear that I might lose the magic.  Footbag freestyle is so unique, what I do is a form of magic, and I love it.  Second, playing every day reinforces my self-image as an Athlete, even though my priorities have shifted over time, I'm still an athlete!  Playing everyday is my proof.  It also provides my third reason, healthy results.  Sure, I am a vegetarian and that accounts for the healthy diet side of my life, thanks in great part to my wife Valeria's amazing cooking skills.  Combine healthy eating and daily intense exercise and a healthy result is expected and attained.  I feel I'm in the best shape of my life, and I'm not at all the stereotyped image of a lanky/sickly looking vegetarian.  And lastly, I wanted to prove it can be done!   So many of my friends/competitors from the 80's and 90's have retired and either don't play at all, or have defected to the Net side of the sport.  Net is a whole other set of skills, and I applaud my colleagues for continuing on from great freestyle careers to become some of the best net players around.  I envy them for being able to travel to World Footbag Championships all over Europe, but someday I'll come back to Worlds because footbag is in my heart.

There's four great reasons right there!

See ya!
Enlightener
(Scott Davidson)

This posting is in honor of the retirement of one of my oldest footbag freestyle friends, Derrick 'Funky Chicken' Fogle.  I really think he'll get better and play again, but I shed tears when I just think about what 'footbag retirement' would look like.  I can't imagine it.  I have 4 years before I catch up to him in playing time, so Derrick, you have 4 years to recover and stay ahead of me.  I wish there was something more than encouragement in recovery that I can offer.  But I know he'll recover and we'll play together on a day in the not so distant future!


I'm preparing a video from my 2000th day of shredding, but here is one from yesterday, my 2003rd day.  It is shred footage from O'Hare airport while I was at a conference and had a great camera angle until my camera got a heat warning during a publishable string and shut down.  Enjoy!

Shred Lessons from 2011

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

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.