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

Athlete first, Street Performer second...

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!

Stimpy Concept - Freestyle Footbag evolves steadily...

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

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

High Impact tricks are always high energy tricks...

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!

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!

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!

"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!

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!

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

I'm a human Rube Goldberg machine...

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...

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

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

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!

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!

We need more Footbag tournaments and events!

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

Vacation Freestyle Footbag Shreds - And a new trick concept

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

Videotaping tips for footbag freestyle... and footbag net

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.

This moment is all we have...

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!

Footbag Freestyle keeps the mind fresh and the body young!

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.