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.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Injury without honor...
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
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
Saturday, June 26, 2010
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.
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.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Inspired by Tricks of the Trade II
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.
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.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Being 'in the Zone' is really mastering the moment!
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!
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!
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
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!
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Threading - Thanks to Gary Lautt!
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®"
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®"
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
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.
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.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Mammoth Springs Training Center is open!
Of course, shredding footbag freestyle requires flat, level surfaces. Ideally concrete, asphalt or hardwood but not slippery like marble or some polished hardwoods. In the winter I frequently comment on how shredding in a back hallway of polished concrete with a half inch layer of dust, and I whine about it because I know that there is a parking lot nearby that is calling my name.
I call it Mammoth Springs Training Center! Featuring plenty of sun and real-world wind conditions. An asphalt surface that doesn't transfer black to your Rod Lavers. A view of the river, and plenty of privacy to crank up the tunes and shred up a storm. In reality, it is the back parking lot of the Doubletree hotel here in Oak Brook, but there is a rock with a historic plaque out front that commemorates the rich history that this site contains. Mammoth Springs is where the people who settled this area got all their ice from. Before electric refrigeration, they needed ice in the summer, so they build giant insulated ice houses and froze water all winter and distributed it all summer using the river channel that still runs through today.
I look forward to playing everyday, and when I am stuck at work and playing at my "Lunch", usually at the 11:00am hour, this is where you'll find me.
Shred on brothers and sisters!
-enlightener
Shred notes: 5/29/10
Working on routine every day, at least one run-through on tape. Cool new 'heel' moves leg overs and DLO's ending in Heel. Cool sole stuff too. Video being prepped on Spring update with all this fun stuff I've been doing.
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.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Rooted, and the Pure Solo modification
This is a concept that has been literally stumbled upon by many, but until now, not fully embraced as a concept in the Footbag freestyle community. I think Rooted tricks deserve a Body add, much like Symposium gets... and Pure Solo tricks definitely should get an extra add. Not that I really care about adds.
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Definition of 'Rooted':
When a player both catches and lands with the same foot at the same time while the other leg does not touch the ground.
Modification of 'Pure Solo':
When a player shows balance and control after a Rooted catch by freezing position, ideally with a difficult balancing position, like grabbing the non-rooted foot with other hand.
Almost every trick that ends with a toe delay can be Rooted. Possible that clippers could be Rooted, but unlikely. Well I did experiment with that and found it is possible, but since I needed to step down almost immediately after the Rooted inside and walk over it, there was no chance of a Solo modification to this, and it was really hard to see if it was even rooted. So I'm not going to break my ankles over this. I suppose someone with complete 'crankle' can pull it off, but no rush there for me.
Today I hit some more new ones:
Paradox Solo DLO,
Nuclear Solo toe pickup
The ultimate would be to do all of them Pure.
Rooted is not a new concept, but up until now it has only been stumbled upon by players as a bail. For instance, even when I do a clipper set step plus extra mirage and end with Rooted it 'feels' like a bail. When it is done intentionally, it adds an element of difficulty to the tricks that have been modified by it, and deserves an add when being counted. It can be applied to any trick ending on a toe. Pure Solo Rooted indicates a grab and frozen balance position at the point of the Rooted maneuver.
Watch the movie above to see many examples of Rooted and Pure Solo. Ran out of battery today, but added a few new tricks to this concept.
-enlightener
Shred notes: 5/23/10
Been xooting at every chance, no time to blog. Too bad, as I've been skooling hard. Today is 1250 Days in a row shredding! I'll be at Great America all day, so it should be fun. I've been alternating indoors and out, as weather is still unreliable. Indoors I skool new tricks and experimental stuff, outdoors I skool routines. I've been through routine with 1 and 2 drops and 80% accuracy several times, and on tape. I've hit many new tricks recently, at least new for me...
Phobic symp rooted mirage.
Rooted atom smasher
Paradox Rooted DLO,
Nuclear Rooted toe pickup
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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
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Ever get the feeling you've hit a trick before?
Yesterday, I hit Nuclear Paradox Twirl and Fairy Symp. Mirage on film, many times. I am not sure that never before in the world of footbag freestyle (hacky-sack) has anyone hit Nuclear Paradox Twirl, NOR am I certain that it deserves the Paradox (but I know it should)... just note it is the opp twirl I do from the side I nuclear set on. So L clipper set, L let nuclear set, R leg Twirl ending in L clipper again. I think symposium might be possible too.
Sometimes I wonder if I have hit this move before. I'm going to search my archives here and my notes otherwise, but I remember Allan H. hitting this before. Somehow this feels familiar, but I love it!
See ya!
Scott 'Enlightener' Davidson
Shred notes: 5/13/10
Today I nearly hit what I can only describe as: "Pixie set, backside symposium toe blur" Battery ran out, and I had only gotten close, not quite hit it. I think I need to finish the 2nd dex faster to get time for the pickup. If I obsess for too long on any one trick, I risk injury so I have to move on for now.
Note: Epic Fail technical error due to 'fat fingers' on iphone accidentally causing premature publication of a blog post that was barely a draft. Then no known reason, when I try to type in my browser view of blogger.com on my iphone, it makes every character a capital letter, very strange. Sorry.
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.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
11 years late, but never too soon!
I won the 1999 World Footbag Championships, Footbag Freestyle Singles event. I have only seen my performance twice since then, it is as if no one recorded it.
We did have a great recording done with professional cameras, but that footage got lost immediately after the event, during a move, and I have never seen it. So I got in touch with our videographer by chance through facebook, and he finally tracked down the footage and is putting it in the mail so I can get it up on YouTube. I can't wait. I really can't wait.
Shred notes: 5/11/10 - Skooled routines today. Really got into it after about a half hour warmup. The past few days have been productive... Nuclear Paradox Twirl and Fairy Symposium Mirage. The first is a new trick as far as I can tell, and the 2nd is new to me.
Friday, May 7, 2010
Sometimes Innovation results from 'playing around the pain.'
(New trick - Phobic Symposium Mirage) I have had some weird pains this past week. The top of my left foot hurt like I had bruised it, but there is no visible bruise nor injury that would explain it. Before that my right hamstring has been in pain, so I was playing around that pain. Soon I should be back at 100%, but I still haven't missed a day. Today is 1234 days in a row shredding hard! 1234 is one of my favorite numbers, it is also one of my favorite times of day. I like the way this number looks and 'feels'.
I was playing around the left foot pain, which was there especially when I landed hard on that foot, so a lot of tricks hurt. I decided to skool tricks that didn't stress that foot. I got into some phobic sets, and stumbled upon a new trick. Phobic symposium mirage. So this sets from my left toe, fairy-style but I turn to the right as the footbag travels behind me, then plant right foot and do a symposium mirage ending back on the same left toe I started on. It sure was fun to get to a new trick (at least, new for me) and I got it on tape too. I was able to skool it a lot without even stressing the left foot 'bruise'. This pain has occurred before, so I hope it doesn't come back.
See ya!
-enlightener
Shred notes: 5/7/10
I've been listening to my music over and over during my workouts, and at least half the time skooling my routine for worlds. Trying to keep a balance between working on advancing my game and still being prepared for worlds. Not taking it easy because of the little pains I have, just playing around them and taking a bit longer to get warm.
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.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Fun with advanced concepts...
I was shredding footbag freestyle in my living room today, after playing at Great America yesterday, and I got to thinking about concepts. A concept is an added level of difficulty or specific motion that can be added to many existing tricks to make them different. Among the many concepts that are well established are Symposium and Paradox. I have been working on the Rooted concept for the past week or so, misunderstanding it and calling it Solo most of the time (I'm publishing a video that focuses on Rooted concept with tons of new tricks). The concept that got me obsessed today was Ducking/Diving.
With most concepts, it is just a matter of time before we get comfortable with them and incorporate them into our daily shreds. In many cases, concepts can be applied to so many different tricks, that it increases variety potential almost exponentially!
(Shred Notes: 5/3/10) I have hit many, many, many different ducking/diving tricks and today I thought of another one or two. Probably done by others, but worth mentioning. I hit Diving Barfly (harder than it sounds) and Diving Down Double Down. I almost hit Paradox Diving Dyno, so close.
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.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Practice is the mother of innovation in footbag freestyle, Muted (Solo) & Zoid (Rooted)
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!
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!
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Sometimes clothing determines content for a Footbag freestyle session
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.
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.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Near-innovation! New for me...
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
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
Monday, April 19, 2010
The day of the duck!
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.
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.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
The 50 degree threshold
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 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
Monday, April 12, 2010
The 'trick' to Pixie sets - Little tweaks reap huge benefits!
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.
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.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
1200 Days in a row shredding...
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.
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.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Dusty halls, with a shiny spot in the middle....
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
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
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Rapid Cool Downs... almost over for the season.
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.
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.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Finally outdoors again!
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
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
Monday, March 15, 2010
Peripheral Vision... Nature or Nurture?
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.
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.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Clearly focused on ambiguous goals!
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.
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.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Why footbag doesn't have sponsors...
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.
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.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Family, Footbag and Earning Power
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.
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.
Monday, March 1, 2010
How to run a footbag tournament... Part 1: Production vs. Promotion
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.
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.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Footbag Clubs that don't host annual events are missing the point!
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.
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.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Thunder & Lightning were original (and better) names for Pixie and Fairy
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.
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.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Bikram Shredding
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!
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!
Monday, February 22, 2010
New Lavers need tough love to break in...
(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!!!!
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!!!!
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Tips on playing in the early morning...
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!
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!
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Another Paul Blart situation...
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.
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.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Shredding early is better than not shredding at all!
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!
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!
Monday, February 15, 2010
New Trick? Blender ending in cross-body sole? "Splendor"
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.
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!
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.
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.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Winter Olympics or not, I still wish I could have been there!
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'.
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'.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Olympic Footbag Experience... '96 Atlanta (Camera Magnets)
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).
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).
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