AdAstra's Footblog: Hopefully be back soon

[AdAstra]

So I managed to shred a little on vacation. Shredded in Aruba, Curaçao, and Grand Turk. Also on a ship in the middle of the Caribbean.

Write up to come. Prolly. If I have time.

Here's a pic from Curaçao



Edit: well I don't really have time but I did wanna say like one or two things.

So I managed to play for short windows of time on each island and on the boat. Perhaps the most memorable session, though, was on Aruba where a young man roughly my age maybe a year or two older saw me with footbag in hand and asked to play. So we did and he could kick it fairly well, better than most people who don't play. I busted out a clipper when he passed it to me and the dude lost his mind haha. He thought it was the coolest thing ever so I tried to show him a few cooler tricks but choked. Oh well. Still fun though! Spreading the sport!

Also I highly recommend Curaçao's beer. One of my all time favorites.

[AdAstra]

28 July 2016

It's been awhile since I've had an actual practice. My flow felt great at first though, guiltless tricks weren't the end of my string as they so often are. After a little while the rust seemed to show itself. And by show itself I mean I looked like I forgot how to play the damn sport.

Pretty much only did tiltless strings today. Sucked it up.

[AdAstra]

1 August 2016

Per Nick's advice I worked on basics today since I haven't been able to practice a lot lately. Twas raining outside so I practiced in the basement which is kinda cramped.

Drills:
-toe stalls
-ss clipper both sides. Really cramped so it forced me to be highly consistent on my sets which is probably good for me. I tend to move around a bit too much once I get into a string. Not consistent enough on flipside clipper yet.
-clipper op clipper
-ATW and Orbit
-legovers
-strong side reverse swirl because I apparently look like I've never dexed before when I do these. They're rough. Everything is rough but more so these.


Not much that I can do inside so I'll just do an extra intense workout for some degree of cross training sorta. I have been playing a fair bit of soccer (just juggling n stuff) so that's been keeping my legs strong.

[AdAstra]

3 August 2016

The humidity, a full stomach, and soreness all conspired against me today so it wasn't a great practice, but I did ok considering.

Drills:
-toe op toe
-ss clipper bs
-ATW and Orbit bs
-tiltless strings
-far butterfly bs


Highlights:
-far butterfly x3 (PR) [flipside definitely not ready to drill anymore. Lost some crank from the last month since practices were sparse. Gotta build it back up.]
-ducking clipper

So I wanted to add in this video to show my regression due to my time off and injury and vacation and such. I've still got some 3 add moves but my form and flow have taken a huge step back.

I did manage to hit a good, guiltless sick-3 though!

[AdAstra]

7 Aug 2016

Congrats to Evan on his big results at Worlds. Definitely an inspiration for practice. Inspiration has actually been kinda low lately but I'm getting back into it I guess. Bad form is just kinda demoralizing.

Couple of days ago I went to a soccer pitch to juggle and shoot around for the first time in like a decade and it was great.

Worked on policing my set height as Nick suggested today.


Drills:

-toe op toe
-ss clipper bs
-clipper op clipper
-ATW, Orbit, legover bs. Legover was surprisingly better.
-strings
-worked on strong side whirl. maybe reverse whirl. idk which one is which. I think front to back may be reverse?



Highlights:

first Symposium/muted(?) toe op butterfly today. Not sure if there's a nick name for this. Left Set (toe) no plant > Right dex out in > dex foot plant > clipper delay on setting foot. Is this a four add or still 3? Can anyone explain the difference in muted and symposium ?
first symposium mirage.
PLO bs.
first illusion. These baffled me when I first started so I've avoided them until now. Hit it on the second try.
incorporated cloud into my strings. Only got one on film and it's not a great string but still felt stylish.
Finally hitting whirl! multiple times and in strings. Infinity > whirl felt good.

[AdAstra]

10 August 2016

Down in Lexington again now. Getting my Masters in one year (hopefully) and going to a Ph.D. program after (hopefully).

Practiced today at the park in horrible humidity. What's new?

Drills:
-ss clipper bs
-clipper op clipper
-strings (mostly these because I've been inspired by Worlds.) I've been incorporating 3 adds into all of my strings. A good sign, but at the same time it might be best if I dedicated a portion of my practice to strictly 2-add moves instead to force myself to have a more solid foundation.
-worked on my newly found (reverse?) whirls. Love these.



Highlights:
- had a string today where I Bsauced near pickup, far legover, clipper and I hit a toe ss mirage, legover, far butterfly, and toe ss butterfly in there somewhere as well. Dropped on reverse swirl. Was probably around 14 contacts so not bad for forcing myself to have more both-sidedness. Still not in form like I was before the injury and vacation but I feel like I'm getting there.
- far pick up bs. Haven't done these in ages so that was satisfying.
- managed to hit cloud and a heel delay in one string but not back to back like I was hoping to.

[AdAstra]

No practice this weekend but I did spread the sport a lot this past week. Talked about it during grad school orientation to about 15 people, then played at the park and had a few people's attention, and finally played some soccer in Cincinnati with the FC Cincinnati supporters group I'm a part of. Overall probably 40 people got to see the wonderful sport, and one guy even tried some basics.

I heard talk of a demonstration/advertising day at worlds (@boyle I think?) and I think that'd be really cool. It's probably be even more doable at US Open since travel costs are lower. I could see some people not wanting to pay for an extra day of no competition at worlds but idk. Awesome idea though!

[boyle]

It was something Sergio Garcia brought up in the future of footbag discussion. A good idea I think.

[AdAstra]

18 August 2016

Been a little while since my last practice. Maybe a week or so. I was really sore from playing soccer and moving into my new apartment so I haven't been able to play.

The new parking lot is not level so I may need to go to the park from now on.

Drills:
-ss clipper bs
-op clipper
-strings (tiltless best was only 15, not much balance today.)
-strong side whirl or reverse whirl idk
-toe ss mirage strong side
-near pickup bs
-far legover bs



Highlights:
-Infinity BSOS b2b
-Pixie butterfly strong side
-ducking clipper bs

Starting to hit a fair amount of three adds on strong side. Not really drilling them yet since I want the flipside to catch up but still pretty satisfying.

[DC Clinks]

What do we want?? Footbag footage!! When do we want it?? Yesterday!!

Nice highlights mate, keep it up.

[AdAstra]

Been spreading the sport left and right lately. Was at a picnic with the graduate director and all the graduate students and got to show what footbag was all about. The professors kids really got into it. Future gatesmans and vaseks and Honza's I'm sure. My demonstration was done completely cold and I freakin nailed it. Was psyched! It was just infinity > ss clipper > ss whirl > ss clipper > op clipper but needless to say it impressed everyone.


In other news I can now do a clipper, legover, and orbit with a football. Not sure what they're called in that discipline but felt cool.

@DC I had two videos the week before last if you haven't seen them. Don't have editing time at the moment. Sorry!

[AdAstra]

21 August 2016


Classes are about to start. Boo.

Practiced today at the park.


Drills:
- ss clipper bs
- op clipper
- ss op clipper (16 contacts best, had to catch the bag due to bad balance. Seems to be a theme lately that shortens my strings/drills)
- infinity op infinity
- legover op legover
- strong side toe ss mirage
- near pickup bs (rough still on flipside)
- tiltless strings. Best was 24!! Love it! Next best was 16 but wasn't a good variety. Other best was around 15 but I managed to do quite a few different tricks and didn't bail to clipper more than once. A few three adds in all of those!


Highlights:
-hit swirl and whirl in the same string so I'm moving towards my short term goal of hitting them b2b. Love these tricks.
-infinity > whirl

So it's been almost exactly one year since I decided on getting serious about footbag. Granted I didn't actually commit until the end of 2015, but it seems like a milestone.

[boyle]

Congrats on your milestone, I think you've shown how committed you are and getting some good improvements. Will you go to Worlds next year? That's something cool to aim towards.

[AdAstra]

Congrats on your milestone, I think you've shown how committed you are and getting some good improvements. Will you go to Worlds next year? That's something cool to aim towards.

Thanks. Means a lot.

Portland, right? I'd love to go and I think it would actually be doable time-wise and finance-wise. What would someone like me do at worlds? Would I be considered intermediate at that stage? If memory serves the only categories are open and then intermediate. I don't particularly see myself as intermediate at the moment and I'm not sure what the benchmark is to project forward one year to. I have no qualms competing and getting dead last in intermediate if it's a super high level compared to where I'm at now.

Either way I think I'd stand to learn a lot at worlds '17.

[bobgreen]

What would someone like me do at worlds?

You will meet people from all backgrounds that share your strange obsession with spinning your legs and body around a little bag of pellets. They 'get' that part of you in a way that your friends who do not share this obsession cannot. These are people who ten years from now you might still be friends with, and even if you aren't you will look back fondly on that time that you met them. You won't know it at the time, but that footbag network might be one that you draw upon in the future for things unrelated to footbag. That vacation you are going to go on someday or that job you might apply for that you have no idea exists right now....there might be a footbag player there that can be a resource to you. You will see shred that makes your mouth drop and you will meet some of your 'heros of footbag'. You will talk to those people and realize that the vast majority of them are not arrogant....they are normal, cool people. You will wake up sore every day and then proceed to play that day longer and harder than you think your body is capable of. You will have to because it is worlds. You will come out of a one week footbag immersion being a better player than you went into it. You will also get to meet the non-freestyle contingent of the footbag community and see whether things like net are appealing to you.

Would I be considered intermediate at that stage?

Per above, it really doesn't matter. You can show up to worlds, pay the registration fee to support the tournament, and just sideline shred all week if you don't feel ready for competition. You are a year out though, so whatever your skill level is now, it is highly likely that you will be a lot better before worlds (especially if you have something like worlds to push toward). Routines are not all about difficulty either....even with the current vocabulary of tricks that you demonstrate, you could start working toward a pretty good routine.

[boyle]

Bob summed it up perfectly, the other thing to do is to drink yourself into oblivion for a week continuously with a little bit of hack in between.

[Asmus]

Bob's post should be stickied and saved somewhere for eternity or maybe even printed out, framed and put up in the internation footbag museum of kicky fun and shreddy goodness.

I think you should compete in intermediate at your first Worlds unless you think you can make finals in open / bap / etc. You can always compete open later, but once you go open you can't crawl down to intermediate.

Looking forward to meeting you in Portland.

[Kylescook]

I've never been to a worlds before either, so Portland will be my first. I have been to a handful of jams though. I made some of the best friends and saw the most unreal shred. What Bob said seems pretty perfect.

[AdAstra]

25 August 2016

Thanks everyone for the responses!

@bob- inspirational; thank you.


Practiced a little bit today just chasing short highlights for the collab thingy. Didn't do very well since I wasn't very disciplined. Oh well.

I'm going to be really strapped for time over the next ten months and I'm worried my shred will take a hit.

[AdAstra]

30 August 2016

Practiced today in ridiculous temperature and humidity. 93 F plus humidity plus blacktop is easily over 105F effective temp. Rough.

Anyways, I have a new bag from Karibou Footbags so I spent part of practice trying to break it in. Love the colors as they match my soccer team.

Drills:
-ss clipper bs
-ss op clipper (best 14 contacts, meh)
-clipper > near pick up *rpt op. (PR 10 complete contacts.) not sure why these are so tough for me. Proud of ten but I should be better. Practiced near pickups from hand sets/catch as well.
-far legover bs.
-so I have been calling mirage an ss mirage so there's that. All my previous ss mirages were actually mirages. Drilled mirage strong side today.
-cloud strong side out of a few different tricks.
-tiltless strings. Best= 15 contacts. BSOS'd near pickup, far legover, clipper. Also hit infinity as a save instead of clipper. First three add save seems like a big deal some how.
-worked a little bit on infinity bs.
-forced myself to practice orbit and ATW bs. Maybe that will help with the dexing speed.


Highlights:
-my cloud stall is getting better. Hit mirage > ss clipper > ss cloud on my first, second, and third attempt. Love that trick for some reason.
-new link: infinity > clipper set ss butterfly

Over all my muscles felt super sllooowwww today so I had a bad practice. Maybe next time. ( I'm chasing 30 tiltless)