Cass shreds - Spring Training 2024

[Cass]

This makes me happy:




Dawww Aleksi reads my blog!? I feel special

Thanks for all the nice responses everybody


That's a good point about respecting the rhythm of the circle Ken! And also I agree about the giving props thing. If I'm playing with someone new I wont usually give props until I get a feel for their game. I also get that it can be tough to tell when it's appropriate to give them to a higher level player. I know Greenwood hits crazy shit that goes over my head pretty regularly I just wanted to make the point that if you like a run someone does it's a good idea to express that

I also agree that these rules are mainly for big events. Smaller sessions are a case by case basis although I still follow most of them at FAT sessions as well.


So the post-event depression kicked in today. I was feeling pretty bummed all afternoon for no good reason. I was doing a column in the lab and I accidentally turned on the air pressure too high. The glass plug popped off with a huge BANG. That just sent me over the edge and I just started bawling I was alone luckily and I felt a lot better after that haha.

I'm so in love with the footbag community. Having to say goodbye to people that live far away can be so difficult.


I think I'm gonna try and go to US open. It's the week before my skydiving event. I talked to my supervisor about taking time off for that so it's looking feasible.


I'll probably practice some tricks tomorrow. I played on my clipper a bunch this weekend and it's feeling good still


<3

[isirc10]

I was feeling the same way the past few days. Walking past Old Main in the rain yesterday and remembering the sunlight and 30+ footbaggers kicking there the day before was really tough. Reading everyone's event summaries has been a bright spot though, and I know that the next jam/comp I attend will be here soon enough.

Maybe it will include sky diving, who knows!

[Cass]

Nothing like a wicked huge event to exponentially increase my level of excitement for this silly sport

I meant to have a session yesterday but I totally forgot my lavers at home. I ended up having my first Canadian outdoor kick of the year in my dress lavers. Pretty casual but really nice nonetheless.


Today I felt like having a serious session so I decided to go back to my old low-traffic indoor spot (featured in some of my videos from last year) since the squash courts were unavailable.

Felt really fresh. Drilled some clippers and bops for the first time in a while. Gotta knock off that rust.

My fairies were feeling really good. I bet I could get one a them badge thingies if I tried.


So obviously since I specifically went out of my way to avoid being interrupted, one of the only people that passed by me today HAD to stop and bother me. I hate to be rude but sometimes it would just save so much time and annoyance on my part. He wasn’t even interested in footbag.

“Sorry to interrupt you..” (then pleaseee go away then) “.. but I was wondering if you wanted to do something some time..”

“like play footbag?”

Ughhh

So I told him I’m really busy/not interested, whatever. He continued to linger for a minute before he got the hint that I wanted him to go away.

At this point in my life I am much more interested in footbag than boys. Footbag won’t disappoint me and I don’t need to waste my time with that other business. So unless you’re a member of SuperBAP* you probably don’t have a chance

Anyways that kinda threw my session off a bit but it was still good.


I chose a routine song for USO and started practicing a bit today. Just figuring out the flow of the song and stuff.

I have a feeling this song has been used for a routine before but I like it so instead of searching to see if said routine exists I’m just going to pretend it doesn’t. That way my own routine will not be biased/tainted by it.


I think it’s nearly time I levelled up.


*For those of you that don’t know SuperBAP is an exclusive club. You can only be part of SuperBAP if you have hit the combo Butterfly>Pdx Mirage rpt.


<3

[C-Fan]

At this point in my life I am much more interested in footbag than boys. Footbag won’t disappoint me and I don’t need to waste my time with that other business.

<3

Getting hit on all the time is annoying, but it comes with being a footbagger. You'll get used to it, we all do.

[Cass]

Ken, are you saying that I should stop hitting on you guys? Dream on

[Cass]

Found a sweet wooden gazebo to in on campus!

Fun outdoor sesh. Here’s a quick raw video update:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ie_j5ist9iM

I think the quality was set low on my cam. My bad.

At the end two guys walked up and produced a sandmaster or something similar. We had a decent kick session for about 15 minutes. It was pretty fun because they were experienced circle kickers.

<3

[boats]

Siiick. Those were some long strings. Keep it up!

[Cass]

Thanks David!

So one of my primary reasons for filming myself is analyse my shred and see what I need to fix. I think this is the first time I've posted a video that I'm actually really happy with. My game is really coming together after drilling toe tiltless for like two months.

And then

I don't know how long this girl's been playing but I have no complaints about her style, choice of tricks, or technique. I see endless potential here. Nice fun shred spot too. Thanks for learning the sport so well and thanks for sharing your Shreds.

Life complete


I'm pretty happy with where my game is at right now and super motivated to keep practising 5 days a week. I should be in good shape by USO

[Cass]

Yesterday I went to Hamilton to visit Jorden Moir.

Early this week I posted in the FAT group about having a session but there didn’t seem to be much interest. I had wanted to go see Jorden for a while and since my clipper is finally feeling decent I decided to message him about a session. Of course as soon as I bailed on the FAT session a bunch of people confirmed But that’s okay there will be plenty of FAT sessions this summer but fewer opportunities to play with Jorden.

I really want to improve my footbag game and expand my trick selection and I knew that I would learn a lot from this trip.

I headed to Hamilton Saturday morning and arrived a bit early at the address. Jorden met me at a nice coffee shop nearby and we grabbed drinks and chatted about performing and footbag and stuff. In particular about how creativity has been lost to the sport in a lot of ways (*cough* Europe) and how we should be promoting the sport more by piggybacking off of more popular things like freestyle football.

We went on a nice walk to the waterfront to find a spot for our “session”. I put that in quotes because I knew I would be in for more of a workshop than a session and that’s exactly what I was hoping for. Jorden has been around a while and has a really neat perspective on the game. Especially considering he has sort of stepped away from it somewhat and focused more on performing recently.

Jorden has a lot of questions and that’s one of the things that makes him such a unique footbagger. He let me in on his methods for inventing tricks which was really enlightening. I got lots of great tips and he really made me think about my game and why I hit tricks the way I do. Definitely gave me a lot to think about when I’m training. Awesome.

Although it was mostly a footbag lesson Jorden still busted some badass fucking runs. Awww yis.

It got kinda chilly out after a while and my body stopped wanting to footbag anymore. We went on a walk through part of downtown Hamilton. It’s kind of a weird place. There is much diversity and character and it’s a great place for people watching. On the other hand there are a lot of people who get in your face and want stuff from you which isn’t really cool. I have mixed feelings about Hamilton.

We grabbed a huge meal at a Lebanese restaurant that was really good. I asked Jorden about his board game making progress and he proceeded to pull out the new and improved version of his game. We played a round over dinner. It was pretty fun but I wish I had better feedback to give him about it. I don’t play a lot of board games though so I didn’t really have any good suggestions.

Overall a nice day and a great learning experience. I’m gonna try and make footbag adventures like this nearly every weekend. Future stops may include Kingston, London, and Paris ON. People can’t say no if I’m prepared to come to them

Watch out Ontario, I'm coming for you

<3

[boyle]

It's great to mix up the people and places you're playing at. I haven't really talked to Jorden too much, but he definitely is thinking a lot about footbag, even if he's not playing so much anymore.

Sounds like you don't need to go to Europe, with London and Paris so close!

[Muffinman]

Less secret sessions and more sharing :p
Mike came out from Hamilton the same day you went down and we were talking about having Hamilton sessions in the future if there was interest since it's closer for the London crew and Johnny too. I'd be down to visit Dante too and split gas money. Sounds like a good time with Jorden that was probably better in private anyway. But still :p You were missed at the FAT session

[Jorden]

It's mainly just Saturdays where people are in your face like that. Not nearly as bad during the week.

[Muffinman]

Miss you too Jorden

[Cass]

Haha no more secret sessions I promise

But yeah that was something I had intended to do for a while and I kinda wanted to be one-on-one.

Totally down for another Hamilton trip some time and also Kingston as I mentioned. You will definitely be in on my next adventure Erik

I'm hurtin' a little this morning after playing on cement both days over the weekend. Yesterday I pushed myself pretty hard to get my pixie, fairy, and stepping bronze badges. I think it was good practice though and the stepping one was unexpected because it's one of my weaker sets and I'm a little out of practice.

I have my only exam of the semester next Monday and also a lot of marking to do this weekend so I'll probably not have any crazy footbag adventures. After this weekend though I'm gonna be in summer mode so it's on

<3

[Cass]

I think I got some sort of bug and was feeling really low on energy this week. I played on Wednesday and Thursday at school despite that but they were pretty low energy sessions as a result. Starting to figure out how I want to attack my routine.

Dragon>Swirl BS
Ducking Guay BS

On Wednesday I was dropping a lot and some guy was like “Hey do you compete in that?” Definitely a nice contrast to “Hey do you play soccer?” When I confirmed that yes, I do compete he was like “cool you’re the best I’ve ever seen except someone I saw in NYC at time square!”

I wonder who he saw!? Such a neat coincidence.


Spent like an hour last night cutting my routine song. Accidentally installed malware and spent another hour dealing with that


Today I played outside under a bridge thats a 2 minute walk from my house. I really like this shred spot - it’s shady, flat and graffitied. The cement squares would also be perfect for foursquare. It would be cool to have a session here if anyone ever visited me in Oshawa (probably wishful thinking ).



Witnessed a domestic disturbance during my session. Mostly just a guy outside yelling, presumably at a woman inside the house he was yelling towards.

I filmed level 1 footbag badge thingy which I will upload once I’m on school wifi. Some of it might be a bit sloppy but I just wanted to kill that whole thing in one session. I’ll have to start working towards some of the other badges. I would say double dex, ducking, and atomic bronze are somewhere on the horizon. Spinning would be cool too. Crazy that Evan stole nearly all the golds in one 90 minute session. Can’t say I’m surprised. I’m rooting for him this summer in Paris.


I’m really jealous of everyone on the Eurofootbagtour. Sounds like an amazing time.


I’m gonna have to figure out something cool to do next weekend. This week is the end of the semester!!


Edit. Thanks for the poem, made my day

<3

[Muffinman]

Oh, I'll be in Ajax on Sunday. Potential session?

[Cass]

This Sunday? Maybe! Although I have Easter dinner and it's my dad's birthday so it depends.

[Cass]

Had a nice outdoor solo Easter420 session.

Mostly did a lot of guays and atomsmashers.

Atomsmasher b2b BS


I posted on the fb group that 69 is my ‘nemesis trick’ but I realised this afternoon that it’s actually grifter. I finally hit it for the first time on one side and then proceeded to injure myself trying to get the other side back in January. Today was this first time I tried it since then. No luck. I attacked it a bunch of times without the bag, trying to get used to the movement. I’m sure I will be able to get it with some more practice. I don’t want to hurt myself again over this trick but I feel like I NEED to hit it.

Did some Torques for the first time in ages. Got BS a few times but those things are tough to string. Kinda landed on my ankle a bit and decided it was time to stop.

I've also been working on this drill that Jorden suggested. Basically the idea is to put the bag where it needs to be instead of moving to where the bag is. The drill is simply Toe/Inside stall>Clipper rpt. while keeping the other foot planted without moving it. It was tricky at first but it’s getting easier. I think this will be good for my game because I tend to jump in Clippers and Butterflies rather than setting the bag to right place.

My flip clipper is kinda gimpy lately so I'm working on strengthening it up. It’s coming along.

Decided to go to the 10th invitational Pennsylvania net championships at the end of May. Johnny and Alex said they are down to join me and hopefully some other GTA players. I've never been to a net-specific event before so that will be a new experience. I know there will be at least a few other freestylers there so it should be dope.


So many exciting things are coming!


<3

[Asmus]

Grifter and 69 are two really cool tricks that I would also like to hit.

The Jorden drill is interesting - I am gonna try working a bit on it as well.

Crossing fingers that you will be back to 100% soon!

FOOTBAG!

[C-Fan]

I realised this afternoon that it’s actually grifter.

Grifter is a weird trick for sure. I recommend trying it from both toe and clipper. If you can figure it out from either, it'll help you figure out from the other too. The key for me is really attacking the dex hard, and not worrying about the stall. The stall will take care of itself if you get the dex early.

hopefully some other GTA players.

Immediate image that came to mind: