Mike's - Arizona Footbloggin - I am back!!!!

[C-Fan]

There's a 95% chance I will be in Phoenix for a week in March, and then 2 weeks later for a week in April. I'd be down for evening sessions, and probably 1 weekend session. I'll let you know more specific details as I find out more myself.

[zeroman13]

You'd better be down for some sessions!

[mrjauss]

Wow page 10. Thanks guys for the posts.

Ken it would be great to get in a session when you come down to AZ. At least it will not be to hot when you visit.

Things are going pretty good for me now. There for a while I was really frustrated about my injuries and how it is holding me back from playing footbag and doing kung fu. Finally, my back is so much better that my Doc said I should be able to kick lightly in about a wk or 2. Also my knee is starting to feel better since I think I figured out what I was doing to it that made it hurt so much and swell up a bit. It was a stretch I have been doing for several decades. Haha... that really shows my age. I have seen this stretch in many books and magazines. Maybe I was over doing it. It is the stretch where you sit down and spread your legs out to a "V" and bend over and reach to the middle of your feet. I used to feel more stretch in my inner thighs but I guess since I am pretty flexible the stretch feels more like my upper thighs and my knees. Definitely not good. I usually stretch once or 2x a day maybe more depending on how I workout. I can touch my toes easily with my legs straight. I can't do the spilts and never really wanted to since I really don't need that much flexiblity since I don't play much net and in my style of kung fu we really don't kick above the waist.

I quit doing the "V" stretch since Wed. and my chiro did some therapy on my knee on friday. So far so good. It seems to be feeling better. I am crossing my fingers that this is the problem. I have been racking my brain trying to finger it out. I was thinking it has to be something that I do repeativly like moving or twisting. I even thought about how I was driving and my position of my foot and how I move it between the petals. Yeah I was desparate. I miss footbag and kung fu so damn much. You can all relate I am sure.

There are other stretches for the inner thighs that I can do. Like laying on your back and doing the frog stretch. That seems much better. later when my lower back is up to par I will do the frog stretch but flip over so I my knees are on the ground and I am doing like a push up but with my knees stretched. Anyway.... Progress is great! I have learned so much about working out and stretching lately which is always good. I also wrote down what I want to work on for footbag and kung fu. That way I can make better progress much faster. Time is ticking away and I have my goals that have been put on hold so I need to do something fast and of course safe. No more time off!

Ok better go. no review after typing all this so try to enjoy the babbling... whew...

later...

[mrjauss]

WOW it has been a while. I guess I am slacking. A lot has been going on. I have been kicking off and on maybe 1 to 3 times a week for about 45 mins to 1 1/2 hours if time allows. We did have the Phx open from 1/17 to 1/19. Chad and Sam came over from LA. There where also the green cup guys, PT, Jeremy, Tuan, etc. and the guys from TN. Many others showed up for NET. OH yeah and the illusive Nate Oates showed up too. Thanks to Amy Westburg for another great tourney!!!

Josh and I shredded with Chad in my garage for a couple of nights. It was pretty killer. I wish we would have filmed!

We also had a Unity session a while back on a friday. It was great to see Josh, Conrad, Blake, and Bruce. Need to do that more. To much going on right now though.

My knee is feeling much better too. Since I stopped the V stretch the inner knee is not swollen and does not hurt. I still had the top part of my knee just under the knee cap hurting too so I figured I would stop the other stretch I was doing. Now the swelling it pretty much gone unless I have a 4 + hour session and the pain is very light. yeah! The other stretch was the yoga stretch where you lay on your stomach and grab both your ankles and pull your heels into your butt. Good stretch but over doing it. If I didn't do that one I would stand on one foot and grap the other ankle and the heel into my butt. These where both causing the issues with my knee. The knee is still not 100% but at least I can play and walk without to much pain. I still ice it once in a while and especially after a session.

Ok that was the knee update and now for the ankle. Well it is better and I have learned that I need to do my therapy on my arches at least 2x a day. I take a golf ball and roll it under my arch from the ball (big toe) to the heel slowly. If I don't do this and play a lot then the arches cramp up and the balls of my feet hurt. I also learned that if I stand more the a few minutes without shoes that don't have my orthotics my arches will cramp up and the balls of my feet will hurt. I just have to maintain so I can keep kicking, practice kung fu and enjoy life without hurting.

On a personal note I got married on Dec 18th, 2008 in Vegas at a small intimate ceremony. Everything went great!! We are both really happy!! Now we are getting ready to go to China to visit and for me play meet the parents and meet her family. This will be a great trip. I will get some pictures of me playing footbag on the great wall, yellow mountain and many others! Of course I will get many more. I will be in Shanghai, Beijing, Nan king, etc. Hopefully I can see the shaolin temple too.

Ok gotta go. later all....

[C-Fan]

Glad to hear you are feeling better, and congrats on getting married.

My travel plans are pretty much finalized. I'll be in Phoenix from Feb 23 to March 1st. I actually get in the night of the 22nd, but I figure I'll just want to crash out then. I work til 5, and will likely have some work social functions to attend to, but I should be able to get in a session on Friday night and/or Saturday sometime. I'll let you know as I get my schedule nailed down better, but I wanted to let you know I'll be in town that week for sure. Looking forward to seeing you guys again.

[mrjauss]

Had a great session with Ken S., Josh, Blake, and Conrad in Phoenix on Wednesday the 26th. It was great seeing and kicking with Ken again. And yes, the rest of the club. We only kicked about 3 1/2 hours. I am really out of shape for those long sessions.

Highlights:
Josh - is getting so good. gyro clips, gyno, jani, rips, the list goes on.

Ken - eggs, vortex's, gdlo's, what, dsc. During a run ken was trying to tell a joke. Messed up the punch line but still doing that is amazing. Also we where talking during one of ken's runs and I think josh or conrad mentioned spinning ducking and bam ken hit it on his next trick and keeps going. We all laughed and I think I heard a chuckle out of ken too. Fairy nice!

Blake - ripped warrior, ripwalks, a couple of good runs.

Conrad - he was not up to par. To much video games.

Me - I was doing ok.
- 3 nice magellans. 2 in one run.
- PLO's, DLO's, toe blur, smears, several 15 + runs. Not bad for being out of practice. My flip clips are pretty good now and my flip butterfly is doing ok. Progress is great!
- edit: several nice ducking pdx mirages. Thanks ken for reminding me how to do them!

I had a another session on Saturday night/sunday morning. Kicked for about 1 1/2 hours after I lifted. Just practiced tricks and drilled consec's.

Highlight:
- 49 alt clips. I think this is a new record.
- clip> ss atw frontside rake. almost got bs
- PLO practice. I was trying to relace my shoes a couple of different ways to see if they can feel more secure on my foot. I think I might have found a better way for me. Still in the testing faze.

I noticed if I do a lot of therapy on my arch of my foot with the golf ball after sessions my ankle and foot feel pretty good. I just have to be consistent and I should be able to have regular sessions. Maybe 2 or 3 times a week like I used too! Yeah! GO me!

Ken great seeing you and kicking with you! See you next time!

Josh thanks for setting ups the sessions!! See you soon!

later,

[mrjauss]

Hello all!

I am back from CHINA! What a great trip! Got back on the 21st and had to work on the house and unpack. What an adventure! The unpacking and working on the house....

Some highlights:
- Met my wonderful new large extended family
- stayed in our nice condo on the top floor
- walked a lot...
- lost some weight around the middle
- ate some great food
- seen a lot of Shanghai and the surrounding area (most of the eastern part)
- kicked a lot and had some interesting comments and looks..
- climbed a section of the great wall and kicked by the entrance
- kicked in tiananenmen square!
- PutuoShan (island of the coast with a giant Budda statue. 5 +hours from Shanghai)
- Climbed part of the ShanQingShan (an amazing mountain with steps that go up to 1680 meters up)
- Seen some of Beijing
- Pingpong with a pro (yes got my ass handed to me) and with many of the family members (did better)
- learned a lot of Chinese words and some characters. Some of them I can actually pronounce correctly. Very hard and interesting language.
- learned more about the history and culture of China
- read a book called "The man who loved China". great book. The Chinese invented many things way back when
- took a lot of amazing pictures...

I kept an ok journal so I will fix it and add some pictures within the next week. Now back to reality since I have to work sunday night.

I did kick the last 3 nights for a little over an hour. I was doing ok. My flip clip/butter was way off my last kick in China so I am trying to get it back. Not sure what happened. I will talk more about that later. Right now still working the flip clips, plo's, dlo's, swirls, whirls, infinities, etc.. Thursday hit fairy clipper on bs. Had to fall into the clip but it is coming along. flip is real sloppy. Can't hit it in a run yet but soon I will. Also my spinning clips and gyro mirages are coming back. yeah...

Now time for a movie and then some sleep before I have to get up and work on the yard.

later all.... good to be back... maybe...

[Darkshredder]

wow I'm really envious you got to go to China. It's on the top of the list of places I want to go (and live for as long as I can). Shredding near the Great Wall must have been epic!

[zeroman13]

Glad to see that you had a good time and that you made it back in one piece! When are you going to post some of the pics?

Hopefully we can kick friday. I'm really out of shape, but I don't care, and would like to get out of the house and kick with other people.

Peace....

[mrjauss]

Pat,
Thanks for the post. If you get a chance to go or live there go for it. It is a great experience. LA? What part? I was in LA for about 4 years at the end of the 90's. Are you kicking with the OOPS Club?


Well I haven't finished the China trip writeup yet. SoOn be patient. There is so much other stuff going on. Thursday morning at 1 am I had a great workout and then a 1 1/2 kick. My flip was still being a pain.

On friday had a great shred with Josh. He is still getting good! He was just a bit out of shape since he has to take time off from his ankle injury. I sure know how that is. argh... We kicked for about 3 hours and then he left me... I kept kicking for another hour.

Some highlights:

Josh - rubberman (the whole thing?), several 15+ runs, paradon>barrage>barfly rpt.. some like that. check out his blog for full details.

me - I doing ok. Still the flip is being a pain. Terrages, toe blurs, smears, whirls, rev whirls, tapping mirages, atom smashers, legbeaters, dimwalks, plo's, gyro mirages, spinning clips - all bs. I hit them a few times in some runs too. blur on strong side a few times. That one is weird since it hits my mirage leg. At least my stepping set is pretty good on that side. Oh yeah one ripwalk. I had several long runs with a flip clip or butterfly thrown in for balance.

Josh gave me some great pointers. keep shoulders level, raise opposite arm of x-bdy moves for balance, stay over support leg and get the stall foot a bit higher before the stall. I never knew about the arm thing. good to know. I was trying to work on it after he mentioned it. So much to work on. Hopefully I can get a shred in with the guys at least once a month.

I got a phone call from the ex about hour before I was done kicking. Her 2nd floor toilet was all backed up and flooded the whole 2nd floor and ran into the garage of the townhome. doh! I stopped by to see if I could help. It was a mess! It was mostly shower water from when her roommate took a shower and it leaked all out of the toilet. But still... some floaters. To make a 5 1/2 story shorter she got a hold of some people to come out and clean it up after a lot of disagreements about the toilet is just plugged so plung it. Then there was arguement of who is paying. Then we found out the whole building, 6 townhomes, where flooded too. Some worse then others. Note: Don't take shower when your 2nd floor toilet is backed up because bad things can happen. It turned out to be a sock or rag tied in a ball or wrapping something up clogging the pipe on the end of the building. The plumber has a scope but it hard to see exactly what it is. He was not much help either. Looks like all the wood floor on the 2nd floor, the island, some furniture, most of the drywall in the garage and I am sure a lot of insulation in the garage will need to replaced. I am sure the builder will blame it on the owners of the townhome so everyone will have to play for it themselves. argh.. Not sure if she got insurance yet or not.

All the input I got from Josh should help. I just need to work on it and flim myself so I can fine tune it. back to work....

Next... china writeup and then pics.

later...

[mrjauss]

Hello! Finally making time for an update! No China write up yet. I have been busy and had some injuries that killed my motivation. Last time I kicked was at the beginning of May and my ankle was a bit swollen and very sore from all the kickin in China, maybe, and not getting my ankle worked on. I also had a groin injury from exercising or something. Really not sure how it happened. Anyway, the groin is much better now. Ankle is ok but still not 100%. It really is tough on my mental game since the ankle has been bother me for like 3 years now. Also to add to it I threw my lower back out again on June 19th. I was moving my bed and the rug under it. I reached to far out in front of me to lift the cali. size bed at the same time I was trying to rotate the huge rug. That is better. Just taking it slow. Let that be a lesson for ya all.

I have learned so much about injuries, exercise, stretching, nutrition, etc from all this. It is worth in it in many ways and many ways it is so damn frustrating. I keep going and this week I start to kick again!!!! Yeah.

With all this downtime I had time to do some reading, organizing, thinking, guitar playing, learning, etc. I got some good workout routines to try and get me to the next level in kung fu and footbag. I almost finished making a plyo box so I can start to do jumps, single leg squats, steps, etc. off and on the box. Should really help my conditioning. With the downtime I should have gotten the China write up done but ..... I didn't. It is close. anyway....

I can't wait to get things going!!! Hope all is going well for you all!! Take care and talk to you soon....

[mrjauss]

Hi! I had something written up about 2 weeks ago and the computer locked up. argh... Anyway it is time to try and write something up again... quickly so I won't lose it. I have been kicking some the last month. 4 weeks ago I had 3 sessions for about 20 to 30mins each. then 3 weeks ago a couple of 20 min sessions. 2 weeks ago I had only had time for a 40 min session. This last week I had a 30min sess and an hour sess. The garage is pretty hot and it takes a lot out of me. Also I usually kick after I workout. My workouts consist of the basic pushups, situps, lifting weights, squats w/ and w/o weights, plyo box stuff (step ups and jumps onto box), swissball roll ups for hams, punching the bag, working on the wooden dummy, air punches/kick drills, I throw in some footbag in the middle for cardio, then I do a normal footbag sess. Not bad for an old man or is that ODD man.

Injury update:
Ankle is still a bit sore now and then. I just have to stretch a lot once or twice and day and work the golf ball under my foot and it is actually pretty good. My flexiblity is still a bit weak on my osis. Slowly getting better.
Knee is much better. My chiro has been doing theropy on it. It is an ultrasound to break up the small particles that are causing the problem under my knee cap. Since he has been doing that the soreness and swelling have been going down. It is ok even after I kick or do kung fu. Huge improvement.
Lower back is still tight and sore. I just have to be careful and not over do the reverse situps. Actually I have stopped for now and I am just working on crunches and leg lifts. I think my lower back might be stronger then my abs. Hence, the gut. haha.

Oh yeah a funny and scary story from a few weeks ago. Since I have been out of the working out thing for a while I have been organizing my garage. Now I have more room. I was cleaning up and decided to vacuum the carpet that I had laying on the floor that I workout and kick on. As I was vacuuming the carpet I heard the vacuum make this horrible sound like it just sucked something up and I didn't notice what it was that I just sucked up. My mind must have been else where which I will get to in a bit. I shut the vacuum off really quick and looked around to see I can figure out what I sucked up. It took me a while and then I reallized that I just sucked up my good Abshire bag. Oh shit.... I was freaking out for a bit. I got a screw driver so I could take apart the vac and then found the bag in the hose on the side of the vac. I was visuallizing the bag in several pieces after thinking about how the vac sounded when it sucked it up. I was also thinking this is one of my good bags that is broken in and it takes for ever to break another one in. Well unless it is a Munster bag. After getting the vac apart and finding the bag I was very surprised to find it in one piece w/o holes. whew!!! That teaches me to leave my footbag on the floor. Let that be a lesson for you all too.

Now for the incredible shocking great amazing news. My wife and I are having a baby. Due April 15th. A tax baby. I sure hope it will be on the 23 or 28th. My mom's b-day is the 23 and mine is the 28th. That would more cool then on tax day. So now I fell like I am on more of tight schedule to get stuff done and work harder on my interests. Also I have been doing everything around the house since my wife is having such a tough time in her first trimester. I sure hope this only last a few more weeks. We have been planning this for a long while. I finally feel like my relationship is at that level to do the family thing. Besides I am not getting any younger and neither is my wife. Don't tell her that. haha. Nah no biggie. She knows.

We'll I rambled enough. Take care and kick w/ u later....

[mrjauss]

Another month zipped by. I tried to squeeze in sessions as I can. I was up to about 1 hour and 20 mins solo sessions. Now I am up to a little over 2 hours for a solo session and my ankle is sore from it. Maybe it is from the kung fu since I have been doing more of that too. I haven't hit anything new but I just have been working on the basics and getting some of my old 3's and a few 4's back. I was working DATW and a few paradons. The DATW I can hit on strong side quite often but the flip I over rotate a bit and it falls off the foot. The paradons are really foreign to me right now. I used to be able to hit them once in a while a few years ago. The flip clip is a bit better and the flip butter is still weird.

midlights:
- 28 alt clips
- 28 clip>op butter rpt
- a few nice torques. get the set the right height and they work for me but still have to hand catch them.
- several good gyro mirages
- a few magellans bs

Last friday the 25th had a good session with the Unity crew at Tempe beach park. Josh, Conrad, Blake, surprise guest Nate Oates (His gf Kat came along too. She does not kick though), and new kicker Kyle. Yeah Nate surprised us all. He said he wanted to get back into it. Cool! Kyle was from So cal. He still hacks and has played with some of the better players in So cal. He has his clip kicks on one side and some alt toe stalls. He controls his kicks pretty good.
Both Blake and Conrad have been busy with other stuff so they haven't kicked in a long time. They were doing ok though.
Josh was doing good even though he hasn't been that consistent. He had a few new tricks like duck pdx blender and some others that I can't remember. Maybe he will grace us with a fblog entry one of these days.
Nate was doing for not play either. He still has his fast (Ken Shultzs) style.
I was doing ok. Had many long 20+ runs. It was about a 4 hour session for a few of us that stayed and didn't show up late. I think we all needed a good session to get our motivation going more again. Good times!!

Now my ankle is pretty sore though. Kinda back to it's old ways. Really sucks and frustrating since I am getting some of my game back. I have a bit of a limp again so I pretty much over did it. I new my ankle was not 100% but I thought I could at least keep going for a while. I might have to check into Accupuncture or maybe a specialist. We will see.. Anyway take care all....

[worldbound]

Wow an AZ shredder! Let me know if you ever play again.

[AzWhereI-Be]

i have been kicking for a while now and im and hoping to find some people in az to kick with im in surprise,az