Frank Sinatra Lives

Frank_Sinatra · Post by **Frank_Sinatra** » 13 Jul 2009 11:35

Whoomp, there it is.

So I guess its time to update this thing. 4th of July weekend was awesome. Dan & James were in town, and we had pretty big sessions two days in a row. Haven't seen sessions like that in Chicago in a while. Though there is good reason. On Friday I met up with Dan and we kicked for about an hour, then were joined by a couple hackers, which was a nice breather. Then Tom, James, and his friend (sorry friend, didn't catch your name) arrived & we had a five man circle. We held a crowd for another couple hours. I was happy with a lot of my strings but I only wrote this one down:

smear> symp mirage> paste> butterfly> osis> pdx mirage> rpt

Then on Saturday Tom & I got there with Brian, Dan, Zeke & Reile already in a circle. Brian & Dan both took a break, putting Zeke, Reile, Tom & I together in the circle, which was great. I had my best stuff of the day during this circle.

osis> blurry pickup

osis> ps mirage bsos

osis> dlo bsos

dyno> barrage (first time I've hit a three out of dyno, though the barrage was thin)

swerve> butterfly> infinity> whirling rake

What I really enjoyed about these sessions is I didn't embarrass myself, for once. I played solid, all the stuff I've been practicing was reliable. I was a nine move wonder.

Most of the time I've been freestyling I've been noticeably a notch or two lower than the other guys - even noticeable to a casual audience. This time I held my own.

Monday July 6, solo by the lake
Still doing butterflies & datws every session as part of my warm up. Butterflies were just a tad off. Did 5x strong leg/strong direction datw, 10x strong leg/weak direction & weak leg/strong direction datw, 15x weak leg/weak direction. 40 sets of ducking clipper> ducking clipper, 20 starting from each side. Felt pretty good about the sesh, got one highlight:

alternating ducking clippers x5 contacts

Wednesday July 8, at Welles w/Tom
We had to share the gazebo with some people practicing for some Alice in Wonderland play. A little distracting, a little annoying. Motherfuck Alice and her Wonderland. Sheeeeeiiiiiiit.

stepping ss clip twice (not consecutively) each side

stepping ss mirage one side (first time)

17 contact run, some other good runs around 15 contacts

whirl> dyno (love this link)

pmc> infinity> whirl> osis> pdx mirage> rpt (first time repeating this drill)

drifter bsos

Thursday July 9, solo sore hip sessionit by the lake
In addition to the same datw practice as I described before, I did 25 flip terrages. Also did 20 sets of ducking clip> alternating ducking clip, 10 sets starting on each side. Also also did 10 drifters on each side. Working on not doing them stepping style.

On Saturday Tom & I tried to check out a few different things, a block party and a street fest. Tried to kick a bit but I was not feeling it at all & I gave up. I don't know what it was, everything was just off & I didn't want to get myself super frustrated, and I also had plans that night so I didn't really want to kick too intensely anyway. Oh well, for now I'll try to just think of it as an aberration. I'm sure next time I kick I'll be right back in the groove.

Really excited for this next weekend!

Zjeezy · Post by **Zjeezy** » 13 Jul 2009 13:02

Happy Birthday Pimpin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PegLegHolly · Post by **PegLegHolly** » 13 Jul 2009 13:08

yes happy birthday!!

also, i have two friends coming with me for bday jam

Frank_Sinatra · Post by **Frank_Sinatra** » 20 Jul 2009 08:43

Hey thanks for the birthday wishes you two! It was good seeing you both. Zach, I feel like I didn't spend nearly enough time with you - next time we've got to hang out more. Holly, you really made this weekend great for me, I'm so glad you could make it up, and it was great meeting your friends, too.

I just wrote a big write up of the birthday jam, but lost it all. I don't have the heart to redo it. It wasn't very entertaining anyway. I'll just do a very brief overview of the last week I guess.

I've put my foot on a bag every day of this past week. Highlights:

drifter rake bs

smear> terrage> rpt> long run (mostly BOPs of course)

almost had osis> barrage bsos (dropped the second barrage, would've been thin/the)

almost had smear> symp mirage> terrage> rpt (dropped the strong side terrage)

Of course a weekend like birthday jam is about the people more than the highlights. It was really good seeing Tim again, and kicking with him. It had been a while. Got to kick with Reid, and James, and Mike Hollis and Zach Jahner, and Eric Chang, all cool dudes, though I wish I'd kicked more with them. Also good to see Meinard, and Tommy, and Grant & Jake. Man, more people that I wish I'd kicked with more. Met Aaron from the Twin Cities & kicked with him until dark. Really great to spend so much time with Holly & her friends. And of course the CIC guys - you are great friends.

I'm sure I'm forgetting something or someone, but let me just end with a thought that's been running through my head lately - footbag is more than a sport, its a social activity.

Zjeezy · Post by **Zjeezy** » 22 Jul 2009 06:54

indeed not enough chilling or kicking. it will not be the last time though. I mean your only 4 hours away.

You could always come and visit me

Frank_Sinatra · Post by **Frank_Sinatra** » 27 Jul 2009 17:14

You know, Zach, I just talked to Tom about that very subject the other day... nothing definite yet. Hey maybe pick a weekend that'd be good for you (if its good for you its good for me baby

).

Oh smiley humor.

Another week of sessions. First two were solo:

July 22 - infinities, ss butters, datws, pixies

July 23 - infinities, ss butters, pixies, whirls

July 25 - went out to the suburbs with Tom, kicked with Tommy & his brother Austin & also met their parents. I didn't have a lot of good runs. Limited highlights:

plo> symp mirage> smear> rpt> run

smear> plo> smear> plo> symp mirage> terrage> symp mirage> dropped terrage

butter> infinity> osis> pdx mirage> rpt to 24 contacts

paste> symp mirage rpt

But it was good to kick with Tommy, who hit smear in shoes & datw barefoot. He's been playing with us for under a year, every few weeks, so pretty good stuff for that time period. I think we need to stoke a rivalry between Tommy & Austin so that Austin starts playing too. And then... their parents.

July 26 - quick sesh at IP with Tom. Played a little better than the day before, especially after I put on my angry face, but didn't write any highlights down. Angry face doesn't like highlights.

Overall I've noticed things to correct:

flip pixie needs to be a touch higher

flip whirl should be set lower & started earlier

not pointing my foot in on infinities, after lifting & swinging my dexing hip over it seems like the toe's natural position is to point straight ahead; whatever amount that I try to turn my toes just turns my entire body during the dex

losing focus on transitional moves - particularly when trying to move the bag over to my flip, I'll start thinking ahead to a toe combo or whatever it is that I'm trying to hit flipside

I'd encourage everyone to go read Andrew McCargar's blog if you haven't already. Just makes me think how much effort goes into the biggest footbag events, and how much those involved have to sacrifice and sweat over details that as a player its easy to take for granted. Seems from all accounts like it was an awesome worlds.

Well in other news, as most of my friends know, I've been thinking about a career change for a while now. A lot of different ideas held my attention, but for either practical reasons or a lack of passion I haven't acted on any of those ideas. Last week I had the idea of becoming a teacher... I'm looking into it. Thinking if I were to do High School Social Sciences, then I actually already have some of the skills & knowledge I need to do this, unlike many other professional paths I've thought about, where I'd need to acquire a large amount of skills to be qualified. Plus you can't beat all that time off in the summer.

I'm looking at some volunteer programs right now. I'm assuming it'll be a lot like this:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxF-ImXaUdE[/youtube]

Mostly looking forward to wearing leather jackets and sitting backwards in metal folding chairs.

I know that no matter what I do, something needs to change career wise. I'm not cut out for office work. Its miserable. It is not my natural environment. But in the meantime, while working towards some other goal, I need to think about the good things in my life. Fuck the haters.

Reid · Post by **Reid** » 27 Jul 2009 21:27

you need to quit changing your thread name. it is hard to follow.

Frank_Sinatra · Post by **Frank_Sinatra** » 28 Jul 2009 12:43

And you need to get to work on your midstring vertigo rakes, monsieur.

Frank_Sinatra · Post by **Frank_Sinatra** » 31 Jul 2009 12:35

Wow, did not mean to post at all. Well shit. Kicked twice since the last update, might as well post on it.

Here's a summary of how my sessions seem to be going lately: I get done with warmups, then do some guiltless drills. Then I either drop on some transitional move that I think I shouldn't drop on, or I drop on the first challenging weak side trick that I get to. Then I decide to stick with these types of strings until whatever I'm dropping on 'clicks' for me. And usually that means doing the same string over and over again, dropping in the same places, not doing enough work on my weakside. Also, tweaked my knee on the very first flip whirl of the session, in both of the last two sessions.

I don't know if I have good reason to be as down on my game as I have been lately. I mean, its not like I've ever played so much better than I am right now. And I've been getting to 20 contacts of BOPs at least once a session for the last few sessions. Just want to be more consistent, and have the things I've practiced feel reliable, and not feel like I'm doing the exact same string over and over again.

But still, got a few highlights:

plo> dimwalk bsos

smear> symp mirage> plo> rpt> terrage> dropped terrage

27 contacts of butterfly> infinity> osis> pdx mirage> rpt (currently my record for this drill)

terrage> paradon> decent run

swerve bsos

drifter rake bsos in a tiltless string. Shut up.

That is all.

Actually, one more thing: please give me some challenges. Non-BOP links would be cool. I'm assuming the people who read this know where my game is, what I can do easily and what I can't do yet, and that stuff in the juicy middle that I need to work on. You can give me whirling/double-dexing challenges but I'm not gonna work on them until my knees feel better.

Frank_Sinatra · Post by **Frank_Sinatra** » 10 Aug 2009 11:47

Still accepting challenges if anyone wants to give me any.

Kicked five times since the last update. On the whole, I felt good about more strings than I felt bad about. Actually quite a bit happened and all the sessions were notable for some reason, gotta be happy about that.

Saturday August 1 - kicked with Tommy on the south side.

We meant to go to the beach, but got rained out. So after eating we eventually did a freestyle demo for one of Tommy's friends, and taught her inside kicks and toe stall. Then we got in a real session - roughly one hour. I had a goal of doing ten different ten contact guiltless strings, only got six though, but did have these highlights:

butter> infinity> osis> pdx mirage rpt to 31 contacts

clipper> pdx illusion> rpt to 12 contacts

pixie ss symp mirage

Sunday August 2 - kicked with Tom & James in Ottawa

So Tom drove down to Ottawa to meet James halfway & kickshola. I tagged along. It was a fun drive down. Much hilarity. Always good to kick with James. Sometimes I think just watching him play will make my game better, like it demonstrates that I can relax and not rush my tricks. When I watch James do whirling swirls I just think "everything's gonna be alright."

The session started out super rough for me, had to take a few minutes to get my head together, but the longer we played the better I felt about my strings. More highlights:

osis> barrage bsos

dimwalk bsos & dyno in the same string

smear> symp mirage> paste> symp mirage> smear> paste> run

smear> terrage> rpt> run

Then we took some silly pictures and went to a carnival, for some reason. Totally exhausted by the time we got back to Chicago.

Wednesday August 5 - kicked with Tom

Tom brought his video camera, but unfortunately we got to a late start (I got stuck at work until 6 and then had train delays) so by the time the camera was set up the sun was already low in the sky. Tom was nice enough to edit the video the next day & show me, though because of darkness I don't think it'll be released. Still, I was happier than I've ever been with what I've been able to hit on camera. Video-verifiable highlights:

paste> symp mirage> terrage> symp mirage> terrage

osis> crispy dlo bsos

Thursday August 6 - kicked with Tom and a hacker

So the next day we got an earlier start, and I started off pretty well, good string length & consistency with flip toe tricks. Had these highlights:

osis x11 (think that's a new record for me)

pmc> pdx illusion> rpt

swerve bsos again

Tom had some soreness in his lower back so after about an hour he stopped. I then got this kid that I've seen around the park to join. He mostly comes by and hangs out to listen to the music I play during sessions, he's also into old school & underground hip hop. So that was the bait. We hacked for about 40 minutes, got him to hit a couple toe stalls.

Sunday August 9 - kicked with Hendo up in Madison

So it was almost 100 degrees with the heat index, and we played for about 2 & a half hours. We both had some good strings I thought, but in between my good strings I had a whole lotta crap. I blame the heat, and for once my blame is probably accurate. Mylights:

osis> blender

whirl> blender

midstring whirl> dyno> butterfly (only like the third time I've played out of dyno)

swerve> symp mirage (the first time I've done something other than butterfly out of a rake)

fairy legover a couple times

pixie knee bump symp mirage (bumpy backside smear?)

But probably the greatest part of the session was an encounter with some random kids. It went a little something like this:

Kids: Are you guys hacking your sack?
Us: Yep
Kids: That should be a dance
Henry: It is
Kids: He footworkin
Kids: He Irish jiggin [Henry has a great string, then passes to me]
Kids: He dropped it
Me: Yeah. You're probably better than me. [then I did one of my best strings of the day]
Kids: This should be on youtube.
Henry: This shit is all over youtube.

The kids then started videotaping, so like 20 seconds later we quit playing.

That's all that I've got.

Edited one time because I love being retarded.

Post by **Zac Miley** » 10 Aug 2009 12:40

Atomsmasher, Legbeater to runs on both sides.
Barfly (b2b?)
Every single variation of Legover, Pickup, Mirage bsos (toe near, far, clipper near, far). Add Illusion too if that's too easy.

CIC flurry · Post by **CIC flurry** » 10 Aug 2009 13:32

Frank_Sinatra wrote: osis> blender
whirl> blender

Let's make some smoothies with that blender.

HG · Post by HG » 10 Aug 2009 14:22

oh he footworkin!

fun session yesterday, exchanging stories and catching up, great to see you again. don't forget to blame the wind as well as the heat. that shit was messin us up all day

Frank_Sinatra · Post by **Frank_Sinatra** » 16 Aug 2009 17:33

Henry, good call on the wind. Good seeing you too man. Don't forget my advice about Wisconsin...

Tom, I can make nine smoothies.

Zac Miley wrote:Atomsmasher, Legbeater to runs on both sides.
Barfly (b2b?)
Every single variation of Legover, Pickup, Mirage bsos (toe near, far, clipper near, far). Add Illusion too if that's too easy.

So you want me to level up eh Zac? Hehe. Well the illusion portion of that drill will be pretty helpful, the other stuff I can get through like 24 or 25 contacts pretty consistently but its more of an endurance test for me right now.

Had my regular schedule of four sessions this week:

Kicked with Tom on Wednesday at IP. We kinda got stuck babysitting.

Plus my portable speakers were (are) on the fritz so I was having a pretty squiggly faced session. Had some ok strings by the end of it. Hit a barfly for Zac, but b2b will take me a while.

Had a short solo session the next day at IP. Tried to work on flip pixie & flip whirl, but I didn't do a whole lot. Had a 21 contact bop string and a 19 contact mostly bop string (plus some other easy guiltless).

Yesterday Tom & I went to Ottawa to kick with James again. I had a hard time putting strings together, again. Though I guess I had a couple decent strings by the end of the session. Whatever good stuff I hit was on camera.

And I kicked just now at IP. It was totally deserted. I loved it. And my speakers worked again, intermittently. Worked on pixie ss clip> crispy dlo, Zac's tiltless challenge, ducking clippers b2b, and drifters. Highlights:

ducking clipper x4

drifter x3

I want to work on expanding my trick vocabulary, and more importantly my link vocabulary. I'm so bored with doing butterfly> whirl> osis> pdx mirage. I plan on working on ducking clippers and drifters again. Symple legover would be a good idea. Pdx illusion has kind of clicked for me recently so I'll try to throw that in more, too. But the big thing is I just gotta practice different links than I have been.

Frank_Sinatra · Post by **Frank_Sinatra** » 23 Aug 2009 14:09

Time to log this week's sessions.

Tuesday - quick solo session. Did pixie ss clip> crispy dlo 10 times each side, ducking clippers b2b 10 times starting each side, and 20 drifters each side, drifter back to back a few times.

Friday - had a really hard time focusing, due to job-related stuff. And also due to Thai food and the digestive process. I was trying to work on posture more this session. Ducking clippers just weren't there but I did hit drifter b2b many times.

Two solo sessions yesterday - didn't drill at all, tried to work new links & more concepts into strings, so my strings were pretty short. Started working on stepping ss clip some more.

Then today I played for three hours. First hour & 40 minutes was solo, then Tom joined me for the last part. It was really fun. Whole mess a catfish:

whirl> osis> rpt to 13 contacts

drifter bsos all over your face and in your eyes

whirl> drifter> rpt

dyno> crispy dlo

flip dyno 15 times (had only done it once before today, just worked on it for a long ass time until it got more natural)

stepping ss clip midstring

smoke! first time

osis> double pickup both sides

toe op motion

pdx drifter (first time)

It was the first time all weekend I've been able to clear my mind, which I needed very much. Tomorrow I've gotta tackle some serious issues with work that aren't gonna be pleasant one way or another. I don't know what I'm gonna do yet. Sorry for being cryptic, but I don't want to say anything else for now.

Zjeezy · Post by **Zjeezy** » 23 Aug 2009 17:23

So first of all. We need to talk soon and try and figure out a weekend when you and Tom can come and visit and shred it up! Are you allergic to cats too like Tom? I hope not because we have 2

2ndly

Frank_Sinatra wrote:Sweet highlights dude. And the crossbow sounds badass. Bring it to NYJ?

Fo sho, we will go down to the south side and do some drive bys

and 3rdlastly
It sounds like your shred is getting better, and your trick selection sounds like its getting better like you wanted.
Props on smoke, its one of my favorite tricks. I need to throw it into my strings more.
Pdx drifter is also dah bomb, you will probably learn it fast, you have good pdx mirages and its that with just a little hip turn.
dbl pickup out of osis is rough man, props.

CIC flurry · Post by **CIC flurry** » 23 Aug 2009 19:51

You were playing princely today.

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 24 Aug 2009 18:03

Actually, he's a crappy busline, which got raped by a Greyhound. Which is even worse.

Frank_Sinatra · Post by **Frank_Sinatra** » 01 Sep 2009 07:19

I love how Ken's post makes absolutely no sense now. Unless he's saying I was raped by a greyhound... wait a minute... how dare you!

Thanks Tom & Zach for being encouraging.

Anyway, back to the regularly scheduled blog post.

Wednesday August 26 - low key solo session at IP. I took my time warming up & stretching, since I was still sore from the long session on Sunday. Worked on pixie ss clip> whirl> crispy dlo both sides but only hit it like four times strong side and three weak side or something like that. Also worked on stepping ss clippers a little but I could tell my technique on flip was all wrong and I didn't want to reinforce any bad habits. I have enough of those already. Dynos were really good though, hit around 25 on my flip and footed dyno> dyno a couple times.

Thursday had a session at Welles w/Tom, it was a really gloomy day. That Chicago weather, man. I didn't hit anything new or anything that good. It happens.

Saturday I tagged along with Tom to kick with James in Ottawa again. I had maybe two good strings but overall wasn't happy with what I was hitting. Did hit this drill: symp mirage> paste> butter> whirl> osis> pdx mirage> rpt. Also had terrage x4.

Sunday drilled solo at IP. Just fundamental stuff from this season that I should probably work on once a week. I'm trying to do more varied runs, but I don't want to lose the easier stuff. I did five sets of each of these:

butter> infinity> osis> pdx mirage> rpt

Pixie ss clip> osis> pdx mirage> rpt

Smear> PLO> rpt

PMC> pdx illusion> rpt

whirl> infinity> rpt

And I also worked on flip whirl a lot more than just that drill, its gotten kinda sketchy because I don't do it enough.

Yesterday had a session at Welles with Tom and Reile. Hit these things:

PMC> pdx illusion> terrage> run

ducking rake bs (not sure if I've hit that before)

terrage> dimmiest but not sure about the last dex on dimmiest

ducking clip> whirl bs

I'm working on the links in ducking clip> whirl> rpt, which Zach suggested. Shouldn't be too long, will require control on set height.

Really looking forward to the next couple weekends. Holly's gonna be in Chicago this weekend so we're gonna kick a few times. Then the weekend after I'm going down to Tennessee so we'll kick then, too. After that, need to get out to Michigan & kick with Zach.

Oh, and I turned in my two week notice at work about a week and a half ago. Management wanted me to reconsider. It took some time to come around to doing the smart thing, but I did reconsider and I did decide to stay on for the time being. So I'm not exactly sure what to call my current situation, they know I'm planning on leaving, but there's no definitive timeline right now. I've been applying for IT jobs and sending out resumes, got a couple responses but they wanted me to relocate, which I'm not considering. I'm hoping to hear back from a couple places soon. I know I'll be happier when this is all behind me.

But a new job is just part one of the plan. The other part has to be skill acquisition, or I'm never gonna go anywhere in my career. So either a graduate school program on a professional path, or IT training & certifications.

Frank Sinatra Lives

Re: Mister F