Fanzine

[wolfpac444]

I'm going to go ahead and disagree with you here Ken. There is a world of difference between toe gyro and toe ingyro -- especially when you start getting into fairy/pixie/atomic ingyro.

[Canthraxsoldier]

it will awesome to meet you when you come out here

[C-Fan]

I'm going to go ahead and disagree with you here Ken. There is a world of difference between toe gyro and toe ingyro -- especially when you start getting into fairy/pixie/atomic ingyro.

Whoa whoa whoa. Let`s leave sets out of this for the moment, because that really changes things. I mean, most people would agree that downtime plo and dlo are the same trick, but when you factor in atomic, that DOES change things, because the dex can make the second part x-dexed, thereby distinguishing the tricks. Or an example more closely linked to the current discussion, would be leaning jowler vs. go-go mirage. Most people would agree that gyro mirage is easier than in gyro mirage. BUT, if you put a stepping set before the spins, then I think most people would argue that stepping in gyro mirage is easier than stepping gyro mirage.

So feel free to disagree with me on toe gyro vs. toe ingyro, but please do so only after doing my 8 step drill from my last post, and leave fairy/pixie/atomic spinning out of the equation.

In case people aren`t swayed by my arguments so far, here`s another way to look at it. Take the move drifter (or torque) for example. If you hit drifter so it starts on your left foot and ends on your right, it is significantly easier than hitting drifter that starts and ends on your right foot (paradox drifter). That`s because your clippers are on opposite sides of your body, and therefore your hips have to do an extra pivot to cover the distance. This earns you a body add. Now do drifter from toe. Now do downtime pixie clipper ending on the same clipper. Because your toes are so near each other, there is essentially no difference between these two tricks. When dealing with spins vs inspins, again your body earns a body add, largely because of the distance between your clippers. Your body has to spin THAT much further to complete the trick. With toe gyro vs toe-ingryo, your body doesn`t really spin any further.

I think the most convincing argument however, is doing my 8 step drill from my last post. If you can toe spin, then this whole conversation stops being theoretical, and you can feel for yourself that there is no difference between the two.

PS: for those who think that toe gyro and toe ingyro are significantly different, do you think that toe ingyro gets an extra add? If I set toebius from the other toe, does it all of a sudden become a six add trick?

[wolfpac444]

Whoa whoa whoa. Let`s leave sets out of this for the moment, because that really changes things. I mean, most people would agree that downtime plo and dlo are the same trick, but when you factor in atomic, that DOES change things, because the dex can make the second part x-dexed, thereby distinguishing the tricks.

Well, avoiding atomic for the moment since x-dex may come into play (but I think that is a nonissue as well), we can just concentrate on sets that x-dex won't ever come into play. In that case, I don't see how you could argue the presence of the set matters when talking about adds since it doesn't matter in every case.

I myself have been playing toe spinning as of late (mostly toe inspinning). I can tell you that fairy gyro mirage and fairy ingyro mirage are not even close to the same level of difficulty. Similarly, pixie ingyro mirage is harder than pixie gyro mirage, although not as much as in the fairy case.

Even ignoring throwing dexes at the beginning, I still think toe ingyro is harder. Just the other night, I hit toe ingyro legover for the first time. So, tonight, I thought I'd try to hit toe gyro legover, not having hit it before. I was able to hit it on my third attempt and that is even with my bad toe gyro.

So, I guess I'd say toe inmobius would be a 6, much in the same manner paradox whirl is a four or paradox da da curve is a 5. However, I'd rather have that than have fairy ingyro mirage be a 4 and toe ingyro legover be a 3.

[C-Fan]

7/30/05 Saturday Night Shred


Once awards are over, I go shower at Team Japan`s hotel, and we figure out our plans for the night. We all figure that the restaurant on the boat (where the party will be held) will likely take forever because all the footbaggers will arrive and order at once. So we opt instead to do pizza. I bring along my shred gear, because I fully intend on shredding that night. I only played footbag like 20 minutes the day before, and today I mostly just did warm up for Shred, so I feel pretty springy and energetic.

Pizza with Team Japan is fun. Everybody`s amazed at how much better pizza tastes outside of Japan, and I fully agree. Japanese pizza sucks. If it were not for footbag, I wonder how many of Team Japan would have gone to their graves never knowing the joy of good pizza? There`s some soft porn-ish TV movie on the TV, so I make Takumi wear my baseball cap so it spares his innocent eyes. Ever since I legally adopted him his first day in Finland, I`ve been very protective.

Alex and Josh join us at the end, and Alex is notably quiet and somber. I ask him what`s up, and he says that he`s feeling a little down because it`s the last night of Worlds. I sympathize, but I also think that his sadness is a testament to what an excellent week it was. If Worlds wasn`t so good this year, would he care that it was ending? Masa and USK unveil a video they edited, which lightens the mood. It`s a promo/parody video of Haseken (one of the team Japan members) which is like a music video, set to the song "we will crack it" from Champion`s League, but with Japanese lyrics which extol the virtues of Haseken. Apparently, Masa and USK stayed up until 5 in the morning one day editing it together and recording the music. Incredible. Hopefully they will upload it sometime, and I can post it here. It`s on of those things you need to see to believe... even with my translation, Alex and Josh cracked up really hard over it. I`m glad the mood is lightened.

We tram over to the boat, and the sun is already setting. There`s a bunch of circles already going on... I think people are trying to take advantage of the little light that is left. I`m still stuffed with Pizza, so I just sit down and watch for a bit. The circle which draws the most spectators has Vasek, Felix, and Janne Pessonen. Felix tries for triple spinning osis as well as double spinning swirl, and comes close to both. Janne plays impressively well... I hadn`t seen him play at all all week until now, but he hops out of the circle soon when a big crowd gathers. Vasek plays the hardest I see him play all week. Jani-ripstein-repeat, and in the same combo stepping whirl swirl and blurry whirling swirl. Jani-ripstein-symp whirling swirl, almost repeat. Superfly x2-symp flurry-dolomite-superfly x2-symp whirling swirl. Spinning whirlwing. For the most part everything looked clean, with the occasional ripstein or flip superfly being thin. But still, re-read those combos.

Henmo set up his chiropractic clinic, and shredders from around the world lined up to have their backs cracked, legs snapped, and joints crushed in the middle of the street. I hopped into a few circles, determined to play despite the bad light. Reminded me a bit of Worlds 99 in Chicago really. Eventually we migrated to the other side of the street, and played on asphalt under street lights. Pretty ghetto, but I also really kinda liked it. It felt really personal... hard to explain. I ended up playing with a bunch of people all night, and I shredded pretty hard. I played with Arkady (finally!), Yoga, Juho Marjo, Tuukka, Josh B, Matthias, Paul C, Mosher, Ales, Hania, Ian Pritchard, Szymon, Mikko, Aaro Wichmann, and Janne Pessonen. I can`t remember much notable stuff being hit, because most people couldn`t play to their potential given the conditions. But it was still a lot of fun. To give you an idea of how casual a circle it was, Sami (the guy I played basketball with) bought me a beer, which I`d sip from after each turn I got in the circle.

I was in a circle with Juho Marjo, when all of a sudden a big cheer erupted from the other side of the street, and people started yelling for him to go over. He had just been inducted into BAP, and they wanted him to go over to get props, but goddamnit, I wanted to play with him! I tried to hold him back, but he ended up going over anyway. Ultimately it didn`t matter, because he came back pretty soon and we got to shred. Mikko also got called over, so I figured he got in, but other than those 2, I didn`t know who was invited into BAP until the next day (Karim). Shortly after Mikko goes over, everybody starts yelling for me, saying that I "made BAP again." Last year I wasn`t even present when they made BAP inductions, but 2 years ago I politely declined. I`ve explained my reasons for refusing BAP several times since then, so this year when they invited me again, I just stood legs akimbo, raising both middle fingers in the air, and moshed my head like a headbanger. It was pretty funny, and I think people preferred it to me hashing out a speech again.

Shortly thereafter, Lise T. started doing her fireshow, so I figured it was a good time to wrap up for the night shredwise. I went over to watch, and bought Sami a beer. I had a good time talking to a bunch of people all night, freestylers and net players alike. I can`t recall many of the conversations (except my NBA conversation with Wulff...who is correct to be excited about the Nets being much stronger next year), but the main thing was that good conversations were had. Jussi from the documentary crew is there, and I say hey and thank him for shooting the documentary, and for the free lunch the other day. He asks if he can maybe do a little bit more shooting with me the next day, sort of like a wrap-up interview for the week, and so he can buy me a nicer lunch. Um, how about yes?

I make a point to thank Jere V. for making this such a great Worlds for me. If it weren`t for him, I wouldn`t have had the chance to do the documentary, which was a great experience, nor would I have judged the video contest, nor would I have got to play streetball with footbaggers. I really felt like I got to participate in a whole slew of fun things because of him, and I still don`t know why he was so nice to me, but I`m awfully grateful that he was. Kiitos again Jere.

Finally, the night starts to die away, and the sober reality of goodbyes intrudes on even the most drunk of players. I exchange some hugs with people I know I won`t see, and promise a bunch of others that I will make the shred the next day. I remind everybody that with footbaggers it`s never goodbye, only "see you next tourney" and that helps me get through the process better.

I walk home with a big posse of footbaggers, and even at a sad moment like this, the topics of conversation still revolve around what was hit, what was filmed, etc. Apparently one of Team Japan has gyro high plains drifter on tape. Some more goodbyes as we split for different hostels. I go to bed, more happy than sad. This was my best worlds ever, what`s sad about that?

[Samurai]

[C-Fan]

September 15th, 2005

Whoa, 9th entry in my blog today. This has to be some kind of record.

Anyway, I had a solo shred in Yoyogi today. It was 6 degrees Celsius cooler than yesterday, so I hit the park around 4 pm and it wasn`t too hot. I was real glad I went there so early, because it meant I could take my time playing, and I never felt rushed. I warmed up slowly, and had a string of 39, almost entirely BOPs. After talking to Mike about "toe ingyro", I spent most of the session playing around with that concept. I still feel there is no body add difference between toe spinning and "toe inspinning." Toe "inspinning" is just toe spinning set from the other toe.

Since I said I`d try toe inspinning torque (toebius from other toe), I gave it a shot.

1st try: footed it.
2nd try: fly-by, over spun.
3rd try: hit and sealed with a run.

If anybody wants to give me 6 adds for that, I`ll take it, but its a joke. It`s the same difficulty as toebius, just with easier footwork. I also hit the following tricks for the "first time" (sort of... I`d hit most of the toe spinning variants, which are pretty much the same tricks).

Toe ingyro eclipse.
Toe inspinning eclipse (same eclipse, different toe inspin)
Toe inspinning clipper, both sides.
Toe inspinning pdx mirage, both sides.

I warmed down with a guiltless 47 contact combo. Again, mostly BOPs, but also had pdx whirl, whirl, and ducking clipper bsos, and dimwalk and diving clipper one side.

Overall today was just a real pleasant session. The weather was excellent, I didn`t feel rushed, and I hit a bunch of nice strings where my flipside felt and looked very natural. Flip torques and barflies felt really good, and my dexless felt like it was kinda coming back a bit.

In exactly 2 weeks, I leave for Australia.

edit: any further discussion about toe spinning vs toe inspinning should be done here: http://www.modified.ca/footbag/viewtopic.php?t=10475

[C-Fan]

Sunday, September 18th

I went on a trip to the beach for a couple days, so by the time Sunday rolled around, I was really itching to play footbag. As it turned out, I couldn`t have picked a better day: we had something like 18 players in Lavers show up to shred in Yoyogi!

The day kicked off a few hours before anybody was in Yoyogi though. At 11 am, all the judges from JFC3 met up at a diner to discuss how the judging went at JFC3, and to brainstorm ideas how to improve judging at the next Japanese tourney. Actually, when I say "all the judges," I really mean all the judges except Ryota... who showed up an hour and half late.

The meeting went really well. Even though the tournament went down almost a full month earlier, everybody remembered key details vividly, and I think most people had thought a lot about what they wanted to see improved, as well as what they thought went well. Some key ideas/issues that were raised:

-Have a second camera filming sick 3 from the back. This would make it easier to check the cleanliness of every moved, as opposed to just having combos filmed from the front.

-Have the timekeeper raise their hand when they start timing. This allows the player to know when time has started, and thereby not be surprised when their routine ends.

-Write out judging criteria and post it on the internet before the tournament starts, so competitors know beforehand what the judges are looking for, and how they score the tournament. Include links to examples of what the judges consider "good" routines.

We all ate lunch, and after wrapping up the meeting, we hit Yoyogi to shred. The weather was beautiful, but a bit too hot initially. The big deal of the day was that Kazu from Okinawa was coming. Because of this, the shredders came out of the woodwork. We even had 2 shreditas at the same session, which sadly has become a rarity. Players from Saitama, Shizuoka, Tokyo, Osaka, and Okinawa all at a non-tournament shred. Rare, and beautiful.

Off the top of my head, the following people were at the shred: USK, Kim, Masa, Morii, Takumi, Kazu, Ryota OBT, Hatsu (Hearts), Sue Kitchi, Iga (from Saitama), Nari (Shizuoka),Yama, Kombu (Osaka!), Kushy, Bunko, Peyan,Octoe and a handful more. There were 3 circles going all day, and usually they were at full (5 people) capacity, sometimes spilling to 6. I occasionally had to wait long stretches before being able to enter circles that I wanted to, but I can`t complain about having so many people playing footbag. It was really sweet.

Footbagwise I don`t recall too much of note being hit. Takumi played his usual excellent game. Spinning dyno to pdx blender for his first time. Mobius-pdx blender-barely missed ps whirl. Morii is busting consistent... I really think he is one of the top 3 best players in Japan now. I started something like 6 or 7 strings with vortex. I was real happy about that, because I hit most of them on my first try, and it wasn`t like I was skooling vortices all session or anything. 6 vortices in a regular shred session is really good for me. I had the impression that everybody had a good session. When it got dark, we all went to get dinner and drinks together, which was a lot of fun. I talked about cooking and politics with Kombu and Octoe, and then I spent a lot of time drawing animals with Takumi.

I took yesterday off from shred, but today is full of footbag-related plans. Yesterday I found Vans shoes which look ideal for footbag. They look like lavers, but are lighter, and they are black. They didn`t have my size though, so I will hunt those down today. I also have a session with Takumi and Hatsu which I am stoked about. Still hammering out details of this Australian Nestle thing, but I am getting real excited about it.

[C-Fan]

Tuesday, September 20th, 2005.

Today was packed with footbag and footbag related events. Overall, a good day.

- Kicked off the day by calling my travel agent and shortening my trip to Australia. I learned yesterday that the demos won`t start until 2 weeks later, so I decided I`d rather spend those 2 weeks in Japan instead of spending money and imposing on people I don`t know for 2 weeks in Aussie. The situation kinda sucks, because I initially paid extra to get the early tickets, and now I have to pay even more to change them to later dates At least I was able to change my tickets though, and hopefully when the whole Aussie deal is over, I`ll look back on all this as just a minor inconvenience.

- Had a nice chat with Jeremy O and Chad D in footbag chat, where Jeremy confirmed lots of information regarding the Nestle promo. I`m very psyched about it. If I can return from the trip with the same amount of money in my pocket as before I left, then I will consider it a great success.

- Went searching for Vans "Dig In" shoes. Over the weekend I found a pair for about $27 USD in Tokyo, but they weren`t my size. They are like Lavers, only lighter, and look to have bigger sweet spots. They looked soooo good for footbag... but after hitting a couple more stores, no place had my size. That really sucks, because I was really stoked to get black, non-laver shred shoes. They looked soooooo choice. Oh well, at least I tried.

- Had a shred in Yoyogi park. It looked like it was going to rain, and it did indeed rain lightly for a while, which made it tricky at first for us to decide where to play. The problem being that our rain spot and our good shred spot aren`t really close to each other. We opted for Yoyogi, and I was happily surprised to see so many people make it for a weekday session. Hatsu, x+y, and Takumi made it, as did an Okinawan shredita none of us had met before: Jetty.

The weather was really cool out, which was a nice change. Takumi showed up maybe 35 minutes after we had all started playing. Jetty really impressed me. She does all of her moves on both sides, including clippers, mirages, legovers, and atws. She hit mirage bsos a bunch, and the highlight was likely when she hit mirage-legover repeat. Lots of toe stalls, but I see her developing really well. It`s great to see a Japanese shreditas developing as flipsidedly as her. X+Y had a good session. I challenged him to hit 10 unique double dexes in a row, and he put in some good tries at that. He recently hit atomic drifter, so he was trying for his flipside today. Some good attempts for sure. He also had his toe on dlo-downtime plo repeat a bunch of times. Hatsu had an average session. I did see him hit vortex though, which I don`t think I`d ever seen him hit before.

When Takumi arrives I get psyched for all of 10 seconds... because he forgot to bring his shorts! D`oh! Luckily, I live about a 10 minute walk away, so I ran off to get an extra pair of my shorts to lend him. About 25 minutes later, I came back with shorts, and we were all set. Takumi surprised me initially by giving a shot at rubberman, and making it 4/6 through. He started on atom smasher too, which I think is the hardest starting point for rubberman personally. He hit tapping whirl cleanly as well, which I`d never seen him do before. He`s also started doing whirlwinds, but I can`t really tell if his whirl is entirely there or not, at least not without video replay. Legbeater-ripwalk-blur repeat, and smear-pixie ss mirage repeat were some nice drills he hit as well.

I had a lot of fun playing today. I watched Jorden`s request video earlier today, and that inspired me to try and play with more creative links, and I think I was pretty successful about mixing it up today. I hit dasein-blurry drifter for my first time, and in the sealing run I hit pdx whirl-pdx drifter repeat. I also hit dasein to bedwetter, which is also a first for me, and had something like 8-9 dexless in the sealing combo. It felt real good to do a long dexless string (it may have been 10, but I wasnt counting), and it took everybody a little bit by surprise, which is something I`m always happy about. I don`t like to be too predictable.

About an hour and half into the session, it finally started raining, so we took shelter under a tree and played 4 square, which was a lot of fun. We did 2 games, but the second game was really rough because it became dark, and just kicking the bag was real hard. Luckily though, all of us are free to play tomorrow, and it looks like Morii might make it too. So even though rain made the real shred kinda short today, I view it as kind of a warm up for tomorrow, and regardless it was a lot of fun.

As I left, I walked past a spot under a bridge which was real brightly lit, flat, and dry. I went back to the shred spot, and walked them to the spot to get their input. We all agreed it could work as a rain spot, or a night shred spot. I`m excited at the prospect of using it as a rain spot, because it is literally a 2 minute walk from the fountain at Yoyogi. So in the future if its one of those days where it looks 50-50 rain wise, we can hit Yoyogi without worries.

[C-Fan]

August 1st: The Day After Worlds

I half expected the first leaf of autumn to jump its tree, and float poetically through the air as I woke up. Yes, Worlds was officially over, results would stand for another year, and the people who hadn`t left yet were already checking their departure flight times. It was one of those days where you consciously try to stretch each moment to cheat that tyrranical 24 hour ceiling.

I wasn`t scheduled to leave til the next afternoon, which made it a bit easier for me to really savor the last day. It was sort of strange... even though I had been in Finland for over a week, only NOW did it feel like I was on vacation. The first few days were fun, but competition loomed in the near future, and was in the back of my thoughts. Then comp started, and that was my main priority. I was happily surprised to find myself competing through Saturday. But that meant that today was the first morning when I woke up without any pressure on myself.

I felt really good. Yeah, next year`s Worlds was almost a full year away, but I was satisfied with how I competed this year, and I felt like I gave this week my best shot, and had a ton of fun. I felt like I could savor my experience, and was in no hurry for the next tournament. In years past I often felt like I wanted a second chance, like I wished Worlds would be held again next week, cause I KNEW I could have done better. Not so this year. That was a really great feeling.

I kicked off my day by meeting up with Jussi to do a final shoot for the documentary. We found a nice spot in a park and again I got to wear a wire mic. He also used one of those big discs covered in tin foil which photographers use to enhance lighting. I`m real stoked to see how the whole project turns out, because it was so professionally done. After the shoot Jussi took to me to lunch at a nice restaurant, where I got to eat a really good soup with salmon in it. It was like clam chowder, but with real soft, buttery salmon in it instead. Lots of potatoes. I was happy to eat something traditional and Finnish which cost more than pocket change. Jussi dropped me off at the Opera House, where I thanked him again for making the documentary, as well as for all the lunches. He`s one cool dude for sure.

The day-after-worlds-shred was supposed to happen at the ampitheatre behind the Opera house, and while there was a decent smattering of players, there were hardly any people playing. There was definitely an air of sadness that Worlds was over. I tossed frisbee with Dexter, Josh, and Ben for a while, which was fun. Eventually I decided to go play a little bit with Ben, and shortly Felix joined in. He explained to me how pdx whirling swirl just naturally came to him without any skooling. He was only running on a few hours of sleep, but still had some good stuff left. He hit scorpion`s tail swirl, but the double over was the. Still. Shortly thereafter, Vasek hopped in the circle. I was stoked about this, because I hadn`t had a chance to play with Vasek all week long, and he was on my hit list.

Yeah, it was the day after worlds, but hey, I was in a shred circle flanked by Vasek and Felix. How cool is that? I requested Vasek try spinning swirl-blurry torque-repeat, and he got through 3/4 of it, which is pretty good. Or did I request blurry torque-spin swirl repeat? I would have been happy with either. I played pretty well in this circle. Probably because I got a good shot of sleep, and didn`t play that much all week. I remember getting props for hitting symp whirling eclipse to start a run. We didn`t have music to play to, so I asked Felix to beatbox as we played, which was a nice substitute. At one quiet lull in the session, I started singing "I want candy!" by MC Pee Pants, and Max Kerkhoff gave me a lollipop!
"Shit, I should have asked for money."

After shredding a bit, I went and talked a bit to Lise T. She gave me a shot of some Danish liquer which was really bitter and strong. Josh B tells me there are pickup net games going on at Kaivopuisto park, so I grab my stuff, dash off a few quick goodbyes, and hop on a tram with some net players to get there.

Being in Kaivopuisto park again feels incredibly strange. Could it really be that I was there just a week ago? It seems so much farther in the past. It made for nice closure. I felt like I spent my time well since my last time in the park; competing well, hanging out with friends, not partying too hard.

I sit down with my beer and a box of cookies, and watch some of the pros go at it. 90% of the people there are Germans I don`t know, but Brent Welch and JF Lemieux are also there. There are only 2 net kits at the site, which make me feel like I won`t get a chance to play at all, but happily I am proven wrong.

Though I had played a little net earlier in the week, today was the first time I played seriously in years. I don`t really know how you define seriously... cause I was having sips of beer and stuffing cookies in my face between points. In any case, I really gave it my best shot, and it was a lot of fun. I felt kinda bad because I am really right leg dominant, but I did get a couple good plays with the leftie in. Even as I played, I knew my muscles would feel it the next day, but thats the beauty of the last day of worlds: it doesn`t matter!

Josh teaches me a lot of good net fundamentals all day, as does Chris L from Germany. I have a couple highlights in a losing effort in some doubles games, and over the course of just a few hours, I really felt a lot of improvement. If I ever do retire from freestyle, I totally could see myself as a net player. I could judge freestyle pools, then go play my net matches. Something like that.

Net culminates with a doubles game: Josh B and Mathieu Gauthier vs. Riku Ahola and me. Riku and I kick some ass... until Mathieu goes and gets his glasses, and then its all over.

After net, Josh and I head back to the hotel and see Team Japan shredding on the street in front of the hotel. Bless their hardcore hearts. I eat a sandwich, and then go through a night of drawn out goodbyes. It sucked going through it last night, so doing it again the very next night is not much more fun either.

I go to sleep feeling more hopeful than anything else. Yes, Worlds are over. But they were my best yet. And if the day right after they end can be as good as today... then why shouldn`t the rest of the year be as good?

[acxel22]

hahaha I totally forgoten about the glasses
Great memories!

[C-Fan]

Wednesday, September 21st.

8 people at a weekday shred? No complaints here! Again, the weather today was iffy, but not a drop of rain fell, which combined with an earlier start, meant an excellent session for all.

Today`s cast: Takumi, Tosh, Hatsu, x+y, Morii, Jetty from Okinawa, Paul and myself. Like I said, not bad for a Wednesday.

The weather was cool throughout, which was pleasant. There was an overall good vibe, which I think helped us all play well. I think I played with Takumi the entire time... with random other people hopping in and out of the circle at various times. Takumi is getting so good... I always knew he would get better than me, but I didn`t expect him to progress this fast. Is he better than me already? Quite possibly yes... but keep in mind that I always dis my own game, and hype Takumi.

That said, Takumi had a kick-ass session. He hit and sealed double spinning clipper for his first time. Then he hit and sealed spinning gyro mirage for his first time. Spinning swirl like nothing... I almost forgot to give him props for this, because it looked so easy! Bigwalk bsos, both super clean. Reverse swirl and forward swirl, all 4 bsos. I challenged him to hit gyro sidewalk (surging ss butterfly) and he hit both within a few tries. First time on either side. I challenged him to hit it back to back, and he did! But I`m not 100% sure about the second surging set. Still, that`s nuts. Finally, a couple hours into the session, Jetty asked him to hit some infinities on camera. His previous record was 78, but today he hit...










101 infinities! Damn! 303 add combo. On video too. Awesomeness.

Personally, I also had a real good session. My dexless play felt on fire. It hadn`t felt this good in months, and I really rocked out doing long dexless sections in my combos. My vortex is also getting real consistent on one side. I hit about 70% of them on my first try. Yeah, its always at the start of a string, and always on the same side, but still, I`m very proud of it. I think the best compliment I got on my vortex today, was when I`d start a string with it, go for like 10 contacts, and then not get any props when I passed the bag. My vortex, which used to be so rare and get so many props, has now become mastered to the point where nobody cares that I hit it anymore. Yes!

Other highlights: inspinning clipper bsos. Had my foot on inspinning butterfly bsos too... Toe set symposium torque sealed with a string. Hadn`t hit that in at least 4 years. Reverse swirl-bubba beater to start a string. Rev swirl bsos. Wonton eclipse, possibly my first time. Toe set diving dlo, and then blurrier and flurry in the sealing string. I barely missed gdlo ending on left toe, and when I got a rebate, I hit toe gdlo (right toe) on my first try, and sealed with a string. Overall I felt real good all session, I had a few creative strings and links. I feel ready to go to Aussie and show off my game. I`m getting real stoked for that.

After shred, we played 3 games of 4 square. It was sweet playing with 8 people, because it really gave you incentive to not get out, because the line to get back in was so long. Today`s games were particularly good... there were at least 4 moments where I doubled over with laughter. Takumi did a "tricky serve" where he held a genz bag in his hand, then tossed the real genz bag into another square. Another time, Hatsu had the bag resting on his toe and was explaining the rules to Jetty. Takumi kneeled down and tried blowing the bag off Hatsu`s foot. Seeing his opportunity, Hatsu flicked the bag over the prostrate Takumi, and it landed in the circle. Too good.

I really love ending sessions with foursquare. Usually, at the end of the session people are exhausted, and missing combos and tricks. It can be a low note to end on. But with foursquare, everybody cools down, and the session ends on a fun note. Good times.

[dyalander]

G'day Ken,
I don't like posting in other ppl's blogs but wanted to say thanks for a good read, I've been ill for a few days and its helped keep me relaxed and optomistic. I'm really looking forward to your arrival and am hoping to be able to free up heaps of time for your stay in Sydney. I'll be at the airport to pick you and Jeremy up. Thanks again.

[C-Fan]

Yeah Dyalan, I`m really looking forward to meeting you and shredding. Soon... very soon.

Today I hoped to play with Takumi, but he decided to take a day off so he`ll be fresh for tomorrow`s shred. Undeterred, I decided I`d go out and have a light solo session in Yoyogi, and it turned out well. My main goal was to try and hit 100 infinities. Failing that, anything above my old record (81) would suffice. Why did I set this goal?

Wednesday, September 21st.
Takumi hit...
101 infinities! Damn! 303 add combo. On video too. Awesomeness.
)

Takumi`s 101 infinities inspired me, or made me feel threatened... whichever, it made me want to break 100. Nice round number, and good stamina practice.

Yoyogi was pretty cool and nice out. I did my usual warmup of 100+kicks, then toe tiltless to get warm. Then I went straight into infinity practice. My first attempt I got something like 25, then my second attempt I went for 63, which I felt pretty happy with. Next try 31. Then 5. Then I decided to try and do my infinities lower and faster, and using this method I got to 50 quickly, kept going... 64 (new record for the day), then 82 (new personal record!), then 90... ok, just 10 more, focus Ken, focus... 100! OK, don`t celebrate yet... 102! (maybe I can inspire a rivalry with Takumi), 106... 111! 111 infinities! So that`s my new record for longest guiltless string, as well as probably my most adds in a combo. I was just stoked I broke my old record by 30.

I was pretty tired after this, and considered calling an end to the session right there. I thought it would be kinda cool to have a footbag session where I only hit one guiltless trick the entire time. But then I thought, "hey, its still light out, I still have energy, and I`m playing on good surface. Don`t waste your chance." So I played for another 20 minutes or so. I mostly skooled my flip reverse swirl. I think I understand it a bit better... its really key to keep your back straight during the set. Rev swirl to pdx mirage bsos, on 3 separate occasions. The only other highlight of the session was hitting ducking butterfly-down double repeat.

So it turned out to be a really light, short session, but I`m glad I went out. Every add on my shoes makes me better. Plus, I also set a new personal record, which felt real good.

[C-Fan]

Yesterday was a holiday, which makes this a 3 day weekend! Unfortunately, it rained today, and it looks likely that it will rain all day tomorrow. Oh well, if yesterday wasn`t a holiday, that`d mean rain on Sat and Sunday, which would suck for people who have jobs.

Because yesterday was good weather and a day off, I figured everybody would come out to shred, given that the forecast projected rain the next two days. Amazingly, only 4 of us made the session? I dunno, maybe people had work. In any case, Takumi, Hatsu, x+y and I had a great session.

I thought Hatsu played well throughout. I saw him seal his good side vortex a few times, which is rare. X+Y had a great session, with lots of good shuffle links like atom-atom-leg-rip-blur? Stuff like that in any case. He also hit his first 6 add moves ever! Blurry torque, both sides. I only saw him hit one, and the seal was iffy, but he hit it. Milestone for sure.

Takumi came to the session wearing cool black shoes... Nike "Free." Running shoes I think. They remind me a lot of the old Nike Prestos, in that they are SUPER light, but the toes suck, and they have almost no ankle support. Takumi messed around in them a bit, and I also tried them, but the lack of ankle support really scares me. Takumi got a stomach ache in the middle of the session, so he didn`t push himself too hard. Still, he played well I thought. The only thing that I really remember well was gdlo to smoke. I didn`t see him hit it the first time, so I requested he try it again, and BAM: first try. Awesome. We also talked about him trying a surging drill. Like, any drill that involves surging. I proposed legbeater-surge repeat, but ultimately I think the coolest would be gyro sidewalk-bigwalk repeat. I tried surging a couple times, but I`m nowhere near close.

Personally, I had a really good session. I hit flurry to symp torque on my first try, and sealed with a run. I also hit flurry bsos, which I hadn`t done in quite some time. Hit sailing ss pick up for the first time, which was pretty easy, but hey, new trick. I also hit toe set ducking dlo... possibly the first time? If not, certainly my first time in over 5 years. Practiced 2 bag juggling a little bit, in anticipation of the Nestle demos next month. I got 24 catches on my best attempt. I hit spinning osis-pdx drifter bsos, which I was stoked on, but what I really want is to get that as a drill. Speaking of drills, I also hit: frantic ss bfly-fog-frantic ss bfly.......

...ducking clipper?!?!? And the thing is, my second jawa was perfect too. I totally could have gone for the last fog, but I just mentally froze. Arrrrgh! Still, I was happy I got the first 3, cause thats a cool triple dex combo. Considering the last fog would have been my weak fog, its not guaranteed that I would have hit the drill, but I wish I had at least tried for a blurry set. Still, one of those teasing defeats, which is still a victory of sorts.

The highlight of the session for me was seeing my vortex so consistent. That`s the visible result of me skooling it so hard these past few weeks. Its nice to see progess like that. I`d say I hit about 75% of my vortices first try, and vortex alone was never enough to get me props, because its become that standard now. I tried to see how many unique moves I could hit out of vortex, and that was pretty succesful. Here`s the list of moves I hit out of vortex in a single session: ducking clipper, ducking butterfly, drifter, torque, dlo, pdx whirl (with a plant thought), barfly (with a plant though) and ducking pdx mirage. It was my first time hitting those last 3 links, and as for the others, I had only hit them before after dedicating big chunks of sessions to those goals, whereas today I breezed through them, usually on my first try. I also footed tomahawk again, but I only tried it once. I think I should make my goal from now on to try and start putting vortex into the middle of my combos, instead of always as the first trick. I also think vortex to mullet should be real do-able next session.

Cross your fingers it doesnt rain tomorrow.

[C-Fan]

Last night I dreamt I was hanging out at Matthias Lino-Schmidt`s house. He was packing for a trip or something, so while he was busy getting things ready, I was sitting in his cushy swivel chair in front of his computer, and I was real stoked to find that he had a DVD of a Chicago (1970s soft rock band, whose hits include "If you leave me now") concert on his computer. I had fun killing time watching my favorite songs live in concert while we made idle conversation.

That was my footbag dream of last night.

Today the weather seems to have cleared up, so hopefully session in Yoyogi.

[C-Fan]

9/25/05

Thankfully the typhoon-induced bad weather cleared up, so it didn`t rain today! Unfortunately, people still didn`t show. Today really felt like autumn. There was a persistent, cool autumn breeze throughout, and when the occasional mist of water was blown off the fountain, we`d shudder when it hit us, cause it was straight up cold.

I got to Yoyogi around 3, and Takumi was already there. We ended up doing a 2 man session for 45 minutes or an hour, and then finally x+y showed up. We trooped it out til around 5:30, when it was just too dark to see the bag well, and we were all tired. I didn`t sweat at all throughout the entire session, because it was so cool out. My wrists also felt clammy, which hasn`t happened in a long time, so I`d say its officially fall in Tokyo now.

I think x+y had the best session out of all of us. He`s just way more solid these days, very good shuffling, all both sides. Had some real close looks at atomic torque. Saw him hit blurry drifter. I challenged him to magellan-smear-plo repeat, and he hit that pretty quickly and easily. Sumo to atom was impressive. The best may have been when he hit eggbeater- atom smasher repeat. Right when he finished hitting it, we both exclaimed "Jorden Moir" almost simultaneously.

Takumi and I both had pretty average sessions, but by no means bad or anything. Takumi was doing lots of variations on swirl-dyno, stuff like reverse swirl-blender, midstring. Looks really cool. He`s also throwing more atomics in midstring, which look like a great addition to his game.
I had 3 or 4 long, creative strings I was real happy with all day, and then the rest of the time I just messed around really. Highlight of my session may have been when I had a run that started with HPD, then had flurry with the other barrage leg, then bedwetter in the combo. x+y said both barrages were deep.

I only have 2 more shred weekends left in Japan before I hit Australia, then maybe 1 more shred weekend before I leave for good. Hopefully more people will make the shreds before I leave... I definitely felt a bit disappointed I only played with 3 different people over the course of a 3 days weekend. At least I got to play with Takumi both times.

18 days before I leave for Australia.

[x+y]

Cough!…Schmoe to cough…thanks.

[C-Fan]

9/28/05

Thankfully, the weather has improved markedly as of late. There was a 4 or 5 day period where it felt like late fall, which made it hard to get motivated to play, and even when I did play, it was difficult to warm up. Luckily, it seems to have returned to early-fall weather, which is ideal. It`s cool enough you don`t sweat too much, but not so cool that you can`t warm up.

I had a real short session on Monday, but after the first 20 minutes or so, a contact juggler showed interest in the sport, so I sacrificed the rest of my session to teach her basics. She was getting like 7 or 8 alternating inside kicks in a row, both toe stalls, and learned in-to-out ATW despite the fact she was wearing bellbottoms. Some people are just waaaay faster learners than I. She knew of Naranja Juggling Store because of her work, so when the sun went down, she vowed she was going to buy a footbag the very next day.

While I was happy I helped somebody along the path to footbag, it also meant I didn`t really have a proper session. The only highlight from Monday was bl. whirl-spin clip repeat, and then pdx whirl-spin clip bsos in the sealing combo. Tuesday was even greyer and colder than Monday, so I phoned in the session.

Wednesday was a joy. I literally felt my heart leap when I saw the sun beaming on the morning. I have a slight arhythmea.

I didn`t really go out with any goals in mind (recipe for success for me), so I did my usual warmup and messed around with various elements. To my great surprise, dyno felt strong on one of my sides! For years I never could get the hang of dyno. I could blender both sides, I had hit food processor bsos a couple times, I had hit blender x2 etc, but dyno always eluded me. It probably also doesn`t help that I dislike dyno for aesthetic reasons, but whatever the case, I had never really hit solid dynos... until today. Yeah, not the sexiest move, but at my age, its always a thrill to continue to hit new tricks.

Before heading out to shred, I had watched some Danish Open 05 vids. I really liked Jorden Moir`s Shred30, because it wasn`t just a series of drills, it actually had good flow to it. For some reason, the combo that stood out to me the most was pdx whirl-pdx whirl-pdx drifter-dyno-far swirl-spin clipper. Naturally, the fact that I started feeling comfy with dyno meant I tried that combo a bunch, but never did link the dyno in well. Still, my first day with dyno, so no complaints.

I did manage some things with dyno that I was happy with. Pixie butterfly-ripwalk-ripwalk-dyno into a run. "Blurry" dyno, which i sealed with a run that included food, and blurry whirl bsos. Pixie ss dyno, which I nearly sealed with a run including blender bsos. Amazingly, I dropped on my strong blender That shocked me, since my good blender is pretty reliable, whereas my weak blender, especially midstring, is so incredibly rare. In any case, 2 new 5s involving dyno felt really good.

I think the key for me learning dyno was really focussing on what part of my leg I was dexing with. With blender, you can just naturally whip your leg, and the nature of the dex makes you get it with the correct part of your leg. As Ahren says: "just whip it." But with dyno, because you are moving in the direction of the dex, it isn`t as clear where you want to dex it. I figured out that the best place, is above the ankle, but below the calf muscle. I aim for that spot and right before the dex, I whip my head around and sink into the osis. Worked pretty well.

Despite my unexpected success with dyno (one side), the session really was all about 2 other tricks: paradox drifter (in this post I shall simply refer to it as "PD" and blender. I think these moves are 2 of the best looking 4 adds, and at the end of the day I was real happy with some of the combos I managed to hit with them. My flipside blender felt unusually strong as well, so I exploited that and got it bsos a bunch. Some highlights:

*legbeater to 6 or 7 contacts of PD-ducking butterfly repeat.
*PD to PS whirl bsos.
*Rev. swirl to weak blender, and then I bsosed the blender in the sealing run. Hadn`t hit that first link in over a year. I think its one of the styliest links I can hit.
*PD-blender-PD. Bsosed the blender in the sealing string, which also had spin clip, ducking butterfly, and ripwalk all bsos.
*PD-blur bsos.
*PD-stepping ss osis-PD, both sides, but not bsos, nor could I get the drill. I`ll try again next time.
*Baaaaarely missed PD-ps whirl repeat a bunch of times. Rolled off my foot kind of deal.
*PD-ripwalk repeat, directly into duck butter-PD. In the seal string I hit PD-duck butter repeat.
*Osis-PD repeat
*PD-blurry whirl-PD. I will try for the repeat next session.
*Ducking torque. Pretty sure it was my first time. Didn`t feel that hard.
*Ducking PDLO.

Another big highlight came halfway through the session. I had been playing on the pier for over an hour, when a cranky looking old man sat nearby and cracked open a beer. He looked like he had been cheated by life for every single one of his 60+ years. Halfway into his beer, he started yelling at me rudely to move, because the vibrations of me jumping around on the wooden deck disturbed him. Through the years, younger, less mature versions of myself would have responded in any of the following ways:

-ignore him and not move.
-pretend I don`t understand Japanese, continue playing.
-pretend I don`t understand Japanese, but look like I`m earnestly trying to understand what he`s saying. Get him frustrated trying to explain to me what he wants to say.
-flip the bird.
- move over 1 or 2 feet, continue to play loudly.
-move away entirely, but leave with a snide comment like: "happy birthday" or "enjoy your beer"
-tell him to drink more and talk less.
-fart in his general direction.
-tell him to try and make me move
-inform him that this is a public park, I was here before him, he can drink his beer anywhere else.

Instead, the September 2005 version of me just packed my stuff up, moved away about 20 feet down the pier, and continued playing. I didn`t give him so much as a glance. I didn`t give him the satisfaction of a reaction, and I didn`t let his negativity affect me in the least, and I proceeded to hit the best parts of my session. I felt really proud of myself, and I think that helped me close out my session so well.

While I was really happy to hit a few new 5 adds and some (imo) stylish links, the best part of the session was just sweating again. I hadn`t sweated playing footbag in at least a week, and that felt weird. When I packed up my lavers at the end of the session, I felt that elated exhaustion that comes with a great session, and I really savored it.

[*Jethro*]

Woooooo 15 days till your in Australia