Fanzine

Keep a diary of what you're hitting, what's frustrating you, and your goals.
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boyle
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Re: Fanzine

Post by boyle » 07 May 2020 14:31

I've done a couple through Zoom and a couple through Facebook messenger, which can support up to 4 people. It seems they're opening up Google Meet to all users. That would be the best for those options - you can record meetings, have huge amounts of people on there. They are opening it up gradually though, so I don't know exactly when it will be available to everyone. I've been thinking of doing something like that too, but there's only so many hours in the day!

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222 Point Shred30 and Online Worlds!

Post by C-Fan » 12 May 2020 09:13

By far the biggest news in the Footbag world has to be this two line bombshell Wiktor dropped:
Wiktor wrote:
05 May 2020 03:58
Real Worlds 2020 have been cancelled.
Online Worlds 2020 will be offered!
Not too surprising that in-person Worlds has been canceled.  I mean, what would the best case scenario of that have even looked like?  Even if a vaccine and reliable antibody tests were developed in the next couple months, how many players would feel comfortable traveling for Worlds?  Even assuming all public health concerns were magically addressed, I bet many players were financially affected by the pandemic and couldn't afford to travel.  But yeah, the best case scenario for an in-person Worlds this year would probably have been like 6 people showing up to a tournament in a town where they already live.  The logistics would have been impossible and the payoff would not have justified it.

Props to the IFPA for looking to do Worlds online.  They could easily have just said "we're canceling Worlds 2020" and nobody would have blamed them at all.  While I pretty much have zero details beyond Wiktor's 2 line message on Modified, I am still excited.  Why?  Well, before his announcement I could very confidently say there was absolutely zero chance I could participate in this year's Worlds.  Now there is some positive chance I can participate.  Without knowing any details, I can't say if there's a 1% chance of me participating or a 99% chance.  But there IS a chance I can participate, which is a huge improvement over NO chance.

I have a lot of thoughts on the pros and cons of how Worlds could be done online, but that could be an entire post or vlog on its own.  A lot of it might also be moot, especially if the planning has already been done and decided.

So what is the immediate impact for me in light of Wiktor's announcement?  In a nutshell, I am going to prepare for Worlds as if I were 100% certain I was participating.  As logistic details emerge it may turn out that I cannot participate, but I would rather be prepared and have to drop out than find out at the last moment I could participate, but not be ready.  So what does preparing mean for me?

1. I'm putting a pause on my Age 40 goals.  Chasing beasts, quad dexes, and ten fearless won't help me prepare for routines or circle.  If anything, they open me up to injury.  I'll still be 40 after Worlds so I can always revisit this project later.  For now though, the only Age 40 goal I will keep working on is the Shred30 one as that helps with stamina and consistency.

2. I modded my new G-Units.  My old G-Units are still in OK shape, but they're showing some signs of wear that could bite me in the butt if they got worse.  If I can break in the new pair in the next couple sessions, I think it hedges my bets against equipment failure closer to competition.

3. I'm ordering new bags from Ivan.  The wildcard here is whether I can get them shipped from Germany to the US yet, but if I can I'm willing to pay extra to get them early.  Training with leaky bags is tough, but competing with leaky bags would be a nightmare.

4. I'm hunting down a routine song and will start work on choreo soon.  Dates for online Worlds haven't been announced (at least as far as I know), so I might have 4 months to prepare or I might have 2 weeks.  Either way, it can't hurt to start on getting a routine together now.

Here's a clip from my last session.  The biggest highlight was the last run, which is my best Shred30 since turning 40:

  

It only scores 222 and could definitely have been better, but the fact remains that it is my best one to date.  With some past clips I've had a drop towards the end and said things like "if you scored the run right up to the drop..." or "if I had handcaught the last trick instead of dropping..." but those phrasings ignore the hard mathematical truth: a drop DID happen.  And a drop is a 0 add contact.  So even though past clips may have had 26 unique tricks, they were really 26 tricks plus a 0 add drop contact.  The run in the latest video is 28 unique tricks but 0 drops, so no hypotheticals needed.  Obviously there is still room for improvement.  I left a good 3 seconds on the clock, my add ratio could be higher, and the 2 BOPs towards the end were panic bails.  I know I can do better, and I will continue to try to get a better Shred30 on tape.    

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Re: Fanzine

Post by Sporatical_Distractions » 15 May 2020 12:21

Welcome to Flavortown

Kevin Crowley

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New Units!

Post by C-Fan » 17 May 2020 13:08

I love how I have my own personalized RickRoll. It's the same surprise/annoyance/laugh as a RickRoll, but slightly better since I know it's just for me. Kinda needed that today.
C-Fan wrote:
12 May 2020 09:13
Without knowing any details, I can't say if there's a 1% chance of me participating or a 99% chance.  But there IS a chance I can participate, which is a huge improvement over NO chance.
Haven't found much info since my last post other than the date: August 1.  Even that is a big deal though, as now I can make decisions regarding equipment and choreo.  Like, if Worlds were happening in 2 weeks I wouldn't risk breaking in my new G-Units and I wouldn't build a routine from scratch.  Now that I know I have 2.5 months until competing, I can plan accordingly.
C-Fan wrote:
12 May 2020 09:13

2. I modded my new G-Units.  If I can break in the new pair in the next couple sessions, I think it hedges my bets against equipment failure closer to competition.
I played a couple days ago, and exclusively used the new black G-Units.  Initially they pinched my feet a bit and felt stiff but over the course of the session they got more comfortable.  Part of that was periodically adjusting the lacing, but I'm also sure part of it was the fabric of the shoe flexing some and breaking in.  Regardless, I was happy to find that by the end of the session they didn't feel any worse than my old pair.

I mostly focused on doing drills as that seemed like the most balanced approach to breaking in the shoes evenly.  Here's highlights of my first session in the new Units:

  
C-Fan wrote:
12 May 2020 09:13
The biggest highlight was ...my best Shred30 since turning 40...It only scores 222 and could definitely have been better,  I left a good 3 seconds on the clock, my add ratio could be higher, and the 2 BOPs towards the end were panic bails.    
Another indication that my new shoes are good is that I already hit a better Shred30.  This one clocked in at 31 contacts, 0 drops, and 30 uniques...so around 240 points.  Again there is still room for improvement (I repeated a 4 add, and I had four 3 adds) but just the fact that I went dropless for the full 30 seconds makes me feel good.  I'm saving the current clip as a placeholder for my Age40 video, but I'm hoping I can top that and get something closer to 250.    

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Re: Fanzine

Post by boyle » 18 May 2020 14:09

There's more info up now and you can register at footbag.online

http://www.footbag.online/player-info/schedule/

Events are

Routines
Shred 30
Sick 3
and a "Shred Off" video contest. So you submit one minute video and it's something between a battle and a circle (I guess).

Register by June 26.

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Re: Fanzine

Post by cammel » 18 May 2020 16:19

Loved the drifter/eggbeater drill at the beginning and the drifter/blender back to back! That last run was awesome. (I need a trick dictionary or something, I've forgotten what everythings called!)

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Worlds Excitement

Post by C-Fan » 21 May 2020 07:28

Hard for me to express how excited I am about Worlds 2020.  I legit feel giddy when I think about it.  Part of that excitement definitely stems from the dizzyingly fast change in my expectations.  Pretty much overnight I went from "absolutely zero chance I can compete at Worlds" to "I am definitely competing."  Its like  a moonless night suddenly bursting to a blazing midday sun.  Just a complete change in my circumstances, expectations, and general outlook on the next couple months.

I'm still digesting the format of the event and trying to gameplan a strategy.  The most valuable information seems to be on this page: https://footbag.online/player-info/rules/

If I'm reading it right, it sounds like some events are a single round and others are multiple rounds.  It also sounds like the way they are guaranteeing people shoot new content for their video submissions is to have them say a codeword at the end of their submission.  That's smart, and I actually had had similar thoughts myself.  I know in freestyle rap battles they often do something like that to ensure people are legit freestyling and not just using pre-written rhymes/disses.  But yeah, for the events that span multiple rounds it appears that you get around 1-2 weeks between rounds to film the next round's submission.  Seems pretty fair.

I plan on competing in all events. Given the varied number of rounds and deadlines, it will be vital to plan my sessions so I have usable entries at the right times.  For example, if the deadline for a Shred Off round isn't until July 10 I should shoot for 2-3 sessions in the 2 weeks before it.  That way if I have a bad session or weather/life makes me miss a session, I won't be left with nothing to submit.  For an event like Shred30 I should be filming and tracking my best attempts all the way up to the deadline and not submit something prematurely.  Like, if I film and submit a 246 tomorrow I'd feel like a moron if I hit a 254 a week from now since you can only submit once.  
Here are my initial thoughts on how I'll approach the various events:

Shred30
This is the event I feel best about right now.  I definitely won't win and I doubt I'll even be top 5, but that's not my goal.  Setting a personal best and just competing are my main motivators for this event.  The reason I feel good about Shred30 is that I've basically been training for it for about a month now and I've had a couple attempts over 240 points.  I also like that it's a single round, so once I've got a good one and submitted it I'll feel done.  I have until July 15 to submit so my short term goal is to film a safety submission in the 240 range in the next couple sessions, and then spend the next couple months chasing a submission closer to 260.  I also like this event because training for Shred30 should also help me with routines (stamina) and Shred Off (dense variety of tricks).

Sick 3
This is a 2 round event, which right off the bat makes strategy more complicated than Shred30.  If it were a single round I'd spend my time just working on the hardest single combo I could.  Since it's 2 rounds though, you'd ideally want 2 different combos.  The first should be hard enough to ensure you get to finals, but not harder than whatever you have planned for finals.  Because even though the finals judges should be judging your combo ONLY against the other finalists' combos, you know they're also subconsciously comparing it to your first round one.  If you hit a beast in the first round to make finals but then in finals your combo was one add less for each trick, that'd look bad by comparison.   I think strategically the best approach would be to try and hit a decent safety Sick 3 in the next 2 weeks, then spend the remaining time until July 5 working on the components for your finals sick 3.  Then from July 5 to July 20 you try and hit your finals combo hoping the component practice from the past month pays off.  If I hit a Sick 3 that was at the 99th percentile of difficulty for me before July 5 I would not submit it, but instead hit a "safety" that's easier and hope I could rehit the harder combo after July 5.  One thing I dislike about this event is that training for it doesn't help you prepare much for other events.  Practicing routines helps your stamina, which helps for Shred30 and Shred Off even if you aren't directly training those events.  Sick 3 training doesn't really carry over to the other events much...maybe dialing in a hard trick or link might help for Shred Off, but not much beyond that.

Routines
This is similar to Sick3 in that it's also 2 rounds.  It therefore carries similar pitfalls and potentially similar strategies.  The pitfall it shares with Sick 3 is that you want your first round to be good enough to guarantee a spot in finals, but also not outshine your finals effort.  Using a different song in finals can avoid that problem but its hard to prep 2 good routines.  The approach I used at Worlds 2017 was to use one song in each round but basically do a watered-down version difficulty wise in the earlier rounds, and then the real deal in finals.  Of course that didn't work out so great for me in 2017... I'm making some headway with song selection, but I haven't even done a runthrough.  I worry about my stamina for routines but maybe if I keep training shred30s and Shred Offs it won't be as bad as I fear.

Shred Off
I'm still not 100% sure I fully understand the rules for this event.  It sounds a bit like circle mixed with battle, but also that it does not need to be shot in a single take?  So if I had 60 seconds I could potentially use 3 clips provided each clip has the codeword at the end of it?  I feel like there's a lot you could do creativity wise if you aren't worried about doing a full single take.  It's also the event with the most rounds, so probably the hardest to strategize for.  It's also kinda the one I care the least about but that's likely just due to lack of familiarity with it.

I may decide to drop out of some of these, but given that you can pre-record entries I feel like I should at least try to get entries for all.  I wonder if they're calculating an overall champion this year.  They were starting to do that in recent years and I thought it was a clever way to encourage more participation across all events.  

I'm also curious about how BAP inductions will work.  Are they going to base that off the entirety of people's video submissions?  Just the Shred Off ones?  Maybe everything except routines?  Something else entirely?

Regardless of how all these events shake out and my own participation and experiences with them, I'm just so happy Worlds is happening.  These questions and plans and strategies are all so much more interesting than if Worlds were straight up canceled, and I was just inventing arbitrary challenges (I turned 40, lets do weird random goals) to keep myself entertained.  I'm excited for my next couple sessions even if I'm just hitting placeholder safety entries, because even those mean I'm participating in Worlds.  I've already done my Registration, but it'll only feel "real" once I have some videos shot and banked away.

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Re: Fanzine

Post by Muffinman » 21 May 2020 16:12

I'm excited that you're excited!
Online Worlds is so bizarre, but also such a great opportunity for players who are too nervous to compete live, or who have terrible consistency. I know you're neither of those, but it stands to reason that there should be a ton of competitors for that reason! I'm more interested in sideline shred, and I hope that happens in some capacity. It also means I should be able to watch live online! This is so great.

Who do you think will be your toughest competition?

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Rough week

Post by C-Fan » 25 May 2020 20:48

Muffinman wrote:
21 May 2020 16:12
Who do you think will be your toughest competition?
While that looks like a straightforward question, I feel like I could answer it a hundred different ways. I could do an entire blog post talking about player ceilings/basements, and how the current format is the best case scenario for players with high ceilings, and how it takes away the advantages of players who have worked hard to develop high basements. I also would love to delve into who I think will be particularly good in the current format in each event.

But right now for me? There's no way I can look at that question and not answer with: my equipment. Maybe more generally with, "my current set of equipment, job stress, and general life circumstances."

Here's a quick recap of the past 7 days for me.

Monday: Woke up to find my dishwasher failed overnight due to a leaky valve. The resultant overflow filled a crawlspace in my basement, and the leaking water also shorted out my furnace. Obviously, no footbag.
Tuesday: After shutting off the dishwasher valve and drying out my furnace, we thankfully got the AC to work. Had a handyman come vacuum out the water in the crawlspace, and set a repair date for Friday. Wanted to play to destress, but gusty winds seemed a bad idea.
Wednesday: Went out to footbag to destress, since work has also been crazy stressful this whole time. It was gusty winds out which kept knocking over my camera and generally made it impossible to hit anything. Icing on the cake was having my right toe box completely rip off. That was my new pair of G-Units, which lasted less than 3 sessions total.
Thursday: Tough work day, but otherwise no disasters.
Friday: Got the dishwasher repaired, then got in a shred in my old white g-units. Was very happy to hit my Sick3 combo for the qualification round, and also a 1-drop Shred30 which is probably in the 230 range. Not my best, but I was so happy to have usable entries in my back pocket at last.
Saturday: Rest day.
Sunday: Non-stop rain the entire day. Rare for Colorado, but also a good reminder that I can't count on being able to play outdoors even if I am theoretically free to play.
Monday: Got to my shred spot and found the entire right sole of my old white g-Unit had come off from the shoe. Wisely did not try to play on it, went home and grabbed my only other right foot g-unit (green). Remembered that it ALSO had the sole come unglued from the shoe, which is why I abandoned it. I currently have 3 pairs of g-units, the left shoe in all 3 is fine and the right shoe in all 3 is unplayable. Unfortunate distribution there.

So to recap, in a 7 day span the weather was unplayable for 3 of those days. I also had 2 shoes fail on me completely within 3 sessions. House problems ate up a decent chunk of the rest of the week, and work stress combined with house stress made it hard to play with a light heart. Bit of a miracle I managed to get 2 usable clips for Worlds. Now, I'm not saying every week leading up to Worlds will be like this one. That said, I can also easily envision scenarios where I struggle to get usable entries due to weather, unreliable equipment, and life in general. The shoes in particular worry me. I don't currently have any promising way to fix the soles problem, so tonight I spent about an hour (badly) stitching the toe box of my black g-units back together. I'm not putting too much hope in that basket though, both due to my poor stitching but also because I think the fabric of that pair of units is just weak. Ever since I got them they smelled a bit musty, like they had been in storage for a decade...probably because they were. It meant I was able to mod and break them in really easily, but also likely contributed to the fabric tearing after 2 sessions. If it did that once already, its likely to happen again. At this stage, I am setting my expectations that they will fail again, but hopefully I can film some usable entries before they do. Or that I can repair them every session, or every few sessions, and somehow tread water like that through the end of Worlds at least.

I haven't talked about my hopes and expectations for Worlds yet, maybe because I don't want to get my hopes up too much with all the uncertainty around my shoes and general ability to film. In a nutshell though, I'd like to submit something I'm proud of for each event. I don't expect to win any events, but if I can make Finals in some and share some good dropless entries then I'll be happy. At this stage all I can do is hope my g-unit repair holds up for a bit and gives me a fighting chance, and if they don't then at least try to control my disappointment. One day at a time.

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Re: Rough week

Post by Tjuggles » 25 May 2020 22:19

Quite the week for you. Glad you made it through.
C-Fan wrote:
25 May 2020 20:48
Icing on the cake was having my right toe box completely rip off. That was my new pair of G-Units, which lasted less than 3 sessions total.
Shit. That must have been such a "ah fuck" moment. Sorry to hear that. How disappointing.
C-Fan wrote:
25 May 2020 20:48
Was very happy to hit my Sick3 combo for the qualification round, and also a 1-drop Shred30 which is probably in the 230 range. Not my best, but I was so happy to have usable entries in my back pocket at last.
That is great news. This actually motivates me to register and get something recorded. I haven't been kicking in prep for a tourney, but it isn't difficult to set up the camera and have a few attempts here and there. Thanks for that push.
C-Fan wrote:
25 May 2020 20:48
Got to my shred spot and found the entire right sole of my old white g-Unit had come off from the shoe.
Wow, that is shit. It is almost comical how they both fell apart in the same way (but actually it is shitty). Do you think it would be possible or worth it to take the new pair to the shop to get repaired?
C-Fan wrote:
25 May 2020 20:48
I currently have 3 pairs of g-units, the left shoe in all 3 is fine and the right shoe in all 3 is unplayable. Unfortunate distribution there.
Too bad you are so good on the dance floor or else you could have just grabbed two of the good ones...
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Re: Fanzine

Post by acxel22 » 26 May 2020 02:45

get the shoes to a repair man, I had 2 pairs repaired for the sole unglue problem, he glued it + sewed it back, seems pretty solid, for like 15-20$
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Re: Fanzine

Post by Muffinman » 26 May 2020 16:36

Yikes. So sorry to hear about your week, Ken!
Mathieu's solution sounds promising! Alternatively I was going to suggest replacing the tongue with some other fabric? It's hard to picture how the toe box broke, but maybe that could work.

Do you have other non-G-Unit shoes you can play in? Not ideal, but maybe more feasible than your current situation.

I hope you can figure it out!

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Re: Fanzine

Post by cammel » 27 May 2020 10:58

Ugh! Really sorry to hear about all that.. Glad you got some good footage though in amongst all the chaos! Hope you get the shoe situation sorted out soon.

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Re: Fanzine

Post by C-Fan » 28 May 2020 14:14

When I saw Mathieu had posted in my blog after my last "woe is me, my shoes are falling apart!" post, I half assumed his post would be:
acxel22 wrote:
26 May 2020 02:45
You're complaining about your fucking shoes?  My achilles fucking exploded before Worlds, bitch! Stop your crying and talk to me when you have a real problem!
And honestly, that would have been kinda justified.  I do feel weird and guilty complaining about my footbag equipment situation considering how many people have died/gotten sick/lost jobs over the past 2 months.  Hell, even in the context of footbag I bet other players may have it worse than me (injury, no access to good playing space, etc.) Overall I am very very fortunate and don't take any of that for granted.  It is still frustrating though that I'm having so much trouble with my equipment, especially this close to Worlds.

 
acxel22 wrote:
26 May 2020 02:45
get the shoes to a repair man, I had 2 pairs repaired for the sole unglue problem, he glued it + sewed it back, seems pretty solid, for like 15-20$
That's a great idea.  I hate the idea of taking unnecessary exposure during these times, but I think I can control the risks enough to justify it.  And honestly, I don't have a lot of other options.  My toe box repair looks decent (I made a point to run stitches through the leather whenever possible), but if that fails then I literally have no other good options.  If I can get the other 2 G-Units' soles repaired then at least I have backups.

Apologies for the lack of videos lately.  Between my Age 40 project and Worlds, I've been stockpiling video and juggling editing projects.  Normally, I edit and upload my footage right after playing and delete it off my phone.  Now though, I'm running out of space on my phone since I have so much on there.  I'm hoping I can free up some space soon once I get a solid Shred30 on tape.  Like, if I get a dropless one in the 250 range I can then delete all my old ones.  I might even just edit the Age40 video early just to get it off my phone and clear up space.  

To break the streak of video-less posts though, here's one from 3 years ago when I was out East for work and met up with Polini and Boatz: 



Man that feels like 4 lifetimes ago.  Speaking of things that feel like a distant past, I checked on my booze streak and realized I'm now past 800 days.  That's pretty nuts.  I don't have any plans to break the streak, though I suppose a good showing at Worlds might merit a glass of scotch.  I need to do a lot of work (and have a little equipment luck) to get there first.

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Re: Fanzine

Post by cammel » 28 May 2020 21:02

Thanks for posting the video, that was sick! Nice beast :). Atomic ducking down double down? Awesome. Spinning ducking torque was awesome too, I really dig how long he delays his clipper stalls. Serious crank :o
What the heck happened at 8:34?? Blurry miraging crossbody toe kick?

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Equipment fun continues...

Post by C-Fan » 30 May 2020 17:35

Ha!  Your guess is as good as mine.  Boatz has a background in freestyle soccer, which gives him a super-unique flow, and also some tricks I've never seen other footbaggers do.  It's part of what makes his style so awesome.  

I got in a session with my self-repaired black G-Units on Wednesday.  I had 2 sets of goals, and came away with mixed results in both.  

Shred/Worlds goals:
1. Hit a better Shred 30 than my previous safety.
2. Hit my target Shred 30, which is in the 250 range.

Equipment goals:
1. Make it through the session without my right foot toe box breaking open.

I spent the whole session just working on Shred30s, and I did a good job about keeping my mental game and giving myself as many attempts as possible.  I'm approaching a lot of my Worlds goals with the grindy mindset of a videogame speedrunner. I admire these runners because they are willing to throw hundreds of attempts at a record because they know eventually the odds will result in their favor.  Like, if you told a normal person they had a 1/1000 chance of achieving something they wouldn't even try for it.  But a speedrunner would hear those odds and think "that means that I can probably get it if I try 1000 times.  Let's go!"  

While I didn't hit my target Shred 30, I did hit a dropless 28 contact one that scores 224.  The reason it clocked in at only 28 contacts was that I went off script towards the end and lost count of contacts.  On one hand that's frustrating since if I had just done like 3 unique BOPs at the end I would have been at 242.  On the other hand, I still achieved my session goal of setting a better score that I can submit.  I had a few other very promising attempts that stayed closer to the script but where I dropped in the last few contacts. While it sucks I didn't bank a run in the 240s, I felt overall encouraged by how strong my attempts were.  It feels like a matter of "when" and not "if" I will hit a run close to my target.  Also, all the Shred 30 practice has to be helping my stamina, so hopefully it will translate into better routine practice once I start working those.

As for my equipment goals, I have good news and I have bad news.  The good news is that my right toe repair held up for the entirety of the session, and I didn't feel like it impacted my playing.  By the end of the session I could tell it was looser than at the start of the session so clearly this won't work long-term.  But it did hold up for at least this session, and I take that as a win.  Now for the bad news.  As I was removing my shoes at the end of the session, I noticed the instep of the left black g-unit looked weird.  I inspected it more closely, and sure enough the sole is coming unglued from the shoe.  Here's a scorecard for you to keep track at home:

:arrow: Black G-Units (used for 4 sessions total now)-Right foot: toe box ripped and weak.-Left foot: sole coming unglued from shoe.
:arrow: White G-Units (15 months old)-Right foot: sole coming unglued from shoe.-Left foot: usable
:arrow: Mis-matched G-Units-Right foot: sole coming unglued from shoe.-Left foot: usable

So yeah, not great.  I've been calling around shoe repair shops, and it seems like a lot of the smaller ones are closed during the pandemic.  Hopefully I can find one that can help me out because otherwise I don't have a lot of options.

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Re: Fanzine

Post by boyle » 31 May 2020 22:47

The equipment stuff is a real downside of footbag. Like if a top skateboarder, even one who maybe was a couple of years out of competing. If he snapped his deck in half, I don't think he would be relying on a carpenter to put the board back together.

Interesting to see the entries so far, there's only 12. Pawel Nowak is probably the highest profile entry so far. http://www.footbag.org/registration/reg ... 1587822289

Bruce Li
Daniel Boyle
Daniel Cadavid
Dante Diotallevi
Ken Somolinos
Mathieu Gauthier
Pawel Nowak
Sergio Garcia
Sergio Hernández Santiago
T.J. Boutorwick
Taku Miura
Wiktor Debski

There's still 3 more weeks, but you would hope to see let's say 10 real genuine finals contenders. At the moment there are only 3 who have been in finals. It would be great to see someone like David Clavens who won't really play much these days but if you can line him up for one session he could bash out a few of these entries. Definitely intriguing to see if it will be the lower number or a higher number on the total.

When you think of people who are putting out footage on a regular basis, those are the main ones who would enter something online.

People like

Taishi Ishida
Matt Kemmer
Mark Monistere
Jim Penske
Lon Smith
Rafal Kaleta
Derek Littlefield
Pete Bowler
Kevin Hogan

and I'm sure there's more that I'm not thinking from the top of my head. I'm sure the registration fee, while small, will probably put some people off too.

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Finally some good news!

Post by C-Fan » 01 Jun 2020 17:52

boyle wrote:
31 May 2020 22:47
The equipment stuff is a real downside of footbag. Like if a top skateboarder,...I don't think he would be relying on a carpenter to put the board back together.
Obviously this has been very much on my mind lately.  It does feel insane to me that I've played for 23 years and at no point could I ever obtain the most basic equipment (shoes and a bag!) easily.  I know that has been a major roadblock to spreading the sport.  The other funny/depressing equipment thought I had during a recent session where all my bags were leaking was: "my equipment is more fragile than toilet paper...and just as hard to get these days!"

Thankfully I finally have some good news to report on the equipment front.  Haley was able to find a shoesmith with good reviews nearby, and within 24 hours of me bringing my shoes in they had repaired all 3 for under $50 total.  He reglued the soles on all 3 as I had requested, but then he also reinforced the stitching on the insteps of 2 of them as well!  Its impossible to know how well/long the fixes will work until I play in them but I am cautiously optimistic.  It's definitely a much better job than anything I would have been able to do on my own.  In other good equipment news, Ivan's bags are now making the journey from Bavaria to Denver.  I can now envision a future where I'm practicing a routine with Ivan bags in sturdy shoes, which is like 75% of the battle right there.
boyle wrote:
31 May 2020 22:47
There's still 3 more weeks, but you would hope to see let's say 10 real genuine finals contenders.  
I'm optimistic we'll end up very close to that; it's still super early in the registration process.  There are also logistical reasons why people don't (feel the) need to register until the last minute.  For an in-person tournament you need to do so much planning and preparation that it is rare to see last-minute entries.  If you had to go through the cost and effort to book hotels, book flights, ask for time off from work, etc. then you'll almost certainly book your tournament registration early too.  This year you don't have to do ANY of that so you could be planning on competing and even filming submissions already, and still register with 10 minutes to go before the deadline.  I certainly think its possible some top players may not compete due to logistical hurdles like consistent access to playing spaces or even illness.  But I expect the vast majority are like me, where they are just thrilled Worlds is an option and that it is as cheap and flexible as it ever has been. I also think some of my optimism stems from seeing top players shredding super hard at locations that looks like their driveways/back patios, like Penske and Simku.  Why WOULDN'T they enter?

  

I've been going to the Worlds website almost daily so I've noticed they've been updating rules and details here and there.  It's very much appreciated for sure.

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Re: Finally some good news!

Post by Tjuggles » 02 Jun 2020 00:04

C-Fan wrote:
01 Jun 2020 17:52
...within 24 hours of me bringing my shoes in they had repaired all 3 for under $50 total...In other good equipment news, Ivan's bags are now making the journey from Bavaria to Denver. 

That is great to hear. Happy to hear some good things happening for you.
TJ Boutorwick

"You can do anything" -Greg Nelson

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Snapshot of Worlds Submissions

Post by C-Fan » 02 Jun 2020 21:25

Agreed, I think it's important to celebrate whatever small wins we can these days.  

On that note, I'm happy to report my first session in my repaired G-Units went very well.  Similar to my last session, I went into it with shred goals and equipment goals.  The equipment goal was basically to come out of the session without any of the existing problems re-emerging (i.e. sole coming unglued again) as well as no new problems manifesting.  I am very, VERY happy to report that I met this goal.  
My shred goals were the same as last session.  Basically, focus on Shred 30 and try to do 2 things:

1. Hit my target Shred30 dropless, ending up in the 250 range. Failing that, my secondary goal is:
2. Hit a Shred30 that scores more than my previous best score, which was a dropless 224.

I ended up hitting my second goal, which was tantalizingly close to the first goal.  I actually went into the final second of the Shred30 dropless and had to make a tough decision on the fly.  Going into the final second of the run I knew I was dropless and that everything had been unique so far.  While I wasn't doing math in my head or anything, I knew if I threw a paradox blender as the final trick I'd be pretty darn close to my target goal.  I also knew that if I dropped the paradox blender, that'd bring down my score compared to just hand catching it.  That meant I had 3 potential outcomes:

1. Best outcome: try for paradox blender as the 31st trick and hit it.  Doing the math after the fact, that would have scored 250 points on the nose.
2. Safest outcome: handcatch after trick #30.  That ensures zero drops and a new personal best score I can bank for now.  Scores a 240 but leaves potential points on the table.
3. Worst outcome: try for paradox blender as the 31st trick and miss it.  Brings down the add ratio, taking the score lower than if I handcatch it.  Ends up scoring a 236.  

Really, the 4th option would have been to throw a unique BOP as the final contact, as that would have netted me 6 more points and taken it to 246.  That didn't occur to me in the moment so I opted for option #2.  Running the numbers now, I probably should have tried for the paradox blender.  The risk/reward on it would be -4 points for a miss versus +10 points for a hit, which are odds you should take.  I think the flaw in my logic was thinking a drop on the final trick would score lower than my previously banked high of 224, which I can now see was not true.  In any case, I was happy to get the run I did on film.  Beyond giving me a safer/higher banked score than what I had before, it was also well executed and completely in frame in good light.  If for whatever reason (time, equipment, etc.) I can't film a better submission in the next 6 weeks, I'll feel OK submitting this 240 run.  That said, I'd like to revisit my Shred30 and try and improve it before then.  

So taking a snapshot of where I'm at with my current Worlds video submissions:

:arrow: Shred30- Have a run of 240 banked.  Will try to improve on it later, but maybe only after I've banked a good routine for the first round.

:arrow: Sick 3- Have a decent beast banked.  I'd like to do something better for Finals, but not spending any time on this event until I make it to Finals.  In theory it would be smart to work on some links now so I'm more prepared once Finals starts.  That said, I don't care too much about this event and would rather spend my time now working on routines.

:arrow: Shred Off- If I'm reading the rules correctly, the first round is just used for seeding and there are no cuts.  That means I have no incentive to spend any time or effort on the first round.  Strategically, it might even make sense for me to sandbag so I get seeded lower than I should be, and cause headaches in the second round.  In practice though, I'm just tagging whatever runs feel somewhat varied and in the 30 second range.  When we get closer to the deadline I'll pick the best 2 and throw it in a video.  It really feels like this event doesn't actually start in any meaningful way for another month.

:arrow: Routines- Given that this is the event I care the most about, it's a bit weird that I'm also in the worst shape for it.  I have safety submissions for all the other events shot and banked already but I haven't even chosen a song for this one. Hell, I'm not even sure how I'm going to play music and film at the same time.  Now that I have safetys for the other events, there's no excuse to not start working on this one.  Hopefully all the Shred30 and Shred Off practice have helped my stamina some, so maybe there was some advantage in working on those first.  I anticipate I will take a similar approach to this event as I did to Shred30, where I bank a couple easier dropless runthroughs as benchmarks before really pushing hard for a perfect routine.

Here's a short vid I threw together with some runs I considered for ShredOff, before filming better entries.

  

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