Clipper

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janis
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Post by janis » 14 Nov 2008 21:43

After looking at some old videos and seeing exactly how I damaged my knee over a long period of time I feel compelled to post in this thread.

Make sure that you don't sink with your knees to get clippers. This will lead to really bad knee problems further down the track. The flatness of your clipper should come mostly from your ankle flex. If after a while of practising you don't have enough ankle flex to do it without bending your supporting leg a lot then stretch your ankles and perhaps get g-units or other similar shoes that make clippers easier.

Make sure that you focus on always improving your clipper form otherwise it will be harder to progress.

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Jeremy
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Post by Jeremy » 16 Nov 2008 17:31

I completely disagree. Bending your knees doesn't necessarily create knee problems and is crucial to hitting solid clippers. Even people with really flexible ankles like Vasek still bend their knees when hitting clipper stuff. I would argue that it's trying to hit moves that are far more difficult than the moves you can consistently hit - such as trying to hit toe flurry before you can hit a solid DLO is far worse for your knees, and the cause of your knee problems Janis - not bending your knees to hit clippers.

janis
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Post by janis » 19 Nov 2008 21:16

Jeremy wrote:I completely disagree. Bending your knees doesn't necessarily create knee problems and is crucial to hitting solid clippers.
I should clarify to say excessively bending your knees to hit clippers. There is a healthy amount of bend that is necessary to hit a clipper well, but when you go too far (ie like I used to) it becomes a problem.

Oh and stuff like toe flurry didn't hurt my knees at all whereas the clipper stuff definitely did.

Besides I could give half a shit less what you think of my game now that I have quit footbag.

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Jeremy
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Post by Jeremy » 20 Nov 2008 01:00

Sure, here's a tip for everybody about everything. Don't do things excessively. It can never be good.

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Post by Slowsis » 20 Nov 2008 14:11

#1 clipper tip!!

Don't quit footbag. That makes you're likely-hood of hitting good clippers 0%.
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consecutive clippers

Post by italianfootbager » 22 Jan 2009 05:11

hi how is everibody i wanted to know a tip on how to do consecutive clipper stall
i got the deelay motion good and cranck is ok its just that i cant get more than one
grazie mille
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Post by HippieTom » 22 Jan 2009 14:13

Tom Stouffer

CL: fairy, pixie, consistency, swirls, whirls, and bops(consistency)

the_8_bit_kid
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Post by the_8_bit_kid » 04 Jun 2009 13:28

Hey guys. Im starting to hit clipper pretty consistantly on both sides now. Im a bit better with my right foot but im working to sort this out. Ive been told that my form is pretty good, but im having real trouble setting out of them. I dont seem to be able to set it straight back up. Instead i just flick it back across my body making it almost impossible to doing anything out of! Im setting my bag by flicking my foot back up after ive sunk into the stall. Ive tried setting using my support leg instead but i dont seem to be able to get any power what so ever into the set, so it just pops up about an inch! Any advice? Its driving me mad!
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Post by Frank_Sinatra » 05 Jun 2009 08:16

It'll be tough to set it straight & high by flicking your foot. It takes a combination of a couple different movements to efficiently set the bag straight & high -

- hopping off of the support leg
- raising your clippering foot with your knee

The hop should be part of your footwork on clippers - check out that David Clavens tutorial for a really good breakdown on the footwork. Notice in the very beginning of the video, how his clipper foot/ankle stays in the same position (inside surface pointing up at the same angle, not closer in towards his body to set), and that his entire lower leg is acting as a lever to launch the bag.

Clippers are weird for everyone at first, but they become like second nature with practice.

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Post by the_8_bit_kid » 05 Jun 2009 11:13

Thanks dude, thats helped alot! Don't know why I'd not tried using my support leg more like a spring! I generally need a bit more bounce in my game all round, I tend to be a bit flat and rushed!
Nick Sullivan
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maverick-morley
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Post by maverick-morley » 09 Jul 2009 12:12

hi i have a qs, im new to the sport, i was just wondering, is it unusal to have one for to be faaaaaaaaaar better at the clipper than your other foot. my left foot i can land occ, but my right is miles off, rong angle, place behind my leg, the works. is this common, and what can i do? any drills?
Mav

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Post by PoisonTaffy » 09 Jul 2009 13:41

It's not unusual, but it would be pretty rare if you are so untalented with your weaker foot that you'll never get clipper right on it, unless you have a known physical limitation from getting a good enough crank. So yeah, getting a good clipper on your untalented leg is hard, but almost always achievable. Drill drill drill, you'll get there, guaranteed.
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maverick-morley
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Post by maverick-morley » 09 Jul 2009 23:27

thats the odd thing because it is my dominant foot that i cant do a clipper with. i was thinking about it, could it be bad balance or sumin because im on my weaker foot???

i duno, i been doing wrap arounds alot, still same prob of it dropping off on my right, but hopefully this will get me used to the postion.

duno if you agree!!!!!!!!!

any suggestions?!?!?!?!
Mav

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Pkqcpat
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Post by Pkqcpat » 19 Aug 2009 11:43

man just practice everyday until you got it... I think everything has been said about clipper on this topic.
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thedudeman
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having problems with correct clipper delay

Post by thedudeman » 05 Mar 2010 19:27

so currently im working on left and right clippers, and im having difficulty
i can delay and throw em back up ok-ish
but 1
i throw the bag, and then get into the position a bit before the bags gunna hit my foot, stall for a split second and throw back up, and i was told by steve goldberg to catch it at the same time you get into the position
and 2, im having difficulty with lifting the bag high enough after clipper to switch to left clipper position

any recommendations? (i have good crank)

[merged into clipper topic - Frank_]


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WyrmFyre
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Post by WyrmFyre » 06 Mar 2010 02:49

David clavens has a fantastic vid on you tube you should check out that helped me no end. I can't link it at the mo i'm on an iPod.

Best advice? Keep trying, celebrate the good clippers and move on from the bad ones. Practice, practice, practice and you'll get there!
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Eric Chang
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Post by Eric Chang » 15 Mar 2010 18:03

Remind me at Stanford, and we'll get to work on fixing this.
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thedudeman
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Post by thedudeman » 15 Mar 2010 20:39

Eric Chang wrote:Remind me at Stanford, and we'll get to work on fixing this.
es no problemo anymore mon, i got them down a bit better, got the correct angle and dip/ timing most of the time and can even do them from left toe stalls now when im having a good day, so im happy with them, mostly concerned with mastering all the tricks i know right now both sides so i can begin to shred
im connor payne

yall already know it's stanford homie

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Donovon
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Post by Donovon » 26 May 2010 08:16

Jeremy wrote:If you can do insides stalls ok then the problem isn't flexibility. Indeed inside stalls take more flexibility than clipper stalls. It sounds like the problem is body position. If you're having trouble getting a flat surface then it will help to bend your support knee more, have your stalling foot higher off the ground and further out from your support knee. If you bend your knee to the point where you're starting lose balance backwards, and then put your hands forward in front of you, hopefully you should be easily able to get a flat clipper position.

Once you can get a flat surface and do clipper stalls you want to slowly start working on bringing your stalling foot lower to the ground, further forward and with less bend in your support knee. However you don't want to try to push these to extremes - a perfect clipper shouldn't touch the ground and the leg shouldn't touch the support foot, so avoid these. With a perfect clipper you also still want some bend in the support leg, just not so much that you have to use your hands for balance. It should feel relaxed and easy.

If you follow the advice I've given, it's possible to do clipper stalls without any kind of ankle flex at all, but the more you can flex the better you can get into a good position. One of the really good tips about ankle flex I was give is to curl your toes up like you're trying to grab something with soles of your feet, and at the same time pull your toes up. For most people, the more you play the more crank you gain so it'll get easier and you'll be able to change your form as it does.

Typically in my opinion, although I don't know if there is consensus about this, the lower you do a clipper stall the better, because it gives you more time to get in position and a greater distance to set, making the part of your legs above the bag greater and giving you bigger windows, but as I said before, you want to avoid hitting the ground. Really tight clipper stalls that are very close to the support foot, with the support leg fairly straight (but not too straight) are also better in my opinion because they minimise the movements to get into position and they keep the bag closer to being under you. For a lot of moves it's helpful if you can have your head, the bag and your stalling foot all in a line, and this is easiest if your clipper stalls are close to the support leg. This is helps in setting the bag straight up, and for moves that involve components on the far side to the clipper stall there is less distance to move.

The other thing that should really always be said in clipper tips is the magic hop. As you come in to stall a clipper you should do a little hop into position, and it's this hop that does most of the cushioning for the stall, rather than lowering the stalling foot with the bag. If you watch good players, especially Vasek, hit very difficult moves, the clipper foot gets into position very early and then doesn't really move at all - the whole cushioning of the bag occurs with the magic hop and with bending the support knee. This is particularly noticeable with hard moves that finish with downtime components with the support leg - whirls, double downs etc. With downtime components that end on the leg doing the dexing, the nature of the move means you usually have to be bringing that leg down with the bag, so you can do some of the cushioning with it - but most of the time you still want to be magic hopping and bending the support knee as well.

The other thing worth considering is that the less distance you can use in raising your foot to set the bag up in the air the better, especially with moves that involve either a dex with the setting foot or any kind of uptime dex. The quicker and sharper you can set the bag up the more time you give yourself, and with some of the more technical dexes the smallest amounts of time still make massive differences. The person who's best to watch at this is probably Phil Morrison, who makes a lot of hard moves look really easy because of his sets. Remember that you can set the bag up using a combination of lifting the clipper stalling foot but also straightening or jumping off the support leg. For lots of clip>same dex moves, setting mainly by doing a small hop sideways ("towards" the bag) is really helpful because it puts the bag almost immediately into position where you want it to be.

You also want to get the footwork right out of the set. There are basically two things you'll want to do with the setting clipper foot - either put it on the ground as quickly as you can or lift it and up and bend the knee as quickly as you can. Even with slow moves like a far butterfly you want to get into position as early as you can because this is a good habit to get in to. One of Vasek's many strengths that makes his moves so easy is that he gets into position so early. You watch him hit a move like ducking PS whirl and he's pretty much completely in position for the downtime part of the move before the bag has got over his neck.

Finally, as other people have said; practice!! Practice is the only real secret to footbag. Especially when you're starting, most people just don't have the muscle memory, and even if you know exactly what you should be doing for a move, you just can't make yourself do it. The more you practice the more control you gain and the easier everything becomes.

Good luck :)

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