im having a really hard time with the clipper stall. i can sort of do it with my right foot and ive been getting better so im not concerned about that, but my left foot worries me. im starting to think im incapable of left foot clipper stalls. i cant even balance the bag much less stall it because my left foot always points down when i try to do a clipper. ive tried stretching my left foot and just trying to make it more flexible but i havent had much luck. any suggestions as to how i can fix this problem?
btw im bow-legged so that could be part of the problem.
clipper stall help
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PegLegHolly
- Swashbuckler
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Yuki,
That's exactly right -- each leg has to get used to the motions individually. For example, I have pixie sets pretty much dialed on my right (dominant) foot, but my left foot flings a hideous pixie. I basically just throw the bag away from me when I try it. I've since realized that I need to start with the lower level building block of Around the Worlds on my left foot so that I can get used to disengaging the bag from my foot prior to the dex.
Like Holly said, practice the inside kick (lowest building block for the clipper) and then move to inside stalls in front of your body. They require a good amount of crank and control and will prep your left foot for clippers. School each of those building blocks and the clipper itself over and over -- that's the only way.
Hope it goes well for ya!
That's exactly right -- each leg has to get used to the motions individually. For example, I have pixie sets pretty much dialed on my right (dominant) foot, but my left foot flings a hideous pixie. I basically just throw the bag away from me when I try it. I've since realized that I need to start with the lower level building block of Around the Worlds on my left foot so that I can get used to disengaging the bag from my foot prior to the dex.
Like Holly said, practice the inside kick (lowest building block for the clipper) and then move to inside stalls in front of your body. They require a good amount of crank and control and will prep your left foot for clippers. School each of those building blocks and the clipper itself over and over -- that's the only way.
Hope it goes well for ya!
Mark Bull
when you are sitting in class, try to put the soles of your shoes together and stretch your ankles lightly to get them used to turning in like that. once you do that and they loosen up a bit, use your muscles to hold them in that position, and lift them off the ground still in "cranked" position.
Do not do this hard! Just do it a little to get your ankles used to turning in, and then your muscles will learn to hold it.
Do not do this hard! Just do it a little to get your ankles used to turning in, and then your muscles will learn to hold it.
BRICK!
rfa::never give up::
nyfa
rfa::never give up::
nyfa
if you can do inside stalls bs, you're off to a great start and clippers should come easily.
do you know what a "wrap" is? it's when you carry the bag from inside stall to clipper position. practice wrapping and unwrapping with both inside surfaces. try to copy your form on your good side.
let us know how it goes.
do you know what a "wrap" is? it's when you carry the bag from inside stall to clipper position. practice wrapping and unwrapping with both inside surfaces. try to copy your form on your good side.
let us know how it goes.
BRICK!
rfa::never give up::
nyfa
rfa::never give up::
nyfa
my right clippers are actually coming along really nicely. the left, not so much, but i was able to do a few today, which is an improvement (since i couldnt do any left clippers before today)
is wrapping some sort of trick or is it just something you do for practice? if its just a practice thing i know what ur talking about. ive been told to do it for clipper practice. its pretty hard. the bag usually falls off like halfway through.
btw, thank you all for the great feedback/suggestions
is wrapping some sort of trick or is it just something you do for practice? if its just a practice thing i know what ur talking about. ive been told to do it for clipper practice. its pretty hard. the bag usually falls off like halfway through.
btw, thank you all for the great feedback/suggestions
anything you can use as a practice tool, you can also integrate as a trick.
edit: I wrote this wrong... There's definitely things that you could use as a practice tool that couldn't be used as a footbag trick, like running 10 miles... but any little hacky ball exercises could also make their way into a creative run, that's all I was getting at.
edit: I wrote this wrong... There's definitely things that you could use as a practice tool that couldn't be used as a footbag trick, like running 10 miles... but any little hacky ball exercises could also make their way into a creative run, that's all I was getting at.
Last edited by mc on 04 May 2010 20:08, edited 1 time in total.
BRICK!
rfa::never give up::
nyfa
rfa::never give up::
nyfa
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Fade2black
- Multidex Master
- Posts: 210
- Joined: 02 Dec 2005 22:45
- Location: San Diego, California
- Contact:
When you first start landing the left clipper stall, lightly set (less then a foot)
so that your foot gets some extra practice with the motion (up down up down)
This is of course after following the previous advice as they are all dead on...
Having just learned flipside (non-dominant) clippers, I can tell they all know what they are talking about
so that your foot gets some extra practice with the motion (up down up down)
This is of course after following the previous advice as they are all dead on...
Having just learned flipside (non-dominant) clippers, I can tell they all know what they are talking about
Dale Waldren
Http://www.shredglobal.com
Http://www.facebook.com/pages/Footbag/103405622578
Escondido, California
Http://www.shredglobal.com
Http://www.facebook.com/pages/Footbag/103405622578
Escondido, California
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
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
Looks like Jeremy has you covered there, however i would also recommend watching this vid too
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGNJgqmtt4Y[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGNJgqmtt4Y[/youtube]
Sorry for the double post, but whatevsyuki wrote: is wrapping some sort of trick or is it just something you do for practice? if its just a practice thing i know what ur talking about. ive been told to do it for clipper practice. its pretty hard. the bag usually falls off like halfway through.
I didn't learn wrap until well after I could do clipper delays (when I was first learning footbag I went through the .org list and learnt most of the basic tricks in add value and then alphabetical order, relying for obviously, not being able to learn things like bubba until I could hit clipper. It was like a year and half of playing before I discovered that there wasn't something wrong with me and moves of the same add value were actually harder or easier than each other
Anyway when I did learn wrap I had the same problem that you have. Lots of people advise learning wraps to help with clippers. It probably does help because you get to put your stalling foot into the correct position without having to worry about the stall, but personally I'd advise spending more time just trying to hit clippers. I did learn how to do them sitting at the back of my maths class. When you're sitting down it's easy to get a flat clipper position, and then you just need to slowly work on doing it standing up more and more. A computer chair with an adjustable height would be helpful
. However I'd still probably advise that just trying to hit them is probably the thing to focus on most - do a little bit of wraps and sitting down clipper practice, but you don't need to school those too much to do clippers - they aren't foundations for the move.edit; Really just one more thing. With all stalls the smaller the distance the bag falls to where you catch it the easier. It's more of a tip for toe delays than clippers, but it's something to keep in mind when you're learning any new delay. Less distance equals less need to cushion.
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ThisIsFate
- Multidex Master
- Posts: 306
- Joined: 13 Sep 2005 15:40
Easy, just give me a lot of uni work to do and I'll write heaps on trivial subjects
I think though that for the basic stuff there is a lot more to write than for complicated stuff because there is a lot less knowledge base assumed in the person you're giving tips too. For example if I were writing nemesis tips I'd write a lot less because I'd assume the person can hit furious sets and double downs, so they can already do the important parts of nemesis, they just need to refine (ie. practice) and get the footwork right. I'm pretty analytical though - in the things I do I try to give them a lot of thought and figure out the specific best ways of doing them, even if I sometimes struggle to actually physically pull off what I've thought about. Really the only tips you need in footbag is "practice hard in a diciplined manner, figure out the reason for each drop and watch people who are better than you." If you do that, you should be able to work out most of the rest of it yourself.
I think though that for the basic stuff there is a lot more to write than for complicated stuff because there is a lot less knowledge base assumed in the person you're giving tips too. For example if I were writing nemesis tips I'd write a lot less because I'd assume the person can hit furious sets and double downs, so they can already do the important parts of nemesis, they just need to refine (ie. practice) and get the footwork right. I'm pretty analytical though - in the things I do I try to give them a lot of thought and figure out the specific best ways of doing them, even if I sometimes struggle to actually physically pull off what I've thought about. Really the only tips you need in footbag is "practice hard in a diciplined manner, figure out the reason for each drop and watch people who are better than you." If you do that, you should be able to work out most of the rest of it yourself.
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ThisIsFate
- Multidex Master
- Posts: 306
- Joined: 13 Sep 2005 15:40
? I know there were footbag magazine, how about book?Yeah actually I'd love to write a book about footbag in a kind of gonzo style. When I have the money to travel the world I might do that. It would be targetted at non-footbaggers of course Actually it would be much better to make a documentary film - something along the lines of King of Kong or The Endless Summer, but I don't have the skills to be part of such a project.
Actually it would be much better to make a documentary film - something along the lines of King of Kong or The Endless Summer, but I don't have the skills to be part of such a project.