Tales from the net court

[mohkale]

Summer is coming. Though it’s –21 Celsius (-6F) right now, you can tell the spring is out there, somewhere.

It's not coming. It's snowing right now. Normally we'd play outside from the middle of april, but now we're lucky to play outdoors in the beginning of May.

We were in Helsinki playing last weekend. I played quite well on Saturday, hit a few nice spikes and digged some even nicer spikes. Sunday wasn't my day, I was useless on the court.

Jukka took me to this great wok restaurant after saturday session, it was as good as he told me it'd be. It was no Subway, but still really good.

I'm almost never sick, but now I've got fever, and a sore throat. I just hope I get better before going to Prague. I hope the floods don't ruin our trip. Well, they wont, because there're plenty of tavernas to sit in up the hills too.

I'm a little envious to my sister who went to Barcelona to work for 2 months without a job! She's the kind of person who dares to do stuff like that. She didn't actually get a job there, so she left to Mallorca, where she found a job. She's a waitress, so she'll probably have to serve some drunken Finnish hicks who want to drink Lapin Kulta and eat meat balls and smashed potatos all the time. Mallorca is among the most popular tourist resorts for Finns to act stupid in.

Less than two months until Euros. I really need to step my game up, BIG time. Otherwise it's no use for me to go there.

I phoned about the stevedoring job, and the person I was talking to kind of gave me the idea that I'll get the job. He said there'll only be 2-3 days work a week, which is perfect. I don't want to get my hopes too up, but I feel confident about it.

[mohkale]

Summer is finally here. We started playing outdoors this tuesday, I think. I already miss playing indoors just a little bit. Sudden wind is making contacts unsolid. But still, I learnt a new spike, yey! Actually I've already used it on my strong side for a while, but now I believe I got it figured out on the flipside as well. It's toe reverse, if anybody cares or knows WTF it means.

As I mentioned I'm going to both Euros and Worlds. I also booked accommodation this week for Worlds, but crashing in Euros is still in the air.

It's Vappu (1st of May) tomorrow and like before every holiday, we Finns tend to get drunk. I'm working on it. Me and Saara have our house warming party today

I had my 1st thesis seminar on wednesday. It went, well, fast I also found an opponent for myself.

Oh yeah, Prague was great. Cheap beer, good food, pretty places. we went to see this church made of bones. It was outside of Prague. So we took a train. First we jumped on a wrong train. Then we jumped out only to find that the train we were supposed to take was already moving. So we made a movie-esque jump on board We knew the stop we were supposed to leave the train. The only problem was, the train never got there. So we found ourselves in some city called Pardubice or something like that. There we found out we were supposed to switch trains 40 minutes before. So we had to buy new tickets to get back where we had to change trains. There was some cheap wine sold in carton boxes on the station. So the waiting was no problem for us.

We also went to see the opera in Prague Opera House. We were a little tipsy when we got there. None of us really liked it. We all fell asleep atleast once during the first half. We left at intermission

I saw a car there that I wanted to buy. Then I remembered that Sterling only allows 15 kg's of luggage Here's a photo of it

No I'm gonna have to excuse myself. I got some getting crunk to do.

Later.

[mohkale]

My footbag schedule 2006:

May 19-20 - JFK Net Battle
June 2-4 - Euros
June 17-18 - Swedish Open
July 1-2 - Turku Open
July 16-22 - Worlds
Early fall - Finnish Open

We've practised quite a bit during the last month and I feel good about my game. Spikes are still a little rusty, but I'm confident I'll get my shit together once the doubles begin on Saturday.

[mohkale]

I'm back from Jyväskylä. It was a fun trip.

On friday we played singles. In pool I played against Otso Konttinen, Tuukka Antikainen and Iisak Liukko. I won all three and my pool. In quarter-finals I played against Sakarias Liukko, and I won him too. In semi-finals I played against Jani Markkanen. I've played against him a few times, and I've won him at least once or twice. I got to a good 10-3 lead and was already thinking about the 2nd game. I lost 12-10 The second game was a formality, though Jani only won me by 4 or 5 points. Jani ended up winning the final as well. I played for turd place against Aleksi Öhman, who made his comeback after some injuries. I won him in three games.

On saturday we had to play the doubles indoors since it was raining. We only had 2 courts, so we had some long pauses between matches. Me and Oskari won our pool. In semi-finals we played against Tapio and Jani. It was their 1st time playing together in a tournament. We won them in 2 games. We played quite well in the match. Then in final we faced Aleksi and Jaakko Inkinen. We only played quite well, which probably would've been enough for almost any other Finnish team. It's not enough when one of your opponents is the best player in Finland and the other was playing the best I've ever seen him play. We had a safe 10-5 lead in the first game, but they fought. And they fought well. We lost 12-10 It really pisses me off, because that should never happen. You have to be able to take that one point that will win you the game, no matter what. In the second game it was our turn to shut them down when they were leading 10-8. We won them 12-10. In the third game they won 11-8, after we had denied them on 5 match balls. They were better, there's no denying that.

I was really upset, because like I said to Jaakko, I play to win. I don't mean to sound arrogant with that statement. I guess the fierce competitiveness is my nature. The upside is that we played well, just not well enough to win. My digs were good, as were my serves. But my sets were off and spikes were too soft; not to mention my nerves. Against such a solid player like Jaakko, you have to really kill the bag everytime you spike, otherwise he'll dig them like nothing. Even though Jaakko was playing so amazingly, I was most impressed with Aleksi's game. He took a lot of time off net to recover from an operation, but IMO he was playing much better than before his operation.

[DoctorJay]

Congrats Champ

[mohkale]

Thanks Doc.

[mohkale]

Wow, so much to write about and so little time. Who am I kidding, I got another 5 hours before the next practise. So just lean back and enjoy the poor grammar.

June 1-5, I was in Lausanne for Euros. As some of you may already know, I won in singles and was the runner-up in doubles with Osku. All cockiness aside, I kind of expected us to do really well in doubles. But the fact that I won in singles, that was something else. Surely I had had wet dreams about it, but they rarely meet the reality. I was a huge underdog in at least two of my matches, against Flo Goetze and Andy Wolff. And I lost the first game against both. But somehow I found a new place inside myself for the next two games in both matches. That’s a place I want to visit more often, I wasn’t nervous at all. I was really confident and knew I can win, if I just stay calm. Andy even had two match balls in the second game, but I fought my way back from them.

In doubles we played okay in most of our matches and really well in some. But it wasn’t enough against Flo and Andy Ronald. The doubles final went to three games as well. The third game was a formality, though. We played like we had the first two games, but they lifted their game to a whole another level. We did everything we could, but they just were too much better than us.

It was the first time for me when I made it out of my pool in singles or doubles in Euros. It was also the first time I got to a singles final in any tournament. Needless to say, I was ecstatic.

The Swiss organizers lacked experience in how to host a net tournament. They probably did the best they could, though. They just didn’t know what they should do. I was disappointed they didn’t ask for help. A lot of stuff, like the free food and the venues, was done really well so overall, it was a very positive experience.

After Euros, my next stop was Stockholm. I partnered there with Timo Vorne from Jyväskylä. It was the first ever Swedish tournament. The Hellberg brothers, who organized it, did a splendid job. In singles I played only against other Finns Having a good seed, it was relatively easy to get to the semis. In semis I played against Jaakko Inkinen. I was a bit nervous before the match, because I had lost the last two matches against him. It went to three games, but I won after all. In the final I played against Jani Markkanen, who seems to become some sort of an obstacle for me at the moment. I started super-strongly and took the first game. I also had a huge lead in the second, but then all of a sudden he started winning all the long rallies. And as my confident level sank, his rose. He won. So you can address all the pressure towards Worlds to him now In doubles me and Timo played okay together in the pool matches. Before the matches we did some power-kicking, and let me tell you, those were some of the longest and best-controlled rallies I’ve ever been privileged to be a part of. And it was the first time we played together. As we moved closer to the final, we improved constantly. In the final we played against Jani and Jaakko. Surprising almost everybody, we won the first game 15-13. They took the second easily. The third game was 13-all for a few rallies. It was anybody’s game, really. I’m rarely guilty of contact fouls, but in the match point for them, I did one. They won. Timo played better than I’ve ever seen him play. In fact, I think everyone in the final played really well.

I’ve also started going to the gym again. It’s the same story every summer. I quit gym when it’s warm enough to play net outside. Outdoor net is just way too much more fun than sweaty gyms. But now I’ve got a partner to lift weights with. He’s a really fit and strong guy, so I have to bust my balls in the gym every time. But that’s a good thing. And the gym is good (enough), really close and extremely cheap.

Next weekend, it’s Turku Open. Then Worlds. After that, who knows. I heard rumours there’s going to be at least one more tournament in Finland this year besides the Finnish Open...

[mohkale]

So, Turku Open went down. In singles, I won my pool easylishly. Then in semis I played against Tuomas Kärki, a legend I had never won. I did win him then. The final was against Oskari, who is the Finnish Champ. He won me in two games, if I’m correct. Could’ve been three games, not sure. Doesn’t matter. Second in singles is my best ever achievement in a Finnish competition, so not too shabby.

Now, since I played with Tapio in Worlds, we decided to play at least one tourney together before Frankfurt. We got second in our pool. In pool we lost to Jukka and Tuomas, who ended up winning the title. In semis, we played an epic 3-game match against Oskari and Jani. We had them by the balls in the third game. But I guess those sneaky sons-of-bitches took a timeout to put some kind of lotion to each others’ nuts, so our grip slipped and they took the semi match. In the bronze match me and one very depressed Tapio won Timo and Jani from Jyväskylä.

After that, we had about two weeks to train for Worlds. I have no recollection of how that went but it couldn’t have been too bad because I played quite okay in Worlds.

We got to Frankfurt on Saturday, the 15th. We were pleased to find out the city seemed nice and that our hostel was actually as close to the Haubtbahnhof (sp?) as their website promised. Later that day we went to the main event site. It was supposed to be simple with just one tram. We got to the tram, only to get thrown out of it after just two stops. We hadn’t had a change to buy the cards for it and the inspectors caught us. Luckily, they let us go with a warning. So, we walked. And, we walked. After that, we walked some more. Finally, we got to the huge park, where the site was supposed to be. It wasn’t. Instead, it was a graveyard. We walked there for about an hour trying to find the fucking place. We gave Jani like 3 or 4 calls asking for directions. After a long search, we got there. It turned out we had been in a wrong park…

On Sunday I played singles pools. I was seeded 8th, which I thought was fair. Therefore, my pool wasn’t too hard. I had 3 other European players in it, and I knew only one of them beforehand, Grischa from France. I won against him. The second match was against a Swiss guy, who never showed up. Somebody told me: “You know him, he’s the guy who’s high all the time”. So, him not showing up wasn’t that big of a surprise. The last match was against this tall Slovenian guy. I’m quite sure I had never met him before. He played really well. I was in serious trouble against him. He was able to set himself all the time and he was placing the bag wherever he wanted. After all, I did win, and now I know his name as well. He’s Ales Pelko. He’s the player who’s high level of play surprised me the most at Worlds. After winning the pool, I had two more matches that day. The first was easier but the second one was far from it. It was against the high and mighty Florian Götze. I had a 2-0 history against him, but we both knew that had nothing to do with this match. I’d say it was a somewhat anticipated match-up, because people were telling me all the time they’re looking forward for the match. We traded games but I was stronger (read: more lucky) in the third. I was in the top-8 for the first time ever in Worlds! Tapio rolled his ankle playing against Chris Löwe. I was worried, not only because he was my partner, but because I wanted him to beat Chris. After an injury timeout, he was able to continue the match, but he wasn’t nearly as mobile as he normally is.

On Monday, we played the doubles pools. We lost to Bruce Guettich and Peter Shunny, who are extremely solid. We won the other two matches So, we were second in our pool. Then we had to face Jani and Jaakko in the round of 16. Neither team played well, but they played a bit better and won. I wasn’t all that disappointed, but it seemed that Tapio took the loss hard. In the consolation rounds, we beat a few teams and lost the last match. We were 10th, which was kind of my goal. Not that I wanted to be one half of the 10th best team, but to make it to the top-10.
In singles, I played the quarterfinal against none other than Emmanuel Bouchard. Manu was still “only” tied with Kenny Shults with the most Worlds singles titles, at eight titles each. I feel like I made him run in the beginning of the first game. It was 6-6 for a while. Then he put on his second gear while I was already on my fifth. 11-6, 11-3. I played a few consolation matches and was 6th or 7th. I’m not even sure anymore how it went. I thought I was 7th, but the official results show I was 6th. I’m happy either way.

After that, it was time to get introduced to some cheap wines and beers. I got very familiar with them over the rest of the week. What a great week it was, once again. I’m going to do everything in my power to make it to Orlando next year.

After Worlds it’s mostly been different parties and cabin weekends, working a little bit and feeling guilty for not having done my thesis all summer. I’m supposed to have a seminar in 4 weeks where I demonstrate the work I’ve done. That’s going to be so postponed

Today I’m going water-skiing for the first time this summer. After that, me and Saara are going to go away for a few days to Luvia, where my parents have their summer cabin. Next Thursday we’re taking the Ferry to Stockholm and go visit our good Friends, Kaisa and Robot. We’ve done the trip once a summer for the past two years. Both times have been so relaxing, and we’re hoping the same this time. Just a weekend trip, we’ll be back on Monday night.

One (or two) more competition(s) left for this season. Finnish Footbag Open in December and hopefully a small get-together type of tourney before that.

That’s all I guess.


Not quite. I just remembered this. I had my worst Subway experience in Frankfurt. It was the last day for us in there. Me and Tapio were hung-over and were doing some shopping to kill the time. We found this Subway joint, and went in. There were no seats. Not just that there were no seats available. There were no seats. What are we, animals. I took Tapio’s advice and ordered the meatball sub. The guy who made it, made it all wrong. If I knew any German, I would’ve told him that’s not how you do it, alder! He sliced the whole bread in half. You’re only supposed to cut the other edge. If you cut the whole bread, it’s going to leak more. I asked for Southwest sauce, but he put something else in it. Then we went outside to eat. “Fuck it, I’m not going to stand while I eat”, I said to Tapio. We went to this big coffee house that had like 40 tables outdoors. All free. We took the one in the far corner, so we wouldn’t bother the clientele of the coffee house. How could we have bothered them, there was nobody there. Before I had a chance to take a bite of my wrongfully made sub, a waiter told us to leave. “Fine, we’ll leave”, I said being totally pissed off and ready to cry. The fact I knew I was about to taste Southwest sauce in my mouth, was the only thing that kept me from weeping like a baby. Little did I know, the fuck in the Subway had put some other sauce in it. Then we had no choice but to go to the high tables in front of the Subway. Yes, the ones that had no chairs in front of them. We went there and I started calming down. But, just for a moment. All of a sudden, all the wasps in Germany are interested in my sub. I bet it was the smell of the wrong sauce that lured those flying satans there. It was impossible to eat with the wasps on my head and on my sub. Then I did something that can only be described as a foul play. I swung the wasps with my hand. Not the free hand, but the hand in which I had the weakly structured meatball sub with the wrong sauce. Two of the eight meatballs and slices of tomato and jalapeno fell on the ground. The last time I was this pissed off was back in…no wait, this was the most pissed off I have ever been. Forced to leave the tables with no chairs, we started walking away with my poorly made sub with the wrong sauce and two meatballs lacking from it. Then we went to a U-Bahn tunnel to eat what was left from my sub. When I finally bit the meatballs, it turned out they didn’t taste that good in the first place. Like Seppo Räty said, Saksa on paska maa.

[mohkale]

As I've mentioned, I work as a stevedore. My clothes get really oily and filthy at work. Yesterday, as I got home from work, I figured I'll wash them. Now, we don't have a washing machine at home, so I used the one in our building. The thing is, you have to put your name on a list and the company managing the building charges you 2€ for a 6-hour shift of washing time. I didn't want to pay 2€ for just jeans and a T-shirt, so I didn't put my name on the list. And, you're not supposed to use the machine after 9 pm. So, I put them in the machine at 11 pm.

I went to pick them up a little after midnight. What do you know, they were gone. First I was like, somebody stole my oily clothes, what the fuck?!? Then, I realised it was probably someone who walked by the washing room and heard the machine on at night with no name on the list.

Today, Saara saw this note on the lobby of our building. It said: "ATTENTION! Somebody has been washing clothes last night without a name on the list. If you want your clothes back, call the president of the building's government. Let this be a reminder to everybody, put your name on the list!"

I called that cunt. I set my phone so that she couldn't see my number. I didn't introduce myself, so she didn't find out my name. I told her I had no choice but to wash them at night because I got out of work at 11 pm and went to work again this morning at 6 am, and that I had to wash them. Actually I got home from work yesterday at 3 pm and didn't go to work today at all. Then I said I didn't put my name on the list, because there was no shift at 11 pm. And that I was really sorry. She bought it. She told me I could get the clothes from her apartment.

I went there looking like a crying puppy. She just gave me the clothes right away and told me to always put my name on the list. We'll see. She had even dried the clothes on her balcony.


I was afraid it was going to turn into something major, like they were going to use me as an example of what happens when you try to pull a stunt like that. Maybe I've been watching too much tv.

[Senor Grommet]

Let's see some clips of you playing net. How did you do at worlds this year?

[RunAmuk]

sweeeeet another net player. i had no idea i have a new blog to read on now. i love your signature.
hehe
YEEEEEEEEEEaaahh
,.real gagsta ass mugs dont freestyle,
cus real gagsta ass mugs play net!

[mohkale]

It's been a while.

Do to (popular) demand, I'm back.

So much has happened. And I don't mean it like people usually say after a long time of not writing. There have actually been real things happening in my life that are worth mentioning, not just hitting a stupid clownface or poopoo platter or what ever the tricks are called.

If you're a newbie who's reading all the footblogs just because it's footbag, stop reading now. There's going to be some serious dissing of the rainbow-coloured way of footbag ahead.

It's late and I have to go to work tomorrow (yes, that's one of the new things in my life) so I'll keep the first post short. Or, who am I kidding...this will probably be the only post from me in the next two years. Well, maybe by that time something blog-worthy has happened in the world of freestyle.

Maybe it's stupid to put this here, after all the badmouthing of freestyle, but: There's going to be a really cool DVD out from Worlds 05 in Helsinki. "05?", you say. That's right, people. This is the real deal right here. If you were there, get it. If you weren't there, get it anyway. I just got a sneak peak of the trailer and it's off the hook. (Okay, I've seen the whole bomb two months ago, but it ROCKS.) There's freestyle and net (Grom, ahoy!). Keep checking for the trailer by Jere in the videos section in the next couple of days.

The longest running all-net tournament in the World (or atleast Europe, maybe), Turku Open is this weekend. My club is hosting it like every year. We're going to make it the coolest event ever. I will easily win all three events (singles, doubles and mixed). Whoa, I think I sounded way too much like P.T. before every Worlds .

Take care everybody, even you freestylers.

[oxana]

nice work matti