Operation: Guiltless and Higher

KRyan · Post by **KRyan** » 06 Apr 2010 04:28

Ok, first thing first. The title of the blog came from me reading the large warning sticker on my can of deodorant.

I guess I should introduce myself now:
I am 20 years old, have been playing footbag for about 2 years.
Ever since I came back from Japan a year ago I have been shredding 5-7 times a week.
I live in Melbourne and am part of the Melbourne Footbag Club.
Should have started a blog on modified a long time ago since I have one on the Japanese site and am constantly writing on the Australia Forum on the footbag.org website.
Other than footbag, I like to play soccer, squash, snowboard and have recently required an interest in Ice Hockey.
I love music(I don't think I have met a person who doesn't).
I got into Footbag after seeing some guys playing it at my Uni a couple of years ago.
Started learning the guitar about 4 months ago but have played viola for years(dusty by now since I hate to play it).

Ok now onto my Footbag stuff:
Recently competed at the Australian 2010 National Championships for the first time. I did ok but need to work a lot on shred 30 and routines. It was a great event and some great stuff was hit even though a lot of big names didn't come.

New tricks and Links in the last week:
-legbeater(flipside)
-atomsmasher(flipside)
-pixie ss whirl
-double over down
-pixie ss mirage(should have hit this a long time ago but I never thought of hitting it until I saw it.)
-fairy butterfly both sides
-dimwalk < blur
-legbeater < blur

At the moment I am working on stepping and atomic sets. I really want to hit rubberman in the near future. My pixie set is getting pretty good and I have hit phoenix a few times. My ducking struggles a little bit as my shoulder tends to hit the bag a lot if I am not thinking.
Apart from those above, working on infinity, whirls and osis so that I can move my game up from tiltless. Hit a ten contact guiltless run in my shred today.

Moves I am struggling with:
-drifter
-swirl
-fairy set that allows me to do legovers and pickups. op butterfly is easy though.
-paradox whirls(although I should have these down after I get a little better at toe whirls)
-eggbeater=my nemesis
-tricks like double over down with a double dex that doesn't end in toe.

KRyan · Post by **KRyan** » 07 Apr 2010 22:52

I had a session today with Leon, another footbagger from Melbourne, at Uni. We played for about 2 hours but we usually play longer except we were both still sore from Aussie Nats last week. I had a few good runs some with a few harder 3 and 4 adds as well.

I hit 2 new tricks today:
-atomic ss dlo(don't know if this has another name)
-paradon(hell yeah - I have always loved the look of this move, hit it like another 20 more times just to ensure I had it properly)

Since we both are looking to do better in routines and shred 30 we are practising our routines as a warm-up and/or cool-down to the shred session. I did my best attempt at it today with 5 drops, although they were all in the last 25 seconds). For some reason, I couldn't hit atomic set on my flipside half way through the session.

Also hit a few PB's:
infinity Ã— 13
whirl(flip) Ã— 3

I know I still have a lot to practice on my 3 adds like infinity, whirl and osis which are quite poor consecutively.

boyle · Post by **boyle** » 08 Apr 2010 11:37

You have a lot of potential Ryan, I think you are going to be really good.

We should have a game of squash the next time we meet. I will be down in Melbourne next month, we could play then.

KRyan · Post by **KRyan** » 10 Apr 2010 04:30

Had a really long solo session today after Ice Skating, about 6 hours total non-stop exercise. At the moment focusing on atomic sets, whirls, osis, butterfly. And at the end of the session I like to practice strings with all the components I am practicing in one run.

Amazing session today, although now my legs feel as if someone took a hammer to them. I totally fixed my flip whirl technique as well as my strong whirl. Took a video and saw that I was setting them too high, now they look pretty good. Butterfly/infinity has just been skyrocketing in the last few week s and they are getting quite easy. Osis is still quite difficult but I am making some great progress there as well. After watching David Claven's drifter tutorial I can now so that I can do drifters on one side pretty well.

Hit some new links today as well:
paradon < barrage
double over down < barrage

Haven't been able to hit barrage or double over down's on my flip yet, although I haven't really tried too much as my strong side has only just been hitting them recently.

KRyan · Post by **KRyan** » 12 Apr 2010 21:53

had a session with Leon at the University of Melbourne, which I currently attend. We did circle kicking with some other Uni guys for about an hour and then shredded for about half an hour as well. Hit some pretty good strings and also some new moves.

New tricks:
paradon (flipside)
stepping op osis
barfly
blizzard(should have hit this long ago but I never even tried it.)

Starting to incorporate a lot of ss butterfly, paradons and my other better tricks into strings. Its going quite well too, some of the runs I did were not so noobish.

Stayed up last night watching footbag videos, they were all pretty insane and have motivated me to someday hopefully get to be that good. Loving practices at the moment, past one of the frustration barriers about 3 months ago when I couldn't do anything right.

KRyan · Post by **KRyan** » 14 Apr 2010 22:40

had a session with Leon again at Melbourne Uni. I hit some pretty good stuff early on, which probably was the reason it was an amazing session. Hit phoenix after a few attempts and it felt quite easy too. I hit some new links and tricks so I might as well list them first.

New tricks:
-drifter(flipside)
-spinning butterfly(hit this first try which was sweet.)
-merkon(for some strange reason I started to hit a lot of spinning stuff at this one point when we were playing, I can't really spin properly either.)
- stepping ss mirage
-pixie op whirl
NOTE:CHECK THE VIDEO BELOW FOR THIS OTHER TRICK I HIT.

New links, combos etc:
-drifter Ã— 2

-sidewalk < butterfly < sidewalk < butterfly
-ripwalk < butterfly < butterfly < ripwalk
Such a good session.

Ok, I got this idea that I wanted to hit a trick that no-one has hit before and I somehow came up with this. Although I highly think someone has done it as it wasn't tremendously hard. In the video its a bit 'the' as I tried to do it again after I had finished my shred at Uni.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRsjhLuDhKE

Going to see a friends band play tonoght instead of playing squash. Also have Ice skating tomorrow night. Hell yeah!!!

Zac Jackson · Post by **Zac Jackson** » 15 Apr 2010 08:21

not quite new, I hit that at the USO in 2007, havent hit it since tho

only the 2nd person ive seen do it besides myself

props!

KRyan · Post by **KRyan** » 20 Apr 2010 01:41

been sick for the last 5 days so wasn't able to have a real shred until today. At Uni, today we had our 'pot and parma' BBQ for the Footbag Club. It was pretty good, but didn't drink any of the cheap beer. We were having a casual kick with my fearless bag, and while I was practicing some far osis, the bag went off poorly and somehow managed to land on a storm water grate.
But, instead of the bars stopping it, the bag went straight through.

Its a bit disappointing, however I recently cam into a little money so i am going to buy 2 more fearless tomorrow.

Had a more decent shred at home, concentrating on tiltless runs only though.
Longest was 36 contacts with the average run about 15-20 contacts. I have decided to test something on my clippers at the moment. I am trying to crank like there is no tomorrow for every clipper catch, also ensuring it lands in the sweet spot every time. Been dropping clippers too much lately so I needed to try something, will see if this actually makes my clippers better than before.

KRyan · Post by **KRyan** » 24 Apr 2010 04:22

Been sick still but Footbag is too addictive so I had to have a session today.
Played for 2 hours in the basement at home, haven't played at home for
at least 3-4 weeks. The session was amazing, straight from the start.
I hit a few new pb's and knocked out most of the goals of the session. Also hit a few goals I wasn't aiming for.

- 57 contact tiltless run(New PB by 20 contacts)

-spinning set almost 100% on the night when its usually 10%. I think I
know how to do it better now, much easier to spot as well.
-dimwalk < ripwalk a lot of times
-sidewalk < ripwalk a few times
-parkwalk < ripwalk a few times
-parkwalk < sidewalk a lot of times

-Need to fix my whirl technique as it is very difficult to hit flipside
consecutively as well as hitting it from toe or op clipper. Going to
study some videos vs my technique tomorrow.

KRyan · Post by **KRyan** » 25 Apr 2010 02:54

Loving Footbag!!!!! I am not hitting anything amazing, but my game is becoming much better. Analysing my form had been quite hard, however the last week or so I have had some amazing breakthroughs in fixing my overall technique. I did hit a few new moves but that was from practising concepts I wanted to fix. Session today was at least 2 hours, so this week have played around 10 hours.

New moves:
fairy mirage
pdx dlo (dropped it on the flipside a couple times but haven't sealed it on that side)
fairy ss butterfly

I fixed where I was setting my flip whirls and they now feel much more comfortable, and can now hit flip whirl from butter instead of just clipper.

boyle · Post by **boyle** » 25 Apr 2010 04:32

Ryan- if you're still looking at going to Worlds V Australia (vaustralia.com.au) have some pretty reasonable flights at the moment. $550 either way.

I'll be in Melbourne the week after next, Friday and Saturday, we should get a shred in.

KRyan · Post by **KRyan** » 25 Apr 2010 18:19

The price is very tempting, $1100 return which is at least 400 dollars cheaper than every other airline. Only problem is that its during the first two weeks back for Uni. I don't know if I would be allowed to apply for special consideration for missing practicals/assesments that would be early on with the reason 'going to the Footbag World Championships'. I shall get in contact with Uni and see if its possible first, then decide whether I want to spend 1/3 of my savings, because I will probs have to spend at least 500-600 over there for accomodation etc.

Sweet, coming to Melbourne again! You like to get around. Definitely up for a shred, I feel like I would like more people to shred with then just me and Leon.

boyle · Post by **boyle** » 26 Apr 2010 17:34

Yeah, it seems a good deal. Too good to be true maybe!

I'll be in Melbourne from 8am Friday morning, I'm flying to Europe at like 1am Saturday night/Sun morning.

Most unis have a section for "elite athletes" to get special consideration. It could be argued that you need to be an elite athlete to compete at the World Championships.

It seems though, these discount flights are only if you buy a return ticket. So my scheme may not work out.

KRyan · Post by **KRyan** » 28 Apr 2010 04:27

Had a short session today as this bloody sickness still won't go. Winter sucks, you go to Uni, where thousands of 'dudes and dudettes' pass around the flu. Then you get over that one, and then receive another new virus or some such thing.
Anyway, sessions are still good despite the cold.
I two new moves today: Quantum legover and toe drifter.
Toe drifter was pretty easy as I can hit drifters already, though haven't tried paradox drifters.
Quantum was very different, however the tips on the website are awesome and it wasn't long before I could do the set cleanly.

In other things:
-5 Ã— flip whirl (PB)
-ripwalk b2b

I really want to go to worlds, but can't decide, also haven't got in touch with Uni about any procedure stuff.

Hey Dan, thanks for the flight info and stuff by the way.
On Friday, do you want to have a kick at the Uni again or would you prefer us to meet you somewhere, as I believe it should be that the home players that should travel if need be. Let us know when and where you would like to kick.

boyle · Post by **boyle** » 29 Apr 2010 00:08

I can see why you thought I was coming this week

, wasn't very specific.

I wouldn't mind playing in Fed Square next week, it's a good open spot with lots of passers by.

You're making great progress, keep it up.

KRyan · Post by **KRyan** » 03 May 2010 01:27

Had a session today, was about 2 hours long. It started of pretty poorly and didn't get much better, however I think it was because I haven't kicked in 4 days and one of my muscles in my hip feels misplaced or something. Stretching helped, but I can feel it when i am not doing exercise. It's never painful though, it just makes some movements feel extremely weird.

I struggled with my whirls today, didn't get over 4 consec on either side. Aiming to get ten on each side for starters.

Changed towards the end to just to do runs and links I wanted to hit.

I hit a few new links:

dimwalk < pdx mirage < fairy butter
blur < parkwalk (I found the butterfly really hard to do for some reason)

No new moves, however I am eyeing blurriest as a move I should be able to hit sometime soon, which would be my second 5 add. Also been trying to hit fairy ducking butterfly, but I can't set high enough. It is getting better though, so I think I just need a bit more practice.

KRyan · Post by **KRyan** » 04 May 2010 04:06

Today I had 2 sessions, one for about an hour at Un and a 2 hour one at home. I hit a few new moves in the first session, however at home I just practised tiltless runs and some strings that pushed me to the limit. So tired right now, my legs are aching!! Hope that this means good things for my next session.

New moves:
- spinning ducking legover
- torque

So happy I hit torque, as it was one of the moves I saw before I started to play footbag that I thought was beyond impossible. Don't think I can hit it flipside just yet, need to practice osis on both sides a hell of a lot more.

KRyan · Post by **KRyan** » 06 May 2010 03:46

had a session today that was just perfecting technique for certain tricks. It feels quite sad that even after 2 years I still have to analyze my clipper technique regularly so that I don't revert to bad habits. It does look like it is sticking a little better though. Butterfly technique was analyzed with, I believe, a huge result was achieved in efficiency infinities. At the end of the session, wanted to hit this link so bad for the last couple of days so I had to try it.

New link:

dimwalk < paradox mirage repeat.

Without practicng my technique first, I am pretty sure I wouldn't have hit this as I can barely do pdx mirage from clipper unless I do it properly.

KRyan · Post by **KRyan** » 08 May 2010 03:56

Had a session with Dan Boyle yesterday at Federation Square in Melbourne. We played for about an hour and a half. It looked as if it would rain, but amazingly it didn't. We didn't play very well as Dan had slept like 4 hours and I was extremely tired from my session the day before.

Did hit a new link:

-dimwalk<spinning clipper<ducking clipper

I want to get better at spinning on flip as well as ducking as they look really cool and seem like quite an easy way to make tricks seem harder than they really are.

KRyan · Post by **KRyan** » 16 May 2010 01:08

Haven't played too much recently due to Uni assignments, work, other stuff.
Did have a session today at Fed square with my shred partner Leon. We shot an instructional DVD today as well, just to hand out to interested people who come see us play. We had a shred after the filming, it took a while because we kept on failing with basic concepts. Had to do butterfly like five times because i couldn't hit more than 2 at the start.

had some good links in the shred.

spinning clipper < spinning butter < ducking clipper
dimwalk < spinning clipper < ducking clipper < pdx mirage
fairy butter < pdx mirage < dimwalk < osis < ducking butter