Fanzine

[boyle]

Those toe drifter rakes look great, awesome control. I think I've done it from clipper, but I had a go last night at toe drifter rake and I was miles away from it.

[C-Fan]

Whether I play at all in December is largely dependent on the weather though I'd hope I'd schedule a gym session if it really is that bad.

I was pleasantly surprised how much I got to play in November, but the pendulum has definitely swung the other way for December. 3 weeks in, I haven't had a chance to play a single time. Part of that has been weather (almost no balmy days), part has been health, part has been the general busy-ness of the holiday season. I'm OK with that.

While I haven't played in December, I've had fun following the Joulukalenteri. Props again to Dante for making it happen. While I didn't directly edit any videos this year, I contributed to 3:







It was nice to feel like I participated in some way. I've also been following the Links of the Day with interest. The Open ones have had a very nice variety of concepts and links which I appreciate. I think I could hit most of them; I'll give them a try for sure the next time I play.

I was listening to an NBA podcast the other day and they were talking about Vince Carter being the first NBA player to play in 4 separate decades (1990s, 2000s, 2010s, 2020s). Obviously some of that is lucky timing since he was drafted in 1998, and obviously its a lot harder to play in the best league in the world for that length of time than it is to do a hobby on your own time like hacky sack. That said, it did make me think about my own luck and longevity with footbag, that both my body and my enthusiasm have held up this well over this long.

The big footbag question on my mind is Worlds 2020. I know the bidding process with IFPA takes a long time, but we're getting to the point where people need information if they hope to plan logistics. Traditionally, Worlds has been between June and August. So if it is indeed happening in 6-8 months, it'd be real nice for potential attendees to have more information so we can plan the rest of our year around it.


Happy holidays Modified.

[boyle]

I saw a bunch of the Joulu videos yesterday, was catching up. Looks like you've got whirring swirl on tap these days. Not a bad trick to have up the sleeve.

Hopefully we are going to know more soon, unfortunately that won't be probably until mid-January. I won't say to much, but it's not the IFPA end holiding up the process (and not any bid team either), more the local public service due to a recent election at the municipality level. Hopefully there will be some news on that in the coming weeks.

Good reason for you to compete in a Worlds in the 2020s, you'll have the 4 decades. I think something like that - to compete at a major comp, that would get you some sign of "elite level" - as there would be millions of people who have shot a basketball into a hoop over 4 decades or more, but very limited to those who are playing in the top flight.

I'm trying to think of any players that would have debuted in the late 90s in any of the sports I follow. I looked up two of the players with most games in rugby league and they started out around 02/03. The most likely would be some goalkeepers in soccer, as they generally go on until quite a high age.

[C-Fan]

Hacky New Year, Modified!

I took a week off from work which proved to be really nice.  I wasn't really planning on shredding at all, since the weather forecast was snowy and cold for most of it.  Then I randomly got a text from Daryl Genz saying he was in town to see his mom, so I booked us a racquetball court and we got in a shred.  I think I had only played once in the previous month, so I was pretty rusty.  Daryl was just killing it.  Like, probably the hardest I had seen him shred in person in a few years.  It was really cool to witness that, but also made me feel bad I was playing so poorly, especially after he made the effort to come to my neck of the woods to play.  He gave me some interesting insights into nuclear set that I want to play around with, and also did some really cool stuff with 2 and 3 bag juggling.  I ended up hitting a few big tricks but my consistency just felt off the entire time.  After shred we went out for Mexican food before parting ways.



The other big piece of news for me is that I finally quit Facebook.  When I first signed up in March of 2007, I was still in grad school and it was a useful tool for my social life.  Once I graduated though and started dating my future wife it seemed a lot less useful.  Rather than improving my social life, I found it was making things more awkward as I'd get friend requests from coworkers and family members I didn't want to follow.  Then it became a cesspool of political misinformation, and I increasingly only used it to stay in the loop on footbag videos and events.  Given that I haven't been to a footbag event in 3 years and most videos I can find online anyway, it really just seemed pointless.  My only real regret is not quitting facebook several years earlier.  

I haven't made any formal New Year's resolutions yet but I probably will.  I'm still on my booze-free streak, and will hit 2 years in mid-March.  That shouldn't be hard to reach.  Quitting Facebook feels like something of a resolution.  What I'd really like to do is set some resolutions to increase my exercising and improve what I eat.  We'll see how those go.  If USO or Worlds dates/locations are announced and either seems viable, that would probably help my motivation for improving my fitness.

[boyle]

Daryl was really shredding it up in that video. Nuclear sets were looking great, he had a lot of big tricks, really surprised me.

I think we will see a lot more people quitting Facebook and other platforms in the coming years. What I do find funny though is when people say, "oh, I quit Facebook because of this and that, you can follow me on Instagram". Which is of course, owned by Facebook.

Nice job on your booze free streak. Do you think you will just keep that running for good, or some *important occasion* will come up and you will have to start the streak all over again?

[Tjuggles]

I agree, Genz was looking really good.

Nice work on the booze streak. I remember you got tanked at worlds 2017 at the after party.

Also, nice work on FB. I quit something like 3 or 4 years ago. It is one of the best decisions I have made in my life, up there with quitting meat and quitting tobacco.

Looking forward to another year of vids from you.

[SlashC]

There was some really great stuff from Daryl in that video! He always looks so relaxed and controlled when he plays and I've always been a fan of his muted combos.

I have also considered quitting facebook in the past. It is really tough decision though because it is the main way that I communicate and plan social events with local and long distance friends. I am not a fan of feed style websites that have infinite scroll as I think they can cause issues with addiction/attention/focus. I am somewhat shielded from these negative effects because I don't have a smart phone constantly buzzing in my pocket and I try to only check for private messages and the freestyle group for videos once or twice a day on a desktop computer. However, I still sometimes find myself unconsciously scrolling on the news feed. I wonder if there are any good options for 3rd party applications that just show facebook messages and selected group feeds or that block the news feed?

Anyways, I'm looking forward to seeing more videos from you this year! I made it one of my resolutions to try and post more videos and am hoping to get started on an editing binge once I sort out updating all my Windows 7 computers.

[boyle]

I have heard people say a good thing to be productive is to have nothing coming up on your wall. So you will still get message, and you can still go and post things to people, but you won't get that distraction.

Yeah, I find it useful for communication especially to people all around the world, but I have found myself using it a lot less in recent times.

[C-Fan]

Thanks for all the comments guys!  Hope your 2020s are all off to good starts.  Mine has been alright, though no footbag yet.  As I mentioned in a recent post, I'm looking forward to my next session as I will then be able to say I've played guiltless footbag in 4 separate decades.  That's probably on my mind since the NBA is making such a big deal about Vince Carter being the first NBA player to play in 4 decades: https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/05/us/vince ... index.html

Nice job on your booze free streak. Do you think you will just keep that running for good, or some *important occasion* will come up and you will have to start the streak all over again?

  

Part of what I like about the streak is how randomly it came about.  Some people quit things because of a life or medical event (e.g. a DUI, their doctor told them they need to stop, etc.), and a lot of people will choose a memorable date to start (e.g. a birthday, start of a new year, etc.) to make it easier to track.  My current dry streak on the other hand, came completely out of nowhere.  Reading my journal from when it started, it looks like I just happened to go a few days without drinking.  Then I decided to push it to a week, and after that I realized one month would bring me right to my birthday.  I think I was planning on breaking the streak on my birthday but then kept going.  I didn't drink for the 2 months leading up to Worlds 2017 so I decided to match that.  Then exceed it.  Then one year was in sight so I kept going.  Now two years is in sight, so I'm definitely gunning for that.  But yeah, there's no health/financial/life motivation to be doing the dry streak at all.  I'll reexamine it after I hit 2 years, but I'm leaning towards keeping it going.  I do think it'd take something worth celebrating to break it.  Maybe another USO title, or doing a good finals routine at Worlds?  Those seem pretty unlikely at this stage though.

 I ended up hitting a few big tricks but my consistency just felt off the entire time. 

Here's the video of my shred from when Daryl visited: 


That's like a case study in how video lies.  Watching both videos you'd probably say we both had good sessions, but in reality 80% of Genz's runs were solid and 80% of my runs were frustratingly bad.  That's why I never judge a player's game until I see them in person, preferably under tournament pressure.  Consistency is the most underrated part of footbag, and video hides it completely.

On a less pessimistic note, I was pleasantly surprised to hit a few nemeses throughout the session, and to end the decade on a passable one.  I remember at the end of the 2000s hitting a spender and feeling proud to end the decade with a hard, stylish trick I couldn't hit at the start of the decade.  

  

If you told me at the start of the 2010s that I'd end the decade with nemesis as my final trick I don't think I'd have believed you.
My short term goal for 2020 is to get back into shape by my birthday, so I can make a video of me hitting a bunch of footbag goals at age 40.  It might take me a few sessions to get them all, but if I can get into shape before mid-April hopefully the process won't be too painful.  

[C-Fan]

Finally got in a session this month.  As I mentioned in my past couple posts, I was looking forward to this one since now I can say I've played guiltless footbag in the 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, and finally the 2020s.  My local rec center is doing a "fitness frenzy" promotion in January where you get 5 free admissions so I'm hoping to use that as motivation to play a couple more times this month.   In 2019 I averaged just over 2 shreds a month, and I'd really like to push that to 3 in 2020.   

I still haven't made any New Years resolutions despite being 2 weeks deep into 2020.  I guess the optimist's take on that is that I can't break any resolutions if I haven't made any.  In all seriousness though, I do want to set some goals as I felt that helped get me off to a good mental and physical start last year.  

Going into my shred on Tuesday my main goal was to work on basics and stamina.  I think I only played twice in December, and both times I felt tired and flat during the sessions.  When that happens it's always tempting and easy to just chase single big tricks, or a single big link, which can be fun but ultimately doesn't help me at all in the long run.  And given how poor the lighting is inside the rec center, even if I hit a big trick it doesn't look as good as it would have in outside light which makes it feel a bit like a Pyrrhic victory.  I know last January when I played indoors, I tried to use drills to rebuild my foundation and stamina in a bothsided way.  I should probably do that again.

Here's the video of my first session of the year:  

  

The most pleasant surprise for me was that fearless didn't feel as bad as in my past couple sessions, though that was tempered a bit by my tripless being worse than expected.  I spent a good chunk of time working on flip pixies, though most of those clips were too short so I tossed them.  I was pretty good about not chasing big tricks for the reasons outlined above.  The boulder beater (quantum egg) came to me surprisingly easily, and I was very pleased with how tight/deep the dexes were.  Felt pretty textbook, especially for a trick I don't do often.   I got frustrated a few times in the session with my inconsistency, but I'd calm myself down by reminding myself that even a "bad" shred was way way better than "no" shred.  Like even if I have a session where I can't hit anything video-worthy, if I elevated my heart rate and sweated then it's infinitely better than if I had just stayed home and played videogames.  

I have basically 2 weeks left to use the remaining 4 punches on my gym pass, so hoping that motivates me to go at least a couple more times.

[Tjuggles]

Congrats on 4 decades! That is quite the achievement, especially guiltless. If my memory serves, I may have hit a couple of BOPs around 1998 or 1999, but I don't consider myself guiltless at that stage. My game changed after I started rolling with GFSmoothie around 2000.

I also think its astounding that in addition to 4 decades for you, they have been mostly (completely?) without serious injury!? I haven't searched the forums, and off the top of my head I seem to recall maybe one instance where you were down for the count, although it might be that I am thinking of Erik. At any rate, great job with the fancy footwork!

[C-Fan]

Unfortunately no shreds for me since my last post.  A week ago I threw out my back pretty badly when I carried Griffin on my shoulders at the zoo.  He's getting close to 40 pounds so I'm going to have to phase out how much/often I pick him up and carry him in my arms.  I'm pretty sad about that since I still think of him as my baby and holding him is a way of bonding.  That said, I know my back and arms just aren't strong enough with him getting as big as he is.  Thankfully I'm feeling a little better after multiple days of heating pads and aspirin, but I wouldn't be surprised if my next session isn't until February.  

After reading Erik's latest post about his back issues and how they've sidelined him not just from footbag but also from work, I definitely feel like I can't complain though.  On that note:

4 decades for you, they have been mostly (completely?) without serious injury!?

Pretty much yeah.  I've had the odd ankle turn or hamstring pull here and there, but never anything that cost me significant time.  I also think I've only ever had one injury that prevented me from competing in a tournament (Vegas Jam 2016), though you could argue I competed in a few tournaments while sick/injured when I probably shouldn't have.  It's only in recent years that I've come to realize and appreciate that two of my luckiest qualities as a footbagger have been my durability, and the fact that I've never lost interest/passion for playing.  After 20+ years of playing I've seen so many people either lose interest or have their bodies fail them, that I no longer take these qualities for granted.  

Here's some clips from a December session where I was chasing LOTD combos:  



I should revisit the whole list at some point since I liked most of the links.  First though I need to heal up, and probably dedicate my first couple sessions back to low impact tricks. Like, no sets or symposium and a hardcap of 4 adds for the first couple sessions.

[boyle]

Good job on some of those links. I was close on a couple of them and watching your videos might have given me a couple of clues.

[Muffinman]

After reading Erik's latest post about his back issues and how they've sidelined him not just from footbag but also from work, I definitely feel like I can't complain though.

Yeah, there's no way I could ever have kids! I can barely carry myself. I'm also happy for you, though, for never having to endure serious injury! Hope your back heals up!

[boyle]

We just had our kids at the doctor the other day. Jasmine is already 15kg and Nico is 23kg. Good thing I've been going to the gym a bit lately!

[C-Fan]

In good news, my back feels a lot better. In bad news, I got hit pretty bad with cold/flu right around the same time my back was recovering. Had to take multiple days off from work, and Haley took on the lion's share of parenting. I need to pay her back for that. I'm still turning the corner on this cold, so I don't see footbag in my near future.

On the topic of imagining myself playing footbag, I was happy to see some updates on Worlds 2020. I have a feeling that I won't be able to go to any Worlds, regardless of location, mostly due to where I am with parenting/life/job etc. It's still fun to fantasize about it though. I did look at flights to Medellin from Denver. As I expected, you can either do that trip fairly cheaply but with lots of layovers and time in airports, or you can do it expensively but with a single layover. My real takeaway was that there's no way I can bring Haley and Griffin with me. Maybe USO will be announced, and I could go to that instead.

On a more positive note, here's a video from almost exactly 5 years ago:



I was surprised to see how good Derek already was at that point. It was also neat to see him doing atomic tricks, which he has since phased out since they hurt his body. It was also nostalgic/sad to see how much more consistent my game was when I used to play regularly.

[Tjuggles]

It was also nostalgic/sad to see how much more consistent my game was when I used to play regularly.

I know the feeling; I sometimes feel like I am shredding harder than I have before, then look back at older vids and realize that actually I was shredding harder way back when. 'Shredding harder' in this case refers to my links; when I was younger I noticed I would link harder tricks together with less bails. I also think that the increased bails may be a result of consistently shredding by myself.

[boyle]

Derek was playing really well at that stage - I'm guess this is pre-Denmark Worlds? Sounds about right if it's early 2015. Look at him go with those atomics. I think the difference from then to now is he was forcing himself to do more clipper based tricks - more ducking clipper, those ducking pdx mirage as well. You saw him get into a real power when he was just charging the toe tricks.

Now his got a focus on a more limited range of sets, but he is doing pretty awesome at that too.

[randomcrayon]

Love the old Derek footage! His passion is infectious. And those are some fantastic frantic sets!

[C-Fan]

Thanks for all the nice comments everybody.

Sadly not much footbag to report on my end. I haven't played in over a month and I think I've only had 3 sessions over the past 3 months. It would have been only 2 if Genzu hadn't surprised me right before Christmas. The lack of playing over the past few months has been due to a combination of health (back issues followed by flu) and general lack of time due to parenthood. I'm happy to say my health appears to have turned a corner, so hopefully I can carve out some time at some point to get in a session. It's tough playing this infrequently, because on the rare occasion when I can find the time to play I really want to play well. But of course, it's hard to play well when you're super out of practice. It's also a bit tough to get motivated since there's still no word on Worlds, and I probably couldn't go even if it was announced.

The more positive dry spell I can report on, is that I'm now at 704 days of no booze. Or in other words, I'm less than 4 weeks away from hitting the 2 year mark. I don't have any celebration planned for it, and I'll probably keep the streak going after it, but its still a cool milestone I'm excited to hit.

Since I don't have any new videos of myself to post, here's an old fun one of Lauri. I always appreciated his trick selection (whirrs and ripsteins and fun swirls both sides). I like to air shred this style, maybe because I can't actually play this way. Like, I can ripstein and whirr, but not in combos and not smoothly like this: