Some pretty good consecutives there from Jim. Maybe some world records? I didn't slow it down, and just watched it the once through, but maybe 11 blurry drifter, 12ish blurriest, 17 motion.
Taishi has done pretty well in routines lately, he's been in finals most times, but he's never really looked a contender to win the whole thing, unlike in shred 30. The last few years it's seemed that's the case, maybe 3 or 4 who will battle it out for the top prize, and the rest did enough to make it through to the finals, but even with a perfect routine, they are not going to touch Vasek on an average day.
If Pipenberg goes to worlds, he could be another contender. Will be interesting to see who is in the mix.
I botched it, I was meant to do a top post painting. Here is a Pipenberg style character...
Two Paths Diverged On A Bald And Sorry I Could Not Travel Both is a painting by Ann Holder which was uploaded on April 8th, 2013
When I checked my blog before going to bed last night I was sad there was no Top Post Painting, so when I came back to post today I was so happy to see a nice painting up! Well done Danny. I like the vibe of the painting, but the legs need to be at least 50% longer for it to pass as Pipenberg. I know this because...
...this past Sunday night Pipenberg drove through Colorado, and stopped by my place to get dinner! How's that for a coincidence? He is driving from Pennsylvania to Boise, and was making stops at Kansas City, Denver, and Utah before arriving in Boise. He had spent all day driving and it was dusk when he arrived, so no footbag session together. He did get to meet my dog though, who was shocked that humans can be so tall. We went out and got some nice Thai for dinner, and had fun catching up.
If Pipenberg goes to worlds, he could be another contender.
I asked him if Worlds was a possibility, and he said it's not in the cards. While he could easily catch a ride with Gatesman or Penske from Boise, it sounds like he's "on call" for fire fighting duty all summer, so logistically it's a no-go. I agree with you though that he would have been a wildcard in Circles for sure.
Some pretty good consecutives there from Jim. Maybe some world records? but maybe 11 blurry drifter, 12ish blurriest, 17 motion.
Jim played great that trip. And this footage is a couple years old now, so I bet he could beat most of what he hit on the video. The video verified WR for Blurriest is 16 by Clavens: http://www.footbag.org/gallery/show/13463 For blurry drifter, it's also 16...by guess who?
Pipenblog.
In non-Pipenberg news, I turned 37 on Sunday. I celebrated with a session where I just played for fun, and didn't worry about routine practice. 37 sounds like such an old age for footbag, but I still feel pretty spry. I think if I could go back in time to when I was 27 and tell myself that I'd still be hitting fearless and 7 add tricks on my 37th birthday, I'd feel a sense of relief. I shot a Vlog and asked people what would be their footbag birthday wish, and most answers were related to health. I definitely feel like I've been lucky with my health over the past 20 years, and in many ways that's a gift I shouldn't take for granted. I wouldn't be surprised if ultimately I bow out of footbag because of the demands of parenting, as opposed to age/injury. If that's the case, that's pretty fortunate really.
I feel my health has been pretty good over a long period of time too. I've very rarely had to take time off from footbag due to injury. That makes my post painting quite appropriate that Mr Pipenberg was in town. It would have been great if he came by Australia when he was in NZ, or if I went over there, but that didn't happen unfortunately. Too bad he won't be able to go to Worlds, but obviously if you are a resident of Boise, say one Mr J. Penske, and you've been away for a sports tournament, and you come back and your house burnt down because they were unable to reach a firefighter in time, you would be pretty mad.
Just over 3 months until Worlds! And you know that's going to fly by too. I am glad though that I started training super early this year. Between my routine being more ambitious than normal, my sleep/schedule being thrown off by the baby, and all my equipment issues (i.e. breaking in new shoes and getting new bags), it definitely was a good idea to get started early. I still have a lot of work to do, and many challenges still remain, but I feel I'm headed in the right direction.
Maybe the biggest reason for my optimism is that I finally got new bags! I had a bad streak of bag luck to start the year, where I lost my best bag (Mike Wilson), then popped stitches on my next 2 bags (Karibou and Ivan) in what felt like freak accidents. I treaded water for about a month using old bags, but they were all old enough that they leaked and developed new holes, and it was just incredibly inconsistent and frustrating. I finally got around to ordering 2 new Ivan bags, and since they've arrived I've just felt a lot more comfortable in my training. Here's a vlog including footage from my first session with the new bags:
Pretty cool that Ivan's bags are playable enough to hit alpine fusion during the first session. The plan/hope is to use both of these Ivan bags at Worlds, so I'm taking extra special care of them. Hopefully in 3 months my shoes will feel fully broken in, I'll have 2 Ivan bags that are perfect for routines, and I'll have done my routine close to 100 times before I get on stage. My goal still is to go dropless in Finals, ideally taking a medal in the process. While it's an ambitious goal, I think it's within reach. It'll come down to how disciplined I can be over the next few months, combined with a bit of luck. Currently, I'm only scheduled for 2 trips before Worlds. I'd really like to keep it to just that, since it's so hard to train properly when you're on travel. I still need to take care of some logistics before Worlds, but I do feel better knowing I already have my flights, housing, bags, shorts, shoes, and routine song taken care of with over 3 months to go.
In Virginia this week for work. It's my first extended time away from my baby son, which is tough. I used to live in DC before moving to Denver, and being out here for work almost feels like I'm seeing the alternate reality where I stayed out here. There's a palpable, exciting energy that I like about DC. Lots of smart, ambitious people pushing hard career wise. But there's also a fake-ness to it, a judgy rat race vibe to it that I don't like. I could see that really wearing me down if I stayed here. I feel like I played my cards right 7 years ago, where I got my foot in the door career wise in DC, met my wife out here, and then parlayed it into a job and a life in Denver. I believe my whole family will all have better lives because of that move.
I recently had to take off about 10 days from playing, as I had a flare up of plantar fasciitis again in my left foot. For a few days there I had a visible limp, and could only walk by putting weight on the outside of my foot, instead of the sole of my foot. Normally, a setback like that would really frustrate me, especially so close to Worlds. For some reason though, I took it in stride. One thing that helped me keep things in perspective was Dominik Simku posting that he had a broken ankle, followed by Vasek saying he had too. While my plantar fasciitis wasn't fun and kept me from footbag, I was still able to take care of my baby and walk the dog through the pain. I don't even know how I'd deal with a broken ankle. Armed with that perspective, that gratitude that my injury wasn't worse, I spent my time off doing stretches to ease the PF pain, and reviewed videos of my routine runthroughs. Even though I couldn't play, I wanted to still keep working on the routine in my head. Thankfully, my foot started feeling better in the past few days, so I packed my gear for this trip.
Wasn't 100% sure about the logistics for this trip (e.g. where the hotel is, if I'd have a car, etc.) but I figured even my worst case scenario I'd be able to play at least once, even if it was a solo session. As it turns out, I got really lucky and managed to get in a shred with Boatz and Polini! Nick was in Maryland for work and had one day off, Boatz moved here recently and was willing to drive, and the weather was ideal yesterday. We planned on shredding once I finished work at 5. I was a bit worried about how I'd play, since I was running a sleep deficit and had only played once since coming off the plantar fasciitis. Nick and Boatz ended up catching some bad traffic, which actually helped out on a few fronts. It enabled me to recharge with a power nap, and it also let the temperatures cool off. By the time they arrived I felt re-charged, and while it was still warm and sunny out, the sun had lost its nastier edge. We found a nearby park and ended up playing...close to 2 hours? We definitely played a solid hour after my camera died. My foot felt fine throughout, and everybody was doing long enough strings that as a group we hit a good rhythm (i.e. the bag wasn't coming back to any of us too quickly or slowly). I hadn't played with Boatz in a long time, and I'd forgotten how good his energy is. Just infectiously positive. Polini did some very nice double spins that really impressed me. Him and Lon are so good at keeping the set height on the double spins low, which just looks so much better. I think after Worlds I'd like to get back to working on more spins and less dexes. Leading into Worlds though, I just want to solidify my current game, and really dial in my routine.
It's supposed to be super hot today, but I'm going to try and sneak in a solo session just before dusk. Even if its just doing a couple routine run-throughs, I'd see a benefit to that. I'm home with the baby next week, so hopefully I can chop up my shred footage from yesterday.
I'm impressed with how well you manage to make your work trips work out and get in a special guest shred session. That sounds like a cool session, hope to see some footage maybe in the next vlog.
Being in Virginia for a week was an interesting change of pace, but it's definitely nice to be home. Footbag-wise my trip can be summed up as:
Shred with Boatz and Polini on Tuesday Solo shred on Wednesday Hanging out with Brian McKenzie and Stan Sagalovskiy on Thursday
So pretty packed and ambitious. The Boatz/Polini session was fun and my foot felt fine throughout, but the next day it felt off. That's a bit concerning. Hopefully I can ramp up my shreds as I get closer to Worlds, and that becomes less of an issue. But right now, I'm leaning towards monitoring/limiting my shred at Worlds just in case. The current schedule posted has Circles on Monday and Wednesday, Routines on Tuesday and Wednesday, Thursday off, then Finals on Friday. If that holds, and I were to do Circles and Routines, that'd mean I'd be playing 3 days in a row before a break day, then finals. Since the only event I care about is routines, I wonder if it'd be smarter for me to skip Circle entirely, as that'd save me a 3rd day in a row of playing. Hopefully the foot just improves and this is all a moot point, but it's something I need to monitor.
Here's a pretty raw video of my shred with Polini and Boatz. I don't like long videos, but I had a lot of footage and I knew I wouldn't have the time to do any proper editing. So rather than sit on the footage, I just did a really raw cut:
My Wednesday solo shred was a lot more toned down. It was hotter than the day before, there was something weird in the air that made my nose run the whole time, and my left foot felt "off" like the plantar fasciitis was lingering in a corner. I still had fun though, and managed to hit some links/tricks that were definitely inspired by playing with those 2 guys the day before. I also hit shut ss blender for the first time I think. Surprised how easy a trick that is.
On Thursday I got dinner with Brian and Stan in DC. We didn't get to shred at all, but it was great catching up with them. I don't think we talked footbag at all. The funniest footbag conversation I had on the entire trip actually happened with my old roommate. I got dinner with him on Monday night, and when he asked about fatherhood and footbag I told him that my plan was to push hard at Worlds this year, with the goal of going dropless in Finals so I could walk away from competition on a high note. He literally laughed in my face, and pointed out that back when we lived together in 2009/2010, I was saying the exact same thing. In my defense, this time I think it's for real. This summer marks 20 years officially playing for me, and I'm already living the reality that having a baby means I can't spend the time I used to on practicing footbag, especially to the level I need to do well in comps. So hopefully I can make a good showing at Worlds this year where I feel good about my performance, and then shift into a more casual relationship with the sport going forward. We shall see.
It can be funny to get a reminder from some "normal" people who will give you some perspective on how your goals are really going. It can be harsh like that (a laugh in the face), but maybe that's even a positive note, that you were ready to go out on a high, but in the following years you have been in finals multiple times, hit a bunch of new tricks, made lots of videos, etc, etc.
Good call Danny. Back in 2009 I just wanted to win a USO or make finals at Worlds. The fact that I got to play a solid 8 more years, win a USO (circle in 12, routines in 13), get a few more dropless routines, and make Finals twice is definitely more than I could have hoped for. I get why my old roommate laughed at me, but I really do feel like this is gonna be my last real major. Especially if I achieve my goal of dropless in finals.
I would hope that Worlds stays as the regular 2 minute routine. Long ago for one of our Nationals (2006 maybe), I prepared a routine for intermediate (1:30), but then I had to compete in open. The first 1:30 of the routine was ok, still a few drops, but generally went to the plan - but by the time I got to the 2 minute mark, I had something like 18 drops.
I guess it would be different in a 2 minute routine, but I really felt Mariusz lost a lot of momentum at the end there. I haven't seen any other videos, so interesting to see the other placings.
Definitely need to have the rules known well in advance, that's for sure.
All the Euros routines were posted today. I only had a chance to watch the top 3, plus Mikko's. I feel like I'd need to watch all 8 routines to properly assess the judging results, but even just watching those 4 I was a bit baffled by the results. I thought Vasek had the highest difficulty/density, the best choreo, and only 1 drop (plus one bobble, so 1.5 drops if you want to be ultra harsh), which came in the middle of the routine. I thought he should have won. I thought Marius had the second best routine, but dropping twice in the final seconds (including the final trick) hurt him. I would have had him 3rd. Pawel's routine was harder than Mikko's, but Pawel had 3-4 drops compared to Mikko's dropless. I probably would have put Mikko ahead of Pawel, and yet Mikko finished 7th and Pawel 3rd. Not sure what happened there.
Judging opinions aside, the videos at least answered my questions about Vasek's injury. While he may not be 100%, he looked pretty damn spry in the video. I didn't get the impression he was limited much if at all by any injury. I'm both happy for him, as well as the level at Worlds.
I wonder who people think are the favorites in the various events at Worlds? With the major sports in the US it seems like betting markets in Vegas rank everything. Who will win a series (obviously), but also win margins, series lengths, etc. It'd be neat to see something like that for footbag. Like, not just what order you think competitors will finish in, but also how many drops you think they'd all have, what the betting lines are, etc. I wonder how much of an underdog I'd be considered in routines, since I've never finished higher than 5th at Worlds. That said, I've also beaten Evan, Landes, and Jim in routines in various tournaments in the past. I'm not sure why, but I feel like routines are more wide open this year than in a lot of the past years I've competed. Though I suppose some of that will come down to whether the judges weigh artistic and technical equally, or they lean more to either side.
Anyway, here's a random vid I made of a session last week where I worked on my toe game as a tribute to Derek. I accidentally put in the wrong clip for the slow mo pixie ss double pickup, which is unfortunate but I was editing at 11 pm after doing the dream feed for my son. Mistakes happen when you are a sleep deprived parent of a newborn. In the past I would have re-done the video, but at this stage frankly it's a minor miracle I'm still making videos at all. So feel free to ignore that one slow-moed thin trick, and enjoy the clean one that comes immediately after it:
I reckon there were more than one that had an unexpected handcatch at the end, including Vasek after the double spinning clipper. It was interesting to see there were a very limited amount of "wow" kind of tricks in the routine. In terms of placing, I though Juho should be a bit higher, his early part of the routine was really good, making use of the space, two bag juggling, etc. There were a few harder tricks in there, but he had a couple of drops at the end. Mikko's run was too easy, quite a lot of dropping back to kicking. Alex had too many drops.
I guess it's interesting to see who is missing from the lineup. To begin you have Honza, Milan, Jindra, Damian - that's all former World Champions. To what extent those guys are competing at the moment doesn't matter so much, they've been at the peak in the last 10 years. Jakub also had bronchitis so couldn't go, that's another Worlds finalist, and that bloke Mr Simku who everyone claims to have never heard of but made worlds finals last year was also out icing his ankle. Just to make the number up to 8, you could put Anssi or Norek in as the extra player and that's a pretty serious competition - what I wonder is if there were many "good" players left in the dust not making it through the rounds. According to the comments ahead of the Mikko video, I would say no.
Did Vasek really win all those Euros like you said in the vlog, I think he missed a couple when he was more into the freestyle football - I don't think he competed the year that Clavens went (2010), for example.
Vasek looks ok, but he's not busting out a few of his classic moves. There were fairly limited swirl/whirl/ripstein combos. He looks to have cooled the intensity a little bit, I think.
you could put Anssi or Norek in as the extra player
When's the last time either of those guys competed seriously? 2012 for Anssi? 2010 for Norek? The main player I was surprised/disappointed to see missing at Euros was Jindra, given he's still actively playing and is a strong competitor. I'm not sure why he's missed so many tournaments, though I half wonder if it's a funding issue?
Did Vasek really win all those Euros like you said in the vlog.
I may have overstated it a bit in the Vlog, but by my count he won 8 in a row (which is ridiculous) and then 3 more after that. So 11 Euro champs in a 15 year span. Here's the running list I've compiled of Worlds/US/Euro winners, based off footbag.org results and accounts from people I trust:
Vasek looks ok, but he's not busting out a few of his classic moves. He looks to have cooled the intensity a little bit, I think.
"Classic moves." "Cooled the intensity." That's Vasek's curse; he's always being compared to his past self. His performance should be measured against his competitors at an event, and not against his own past performances. Is 2 drops "bad" for a Vasek routine? Yes. But if everybody else had 3 drops at the same event, then Vasek should still win.
All that said, if Vasek is unfairly graded on a curve again in Finals in Portland and that results in me getting a medal, then I retract all of the above.
To reach the 10 I was running out of names off the top of my head - I was also thinking of that list you linked to, I knew I had seen it somewhere around. I think Vasek won Euros 2015 as well. He was there, I just saw a video of him in the circle contest.
I think it was pretty close between the top 3. I don't think it's the same as Worlds in Denmark where I though Vasek's level was too low for Worlds finals, this one is just not really epic like you sometimes see from him. He that whirlwind (I think that was the trick) in there, which none of the others hit anything like. I think I would probably give this one to Vasek if I was judging.
It was a pretty high quality field though, I would have expected to see some more dropless routines in the finals.
In exactly 2 months I get on a plane to go to Worlds. On one hand, I don't feel anywhere close to prepared. I'm not playing regularly due to caring for the baby, and when I do play I feel like I'm working to regain form, as opposed to progressing on consistency. On the other hand, there's still 2 months to prepare. That's a long time, and its not like I'm starting from scratch. I have a routine song, I have the choreo all planned out, I've already begun practicing it, I have 2 good bags I can rely on, my shoes are in good condition, and I'm not dealing with any serious injuries. Things could be a lot worse for sure.
On the routine topic, I had a minor milestone at my last session. I hit my Worlds routine dropless for the first time, with 95% of the cues. Now, ideally I should be getting that once a session, and hopefully more often than that as I go into Worlds. But during training season it always feels like a milestone that first time you get it. Like, you now know it's possible to do it dropless. On days (nights really) I can't practice, I make a point to watch that dropless runthrough so I'm at least reinforcing it mentally. I'm hoping though to keep grinding the routine practice so this becomes standard for me.
Here's a vid from my Virginia trip. I only played twice that trip; once with Polini and Boatz and then a solo shred the next day. This session was a lot shorter and like 10 degrees hotter, so I had to play in the shade. I had fun doing a few links in homage to Polini and Boatz' styles, and I also hit shut ss blender for the first time. I was kind of shocked how easy a trick that is, for something I'd never hit before.
They recently announced the inductees to this year's Footbag HOF class. It was 2 net players, 2 guys I never heard of, and Mulroney. The net players I recognized as people who have been active in the scene for ages, and have won multiple World titles. So no real heartburn there. Mulroney struck me as an odd choice, given he was active for less than 10 years, never hosted a tournament or did extensive promo work, only won 2 Worlds titles, and then dropped out of the scene entirely. Don't get me wrong; he was my idol when I started playing, and he definitely influenced the level of play for both casual shred as well as routines. But HOF struck me as a bit of a stretch for a guy who was only really active at the Open level for like 6 years before disappearing. The last 2 guys I think are old school players, and the fact that I never heard of them before this year is OK. But the fact that they got in, and I still have no idea who they are I think is problematic. I'm a footbag nerd who has been in the game for 20 years. If you're reading this, you're also a footbag nerd. We should be the target audience for HOF. So if HOF is inducting people we've never heard of, and then making no efforts to educate us (or anybody) about who these people are and why they got into HOF, then what's the point?
Hey Ken,
I just wanna chime in real quick and comment on Euros judging, as I was running the comps:
Firstly, there were unexperienced and even non-footbag judges on the panel, because that was the way Arthur wanted it to be. Secondly, and more importantly, Mariusz' routine left a far bigger impression on the audience in that moment than Vasek's. These things are often hard to tell from videos. Also keep in mind that "audience appeal" was the main goal of this tournament.
The final result was really close however, and it was me as freestyle director nudging the end result in this direction finally, after checking back with Szymon and Arthur. So I take all the blame for Mariusz winning, but it is something I can stand up for.
Good luck on your World's preparation. I won't make it, although every time I see the attendance list I think I should change my mind
The two net players, just from seeing those names, I know they are multi super world champions with lots of titles. I don't follow results of net that much, but between them I would imagine something like 20-30+ titles. Looks like the other two were a partnership team in the fairly early days - 1981 touring team.
Here's the nomination from Ted Huff when Fred Kippley died
I'd like to join Andy Linder in nominating Fred Kippley, and Gary Preston to the Footbag Hall of Fame. Again.
1981 1st class of certified instructors. Then They did over 700 schools during their 2 years on tour for the game and sport. Unfortunately, Gary lost part of a leg in a car accident.
Yet, they still spread their passion for the game to all they met, including this year with shows for Boy Scouts and other groups.
Long under appreciated for all they gave, because they didn't win major championships, or run major tournaments. But, during their active time in the 1980's, they spread the game and sport as true ambassadors should be applauded for. The key criteria has always been significant leadership for and about the game and sport , past to present, worldwide. During their best years , they did display that quality in their service to the future of Footbag.
It would surely be a great honor to give Fred's family , and for Gary.
I ask that all HoF members join Andy and I in voting for them. If allowed, Fred would become the #100 member of the HoF , and Gary #99. Surely an honor in Fred's memory that all of us can be proud of. Let's do it !!
Pass It On !
RIP Fred.
So they had been nominated a few previous times. But like you, I didn't know anything about them until I just started looking it up then. Interesting that Mulroney gets in, like you, I don't think he really fits any of the criteria. Great player though. It's unfortunate though that he hasn't really done anything to build on that big legacy that he had, I think that's where we fall down, particularly in freestyle, that once players are done with competing, they just kind of brush their hands and say, see you later fellas.
Good to hear from Matthias on the judging - if you're still reading - what did you think having these non-players/low experience judges? Do you think that helps the crowd that knows nothing about the sport to have some kind of feeling on the winners. I know this is something they do a lot in freestyle football, but I've been to plenty of freestyle football competitions, and that's the most often thing complained about, that the judges didn't know what they're talking about and that the guy that should have won was knocked out in the semis (quite often this comes from the knocked out person or their mates).
Still not playing enough these days. Between the baby's evening schedule, walking the dog, keeping the lawn in check, and ensuring the house doesn't fall down I just haven't had the time I need to train. I'm hoping I can carve out some time this weekend, and in July Haley's Mom will be here to help out, so hopefully I can ramp up the training then. But if I'm being perfectly honest, I don't feel great about my training regimen this year and that's disappointing.
On the brighter side, my recent training has gone well. I got my first dropless runthrough 2 sessions ago, and in my last session I went dropless again on my first try. I really want to keep the streak going, as that'd build my confidence a lot. I guess even if I don't keep the streak going, at least I'm working on the routine already and hopefully that'll pay off.
The other event I've been practicing has been Shred30. If I had to guess right now, I'd say there's only like a 30% chance I even enter the event at Worlds. That's entirely dependent on how the timing of the events go really. If it ends up being something like routines and Shred30 are run on the same day, then I'll probably compete in both if the time between my pool and Shred30 is close. But if its something like I'm in the first pool of routines, and then Shred30 is in the afternoon a couple hours later...I'd just scratch in that scenario. At my age, I don't want to warm up, cool down, then try and warm up again. And given that I only really care about routines, I'm gonna strongly prioritize that event even if means scratching from other events. Ideally though, I'd love to compete in every freestyle event.
So why train for Shred30 if I probably won't compete in it? The better question may be: why not? While Shred30 is 25% as long as a routine, both share similar goals. Don't drop. Stick to the plan. If you deviate from the plan, can you recover and get back on track? In a lot of ways, a Shred30 is like a concentrated routine. So I figure working on my Shred30s probably can only help my routines. If I can compete in both events, that's just a plus.
At the 37 second mark of this video I hit one of my better Shred 30 runthroughs:
30 tricks
29 uniques
2 three adds
24 four adds
4 five adds
122 total adds
If I hadn't repeated a trick, that'd be 244. So with the repeat trick it's probably close to 240. If I had made the repeated ducking osis just a normal far osis, it would come out at 242. I think my PR is around 214, and that was set over 10 years ago? I definitely think I could break that in competition, but there are so few opportunities to even try. Other than Worlds and Tokyo Shredder Gathering, what events even run Shred30 anymore? I'm thinking this year is probably my last really focusing on routines, so maybe in future years I train for Shred30s instead. We'll see.
Shred 30 is great, particularly for training without dropping, with a bit higher intensity than routines. You can also check off if it's better/worse than your previous time around, just by the score.
My phone broke, which is bad timing and inconvenient on a lot of fronts. From the footbag side, the 2 biggest impacts are that I had a new podcast recorded on there that I didn't export, and also I practice my routine playing my song off of it. So no phone means no music practice for now. I have a couple workarounds in mind though.
Matthias brings up a good point, that oftentimes video doesn't give key details such as audience reaction and vibe. I thought the top 2 Euro routines were pretty close myself.
I'm not opposed to having some audience input into the results, but the key is figuring out what's the right amount. In the NBA, fan voting accounts for some small percentage of the annual awards, but it's a very small percentage.
Going on baby's first plane ride in a couple hours. Crazy how much stuff we need to pack for such a small baby. Not bringing footbag gear because of it, so that's another 5 days with no practice for me...
Worlds registration is up! That's awesome, everything feels more real now. I even uploaded my routine song already, though I may do a diff routine in the first round. We'll see. Still need to pay. But yeah, it's exciting to see names already appearing in the "who's registered" section.
Shred with Boatz and Polini on Tuesday
In my defense, this time I think it's for real. This summer marks 20 years officially playing for me, and I'm already living the reality that having a baby means I can't spend the time I used to on practicing footbag, especially to the level I need to do well in comps. So hopefully I can make a good showing at Worlds this year where I feel good about my performance, and then shift into a more casual relationship with the sport going forward. We shall see.
