Name: Scott Davidson
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Website: http://footbagfreestyle.blogspot.com/
See all Scott Davidson Posts here!

I came across these tricks that I have visited before, but never got on tape or even discussed them that I can remember. The Barfly has always been a challenge for me to do solidly, and I have been working on them for literally 20 years now. I’ve been doing a lot of Rakes lately, especially cross-body Rakes. This past week, my peanut butter got into my chocolate and I brought Barfly together with Cross Body Rake and made a BarFlake. I know this has another street name, as I know it has been done before, but because I live in a vacuum I don’t know what it is called. I didn’t stop there, I have also done versions starting with Fairy, Pixie, Stepping-opp, Stepping-same and spinning. All on this film, and with slo-mo to reveal the thinness. All kind of thin, they look good from above. It is especially noticeable since I had to use an up-angle when I was filming.

I also hit a Blur that has an extra Symposium Mirage before the toe pickup. Also in slo-mo. It was suggested that this is a stepping paratoxic (backside symposium) blur, I don’t know what to call it, which is why I put it online for peer review.

Shred notes: 1st two weeks of August…
Played through my injury from last week of July, it is no longer effecting me at all, thank goodness. I’ve been obsessed with these new tricks. Been lucky with weather! Totally lucky, like cloudy-icky mornings turning to sun literally as I arrive at the Mammoth Springs Training Center. Mosquitos everywhere near the river, but not on the asphalt playing surface that I utilize. I’m going to Funtastik and I have been getting some NICE run-thru’s of my routine! I’m gonna be ready again this year and I look forward to a great event!

Name: Scott Davidson
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Website: http://footbagfreestyle.blogspot.com/
See all Scott Davidson Posts here!

Bummed that I can’t make Worlds2010. Physically depressed. But I won’t let that stop me.

If I didn’t videotape myself at the end of each jam session, I don’t think I would remember half of what I accomplish. This 10 minute movie may bore the uninitiated to death, but for me it is my passion. I love freestyle footbag, as it continues to challenge both my mind and body!

These videos serve my sense of posterity. In 20 years, I’ll look back at these days in fond memory of how my game has evolved. I fully expect to be playing freestyle footbag into my 60′s, and these will serve as a nice comparison…

High speed subject (me) and new iPhone4 video camera. If I didn’t make these videos, I might forget what I hit. Long strings coming tomorrow in separate video. This video contains a trick that is NEW to mankind: Spinning Ducking Xbody Whirling Rake. Seamless Juggles from Blurs, Gyro Mirages and Fairy mirages. Whirling Sole to Symposium whirl. Fairy Ducking Barfly. Blurry Whirling Cross Body Rake. Insane threading strings, including new Sewing Machine sets. Ducking Symposium Whirl. Mobius to Double Osis. Pendulum Sets into torque. (Just hit Pendulum set to paradox drifter today, not on tape yet). Fairy Ducking Cross Body Rake. Among tons of other tricks. More daily.

Name: Scott Davidson
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Website: http://footbagfreestyle.blogspot.com/
See all Scott Davidson Posts here!

It was Independence Day, July 4th 2010 in our hometown of Oak Park, IL and we had marched, or shredded, in the parade for the past 5 years running. Our sponsor was not in the parade this year so we decided to just jump in as the parade gets going and fill in the gap between two floats. It turned out that we might have been the most energetic and unique entry, and we weren’t even officially there. Check it out!

Later that day, we went to DMB at Alpine Valley and shredded in the parking lot twice and again on the deck waiting for Dave to get on stage. Then we relaxed. Total blast of a day.

Shred notes; 7.6.2010
This week was busy, and as I still continue to recover from my self-inflicted toe injury, I have NOT broken my streak. Today was 1293 in a row! We did Taste of Chicago last weekend, this weekend we did Los Lonely Boys and Los Lobos concert at Petrillo Bandshell shreds, then the Parade and DMB. Yesterday at Great America theme park. Shredded at lunch today, mostly routine stuff. Can’t play music and record video from iphone4 at the same time, no problem, time to whip out the old shuffle!

Name: Scott Davidson
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Website: http://footbagfreestyle.blogspot.com/
See all Scott Davidson Posts here!

Life is teaching me a lesson about pain. How serious it is when someone is in constant pain, please take them seriously and try to make them comfortable. It is mentally debilitating. It effects my every moment. I work hard, I play hard and I love every minute of it. My intention is to perform my best at every moment, in every aspect of my life. To lead by example. Even in the best of situations, it is difficult to stay in the moment. When pain like this is present, it makes its way to the foreground and hampers my best efforts at excellent performance. It distracts me from my focus on performing well in the moment, and makes me just try to survive it.

I tried to take a short nap before the Argentina vs. Mexico world cup game today, and I thought about how the pain is amplified by landing on my right foot. Really, it was the shoe constricting against the swollen toe that causes the pain. I was in so much pain when I was at work this week, standing all day in tight fitting shoes. I would wear sandals to work, but the new rules there technically keep me from that and I think it is unsafe to wear open toe shoes when riding a xootr anyway. It occurred to me that regardless of how it looks, I need to relieve my pain at work so just standing there doesn’t make me cringe in pain, I need to convert a pair of old Rod Laver shoes into Genzu modified Rod Lavers. I looked up Daryl’s blog and found the picture that changed my day.

Today I modified a pair of old blue Rod Laver’s so the right toe is open like Daryl ‘Genzu’ Genz’s. It worked, an orthopedic success! Especially since the only shoes I ever wear are Rod Laver tennis shoes. I did a footbag demo at Taste of Chicago with Alex and Valeria, and I made it through the two hours with the microphone, and another hour kicking with the CIC guys by Buckingham Fountain. I got some good footage and will publish a movie soon. It was hard to set the footbag off of my right toe because of the intensity of effect caused by my toe curl, but I could figure that out if I had to. My infection did get worse and the swelling went up, but I was able to bear it. I hope this infection passes, because living with pain like this is unfathomable. I can’t imagine what it must be like for someone with real problems like Cancer, Diabetes or heart disease. Ouch.

-enlightener

Shred notes: 6/27/10
Just glad to be shredding. Infection still getting worse. Little white dot showed up in the middle of the swollen part. Playing on grass sucks, but when doing youth outreach, you can’t be picky. Not ideal, but probably less impact on my toe too.

Name: Scott Davidson
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Website: http://footbagfreestyle.blogspot.com/
See all Scott Davidson Posts here!

EVERYONE in Chicago area should be at Windy City Cup at Navy Pier north entrance today, Sunday, June 20 whether you freestyle or play net, this is the place to be! 10-5… this is possibly the best location for a footbag tournament that footbag net has ever seen in Chicago! Be there!

A huge storm came through, 100′s of thousands of people without power, but our Comcast went out so we had power, but no internet or cable TV. Why did the storm come through during World Cup? Anyway, I was looking through my DVD collection, it was early in the morning, and I threw in the Tricks of the Trade II video (if you have VHS, you can get a copy for $5) from World Footbag Association and Kenny Shults.

I am so proud and motivated by the achievements of others. I am grateful to have been around for many of these milestones. Not many people watch old footbag videos from past World Championships performances and are brought to tears, but I’m one of them. Watching the greats like Sam Conlon, Peter Irish and Rippin Rick Reese do the routines that I was busy judging is inspiring to say the least. Watching Carol Weidemier (sp?) do effortless Blurry Drifters, just amazing. I took 2nd place behind Rippin’ in that Montreal dropless routine he did, and I’m pretty sure I took 2nd behind Peter Irish in that Satellite routine too. I love this sport!

Watching all my friends do their tricks and having Kenny Shults describe the details is especially helpful to people like me who struggle to grasp the names of some advanced tricks. It is like having Kenny Shults as my personal coach! Also, with advanced tricks I can pick apart the technical sequence, but I always forget the street-names of tricks and this video helps me to get the names right.

I saw a bunch more tricks that I would like to perfect, it is such a great video that every mid level player should have it, and every advanced player should study it! Get your copy of Tricks of the Trade II video today (if you have VHS, you can get a copy for $5) from World Footbag Association and Kenny Shults. Novice and intermediates should be careful not to try to get to these tricks too quickly. I firmly believe that part of my longevity has to do with the amount of time I spent on each component of the more advanced tricks and my organic approach toward bettering my game.

Side note: Hey WFA! How hard would it be to get this video available for digital purchase through iTunes Movie store? Could be a new revenue stream for you.

To wrap this up, I want to thank all my footbag friends for continuing on this journey of athletic challenges with me!

Shred hard and prosper!

-enlightener

Shred notes: June 19, 2010
It is frustrating to spend 15 minutes on a trick and not hit it. Quantum is my ‘nemesis’ (excuse the freestyler pun) these days. I can’t seem to get close. I need to watch that frame by frame because I am missing something. I can’t skool it too hard because I don’t want to cause stress injuries from new movements, so I’ll keep working on it periodically. Been skooling routines and long strings lately, mostly at Mammoth Springs Training Center.

Name: Scott Davidson
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Website: http://footbagfreestyle.blogspot.com/
See all Scott Davidson Posts here!

Today is 1276 days in a row shredding.

In my most recent post, I focused on being ‘in’ the moment. Mostly because upon further analysis, the moment is all we have. In life and in footbag, being focused on the moment, while having an outline for the future and a fond recollection of the past is what makes a good person great!

When I can complete a trick that has 5 or 6 elements and follow it immediately with a series of other tricks that are similarly difficult, I know that I have mastered that moment, that I was in ‘the Zone.’

To reiterate my recent postulation, I feel that my experience with footbag where I am constantly challenging myself to focus as many elements of difficulty into each moment, has helped me to realize that some of my greatest moments are when I’m just enjoying the beach with my family, eating dinner with my parents. Different situations require varying types of mastery, but recognizing that it is the moment I am in, rather than the moment that is (in theory) coming up, which is truly valuable.

I ask myself as often as possible, how can I master ‘this’ moment? I find myself going through this mental exercise more frequently during my conscious hours… In the morning, how can I be more efficient in getting things done around the kitchen while still preparing for work and enjoying it? How do I get to work? How can I out-perform at work? How do I get the most value from my play time (shred sessions)? What is the implications of my commuting decisions? How can I be the best dad when I’m around the house in the evenings and weekends?

I think living in the moment, allows me to live without regrets. So I find myself asking myself, “Self? How can I be ‘in the Zone’ in every aspect of my life?”

-enlightener

Shred notes: from Thurs, June 17th
Kicked at Mammoth Springs Training Center and worked mostly on routines for the past 2 days. It has been fun. Nothing new, but still hitting the barfly ending in cross body rake in many iterations daily. Skool it baby!

Name: Scott Davidson
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Website: http://footbagfreestyle.blogspot.com/
See all Scott Davidson Posts here!

I have been threading for years now. It started literally at the VERY beginning of my footbag experience. It is difficult to put into writing the magnitude of the effect that Gary Lautt had on my understanding of that a freestyle performance is. Back in 1985, in the early days of VHS, it was rare to use videotape for learning purposes. It was rare to see any valuable footage of any advanced footbag freestyle at all. In fact, advanced freestyle at the time did not include the concept of “adds”, and did not have any content beyond around-the-worlds and flying clippers. I am not sure where I saw Gary play, probably at a WFA event associated with Worlds, but to see someone so confidently hit repeated rainbow outside kicks with effortless abandon, and spins ending in inside kicks for an NBA basketball crowd at halftime… it was awe-inspiring. Everyone in the audience knew exactly what was happening in his performance, they related to it… I related to it. In a big way!

This is when I first saw Gary thread the footbag his encircled fingers in-between kicks. I have to say, that with all of the advancement in footbag freestyle, I still see the value of what Gary’s performances offer. The simplicity of basic kicks with the added difficulty of threading it through his fingers. It was amazing.

It was after at least 20 solid years of shredding that I finally started applying the “Lautt-inspired” Threading concept to more advanced tricks. I wanted to call it the “Lautt” to honor the great-one, but after years of trying, it is better known as “Threading”. I have applied the “Threading” concept to so many different tricks, I should make a list.

Today I honored Gary by devoting my entire shred (except for the run-thru my worlds routine at the end) to Threading tricks.

Gary Lautt is a great footbag player and an amazing innovator for the sport, and although I don’t know him well, I have the greatest respect for Gary. I consider myself fortunate to be included alongside him in the Footbag Hall of Fame, and I am glad to offer an entire category of trick-modifiers called “Threading” that can be added to just about any trick, 100% inspired by Gary Lautt!

-enlightener

Example of Threading Concept

Shred notes: 6/8/10
It was all Threading, all day today! I hit new Threading moves including Juggle-thread, which is further out front than comfortable. It seems that if I do the comfy-thread then the threads are too close to the body, but if I do the comfy-juggle then the threads are more uncomfortable but because the juggle is tantamount, then it is more important to be uncomfortable with threading so far in front of the body to make the juggle more comfy. Also hit both Gyro Threading Whirls in the same string and each individually several times with the right being ironically dominant. Successful cross-training!
At the end of it all, I did a 3-drop version of my Worlds routine with about 75% accuracy vs. intent.

Footbag freestyle! ‘This is not your fathers’ Hacky Sack®”

Name: Scott Davidson
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Website: http://footbagfreestyle.blogspot.com/
See all Scott Davidson Posts here!

This is a concept that has been literally stumbled upon by many, but until now, not fully embraced as a concept in the Footbag freestyle community. I think Rooted tricks deserve a Body add, much like Symposium gets… and Pure Solo tricks definitely should get an extra add. Not that I really care about adds.
“>

Definition of ‘Rooted’:
When a player both catches and lands with the same foot at the same time while the other leg does not touch the ground.

Modification of ‘Pure Solo’:
When a player shows balance and control after a Rooted catch by freezing position, ideally with a difficult balancing position, like grabbing the non-rooted foot with other hand.

Almost every trick that ends with a toe delay can be Rooted. Possible that clippers could be Rooted, but unlikely. Well I did experiment with that and found it is possible, but since I needed to step down almost immediately after the Rooted inside and walk over it, there was no chance of a Solo modification to this, and it was really hard to see if it was even rooted. So I’m not going to break my ankles over this. I suppose someone with complete ‘crankle’ can pull it off, but no rush there for me.

Today I hit some more new ones:
Paradox Solo DLO,
Nuclear Solo toe pickup

The ultimate would be to do all of them Pure.

Rooted is not a new concept, but up until now it has only been stumbled upon by players as a bail. For instance, even when I do a clipper set step plus extra mirage and end with Rooted it ‘feels’ like a bail. When it is done intentionally, it adds an element of difficulty to the tricks that have been modified by it, and deserves an add when being counted. It can be applied to any trick ending on a toe. Pure Solo Rooted indicates a grab and frozen balance position at the point of the Rooted maneuver.

Watch the movie above to see many examples of Rooted and Pure Solo. Ran out of battery today, but added a few new tricks to this concept.

-enlightener

Syndicated with permission from http://footbagfreestyle.blogspot.com/

1040 days in a row today. Playing every day is a physical challenge to be certain, but the more difficult part of the equation is the mental game.

My biggest challenge is the duality where the lazy part of my brain says take it easy today, and that urge needs to be overcome by the part of my brain that wants to achieve the tough goals that have been internally agreed upon.

Mind tricks:
-Having a goal for the day helps motivate. I challenge myself to skool a weakness, or hit a big trick.
-Schedule your day and include a time when you can shred.
-don’t let the lack of ideal location stop you. Be prepared to play anywhere. I’ve played in hallways at nearby hotels, unheated, but wind protected staircases. I’ve played in extreme cold (-5 degrees in front of apple store downtown, with chemical hand earners under my toes, and steam eminating from body.). I try to avoid wind. I can even be productive in a 6′ square area like my living room.

Be prepared to take extreme measures to accomplish your goals! I can’t wait to play today!