Ok, so technically it's still winter. Sure as shit feels like winter around here. Those long weeks of near or below zero temps makes the 34f feel like 60f! I took advantage of the last 3 days by biking to Welles Park to do some solo wall ball to help scrape off some of that winter rust. I'm so fucking outta shape. Wall ball is better than nothing but wall ball with no focus is not nearly as effective as it could be. Some short term goals for the season; keep working my left side and get my basic kicks solid and consistent, buy more net bags before summer, try as hard as possible to go to next Memphicago and The Mud Island Belt events.
Vince gave back that loaner court before he moved out west and I live closer to 2 parks now. Here's an overview of how I would like to see things work out for the next year. Weekdays will be left fairly open. I'll try and see if Tommy or Carrie would want to kick at Welles after work. If neither are available I could also try the twins and see if they want to play at River or Peterson park. If all else fails I'll just hacksturbate against the wall. Saturdays I would like mixed sessions at Welles with any available net players and the dying (seriously) shred & squares scene. Sundays are strictly reserved for full net sessions with CLCK. I know I need to play as much as possible but it's also hard to stay motivated throughout the year.
There are still a couple of possible new players I keep in contact with that I think would like net after trying it. I've tried on multiple occasions to bring them out with no success...yet. I'll keep trying. We met another new guy at the past New Years Jam who said he would be interested in at least trying net. Seems pretty cool. Been hacking for a long time and is fairly athletic from what I've seen. He took gymnastics as a kid. The freestylers haven't quite sunk their girl nails into him. I think they underestimate my limitless charisma and my uncanny jungle good looks!
LOL.
So, I'll be posting practice sessions as I have them and maybe the occasional video. Feel free to offer any tips, advice and be brutally honest about my technique (as you see them in vids, rare spring sessions or even what you may have witnessed the past season) as I can't always spot what I'm doing wrong. Laterz.
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what are the The Mud Island Belt events??
The Mud Island Belt is the new name for the annual tournament held in Memphis. They play on an island in the Mississippi called Mud Island, and they are starting a new tradition of giving away a WWF-style belt to the champions (sort of like the Windy City Cup). This year's tournament will be held April 18-19.
Saturday, Sunday and Monday I played solo against the wall. I have a band aid still stuck there from last summer that I set at 5 feet (right were my eyes are). Rallies to warm up with trying to go as long as I can without dropping. Some basic left outside kick drills where I whip the bag off the wall then try to bump with my left and rewarding myself with a scuff it I set/bump it properly.
I'm not quite giving up on standing sweeps and I've practiced this more often than any other spike the past 3 days. One major correction I've made is not setting up my shoulders perpendicular to the "net" and having more of my back facing it. I'm getting more swing, therefore more velocity. It generates good power if and when I make contact. I also found that leaning onto my swing adds a little bit of power. I can definitely utilize all this on my sweep serve.
I've drilled scuffs and front backs a bit but I have not really focused on them. I'm really liking my standing sunback. Why? My quads are being used. Have you seen my fucking legs? The leg swings upward a full 5 1/2 feet, quads snap and there's a toe flick at the end. This is easily the hardest spike I hit and it's nasty. I really want to tattoo some poor fool with this. If the set is too far to the right I've been able to adjust to a toe reverse easily enough.
I'm slowly getting the timing and technique down on standing pulldowns. I used to just raise my leg then try to swing down. Now I'm swinging upwards (like a sunback) then hitting the bag as my leg "bounces" off me and swings down. I'm also trying to lean back more, giving me more room to swing (contacting the bag higher)and being able to snap to add more power. Still needs more work.
Memphicago 3.1 was awesome!!!!!! For those that don't know, its when the Chicago and Memphis net crews get together for an afternoon of pick-up games in Salem Illinois. I missed 2.2 but the guys that did make it happened to make it to the local paper.
I got up at 4 (after only 3 hours of sleep), packed my things then left my house @ 5:15. Bus to the blue line train then took that to the end of the line at Forrest Park. Three minutes after getting off the train, the rest of the guys show up in Bryan's massive red truck. I should have taken a pic of this thing! Scot rode shotgun with me and Cory lounging comfortably in the back, extremely spacious and comfortable! Damn can that thing haul ass! I think we averaged about 80mph most of the time.
We make it to Salem in just under 4 hours and even managed to run into Ben at a gas station as we picked up some last minute food and drinks. We get to the park, unpack, set up 2 courts and started warming up. We played 1 game to 15 then the winning team would split and team up with another winning player from the other court, losers did the same. Then winners play winners and losers play losers. It worked out well and everyone got a chance to play with everyone else at least once. Here's the attendance breakdown:
Chicagoland area
-Bryan Nelson
-Cory Current
-Scot Hansen
-Zeke
Memphis
-Ben Alston
-Ken Hamric
-Walt Houston
Downstate Illinois.
-Mike Bellman
I think I did an ok job on the court for it being the first full session of the year and going up against that much talent. I overset most of the day and it was the cause of many lost rounds. Didn't use my left leg when the bag came to that side. Watched too many passes land 'in'. Passed up so many sweet sets. Serve returns were pretty bad. Despite all that I did have a lot of fun.
On the positive side, I think I played well defensively. Got my second blocked shot, stuffing Mikey on a side axe attempt. That gave me the confidence at making more of a presence at the net and challenging shots. Got a couple good digs and got my foot on several spikes. Hustled all day to run down shanks. Offensively, my serves were ok. It would be foolish to expect them to be as hot as they were near the end of last season. They were ok. I still don't spike nearly as often as the other players but the ones I did connect with had some heat on 'em. Absolutely crushed an overset with a sideaxe early in the day playing against Scot. Blasted a toe jam past Hammer. Hit a couple good scuffs and one big sweep that found their way to the back court. Failed at pretty much every sunback I took a swing at. My timing was just off.
Bryan had an off day and didn't play nearly as well as I've seen. Mike played well and has a wicked toe jam. Scot was solid and his sweep serve was giving everyone problems. Cory had a slow start but was his usual self as the afternoon progressed, He ended the day by getting game point with a massive crush.
I spoke with Walt briefly before warm-ups and he mentioned he was coming off a bad ankle sprain and dealing with some hamstring/groin problems. This was the first time I've played with and against him and he wasn't nearly as explosive as he was during last years WCC but still fun to watch. His cousin, Ben Alston, is even more fearless in the air than Tommy (too bad he couldn't make it to this) He takes these massive swings at such crazy angles that I'm usually more worried [as a defender] about not getting hit with one of his spikes than actually trying to defend it. It's funny to hear the random things they say on the courts and I found them both to be very encouraging partners.
Ken really made an impression on me Sunday. He was making crazy digs and sliding into the ground. His sets were perfect and his sweeps are a thing of beauty and . I even managed to get a good photo of him crushing one in the air. I was fortunate to be able to partner with him a couple times during the day.
In between games we ate Bryan's home made sloppy joes. He brought them in a crock pot that he connected to an electrical outlet at the site. I killed at least 3 of those things, they were friggin' great! I would have had more if I wasn't playing the rest of the day. Played to music on his radio and relaxed on 4 folding chairs. We had food, music, great weather, 8 players for the first session of the season. Memphicago 3.1 was awesome!!!!!!
4-21-09
During the Mud Island Belt, I played my best on Saturday. I hit a vicious sunback early during pools vs the Chaos team of Jack Harris and Jeremy Mirken. It came streaking down their right side. Jack dodged the near-tattoo as the bag hit their back corner for the kill. "You're trying to kill me!" he said as the play ended.
"I gotta make some kind good first impression" I replied, trying to be clever. It apparently didn't scare him enough since they beat us in 2 straight games. I took many big swings trying that same spike during the rest of the day only to hit the net or just plain whiff the set. Our final match that day was against Memphis veterans WillI and Chuck. Mikey gave me a sweet set from back court. I got into position with my back to the net and waited as the bag sailed into range. I decided not to try and scissor kick the sunback (as I had done in all the previous attempts) and just hit the spike standing. This is how I normally hit it during solo wall ball sessions, not sure why I try to scissor kick during games... anygay, the set came down and I swing my right leg upwards. I grunted as I connected solidly with my toe. The bag goes screaming down the right side as it did before. But this time it does not hit the grass in the back corner, instead, it smashes into Chuck's left collar bone! This was no grazing contact - it was an epic collision. Everyone's reaction erupted at the same time. Even Kenny, who was judging our match was like, "OOOOOOH!!!"
Normally, I instantly get pumped after giving a tattoo but it hit him so hard I actually felt guilty and asked if he was ok. We were all able to joke about it afterward. Good times.
4-26-09
goddamn, piece of shit, useless, sonuva bitch, punk ass, dip shit, dick weed, cock suckin, goat fuckin, corpse sodomizing, sphincter rimming, felching, crappy, shitty, miserable, dick faced, scrotum breath havin, good fer nothin, jail raped, footbag hatin Chicago weather.
Fuck you and you shitty parks.
Fuck you and you Nazi security
Fuck you and your 3 weeks of nice weather
Fuck you twice sideways.
Fuck you with a barbed, splinter havin', baseball bat that was dipped in swine flu juice and retarded ape piss.
Die of Aids pox you you fucking whore anus of a city!
FUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I just wanted to play some net today...
5-12-09
Finally had our first doubles session here in Chicago last Sunday and sadly, we had to wait until May again this year. I've got some mixed feelings about this session. While it was great to get some doubles games going, I did not play as well as I could have. The day did end on a good not as I hooked up with the freestyle crew + James Rizden to get some Giordano's pizza. The Stuffed spinach and mushroom was perfect!
On the way to Jane Adams Memorial near Navy Pier I ran into Tommy, Nathan and Tom on the bus. I must admit that my eagerness to play doubles completely overwhelmed my happiness to see James again. They went off to a different shred spot in Olive Park which left Ronnie stranded since no other squares player showed up until later. He did play a few pick-up games with us and mentioned that he could see himself playing more net.
I never properly warmed up and ended up playing very inconsistent. We effectively had a 5 man rotation and I shot pics instead to loosening up and staying warm. I felt I made quite a few stupid plays that made me second guess my decisions through out the rest for the day. Maybe I had just as many good plays as bad ones but I just remember being frustrated most of the time. It's days like this when I feel like my practice is completely ineffective and just wasted time. Am I practicing bad form? Am I having a bad session or is this something that newbs just go through?
Other than the usual sketchy serve returns I think I did ok defensively. Got some nice digs and postponed a few game points. Almost blocked Tommy again but the bag landed on our side. My highlight of the day was stuffing Cory in the last game. I went up and side axed his side axe. I felt the bag hit my foot before we came crashing back down. I saw that bag bouncing around on their side of the court then got up and just screamed in excitement. There was a bit of controversy when Tommy asked which one of us hit the net but Ted grabbed the bag and prepared to serve for our team before the mystery was truly solved. It was a tough match but we finished a respectable 12 to their 15 points. We stayed competitive so I would would still count the loss as a positive.
The freestyle crew had finished up and met back at the net site. Tommy(2) jumped in and did some hand toss rallies with me and Ronnie. Then he tried some spike practice. I was particularly impressed with his scissor sweep attempts. The freestylers were lightheartedly heckling him and telling him to just quit now.
So, going back to having mixed feelings about this session, part of it was from the frustration of my inconsistent play and part of it was Ronnie. Well not on a personal level, but just having a new guy on the court slowing things down. I have been waiting for months to play doubles here and he only played when I was in rotation so the games were toned down to adjust for him. It's a shitty thing because I'm all about bringing in new people But that day I really wished he would just NOT play. Selfish, I know. But that's me, so shut the fuck you.
Hm, not sure if I would have felt the same if it were Tommy(2) in Ronnie's place...
5-13-09
Tommy has asked me on several occasions if I wanted to move out to the bay area with him while he peruses an MFA. I have not given him a definitive answer yet. He actually bought a house here last year though.
The weather around here is finally starting to get to me.
Back to Tommy, he's very excited to be playing and training with Chao the week before Green Cup. I asked him to be my partner for WCC but he mentioned that PT has set him up with a partner for Green Cup and they will be playing together again for WCC if the guy can make it to Chicago. Bryan Nelson will be busy with his pregnant wife and is not sure he'll be able to participate in the event. That leaves me with either Mike Bellman or Greg Grandy. Neither of which have confirmed their attendance nor would I be able to practice with very much or at all. Well, whatever the case, I would like to play with Tommy more often since he is the closest player to me by far. Our schedules just haven't been working well together.
He and I had 2 singles sessions about a month ago. I get more volleys and rallies playing against him than I did playing vs Vince. Most of the time we do hand toss rallies. He didn't seem too keen on doubles practice with the net set up against a wall. I've had a couple solo practices this way which is great because I don't have to go far to retrieve the bags when I practice spikes or serves. Unfortunately, it's adjacent to a baseball field and I can't practice there when a game is in progress - which is often.
Lately I've just set up on any level piece of grass I can find that's not too muddy (I can't complain about the weather around here nearly enough to subdue my growing contempt for it) and do some light spike practice. Hitting hard means wasting time gathering 6 bags scattered all over gods creation. I might just go back to wall ball. I need work on by bumps anyway.
I did get a surprise when Ronnie agreed to practice with me last Thursday. We did serve/return drills, bump & kill drills then many rounds of monster. It was the most productive practice session I've had this year. Ronnie never struck me as a player that takes instruction well. Nothing aggravates me more than trying to teach someone something only to have them respond with 'whatever, man'. Ronnie says that a lot, which is just short of blatant disrespect IMHO. He also wishes he could freestyle and be better at 4S. Well, if he just wants to wish and not work towards that end he might as well just get used to his frustration. I should take my own advice!
While I do appreciate someone to play/practice with, I'm not putting much stock in him wanting to drill as much as we need to.
5-16-09
Last week I practiced with Josh at River park. Worked on some basics with hand toss rallies and serve/return drills. I really like working on returns since it's so unpredictable. I scratched the face of my new watch climbing the metal fence to retrieve the bag from the locked pool area. I just bought the goddamned thing too. Josh had shanked one of my serves with his lright shin and it welted up almost immediately! I don't think I've seen anything quite like that before. Did some more light spike practice after he left.
2 practice sessions on Thursday. I biked to Welles late in the morning with the court straped to my shoulder only to find a game being played near the wall I intended to practice against. So I biked a few miles north to Warren and set up there instead. I can't set up as close to the wall as I would like (ended up with the net about 15ft away) but it worked well enough. Wall ball to warm up then practiced sweeps extensively. Tried a few toe flips and scissor sweeps until my back started aching from the twisting. After an hour and a half I packed up rode home and finally got some breakfast and took a couple eye-bees
Got in a practice with Tommy(2) later in the day. He bought a pair of my old lavers from me. We did power, hand toss rallies, serve/return drills and bump & kill drills. He shred with Tom and Nathan when they arrived after kicking at a skate park. By this time my body was loose, warmed up and the ibuprofen were in full effect. Drilling solo I worked on scuffs, frontbacks, sunbacks, moustraps, side axe and more sweeps. I've getting more comfortable hitting sweeps as a line drive from mid court. Not the most ideal way to use it since defenders have more time to react due to the longer straight trajectory. I felt I got some decent progress with mousetraps. I concentrated on leaning back more and they cleared the net more often then not but there's still not much power to them. I'm thinking I can set up with dinks then trying the mousetrap when the defender plays closer to the net anticipating the short shot. Got some thai food with the guys after we were all done kicking.
Today I practiced with Jake. Power, hand toss, serve/return, bump & kill and many, many rounds of monster. I tried to shred a bit before we eventually moved on to some 2S. Some guy volleyed with us over the net for a while before his gf stunk-eyed him away. You know that look. We all do, either directly or indirectly. Fucking bitches, lol. Jake left and I was in the middle of some half-assed mousetrap practice when Kim and Barbara showed up to kick. I set up the 4S court then put away the net. They only had about 45 min to play since Barbara had to be home by 6pm. It was only after I had learned she was also packing for a trip to New York next week with friends did I think her curfew was ridiculous. I was pretty exhausted so it actually made the games more interesting. We hacked for a bit to finish off the day. Barb was trying toe stall while Kim and I kicked. Kim mentioned that she didn't like kicking in a "line" since it took more effort and control to kick the bag to the other person. Hacky slacker! Hehe. It just struck me as odd since hacking requires so little effort to me now. Anygay...
5-21-09
I was fully prepared to play solo yesterday when Ronnie text me asking when I got off work. I text Daniel, one of the guys Ken brought on Sunday if he wanted to kick too. I bike to Welles and meet Ken unexpectedly. I guess Dan had told him about the impromptu session. Ronnie shows up and we set up the net court. We were in the middle of hand toss rallies (it was more hand toss then wiff but wutevz) when Dan and three other guys show up! We break off into 2 big teams and I immediately pick the 2 taller players since my team would only have 3 and Ronnies side would have 4 players.
What a whiff fest!
I could set my 2 guys but they really didn't know what to do with it. I managed 2 sweeps that this guy Kyle amazingly dug back into play. He even managed to bump 2 of my serves! The biggest guy on my team, Tom (yeah, another one) was able to get a couple digs and had some good bangs. Dan was on my team too. He's fast but a bit of a spaz. At one point we served to open ground SIX times in a row! LOL. I told them we didn't have keep playing net and that I had my 4S court with me.
We set up the court and played with a sandbag, probably one of the bags I used to sell. They were not familiar with the concept of having extra players in line and were tainted by the shitty Lane style of play. I just let it slide, didn't want to be too overbearing the first time. Ronnie was having an off day so I swept all three games easily enough. During the massacre the new players were taken out by co-op screens, self screens, hand fakes, kick fakes, back line dinks, Zeke Heils, and all manner of snakes. We played to 21 points. To give you an idea of how easy the games were, during the last 2 I served game point to players with the next highest score - it was 4 and 6 points. They played with an interesting addition where if you were at 17 points and get killed trying to get 18 then you lost all your points. Ken also put in trippy serves. I immediately got to 6 before I killed myself getting too fancy. They took the rule out the next round.
It was getting dark so we hacked in the gazebo. They eventually started asking about stall tricks. I gave them some real basic advice but told them they would have to eventually hook up with real freestylers. The great thing about playing with new people (that is, players you have not kicked with before) is that I can bust out old boring stuff and they are easily impressed. We got a surprise visit by Twitch and Cudo who were on their way to see Terminator Salvation. They were both interested in coming back out to kick. It was about 10 when we all left Welles. It was pretty fun. Hope these guys stick around and play, all the scenes could use new players.
4-21-09
Great Net session at Busse Woods today! I got a text from Cory asking if I wanted to play. I made plans with Scot to meet him at his work so we could drive out to Busse after a quick stop at Wheaton to pick up his kid and get his playing gear. I took the western bus to Division which let me out right across the street from Clemente high school. What a shit hole. I was running late with no Division bus in sight. Managed to change plans and have him pick me up at the corner.
We get to Wheaton where I meet his son after picking him up from pre-school. They say his memory is really incredible and is good with maps and directions. He says some pretty funny things too. We drop him off at home, Scot changes, I pick up some food then were' off to Busse. We have a very good conversation about our insatiable appetites.
Cory and Ted are already there and warmed up. I made it a point to warm up properly today to improve my play during the games. Scot and I power kicked and stretched while the other 2 played a couple quick singles games. After a few rounds of serve/ returns we got our fist match started. Cory/me vs Scot/Ted. I played ok and got a couple sweeps and scuffs in early. Had another near blocked spike against Scot but the damn thing popped off my foot then sailed over and behind me. Serve returns were a little shaky at first. Ted actually drove one of his damn serves straight at me. Stupidly, I backpedaled straight and caught the bag before it hit me in the chest. Very embarrassing. This match went to 3 games which we won.
Next I played with Ted. I thoroughly stunk this match up. Cory and Scot took us in 2 straight. The first game was 15-1 and the second was 15-7. Ted really did all the work while I shanked and whiffed myself into utter uselessness. I just couldn't do anything right. We did fight off several game points by playing good defense but it was way too late and just wasn't enough to get us over the top. Ted really impresses me with his level of play.
For the next match I teamed with Scot. This went to 3 really fun games. We won the first one convincingly but they fought hard to win the next two. I felt I was playing well but Scot was smashing just about every set I gave him. He hit sweeps, scuffs, toe reverse pulldowns and sunbacks. I was setting well and making good digs. I was really feeling comfortable with returning serves with both legs to the point where I could set Scot after the serve. One of the funnier plays occurred when he bumped a pass then positioned himself with his back to the net. We were in a tight 'I' formation when I think my 4S instincts took over and incorrectly recognized the situation as a screen. I sole pushed his low bump right into his face! Our opponents were confused as to what happened but we were too busy laughing to explain. Even though we lost the last 2 games, we stayed competitive and executed like a team. It just felt good to play well. Scot mentioned that was one of most fun matches he's played in a while.
I botched at least 3 toe jam attempts during the day. Two of them would have given my team a crucial side out. My timing on scuffs were a bit off. I would hit with the top of my foot and lob them over with a lot of backspin. I hit one solid scissor sweep and one greasy one that I could not help but laugh at. Today was probablt the most spikes I've hit during a session. The hardest (in terms of power, not difficulty) thing I hit today was a sunback the hit the back line. I've been doing a good job of getting up at the net and not hitting it during the play. Still need more consistency in just about every aspect of my game though
Tentative net session at Jane Adams (Navy Pier) on Monday at 1pm.
Solo wall ball after work on Friday. Rallies, left side bumps, sweep and scuff practice. I focused primarily on sweeps again. Fairly light session. Saturday Ronnie and I spent at least 5 hours at Welles with most of the time doing net drills. Tossed a disc around just to change things up every so often. I got there early stretched and warmed up before Ronnie eventually showed up. We started with basic power kicking and hand toss rallies. Then we moved on to many, many rounds of serve/ return drills. He tried a sweep style serve at first but we could not seem to correct the bad mechanics of his swing. After seeing him toe kick a bag back to me after retrieving it from the field I suggested he try serving with that same style kick and he was finally able to get it over the net. Unfortunately it hurt his foot after several kicks and could not continue to serve. We then did some bump & kill drills. Again, he had problems either setting high enough or banging the bag over the net. He has very limited motion on his swing. Once he figures out how to open his swing up he can be effective on the court.
Two college girls stepped on the court for a bit to try it out. Don't know how interested they would be in actually playing but I got their numbers anyway. Cynthia left early but the other, Liza, stuck around and tried a few spikes. She and Ronnie got into a heavy conversation about some tv show in the middle of hand toss rallies. I toe jammed her with a soccer ball, LOL!
Some time after she left, the twins and one of their friends dropped by on their way to a comic shop. We did 3 vs 2 hand toss rallies for a bit. Using one of the softer net bags I was able to set fairly well. Near the end I set Jake for a flying pulldown that hit just below the tape. He asked for another one and I set him exactly in the same place for the kill. It was a great spike but I was still more in awe of being able to set in the same place twice in a row.
It was cool and cloudy by the time I managed to get a couple people to play at Welles on Monday. Nathan was drilling when I rode up and we eventually started hacking with one of his heavier footbags. We decided to set up my 4S court just as Ronnie showed up (late again). It was drizzling lightly on and off while we played 3 games. I stunk. I just could not keep the bag in the squares. The rain started to get heavier so we decided to stay in the Gazebo and wait it out. There was some kids and their parents shooting there, there was instant tension as we pulled up. Ronnie asked if it was a school project and one mom wasted no time asserting her alpha male douche-baginess, LOL. It was funny at first but as the kids were delivering their dialogue amusment quickly turned into agonizing torture. Who the hell wrote that crap?
We ended up chillin at Potbelly's for a couple hours. Nathan went home after while Ronnie and I went back to the park to play some more. The gazebo was empty now so we kicked there to avoid the damp ground. We were hacking at first but we tried some power kicking drills using one of my Kolo 32's. Using an actual net footbag would have meant lots of wasted time retrieving them. The drills were bump & lob, bump & kill. Then we tried one that I saw in a video where we volleyed back and forth for 2 contacts then on the third kick, the bag went straight up and we switched places and continued the same pattern. This was HARD! I don't think we were able to to do more than one good rep.
It was actually a lot of fun to kick and have some focus to it. Drills just seem like mini-games that help build skills for the real thing.
Earlier I wrote:
"While I do appreciate someone to play/practice with, I'm not putting much stock in him wanting to drill as much as we need to."
Ronnie has definitely proven me wrong so far and I'm glad.
Looking back past all the frustration (read above posts), I think this was a fairly productive spring. I got more bags, went to the events I wanted to go to and people have told me that I've shown improvement. Haven't quite gotten those new players out like I wanted but then again I did stumble into another possible group to convert. Group sessions have been few and far between. The weather, though warmer, has been rainy and not very cooperative. Hopefully the CLCK will play together more during the summer months.
1-117-09
I miss net
I miss...
flying through the air for a spectacular kill
running down shanks
giving my partner the perfect set
watching a real pro crush one of my shitty sets
long rallies
solo practice after a shitty day of work
digging spikes
hard earned wins
being in the right place to defend an easy dink
hustling from a bad spot to defend a dink
shanking the reception but still spiking on 3
spike practice against the wall
the sound of my kick drilling a footbag into brick
rubber matches
scoring 7-9 points in a row on serves
correctly anticipating the play
lefty back kicks that stay in play
kicking the shit out of a footbag
my fucking nasty sunback
sweep serves for game point
the silly shit talk
getting props for a good play
kicking for hours under the sun
being drenched in sweat after a hard day of play
the indescribable rush of connecting with a spike
spike drills
tattoos
crossing the plane
wicked scuffs
that sudden tension of your body as it anticipates your opponents spike
the calm and relaxed dig after
having your back to the net waiting for the set to get in range
absolutely murdering a side axe
sweep serving when the the defense expects a dink
dinking the serve and their funny attempts to play it
that moment when time slows down, the bag becomes huge and you know you've got the perfect set
then you swing with all your might for a monumentally colossal whiff!
And everybody is laughing along with you
Fuck me sideways, its only January
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