World Footbag Championships

The 31st edition of the World Footbag Championships will be held in Oakland, California, from August 1st to the 8th. Check out this link for more details as they are announced: http://www.footbag.org/events/show/1265745512

Session 013110

from Scot H
"Scot 8-1

Cory 7-2

Bryan 5-3 (won every game he played unless he was playing Scot/Cory)

Ted 0-7

Cory and I played 9 games, which means that Ted and either you or Tommy only played 7. If you and Tommy both played 8, then Ted only played 6. Either way, Ted lost every game he played yesterday, which is quite odd for him. (He forgot his normal net shoes, so maybe that had a lot to do with it.)

I think Tommy was a little off, but I’m guessing that you had a fairly decent day. NOTICE: you, me, Bryan and Cory all did doubles monster drill before we began. We all had good days. Ted and Tommy did NOT do the drills, and they had sub-par days. I firmly believe there is a connection here.

Shot of the day- you dig a shot into the net, I set it low off the net, you’re right there and you QUICKLY get up and sideways for the kill. AWESOME!!!"



Weird session 2 weekends ago. I finished 2-5. I actually warmed up and stretched. We even did a couple doubles monster drills to start the day. My body was feeling good but my head just wasn't in it. Six players on the court, Ronnie and Greg didn't make it out.

Scot and Cory played together most of the day to tune up for upcoming events. They won every game they played together. Bryan had a strong day winning all of his matches except when he played against Scot/Cory. Tommy had a 10-3 record the previous two sessions but didn't have as strong an outing on Sunday. Ted was just off and lost every game.

Lots of mistakes. Oddly enough, the music playing kept my energy up and I wasn't aggravated as I normally would have been. I still went home happy that I played. I guess that's why it was a weird session for me. Had a decent day offensively. Hit a couple sweeps and scuffs just because I wasn't "swinging for the fences" as Ted likes to put it.

w/ Tommy vs Scot/Cory 11-21
ugly game

w/ Ted vs Tommy/Bryan 18-21
close game. good defense. huge shtataff whiff. shtataffed bryan in the nuts. hit a couple sweeps, one hit the net and one flew outta bounds. week scuff hit back right corner. Bryan with running bitch slap at the net

w/ Ted vs Scot/Cory 6-21
ugly

w/ Bryan vs Ted/Tommy 21-14
played strong throughout as the other team fought back to chip at our big lead.

w/ Bryan vs Scot/Cory 11-21
strong start but fell apart as our opponents came from behind for the win

w/ Ted vs Tommy/Bryan 15-21

w/ Scot vs Ted/Cory 21-16
fun game

Quote of the day:
Ted finished his warm up and walks over to the court where doubles monster drills are just finishing up, "What the hell are you guys doing?"
Cory replies, "Getting better!"

Scots shot of the day:
I dig a shot in the front left corner but shank it into the net, near center court. Scot calmly steps to the net, waits for the bag to bounce off and gets a foot on it sending it left, back towards me. It was barely a half a foot over the net and maybe heading out of bounds. I get sideways quickly and hit a side axe for a kill. I was pretty pumped up and jumped up off the floor screaming.

Teds shot of the day:
I get a high set from Scot from the center. I step underneath and swing my leg up for a standing pulldown but my timing is off (as usual) and the contact is weak. Ted defends the the shot and tries to upper deck (bang to the back court, generally when both defenders are at the net) us. I quickly turn around take one big step to the bag and hit it with a sunback-ish toe kick that sails back to the opponents court for the kill.

My shot of the day:
In my last game, Scot easily defends a shot and bumps to me and takes his position front and center with his back to the net. In turn I give him I nice easy set that he friggin' murders with a monstrous standing sunback for the kill & for the win! No frantic scrambling, just perfectly fluid execution and solid teamwork. I sat out the last game just so I could end an otherwise mediocre day with his highlight.

Session 012310

Had to work. What did I miss?

Session 011710

I'm lovin' indoor winter sessions! Finished 3-3 with a totally awkward 7 player rotation. Almost the same turnout as last Sunday minus Greg who went out to the Phoenix event. I also like these early morning starts. We've been starting at 9-10 and playing until noon or later.

Got some breakfast before getting to The Shop, helped set up then started warming up. Ronnie and I started with some drills focusing on passing with light contacts and maximum control. Then we did some weak outside kick drills before Tommy came over to rally with us. The A-court started a game with rally scoring to 21 points. I think that will be the format from now on and most of us are getting used to it (that is, we're not bitching about it as much). Ronnie and I eventually played Tommy to 11 points. We were easily beat 5-11. Ronnie needs a lot of work but I do not see him taking the initiative to solve much of that on his own. His serves are probably his most reliable skill at this point with everything else really lagging behind. I did notice the he was more comfortable taking swings when set 3-4 feet off the net.

In the first doubles game, I rotated to A-court and partnered with Cory facing off against Tommy/Ted. too many errors. I served out at least twice in the beginning then a third time at game point giving them the win at 18-21. One play that stuck out was a shot that Tommy hit from back court that froze both Cory and I. We both assumed the other was going to get it and the bag hit the ground uncontested. Lost a joust with Tommy as he dinked a shot right over my blocking foot. As I landed, I got a perfect view of the bag dropping not 1 foot away from me. I managed a few minor highlights by hitting a couple Kennys (from what I understand the motion of the kick is similar to a toe spike except the right foot is turned downward and the contact is made with the outside surface. Hitting with the left is a Gumby) chasing after some low sets. Those are fun. Tommy hit this incredible pulldown that just shocked us into stunned silence. The set came up near the post and I rushed forward in case of an overset but Tommy just came up and made contact with the bottom of his toes and the bag just dropped straight down. I was 3 feet away and I still had no chance of diggin' it. Great shot!

Back to B for some drills.

My next game on A-court was with Tommy vs Ted/Brian who had just beaten Cory/Scot(!). Tommy just came out blazing, getting us to 15-2 lead. We were working very strong together setting, spiking and digging everything. The other team did manage to fight and scratch to get within 2 points of us. Bryan got some payback from last weekend when he tattooed me in the right nipple with his nasty pulldowns (dats kinkee). Ted got a monster block on Tommy but net fouled to give us a point and swing the momentum back to our side. Finally, I managed to end the game with a shaky side axe. That was a good win for Tommy and I. It showed how well we could work as a team. I particularly appreciated the both of us staying focused and not falling completely apart (which has happened too many times in the past) as Ted/Bryan worked away at our lead. We finished relieved and confident at 21-18.

We continued to play well against Scot/Cory. They both may not have been in top form but we knew it would still take some work to get a win. I think we each served out only once during this game. The score was close throughout. Our defense was solid and kept them from scoring long runs on us. Hit one big side axe. In the end Scot had served out to give us the 21-15 win. All his frustration was vented as he let out this loud roar that just filled the shop.

Next, I teamed up with Ted to face Ronnie/Cory. We took the win 20-8 in an uneventful game.

In my final match, I teamed with Bryan against Ted/Tommy. My serve returns, sets and bumps were all over the place and just couldn't give Bryan much to work with. We were quickly beat 8-21. I lost another joust with Tommy, hope Cory's camera caught it all. I crossed over trying to pick off the set first but hit Tommy's foot instead. He still managed to kick the bag over the net for the kill. He was just on fire the whole day. At this point, he was 6-0 and wanted to call it quits for the day. They managed to get him in one more game and got beat by Scot/Cory.

My overall defense could have been better. While I did play well with Tommy, I missed or shanked quite a few shots with both legs throughout the rest of the day. Service returns weren't as terrible as the last few sessions. I did make contact with most serves but I did shank a few too many. I tried to challenge almost everything though with very few instances of shot gazing. I did a pretty good job or playing dinks and oversets but I honestly cant say that about defending the back court.

I was pretty aggressive offensively. I attacked most everything that was set to me (and a few I had to run down) with a high percentage landing in bounds. I think I made good decisions for setting and spiking and don't remember regretting any swings I took. The actual execution of sets were decent until the last game. Serves could have been better, I just hit too many out serves. That's just going to kill you in rally scoring. I'm definitely pleased with my offense this session.

After playing, Ronnie and I chilled at the Golden Nugget diner near my house. It's always nice to hang out after a session to eat and wind down. It was relatively warm enough to just walk home from there and enjoy a few minutes in the sun. Another enjoyable Sunday.

Session 011010

Another fun indoor session on Sunday. In attendance were Scot, Cory, Greg, Ted, Bryan, Tommy, Ronnie and myself. With everyone's help we had the ground swept, lines taped down and nets set up in no time. Warm-ups were rushed as well since we were all eager to start playing. We played to 21 points using rally scoring. Winning teams played on the "A" court and losing teams played on "B". We switched partners before every game.

I finished 3-6 winning with Scot, Greg and Ted ( I think, I should write it down after games). Played with Ted and Ronnie twice but never got to team with Cory. I played ok, about as well as the previous weekend. Same problems; serve returns, oversets and left foot lameness. Served out a few times too. Bryan knows to serve high and behind me and Cory will often serve to my left side.

Had a good day offensively. I turned 2 of Ronnies oversets into a pair of wicked toe jams. Got a jumping sunback that came in from a sharp angle and dropped steeply into the front court for a surprising kill. Tommy gave me a low and shallow set from the back court that I managed to side axe (love those). Side axed another set that tattooed Bryan. One big ass shtataff. Hit a standing bitchslap that had a hint of pulldown. Fucking sweet.

Defense was ok. Not great, not terrible either. Very few instances of shot/serve gazing. I really need to drill left outsides because it's starting to piss me off. I did try to be a bit more vocal and call stuff out but its very easy to get lost in all the chaos.

I'll add more later, probably as comments. Busy at work.

Errors add up

I've been thinking about ways to minimizing as many *simple* errors as possible. Every point scored against us should be earned and not just given away. In close fought games those simple errors may add up to aggravating losses. Let's face it, we're not going to be blowing away every team we face in semi-finals and beyond so we need to play smart and treat every round like it's game point. There are a few things we do that give teams easy points that can be solved with better communication.

On serve returns, we need to communicate/remind that the non serving player needs to watch that far front corner and the server defends the backcourt for the first few kicks then float back to the regular lateral formation (or whatever the situation dictates). Sure, it can be argued that it's rare to be dinked in that spot right after the serve but I think that's pretty weak (and lazy) especially since the solution to the problem is to just simply take a few steps past center court to cover that area.

Also, when we happen to be in the "I" formation defensively, I think the rear player should call out who defends the incoming shots. When I defend front and center I am not always aware of where my partner is behind me. When the shot goes deeper than expected but still just within my reach I will still swing at it. What happens often is that my partner may have been in a better position to get a controlled dig/bump (vs a wild, half blind weak outside kick from me) starts to swing at the bag the same time I do, then we see each other - and we both stop and the shot scores an easy kill! I think that a simple call from the rear defender to coordinate the defense can minimize this problem. I say rear defender because he has view of the entire court and knows where everyone is. The only shots the front player should call are blocks, dinks and easy bumps within his range.

With that said, if a defender takes the initiative to rush the net to make a play, he should call it just as a head's up to his partner. The partner, if he hadn't read the play already, should then rotate over to the middle (or wherever he may think the shot is going) to defend the open area. If there is no rotation, it easily leaves half the court wide open.

One final way I can think to minimize simple errors is to defend shots headed for lines aggressively. There are way too many uncontested shots/serves that hit the line because we assume it's headed out. I say we play the lines like they were a foot wide and we defend EVERYTHING unless the shot is ridiculously out of bounds. Singles finals at the last WCC was an excellent example of this as Cory and Jerbear defended deep shots that may have been just out of bounds. They didn't take any chances and turned what could have been easy uncontested kills into long rallies. How many times have you let a shot fly past you only to land in bounds and you get pissed at yourself for not doing anything? This should NEVER happen. EVER. Challenge the shot! Do not give away points! Sure you may still shank it but at least you've given yourself a chance at making a play. If you just watch you don't give yourself much of a chance and leave it all to luck. Fuck that.

Discussion is welcomed.

Session 010410

First session of the year. None of us played particularly well but it was still fun to kick. My serve returns started to completely fail near the end. I did manage to get my foot on a lot of shots but my left side digs were embarrassing the whole session. Lots of oversets and a couple stupid selfish plays. Hit one bitch slap and a pretty good side axe. Oddly enough I hit several standing sweeps and a few sneeky scuffs that dinked as defenders faded into the backcourt to dig. Only served out once. Didn't watch any serves land in. One instance of set gazing that I can remember.

2-1 w/ Tommy over Scot/ Cory. Ugly wins. They served out quite often to keep us in the game.

1-2 w/ Scot vs Cory/Tommy. They jumped to strong early leads that we could not overcome.

1-0 w/ Cory against Scot/Tommy. Solid defense and me contributing offensively kept us on top most of the game.

I'm excited to be playing (hopefully regularly) throughout the cold months. That will help keep off the 10+ plus pounds I tend to gain and I'll be relatively sharp when the warm weather comes back (in JULY goddammit).