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Greg Beznoska (bushido399) · Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 2:45 pm Post subject: Punch me for saying this....

I am requesting some assistance in the freestyle department.
I'm not good. Plain and simple, and I need help with quite a few things. Any help would do, so here they are.

1)Clipper. I've read a few things and watched them as well, and what I can gather is to land on your toes from a small hop, just before you catch the bag. Correct?

2)Jumping height from one leg. A lot of moves require me to jump from my planting leg to quite a height. I can't do it. I can get about 5 inches off the ground from a left leg jump. I can get about 8 with my right. Help for training that?

3)Training in general. I don't have much stamina, so it really limits my effective play time. I can land the clipper every so often when full of energy, but there's no chance when I'm tired. Which happens in about 15 minutes. Any help for building stamina?

Thanks!! ^^

Benjamin Benulis (ironcladben) · Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 4:24 pm Post subject:

It's OK not to be good. Everyone starts off that way. You have to put in the practice to get good.

1) Yes. Ideally, your support leg should be dropping in synch with your delay leg. It doesn't have to be a big jump, just a hop a few inches off the ground. The key to the clipper is getting a really good dip (i.e. knee bend and weight drop) with your SUPPORT leg.

2) If you are having to jump really high on basic moves, you're doing them inefficiently. Watch some of videos of the basics on this YouTube channel. He does them with very good form and does not have to jump high at all:
http://www.youtube.com/qphox

3) Cross-training with some other endurance activity helps me tons. Right now I ride my bike to and from footbag sessions. It's about a 20 minute ride each way, that helps a lot.

Keep practicing and putting in the time. You'll get better at tricks and gain endurance if you keep it up. Let us know how your progress goes.

Greg Beznoska (bushido399) · Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 6:04 pm Post subject:

Hey, thanks for the punch!!!
Seriously, though, thanks for the advice. I appreciate it a lot. I think for the clipper, all I have to really work on is simply dropping my center of gravity.

So do I just need to simply get my legs to move faster as opposed to more airtime with the bag?

Thanks again!

Jeremy OWheel (owheelj) · Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2009 1:00 am Post subject:

It really depends on the trick, but for most moves you don't really need to jump high or move fast - you just want to start the motion early and cut out any unnecessary movements. Trying to move as fast as you can is usually a mistake - try to figure out what the perfect action for the trick is without the bag and then do that instead. You want to aim for control, not speed.

Greg Beznoska (bushido399) · Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2009 1:31 pm Post subject:

Control, not speed. Thanks!!!

Right now I'm working on the Leg Over and the Clipper. I find them both to be rather difficult to finish stalling, but that's because I've not got a proper bag nor shoes to do it with, I think. I've got a 44 panel Ultra-Suede Sand bag, and some Filas (which are decent, seeing as they have a flat and large inside surface and sole... they are horrible for toe stalls, however).

I can, however, get the motions for the stalls consistent enough to simply be having an equipment issue now.

Thanks for the advice!!