Juggleville IV: Jugglemanji

Well not much footbag this weekend to speak of, however, I did attend the opening night of Juggleville IV: Jungglemanji. It's an annual juggling performance arts showcase which features all types of juggling & exhibits a few other athletic abilities such as jump rope, break dance, etc. I was in the group that performed Juggleville II, where I incorporated footbag into the show. Jacob Weiss has been organizing these events since 2006 & it's always a good time. Thanks again Vanderbilt University for being kind enough to oblige the efforts of the Nashville juggling community. You can check out videos + more photos here http://juggleville.com/4/

Takraw Season Begins

I drove out to the Wat Buddharam Temple in Murfreesboro on Sunday & I'm pleased to report that takraw season has arrived. Luckily I was just in time to play a couple games before the sun went down. I felt rusty, but I can shake that off with a couple more visits. It was a good time hanging out with the my Laos boys again.

The Last Indoor Session?

It appears that Winter is finally over, & I hope that we had our last indoor session on Sunday. Justin, our boxing footbagger, is making some excellent progress on the net court. His basic kicks are coming together nicely & he can pull a wicked sole push.

I knew it would take sometime for the newer players to get used to the game. It's good to see that the effort is beginning to pay off. Our Winter sessions are averaging a 5-man turnout, but we have nearly 10 in the active roster. So it's gonna be exciting to see more kickers show up for the warmer months. We've come a long way from the duo that we had back in August. We might even get to set up 2 net courts this Summer!

Big Tuna

Pic. of the week - Alex staged a solo protest of budget cuts at MTSU

We had a small, yet fruitful session on Sunday. Andrew has been playing net for 6 months straight & it shows. He set a number of sweep serves the other day & is consistantly hitting a couple different types of spikes. The overall rally is much improved when he's on the court, so I think it's safe to say he's a solid intermediate player now. If we could only get a couple more dedicated footbag players I think the skill set for our entire group could improve dramatically.

Jumping

Spiking is the single most exciting thing to do in a game, especially if the person can get some air. If there's one thing I've noticed about my game, I don't jump very much. The only spikes I jump for are sole pushes & sunbacks. So I've introduced some jumping exercises into my workout routine that I trust will pay off when I'm on the court.

JUMPING EXERCISES

1. Deep Knee Bends --- Be standing. Slowly bend at the knees while keeping your back straight. Slowly crouch down as low as possible and slowly rise back up.

2. Toe Raises --- Stand regularly, then raise up onto the tips of your toes. Repeat 30-50 times. Toe-Raise with Weights --- If you have any sort of weights, holding/wearing them while doing these toe raises will help.

3. Jumping Rope--- Jumping rope definitely helps your vertical leap.