Inner Rectangle

My Modded PC

2011-02-24T15:57:00.002-06:00

My power supply fried everything in my computer in October of 09. Because of a tight budget and lack of motivation (mostly due to an x-box 360) It took a little over a year to get it back and running. In between purchases of major components, I made several modifications to my Antec SLK3700 BQE case. Some mods are for cable management, some for more efficient cooling. Most are just for the hell of it! This is the first time I've (re)built a PC or made any kind of mods. It's been a fun and enlightening process. I'm definitely building another machine for myself in another couple of years

Again, infinite thanks to Tom for all his time and effort to actually make my PC work!

Click on the thumbnails below for larger pics and captions or go to my Flickr gallery to view the full set

IMG_2108 by airzeke, on Flickr

IMG_2116 by airzeke, on Flickr

DSC_0003 by airzeke, on Flickr

IMG_2133 by airzeke, on Flickr

DSCI0704 by airzeke, on Flickr

IMG_2175 by airzeke, on Flickr

IMG_2590 by airzeke, on Flickr

DSCI0713 by airzeke, on Flickr

IMG_2213 by airzeke, on Flickr

IMG_2906 by airzeke, on Flickr

IMG_2665 by airzeke, on Flickr

IMG_2683 by airzeke, on Flickr

DSC_0012 by airzeke, on Flickr

IMG_2769 by airzeke, on Flickr

IMG_2800 by airzeke, on Flickr

DSCI0782 by airzeke, on Flickr

IMG_2821 by airzeke, on Flickr

DSCI0663 by airzeke, on Flickr

DSCI0824 by airzeke, on Flickr

Edit:
Boring-ass stock Rosewill RX-358 BLK

Zekefied Rosewill RX-358 BLK

DSC_0083 by airzeke, on Flickr

Still Here

2011-02-23T10:23:00.003-06:00

So I got my computer back up and running after 15 months of slowly replacing all the components that got fried. I have been editing some of the session footage Cory has been filming for the past year and hope to upload a few videos a month. We have been kicking indoors at The Shop with 4-5 players every session . Tommy is in Florida for a few more months concentrating on his art, Bryan has been MIA since last summer and Ronnie is planning on joining the Navy. Rob Creel is expected to move to Chicago during the summer and I'm still in contact with a potential new player who, despite severely spraining his ankle at a practice session with me last summer, still wants to learn to play. I can't wait to get outside again.

Kick Volley 03 will be in March and we hope to see you

2010-11-04T16:02:00.005-05:00

Kick Volley 03 is in motion. The dates are set for March 26-27th and we would like to see some Chicagoans show up. Make your plans right now to come and face Frank the Tank and his colleagues. We will set you up at our places. All the details here.

The official footbag for the tournament will be the Pro Kicker Impact

Some old vids

2010-06-01T11:06:00.003-05:00

Here are some vids from a practice session on 9-7-09. The rest can be seen on my youtube channel

Link

Link

Link

Chicago Inner Circle Turns 10

2010-05-19T12:52:00.007-05:00

Today CIC turns 10. While it would be a stretch to say that we are still a fully active footbag freestyle club, I am extremely grateful that footbag has given me the most colorful and diverse set of friends that I would not have met otherwise. In the past decade, we've done a few demos, helped with a few tournaments, made a few videos and sold a few shirts. HOF worthy? Hell no. Not even close. What I like to think we're best known for is making footbag fun. Looking back, some of my favorite moments have little to nothing to do with with actual footbag but about endless hours of hanging out after events (or even local sessions) and eating tons of food while talking mad shit about anyone we didn't like. Believe me, there were (& still are) a lot of of you fucking bastards!

Footbag is merely what brought us together but it does not define Chicago Inner Circle. Although we rarely have big sessions together anymore we are still really good friends and we're going to be around for a while longer

Session 042810: Busse Woods

2010-04-29T00:52:00.001-05:00

Play of the day

Ted managed to set one of my shanks back into the court. I spun and tried a toe reverse but ended up hitting a sunback about 2 feet off Greg/Cory's front left corner. Cory kindly offers some tips on my positioning. The very next play, Greg sets Cory who smashes a sunback of his own into my right shin. He had a noticeable smirk on his face as if to say, 'that's how it's done newb sauce!'

"I see how how it is... that's how you sunback..." I mutter to myself as my shoulders slump.

Next, Ted receives the serve from Greg and pops it to the front right corner. I give chase. Quick step with the right foot. Deep step with the left then take off. Get in the air, tilt my hips, and cock my leg back for the swing. Quads flex. Core tightens. Toes extend. Contact. The footbag rockets down their left side just past Cory's dig attempt.

The split second after that bag hit my foot I found myself yelling as loud as I could

"AND THAT'S HOW YOU FUCKING TOE JAM!"
I swear I got that all out before i hit the ground.

The laughter dies down on both sides and Greg says, "but that was out!"
Godammit, Greg!

Pro Kicker is proud to be a returning sponsor for the 2010 Windy City Cup

2010-04-16T11:11:00.005-05:00

I was very glad to know that the WCC will be back in 2010. It will be a pleasure for Pro Kicker to supply the official net bags for the competition. Good luck to all the players.

By the way there is a Pro Kicker event taking place in Montreal this week-end: Kick Volley 02 will rock the gymnasium of the College of Old Montreal April 17th and 18th. Click on the image for the details:

Windy City Cup Logo

2010-04-15T10:31:00.000-05:00

In case you need it, here is the Windy City Cup logo.

Black CLCK logo used for the new handout flyer

2010-03-12T16:39:00.001-06:00

Here is the new solid black logo which was created for use on the new sh*tty flier created for handing out general info on footbag net.

Session 022810

2010-03-03T15:22:00.000-06:00

Tommy and I are teaming up for Memphis so we played often this session. My excitement at how well we can potentially play together was stomped on with the reality of how inconsistent we can be as well. I played like stir-fried gay ass-cheese and had more than my fair share of stupid plays and brain farts all day. Didn't feel that strong physically and could not focus mentally. I really need to stretch out before session. Even if that means not playing the first 2-3 games to do my full routine. On the plus side, after a shaky start, I was setting well the rest of the day and served out a handful of times. Yay for me. Not practicing during the week sucks.

w/Scot 21-15 vs Cory/Ronnie
-toe flip during warmups
-Scot hits a monster side axe
-overset too much

w/Tommy 15 21 vs Scot/Cory
-strong start fizzled out in the end
-too many errors

w/Tommy 14-21 vs Greg/Ted
-too many errors
-Teds serves were killing us

w/Ted 11-21 Scot/Cory
-toe jam. yay

w/Tommy 15-21 vs Greg/Ted

w/Greg 12-21 vs Scot/Cory

w/Scot 14-21 Ted/Ronnie

Session 022110

2010-03-03T14:15:00.001-06:00

A slight improvement from last weeks session but still not playing very well. This was also my first session after getting injuries almost 2 weeks before. I used a thick ankle wrap for for support. I had it on for maybe 10 minutes then it got so annoying that I eventually took it off. My ankle was not really a factor in my play though. My service returns were abysmal and I was setting extremely well...

for the other team.

The day started out ok but I felt I became more and more useless with every game. The one highlight came with a good game with Scot fighting back a strong comeback against Cory/Greg

w/Ronnie 5-21 vs Scot/Cory
-mental fuck ups
-set gazing was
-ankle was ok without brace
-solid defense, particularly from Ronnie

w/ Greg 15-21 vs Scot/Cory
-Strong start but faded

w/ Ted 14-21 Cory/Greg
-solid game

w/Cory 17-21 Scot/Ted

w/Ted 10-21 Scot/Greg

w/Scot 21-16 Cory/Greg
-3 big side axes to fight off a comeback

w/Greg 18-21 Cory/Ted
-we had lead but gave up 5 straight points at the end
-several long rallies

w/Ted vs 21-16 Greg/Ronnie

Session 020710

2010-03-03T13:20:00.002-06:00

Not a good day for me. Ronnie fell back asleep and never picked me up so I ended up taking a cab to the session. I would have been more upset but he did go out of his way previously to drop me off at a session even though he was not going to stay and play. I guess it evens out . I don't have all my video notes from this session but I know I went winless. Everything was not working for me. I did manage a few big side axes. My knees have been bothering me a little since I'm back up to (and so far leveled out at) 150lbs but my wrists are really having a hard time when landing on the shop's surface. Cory was playing noticeably aggressive from the beginning and played strong throughout the day.

World Footbag Championships

2010-02-11T07:14:00.002-06:00

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

2010-02-08T11:57:00.003-06:00

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

2010-01-23T23:24:00.000-06:00

Had to work. What did I miss?

Session 011710

2010-01-18T11:35:00.004-06:00

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

2010-01-12T13:54:00.001-06:00

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

2010-01-09T15:17:00.004-06:00

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

2010-01-05T01:27:00.002-06:00

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).

Zeke Bitches About Net, Winter 2009

2010-01-05T00:15:00.002-06:00

So, Fall of 09 didn't start off so good for me. Lost my Canon S5 digital camera then my PC got fried. I was pretty depressed about it all but fortunately we were still playing net to some degree and I could vent my frustrations on the bag. As you can imagine, my ability to document, brag or bitch about my sessions have been seriously hindered. Work has been shitty (but to be honest I'm happy to have a job) and my hours have been cut but I use the computers there to post when I have the time. I have also moved out of Lincoln square and moved into Albany park. My new roommates (and their pets) are pretty cool.

As for footbag, we were still able to play outdoors well into December with the added bonus of the playing at The Shop for the rest of the winter. I'm quite satisfied with where my skills are at and what I'm able to do on the courts. My main goal is to see how far I can push myself and have as much fun as I can for as long as my body can handle it. I'm extremely thankful to have lost weight, and avoided serious injuries and have an indoor space to keep playing. I would go absolutely fucking nuts if I have to suffer though another long god damed winter with no camera, pc and footbag too.

It's 2010, Let the Domination Begin

2010-01-04T10:00:00.002-06:00

"I’ve got it set in my mind,
I’ll be a mountain disguised this year.
I will bow for nobody else"

from "Resolution" by Umphrey's McGee

Wow. It’s been a long time since anyone posted anything on this blog spot. But it’s a new year, and with it comes new resolve. I think that we’ve made some good strides in the last couple of years, but I’m hoping that this is the year that we really step out of the shadows of mediocrity and become the force that I know we can be.

We officially started the 2010 training season yesterday at my shop in the city. Zeke, Tommy, Cory and I spent a little over three hours kicking, stretching, doing drills, and playing games. It seems as if the shop is going to be the “place to be” for weekend sessions until Mother Nature allows us to take it outside once again. Hopefully we’ll be able to get more than just the four of us for future sessions.

I’m going to let Zeke post a story after each session, mainly because I like his take on the way things went. Zeke- please post each story as a new entry, and I’ll follow up in Comments with stats on games won and lost. Cory will be analyzing video and adding stats on unforced errors, spikes, digs, etc. whenever possible. Let’s use this blog spot as a way to track our improvement as the year goes on.

The CLCK Family is Growing!

2009-08-25T08:57:00.003-05:00

Congratulations to Bryan and his wife Bonnie, who gave birth to their first child in the early morning hours on Sunday, August 3rd. Anna Peironnet Nelson weighed in at 7 pounds, 15 ounces. Mom and baby are both fine and looking forward to heading home.

Zeke Bitches About Net, August 2009

2009-08-11T16:22:00.008-05:00

July has come and gone. It fucking sucked compared to June. I was discouraged by not being able to play (doubles) after several straight weeks of practices. I grew to dislike practicing altogether. The drill sessions grew less and less structured. Fortunately, August brought my first doubles games in almost a month. Not one of my strongest outings. I got a few decent kills and I was serving well most of the day but I was over setting way too much. Defensively my service returns were freakin' terrible until the last few games. Then they were upgraded to not so freakin' terrible.

Ronnie had a rough afternoon but he did enjoy and appreciate the opportunity to play with the others as much as I did. He hit his first toe reverse in a game when on our first team up of the rotation. Scot and Corry were in stunned silence which was disrupted shortly by my jubilant schoolgirl laughter! His serves were ok but he did serve out at crucial moments (ok, so technically every serve is crucial) and he missed a lot of sets given to him. His service return was the main source of his frustration but it improved later in the day. He did manage to foot a few digs which surprised me.

I think we need to get back to basics. Ronnie and I grew too fond of 2 man wall ball and neglected everything else, particularly service/returns. We need to work serve returns and defense more often. I'm confident that the upcoming edition of Memphicago will boost my motivation back up to help accomplish my goals.

No spikes here. Just tracking my progress at crossing the plane for the hell of it. In a game, I've probably never reached farther than 1/2 a foot past the net.

Ronnie and I playing "doubles" net against the wall. Fairly laid back session just trying to get rallies and kills. In case you were wondering, we do 5 push-ups as punishment when we over set. We were over setting so often that we eventually decided to just skip the punishment just to have the energy to finish out the session. Fuckin' terrible.

Check my footbag net media:
Footbag.org galleries
Footbag photos and videos on Flickr
Videos on YouTube

Memphicago 4.1 is this weekend!

2009-08-11T09:45:00.003-05:00

That's right folks! The fourth installment of the Memphicago Kick Volley Challenge will be underway this Saturday, August 15th, in Salem, IL. As always, we'll be meeting the boys from Memphis right around 10:30 in the morning for a day filled with spikes and digs. (NOW FEATURING: NO OUT SERVES!! (Maybe.)) We have 6 confirmed as of this posting. Will YOU be #7 or #8???

World's in Berlin

2009-07-30T15:48:00.005-05:00

Hi Chicagoans,

As none of you made it to Worlds this year I thought that you might be interested in a short recap of the finals day: http://yevez.blogspot.com/2009/07/2009-world-footbag-championships-in.html

For now nobody knows where it's gonna be next year, some rumors were sending it your way but after Cory and Scot told me that their wives promised them a divorce if they did it again I took care of killing the story :-)

Luc Legault at the opening ceremony

Zeke Bitches About Net, July 2009

2009-07-06T00:16:00.001-05:00

I've played a lot the first half of 2009. July starts the second half and there are still plenty of things to work on. I'm still not in the habit of warming up and stretching out. I have to get to sessions earlier to do my routine. I want to play as much as possible now that the weather is consistently warm.

Chicago Inner Circle's B-day jam will be on Saturday July 18. Hope to see you there.

The 2009 Windy City Cup Rocks Chicago!

2009-06-16T14:54:00.004-05:00

Well, we've got another Windy City Cup under our belts, and I'd have to say we outdid ourselves from last year. What a great weekend we had! Before I get any further, I want to thank everyone that came out to compete, and I want to express a HUGE thanks to the local crew, especially Tom Whitworth, Zeke Ibardaloza, and Matty Sweeny. We could have never done it with out you guys!!

Navy Pier was gracious enough to host our event again this year. We moved our finals court to the North side of the front circle, where we saw an unbelievable amount of foot traffic. This was by far the best tournament I've ever had the pleasure of being involved with. Excellent work by the entire CLCK crew!!

Here's the results...

Singles

1. Jeremy Mirken (congrats JerBear!!)

2. Cory Current

3. Walt Houston

4. Ben Alston

5. Tom Whitworth

6. Zeke Ibardaloza

7. Sam Gregory

8. Jack Harris (s)

9. Jake DeClercq

10. Scot Hansen

11. Josh DeClercq

Doubles

1. PT Lovern and Manu Bouchard

2. Jeremy Mirken and Jack Harris

3. Walt Houston and Ben Alston

4. Cory Current and Scot Hansen

5. Tom Whitworth and Zeke Ibardaloza

6. Josh DeClercq and Jake DeClercq

7. Sam Gregory and Bryan Nelson (s)

Congrats to PT and Manu- the new Windy City Cup Champions!

Thanks again to all that made the trip, to Navy Pier for hosting us, and to our sponsors: Fancy Footworks, ProKicker Footbags, The Store til 4, Communications Direct, and Chicago Scenic Studios, who once again provided the most bad ass labor crew and bleacher set-up ever seen at a footbag event. Oh, and one more time for Zeke and Tommy- you guys rock!

There will be more pictures to follow, I'm sure....

Zeke Bitches About Net, June 09

2009-06-01T19:25:00.004-05:00

Summer is back in Chicago! Finally. After a fairly productive spring, I'm looking forward to playing as much as possible this season and recruiting new players. Instead of tracking progress for the entire summer, this entry and subsequent comments will just be about the month of June. I'll start a new post next month.

With Windy City Cup just around the corner I need to focus on training more and warming up properly before sessions. I also need to arrive early to do a full warm up since we tend to rush to play as many games as possible before getting back to more important obligations. There are a few new possible recruits and a couple old ones that I need to keep contact with. At WCC I need to pick up a few more bags and get the new guys to buy some as well if they really want to get into the sport.

I update a few web pages. I have lots of older low res photos on footbag.org. Below is a sample of my footbag content on Flickr. The majority will be photos but I will occasionally upload some of video of my training. Most of them are unedited clips but I may make something a bit more viewer friendly when time permits. I have a videos on YouTube too.

As always, feel free to drop the proverbial line and comment on anything.

2009 Windy City Cup

2009-05-15T12:33:00.005-05:00

Once again, Chicago Lake Coast Kickers will be bringing Footbag Net to the Masses! The 2009 Windy City Cup is coming to Chitown June 12th through the 14th. Prelims will be held Saturday at Union Park (at the corner of Ashland and Lake St on the near-west side of the city), and our finals will take center stage at the biggest summer tourist attraction Chicago has to offer, Navy Pier. Our finals site will feature stadium-style seating, free food and drink for our competitors, and some of the best freestyle demos and high-quality net matches ever seen.

So even if you are not a competitor, don't worry; come on out to Navy Pier on Sunday the 14th for an exciting presentation of an awesome sport.

For all interested we will be playing pickup games all day Friday the 12th at Union Park. Don't miss it!!

Related Windy City Cup Links

2009 Windy City Cup Flyer

2009-05-12T09:38:00.004-05:00

Here is a 4-up flyer/handout which can be passed out in efforts of getting the word out about the Windy City Cup. The flyer artwork features Manu flying over the net, the new 3 color Windy City Cup logo and text/copy that reads, "It's Hacky Sack like you've never seen! Come to the Windy City Cup Footbag Net Championships, June 14th - 2009, Navy Pier - North Gateway Entrance, Free Admission - www.footbag.org".

You can also download a hires PDF of the 4-up flyer.

2009 Windy City Cup Logos

2009-05-11T15:02:00.005-05:00

Here are the latest set of Windy City Cup Logos.

1 color

2 color

3 color

Pics from this past weekend!

2009-05-04T12:24:00.002-05:00

Windy City Cup tournament directors in action this past weekend. Click on the images for navigate to full size photos. Click here to view the full gallery of my better action shots this year.

Zeke's solo training videos

2009-05-01T00:36:00.004-05:00

Here are some unedited solo practice vids from a recent session. Check them out in my Flickr gallery.

I also added a few more paragraphs to my memphis write-up. Check the post below.

Zeke's Mud Island Belt write-up

2009-04-28T13:25:00.005-05:00

Memphis was incredible! I had such a great time there and I want to thank everyone that made it possible. The entire Memphis crew went out of their way to show all of us that legendary southern hospitality and make sure all the players needs were met.

Thursday Tommy picked me up after he got off work then we drove off to Aurora to pick up Cory and switched cars (better fuel consumption) and headed downstate to crash at Mike Bellmans. They talked about how big the footbag scene was in Illinois back in the day (22 people in a caravan to Worlds!) We get to Mikey's place around 2 in the morning where he had 3 folding cots and freshly washed sheets set up for us. We spent sometime outside just staring at the big open night sky. Being in the city most of my life, I rarely get to see so many stars (shooting stars too!) in such a quiet setting - no orange glow or sounds of police sirens and car alarms. Friday morning started out pretty slow, we took our time to get going. Now, the trunk was pretty full before we got to Mikey's but Cory did this amazing re-pack of all our stuff + Bellmans bags that any Tetris master would be impressed with. I can't believe how everything fit so perfectly with just about every square inch of space being used. I should have taken a picture of it.

We roll into Memphis in true Chicago footbag fashion - late. We get to the site at about 3pm where a couple of nets were set up and players were already warming up. I think most everyone was already there except the Portland team. I immediately spot Jeremy, Ben and Elliot since they were the only players there I was most familiar with. It was pretty cool to see Mirken, since he's such a C.O.C. that he's the closest thing to an Inner Circle member I'm usually accompanied with on the rare occasions that I travel. He commented that he was probably more excited to see me out of my own state than I was. I got to meet Tuan and Kenny again, I had not seen them in person since Worlds 99. Also met Manu for the first time. There were so many open level champions here!

Friday was just pick-up games and the atmosphere was pretty laid back. The weather was gorgeous being mostly sunny, warm with a slight breeze, perfect footbag weather. I finally got to play with my shirt off this year! After everyone was warmed up we had 3 courts set up, A, B & C. From what I understood, if your team won you would move up a court earning your way to A and staying there until you lost. If you lose a game you drop down a court. Losing in the C court meant your team sat out the next round while a 7th team got in and tried to work their way up. Mike and I never got past B. We played well together considering it was the first time we partnered up for a comp. We finished 2-2 for the day. Mike decided to call it quits early and not wear himself out while Elliot and I did some hand toss rallies to warm down. Elliot was only there for that day and had tickets to see a show back in Nashville during the weekend. I think I played ok. Overset a lot though. Spikes are still inconsistent but defense and hustle kept us in the game.

Afterparty was at Tommy C's house, less than a block away. BBQ Pork sandwiches, egg salad (I think) and fresh brownies... mmmmmmmm. Hung out a bit with and stretched out with Jeremy. Met Willi (pronounced will- eye) for the first time. Me and Mikey were gonna stay with him at his girlfriend's place. He was very friendly and had a lot of cool stories from back in the day. The 3 of us left the party early because Willi had been up since 4 that morning. We get to his gf's after 20 minutes of driving and I was greeted by their monstrous 14month, 68 pound Golden Retriever named Cash. That dog was very friendly, was just dying for attention and had a habit of running off with your belongings. Tess, the smaller black dog was quiet and content to just sit around and be pet. I don't know what kind of accommodations everyone else got but me and Mikey were treated like Kings! We had our own rooms with comfortable beds. Her shower had a wide spray and excellent water pressure, perfect after an afternoon of Net. As usual, I'm the last to sleep and first to get up (certainly not for lack of comfort!) but feeling rested and not very sore. We have another long lazy morning but get treated to a nice hot breakfast with eggs, coffee, OJ, fruit and fresh baked blueberry muffins. Fresh. Baked. Blueberry. Muffins. Christ, what a great way to start the day!

Saturday and Sunday to come... for now you can browse the photos I took from that weekend:
Action Shots
Full Set

It had rained all night and for most of the morning. It stopped a couple of hours before we left for the site. Willi told us that there was a high sand content in the soil there so the moisture drained pretty quick. Sure enough, we get to the site and the place didn't look like it rained there at all! It was so odd to see. We started by helping set up the tent, tables and courts . I picked up the bags I bought from Manu. He also gave me one extra since I waited to just get them from him personally instead of him shipping them to me a week or two earlier. I should have bought more while I had the chance. Mike and I took our time and warmed up slowly with power kicking, serve/returns and hand toss rallies. All the other Chicago players competed singles. I was able to watch a bit of Mikey vs Seibert and most of Cory's matches vs Dr. Mike and Jeremy. I have a lot of respect for singles competitors but it looks absolutely grueling. I do not regret saving my energy for doubles.

For Doubles, there were 2 pools of three teams and our pool of 4. It was best of 3 to 15 and top 2 teams advance to semis. Mikey and I faced the Portland team of Chris Seibert & Steve Dusablon first. I think they were seeded 3rd over all. Chris has it all; hops, flexibility and great touch with the bag. He makes contact with the bag so high above the net it ridiculous! His pulldowns were killing us early. Steve was very solid all around but I didn't have an impression of him until he calmly bumped some of my harder sweep serves during warms up. Then, I was like, "shit..." He totally killed me physiologically because I lost complete confidence in using it for most of the day. I had a couple greasy toe reverses and some digs. Mikey played well too but we just didn't have enough to compete with these guys. They took us in 2 straight. I think 15-5 was the best we could manage against them.

Next was the Chaos team of Jack Harris and Jere Mirkinnennnenenennenennnn (don't forget to roll the R's). Another tough team. Jack's Sweeps, Toe Reverse and Scuffs are a thing of beauty! Absolutely explosive technique with that last second snap of the leg. His long legs and flexibility enable him to spike onto the front court or even hit scuffs from the back court, it's a nightmare to defend against! Jeremy is actually is as impressive as he clams to be! (Just fuckin' with ya, buddy) airJerbeargernaut (has too many nicknames &) can spike from damn near anywhere on the court and I'm impressed with his eye for strategy and technique. Despite a few good plays on our side, they were just too much offensively and defensively for us to really challenge them. I don't remember the scores but I don't think they were very close. After 2 straight wins the Chaos team did give us some helpful advice on our matches to come.

Even after 2 lost matches versus really strong teams, I don't think Mikey and I played poorly all things considered. Our final match was against Willi/Chuck. They were seeded below us at the 10th spot but we knew better than to just blow them off. The veteran Memphis team took the first game 15-13. We jumped to a strong start but they soon caught up and took a commanding lead for the rest of the game. We scratched our way to within 2 points but they managed to finish us off before we could finish our comeback. Our next game was a blowout! I tried a couple sweeps serves and scored early points. Eventually I gained some confidence and started serving the heat again then changing up with dinks to throw them off. With a few shanks, some good defense and a little luck, we jumped to an 8-0 start. Mikey was looking bored. A couple side outs later and I serve up another 7 points for the win. Someone said I just threw down a serving clinic. I don't remember the exact score, but it was definitely not close. Our rubber match was more competitive. By now Mikey and I were getting in sync and playing more fluid. Mikey got the best of 2 jousts nailing side axes right over the top of Willi to keep us ahead. Then he delivered that set that eventually drilled Chuck. I got the final serve and intended to finish in strong fashion by bringin' the heat again. Instead, I accidentally shanked a floater that barely managed to clear the net and hit their front right corner for an ugly finish and match point.

Photos from Memphicago 3.1

2009-03-17T22:48:00.004-05:00

Here are the pics from this past weekend on my footbag.org gallery. If you want to check out the full set, click to my Flickr gallery. There should be a link above each pic that reads, "all sizes" if you wan the high res version. Feel free to save any of the images you like, I'll leave that set up for a week or so. I did a write up in my "Zeke bitches about net..." post.

KICK VOLLEY 01 is happening soon

2009-03-01T16:49:00.006-06:00

Hi Chicagoans,

This is a short notice to let you know that the revolution has started. KICK VOLLEY 01 is scheduled for march 21st and 22nd. I just secured the DJ today and we already have a few spectators confirmed, including a key element: nice girls.

I intend to do anything in my power to bring this event to the attention of as many people as possible all the details at: KICKVOLLEY.COM

Hannity, Monopoly, and the Solution to our Problem

2009-02-28T11:09:00.005-06:00

Sometimes I listen to the Sean Hannity radio show on my way home from work. Not because I like the guy, mind you, because I really can't stand him. I'm not normally a violent man, but if I ever meet that guy in a dark alley...

Anyway, I digress. So I was listening to the insanity of Hannity earlier this week and he was talking about how the government will never do anything to help the people, and that it's the wealthy and the innovative that create jobs and make America the great place that it is. As an example, he pointed out how the board game Monopoly was invented by a normal Joe named Charles Darrow in the 1930's, who of course went on to make tons of money and pull himself out of the depression. Now, never mind the fact that Hannity had the history of the game wrong: it's not like the guy never tells lies or fails to do proper research on his show, so no big surprise there. (Darrow put together the whole Atlantic City connection to the board, but the game was being played in similar versions for almost 30 years before he sold the idea to Parker Brothers in 1934. A simple Google search would have given him the facts in seconds, but when you're a Conservative you don't bother with the facts.) What I wanted to discuss here today is not whether or not Hannity is a huge piece of shit; what I wanted to discuss was Monopoly and how it relates to the basic ideology of our two major political parties. (By the way, Hannity is a HUGE piece of shit: no need for discussion.)

Monopoly got me thinking. You've played the game before, right? It's a pretty simple concept: get land, develop it, get people to stop by and stay in your hotels, and collect major amounts of rent. But have you ever played by the REAL rules before? Of course not! I don't know ANYONE that even knows the real rules. Everyone creates their own variations, the most common one being that you can "trade" real estate with others in the game to help yourself create your monopolies. Many times these trades include free rent and other such deals between the traders. Why is it that everyone changes the rules? Because if you don't, the game will last for eons. No one will ever win and no one will ever lose. Everyone will just go around the board fluctuating at about the same amount of money until everyone finally gets sick of playing.

And that, my friends, is exactly my point. Let's take a look at the current political spectrum in our country. Democrats favor government rules and restrictions to be placed on corporations so that they cannot take advantage of the market or the public. Republicans think that government should stay out of it and let the "free market" regulate itself. And what has become the result of the previous 12 years where the Republicans have been making up their own rules? The rich have gotten richer and the middle class and poor have gotten poorer! Just like Monopoly played with your own set of rules: someone eventually wins and someone loses. But if you played with the real regulations in place, it's not so much that no one wins as it is that no one ever loses! We've gone too long allowing the market to regulate itself. It's time to set regulations and make sure that everyone is playing by the same set of rules.

That's how you build an economy: create a level playing field where everyone gets the chance to continue to go around the board. When Charles Darrow sold "his" idea to Parker Brothers, he found himself a rich man that no longer had to worry about the Great Depression. But what good did it do anyone else? What good does it do our nation for one guy to win while the rest of us lose? Wouldn't it be a better world if we were all able to stay in the game?

Original Schwa indoor net poles

2009-02-17T13:30:00.000-06:00

These super unique indoor net pole stands have been recovered by The Man With The Plan, Scot Hansen. Originally created back in the Schwa days and creatively decorated with all sorts of Schwa tags and interesting stickers and footbag artwork. Nice work Scot for recovering these and getting them back to the Rectangle.

Zeke Bitches About Net, Spring 09

2009-02-17T12:09:00.003-06:00

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.

Siebert Sweeps!!!

2009-01-27T16:59:00.012-06:00

That's right folks. Chris Siebert came away from the Phoenix Open with both the Singles and Doubles Title. Congratulations Chris! Tuan Vu came through as his doubles partner for his first ever open net title. Nice work!

It has been about ten years since I have played net in a tournament outside of Chicago. In fact, I believe my last tournament was the Texas State Footbag Championships in 1998. I picked the bag up again in the late summer of last year and couldn't be happier with that decision. Since that time I have reconnected with people I haven't seen in years, met new friends and increased my overall physical well being. If it hasn't been said before, I'll say it now: footbag (net) players are the salt of the earth. I want to thank Amy Westberg and Rob Adams for all their hard work and hospitality. I also want to thank everyone that participated for not only welcoming me on the court but for welcoming the newcomers as well. Where else can you step in to the game after only a few months of playing and receive advice from some of the best in the world? They are giving the advice because they truly want you to become a better player to help push this sport to the next level. Thank you!

Our week started a little early as Cory Current, Scot Hansen and I arrived in Phoenix Thursday night. The temperature in Chicago was a balmy 15 below zero and within a few hours we were in sunny Arizona where the temps would tickle the eighties. What a welcome change of environment. We decided that Friday would be a non-net day and tried our hand at golfing. I really don't think anyone of us can call ourselves a "golfer", but nonetheless, being outside chasing a ball around seemed appropriate considering we were staying in Sun City. I mean for God's sake how hard can it be... the ball isn't even moving!

Scot's Perfect Golf Swing

Now it was time to get down to business as Saturday was singles day. Let me tell you that after almost ten years without playing a game of singles, I have new-found respect for the game. That court is too effing big for one person to cover. Especially a fat-ass like myself. Kudos to all that performed well. I believe that in the end Rob and Jack Harris played for third and Jeremy Mirken and Chris dueled it out for first. In the end first went to Chris, second to Jeremy and third to Jack. The Chicago crew did not fair as well as any of us would have liked (only Cory made it out of his pool) but we WILL represent in Memphis.

Now for the real action to begin.... DOUBLES. Our boys from Chicago represented, making it out of their pool by defeating Rob & Amy. Unfortunately they would have to settle for fourth as they lost a well played semifinal to Jack & Jer.

Chris & Tuan defeated PT Lovern & Walt Houston in one of the best matches I have ever witnessed to move on to the final where they defeated Jack and Jer for the Phoenix Open Title.

All the official games were through and the pick up games begun. Once again I want to thank Amy for the hospitality and for hosting the tournament.

See you in Memphis!!

He's Gone! (But Not Forgotten)

2009-01-22T09:54:00.010-06:00

Three-hundred and eighty seven days ago, I tore the first page of my George W. Bush countdown calendar off of the stack. I got the calendar as a gag gift from my brother-in-law for Christmas 2007. Every morning since then, I’ve gone through the ritual of reminding myself of just one more reason that I couldn’t wait for this guy to get the hell out of the White House. Quotes, statistics, and little-known fun facts filled each day of the calendar; each and every one a stark reminder of what happens when power goes unchecked for too long, when lies and propaganda are allowed to pass as the truth. I saved some of the more notorious of them throughout the last year. Here’s some examples…

“I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees,” said President Bush on September 1, 2005, during a live interview with Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America. His assertion was widely ridiculed even at the time, but on March 2, 2006, the Washington Post reported on a “smoking gun”: newly released video of a briefing attended by Bush the day before Hurricane Katrina made landfall, during which there were grave warnings about the levees.

Quote from Vice-President Dick Cheney, given during an August 2002 speech: “Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass
destruction. There is no doubt that he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, against us.”

Executive Orders, known as EOs, are legally binding directives issued by a president to federal agencies guiding implementation and execution of laws and policies. Much like his use of signing statements, Bush has used more EOs far more, and far more ideologically, than his predecessors. Previous presidents averaged about five EOs annually, but by 2005 Bush had issued four hundred. In Bush’s EOs, the term “unitary executive”; the radical doctrine that the president is legally superior to the legislative and judicial branches of government; was cited ninety-five times.

Quote from Porter Goss, Bush’s CIA director from 2004 – 2006, given to Congress in 2005: “At this time, there are no ‘techniques’, if I could say, that are being employed that are in any way against the law or would meet, would be considered torture or anything like that.”

There were two that stuck out from the rest, though. One of them showed a side of Bush that I never expected to see: I actually admired him for a half-second after reading it.

During his senior year at Andover, an elite New England prep school, George W. Bush formed a stickball league as a way of thumbing his nose at the athletic tradition of the school. He named his team the Nads.

The other one that stuck out, though, highlights the darkest side of the Bush Administration. It captures almost everything that was evil and wrong with the last eight years of our collective lives. It’s a quote from Kevin Tillman, whose brother Pat gave up a professional football career when the brothers joined the Army after 9/11. Pat was killed in 2004 in Afghanistan by “friendly fire”, in an incident that has been covered up by the Army and whose details seem to point to a possibility that his new-found dissent towards the War on Terror led someone from the inside to “silence” him.

“Somehow American leadership, whose only credit is lying to its people and illegally invading a nation, has been allowed to steal the courage, virture, and honor of its soldiers on the ground. Somehow those afraid to fight an illegal invasion decades ago are allowed to send soldiers to die for an illegal invasion they started. Somehow torture is tolerated. Somehow lying is tolerated. Somehow reason is being discarded for faith, dogma, and nonsense. Somehow nobody is accountable for this.”

This past Tuesday, I tore off the last of day of my countdown calendar. I looked up at the bulletin board behind my desk and stared at the eloquent words of Kevin Tillman. I watched the swearing in of President Obama, and I saw Bush board a plane and take off back to Texas.

I sincerely hope that we will have the “nads” to hold our former president and his ilk accountable for the hell that they have put the Tillmans and thousands of other American families through. Not only the Americans that sacrificed their lives, but also the Iraqis and Afghanis that died as a result of Bush’s misguided foreign policies. Obama has given all of us a hope for the future, but it’s a future that must begin with an acknowledgement and a satisfactory response to the problems of the past.

All quotes taken from “His Days Are Numbered: George W. Bush Countdown 2008 Calendar” by Alex Goulder. Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC, Kansas City, MO, 2007. Used without permission.

Memphicago 2.2 Rocks

2009-01-07T21:27:00.011-06:00

Last Sunday, players from all over the Midwest came together for an epic day on the court. Ben Alston & Walt Houston travelled North from Memphis while Cory Current, Scot Hansen & Bryan Nelson came South from Chicago. The meeting place..... Salem, IL. We all welcomed former Chicagoan now turned Salem local Mike Bellman to round out the crew to an even six.

I find it amazing how much playing with people outside you local scene can improve your game. I would urge everyone to make this type of day happen. Just seeing different styles of play, defending against a lefty or returning a serve you haven't seen a thousand times over is like power kicking and drills on steroids.

We rotated players all day long. No two consecutive games consisted of the same players on a team or on the court. I'm not sure if anyone was counting but in my estimation there was no clear cut "King of the Court". Almost every game was competitive and for the most part well played.

DUCK!!!!!

We must have been the most exciting thing happening in town that day. A few hours in to playing a reporter from the local paper showed up (along with a stray dog) inquiring as to what we were doing. After a few questions and photos she moved on. The dog unfortunately would not, and had a habit of nipping at the ankles of whoever was preparing to serve. Word on the street is that Footbag Net made the front page of the local paper. No word on the dog.

NET FOUL

Our goal was to get some quality playing time in before the Phoenix Open. I look forward to more opportunities to do this and thank everyone for making it happen.

See you in Arizona!

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-24T08:45:00.002-06:00

Happy Christmas to you all! PEACE TO EVERYONE!

May you all make many friends and no enemies in the new year. Best wishes and happy kicking!

Battle of Republic

2008-12-12T12:41:00.004-06:00

I work in Chicago about a block away from the Republic Window and Door factory. In fact, the company I work for leases a corner of the Republic facility for some extra storage space. I have keys to the Republic building, and I’ve spent a lot of hours inside of it. I’ve met some of the workers, and I know the Chief Operating Officer.

If you’ve never heard of Republic Window and Door, pull your head out of the sand and pay attention to the world you live in. On December 2nd, they announced that they would shut their doors at the end of the week and that all of its employees were effectively out of a job. Not only that, but the company announced that there was no money in the pipeline to cover their employee’s last paychecks, their earned vacation time, their pension funds, and their health insurance. Bank of America, who was a major creditor for Republic, had decided to cut all lines of credit with the company, thereby killing any hopes of the employees to receive the monies owed to them by law. Oh, and then there’s the little thing about a law called the WARN Act that requires companies to either provide a 60-day notice of an impending shut-down or compensation for the differential period should a shut-down occur before the 60 days are up. At the time of the shut-down on Friday, December 5th, Republic Window and Door employed almost 250 people. They received a 3-day notice.

I know, I know: there have been hundreds of companies shutting their doors and hundreds of thousands of Americans have lost their jobs in the last few months. We’re at least a year into a recession that shows all signs of turning into a depression before it gets any better. The Republic story isn’t new and it really isn’t news. Except for one thing: the employees of Republic Window and Door are mad as hell, and they’re not going to take it anymore! They staged a sit-in at their shop and they will not leave until they get what they have earned and what the law entitles them to. They have made the statement that if Republic can’t give them what they are owed, then Bank of America, as recipients of the Troubled Asset Relief Program of 2008 (aka the $700 billion Bank Bailout), is obligated to use that money to grant Republic the credit it needs to comply with the laws surrounding their shut-down.

The employees of Republic belong to the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers union. They have become a heroic symbol for union employees and blue-collar workers fighting corporate greed all over America. Illinois state and local politicians called for a business freeze with Bank of America. Even President-elect Obama voiced support for the workers. Opponents of the sit-in, however, wonder why any bank should be obligated to grant credit to a company that has proven itself to be unstable and unable to operate in the current economic environment. And they have an incredibly valid point: you wouldn’t loan money to someone if you knew that they would never be able to pay it back. That’s just stupid. So why should Bank of America be forced to make a bad loan?

I don’t have a great answer to that question. Is it Bank of America’s fault that Republic is failing? On the surface, you’d have to say no. The failure of Republic is primarily tied into the fact that they make windows and doors for new homes, and there just aren’t any new homes being built right now. But other window companies are surviving, so there must be more to it than that. The fact of the matter is that Republic Window and Door received over $9 million in Tax-Incremental Funding (TIF) from the city to help build their facility and get their old shop moved into the new one just about 10 years ago. They blew through all of that money, and then they borrowed so much money from Bank of America that the bank has shut off their line of credit. They had to sell their building to just over a year ago and they now lease the space from the Wrigley company. They’ve been continually downsizing their space in order to reduce the amount of rent they’re paying. I have personally seen the reduction of machinery in the shop in the last couple of months. The short story is simple: Republic is not selling enough windows and doors. Whatever they’ve been doing, they’ve been doing it wrong. Not the union employees: the managers. The salespeople. The corporate stiffs. So why are the employees going after Bank of America?

I believe that the Republic employee’s anger is misguided, but I still applaud them and I fully support their sit-in. Why? One reason is because Bank of America can’t sit back and pretend like they didn’t know what was happening to Republic. They knew that Republic blew through their TIF money. They knew that Republic was swimming in debt: they were the creditors! They should have been able to see that Republic was about to default and that they didn’t have the funds to comply with the laws. Was it their responsibility to make sure that Republic saved enough to pay their employees severance packages? Maybe not legally; but morally, they could have and should have done something about it. But far more importantly than that, I support the Republic workers because I see their actions as the first real challenge to the Bailout Bill. Bank of America has already received $15 billion of that money, and they are expected to receive another $10 billion in the next week. Where is the money going to? What are they using the money for? Why is there no oversight on that spending? If our elected officials are going to throw around a huge pile of taxpayer money, shouldn’t someone pay some attention to it? I thought the purpose of the Bailout was to “free up” money for the purpose of granting credit. As their primary creditor, Bank of America essentially owned Republic. Therefore, they should have the power and the responsibility to make sure that the CEO and the upper managers aren’t walking away with money in their pockets while the employees are getting the shaft. The employees of Republic took a stand that was about more than just their personal situation. It’s about time that someone stood up to the recipients of billions of our tax dollars (remember: 25 billion is the same as 25,000 million) and called them out on how they are spending it.

On December 10th, Bank of America agreed to lend Republic $1.7 million. Along with an additional $400,000 loan from JP Morgan Chase, the employees of Republic Window and Door will receive their vacation and severance packages. Their sit-in was a success. I can only hope that employees of other companies that are experiencing a similar situation will have the courage to do what the Republic employees did: stand up for yourself and don’t stop until you’re heard. This is our country, and that $700 billion is our money. We have an obligation to make sure that it gets used properly, and if sit-ins are what it’s going to take, then all of us need to be ready to pull up a chair.

100 Kicks a Day

2008-12-04T10:52:00.002-06:00

Winter is here and there is no better time to get serious about footbag. Working on fundamentals, mechanics, flexibility and stamina is the key to becoming a better player. When the weather is nice and the court is set up, we play game after game. Games are fun, but we all have bad habits that we continue to rely upon in playing these games. Let's take this opportunity to break the bad habits and focus on our weaknesses. The Phoenix open is right around the corner and I am personally using this as motivation to becoming a better player. There is a real possibility of having two teams representing Chicago this year. Over the course of the next six weeks we should seize every moment available to train. Whether it's kicking against a wall, working out or power kicking I am challenging everyone, including myself to break the bad habits with "100 Kicks a Day". Come spring time when the courts are up we will reap the benefits.

Sponsorship Proposal for 2009 Windy City Cup

2008-11-19T17:11:00.013-06:00

Have you started thinking about the 2009 Windy City Cup at Navy Pier? Here is a sample of the updated 2009 Sponsorship Proposal.

Front Cover

Inside Spread

Back Cover

Chicago Lake Coast Kickers - Logo Sample

2008-11-19T17:00:00.004-06:00

Here is a sample of the Chicago Lake Coast Kickers Footbag Net Club logo which I created for Scot Hansen. This design in more of an emblem-style logo combining Zeke's footbag dude artwork and the great Chicago colors.

Chaos has a forum!

2008-10-24T01:32:00.000-05:00

Hey we finally got the ball rolling on this.

Come have some fun here

http://chaosfootbag.clubdiscussion.net

Practice videos

2008-10-10T23:57:00.005-05:00

This is all footage from August

This was taken on 8-10-08, after I got that nasty road rash on my left knee. These are my very first attempts at toe flips. This is also the first time I have tried editing video in about 8 years.

More footage from 8-10-08. The swing is feeling more natural so here I'm trying to see how high I can reach and how hard I can hit the target.

Ever since I separated my collar bone a few years back, I've been very tentative about doing crazy things in the air. As you can imagine, it's a big problem for a short net player who wants to get up and spike. I got plenty of great tips from better players and took it step by step. I'm able to hit side axes in games now.

A collection of spikes I've been practicing earlier in the summer.

Second City Cup Results

2008-09-22T15:25:00.002-05:00

Results are in!

Singles Net:
1. Cory Current
2. Steve Smith
3. Ted Martin
4. Scot Hansen
5-7. Zeke, Bryan, and Vince, who all decided to scratch from the consolation games in favor of playing more doubles.

Doubles Net:
1. Cory Current/ Scot Hansen
2. Ted Martin/ Steve Smith
3. Greg Grandy/ Bryan Nelson
4. Zeke Ibardaloza/ Vince Pontarelli

Congratulations Fat Man!

2008-09-18T10:23:00.005-05:00

Congratulations are in order for our very own Matt Sweeny today. His wife, Renea, gave birth to a baby boy named River William. Nice work Sweeny family!

Second City Cup- This Weekend!

2008-09-18T10:23:00.002-05:00

Hey everyone! I noticed that the blog has been very quiet lately, but that doesn't mean we aren't still kicking! In case you forgot, the Second City Cup is being held THIS WEEKEND at Union Park in Chicago. Saturday will be impromptu net games all day long and Sunday will be the official competition. We'll start at 11:00 AM with a singles bracket and go straight into a standard doubles bracket before we do a little "King of the Court" competition to end the weekend.
No entry fees, no prize money, no bleachers, no frills. Just a great weekend of kick volley! Be there!

By the way, I sent in a formal request to Navy Pier just moments ago to secure our space for the 2nd Annual Windy City Cup to be held June 19-21, 2009. Make sure to block the weekend on your calendars now!

Memphicago Kick Volley Challenge 1

2008-08-19T09:18:00.003-05:00

Salem, IL became Memphicago, which became Memphicagorleans with the addition of Rob Creel, who was in town for a wedding and had a day to kill. I'd like to thank Rob for seeing the event on the web and having the audacity to give me a call. He filled out the posse nicely giving us an even 8 players.

The day was perfect as Big Ben and the Hammer made the trip up from Memphis to meet myself, Cory, Tommy, and Zeke from Chicago. Also present was the already mentioned New Orleans native, and Mikey Bellman, the High Planes Breaker. There were a few singles matches to start the day, but for the most part it was doubles net all day with different partners for almost every match.

Like Zeke said, "This was SOOO worth the drive."

Check out some photos here: http://www.footbag.org/gallery/showset/1700

Inner Rectangle Blog Publishing

2008-08-14T09:27:00.004-05:00

Just wanted to take a minute and address all the contributors of the Inner Rectangle footbag net blog. I have signed up the following blog authors and admins to have this blog's posts emailed directly to your addresses whenever any of us publishes. This includes you: Zeke, Mike B., Carrie C., Yevez, PT & Scot. The idea here is we want you all to contribute more posting content to the Inner Rectangle. So when you want to rant about how you spiked, got hurt, did well or got killed, take a minute and visit the Inner Rectangle blog and tell us all about it! Also if you for some reason do not want the blog posts emailed directly to you, let me know.

Memphicago is ON!

2008-08-14T08:20:00.004-05:00

The first-ever Memphicago Kick Volley Challenge will be taking place this Sunday, August 17th, in Salem, Illinois. We've been talking about this idea for almost a year, and now it's actually going to happen!

The idea behind Memphicago is that the boys from Memphis Footworks will get up at 6:00 AM and begin driving North. At the same time, CLCK will fill a car and start heading South. We'll meet in the middle, play net for a few hours, get a good meal and make the drive back home. We will meet at Bryan Memorial Park at 10:30 AM. Word on the street is that there should be ample space there to play, and if not, there is a high school nearby. We're hoping to make this a new tradition: come out and be a part of it!

Love is in the Air

2008-08-12T07:15:00.002-05:00

Congratulations to Bryan, who married the love of his life, Bonnie, last weekend in a beautiful ceremony just outside of Galena, IL. Love is in the air all around as we also send out congratulations (early) to Mikey Bellman, who is getting married in a couple of weeks in southern Illinois, and also to Tommy Whitworth, who just got engaged a couple of weeks ago.

What's up Zeke?

The BigBellToe Is Alive!

2008-08-01T13:34:00.003-05:00

Nice Try Mike
Could it be? I could be wrong but is "Mikey" really Mike Bellman? If so, great to see that you have joined us Mike B! Miss your ass a ton and hope the wedding goes well in September! We really missed you a ton for years and glad to see your still kickin'. It was great to see the re-emergence of the bigbelltoe at the Windy City Cup too!

The Surge Was a Success?

2008-07-28T09:06:00.014-05:00

Did you see the interview last week by Katie Couric with Senator and Presidential-hopeful Barack Obama? It's gotten a lot of press. The right-wing bloggers and the Fox Noise Channel have been blasting Obama for the last 6 days on his answers to Couric's line of questioning on the "success" of the surge. In case you didn't see it, here are the highlights...

Couric: "You raised a lot of eyebrows on this trip saying even knowing what you know now, you still would not have supported the surge. People may be scratching their heads and saying, 'Why?' "
Obama: "What I was referring to, and I've consistently referred to, is the need for a strategy that actually concludes our involvement in Iraq and moves Iraqis to take responsibility for the country. ... What happens is that if we continue to put $10 billion to $12 billion a month into Iraq, if we are willing to send as many troops as we can muster continually into Iraq? There's no doubt that that's gonna have an impact. But it doesn't meet our long-term strategic goal, which is to make the American people safer over the long term."
Couric: "But do you not give the surge any credit for reducing violence in Iraq?"
Obama: "No, no ... of course I have. There is no doubt that the extraordinary work of our U.S. forces has contributed to a lessening of the violence. ... So this, in no way, detracts from the great efforts of our young men and women in uniform. In fact, that's one of the most striking things about visiting Iraq is to see how dedicated they are, what a great job they do."
Couric: "But talking microcosmically, did the surge, the addition of 30,000... additional troops ... help the situation in Iraq?"
Obama: "You've asked me three different times, and I have said repeatedly that there is no doubt that our troops helped to reduce violence. There's no doubt."
Couric: "But yet you're saying ... given what you know now, you still wouldn't support it ... so I'm just trying to understand this."
Obama: "It's pretty straightforward. By us putting $10 billion to $12 billion a month, $200 billion, that's money that could have gone into Afghanistan. Those additional troops could have gone into Afghanistan. That money also could have been used to shore up a declining economic situation in the United States. That money could have been applied to having a serious energy security plan."
Couric: "Do you think the level of security in Iraq ... would exist today without the surge?"
Obama: "Katie, I have no idea what would have happened had we applied my approach, which was to put more pressure on the Iraqis to arrive at a political reconciliation. So this is all hypotheticals. What I can say is that there's no doubt that our U.S. troops have contributed to a reduction of violence in Iraq."

Yo Katie! I thought you were a professional journalist! Let's start with the first question, shall we? "You raised a lot of eyebrows" and "people may be scratching their heads." Did you actually see raised eyebrows? Which people are scratching their heads? Are these made-up people that only exist in the world of failing news anchors or are they real people? Because, you know, I'm not a real journalist. I don't really know the rules here, but usually when I suggest that someone feels a certain way or that a person is physically doing something, that person usually has a name, and my personal integrity suggests to me that it's probably appropriate to back up such statements by applying a name to the person responsible for the feeling or action described. But then again, like I just said, I'm not a real journalist.

I'd move on to the next questions in the interview, but they are all the same question: did the surge reduce the violence in Iraq? And the answer is yes, which Obama agreed to each and every time she reworded it. But does that mean that the surge worked?

Let's think about that for a while. Did the surge work? To truly answer the question, one must first know what the "surge" actually was. The surge, or as it was originally called, "The New Way Forward" was actually a catastrophic failure. Yeah, that's right, it was a FAILURE. As far as I'm concerned, the only mistake Obama made with Katie Couric was that he didn't just flat-out say "listen, bitch, the surge didn't work."

Am I insane? Am I the only one in the whole country that understands the surge? No, I'm not, but I definitely seem to be in the minority. But why? The surge DID NOT work. Here are the facts...

"The New Way Forward" was a specific plan that called for an increase in troops on the ground in Baghdad and the Anbar Province to provide "breathing space" for the Iraqi government to implement 18 specific government, security, and economic benchmarks. The surge began in January 2007, and it was to take just six months. Six months later, when the surge was supposed to be over already, we were told that even more troops would be needed and that another six months would be required in order to meet the benchmarks. Six months after that, one year into the six-month surge, only seven of the 18 benchmarks had been reached. Six months after that, now 18 months into the six-month surge, 12 of the 18 benchmarks have been met. Does that sound like success to you? It's taken three times longer than projected to meet 67% of the goals. Success? When I went to school, 67% was a D, and you couldn't turn in your work a year after it's due date.

Now, it's true that violence has gone down, and part of that decline has to do with the increased number of American troops. But it's even more true to say that violence has gone down largely due to the fact that the Sunnis in Anbar and the Shiites fighting under al Sadr realized that the continued warfare was only serving to ethnically cleanse both sides of the civil war, and that a cease-fire was necessary. Both groups came to these realizations and began their draw-down months before the surge began.

So Barack Obama had to duck around Katie Couric's interview because it was obvious that Couric was trying to get him to disrespect the troops, which he had no reason to do and wouldn't have done even if there was a cause for disrespect. It would have been really nice to see him bitchslap her and tell her to just shut up, but that probably wouldn't have gone over too well either.

The surge has not been successful, and it should have never been necessary to begin with. George W. Bush led the United States military into a soverign country that had not attacked us or any of our allies. After overthrowing the government in Iraq, the United States has continued to occupy Iraq for over five years now. The right-wing attack machine is attempting to show that Obama lacks experience and wisdom, but the truth of the matter is that he wisely opposed the war from the beginning, he understood that the surge was nothing more than a tactic designed to continue the fighting so that the oil barons could reap the benefits of a chaotic situation in the Middle East, and, unlike McCain, Obama understands that every dollar we spend in Iraq is a dollar that we could have spent tracking down the actual terrorists that did attack us or investing into new energy ideas that are absolutely necessary if we plan to continue to be a beacon for the rest of the world.

Feel free to watch the whole Couric/Obama interview here: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/07/22/eveningnews/main4283623.shtml

And click on this to read a really good article on a similar vein by a much more credible person than myself: http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/93081/forget_the_surge_--_violence_is_down_in_iraq_because_ethnic_cleansing_was_brutally_effective/

Chicago's very own Cory Current finishes 5th in singles in Montreal

2008-07-24T23:03:00.003-05:00

Cory Current just represented Chicago at the 2008 Pro Kicker Montreal Footbag Championships and he did well as he kicked my ass for the 1st time ever in singles to secure a very honorable 5th place.

This tournament was not easy with a lot of depth. Complete results available on this page. Pictures and videos will follow.

btw the doubles finals was crazy. Former Chicagoan PT Lovern and partner Emmanuel Bouchard beat the Windy City Cup Champions JF Lemieux and Gilles Demers 16-14 in the third game.

Yves Archambault
reporting from Montréal

Green Cup Documentary Released

2008-07-23T09:42:00.003-05:00

A twelve-minute documentary made by Steve Dusablon at the Green Cup to commemorate the return of Kenny Schults and Randy Mulder to the rectangle has been released. Go to http://www.punknine.com/videos.html and click on the video labeled "The Game Goes On".

The 2008 Second City Cup presented by CLCK

2008-07-22T09:26:00.003-05:00

That's right folks! The city of Chicago now hosts not one but TWO annual footbag net tournaments. The Chicago Lake Coast Kickers are proud to announce the 2008 Second City Cup to be held at Union Park in Chicago on September 20-21.

The Second City Cup is the brainchild of Bryan Nelson, who wanted a chance to compete in a friendly tournament before the end of the year. If you've been following this blogspot, then you know that Bryan is an old-school Chicago kicker that just came back on the scene this summer after a 6 to 8 year hiatus. He missed the Windy City Cup due to the fact that he is getting married and had some family obligations to attend to that weekend, but he's back on the court and itching to find out where he stands with the rest of the world (or at least the rest of Illinois).

The Second City Cup is a no-frills net tournament. We are not getting park permits or event insurance. We're doing the whole tournament at our prelims site, and there will be no banners, no bleachers, no PA system, no "special" finals court, no entry fees or prize money, and no big promotions. It will have great people, great players, and a great atmosphere for fun and friendly competition. We will run a single elimination bracket for singles net, and we will most likely do a "King of the Court" format for doubles net. The Windy City Cup requires hours and hours of planning and is designed to increase exposure to the public, while the Second City Cup is strictly for the players. It promises to be a stress-free weekend of great footbag net action. Oh yeah, and we've already received sanctioning from the IFPA, so there's a great potential to increase your World Ranking by competing in the Second City Cup.

Can't wait to see you there! (If you are not from the area but are interested in coming out, post a reply to this thread and we'll find you a place to stay while you're in town.)

Zeke Bitches About Net 2008

2008-07-17T21:11:00.008-05:00

I've played... uh... most other forms of footbag for 17 years before getting into Net. On Sunday July 14th 2007 I came to a net demo at the Mayors Cup youth soccer tournament. I had played a few pick-up games over the years previous to this but never took it too seriously. I had a good time playing pick-ups and hanging out. Then I went to a net event 2 weeks after and had an absolute blast! After crushing a few big spikes through out the day and getting plenty of encouragement I was completely hooked and there was no turning back.

Now, I'm as determined as ever to get as good as I can even after playing poorly and burning out at Windy City Cup last month. I try to practice solo 2-3 times a week after work and play on the weekends with the newly formed net club. Exactly one year after the demo at the Mayor's cup I finally got some good net shoes with a pair of New Balance 1123's. After one session in these I've already noticed a reduction in shanks. Love these shoes!

So far I feel my sets are improving and not over setting as much. I'm still slowly getting consistent with some basic spikes. My serves are streaky but I can get pretty good power or placement when they're on. I believe strongly in playing good defense. The more I play against someone the better I can anticipate what they might do on a given play. If nothing else, I'm very active on the court and will run down dinks , shanks, try for blocks and even dig a spike or two.

I am still struggling to use my left foot effectively. I can bang with it on rare occasions but not much else. Unless it's an easy lob, I can't return a serve on either side to save my life it seems to get worse the more I play. I'm a pussy when I'm set too close to the net. Since I separated my collar bone a few years ago, I've been reluctant to do really crazy things in the air and it's holding me back with certain spikes. I could probably lose a few pounds to help with my diminishing vertical leap. I could probably use more discipline in my training. I should just train, actually.

I want to get as good as I can just for the satisfaction of being able to do something well that you couldn't do before. At this point in my life I'm not out to prove anything to anyone but myself and am not really interested in traveling to compete. Besides, I hate traveling. It's always a hassle and I like my life simple.

I'll track my progress and post my net related thoughts for the rest of the year. Feel free to leave a comment or give some tips. I appreciate any feedback and help I get.

Chicago Crush or Chicago Lake Coast Kickers

2008-07-15T07:56:00.002-05:00

So I heard some smack last week that there was a vote for the new Chicago area footbag net players club and the they were down to two names; Chicago Crush and Chicago Lake Coast Kickers. I know my vote doesn't count but I am down with Chicago Lake Coast Kickers. I guess I am pretty biased though as I created a logo for Scot Hansen with this club name already on it. Well, either way at least we have the club colors down!

Windy City Cup Photos by Zeke

2008-07-13T01:38:00.001-05:00

I just had to share with you all these awesome Photos from the Windy City Cupby Zeke on Footbag WorldWide. There are action and candid pics from both the prelims. and finals event. Worth a look for sure!

CIC B-day Jam

2008-07-10T09:12:00.004-05:00

Welles Park, has been our home for the past few years but it will be hosting a music festival this weekend. So it has been decided that Chicago Inner Circle will be celebrating it's eighth year of existence at Revere Park on Irving Park Rd. and Campbell this Sunday at 12pm. You are all invited for BBQ & Footbag all afternoon. We'll be set up with a grill and providing some food, several coolers to store cold drinks, and folding chairs for chillaxing. Guests are encouraged to bring their own food & drinks to help feed the masses (or just yourselves) and anything else to make your afternoon more enjoyable.

Click the image to view a larger size

Revere is just 1/2 mile South of Welles Park on Irving Park rd & Campbell. It's about 2 miles East off the Irving Park exit on 90/94. Notice there a couple other parks in the area. Keep going east right past those 2 parks, cross the bridge over the river and go one block past the stop light (on Rockwell) and make a right turn to head south on Campbell. The parking lot entrance should be on 1/4 block down on your right.

Click the image to view a larger size

1. Parking lot entrance
2. Freestyle will be set up in the tennis courts.
3. Net & 4-Square will be set up between the 2 east baseball fields.
4. There is an Ultimate Frisbee league playing there also. Hopefully, we won't be in each other's way.

Revere Park
2509 W Irving Park Rd
Chicago, IL 60618

Hope to see you all there,
Zeke
773-919-1558

Windy City Cup Videos?

2008-07-09T23:00:00.002-05:00

Does anyone that attended the 2008 Windy City Cup have any video footage they would like to upload? Please do so. I know there is a ton of other stuff from ProKicker.com & Chaos on YouTube but I would like to see some footbag net being played in Chicago posted on this Inner-Rectangle site!

2007 Montreal Championships Videos

2008-06-28T19:12:00.005-05:00

The Montreal tournament is coming soon, hope to see some Windy faces. For now I just want to let you know that some real good footage just landed on Pro Kicker. Gilles Demers just finished a pretty darn complete report on doubles semis and finals, for a total of 7 clips. Just follow the link.

Don't forget that Montreal is a 3 days tournament this year so make your plans accordingly.

Singles starts at 4 pm on friday the 18th (direct elimination format)

Kicking Schedule

2008-06-27T10:07:00.003-05:00

Hey folks...

We are setting up a regular kick EVERY Sunday at Union Park in Chicago, located at the corner of Lake St and Ashland St. We will play in Grove 4, which is on the west side of the park right along Ashland St. The park is super easy to get to by car (a few blocks north on Ashland from the Eisenhower or a few blocks west on Randolph from the Kennedy), by bus (Ashland, Ogden, or Washington routes), or by CTA Rail (Ashland stop on either the Pink or the Green lines). Our normal times will be from 2 PM to 6 PM. BE THERE!

For kicking schedules during the week please contact one of the following people:
In the city...
Tom (217) 549-6772 or Zeke (773) 919-1558
In the suburbs...
Scot (773) 447-2955 or Cory (630) 890-2298

Freestylers and 4-squarers are welcome, but we're playing Rectangular Kick Volley (also known as footbag net).

Windy City Cup report on Pro Kicker

2008-06-26T23:08:00.004-05:00

The first Windy City Cup was a blast, of course it needs improvement in certain areas but overall it was a fun tournament with a potentially great site. This could be built on over time so please Scot don't leave Chicago Scenic Studios.

I published a report page with results and pictures on Pro Kicker, videos will be posted later and I will let the Inner Rectangle know when it's done.

Great job guys and thank you for all your efforts.

I would have loved to win this but unfortunately second place was our fate this time (with PT Lovern, the Chaos Master). I want to congratulate the winners JF Lemieux and Gilles Demers, they played extremely well.

The singles finals was awesome to watch, good job guys and John Leys you rock man, this was solid.

Windy City Cup Final Photos from Enlightener

2008-06-26T14:26:00.007-05:00

As many of you are aware, Scott Davison (Enlightener) came out to the Windy City Cup with his family and generously performed a few footbag freestyle demos in the middle of time-outs etc. While he was at the final site at Navy Pier he also snapped a few photographs. Enjoy and thanks Scott D!

Windy City Cup Prelim Bracket Photos

2008-06-26T13:59:00.000-05:00

Here are some photos from the June 13, 2008 Windy City Cup preliminary brackets at Union Park. It was a huge treat to see Mike Bellman and Kelsey for sure - back from the old school train!

You can view these photos by Matt Sweeny & Kelsey at PicturePush.com

Windy City Cup Results

2008-06-18T08:55:00.000-05:00

I was wondering what was taking Cory so long to post these results until he informed me that I had all of the paperwork. Sorry for the unnecessary delay...

Intermediate Singles Net
1. Ted Fritsch
2. Vince Pontarelli
3. Kyle Marriner
4. Joey Ornberg
5. Josh Penney (s)

Josh hurt his calf in the second match of the day and had to scratch. It was Vince, Kyle, and Joey's first tournament. Joey and Kyle had never even seen the game before, and Vince was able to beat everyone in the pool except the gatekeeper.

Open Singles Net
1. John Leys
2. JF Lemeiux
3. Cory Current
4. Gilles Demers
5. Ben Alston
6. Elliot Johns
7. Walt Houston
8. Ken Hamric (s)
9. Tom Whitworth
10. Mike Bellman
11. Zeke Ibardaloza

A few upsets along the way to a great finals match at Navy Pier. Hammer scratched after a tough match with Cory in the quarterfinals, much to the delight of the rest of the guys from Tennessee. Nice work to Zeke who jumped right into the Open Pool in his first real tournament.

Open Doubles Net
9. Ted Fritsch/ Vince Pontarelli
8. Elliot Johns/ Zeke Ibardaloza
7. Tom Whitworth/ Mike Bellman
6. Cory Current/ Scot Hansen
5. Ben Alston/ Walt Houston
4. Ken Hamric/ Jeremy Mirken
3. John Leys/ Jack Harris
2. PT Lovern/ Yves Archambault
Windy City Cup Champions:
JF Lemeiux and Gilles Demers

Golf
1. Larry Doyle
2. Twenty-one way tie

Thank you once again to everyone that came out and made this event a great success. See you next year!

The Windy City Cup was a huge success!

2008-06-16T07:31:00.000-05:00

I would like to extend my sincere appreciation to all of those who helped make the Windy City Cup happen over the weekend and to all of the players who made the trip. We had 21 competitors for our event: not bad for a first-year tournament. Cory will post complete results soon (if he can decipher my poorly drawn brackets), but the quick hit headline is this...

The Windy City Cup is on it's way to Montreal. JF Lemeiux and Gilles Demers bested Yves Archambault and PT Lovern in a great three-game match on the coast of Lake Michigan right in front of beautiful Navy Pier to earn the title of the first-ever Windy City Cup Champions. Congratulations to them.

John Leys beat JF Lemeiux in another great three-game nail-biter to take the singles title. Congratulations to John as well, and we thank him for spending his last "quiet" Father's Day with us.

I would like to take a quick second to personally thank the staff here at the Chicago Inner Rectangle for the many hands that made the workload so much more bearable: Zeke Ibardaloza, Vince Pontarelli, Tommy Whitworth, Matt Sweeny, Kelcey Dalton, Mikey Bellman, Carrie Cruz, Scarlet Stever, Maureen Twargowski, Mike Dolan, Eric Reile, Troy Rouse, and of course, Cory Current. You guys and gals were all superheroes all weekend long. Thank you so much for everything!

And a quick shout-out to our sponsors as well: Pro Kicker Footbags (the best in the business! Thanks Yves!), Communications Direct, The Store, Navy Pier, and Chicago Scenic Studios. Thanks to the bad-ass staff at Chicago Scenic for the rapid set-up and tear-down of the bleachers and the entire finals site.

And to the players that couldn't make it: make sure you're there when we do it all over again next year!

Windy City Cup T-shirt design

2008-05-30T11:18:00.001-05:00

Well the final artwork is off to Scarlet who will then in turn get us a bunch of T-shirts printed with this artwork. There are lots of hands in this T-shirt pot and I know someone is going to have their toes stepped on with either the artwork on the front or back or T-shirt color, sizes - whatever. Let's just have fun with this super cool and different sport and enjoy our time with each other at the Tourney and don't get mad at me if you don't like the shirt! I am just the messenger man!

The Green Cup was the BOMB!

2008-05-28T10:00:00.000-05:00

The fifth annual Green Cup presented by Chaos went down over the weekend and it was AWESOME. The level of competition rivaled that of any World Championships I've ever been to. It was the kind of tournament that you would have been happy just to watch, let alone have the chance to compete in. I'm sure that http://www.footbag.org/ will be publishing full results soon and I can only hope to see some good video footbag at http://www.footbagnet.com/ or http://www.prokicker.ca/ once it's available. I know that Steve Dusablon was also working on a documentry, so once that's done I'll be sure to post where to find that as well. In the meantime, I'll share a couple of my favorite moments from the weekend...

The best part for me came early on. On the Friday before the competition began, Cory and I found ourselves on the opposite side of the rectangle from none other than Manu Bouchard and Randy Mulder for a pick-up game. I've seen both of these legends play better, but Cory and I were hitting the bag really well and we managed to pull off the upset 11-8. Considering the fact that Randy will not be seen on too many rectangles in the future, this was truly a game to remember for a lifetime for us.
The best tournament match I watched was Randy and Kenny Schults against Walt Houston and Ben Alston. Randy and Kenny were heavily favored, but Walt and Ben brought the lumber with them. After dropping the first game, they stormed out of the gates in game two. After being up 10-4 at one point, Randy and Kenny mounted a comeback to bring the game to 10-10. As Kenny went up for a spike, Big Ben went up and COMPLETELY stuffed him for the side out. On the very next play, Big Ben found himself stuffing Randy in the exact same fashion. Two HUGE blocks on two back-to-back plays. It was unbelievable. Big Ben got up and yelled "This is my court!" Two plays later, for game point, Walt got some air and stuffed Randy once more. Everyone that saw it went nuts. Kenny and Randy were able to pull it out in game three, but you have to take your hats off to the boys from Memphis for making one of the most dramatic matches I've seen in the game. They followed it up with a loss to Pat Keehan and Jack Harris before dropping another one in an absolute nail-biter to Yves Archambault and Ulli Hasse 17-15 to finish in 12th place.

And if the battle for 11th place was that good, you can only imagine how great the top 10 were.

Going Green

2008-05-19T10:04:00.000-05:00

Cory and I will fly to Oakland on Thursday to compete as the first ever Chicago Inner Rectangle team entered in a net tournament. The Chaos Footbag Club is hosting the 5th annual Green Cup, and it is sure to be the biggest footbag tournament on this side of the pond all year. With Worlds in Prague this summer and American currency tanking all over the globe, all the players that can't afford the airfare to Europe are instead investing in tickets to the Bay Area for Memorial Day weekend. (I'm one of those guys.) Not only is there going to be top-notch competitors from all over the US and Canada, but MANY international players are making the trip this year as well. In addition, we will be witnesses to the return of Kenny and Randy to the rectangle. I can only hope that we draw them in our pool and have the chance to make them think twice about the decision to come back.

I absolutely cannot wait to make the trip. Hopefully I'll see you there!

Get on the Rectangle this weekend!

2008-05-02T15:32:00.001-05:00

We're setting up the rectangles this weekend at Welles Park (Montrose and Western) at 2:30 PM Sunday afternoon. Rain is the only thing that might stop us! See you there...

Windy City Cup Handout Flyers

2008-05-02T11:40:00.002-05:00

Scot asked me to create these flyers which you can hand out when you are out and about and have someone who you would like to tell more about the Windy City Cup tourney.

You can also download the new 2009 Windy City Cup 4-up flyer too!

There are 2 files for the handout/flyer:

A letter size larger flyer [PDF] and...

Another of the same flyer 4-up on 1 sheet [PDF] which you can cut out and pass around and is intended as a smaller flyer.

Updated Windy City Cup Logos

2008-05-02T11:20:00.001-05:00

Well, after working with Scot we have make some final alterations to the Windy City Cup logo, moving things around slightly but keeping the same look and feel. I have posted High Resolution versions of the artwork which you can download as a JPEG, AI (Adobe Illustrator version CS2), EPS (Vector .eps file from Adobe Illustrator) or just grab all three files in the ZIP download.

The Triumphant Return

2008-04-24T09:07:00.000-05:00

He hasn't played net in about 5 years, but I am pleased to announce that I personally witnessed the triumphant return of Bryan Nelson to the rectangle. Bryan joined Cory and I last night for a light session of singles vs doubles rallies. He looked really good, especially considering that he hasn't played in a lifetime. He served well, set as well as to be expected, and he even started connecting on some spikes later in the evening. Welcome back buddy! It's great to see you back on the court.

Hillary Clinton Wins Pennsylvania. Time for the Parade?

2008-04-23T15:03:00.000-05:00

The Chicago Bears have a guy on their team by the name of Devon Hester. He is, without a doubt, the best thing that ever happened to kick returns in the history of the sport of football. I mean, the guy is magical. The only way to stop him is to not kick it to him. As a result of this guy's abilities, the Bears had the best kick return game out of all 32 teams in the league.

It's funny, because I live in Chicago, and I pay close attention to professional football, but I just can't seem to remember the parade that celebrated the big victory. They won! They were the best team in the league in kick returns. Where was the parade?

Oh yeah, now I remember: they finished the season with seven wins and nine losses; not even good enough for the playoffs. They were the best in one specific category, but their defense chronically underacheived, they had no quarterback, and their coach made too many bad decisions. If you want to win the Super Bowl, you can't just have the best kick return team; you need all the components of your team to be top-tier.

Enough about the Bears. Let's talk about the Democratic Primaries. Since the field has dwindled to just Clinton and Obama, I must say that both candidates have been impressive at times. I can finally understand why some people like Senator Clinton: she's intelligent, quick on her toes, and she knows her material better than her opponents. In other words, she's on top of her shit. Senator Obama, on the other hand, is even more impressive. He's insightful, eloquent, and he has the perfect mix of intelligence and naivete: a strong enough resume to show that he can handle whatever comes his way, but just enough inexperience to follow his own path and buck the status quo. He's grown on me a lot. By the time the Illinois Primary rolled around, I was excited to give him my vote.

Hillary Clinton won the battle in Pennsylvania yesterday. I can admit it. I wish it didn't happen that way, but I didn't have the opportunity to make it happen any other way. There's no way to spin it: Clinton took Pennsylvania by 10 points. Good for her. But Obama still leads in popular vote, he still leads in super-delegates, and he has an almost unsurmountable lead in pledged delegates. Unfortunately for Clinton, winning one contest late in the game by 10 points isn't going to be enough. Clinton will need to win each of the remaining primaries by a score of 68-32 in order to overcome the lead that Obama has on her. To date, she has not won a single primary by numbers anywhere near that figure. The chances of her winning the whole thing are slim to none.

So why are she and her supporters celebrating? Squeaking by in a state where you had previously held a 25 point margin and gaining about 8 delegates when you're down over 150 is no cause for a parade. It may have made the game a little more interesting, like when Devon Hester runs one back for a quick six; but in the end, if you can't come out of it all with a winning record, what difference does it make? If she wants to bask in her temporary glory, be my guest. But at the end of the season, it's Barack Obama that will be in the parade.

Training Tracker

2008-04-23T09:29:00.000-05:00

Good training is the key to success!

It's impossible to play any better than you practice. I'm committed to training harder this season than I ever have in the past. The practices will help my physical game, but the mental game is just as important. With my mind in mind, I decided to start tracking some things. I will use this thread all season to record stats from each practice. When I'm down in Game 3, and I need a win to get out of my pool, I'm going to think about the numbers on this thread and know that I have run more hills and spent more time on practice than my opponent, and I will remind myself of that fact as I pull it together in my head to get my body to do what's necessary to overcome and win the match.

So, here's where I'm at so far:
3/29/08 2 hour practice in Aurora, all fundamentals. Did we play any games? I don't recall.
4/13/08 2 hours inside at Navy Pier, all fundaments with 4 people! No room for a net.
4/15/08 1.25 hours in Aurora. All fundamentals. I played like shit.
4/18/08 2 hours at The Hill. 31 hills (ouch). One game (CC 11-9). GREAT workout.
4/19/08 1.25 hours at a yoga class.
4/21/08 Ran a little less than a mile in the morning before work.
4/22/08 2 hours at The Hill. 16 hills. Two games (CC 11-2, 11-9). Another great one.

10.5 hours so far.
46 hills so far.

Practice days and times

2008-04-20T14:29:00.000-05:00

It looks like our schedules are working themselves out for the season. Zeke said earlier that he will be at Welles Park for training on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I can only assume that Carrie, Tommy and Vince will be there when they can. Cory and I will be training on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays in the western suburbs. Bryan Nelson says he's going to start getting back into it too, so maybe we'll see him out on the court as well.

Hopefully we'll all be able to start getting together on most Sundays either at Welles or downtown at Jane Addams Memorial Park near Navy Pier. I will be more than happy to come out to Welles on Wednesdays when Cory is busy.

Cory and I worked on a lot of fundamentals last Friday, and we ran sprints up the hill no less than 30 times. I've been sore all weekend. Can't wait for more next week.

Hope you are enjoying the High Holiday today!

Peace.

2008 Windy City Cup Net :: Sponsorship Proposal

2008-04-17T21:31:00.001-05:00

I figured it might be a good idea to post the logo for this year's tournament and the Sponsorship Proposal PDFs 11x17 (ledger size) & 8.5x11 (letter size) so that you all might have easy access to these files. Like Scot (or Willie Winston) said earlier: "...Talk to anyone you know that might be down with helping out...When you are talking to potential sponsors, remember that no amount of money is too small, and don't think for a second that you have to stick to the various sponsorship levels on the proposals. If someone is going to give us money, take it! Print out the proposal and see what you can do..."

June 13-15th: 2008 Windy City Cup Net Footbag Championships

2008-04-16T21:04:00.000-05:00

Originally announced on Mar 17, 2008, on the Footbag net forum.
http://www.footbag.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4910

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Hey Footbag Friends!

The Net players of the greater Chicago-Land area are proud to formally announce and cordially invite YOU to the "The 2008 Windy City Cup" Net Footbag Championships, to be held June 13-15th in the beautiful city of Chicago, IL.

http://www.footbag.org/events/show/1203102773

We are very honored to team up with the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, who will host our finals site (Sunday, June 15th) at Navy Pier, the premiere tourist attraction in Chicago. Navy Pier boasts over 1,000,000 visitors EVERY weekend in the Chicago summer. (Some of you may recall that the Freestyle Finals for the 1999 World Footbag Championships were held on Skyline Stage @ Navy Pier. Our Finals Net court this year will be right @ the Front (and only) entrance of the Pier.)

Bleacher style seating will surround our finals court to seat a minimum of 300 spectators, and we expect HUGE crowds all day long. Our site is situated @ the only entrance of Navy Pier, and the sheer volume of expected foot traffic should place this tournament in an area of unheard of promotion for our sport. (In other words, if you want to showcase your skills in front of large crowds, this tournament will exceed the standards proposed in this forum.) We will also offer food and beer vendors on-site.

Our event will feature competition for all levels; amateur, professional, and women net events will be offered. Our IFPA sanctioning has been approved. This will be a Prize Money Event.

Plan your vacation time and buy your airfare now! We are working on host hotel arrangements. You may never have the chance to play in front of this many people again in your life!!

More details will follow here, so check back frequently...

http://www.footbag.org/events/show/1203102773

-Cory Current, Scot Hansen,
& CIR (Chicago Inner Rectangle)

2008-04-07T23:17:00.001-05:00

Ken Hamric had a revenge this past week-end beating Chicago local player Cory Current and his partner Yves Archambault in the semi-finals of the Southeastern Championships in Memphis, Tn. We just wanted to remind him that it was not always the case

Ken Hamric is a former World Footbag Champion on the come back trail after a few years of rest. At the 2008 edition of the Southeastern Champs he teamed up with another former World Champion, Chris Siebert from Portland, Oregon. They played in the fihals only to loose a very tight match to Jeremy Mirken and Manu Bouchard.

The Chicago Inner Rectangle Footbag Net Club was born today

2008-04-07T22:19:00.000-05:00

Yes it's official after 50 years of existence the club finally has a name. The Inner Rectangle. Footbag Net after all is played on a 20 by 44 badminton court. Footbag freestyle's club The Inner Circle inspired us for a good laugh, sorry guys.