"Footbag Dance" FREE online - Page 11 of 12
A basic beginner's instruction book on kicking a footbag in the Bloughchi style
By Danceman Steve Blough ® published in 1984, online since 1996.
 Chapter 3 continued
Mastering Footbag Dance
Really becoming proficient at Footbag Dance can be long and drawn out,
but the mastering of any consciousness is so. None the less you will move
steadily on much to your amazement.
After kicking for about four to five weeks and having mastered five to
seven semi-controlled kicks, you will hit the magic number of 10. You will say
to yourself, "Ten kicks, wow! I never thought I'd ever get to 10!"
This new found elation will be your incentive to move on. Eventually you will
be getting 10 kicks a lot of the time. Such a great feeling!
These accomplishments grow as your hours of kicking grow. After four or
five months you will be totally engulfed with the study. I liked it so much I
kicked everywhere...living rooms, kitchens, bedrooms, wherever there was a space
big enough. I remember when my kicking accomplishment was up to 50 kicks. I
was ecstatic to be there but could not seem to go any further. That was
frustrating. I noticed the closer I got to 50 the more I dropped the footbag.
The tension would overwhelm me. "Relax, relax, relax," kept
going through my mind. Then one day I hit 91: then later, 2917! With all this
work your eye-foot consciousness improves day by day. You will be standing in
the kitchen and inadvertently you will drop something and practically catch it
with your foot. It really enlightens your mind how this study integrates your
eye-foot reaction. Once your kicking average goes up you will enjoy kicking the
footbag so much you will not regard it as such a physical feat. This enjoyment
enriches your life because of the feeling that you are doing something for your
mind as well as your body. It is a comforting thought. With all this new found
clarity it pushes you onward in a real determined way.
There is a plateau that you eventually reach...total ecstasy. One day
you kick ten to twenty kicks that are so pure that you are totally giving of the
moment. It seems that you just melt with the flow of the footbag. You are one.
This place is so beautiful that you will want to be there forever. All the
kicks flow so effortlessly that you don't want it to stop...but it finally does.
At this point you sit and ponder for a moment: thoughts go through your mind
that are enlightening. This is such a wonderful threshold to behold that you
will enter a whole new place of consciousness. With this new found clarity you
will be willing to work a little bit harder each and every time you kick.
Footbag Dance is one's ability to dance with the flowing movement of the footbag. In
this process, a graceful, flowing motion is created and carried from one
movement to another. |
In order to understand this subconscious flowing motion we must think
about what we are trying to accomplish. As I mentioned earlier, the actual flow
with the movement of the footbag must be done with as little effort as possible.
Your body movement must coincide with the movement of the footbag, therefore
expending no more energy than is needed.
As you kick the footbag around, your objective is to move with it. Not
so much that you will overshoot it, and not so little that you will get there
too late to make the required kick or block. The key to making all of this come
together is hinged on the ability of the eye to stay with the footbag and the
energy field it creates. Within this field your movements flow and become one.
As I mentioned earlier, the eye is the window to the brain. The brain cannot
react in the time needed to kick the footbag if your eye does not make contact
when it should.
The most beautiful thing about Footbag Dance is that there are
thresholds that come to a footbag kicking student, and through these thresholds
the kicker is drawn in by some magical charm that is very hard to explain.
These thresholds are felt by one and all and cannot be missed. Such a
feeling!!!
 
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