Hail and well met to our Brethren and Sistren in Focused Flight!
After being Yella consecutive weeks while working on a video to help get sponsors for the 2016 Worlds, your intrepid reporter returned to the Meadow getting the Early Earl with not one, but two Guest Jammers. I was so thrilled by all of the Jams that I neglected take attendance nor any notes. What can a Designated Scribe to do in such circumstances?
Well, the Hard Corps of the Big Apple has a very deep bench and this week’s installment was written by the man most responsible for All*Star Thursdays becoming an institution. Without further adieu:
Ladies and Gentlemen…TED-SHRED!!!!
TedShred sporting the 2nd Gen Yella Jersey, which was retired shortly thereafter.
As the late great Yogi Berra might have once said “Freestyle Frisbee is 90% mental. The other half is physical.” Of course this comes from a man who actually said “I didn’t really say everything I said.”
On a sun-filled September 17th in the year of 2015, we were graced with not just one World Champion but two full-on shredding World Freestyle Champions in the form of the incomparable Jonathan “Honey Smooth” Willett, and the human spinning top formerly known as “Toddy Bro.” It is Jammers of this caliber that keep A*T (Doug E.) Fresh and on the upswing after twelve outstanding seasons.
The Jam of the Week evolved in many intertwined permutations from the initial grouping of (not so) Young James, Ted Shred, Doug E. Fresh, and Toddy Bro, mixed liberally with some JonaHEIN and just a dash of our own Guardian of the Discus, Daniel O’Neill. This one came out of the gates at a breakneck pace and only increased in intensity as the slick wore away. On a scale of One to Ten, I would dare to say this mixture of Crusty Old Schoolers–accompanied by the shiniest new models the sport has to offer–Took it to Eleven! Not only that, but we kept the accelerator floored until the Margaritas came a flowing. So what did it take for this crazed cohort to take it to this higher level?
Kevin “Skippy Jammer” Givens
To answer this question I defer the thoughts of Skippy Jammer, who after being flown in by The Tribe described his own post-All*Star Thursday euphoria as akin to “having the Village Vanguard as your personal jazz club, with the A*T crew as the greatest house band in the world. Guests sit in on our sessions to Jam, and it’s all about the players and the improvisational jams they share. The end result, Skippy noted, has redefined freestyle play.
And so it was on this day with a combination of excitement and an abundance of World Class ambiDISCerous skills on display, allowing for any spin, and every angle to be launched immediately after a powerful spinning seal, which had been preceded by another member’s cuff off a brush. Or how about this:
Toddy Brodeur In da’ Meadow back in 2011 receiving his A*T Guest Jammer package.
Within the same sequence two different players rolling it from the back of the right hand down their back and off the heel of the left foot, only to be corralled and seized by a full on brushing posse 30 yards into the wind, followed by a crosswind chest roll into a spinning Flying Gitis snatched by the same Toddy Bro right hand that initiated the first back roll. Do ya want more? How about, back-to-back planted spinning Gitosis seals after two consecutive All-In 5-man O’Malachy co-ops!
The group’s ability to keep the plastic off the turf for minutes at a time allowed all of us to move as one, with a joyous demeanor in a motion game which has come to define the NYC style. There was a mental state known as FLOW attained on the Meadow that day where every person was performing at an elevated level, fully involved and fully enjoying the activity of creativity. [And this took place in all of the Jams last week—it was AMAZING! TP-TJH]
Come on… you’ve been there before, maybe you once knew it as BEING IN THE ZONE! You know the feeling: Totally energized and euphoric because the level of play by the group is testing the boundaries of your own skills and time just seems to euphorically slow down. In closing, let me say this: If either being AmbiDISCerous (The ability to delay both spins) or the concept of Flow sound unfamiliar to you, my fellow Jammers, then please…brush up on that other spin and Come on Down…
Your favorite Jam Band awaits you!
– TedShred, Co-Founder of All*Star Thursdays and Proprietor of Chateau Oberhaus
The Invisible String’s International Big Throw–Look close and see who You Know!!!
Read the map….
So, when are YOU Comin’ Down?!
TP_TJH
All Star Thursday 