Having moved to Chile a few months ago, I chose this week’s interview to be with someone somewhat close to my new home. You can follow the links in this interview to find out a bit more about the South American Footbag scene.

The aim of this series of interviews is to have a look at what players are doing all around the world. Who knows where next week’s edition will come from…

First of all, tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into playing Footbag?

Well, hello everyone, my name is Alex Lopez, I’m 26 and, I’m a student of Electronic Engineering and I have been playing Freestyle Footbag since December 2007. I knew about Footbag searching on Internet some videos of circle kicking, known in my country as “Fuchi”, then showed up the word “Footbag” beside to “Fuchi”, that’s when I saw footbag.org, then clicked on these links and a new world popped up in front of me.

I remember me looking some of those vids and I can’t believe those great skills showed by Brad Nelson, Felix Zenger, Phil Morrison and all the other players on that gallery, next to that, the gallery of my master! Anz (about that, Thanks Anssi for teaching me almost all that I know about Freestyle Footbag, such a great master!), seeing his videos make me realize that maybe I can learn to play Freestyle Footbag too, so I just tried to imitate all those moves even I didn’t get it about dexes or sets; since that I have been practicing by my own, inspiring myself from videos uploaded by all of you, watching myself on my video-records and learning from all that.

You are from Colombia, and there is a good scene growing there. Tell us a bit about the scene there.

Yeah!, Right now We try to keep 2 or 3 jams per year to keep us together, next one be on April 5-6 called Caribbean Jam, everyone’s invited! .

Footbag (Freestyle/Net) in Colombia has been growing thanks to people like “Footbag Medellin” group, they are working so hard to massively promote this sport in their region and our country through their local sports committee and their facebook group. One of their most interesting projects consist in teaching Footbag Net, thanks to over 400 Badminton nets brought to the Medellin city and distributed into the different communities there, that’s a huge challenge! Also I have another group on facebook called “retos de Footbag” (like Footbag challenges), there we try to support each other posting our videos, giving and receiving tips to achieve all challenges and improve on our game style, all these to keep people interested on practice and improvement of our skills in Freestyle Footbag; still we’re being just a few, but we hope that more people start in this sport soon.

Aside from playing Footbag, what else do you do?

Hehehe, Now I’m trying to finish my studies to get a job, apart of this there’s not too much, too bad!

What inspires you to play Footbag and who are your favourite players?

Hmm…Actually I don’t get it! I don’t know what is my main motivation to keep on it, but I’m sure that strange force support me every day to push a bit more, tipping this gives me: “stand up and go to practice, You lazy!”; this happens when I’m seeing some good Footbag footage too, mainly on the Destroyer’s videos, I grew up in Footbag seeing his videos, He has such a great style, definitely! He is my favorite one, another of my favorites one are Milan Benda, Honza Weber, Vasek Klouda, the Airinen Brothers and Byrin Wylie.

What do you think is your biggest achievement in Footbag so far?

I think that my biggest achievement is still being an active Freestyle Footbag player, across these years I have been practicing alone, sometimes that’s pretty unmotivating, but…well, I’m still here and I’m happy for that.

Do you think South America will hold Worlds one day?

Yeah! It should, that’s the main goal for Footbag community here, in name of all of us in South America I invite to all the Footbag community to consider the possibility to include us to take place of Worlds, I’m sure with a lot of hard work We’re accomplish all the requirements to be guests of Worlds.

You live in a small town with no other players, what keeps you playing by yourself, and how often do you get to kick with others?

Well… like answer above, I can’t figure out what inspires me yet, it just an impulse to keep me on way, whatever it names; about kicking with other people, that’s not too usual, maybe 3 or 4 times on a year in the Jams or occasional travels to their cities, but when it happens, shred is always exciting and funny, always something new tricks to see and share.

What sort of equipment do you use and how easy is it to get in Colombia?

Ok, I don’t use anything special, just comfortable clothing, about shoes the most common are Lavers, others like Quantum are pretty uncommon, actually I know just 2 or 3 local players that used it, about footbags most of them are made by 2 or 3 local players, I use one 45 gr 32-pannel made by Carlos Terraza, a local player, but take advantage to Hanna’s travels to USA with other 2 friends decide to buy her well-known footbags, I’m just waiting for the moment to play with mine.

How did you enjoy the most recent South American Championships?

Actually I didn’t get there because for that time I didn’t have any money, just make contact with the event, seeing videos from there and like an online-judge for shred 30, sick 3 and big one on Freestyle, sadly I lost this great opportunity to know new people interested in the sport. This year South American Footbag Championships will be take place in Medellin city next December, again everyone’s invited to share with us (also you too Daniel ), South America waits for all of you this year, come here and visit us!

What are your goals in Footbag, and in life in general?

In Footbag I hope to keep improve my game much as I can, then hope be able to share all that I learned across these years and help to the new generation of Footbag players. About life I hope to get a job soon and later give me a good life, just that simple, I hope to know all of you in Worlds, probably not this year, but maybe the next one, looking forward to reach all these goals.

Do you have anything more to add, or anybody to thank?

Well, not much, just say thank you for giving me this opportunity for me to express myself and also say thanks to all in Footbag community. That’s it!

Shred Hard!

Alex

This is the second interview in our series of Footbag players from all over the world. After last week’s chat with Honza Weber, this week we go to New Zealand to see what the “Red Rocket”, Phil Morrison has been up to.

For those not aware of the “Red Rocket” – can you give a brief introduction of yourself and your time in Footbag

My name is Phil Morrison, I live in Christchurch, New Zealand, I have been playing footbag for 10+ years now but to be honest I can’t remember exactly when I started playing, it must have been playing hack at high school in 2001 I think. 2006 was my first worlds in Frankfurt, Germany where I was inducted into BAP, and continued to attend the next 4 World Championships.

2011 was a pretty tough year for you- a big earthquake in Christchurch and some injuries. What did it take to mentally recover from that?

It’s quite a surreal experience being through a large disaster, interestingly enough I was playing footbag in the city centre when the most damaging earthquake struck my city. Luckily I was not mentally affected for a long period of time from the quakes, although since they are still occurring regularly and apparently will continue for some time, possibly the best thing for me will be to move to Aussie!

Phil Morrison vs Andrew Grant (Canada) at the 2009 Australian Championships. Photo by Jeremy O’Wheel

I also had the worst injury I have ever had in 2011, severely tearing a tendon in my ankle putting me out of action for a very long time (luckily did not fully rupture which would have required surgery). I’m not usually one to sit around feeling sorry for myself, once I was able to walk again I put myself through a lot of rehab work focusing on strength and stability for the ankle, slowly but surely being able to do more and more. I’m feeling good now, but am still aware of my ankle, and can still feel it during certain moves; luckily it’s not holding me back much.

When something bad happens, it’s happened, there’s nothing you can do to change it, and all the worrying in the world isn’t going to make a single bit of difference. From early on I realised that everyone has problems in their life, it’s what you learn and how you respond from these setbacks that’s really going to determine what you are going to achieve. I always try to look for a solution rather than dwelling on the problem.

You have been a pretty constant fixture in the finals at Worlds over the last few years, what are your aims for the coming years?

The time I have spent attending the worlds has been so amazing, I definitely would like to go to more, although with everything that’s been going on and at this stage in my life it’s no longer top priority. This year I will be trying hard to gain sponsorship and raise money to get to Poland, so here’s hoping.

Something I started doing towards the end of 2011 was taking footbag into schools and other children’s groups. I have been giving paid demos and bringing in a bunch of my own footbags to take classes, helping introduce children to footbag. I feel like footbag has so much potential, but over the last few years has slowed in momentum due to not enough young players getting into the game, especially in New Zealand anyway.

Finally, freestyle football is on the cards. I could always do a few basic tricks with a football, but never really got into freestyle despite playing football my whole life. Luckily I ran into the NZ Freestyle Football Champ in my home town and was introduced to it, since then was invited to compete at the 2011 New Zealand Freestyle Football Champs in which I got equal 3rd place. I feel that freestyle football is a great compliment to footbag during a demonstration, as it’s easier to see the ball, and most people have some sort of connection to football having played it before or at least seen it played.

So even though footbag in my opinion is much more challenging, stylish, complex, and therefore cooler, I will still be putting some time into freestyle football.

What’s happening in the New Zealand scene? Any up and coming prodigies? You have also been playing freestyle football- what’s the scene for that like in NZ?

The New Zealand scene has unfortunately diminished since the good ol’ days of when I first started playing. Since no new young players have been introduced to the sport, like I was saying before, not much has happened. Although when I was in Wellington for the Freestyle Football Champs I caught up with some retired NZ players and we played some casual hack, it was great!

I think the Freestyle Football scene in NZ seems quite similar to the footbag scene here, people play scattered around the country, but there is nothing major going on. Again this is something that needs to be worked on.

You are also a personal trainer, what do you recommend for all footbag players to do to improve their game, and what types of exercise to you do in order to improve your footbag?

The most important thing when getting better at anything is to be specific, in this case obviously play footbag! The more time you spend with the bag the better, BUT there are some things you can do to improve faster, progress quicker, or help to avoid injury. Technique is a big one, drilling a trick is great, but if you are drilling it with incorrect form this can potentially slow progression or cause injury.

One thing I have learnt is the value of visualisation, especially since footbag is such a mental game. This is something many, if not all top athletes will do. Picturing yourself performing with the perfect technique you wish to have, in as much detail as possible. When starting out with footbag, over and over I would picture myself as a top player, hitting the tricks I wanted to hit. Not just seeing MYSELF hitting the tricks how I would hit it, but actually being that player, hitting the trick just as THEY hit it, feeling the way they move, feeling the way my body would need to be positioned, being as specific as possible. Quite often while doing this I would realise my movements were much different to theirs, and next session I would try my best to imitate the technique I had been visualising. I’m not sure if this is something everyone has done or just a few players, but I would be interested to find out. I think this one thing probably shaped my game the most.

There are other types of training which can also be beneficial, such as cross training with swimming, great for fitness/recovery, and its low impact! The obvious thing people think about is strength and conditioning training in the gym. There are plenty of strength, power, and stability exercises I do in the gym I feel help my game. These exercises can range from very simple to very complex, but so can an individuals’ ability and where they need to start from, so it would be silly for me to give generic advice here without being able to give proper feedback. I would recommend seeking advice and demonstration from a competent exercise professional, someone that can correct form and make sure you are doing the any exercise correctly. Or if you message me on facebook letting me know a bit about your exercise history/ability level, and if I think you are a nice person, I could probably let you know what I recommend .

Who were your inspirations when you started playing Footbag, and what drives you now?

Right at the beginning I met Hanz Freller in Christchurch; his hop-over swirl was mind blowing!!! But then I got better than Hanz and I had to find new players to inspire me, like for a lot of player’s I’m sure, this was Ryan Mulroney. Also Yacine Merzouk sticks in my mind; I loved his style and routines. Then of course Vasek came along and I watched his videos all the time, new competition footage was SUCH a treat to see what new combos and moves he was busting out.

I remember early on being such a thrill as EVERY session something new would be hit, for me it was great to hit bigger and bigger tricks. I even liked the much hated ‘add’ system, as it was an indicator of getting to the ‘next level’, this was fun for me. But as with anything, as you get to a higher level you have to train harder and harder for slower progression, which in some ways makes it more satisfying, but potentially more frustrating too.

These days I am more driven by showing footbag to a larger audience, doing demos, and trying to get more people playing. I feel it’s such an amazing sport which is largely under appreciated due to its complexity, which a lot of people, especially children, would get huge benefit from playing.

You weren’t able to make it to Finland this year, will you get to Poland for the 2012 Worlds?

I hope so! I’m currently applying for funding/sponsorship.

Do you think the Southern Hemisphere will host Worlds some day?

Sure, why not. The scene would have to be much bigger though, and would probably need companies backing the top players around the world to help pay for them to come.

What particular aspects of your game have you been working on lately?

Just getting my consistency back up since the injury, luckily it hasn’t taken to long. These days I don’t so much try to hit new big tricks, but just getting better at what I’ve got, and thinking a lot about technique.

What is your personal highlight in your time playing Footbag?

It would have to be placing 5th at the 2007 world’s finals, even though I was injured. Not to mention of course seeing so many different places and meeting such amazing people all around the world.

Do you have anything more to add, any thanks to give, or any tips for players starting out?

Thanks to my mum and dad for all the support they have given me through the years, and of course thanks to the footbag community, I have made so many amazing friends all around the world. I look forward to seeing the scene continue to grow. If you can and have an interest in helping footbag grow I would recommend contacting schools and other groups in your area letting them know what you do and what you can offer them.

For new players, the most important thing is to have fun! Even though it’s recommended you drill the basics on both sides before moving on (I really wish I had done this more), if you find hitting big tricks fun, go for it, do what you enjoy. It’s called ‘freestyle’ footbag for a reason; everyone is free to choose their own style, and play the game how they see fit. Oh, and go watch my videos There are plenty on youtube, I hope they help motivate people. I also hope to make some more tutorial videos if I get the time.

And remember, it’s not how many times you drop the bag; it’s how many times you pick it up again.

Red Rocket - clicking the link will take you to the Red Rocket Facebook page.

Thanks again to Phil, I hope we will all see him in action this year in Poland. Let me know who you would like to see over the course of the interview series. My biggest hope is to get a variety of players from all around the world throughout the year.

Hope you enjoy the series, and leave a comment if you enjoyed the interview.

Most people within the Footbag community would be well aware of Jan “Honza” Weber from Prague, Czech Republic. He is the current World Champion of Routines. After many appearances in the finals at Worlds, he finally climbed to the top of the podium in Helsinki.

In what I hope will be a long running series of interviews, I decided to ask Honza what he has been up to now that he is “the champ”.

Honza searches for a new doubles partner...

First of all, for those who may not know you, give a brief introduction of yourself and your time in Footbag.

Hello, my name is Honza Weber (as the title of the interview will also probably say  ) and I have been playing footbag for over ten years. I have made BAP (not that a lot of new people know what it stands for these days  ) in 2002 and over the years I managed to win couple of major footbag tournaments including Euros and Worlds. You can also watch this nicely done documentary of me .

You won your first Worlds in the singles routines this year, after 10 years of trying. Describe your feeling after the results were announced.

Well, yeah…. Finally! As everybody was cheering during that night. Actually I think it was much better feeling to win after so many years than for example if I would have managed it just after couple years in one of those when I was finishing second all over again. 

It was a great feeling and in fact much more than that. It is very hard to use words for that description, your body is so full of energy that you can make a hole into a wall just by using your thumb  You feel just incredible. I mean I have won doubles routines at Worlds 4 times before this one, but it just never really felt that good. The first one in 2004 was bloody awesome, but it also meant that much because it was first doubles dropless routine ever… The 2011 singles routines win was different from any other win, it was a pure relief, I had the feeling I could finally die satisfied and without regrets , I have succeeded  and on the flight back it was really the first time ever I was not scared… and I was very happy it was quite obvious even before the results announcement because the worst is when you win and people talk whether the result were correct.. :/ It was great night that day, an important one for me .

Who (or what) were your big influences when you were starting out in Footbag, and what are your influences now?

Back in 2001, when I started with footbag, my heroes were Ryan Mulroney, Peter Irish, Rippin and Sunil Jani. Simply the best players of that era. During the time Ryan became my favorite because of his amazing style as well as Karim Daouk (of course just until he started playing net  ). These days I am not really into hardcore shred anymore, but if there is anyone I like to kick with, then it is Milan because it is always fun to shred with him and he is probably the only one who can inspire me to hit new moves and combos these days.

There are many good players nowadays, but the problem is they are too predictable and after watching some of their videos they cannot really surprise with anything while playing in the circle and if they can, they lack the style. Lately I have enjoyed footage of Samu Ahola and Jay, it was very surprising indeed! I should also mention Vasek, I have spent a lot of time kicking with him and despite having never really worshipped his skills, he had an influence on my game.

What do you aim for when preparing a routine?

It depends whether it is a routine for performances or routine for competition. I must say I feel really good preparing my performances and I am really confident about those, but I honestly do not like my competition routines. It feels like a have some kind of mental block or something. I think just 3 of my routines in my career were representative; the Spiderman one from Worlds finals 2004, Thierry la Fronde from Worlds finals 2009 and probably the Figaro one from 2011 finals.

You are quite involved in the freestyle football scene as well – you had a pretty big hand in organizing the European and World championships. Do you see footbag and freestyle football coming together more in the future?

Definitely! These sports simply have to be connected and the communities should cooperate as much as possible. I have started doing freestyle football in early 2010 and in the beginning I have been doing footbag moves mostly, but later I discovered all the possibilities of the original freestyle football moves and I have been practicing them since.

Here is a video from a year ago and I am gonna make another one during the next week… :

It is just amazing to see the passion of the freestyle football players, it reminds of the golden footbag era from 2002-2004. They have shown a big respect for footbag and they are really inspired by all the moves we can hit. I think it is just about time when we all start organizing tournaments together on a regular basis.

Look at this video from this years Prague Freestyle Football World Champs. – the atmosphere speaks for itself:

Really, watch that one, it is GREAT!

Tell us some more about the “Freestyle Union” shows

“Freestyle Union” is a freestyle team of people showing Footbag, Freestyle Frisbee, Yo-Yo and Freestyle Football. For a long time we have been doing performances at various events together and later we decided to take it more seriously and prepared quite a nice show for a Prague’s university talent show, which we eventually won. It may not sound like a big deal, but there were almost 100 competitors and the final was during a big event with over 5000 spectators.

I think this kind of freestyle show is perfect for all kinds of events and the combination is much more entertaining than the single sports performances. But show is what it is all about , so you must have something extra in there as well. We are currently working on new and much better performance and we have been booked for several events including some international ones, which is amazing for those few months we have been promoting this show, so I think if we continue in this progress it may become very successful project promoting these freestyle disciplines!

Here is the first round of the talent show: And this is our Facebook page:

Honza takes flight

What do you think about the current state of freestyle footbag, and where to go from here.

Nearly half a year ago I wrote an essay called “The Future of Footbag Freestyle”, where I have summed up my thoughts I had in mind for certain amount of time. Long story short I was quite negative about the sport`s future because some of the habits in the game are in my opinion still medieval and I found them to be the main source of lack of new players. So if the community wants the sport to move forward and gain more members, then those are the ones to be changes in the first place. You can read the article here: Http://www.shredglobal.com/archive/the-future-of-footbag-freestyle-by-honza-weber/

I was glad the essay caused quite a discussion and people actually started to think about it more. Some arguments said that the situation goes in waves and sometimes there is more and sometimes less players, which is in fact very reasonable, but on the other hand the last wave must have gotten lost somewhere . This is a serious topic though and despite the situation might have become slightly better, it is still very far to be good and changes are to be made here in order to make the sport successful and known!

You must spend a lot of time working on routines and performances- do you have time to work on any big new tricks?

Unfortunately not :/ I spend lot of time these days practicing Freestyle Football and kicking with bags I use for performance, so I rarely kick with regular 32 panels. On the other hand since I was travelling a lot for footbag tournaments during the last couple months, I got into a good shred shape and managed to hit some cool and hard stuff, the only thing to mention though is probably barraging same whirling swirl. I will try to get it on video soon… The other problem is that when you push your limits it is very easy to get injured and therefore I also became afraid of trying big moves.

You have got to travel quite a lot through Footbag- what are some of your biggest highlights over the years?

I loved Japan! It was always my dream to go there and finally it came true. It was an unforgettable experience and I recommend everyone to go there at least once! Russia is always a blast, no matter whether in Moscow or in St. Petersburg, both place sare amazing. I really enjoyed all the California trips thanks to Steve and Queency and meeting Tony Hawk in L.A. meant fulfilling of another dream of mine. I mean there are so many wonderful places I visited, but these are the ones I keep thinking of the most. Here is a short vid from the Tony Hawk event.

10. What are your plans for 2012? There have been some whispers about a Footbag app, tell us a bit more about that.

Plans are of course pretty big, so will see how successful will be their realizing . I would love to continue travelling and performing all around the World. It is a great life I have right now and I pray it stays like this! Anyway for the start there is a “Footbag Freestyle” app for iPhone coming up any day. It was developed by my freestyle football friend (another example of connection between the sports  ) Mario Plantosar from Croatia. It is just a first version, so we plan further improvements on the app. It is more informational, but the first goal was to come up with something and wait for the feedback. The final goal would probably be to implement ShredSessions footbag online video game into it. For those who have not played it yet, give it a try here

What advice do you have for people new to the sport of Footbag?

Do not get discouraged by how hard footbag looks like! After some practice you will start improving really fast and you will love it! It depends just on your will and want to improve because anything can be achieved!

Maybe this tutorial video will help you in the beginning 

Do you have anything else to add, or anybody to thank?

I think I have covered all the topics. I would like to thank everybody that support me and have supported me in the past! Naming all the people would make a huge list here, but I am sure they all know! I am very grateful for that and let me know if I can do anything for you in return!

Honza Weber

www.HonzaWeber.com

So first of all I would like to say a big thanks to Honza for being the first interview subject, and of course congratulations on the victory in Helsinki.

Feel free to add any comments on the interview, or to suggest who you would like to see interviewed next. I am planning to release one interview per week from players right around the world.

Who do you think will be next?

Here is the first entry for the Joulukalenteri, 2011. This is a special video edited by Ken Somolinos, from his time spent in Las Vegas during his time living there and jams. There is some mind blowing combos, drills and tricks in this video, and I’m proud to now present you with a link of glory. Thanks to Evan and Ken for being entirely legendary, and making this happen. Merry Christmas, Modified.

Gatesman Footbag from Ken Somolinos on Vimeo.

Aleksi ‘Air’ Airinen hits a 3 trick combo all 7′s

Alpine Whirlygig > Montage > Gangsta Party

Directed by Jay Boychuk,

A stellar video showcasing the amazing technical mastery of freestyle footbag icon and spokesman Anssi Sundberg… A must watch!

Footbag contains a wide range of unique and enjoyable events for any player to enjoy, whether it is the novice or the professional. Each type of competition has its own features and benefits, some attuned to a more social side of learning while others are for those wanting the skills they have attained to be shown off. Here is a beginners guide to all the major competitions hosted at most competitions:

Main Events:

Circle Competition

Circle is a very fun and enjoyable competition that everyone can use to relax and just have some fun. The circle competition requires 3-4 players minimum, arranged in the kicking order of beginner to the most highly ranked player. Circle competition has a few variations around the world, however the most used model revolves around a 2 round game.

The first round of circle is called the ‘density’ round. In this round, the main aim is to just hit as many different and unique tricks as you possibly can without dropping. Once you drop, you appropriately pass the bag over to the next player who will commence their run. In each round, you get 3 attempts to impress the judges with your skills. The only rule associated with this event is:

-       If you drop the bag before reaching 3 contacts, the player is given a second attempt or ‘passback’ (you must pass the bag to the player, usually it is good etiquette not to pick it up yourself for a passback). However, on the second attempt, any drops lead to the end of your turn and you must pass it onto the next player.

The second round of circle is called the ‘difficulty’ round. In this section, players must hit their hardest tricks and links. Each player is given a score for each of the 2 rounds. Usually, the highest placed person (sometimes 2^nd place as well) advance to the next stage of the competition.

Circle competition is a good way to relax and just play to your strengths. It is fun for all levels of players and doesn’t require any real preparation to compete in.

Below is an example of the circle competition:

Routines

Every sport, that has many variations in competition, always seem to have the decider, most important event that would crown the best of the world. In Footbag, the official event to achieve the ‘Champion’ title is from winning routines at the event. Routines are a very basic and easy competition to comprehend. It is very similar to a gymnastics rhythmic routine, where it revolves around roughly a 2-3 minute performance. Each performance is graded on difficulty, creativity and length. Difficulty is self-explanatory, creativity covers how ‘on beat’ you are to the music that you have chosen and the uniqueness of your routine, and length is just to ensure you don’t go over or under the time limit (you get penalized if you do). You get penalized for drops, which are usually the deciding factor between players of the same skill. Routines don’t require an extremely difficult performance to progress further at an event. Generally, the creative routines are seen to be the most impressive (even if it isn’t the winning routine). If you can’t hit too many difficult tricks, you can be creative and still achieve a good result for a routine. Showing off tricks that no one performs during a routine is a sure way to get a good score in creativity. In this way, even the most basic of players can come up with a routine and progress with it.

Below is one of the most creative routines I have seen (even if the difficulty isn’t world class) and is a routine you must watch before you die, enjoy a masterpiece:

(Note: This is a little over the top, but its very creative)

Shred 30

Shred 30 is a very unique and enjoyable event. In shred 30, you have 30 seconds to perform as many different tricks as you can. In Footbag, there is something called the ‘ADD system’; each trick has been assigned a number of ADD’s (this doesn’t mean a trick is more difficult if it has more ADD’s). Tricks that are given an ADD score of 3 or higher are considered ‘uniques’. Also, performing the same 3 or higher ADD trick on the opposite side is also considered ‘unique’. ‘Uniques’ are used as a multiplier to calculate your personal score for the event. However, once you perform a ‘unique’, it cannot be considered a ‘unique’ again. This means if you hit the same trick 30 times, for example pixie legover (open switch in the new naming system), you will only receive 2 ‘uniques’ (one unique on each side) that will be a multiplier. The only other rules is that a drop is considered a 0 add trick and is added to the score calculator as a contact, and in a female shred 30, 2 ADD tricks may be considered unique depending on the competition organizer. Once you ‘drop’, you simply pick the bag back up as quick as you can and start kicking again (you only have 30 seconds remember). Below is the formula for calculating a shred 30 score.

Shred30 score = ADDs*(1+(uniques/contacts))

This competition therefore revolves around precision and being both sided. In this competition, a drop isn’t as harmful as a routine, however it can damage the rhythm of the player. Shred 30 is a fun way to express how good you are at linking hard tricks, also it can be used as a tool to drilling in those links you want to.

Below is a example video of a shred 30 run:

Sick 3

A pretty self-explanatory competition, it revolves around linking you three most difficult tricks you can think of together. A player receives multiple attempts at hitting a safety and a main combination. The amount of attempts allowed for players varies between lots of competitions, but generally you get 3 attempts at your safety and 3 attempts at your main.

Other Events

Request Competition:

Request competition is very unique and relies on your skill at hitting a wide range of tricks and links. Usually, it is a competition of 15 or more rounds, each round consisting of two different links. To progress to the next round, you must hit one of the two combinations cleanly. You get three attempts at a combo each round and, if you fail all three attempts, you will be eliminated. The rounds will continue until one person is left standing. The last person standing is obviously the winner of the event. You may change which one of the links you want to hit during a round, meaning you don’t have to decide on one or the other.

Shred Battles

My personal favorite, shred battle competition is simply whoever is the last man standing wins. The only rule is you must play to your level. This ensures that a beginner could in fact beat an expert in this competition (This is probably why shred battles are not a part of the World Footbag Championship competition). However, shred battles are a fun way to settle an argument and a just generally fun.

Note: There are many other variations of Footbag competitions, some do not require any ‘tricks’ at all. For example two square/ 4 square and Footbag golf. Both of these events are exactly the same as normal two square and golf, but with a footbag.

Also known as Symposium Quantum Quantum Butterfly

Pawel Manages to his this seldom seen set very cleanly!

Big thanks to Daniel Cadavid and Sebastian Ceballos for getting this video up and letting us know that Colombia is stepping up their game! Props Colombia!

The video is from a recent meeting in the city of Calarcá, it’s called “El Cacique del Footbag (like the Chief of footbag), it’s inspired in the Indian who ruled those lands… The footbaggers there are: Álex López (the host), Brayan Bossa (Footbag Boy), Sebastián Ceballos (Sebas Ska) and Bernardo Palacio (Rasta Bernard).

Quite possibly one of the most beautiful and articulate videos ever made for Freestyle Footbag

Thank you Russia… well done!

Worlds 2011 in a Nutshell. (written by Jay Boychuk)

Milan’s Final

Worlds 2011 was held in the most populated city in Finland, on the southern coast of Helsinki. A few tramstops from the main train and bus station, “Kamppi”, a shopping centre and an Opera house. This was perhaps the first and best thing about this location, as it could be quickly accessible without the cost of a taxi.

For freestyle, Worlds really began on Monday morning, with the final check in, judges meetings and circle contest opening. The new freestyle playing surface was assembled, the music was cued and 10 pools of competitors in the open division began. New to many freestylers who have attended worlds for the last few years, was the high level of Russian presence in competition. This is certainly an up and coming nation, with many high level competitors to look out for in the future. The top competitors in freestyle had a bye to semifinals, such as Milan Benda and Vasek Klouda, but the rest of the circles had a single competitor advance.

On Tuesday, there was much more competition to warm your legs to, with singles, doubles routines, and shred 30. From the first pools in open Freestyle routines, had multiple competitors advance to semi finals, and without byes all competitors were thrilled to see players like Vasek and Felix Zenger do their qualification routines. Czechs like Honza and Milan were already doing their dropless routines, easily forshadowing who would end up in Finals. That evening showcased a crowd event, the 2011 video contest. After what was the speediest Hall of Fame ceremony to date, players gathered underneath a billiard establishment into the large theatre. The curtains were drawn, and then the near 10 competitors unleashed their hard work onto the screen. Many solid competitors were in attendance this year, with videos from players like Damian Gielnicki, Jay Boychuk, and Vasek Klouda. However, it became obvious within the first minute of Mikko Lepistö’s second video, that the contest had a winner. With less than 10 footbag tricks executed in the video, the comedy and originality of the story gripped the audience. The results ended up with Mikko taking first, Vasek second and Pawel third.

Wednesday had the busiest day, making way for a light Thursday to allow the finalists to rest their legs. Routine semifinals, mixed doubles finals, circle semifinals, sick 3 semifinal and women’s circle final were on the list. As a judge for every single event that day, I can really attest to the difficulty in playing level this year. Many up and comers had solid routines, all of the crowd favourites didn’t disappoint, and people wanted to make it to Finals. Always a pleasure to watch are players like Olaf Piwowar in events like Sick 3, as well as Milan Benda or Honza Weber. At the women’s circle contest final, Hanna Mickiewicz, Jana Sassakova, Silwia Kocyk, and Tanja Salakka competed for the gold medal, in a ridiculously tough circle. After many long varied runs, the players were pushing their game. It ended up that Hanna took the gold, for Poland, a big congratulations to her.

Thursday was a lighter day, with two square, and unofficial events such as request and sick 3 final. The top match in Two Square, with Steve Goldberg from the USA and Wiktor Debski from Poland was vicious, with the first game going to Steve, but ultimately being won by Wiktor. Request was ran slightly different this year, focusing more on pure difficulty of the combos instead of tricky weird links. Vasek Klouda and Anssi Sundberg advanced until the fourteenth round, combos Marius->in gyro Mirage, and Atomic DLO to enterrage. Milan, with extreme ability passed these rounds and advanced all the way until the seventeenth round, eventually dropping gauntlet->big apple in the eighteenth. This made Milan the gold medalist in Request, leaving Anssi and Vasek to battle for second and third. In Back up combos, Vasek grasped his second place, and Anssi third. In Sick Three, players were allowed to try combos 7 times, and they didn’t disappoint. Anssi with combos like triage->enterrage->paradon swirl, Milan with Nemesis->Stepping whirling swirl->bedwetter, or Genesis->ps whirling swirl->spinning motion, really upped the overall level of difficulty this year. With the combo listed previously, Milan grabbed his next gold medal at the world championships.

Friday was the Open Circle contest final, which definitely lived up to expectations. In their first circle finals, Evan Gatesman and Anssi Sundberg entered the ring among familiar faces Milan Benda and Damian Gielnicki. Seated from Evan, Anssi, Damian to Milan, each round was more competitive than the last. In probably the tightest density round to date, each player ripped out consistent long runs, with no single bad run. Between Variety and Density there was no clear winner, and eventually the scores had to be carefully analyzed in order to determine who the winner actually was. With combos like Stepping whirling swirl->alpine blizzard, Milan Benda from the Czech Republic eventually grabbed his next gold medal in Circle Competition. In a very suspenseful award ceremony announcement, it turned out that Anssi Sundberg from Finland took the Silver, and Damian Gielnicki from Polan took the bronze.

Saturday was the final day at worlds, and each competitor was amazed at how fast the week had gone. Shred 30 was the first event on the list, with the top ten competitors from semifinals in the running. New tournament software was being tested at this event, attempting to give the audience a real-time feel for the competitors rankings, as shred 30 is a purely mathematical event. Grabbing his first Gold Medal of the tournament, Honza Weber clocked in with a score of 255.82, and in second Milan Benda with 240.06. This gave the Czech Republic the top two spots, and in third Finland’s representative Aleksi Airinen with 220.4. After some net, Women’s routines were up, entirely composed Non-North American representation. After a solid routine it turned out that Jana Sassakova from the Czech Republic took the gold, her first. Second was Tanja Salakka from Finland, and third was Hanna Mickiewicz from Poland.

The premiere event of the week was moments away, Angry Birds were all over the floor, and the crowd filled the seats in the gymnasium. Open Singles routines were underway, and no one was sure whether last years world Champion would take it again, long time competitor Honza Weber, 7 time World Champion Vasek Klouda? The semifinal dropless Aleksi Airinen, or 2008 world champion Damian Gielnicki? Anssi Sundberg did a devastating dropless routine, midway through the routines and it was evident to the audience that the Czech’s would have to work for their placings. Aleksi Airinen did his great performance with one drop, which also would seat him among the top. Honza Weber was up, and absolutely floored the audience. A flawless performance, strong song, presence and trick selection were presented and tension was higher and higher for the final competitor Milan Benda. Emerging from the basement, separated from the competition Milan Benda walked onto the stage, and performed a one drop routine, and the judges pens gritted against the paper. Perhaps the highest seating even achieved by a Finn, Anssi Sundberg got the Silver medal in his second event, Milan Benda taking the Bronze. After 10 years of attending Worlds, multiple second places and 93 freestyle medals received, Honza Weber from the Czech Republic was the new World Champion. Extremely well deserved, the honour completely belonged to Honza. Fantastic performance, and we all welcome our new Champion.

Honza’s Final run

After celebration for the week ensued at the local bar/restaurant Gringos Locos, the Big Add Posse meeting came to a conclusion. Everyone was brought into the bar, Anssi Sundberg stood on top a table and gathered everyone’s attention. With a short speech, it was news that two new members would be accepted this year. First inductee from Poland, was long time insanity, Olaf “Anaconda” Piwowar. For the first time since 2004 in Montreal, a Canadian was inducted into BAP, Jay “The Creator” Boychuk. This concluded the 2011 World Championships, with many smiling faces, great memories and only great partying go right into the morning. Rumours have been stirring, but look forward to perhaps attending the 2012 World Championships in France, Poland or the USA next year. A final congratulations is in order to all the Finalists this year, great job everyone.

The Stanford Footbag Crew … plus world champion Milan Benda throw it down in this video taken and uploaded by Brian Sherril!

1st Malaysian Footbag Championships

I was lucky enough to be invited to attend the first ever Malaysian Championships which were held over the past weekend. My role was to give some assistance to the new players there, and also to judge the tournament.

With no idea what to expect, I got up to a very dark and cold Canberra, and many hours later arrived to the complete opposite in KL.

The competition was sponsored by Adidas Pure Game. Unfortunately they don’t have anything to do with the shoes department, so it wasn’t free Rod Laver shoes for all, but they did book in a spot in Mid Valley, one of South East Asia’s largest shopping centres, right in the centre court of the mall.

If you were going to the shopping centre, it was likely you would see the Adidas display, and if you saw that, it was likely you would see some footbag. I gave a number of demonstrations over the 4 days, every few hours, showing off a few tricks, and doing some routines.

The first day I got to meet a few of the players, I really had no idea what to expect, and I thought it would be more likely players would be coming across from Sepak Takraw. The best guys that had picked it up fairly quickly though, they came from a freestyle football background.

Lucky shoppers had the opportunity to get a footbag for free. With 4 days in the shopping centre, this was the kind of exposure that footbag never ever gets, and could do with a lot more of it. It wasn’t just a free gift though, to pick up your free footbag, you had to kick 5 times, thereby getting people up on to the stage and to come and have a go.

With the sport only new in Malaysia there was no point in holding the traditional events, no one wants to see a 2 minute routine filled with drops. The first events were all about participation, so the first one was the same as the very first event I ever competed in (consecutive kicks).

This meant the man on the street had a chance to compete, and you never know your luck, you could go to the final for the grand prize. That prize was something you don’t hear about often in the Footbag world. An all expenses paid trip to Worlds! Worth $10,000RM, which equates to just over $3000 (Australian or US). The support behind this event was just phenomenal.

It wasn’t just Footbag on the stage though, even though Footbag was the main event. There were breakdancers, and Shawn Lee, ranked number 9 in the world at beatbox.

The semi finals and finals were held on the Sunday, the semi finals took it a notch up from just kicks, which allowed me to explain what happens in the major competitions, but in a shopping centre, you don’t care about adds, you want to see people keep the little bag in the air, and you might want to see a couple of tricks. So to get through the semi finals, the best tricks were going to get there. The back up count would be the amount of kicks you did in your 60 seconds on stage.

Over the days I was there, the guys I was training picked up plenty of new tips. I tried to instill in them the idea of getting the tricks done on both sides, of using the clipper and the toe, and some different ideas. There was no need to go into the concept of adds or other technology, that’s something that can be learned once you have a few more tricks in your bag.

I guess this was the beauty of the trip, this simplicity of the game, the sheer enthusiasm showed by the players, even the ones that could just to tricks, all of them were trying to progress on to stalls, and most people were able to catch the bag on their foot after a few tries. Even though this players were just starting out, there must have been a thousand people or more watching the final. That’s the beauty of a big sponsorship, and such a public location.

The finals were on at about 3pm on a Sunday afternoon, the centre was packed with shoppers and the centre court had all four levels with people looking down over the tournament.

First there was a junior competition, this was just back to kicks, and some of these kids showed great control. Fitri was the winner, with over 100 kicks in his 1 minute timeframe. That was actually the second highest score of the entire weekend.

After the juniors it was time to step on to the final five. They had been selected on their control and variety during the semi final. My judging criteria was going to be similar to that of the Circle Competition, what I was looking for was variety and difficulty, with control being another aspect I was keeping an eye on.

Every competitor had a few tricks in their bag. They had to take a number from a hat to choose when they went. After each player had their turn, I would demonstrate one of their tricks to the crowd. They might have done a clipper, so then I would say without these basic blocks, you won’t be able to do the more difficult tricks, then do something like a ripwalk, to show to the crowd the path of progression.

By chance the final player to enter was Ariff Karim. There was simply another level up here. Even though he is just a new player, and had a drop early on, Ariff brimmed with confidence. He linked many tricks into each other, and finished with a moved borrowed from his freestyle football experience, stalling it on top of his sole whilst lying flat on the ground.

Soon after, I announced him as the clear winner.

Having such a massive competition was such a great kickstart to a new scene in Malaysia. I am back in cold, cold Canberra now, but I will be returning to KL in just a few weeks, and can’t wait to see how much everybody has improved.

I feel so lucky to be a part of such a great competition.

Footbag Club Malaysia on Facebook is the best place to go for more information on Malaysian Footbag. Thanks to Zaid for the pictures.

In the next couple of months I will travel to Malaysia, India, Nepal, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Unfortunately not for any of these massive events, but hopefully I will be able to bring news of more Footbag in hidden corners.

Pretty impressive video from the current world champion. One of the first, if not the first, legitimate 5 dex tricks landed clean.

And here we go………………….

Here is a brand new video showcasing Canadian Footbagger, Jay Boychuk. Filmed at 300 frames per second, it shows a great new perspective for newcomers to the sport.

The results event 4 are shown in this video, in order from 8th place to first place!
Congratulations to the winner, as the overall season winner of the $500 will be announced early this week!

Hey Fellas! Its been a long time since my last post, so in my return i got something special for you from Norek Dudzinski. It was insane! Enjoy!

Yoh! Pretty cool video of Zelinka awesome techniques!

The Future of Footbag Freestyle, By Honza Weber

Recently I watched couple sideline videos from various years World championships and in the background I was hearing all the names of great players from the past being read in their pools and it forced me to think about the past of the sport and of course its future. Let`s be honest because there is not many of us left here in freestyle. That is also why I mentioned the word “freestyle” in the title of this article. I have to diversify between freestyle and net because, let`s be honest again, these sports do not have much in common except all the freestylers switching to net when they grow up, which leads us to the first downfall of freestyle, the age. When you are young enough, it is very easy to be obsessed with freestyle because you can improve quite fast, but when you get older, not only that it is hard to keep up with the young players, you also fight with the flexibility of your body and the fun can be gone with the same speed it appeared.

The other reason for footbag freestyle breakdown is other freestyle category, freestyle football. This very young sport, which gained attention of thousands of people around the World (including our fellow bloke Vasek) in the beginning of the new millenium, managed to overgrow footbag in a small fragment of time that footbag had existed. When I first entered the freestyle football community, the players kept talking about “freestyle”, not “freestyle football”, just “freestyle”, which I could not understand. I was asking myself “Are they really that cocky to think they can overcome the meaning of the word and implement it only to their sport? What about freestyle… jet ski , bmx and so on?” When I did realise how widespread has the sport and the community become in such a short time, I start to understand.

Not only has freestyle football gained players, but also media attention because people can simply see what is going on, which is sometimes very hard with footbag. Visibility of footbag has always been a problem. Even though the media wanted to make some reports on footbag, it was just impossible with the small footbags the players are allowed to use. There is a solution now though, football and all the freestylers who can handle it.

The current freestyle footbag community has one big problem and that is the lack of new players. Great amount of older players has quit the sport, but there is nobody to compensate the losses. The 12th annual Todexon tournament just happened here in Prague last week and there was 7 registered players for the event. Yes, 7 players, that is ridiculous! I remember in 2003, there were over 80! We had to have 3 rounds and we had to start with the routines at 10AM to be able to make the finals on time at 8PM. That was incredible! Milan told me how angry he was when he saw just those 7 registered players and I understood. He worked really hard for many years to become the top player and now he has no competition and it seems as a waste of time for him and wanting him to quit the sport as well as all the others before him.

Steve Goldberg also visited Prague last week for 13th time in his life and I still remember what he told me during Todexon, “There is no passion for the sport anymore” and I again had to agree. It seems just like a duty for the players to come to tournaments and compete. To compete is also harder than ever before, freestyle has reached an incredible difficulty level and there is basically no bad or intermediate player competing these days and therefore it is very easy to finish lets say 10th out of 10 competitors.

“It looks to me like our history, running on repeat, over and over” are words from the latest song of my favorite music band “Looptroop Rockers”, but these words have also the same meaning as a story about history of frisbee freestyle Dexter told me some time ago. The sport almost died during the 90s, but the community managed to survive and is even evolving these days. I think footbag is also really close to “extinction” these days and it is really just up to us to save it because nobody else will or can help. One way could be to force the players to compete with big bright visible bags and make the sport more suitable for media, which could afterwards attract sponsors and bring some money and more people. I know it is probably not the best compromising solution, but in my opinion it is worth trying. I still remember when I saw Jorden using such bags for his routine and I thought he was crazy, but now it seems like a good idea. I just hope people like Queency, Steve, Red, Daryl and Dale will not give up that easily and together we manage to ensure there will still be any footbag freestyle players and tournaments when our kids ask us “What is this?” and they will be holding a beautiful 32 panel bag in their hands.

Honza Weber

Watch the Dropless Video that secured the win for Honza Weber at Todexon 12 in Prague on April 16th