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?

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.

The brainchild of Boise, Idaho’s Zeb Jackson, Elite Footbag will provide a ranking system throughout the year, with players earning points, using the results displayed on Footbag.org.

Here is an explanation of how the ranking system works. The scores will be reset the day after Worlds each year and the top player will receive a prize.

I have just signed on to give some updates on the website, so I will try and keep everyone up to date with what’s happening.

Who do you think will be crowned king this year…?

It’s been the cornerstone of my development. First physically as I got in shape as a 12 year old. Then it was personally, as I was able to be proud of my ability to play well, and thus become proud of myself. Finally its been my vehicle of friendship, where I’ve made so many friends all over the world and had so many great times with so many excellent people.

But where did it go wrong -

The pressures of needing to get a ‘real job’ – I guess as I put it myself when explaining my life to a Primary School teacher this week ‘Footbag probably won’t pay a mortgage’. I’m not even interested in getting a mortgage – I’d rather invest in the banks then be prey to them. Its part of the story – but Footbag has also been my main source of income throughout uni and meant that I never had to get a typical part time job.

Loss of the close friends who I had when I was learning. I probably wouldn’t have kept playing after one year if it weren’t for Lynton Stephens and Brendan Erskine. I probably wouldn’t have kept playing if it weren’t for Alex Urano and Scott Kirchner. The only thing that kept me in Footbag after those guys left was my love of teaching – my love of the game was never the same.

When I think about Footbag now I think about Jesenik and playing with Milan Benda, Daniel Spacil, Karel Hak – if he ever plays again lol. But while I was there I realised that I just wanted to play with the people I started playing with, I wasn’t really interested in improving my game – I felt my Footbag spirituality meter had dropped.

Spending time with Vasek and writing the Vasek Klouda Manual was exciting, and I am so inspired by his words and life in general. The thing that excited me most was the potential for people all over the world to be reading that e-book, then improving incredibly, and all the joy that would bring them. I wasn’t excited about my own game improving, after ten years of playing I had lost the desire to keep pushing my own boundaries – but I feel good that other people still love to see me play, and that they love Footbag.

I’m going to write more about Footbag over the coming weeks
Follow me on google reader or another RSS

On watching the video again, it was just his middle section that let him down. Within a short period he made a number of mistakes, which led to more drops, but he actually finished very strongly.

Name: Daniel Boyle
Location: Canberra, Australia
See all Daniel Boyle Posts here!

I am here with Dale from this very website, at the bar of the Marriott hotel do give you an update on the World Championships.

We have passed through the semi final stage, and the standard this year is just insane.

Take this little example. Semis- Pool D…

1. Nick Landes

2. Vasek Klouda

2. Damian Gielnicki

with Tuukka Antikainen, Michal Ostrowski and Rafal Kaleta rounding out the pool.

A big congratulations need to go to Nick Landes, taking out Vasek, it’s no longer a guarantee that Vasek arriving means a Vasek victory, but he’s still hard to beat, as well as Damian, the 2008 World Champion. That’s just in the semi finals, that’s the hardest part to fathom.

Even after a countback, the scores were still locked. So the judges made an exception, nine people are into the final.

Spare a thought for Marcin, you can do a routine like this, and it won’t take you to the finals.

So for the finals in routines we have:

Norek, Penske, Honza, Bevier, Milan, Clavens, Landes, Vasek, Damian.

I honestly don’t know who to pick. Before the event, if you could gamble on Footbag, I was liking the idea of Honza. Always the bridsemaid it seems but maybe not this year. All the top guys had great routines. Many players who didn’t even make it through the qualification rounds had hard routines. The level this year is quite simply off the charts.

For the rest of the afternoon we had circle semi finals and request competition. Ken, Toni, Norek, Penske. That’s not the final…just the first round. In the end Jim was joined by Phil Morrison, Damian G and David Clavens. Clavens was given perfect scores by all the judges.

The request contest followed directly, in the end it came down to five. Lon Smith was first to go, then Nick Landes. The medal trio came down to Phil Morrison (3rd), Damian Gielnick (2nd) and Milan Benda (1st).

After this David Clavens and Ken Somolinos gave a masterclass in some tricks to help all players with their games.

You can see videos of all the semi finals action at www.youtube.com/shredglobal

Make sure to check the Twitter feed for instant information. Follow me @capitaleyes

For some great card table commentary, check out Andrew Grant‘s blog at Hackrifice.

There’s also a thread on Modified for all Worlds info

So it was quite lucky, we all were on the same flight, so I got to go to an airport lounge for the first time. Free food, wi fi, and a free beer. I wasn’t really there long enough to get the full enjoyment, but what I knew was that I didn’t belong at all, but I’d like to be back again.

On the flight over I met some interesting characters. The girl to my left was heading to Vancouver, she works as a nurse in the burns unit, that would be a pretty hard job I think. She had lived in Australia a long time and was over in Perth visiting her sister. The other guy I sat next to, he was Tibetan, although he has never been to Tibet, he’s not allowed. He’s going over to Vancouver also, helping another lady with translations of Buddhist texts.

On the way I also saw the movie Bounty Hunter…I believe my level of brain activity has dropped by at least 50%. Turns out Ken Somilinos had this same option of movie on his flight too. Maybe it was a “direct to air travel” movie. It was terrible.

So we got into San Fran, and had to wait in a queue for about an hour, that was the worst part of the whole ordeal.  Next was the BART, we were in Oakland quicker than getting through the queue.

Immediately I took us on a wrong turn and headed us directly opposite to where we needed to go. We got to the Marriott soon enough and checked in. Our room on the 9th floor overlooks the pool, I was there.

I looked at the pool and jumped in, thinking I would be faced with instant refreshment. Turns out the pool was really hot, maybe 30 degrees or more, not as refreshing as I hoped.

Around the pool I got to meet a whole lot of people and see some familiar faces. It’s nice having been to Worlds already, as I know a few people, and a few people know me. Early on I was talking to Wiktor, Ianek and Aaron Shepherd. I think I mustn’t have had a beard last year because some people haven’t recognised me.

Anyway, on getting out of the pool, I started kicking. It was with Nathan Deschamps, Barrett from New York, and one more guy, I forget his name. I guess it may have been the first circle there by the pool, it was a nice spot for it.

I was playing fairly well, I was worried about making the same mistake as last year though…playing great on the first day, rubbish for the rest. David Clavens came over and joined our circle. He was wearing Evan Gatesman’s shoes, 2.5 sizes too big, so he was having a little trouble. I would say if it was a circle contest I would have won.

Let’s not talk about the real results of circle contest though…

So anyway, I hit alpine blurry whirl, I’ve only hit it a few times before, and David Clavens gave me props. This kind of thing doesn’t happen in other sports.

People came and went from our circle, then the word was more people were kicking up the road at a park. I went up there, but I didn’t really want to kick anymore.

There was some good circles happening there, the best was probably one that had at times Jay Boychuck/Tuukka Antikainen/Wiktor Debski/Toni Pakönenn/Lon Smith

I got a couple of short videos. I may post more later, but here’s one from Toni yesterday.

So today I went up against Toni, Reid from Chicago and Manna Mpepo from Winnipeg in the circle contest. Earlier in the morning I played in a circle with Takumi and Tuukka, which was awesome, I was hitting some good stuff (of course they were hitting better things), but once the contest came around, I was absolutely rubbish. Another year and another terrible showing in the circle contest.

My circle was probably the toughest of the day, not even sure who went through actually. Jay Boychuck and Phil Morrison were the stars of the day, I think each of them went through quite easily.

I think that’s enough from me. I will try to update each day on what’s going on.

Name: Daniel Boyle
Location: Canberra, Australia
See all Daniel Boyle Posts here!

So, it less than three weeks the 31st World Championships will be upon us.

Even though it’s just a few weeks away, there seems to be a surprising lack of talk about it. The Footbag forums seems eerily quiet. I don’t know if people are talking about it when they kick together, but the excitement machine seemed to be cranking into gear a lot more last year.

So I think the big question is, who will win?

After his Euros victory, David Clavens must be the favourite. Milan has been strong this year and won Todexon. Honza looked like he had been training hard last year and his Euros routine was fantastic as well. Vasek looked simply as if he didn’t care about his Euros routine and came in 5th, but as well all know, he can produce the big numbers when Worlds comes around.

If the final is 8 people again, which has been the regular amount, my guess at who will be there is…

Clavens, Honza, Damian, Penske, Milan, Vasek, Juho, Phil Morrison

Feel free to comment on this article and let me know who you think will be there at the end. As we lead into this years Worlds, I will write a little about my first Worlds, last year’s great competition in Berlin.

It comes as a surprise to me that someone sitting in their loungeroom in Australia should be breaking this particular item on this website, but Worlds just got a whole lot more interesting, with David Clavens from the US taking out the Euros in a very strong field.

There is a link to the videos of the Top 8 in Routines, as well as Tina Aeberli’s first place in the womens division.

Here’s the routines Top 8 results

1. David Clavens

2. Honza Weber

3. Milan Benda

4. Damian Gielnicki

5. Vasek Klouda

6. Anssi Sundberg

7. Jakob Wagner

8. Christopher Schillem

The videos are all uploaded by Alex Trenner from Austria.

What makes Worlds most interesting this year is that there will be a strong contingent of European players heading over, making the battle for the top place a very interesting one.

A Footbag is such an easy thing to carry everywhere. I think this is the best thing about the sport. It is so portable, it can be played almost anywhere. Earlier this year I went on a Surf Charter to Papua New Guinea (PNG).

PNG is very close to Australia, however it’s rare to know people who have been there. Not so long ago, Papua New Guinea was actually part of the Australian territory.

Last day of our surf charter. Click the picture for a write up of the trip

The surf trip was great, but that’s another story. This time around, I’ll tell you about my Footbag interactions. The great team at PNG Surfaris had built an excellent rapport with the island people, so there were no problems going and visiting Island communities.

Some of the other people had gifts such as crayons and books, I decided to show the people of PNG what Footbag was all about.

PNG Footbag- photo by Nate French

I gave a few impromptu demonstrations. On one of the islands, we were shown around by the local school teacher. We went almost everywhere on the island, at the school, I showed off some Footbag. It was something the kids had never seen before, so they loved it.

We got back down to the beach, and the kids wanted to see a bit more of this newfangled device. On a surface mainly consisting of sand, I was lucky enough to get a good long run on film

Papua New Guinea Footbag

We went to a number of islands, and I got to show a few more kids a little bit of Footbag. Unfortunately I wasn’t prepared enough before leaving, so I didn’t have a bunch of bags to give away. A couple of months ago, I arranged with Lotus from Elemental Footbags to send over a bunch of Footbags at a discounted rate. Hopefully we will be developing the next PNG Champ.

A couple of trips before ours, Cameron Ling, captain of the Geelong Cats Australian Rules team had been on a surf trip. On the boat they left a bunch of balls, so we had a kick around occasionally with the kids. One time I had showed them some Footbag, they decided to try out their new skills on the ball. Filmed by Tony Boyle

Listening to the kids, it is amazing how excited they are. These are the kind of people we need filling arenas to come and watch footbag performances.

The last night of our trip we were invited to a traditional “sing-sing”. What was not so traditional about it was when Jerome, the school teacher I mentioned before told me I would be peforming a Footbag demonstration first up.

I wasn’t really prepared for this at all, so I was keeping things very simple. The surface was quite sandy, so I didn’t want to slip over and make a fool of myself. Nate French got the whole performance on film…

Daniel Boyle- Footbag- Papua New Guinea from Daniel Boyle on Vimeo.

Thank you once again to PNG Surfaris for an incredible journey. One of the assistants on the boat told me after playing Footbag one day. “Tomorrow, there will be no lemons left on the trees. Everybody will want to try this”.

Jeremy O'Wheel- Feet on Fire

The Narooma Footbag Jam is an event I think epitomises Australia. Not just the Australian Footbag scene, but general attitudes through the country. The event has been held in January the last three years in Narooma, a small coastal town in New South Wales. Alongside playing footbag, there are barbeques, visits to the beach, beers and sometimes trips in boats. It’s obviously important for activities to start with a B. In reality, it’s a group of mates getting together doing something they enjoy and having a good time.

A few years ago I started talking with some of the other players about doing some kind of jam down the coast. Ulladulla was my proposed location, as it’s about 3 hours from both Sydney and Canberra. People said it was a nice idea, but it didn’t get a lot further than that.

It wasn’t until Nathan Cope arrived on the scene that things got moving. I played with Nathan for the first time at the end of 2006. We both started playing Footbag a lot earlier than that, grew up just one hour apart, then both dropped out of Footbag. Neither of us had met up until that time in 2006. We went together to a footbag jam the Sydney guys held in mid 2007 while Phil Morrison was visiting from New Zealand.

The idea of a coastal get together gathered a bit more momentum there, and after further talks on the forum, the idea of early January seemed the best. The first Narooma jam was held in 2008. We had a good gathering of some of Australia’s best players. Nathan was there, the reason we chose Narooma was because it was his home town. I was there too, I had been staying at my parents place in Bega, just one hour away, so my mum gave me a lift. Caroline Birch was there. At the time she was a Queenslander. She was on a roadtrip with her sister Kylie, bound for Melbourne. At the time the three of us had only met a few times, but over the last few years we have been the centre of Canberra’s Footbag scene.

Footbag Pioneers- The first Narooma Jam- Jeremy, Ian, Caroline, Copey, Daniel, Dan

Dan Ednie arrived by overnight bus from Melbourne. The Premier Motor Service doesn’t provide the most comfortable of journeys and the early morning arrival is not all that pleasant. He was the only guest from Melbourne at the inaugural gathering. Jeremy O’Wheel flew from Hobart and drove with Ian Pritchard from Sydney.

Dan Ednie in action, 2008

That year we all stayed in a house in Dalmeny. It was a friend of Nathan’s. Dalmeny is slightly to the north of Narooma. We kicked a few times at the Narooma Plaza, the shopping hub of Narooma. The main issue with our kicking area was they were raffling off a boat at the shopping centre. The place where we kicked was exactly where they decided to show off the boat that you could win.

We had a few trips to the beach that year. The swell was quite big and the water quite cold, so only a few of us braved the adventure. The big swell prevented us from getting a visit to Montague Island, which was unfortunate.

That year we got a write up in the Narooma News, the local paper. The article had a couple of pictures and some information about Footbag, but midway through the article they must have got confused with Futsal and said we were training for the upcoming National Futsal Championships in Canberra.

Everyone seemed to have a good time, we all agreed to return again the next year.

2008′s event had been held early in the month, just after the New Year, as that worked best for everyone’s travel plans. The next year we moved the event to the Australia Day weekend.

Andrew Grant stretches for a point in beach four square

We probably had our best field, with even a couple of international guests in attendance. The Canberra Connection all turned out, with Caroline, Copey and myself all in attendance. I stayed in the YHA, as I got a free room through my work at the Canberra YHA. Ian returned with his girlfriend Kayleigh in tow. They were camped in the campground. Max and Benoite came all the way from France via Belgium and Sydney and had with them Winnipeg’s own Andrew Grant. Only a few months before he had managed a second place in the Shred 30 at the World Championships.

Leon Schreuder and Oliver Adams came up from Melbourne. They made a roadtrip out of it and slept in Leon’s panel van. Jeremy O’Wheel made another return and that was our crew for 2009. For a footbag event, there is not so much Footbag played. Windy conditions gave us trouble on one of the days, excessive heat on another. Andrew and I managed to get in a few waves during our stay, which was good fun.

Up close with some local wildlife

Leon ready to reel in a big one.

Despite the international turn out, that year we didn’t actually feature in the local news at all. The final day was a perfect day, on Australia Day we got our pictures taken inside Australia Rock, a giant rock with a hole in shaped like Australia, then had a BBQ and drank a few beers. The weekend was just the beginning of a week long trip for Andrew and myself.

Andrew Grant considers citizenship

In 2009 we did manage to get out to Montague Island. We were lucky as it seemed it would not happen. It was not the swell this time, but fires quite far away. Mr Cope is the area manager of the National Parks and could get us onto a boat for free, the issue was potential boat drivers were away fighting the fire. On the last day we managed to get out there, but we had come at the wrong time of year, penguin season was over.

This year’s event was the first visit to the ‘oom for Ausfootbag president Dyalan Govender. He was due to pick me up in Canberra, but made some rookie errors giving himself a drive three times as long as necessary. This year we rented out a small unit right in town. Everyone was staying different combinations of days, so this one worked out quite well. We arrived to find Caroline, Copey and Jeremy already in town. This year we were fairly even with boys and girls with Francisca, Kelly and Kayleigh all coming to hang out as well.

Jeremy tests the new surface at the Narooma Plaza photo by Francisca Borquez

This year we got to have another trip on a boat, the BBQ boat. Although rain looked like it would spoil our day, we ended up having quite a good day out. A number of fish were caught, though I don’t think any were suitable to eat. We played once again in the plaza, which had been recently resurfaced.

Dyalan Govender, Daniel Boyle, Nathan Cope on the BBQ Boat photo by Jeremy O'Wheel

Group photo, 2010

This time we did get some newspaper coverage, with my picture adorning the back page of the Narooma News along with an accompanying article. There were not so many discussions as to next year, as it was obvious where we’ll all be come late January.

Any players considering a visit to Australia, I honestly couldn’t recommend anything more than coming for a visit to the Narooma Jam, it is very laid back and a lot of fun. I think it is the perfect experience of Australia and the Australian Footbag scene. If you’re going to come over, why not stick around for Nationals a few months later?

Name: Daniel Boyle
Location: Canberra, Australia

Interestingly enough I wrote this a couple of days ago, whilst waiting in an airport. The next time I went online I read an article about the state of the game worldwide.

In this piece I will describe my thoughts on the current Australian Footbag scene. The vast distances between cities makes it quite difficult and expensive to travel between cities, however there is semi regular contact between players throughout the country. The hubs of Australian Footbag are along the east coast. Nearly all the population lives along the coast, with most of the inland of Australia covered by deserts.

Sydney Opera House

We will begin in Sydney. The current Sydney players are Ian Pritchard, Dyalan Govender and Mitch Dobbin. This trio were all members of the club at Sydney University many years ago. Sydney has hosted the National Championships in 2001, 2009 and 2010. Ian is also the webmaster of the Ausfootbag website. Dyalan is the president of the National Footbag Council. Sydney is also home to French imports Max and Benoite, however they are more likely to be found on the golf course these days than going for a shred. Sydney was home to the Hotsac company, formed by Steve Ramsey and hosted to the first National Championships. Over summer Ben Lynn joins the Sydney crew, he spends the rest of his year in the USA.

In Canberra there is another trio. Daniel Boyle (that’s me), Caroline Birch and Nathan Cope. All of us moved to Canberra in 2008. Canberra was formerly home to “Phat” Matt Baker. Canberra hosted the 2008 National Championships.

Petr Stejskal (Czech Republic) receives an award at the 2008 Nationals

Melbourne has been known as the hub of Australian Footbag for most of the last ten years. These balance seems to be shifting to more of a Sydney/Canberra focus over the last couple of years, however there is no denying they have had the most players over time. The Melbourne University Footbag Club has been going strong, with Leon Schreuder and Ryan Richardson playing regularly. The problem with having bred so many great players is the fact that so few of them are playing any more.

Lynton Stephens, Australia’s first Footbag player and Brendan Erskine developed the scene in Australia. Some other names that have come and gone include Jon Lee, Alex Urano, Scott Kirchner, Oliver Adams, Pat Sanders and Andrew McIntosh. Melbourne is also home to Dan Ednie, finalist at the 2007 World Championships. He spent last year in Prague playing with Vasek Klouda and Ales Zelinka. Since returning he has distanced himself from the Footbag scene, and was a notable absence at this years National Championships. Melbourne held the Nationals between 2003 and 2006 and will return as host next year.

Jamieson Hickingbotham lives in Bendigo, a couple of hours North of Melbourne. We got together for a jam there last year.

Daniel Boyle, Dyalan Govender, Leon Schreuder and Oliver Adams kick things off in Bendigo

Further south, over the Bass Strait we have the Hobart Footbag Club. Jeremy O’Wheel has been a regular events ever since debuting at the 2002 New South Wales Championships at the Homebake music festival in Sydney. In recent years Lotus, who runs Elemental Footbags has moved back to Hobart. Lotus is a leading distributor of Footbags.

Jeremy O'Wheel on his way to one of 5 titles at the 2010 Nationals, Royal Easter Show, Sydney

Brisbane and Adelaide no longer have any serious players. Both cities did have promising scenes, however injuries, moving interstate and other sports seem to have had a major impact in both cities. Brisbane was host to the successful BCS Jam, as well at Forra and the Hot Potato company, who made the Aurora sandbag. I’m sure there’s a few of these lying around in every Australian player’s collections. In all the cities though, the worrying sign is a real lack of other players joining the sport. It’s not a worry about youth, but a worry about anybody taking interest at all.

The difficulty level in the early stages of Footbag as well as the multitude of other sports available in a sports obsessed nation makes it difficult to recruit new faces. The state of Australian Footbag was a subject at this year’s National Council meeting. The question now is, where do we go from here?

Name: Ryan Richardson
Location: Melbourne, Australia

ME!!! Aus Nationals

The Australian Footbag scene has had its own share of booms and recessions, which one can say are not entirely in sync with the rest of the world. A recent article on the progress of Footbag popularity brought the fact that Australia, in my opinion, has barely followed this trend. While Europe and North America had been experiencing the ‘new millenium boom’, the increase/decrease of Australian footbaggers hasn’t drastically changed. Since 2008, we have only replaced some of our best competitors with a couple new ones, with a lot of players reluctant to stay on after achieving a certain point in their game. With the loss of players, who have learnt the fundamentals at a level comparable to the bigger stages overseas, it does make it difficult to receive on-the-spot tips that could possibly ensure not only a future’s involvement in the sport but also the quality of the players. Frustration from poor technique seems to be a huge factor currently for new players quitting after barely starting the spot. However, in saying that, there are still players who have been playing for 5 or more years and are still currently active in promoting Footbag in Australia and provide expert advice to ‘us’ newbies.

courtesy of Francisca Borquez

Looking at this years Australian National Championships, I could probably say that there will be a bit more to expect from Australia in this decade. The enthusiasm from all players, whether seasoned veteran or newly acquainted, was amazing considering the turn-out was apparently lacking in some numbers. We even vaguely considered what we would have to do in order to hold ‘the Worlds’ in Australia. At the moment we are updating the information for the weekly shreds in various cities, which will be extremely helpful for  new players. I can say that last year in Melbourne, not once did we kick at our ‘regular spot’, also we never had a set time or day to have a shred. I know that over the past few years we have probably lost a handful of players who were just starting because  of the fact that we weren’t holding regular kicks or giving out the correct information.  Getting this back up and running will be a good start for the intake of newer players. Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra and Hobart will all be hosting regular kicks for most of the year.

The videos and photos from this years nationals should be up soon, feel free to check them out on the ausfootbag site(link below). The circle final as well as the best place routines have been uploaded already so you can watch them if you want.

http://www.ausfootbag.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=103&itemid=68&Itemid=68

Syndicated with permission from http://www.danednie.com/

Merry Xmas Everyone!!
This was such such such an unbelievable year in Footbag for me.

January – Featured on a nation-wide Subway commercial and voted the Education Director at the International Footbag Players Association

February to June – Lived in the Czech Republic learning Czech with the Footbaggers there, learning how to play doubles with Ales Zelinka Tomas Tucek and Martin! I also trained singles with Milan Benda and Vasek who were just so inspiring. Not only is Footbag a sport of great beauty, but the coordination and precision these two had took my understanding of the intrinsic beauty of the human form to a new level.

Ales Zelinka and Dan Ednie doing Doubles at the World Championships

Dan Ednie and Ales Zelinka at Worlds

July – I came 13th in Singles Freestyle, ran a Certified Instructors course for about 50 future Footbag teachers, judged the singles freestyle finals and had The Vasek Klouda Manual: How to Play Footbag published with Vasek.

Dan Ednie doing Singles at Worlds '09

August to December: Taught close to 2000 students at twelve different schools and spoke at four events about my personal journey in Footbag. I’ve also been invited to speak more and teach more at lots of new schools and events in 2010 and I just totally love it.

I am inching closer to my goal of teaching 10,000 students personally. I’m just a tick underneath 9,000. I’ll be graduating from my BA at Melbourne University half way through next year, and I don’t know if I will be in Australia in the second half, but any school that would like to have me come along to teach them Footbag, please email me early next year, I would love to come.

I am so so blessed to have met all of the teachers, students and Footbaggers I have this year in Australia and Europe. Footbag is a great game, yes, but now that I’ve played for over ten years, the value for me isn’t really in playing. The opportunities , the people, the travel, the teaching and the conversations that make the Footbag community what it is have a couple of times this year moved me to tears. Footbag has been the biggest thing to ever happen to me.

Dan Ednie

Syndicated with permission from http://www.danednie.com/

Dan Ednie Pic

When you want to do hard tricks, you can put them all together in a grouping, or have them just after you’ve taken a break. For example, Takumi’s world’s routine.

http://www.footbag.org/gallery/show/12545

Note: see the pixie swirl and the final ripstein–he really has a break, gets ready, then he has every chance of completing the trick. He makes it as easy as possible to succeed. All the other hard tricks are in one section towards the start. But most of them are forgotten by the end, especially because there was no climax in the music when he did them.

For a good example of hitting hard tricks during the climax, and making them more memorable, see Vasek semi-final 2006.

http://www.footbag.org/gallery/show/10059

To see how to set up and have preparation for tricks, see my semi-final world’s routine:

http://www.footbag.org/gallery/show/10059

I am playing to the music with each set up trick, but it is actually a rest if you can find music that really helps you get ready for those big tricks, then it will be much easier. Also, see in the semi-final routine that I only play to the music right at the start and right at the end.

In the middle, the music plays at about the same speed at the whole time, but you don’t realize because your first and last impressions are that I’m really organized. It’s so easy to tell that I’m playing to the music. Don’t be too subtle, because if people can’t tell, it doesn’t help you. You really want people to be able to tell that you’ve practiced. Have a look at Lon Smith in the semi-finals of
Worlds 2007:

http://www.footbag.org/gallery/show/10291

He’s really entertaining, hits hard tricks, but it was so disorganized and obvious that he never practiced it that it scored badly and he was unlucky not to make finals, despite his amazing skill level.

Use breaks to help you. See my qualifying routine:

http://www.footbag.org/gallery/show/12543

From x to x after the p.s whirl, I am resting. I do juggling then very slowly have one bag on each foot and atw’s, then I do kicks and knee bumps. That was all a break for me because I was dying by that point, and I knew to put that rest there because in practice I was always tired at that point. So I wrote a break into the routine.

Syndicated with permission from http://www.danednie.com/

This was truly epic, but what did it mean?

You will notice watching it that the first minute at least is almost without any risk. The majority of the tricks are butterflies and the overwhelming emotion is that the run hasn’t started. That the tricks in the beginning are so simple actually tells us that this will be an extremely long run. It runs for almost three minutes. This is not a long time for Vasek. He is not really playing for the tricks, only the swifter and two vortexes even suggest that he is hitting tricks because he likes them. He is not playing for tricks, he is playing for contacts.

For those not at worlds, you might not know that Vasek almost never plays in the seven days, in fact he only came on tuesday afternoon or wednesday morning from memory.

It is suggested that the best outcome from the invention of circle is that it forced Vasek to play for the cameras. If you look back at footage from Worlds 07, with a couple of exceptions, the only footage available is from the circle contest. He took about five- ten runs in the same area, but the people that have video from that haven’t really posted it in many places. The Monday following worlds 07 he actually shredded at Terra Verde for over two hours hitting unbeleivable combos like attempted gauntlet> nemesis to some thing else which he dropped.

Because Vasek’s routines generally circle around the same tricks and combinations, the first run of his circle is always something which is highly anticipated. But the first run in the circle finals is the run that he chooses to make his point to everyone watching. Vasek tried with this run to prove that he is in a league of his own and that he is really the only player in the circle. Milan Benda showed us though that there is, in the absence of Jorden Moir, an intermediate between Vasek and the rest. Milan annihilated the circle final with almost all runs over 40 contacts even more convincingly than Vasek won Worlds circle. If anyone has footage of this, let me know.

During this time the other three had to start concentrating on staying warm, to stand waiting for four minutes or longer for your try is too long. Say you drop three moves in, its as though you haven’t played, the bag goes to Vasek, then Milan and then you need to construct a run. The intimidation factor for me was too cruel in this competition. While it has established a record length run in circle which might not be broken for a year or so, I didn’t really rejoice in this statement. It seemed as though it was a way of making it harder for the other players to stay warm, like a plan. What are your thoughts?

Thanks

Dan

Syndicated with permission from http://www.danednie.com/

Dan Ednie Pic

The Vasek Klouda Manual: How to Play Footbag is a 90+ page eBook written for everyone from beginners to advanced players. In the five months I spent in the Czech Republic I had access to the inner world of now seven-time world champion Vasek Klouda. In many ways this text is the product of those discussion, my questions and Vasek’s feelings toward footbag as a sport and a lifestyle.

The book is available for download for US$5 with half of all proceeds going to the IFPA to help fund the future of Footbag worldwide. The text covers three core topics: How to train footbag, The psychology of footbag, and the exact trick tips that will help you to master ever set and every downtime component.

You can read the three page biography of Vasek if you schroll down on this blog and I will be releasing exerpts there once a week.

The place to download it is at
http://www.footbag.cz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=214&Itemid=70
Or if that link doesn’t work then go to
www.footbag.cz and click on the second news item.

Thank you