Here is the follow up to the first part of my interview with Ken Somolinos. Ken has been playing for fifteen years now and has been a part of different footbag communities throughout the world.

Here is the remainder of our interview:

Do you have a particular personal favorite time within the time you’ve been playing?

I’ve been fortunate in that I’ve lived many places over the last 15 years, and have therefore had many different experiences with footbag as I’ve been part of various footbag scenes.

My sessions with NYFA when I began playing in high school, and as I’ve continued to play with them through the years, will always have a spot in my heart

Similarly, my experiences hanging with the Japanese scene when I lived there, seeing the scene grow and everybody’s skill level rocket up, that was a special time too.

It’d be hard to pick just one time or scene, but those two have to be at the top

There was a big turnout on your recent NYFA visit – any particular highlights from those sessions?

Karaoke and laughing my ass off with the NYFA guys! There was some good shred going on from Clavens and Kemmer, but really I was just digging the vibe of NYFA, and enjoying the stress free environment that comes with a fun jam with no comp.

Where do you see Footbag headed in the next five years?

Hopefully expansion in South America and Asia outside of Japan. I’m also hoping we can build a stronger internet presence. I feel like footbag has done very little to harness the power of social media and the communication tools available to us now.

As for the game itself, I’m expecting the level of play to continue to go up and up. Things that were milestones to me and my generation are now standard for most high level intermediates today and stuff that I find are good benchmarks of skill today, such as beasts and 10 fearless, will increasingly become standard as well.

You have been working on your fearless combos lately – how do these sessions contrast with a normal session?

When we started the interview, i said that footbag is a fun challenge because there are almost limitless aspects of the game to work on. In a normal session, I have fun trying combinations I don’t normally do, and I enjoy improvising and mixing it up, then there are sessions where I work on stamina and long runs.

With fearless sessions, I find I am really working on being able to concentrate as hard as I can for a 12 second period, really focus on getting each set and catch perfect, and at the same time regulate my breathing and energy.

10 fearless is like a puzzle for me. For the really good players in the sport, they can just improvise and get through it. For me (be it due to age, lack of ability, whatever), getting 10 fearless is a challenge, and that’s why I like pushing for it.

If it were something easy for me, it would hold very little appeal. 10 fearless isn’t something I expect to hit every session, which makes it all the more satisfying on the sessions when I do get it.

On the flipside of all that, I know that dedicating entire sessions to fearless probably won’t help me with my goals at Worlds or other tournaments, so I feel it’s a bit of a selfish luxury to dedicate whole sessions to it.

With Worlds coming up in less than 6 months, I expect I will start focusing my sessions more on stamina and elements of my routine, and less on pushing fearless or dream tricks.

What do you find are the best ways to prepare your routines, especially now you have hit quite a few dropless?

• 1. Understand that it is going to be work. It’s not always going to be fun. You can’t go about it half assed. Start early: you can’t learn a good routine two weeks before a tournament.
• 2. Pick a song you really like. If you’re serious about going dropless, you’re going to have to listen to your routine song several hundred times. Ideally you will listen to it every day as you visualize your routine, and every time you play you should listen to it because you’ll be practicing your routine at least once per session.
• 3. Appropriate Difficulty. One and two add tricks have their place in even the best routines. You’re not proving that you can go guiltless for two minutes, you’re proving you can control the bag for 2 minutes and make it work with the song. Many people make the mistake of planning a routine that is too hard for them
• 4. Video tape yourself. The first few times don’t worry about drops, just see what works and what doesn’t choreography wise. Its hard to know what’s on beat and what isn’t until you see it for yourself. What looks good in your mind often doesn’t translate to the timing in real life.
• 5. Study your routine. There are few things less fun than doing a bad routine, and then forcing yourself to re-live it as you watch it in its horrific glory. But that’s the way you learn from your mistakes. When studying video, don’t fixate on drops. Remember to take note of what you did well, and not just what you messed up.
• 6. Practice the hell out of it. If you are consistently dropping in practice, it means your routine is too hard, or you aren’t practicing enough.
• 7. If you are going dropless 1/2 of the time in practice, I’d say you have a 1/5 chance of going dropless when you are in the heat of comp, with pressure on you
• 8. Finally, practice tuning out your environment. Do the same routine every time in your head, and stay within yourself. This will make it easier when you are actually competing

Sounds fun, right? That said, going dropless is one of the most exhilarating feelings in footbag, and when you know you went dropless because you worked hard in practice, it’s an especially rewarding feeling. I’ve gone dropless 6 times, and I can remember each time clearly. That’s why one of my goals for the coming year is to go dropless again.

What is your favourite basketball jersey?

I have a jersey from the HS basketball team I coached in Japan. I like that one for sentimental reasons, but it’s not great for footbag. For footbag, I’d say my blue pistons Grant Hill jersey for two reasons:

1. I hit my first dropless routine while wearing it.

2. Grant Hill had some of his best years after he hit thirty, after reinventing his game (due to injury). I take inspiration seeing older athletes defy expectations and do well even when they are past their supposed peak age

Aas for favorite basketball jersey ever, I’d probably go with the year Charles Barkley changed his number from #34 to #32 while with the Sixers.

Magic Johnson had just announced he had HIV, people were scared and ignorant, and some NBA players like Karl Malone were making homophobic comments which were ignorant.

The Sixers #32 was a retired number (Billy Cunningham), but Charles Barkley wanted to show support for Magic Johnson, so he asked Cunningham if he could wear that retired number (Magic wore 32) for a season to show support for Magic, and he did. I thought that was classy

Who are your favourite footbag players of all time? Let’s say, top five

In terms of how they play, or in terms of playing+personal relationship?

either, or both…

In terms of pure playing ability and style, I’d say Ahren Gehrman in the late 90s and early 2000s, Felix Zenger in the mid-2000s, Mulroney in the late 90s, Johnny Suderman in the late 2000s. Juho may be my favorite to watch right now.

It’s tough to say, there’s so many people with games that are fun to watch, games that I admire. Evan Gatesman is definitely on that list. My token non-freestyle answer is Matti Pohjola and Arthur Ledain. If I could play defense and dink like Matti, and spike like Arthur, I’d stop playing freestyle right now.

To finish up, anything more to add, anyone to thank?

I guess I’d end by saying thank you to you for taking the time to do these interviews. I have fun reading them, and I had fun doing this one. My final thought on footbag is to encourage people to do three things

1. Play for yourself. In my experience, it makes footbag more fun and rewarding. If people give you props, great. If not, who cares.

2. Give something back to the community. Host a tournament, sponsor a player, teach a footbag class at your YMCA. Remember how much you love footbag, and use that as motivation to spread the love.

3. Push yourself and don’t understimate what you’re capable of. You’ll be pleasantly surprised by the results

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 Lotus (Elemental Footbags)

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.

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

I had an interesting experience today performing a routine. I was doing a demo as part of the Opening Ceremony for the Kanga Cup, the largest junior soccer tournament in the southern hemisphere. Some might say it’s kind of a big deal.

I came on stage, said a few words about myself and came down on to the floor so people could see me better.

I gave my cue to the audio team for the music to begin, and nothing happened.

With four thousand kids looking on, I wondered what to do.

I couldn’t just walk off, so I did a few stalls and hoped that the music would kick in.

Still nothing.

So I started doing some harder tricks, and went into a long run. I went into a really long run that mixed tiltless and guiltless tricks, then added some harder tricks in towards the end.

The kids were loving the tricks, big applause and cheers. It was a bit of a surreal feeling in the end.

What I took out of that though, is that no matter what happens, it’s best to pretend that everything is fine, keep going and put on a show. The crowd may not even be worried by it.

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?