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FREESTYLE on FIRE video produced by www.honzaweber.com
Video & Edit by Radek Pšurný
Directed by Lukáš Škoda
Starring Honza Weber, Milan Benda, and Lucaso showing off Freestyle Footbag and Freestyle Football in one of the best videos to date.
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
So first of all I would like to say a big thanks to Honza for being the first interview subject, and of course congratulations on the victory in Helsinki.
Feel free to add any comments on the interview, or to suggest who you would like to see interviewed next. I am planning to release one interview per week from players right around the world.
Who do you think will be next?
Here is the first entry for the Joulukalenteri, 2011. This is a special video edited by Ken Somolinos, from his time spent in Las Vegas during his time living there and jams. There is some mind blowing combos, drills and tricks in this video, and I’m proud to now present you with a link of glory. Thanks to Evan and Ken for being entirely legendary, and making this happen. Merry Christmas, Modified.
Gatesman Footbag from Ken Somolinos on Vimeo.
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.
Hey Fellas! Its been a long time since my last post, so in my return i got something special for you from Norek Dudzinski. It was insane! Enjoy!
Cool Video everyone hope you check out Clavens showcasing his freestyle footbag skills and keeping to amaze us with it! Hope you enjoyed it.
Source: www.footbag.org/
Name: Scott Davidson
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Website: http://footbagfreestyle.blogspot.com/
See all Scott Davidson Posts here!
Check out my youtube playlists of freestyle footbag videos…
The reason for this post was to let you know that I have reorganized my 100 youtube videos into playlists, located at my channel:
http://www.youtube.com/footbagenlightener
and click on the Playlists option.
See videos in the following categories:
-Competition Videos (23)
-Contest Videos (8)
-Doubles Freestyle
-Footbag in the News
-Lunch Shred Videos (46)
-Promo Videos (17)
-Youth Outreach
More categories forthcoming…
Happy St. Patricks Day! I was shredding that day and made a quick little video on my phone, but when I published it to youtube, I selected ‘private’ and so no one saw my video. Honestly, the phone app failed 5 times before it published, so I had to retype, on the phone, all of the details each time, even with copy and paste, it took forever. Frustrating. Now it is up, and ready to view…
Name: Derrick Fogle
Location: Columbia MO
Site: http://h4x354x0r.com
See All Derrick Fogle Articles
I kicked for over 3 hours today. w00t! Happy St. Patty’s Day!
Amazingly enough, I only filmed 5 rallies: 3 duds, and 2 like this. It was an awesome session, even with the chaos from the Frat boys and their dunking tank. There was coffee earlier, violently green drinking cups later, and the dunk tank crew supplied the tunes! Got new batteries for the boom box, then didn’t even need them.
I repaired Prissy, but not quite well enough; there’s still one spot where beads are still leaking. But, I brought an old net bag this time, and sure enough, the power hacker dude showed up at the end. So, I totally saved my freestyle bags this time. I even gave the guy the old net bag when I left.
My Speaker Circle presence so far has been to go long on rallies, but lame on difficulty and variety. Sometimes it seems like this old body needs to go lame on difficulty sometimes. I’ve been flogging (footbag blogging) for 2-1/2 years now, starting at 45. I’ll be hitting 30 years of footbag at the start of July, and 48 years of age at the end of August.
If there’s anything I can say is an age-related degeneration, I’ll have to spend half the time talking about general aches and pains, and the other half about the loss of motion range tolerance. For someone that used to do a lot of jumping stuff, I can barely get off the ground now. Landings often seem stiff and painful.
But still, for a guy my age…
I’m in great fucking shape. And I think I owe a lot of that to footbag. Just sayin’…
3:00/16:00 – Thanks for tuning in!
A Documentary video of David Clavens. Its a cool video about some information about him. Its really interesting hope you enjoy it!
Hey Fellas! check out this video of Ales Zelinka and Honza Weber. Damn it was epic! Those guys got some serious skills to show for us. I truly enjoyed it! So better watch it!
Guys! Better watch this video. Penske played around with those great ball of fire and put on some serious skills on it.
Hey Fellas! This is the last part of Las Vegas Jam from Nucleus Footwear (Facebook). This guys really put on a show to entertain us. I hope you enjoy it. Have Fun!
Yoh! Check this out an interview and some of Vasek Klouda’s tournament video. I hope you like it. Enjoy!
Fellas this is the 3rd Part, you’ll enjoy this like the 1st two parts. Have Fun!
Video From Nucleus Footwear (Facebook)
Hello everyone! check this videos from Nucleus Footwear (Facebook). Those guys was really good, better watch the video. Enjoy!
Posted by: simplyqueen1(YouTube)
Untitled from tina mateo on Vimeo.
Posted by: Tina Mateo(Vimeo)
Yoh! Deschamps Showing some of his tricks on this video, Man that was sick you guys should watch it. Im sure you’ll love it!
