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

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

Big thanks to our sponsors for helping out with the prizes:
Freedom Footbags
Fourkast Footbags
Bomb Footbags

Overall Standings – http://modified.in/footbag/viewtopic.php?p=450568#450568
Video 1 – Bsos 3 http://www.shredglobal.com/archive/bsos-3-results-video/
Video 2 – The Luns http://www.shredglobal.com/archive/shred-global-event-2-video-released/
Video 3 – FDS http://www.shredglobal.com/archive/shred-global-event-3-results-announced/

As a tribute to the one of the founding fathers, Flipsider.com, Shred Global is happy to announce the 4th and final event of the First Annual Shred Global Footbag Season. The deadline for this event will be 11:59 PM PST April 20th. The concept of this event is to show your versatility with the 4 main sets (each toe and each clipper) and then give you a 5th trick shot at something huge!

The prizes being awarded for this event are:
1) The final points towards the $500 grand prize given to the person with the most points after all 4 events
2)$50 to the winner of the event
3) a Hania bag.
4) some various sponsored items from Freedom Footbags, Fourkast Footbags, and Bomb Bags.

The rules are as follows.
1) One submission video per person, sent to submissions@shredglobal.com on or before 11:59 PM PST April 20th.
2) The combo (5-tricks) must be started from a drop (with warmups kicks allowed prior to the first trick in the combo) and finished with a hand catch after the final trick.
3) The only rules is that the first 4 tricks must be set in the following order with the fifth being your choice
trick 1) Toe
trick 2) Flipside Toe
trick 3) Clipper
trick 4) Flipside Clipper
trick 5) and surface / set
–The Flipside designation meaning it is done from the other side then the original for the sake of this contest–
4) the judging criteria will be Creativity , cleanliness, and of course difficulty of the trick, with all three having the same importance for the sake of this event.
5) Any questions on any of this please email to submissions@shredglobal.com

Have fun guys, we look forward to all of the great submissions, and may the best contestant win!

Name: Derrick Fogle
Location: Columbia MO
Site: http://h4x354x0r.com
See All Derrick Fogle Articles

For 2011, I only carry over the footbag and bike mileage goals. Well, I also tweeted, “Do more fishing.” Considering I only got to go fishing 3 times last year, that shouldn’t be hard to beat. I hope. The rest? No promises, no goals. I’m just gonna deal with it a day at a time.

———-

On to footbag, the primary purpose of this blog. Today marked my 1st session of 2011. I had a chance to play footbag at the MU Rec center (they’re running a ‘trial membeship’ promotion), and at first I was really stoked about it. I’d be able to bring my camera in, and make a footbag blog video. But then, I realized I probably couldn’t bring my boombox in. Music is to my footbag, as breathing is to life. So, I bailed on the Rec center thing, and went back to the Secret Hideout. I can’t film in the secret hideout, because it wouldn’t be so secret anymore. So, no hassle of setting up a camera, and plenty of music!

It was a fairly average session, but I did hit a 30-contact “tiltless” string. “Tiltless” means a difficulty level of 3 or greater. In footbag, each aspect of difficulty is called an “add” becaue each thing beyond a basic kick adds a difficulty point. Stalling the bag on the foot (instead of just kicking it): 1 “add”. Going around the bag (a leg-over): another “add”. Spinning or doing a “cross-body” (touching the bag on the left side of your body, but with the right foot), another “add”.

To be honest, there are young punks that make me look like I’ve got broken legs. For every time I can go around the bag once, they can do it twice, maybe 3 times. The average difficulty level among today’s elite footbag players is over 4; mine is barely 2. OTOH, here I am, throwing down my own gauntlet: “OK, punks, keep that up for another 20-25 FUCKING YEARS.” Few athletes are still active in their sport at 47. I am. I have no intention of quitting.

I put in 1:30 tonight. That brings me back to the blog’s title: resetting the counter. It’s always a bit of a bummer to do that, but it also renews the drive; fuels the fire. At the end of almost every footbag-centric blog post, I end it with a line thats [today's time] [year's total time] Thanks for tuning in! So…

1:30 1:30 Thanks for tuning in!

Name: Scott Davidson
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Website: http://footbagfreestyle.blogspot.com/
See all Scott Davidson Posts here!

This is the best tip ever. Thanks to Steve Goldberg, Brat, the greatest benefactor to the sport of footbag.

This has come full circle. I started by skooling the basics. As I got better, I learned the “Economy of Motion” and got better at trimming time off of movement by finding and training more efficient paths. Spending less effort to get more done. Particularly when ending a trick, I have learned over time to catch the footbag with the minimum downward motion possible, which is one of many ‘economy of motions.’ To make matters worse, I spent about week this summer focusing on ‘rooted’ tricks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmRXODg6Bzg which are distinguished because the catching foot is the plant.

This reduction of downward motion in catching the footbag in order to complete my most difficult tricks is causing my form to suffer when doing the most basic versions of the tricks. For instance, it is generally more efficient to complete a Paradox Torque by expending as little effort as possible on the catch, and doing it at the last moment. On the other hand, the trick is more ‘solid’ when I am able to utilize ‘economy of motion’ during the dexterity part of the trick and spend more time on the ‘catching’ part of the trick.

One of the side effects of spending years of training to reduce the distance needed to catch a footbag at the end of advanced tricks, is when you do the basic component, it looks rushed and unpolished.

As a part of my daily training (1493 in a row today), I warm up using my ‘basic’ staple tricks. For instance I don’t want to spend too much time training tricks I have mastered, I use those to warm up with. I do 10 osis, 10 infinity’s, 10 ripwalks, I do 10 reps of my whirl/osis combo, ripwalks, blurs/blizzards and paradox whirls. I am getting into the zone at this time and generally just gaining the proper focus I need for the rest of my jam session. Thanks to this new tip, I am really gaining better basic form.

In the past few weeks focusing on the depth of my clipper catches and I can really feel a difference in my control and general ability to maintain long strings. I am really happy that a friend like Steve took the time to mention this very basic observation to me at the New Years Jam this past December. I have been working on it every day since then and am really feeling the difference!

Shred Notes: Jan 2011
In addition to working the solidness of my clipper tricks, I have spent a lot of time working on front side tricks. I have particularly been recategorizing Atomic tricks into low-impact. I have always thought of Atomic tricks as high-impact, but have recently discovered that they really aren’t. I hit both Atom Smashers in a single string, which was a big barrier for me, but might seem basic for you. I also realized that I have been hitting LegBeaters on both sides (I’ve been calling them atomic butterflies), and then was challenged by Tuukka to do blur, LegBeater, Blurry Whirl, Blur, LegBeater Blurry whirl and hit all those components with an extra spinning butterfly before the 2nd blur. Very happy.

Big thanks to our sponsors for helping out with the prizes:
Freedom Footbags
Fourkast Footbags
Bomb Footbags

This is the video everyone has been waiting for, as it reveals the winners of Event #2: the Luns.

The point of the contest was to see who could catch and set from unusual surfaces the best.

The placing of all the submissions is in order from last to first…… so ENJOY!!

Summary of Results:

Open Singles Freestyle:

1. Damian Gielnicki
2. Bartosz Bubula
3. Mariusz Wilk
4. Micha³ Ostrowski
4. Rafa³ Kaleta
6. Marcin Bujko
7. Jakub Grabarczyk
8. Tomasz Ostrowski
9. Arkadiusz Stanek

Women Singles Freestyle:

1. Dorota Wojtasiuk
2. Sylwia Kocyk
3. Ma³gorzata Olêdzka
4. Kinga Gwó¼d¼

Circle Contest:

1. Bartosz Bubula
2. Damian Gielnicki
3. Rafa³ Kaleta
4. Mariusz Wilk

Intermediate Singles Freestyle:

1. Dawid Micha³owicz
2. Patryk Tenderenda
3. Konrad Chlebny
4. Filip Wójcik
5. Maciej D³ugoszek

Shred30:

1. Damian Gielnicki (189,10)
2. Jakub Grabarczyk (159,26)
3. Mariusz Wilk (157,5)
4. Bartosz Bubula (154,76
5. Micha³ Biarda (131,56)
6. Rafa³ Kaleta (125,36)
7. Arkadiusz Stanek (118,29)
8. Pawe³ Nowak (90)

Sick3:

1. Bartosz Bubula (Alpine Blurry Whirl > Bedwetter > Open Near Symposium Double
Over Down)
2. Damian Gielnicki (Stepping Reaper > Open Torque > Whirlwind)
3. Pawe³ Nowak (Atomotion > Locomotion > Far Symple Dyno)
4. Jakub Grabarczyk (Blurry Drifter > Nuclear Near Whip > Mobius)
5. Pawe³ ¦cierski ( Atomic Pickup > Shut Down > Matador)
6. Micha³ Biarda (Open Pickup Stallberger > Hyper Legover > Legover Cloud)

Coming out of Poland is one of the best pure shred videos I have seen this year. If you dig big shred, this is a must see video. check out the guys from Poland (www.footbag.com.pl) as you get introduced to some of the biggest names in Europe. Easily one of the most impressive videos put together in a long time.

Name: Freedom Footbags
Location: Nampa, Idaho
Website: http://www.freedomfootbags.com

Most people commonly refer to the sport of footbag as Hacky Sack. When you see people kicking around a small round object, you say, “Look, they are playing Hacky Sack!” Back in the 70′s, Wham-O started mass producing the first official footbag which they called a “Hacky Sack.” The founders of Wham-O, Arthur “Spud” Melin and Richard Knerr were known as the gurus of blockbuster fads, according to the Wham-O website. From the Slip ‘N Slide, to the HULA-HOOP, the superball to the limbo party kit, from the FRISBEE to the Hacky Sack, Wham-O was has been bringing the best toys to the market for 60 years now. And when we talk about fads, we are serious! Wham-O sold 25 million Hula Hoops in 4 months! The Hacky Sack went through a similar phase, when they flooded the market in the 70′s and 80′s, it seemed Hack circles were everywhere! The name Hacky Sack stuck but that is the trademarked name of one specific brand.

My older brother initially got me kicking, he had two of those official footbags and let me play with one. Two leather panels, sewn like a baseball, and hard! We had my friend’s older sister drive over it in the car to try to soften it up! It wasn’t easy to play with, luckily times have changed!

When it comes to kicking a footbag, some people can go on and on. For example, on November 15, 1995 Ted Martin set the men’s record with a total of 69,812 kicks, taking him 7 hrs. 38 min. 22 sec. The women’s record was set by Constance Constable on April 18, 1998 with 24,713 kicks taking her 4 hrs. 9 min. 27 secs. But after a while kicks can get boring, in my opinion!

Sometimes fads come and go and sometimes they evolve. So, the sport of footbag evolved into two distinct disciplines, footbag net and freestyle footbag. Here at Freedom Footbags our focus is on the evolution from basic circle kicking to freestyle footbag. We have some of those great bags for the Hack Circle. We have Sipa Sipa’s, and the Hempster that can be kicked all day long. Then we have the Mr. Sandbag, the SandMaster, and the Infinity for those of you who want to learn to stall. We have the Fourkast 14 when you start to take freestyle a little more seriously, and when you want to hit the big tricks, we have the Bear Bags, the Fearless 55, and other specialty footbags, hand sewn by the professionals for optimum playability. Accurate sets, multiple dexterity moves, and good solid catches.

We’d love to see you take the game to the next level! If only I could have lunch with Arthur “Spud” Melin and Richard Knerr and find out how to make freestyle the next big fad, and not just the very cool underground sport that it is!

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

In order to promote what will probably be one of the top 3 freestyle footbag videos of the year, we give you from the great country of Canada….. “Badassery”

To check out some of the reviews of this video, or for updated information, please look here http://modified.in/footbag/viewtopic.php?t=21933

From the desks of team Badassery…

Badassery is an entirely new footbag video, made by Canadians Jay Boychuk and Jorden Moir. The video showcases 100 moves that the public has never seen, all edited within 27 minutes of HD video. This video has multiple sections, including over 6 minutes of string footage. To get ready to see footbag like you’ve never seen it before, click the following link for purchase details.

Video Info:
BADASSERY: 100 Moves You’ve Never Seen
NOW AVAILABLE!!!!
Total Runtime: 26:38
File Size: 2.64 GB
File Type: MPEG
Res: 1280/720 (High-Definition!)

Payment Info
Cost: $15 CAD/USD or 12€
Method: PayPal or Cash (in well-sealed envelope)
Arrow PayPal: jorden.moir@gmail.com

or Address:
Jorden Moir
14 Mulberry St.
Hamilton, ON, CA
L8R 2C5

**Only streaming available at the moment, while we sort out an HD downloading issue. Will be resolved soon**

Upon payment received, an E-mail will be sent to the E-mail that sent payment with the viewing information. Please check within a few hours of payment to see if you got a message. If not, please PM me. Thanks.

Seeing the possibility to gain a bunch of exposure for the sport of freestyle footbag, the people at Nucleus footwear decided to sponsor some of the world’s best to perform some demo work at the 2010 Tony Hawk “Stand up for skateparks” event in Bevery Hills. Honza Weber, David Clavens, and Evan Gatesman can be shown in the video below being the professionals they are, while showcasing our beloved sport in a rare opportunity to the types of people who could appreciate it.

A big thanks to Nucleus Footwear, Honza Weber, David Clavens, and Evan Gatesman for sacrificing the time, energy, and motivation needed to help push the sport to as many people as possible.

Well here we go folks. It is time to get this season started, and as previously announced we will be holding a 4 event season where the winner gets 500 dollars cashola! Aside from that, there will be numerous prizes handed out for each event, along with prizes for people who place high in the final standings.

The prizes for this event as of now (but possibly to grow between now and the end of this event)
1) Points in the season standings for the $500 prize
2) $50 to the winner
3) A Hania bag to the winner (with a letter of congratulations from the Footbag Princess herself)
4) A Fourkast Shirt / Pair of Shorts to the second place contestant
5) A Freedom Footbag Shirt to the third place contestant

The first event will be the BSOS 3. This event be judged on on three factors by objective judges of our choosing.
1) The cleanliness of the combo.
2) The creativity of the combo.
3) The difficulty of the combo.

The Rules for the BSOS 3 are as follows..
1) The combo must start from a drop and end on a catch
2) The only tricks allowed after the drop are the 3 moves of the combo (Warmup kicks/stalls allowed after drop)
3) The Combo must consist of any trick sandwiched between a trick done on each side
-Trick A > Trick B > Trick A other side- is the correct format
[EX.] Clipper > Ripwalk > Flip Clipper would be a valid entry
4) One Entry per contestant will be submitted by Email before December 1, 2010 to Submissions@shredglobal.com along with your Name and postal address (for prize sending)

So lets to it guys, we wanna see some creative, flashy, innovative combos!!!

This blog is mostly about me and my game, but I’m thinking that when I see a video that stokes me enough to go play, that I should post it … with that in mind, check this:

Penske Visit Oct 2010 from nate linscott on Vimeo.

JIm Penske, Nick Landes and Gordon Bevier play footbag in Portland Oregon, USA.

Name: Scott Davidson
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Website: http://footbagfreestyle.blogspot.com/
See all Scott Davidson Posts here!

Specifically: .. Phobic Gyro Symposium Whirl, Phobic (opp) Blender and Reverse Twirls.

I am fluent in many spinning tricks, and in many ducking tricks. And until recently, the only trick I had thought to combine spinning and ducking on, was SDButterfly, as featured on tricks of the trade 2.

Tuukka challenged me last week to hit a spinning or a ducking twirl, and it got me to really skool those tricks. This week so far, I have hit Spinning Ducking Whirls on both sides, Spinning Ducking Barfly’s (ducking scorpiontail) both sides.

This movie has: Phobic Gyro Symposium Whirl (from 2 angles), Pixie Same Swirl, Reverse Twirl (thin), Phobic (opp) Blender. The movie was filmed with my iphone4, using apps ranging from ‘camera’ to ‘slomo’ to ‘imovie extras’ (for titles) and of course ‘imovie’.

Keep inspiring me! It seems to work!
Thanks!
Scott!

Fourkast Footbag Company
Location: Oregon, USA
Website: www.fourkast.com
See all Fourkast Posts

In a wonderful end of the season performance, David Clavens has once again taken the title of Funtastik Summer Classic Champion. This may be the final Funtastiks, thus making Mr. Clavens its final champion in fact. A great title indeed! You can see the video of his work here;

Here are the final results of that event;

Open Routines:

1. David Clavens
2. Ken Somolinos
3. Scott Bevier

Circle:
1. David Clavens
2. Jay Boychuk
3. Ken Somolinos
4. Scott Bevier

Shred 30:
David Clavens

Also, here is video of Fourkast Team player Scott Bevier, taking 3rd at that event. Hopefully we will have the 2nd place video soon, enjoy!

Name: Scott Davidson
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Website: http://footbagfreestyle.blogspot.com/
See all Scott Davidson Posts here!

For our sport to properly develop to it’s potential, we need more structured events AND we need to do more youth outreach to promote Footbag to kids and parents for it’s great health and social benefits.

This means YOU!

I sit here, saddened, outside the home of the directors of the Funtastik Summer Classic, where I can’t escape the reality that this family tradition is about to see it’s last repetition. Tournaments like this, with now 25 years running have a cult following which draws out all the top players and enthusiasts to a single location, for a weekend of friendly competition and general Footbag mania. So many thanks to Brenda and Joe Solonoski for hosting this event year after year, for opening their home to us, and for bringing together so many of our friends into a single location. It breaks my heart that this is the last Funtastik Summer Classic!

Every self-respecting club needs to run at least one event each year, and do some youth outreach for the good of mankind.

Check www.kickforhealth.org for info about the ‘Footbag Challenge’ and how this can be a great vehicle to promote the health aspects of Footbag.

If you want to run a tournament, it doesn’t have to be a mammoth 3-day event, but I have been running Footbag events for 25 years in the Chicago area and I promise to help coach any aspiring tournament directors who want to have an event in your area.

It all starts right here, right now! We need more tournaments. Period. Contact me now!
Www.kickforhealth.org

-enlightener
Scott Davidson
1999 Freestyle World Champion

Name: Derrick Fogle
Location: Columbia MO
Site: http://h4x354x0r.com
See All Derrick Fogle Articles

w00t! Thanks so much to everyone for sending me birthday wishes! Been having a great time so far today, carving it up at Speaker Circle, then grubbing and going for a nice, slow, easy bike ride. The old Rt. K bridge is open, new pedway over bridge is awesome! Now I’m hanging at home with the fam, taking it easy, having someone fetch me a sandwich…

2:40 / 51:10 Thanks for tuning in!

In order to provide good basis for comparing the available footbag shoes, it is important to understand what we should compare. Below you will read a somewhat technical interpretation of what it is to have a good footbag shoe, so that when you read about each model you will be given a fair metric to judge the shoes upon. Not all shoes are created equal, and not all players play in shoes equally. It is important to note that your body and style can try to adapt to shortcomings or downfalls of any model.

Simply from a mechanical standpoint, the best footbag shoe must support the movements we see in footbag. They can be the landing from a symposium whirl, the completely vertical force which is transferred through the rest of your body simply through the bones and muscle of that leg. It must support the horizontal forces from a drifter->spinning set, where your ankle is locked and twisted but the remaining sections of your body are twisting. The shoe must be light enough that while doing a quantum set you do not overextend your knee and have the effect of a ball and chain on your foot. These aspects of the shoe are very tightly correlated to the sole of the shoe, since it provides the damping of forces, the friction for giving you a good response, and often a large portion of the weight on your foot.

After you diagnose what makes the movement necessary for successfully playing footbag, you can realize that the interaction between the foot and the footbag is vitally important. The shoe needs to grab the bag, and give you the surfaces necessary to allow your body to direct it in seemingly unnatural directions. Between toe and clipper, the most used surfaces in today’s freestyle footbag, you must provide the perfect regions in which you can both catch and release the footbag. You must also provide the perfect amount of friction in order to properly release the bag without gripping too much.

1) Adidas Rod Laver

–The Rod Lavers are the standard for a footbag shoe. They are easily found, moderately priced, and with a few key modifications can be made into a very playable shoe.

–Players who wear Lavers (2010 World Champion Milan Benda, 2011 Female Circle World Champion Hania Mickiewicz, Serge Kaldany)

–Milan Benda says “I play in lavers, I like them because they are stable even if they are not broken in.”

–Serge Kaldany says “They are light and once broken in feel like a second skin.”

2) Quantum 1/2/3

–Extremely light, but lacking any real foot support.

–Players who wear Quantums (2011 World Routine Champion Honza Weber,2011 Female World Champion Jana Sassakova)

–Honza Weber says “Quantums are light, flexible, and allow for optimum leg quickness”

3) Reebok G-Unit

–Heavier then all of their counterparts, but offers shock absorption that the others could only dream of.

4) Nucleus

–Made for use in Freestyle Footbag, including a pre-made toe box that allows for excellent toe-stalling right out of the box. The clipper catching area is not optimum, but it will force you to gain excellent clipper form.

5) Adidas Clima Cool

A video with some big tricks we managed to hit on two sessions. Players: Arek Dudziński, Olaf Piwowar and Szymon Kałwak.