Freestyle footbag
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Freestyle Footbag is a footbag sport where players demonstrate their abilities by performing sequences of acrobatic moves. The ending position of the bag on one trick becomes the starting position of the bag on the next trick. Tricks are created by combining different components between contacts (stalls or hits, usually stalls). Components can be spins, dexterities (wrapping a leg around the bag in mid-air), or ducks (letting the bag pass a few inches above the neck). Contacts are usually on the inside of the foot behind the opposite support leg (Clipper Stall) or on the toe, however many inventive possibilities remain and are used to create an endless list of tricks.
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[edit] Competition Events
In competition, there are 3 main freestyle events.
[edit] 2 minute Routines
The main event is where a player choreographs and executes a 2 minute routine to music. Much like figure skating, players are given scores for technical and artistic merit. These scores take into account choreography, difficulty, variety, and execution.
[edit] 30 Second Shred
The second major event offered at footbag tournaments is Shred30. This event is purely technical. Competitors have to execute as many unique, difficult tricks in a 30 second period. Their score is calculated with a mathematical formula, which takes into account the average difficulty of the run, and penalizes the players for repeated moves. Dropping the bag lowers the player's score in 2 ways: it lowers their difficulty ratio, and decreases the number of tricks they can fit in 30 seconds. The forumla is adds + adds*uniques/contacts.
[edit] Sick 3
A third event is Sick Three. While not always an official offering, this event is usually held and judged informally at several events, including World Championships. The objective of this event, is for players to link three hard tricks together in the most impressive way possible. Players are usually given between 5-7 attempts to land a combo, within a maximum time frame of 2 minutes. This event is often judged by a panel of judges, who sometimes use videocameras to verify that moves were hit cleanly within the combo. Judging is purely subjective.
[edit] Sick Trick
In this competition, the most difficult assortment of components is put in between two contacts (stalls/hits, usually stalls)
[edit] Rippin' Run
In this competition, a minimum of two players start a guiltless string (a series of moves with a minimum requirement of 3 components (adds) in between contacts) and try to outlast each other. Players are eliminated and the winners progress to the next round, just like in the single-elimination tournament.
[edit] Components (ADD Categories)
Tricks performed while playing freestyle are made up different add categories. ADD is an acroynm for "Additional Degree of Difficulty". A toe stall would be a 1-ADD trick. TOE [DEL]. A "clipper" is a cross body inside delay CLIP [XBD][DEL] and is worth 2-ADDs. A cross-body sole delay XBD_SOLE [XBD][UNS][DEL] is worth 3-adds. The more adds, the more possible permutations there are for tricks. Moves have been performed up to 9-ADDs (Chilly-Philly Sauce). There are 5 ADD types
- Delay [del] This Add is awarded to any move in which you catch (stall/delay) the footbag on either your foot or part of your leg.
- DEXTERITY [dex] This Add is awarded when you circle around the footbag with your leg.
- UNUSUAL SURFACE [uns] You get this Add when you use any surface of the body besides the toes, insteps, outsteps and knees.
- BODY [bod] This ADD is awarded to any move which involves a spin, jump, or twist of your body.
- CROSS BODY [xbd] This ADD is awarded to any move which involves a kick or delay done on the opposite side of your body.
[edit] ADD classification
IF you are a player who can successfully combine multiple ADD level tricks in one "String" or "session" than your playing difficulty can be classed as follows.
- 1 or 2 ADDs = Tiltless
- 3 ADDs = Guiltless
- 4 ADDs = Tripless
- 5 ADDs = Fearless
- 6 ADDs = Beastly
- 7 ADDs = Godly
[edit] Freestyle trick fundamentals
[edit] Kicks
There are 3 fundamental kicks that are used in freestyle. These kicks are:
- Inside kick: Using the inside of your shoe.
- Outside kick: Using the outside of your shoe.
- Toe kick: Using the toe area of your shoe.
[edit] Stalls
Once a player has mastered these tricks, they generally move on to stalling/delaying the footbag. This is where the footbag stops on part of the body. It is done to gain more control of the footbag, or to set up prior to a trick. Some of the simpler stalls found in freestyle are:
- Toe stall: This is usually the first stall learned in footbag. The footbag is kicked or dropped in front of the body, and caught on the toe.
- Inside stall: The footbag is caught on the inside of the foot.
- Outside stall: The footbag is caught on the outside of the foot.
- Clipper or Jester stall: The kicking foot is positioned behind the standing foot, and caught on the inside of the foot as in an inside stall.
[edit] Basic Dexterities
- Around the World - Wrapping the leg around the bag in between toe stalls on same foot.
- Leg Over - From toe stall to opposite toe stall, the leg goes out to in over the bag and catches the bag on the toe of the leg that wrapped around the bag.
- Mirage - From toe stall back to the same toe, on the way down the opposite leg goes from in to out on the way down
- Butterfly - On the way down, let the bag fall in between the legs while moving a leg from outside to in, letting it be caught on the opposite legs clipper stall (inside stall behind opposite support leg). This may be the most important move in footbag. It lays the foundation for more difficult moves.
[edit] Other Components
- Spins
- Ducks
- Symposium
- Kneeing
[edit] Combining Concepts
Spins can be added to dexterities to create moves like spinning butterfly.
[edit] Acronyms and Jargon
Here is a list of various terms and concepts, these do not include actual trick names.
- Alpine - A term used to describe a permutation of a move that adds a duck, dive or weave to the original concept.
- Backside - Used to describe a move in which the downtime component is symposium
- BS - Both Sides. Usually refers to hitting a move on both sides. Also sometimes used to denote Backside (see term)
- BSOR - Both Sides One Run. Alternative way of saying BSOS (below)
- BSOS - Both Sides One String. Refers to hitting a trick on both sides in one string.
- Frontside - Used to describe a move in which the uptime component is symposium
- FS - Frontside (see term)
- PDX - Short for Paradox
- PS - Paradox-Symposium. Used to describe a move this both paradox AND symposium
- The - Used to describe leg dexteries that do not fully circle the bags. 'The' dexteries do not count for adds
- Thin - Used to describe a move that was not hit cleanly but still technically hit.
[edit] Player Rankings
These are the results from the 2006 World Footbag Championships: Open Singles Freestyle:
1 Václav Klouda CZ
2 Jan Weber CZ
3 Juho Marjo FI
4 Felix Zenger FI
5 Jorden Moir CA
6 Tomasz Ostrowski PL
7 Stefan Siegert DE
8 Szymon Kalwak PL
9 Jan Struz CZ
9 Kamil Wysocki PL
9 Damian Gielnicki PL
9 Sergey Kozlov RU
13 Max Kerkhoff DE
13 Serge Kaldany FR
13 Damian Budzik PL
13 Renato Zülli CH
17 Tuukka Antikainen FI
17 Damian Piechocki PL
17 Mikko Lepisto FI
17 Wiktor Debski PL
21 Manuel Schmid CH
21 Aleksi Airinen FI
21 Philip Morrison NZ
21 Olaf Piwowar PL
25 Flavio Lötscher CH
25 Alex Urano AU
25 Matthias Schmidt DE
25 Pavel Cerveny CZ
29 Tom Mosher CA
29 Rafal Kaleta
29 Michal Biarda PL
29 Ali Dastrandj AT
33 T.J. Boutorwick US
33 Riku Ahola FI
33 Alexander Trenner
33 Michal Biarda PL
33 Markus Tyrni
33 Søren Thomsen DK
33 Petr Stica
33 Tuomas Riisalo FI
37 Spencer Kaspick CA
41 Matthias Blau DK
41 Evan Lovely US
41 Takumi Ozawa JP
41 Andrey Egozov RU
41 George Gosi
41 Petr Stejskal CZ
41 Jason Varvaro US
41 Takatsugu Mihara JP
49 Jakob Mai DE
49 Piotr Czaja
49 Hiroyuki Morii JP
49 Szabolcs Cseh HU
49 László Czakó HU
54 Bartek Bubula HU
54 Ales Zaric SL
54 Marc Giard-Lariviere CA
54 Gábor Ivanicskó HU
[edit] Video
This is a sport that needs to be seen as it is almost impossible to do it justice by verbally describing it.
- A free-style hacky sack display (file info)
- Problems seeing the videos? See media help.
