Flying disc freestyle
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Flying disc freestyle (sometimes called freestyle Frisbee in reference to the trademarked brand name) is a sport and performing art in which athletes perform deft maneuvers ("tricks") with a flying disc. Usually lighter than a disc for the game of ultimate, freestyle discs are about 160 grams. Freestyle is an extreme version of throw-and-catch and is often looked at as hacky sack with a disc (although flying discs were created years before the footbag). When the sport emerged in the early to mid 1970s, it featured fast-paced trick throws and trick catches, epitomized by the performances of Jens and Erwin Velasquez.[clarify]
Freddie Haft was the first freestylers to demonstrate the "nail delay" trick and gave the name to the move. In a nail delay the flying disc spins while balanced on the tip of a finger. This allows the freestyler to change the flight path of the disc and perform numerous balletic moves with it. He first showed the move in the 1975 Rochester Open Frisbee Tournament. It looks similar to spinning a basketball on the finger. The nail delay (a reference to the fingernail) became the foundation of modern freestyle.[clarify] Athletes soon learned to move the nail-delayed disc under their legs and behind their backs, to pop the disc up and spin their body around and do another nail delay. By the end of the 1970s, thanks to groundbreakers like Joey Hudoklin, freestyle had evolved into an entirely different sport[clarify] built around technical and athletic nail delay skills.
The "airbrush" trick developed in parallel with the nail delay. Though the nail delay is the main skill used by most freestylers, airbrushing opens up entirely new possibilities for freestyle combinations, freestyling with others and playing in the wind. To airbrush, a player slaps the outside of the disc in the direction of the disc's rotation. The disc flies upward and away from the player. In the wind, the disc will return to the player (or fellow freestyler) for the next move. The airbrushing game demands a less planned and a more improvised approach to freestyle, as the disc's interaction with the wind affects airbrushing more than that it does nail delaying. Airbrushing technique has developed to include brushing with other parts of the body, most often the foot. Players perform trick brushes under their legs or behind their backs. They can change the spin of the disc with one airbrush. Changing the spin refers to the disc spin change from clockwise to counter clockwise or vise versa. Experienced airbrushers can brush both into the wind and away from the wind. Airbrushing the disc around a complete 360 degrees[clarify] is called an "around-the-world".
Freestylers have pushed the limits of the sport by creating new moves, attempting increasingly difficult combinations of moves, exploring previously unheard-of turnovers. A turnover refers to moving the disc from upside down to right side up while doing a nail delay or vice versa. This turnover move also changes the spin of the disc from clockwise to counter clockwise or vice versa and adds to the difficluty of the move. and choreographing intricate routines for competition.
The Freestyle Players Association (FPA) is the governing body of freestyle. It acts both as a players union and sanctioning body, developing guidelines for competitions, organizing the Freestyle Frisbee World Championship and promoting participation in freestyle around the world.
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