{ "version": "https://jsonfeed.org/version/1", "user_comment": "This feed allows you to read the posts from this site in any feed reader that supports the JSON Feed format. To add this feed to your reader, copy the following URL -- https://modified.in/bsos/feed/json -- and add it your reader.", "home_page_url": "https://modified.in/bsos", "feed_url": "https://modified.in/bsos/feed/json", "title": "BSOS", "description": "BOTH SIDES ONE STRING", "items": [ { "id": "https://modified.in/bsos/2017/11/07/freestyle-footbag-and-freestyle-football-my-perspective/", "url": "https://modified.in/bsos/2017/11/07/freestyle-footbag-and-freestyle-football-my-perspective/", "title": "FREESTYLE FOOTBAG AND FREESTYLE FOOTBALL \u2013 MY PERSPECTIVE", "content_html": "

As humans, you and I have something in common: most of the time, you would go through the motions in life, and can’t recall a lot about most of what you do throughout a typical day. However, sometimes, there are events that force you to think back, way back, and wonder: how the heck did I get to this point? Well, I am in the middle of one such moment.
\nJust 3 minutes ago, I finished watching the famous Final Routine from Ryan Mulroney in the 2002 World Footbag Championship, and I enjoyed every minute of it. I also knew this routine was the one who inspired one of my favorite footbaggers of all time, Nick Landes, to start his own freestyle journey a while back. These events have made me realize one thing: hmm, Khoa, you seem to know a lot about freestyle footbag. However, didn’t you start out as a football freestyler?

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Yes, I did indeed start out playing freestyle football back in 2007. At this current moment (2017) I have been doing this for over 10 years. Time sure flew, especially when you have been in a sport for as long as I have. The journey has been crazy, filled with all the ups and downs imaginable: I got really, really good, like world-class good (2007- 2012), lost my ability to juggle the football (2013 onwards) and struggled to come to terms with my lost abilities. My denial period lasted till 2015. Only after that year did I finally deal with the anger and grief of the loss, and has been steadily, and finally, letting it go. Then comes the new period of my life, beginning this year, when I finally entered the workforce, and now being the proud boyfriend to a wonderful girl, as well as a father figure of a little being (my cat) for the first time in my life. All this did come with more responsibilities, and I suddenly find myself not being able to freestyle for as long and as hard as before anymore (being older also contributed to that xD). Still, I still try to do freestyle (both of them) everyday, even for just 1 hour a session and learn how to live with that. It’s all a part of life.

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So how does freestyle footbag fit into all this? I’ll tell you the story!
\nI do not claim to know everything about footbag. However, I do know the basics: that it was invented by two people, one of them being Mr. Hacky Sack (John Stalberger). After that, footbag divided up into two: the casual hack circle, and the competition scene. On the competitive side, there have been a great lots of legends throughout the years: Kenny Shults, Rick Reese, Peter Irish, Tuan Vu, Tu Vu\u2026 and many others. However, generally, from a football freestyler perspective, the journey into footbag wouldn’t start until years later. Especially for me.

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The year was 2010. It was the year when a footbagger came into freestyle football and changed things forever. That person’s name is Vasek Klouda. From him, football freestylers like Philip Warren Gertsson (PWG) and Kamalio began to popularize footbag concepts like Clippers, Eclipses, and Rakes in the freestyle football scene. The first time when I saw an Eclipse done with a ball, I freaked out. Like I understood an ATW, or a Double ATW, heck maybe a Triple ATW, but that? That blew my mind. I remembered trying it for a whole afternoon at Cal Anderson Park in Seattle with my friend Noah Garrabrant, and competing to get that trick with a soccer ball first (he won).
\nStill, footbag at that point for me was just that: Eclipses, Clippers, and Rakes.

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Then, in 2010, when I was trying to find a good place to perform freestyle football (I usually tried to do that when I was not at school or doing homework), I wandered to the Space Needle, where an unexpected sight awaited me: a tall, athletic man was already there, performing some mind-blowing tricks with the footbag for the passer-bys. At first, my mouth fell open. I could not speak. I couldn’t believe my eyes! There was someone THAT GOOD at footbag right here in Seattle? That was insane! Even in a million years, I couldn’t believe the chance I’ve just been given.
\nAfter I finished collecting my jaw from the pavement, I summoned my courage and walked over to him, and tried to talk to him. The conversation went as such:
\nMe: “Hey man! Are you doing freestyle footbag?”
\nMystery man: “Oh? Yes! I am!” (his eye widened a bit, indicating that I surprised him by knowing about the sport)
\nMe: “Can you do a rake?”
\nMystery man: “I can!” and then did it first try. My jaw dropped to the floor once again! YAY!
\nMe: <stuttering> “Hey man, I can’t help but see that you are performing. May I perform with you?”
\nMystery man: “Uhhh\u2026 (I could see that he was considering the important question: Who the heck was this guy, and more, would he screw up my performance? xD Finally he decided to give me a chance)\u2026 yes, you can!”

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And that was how it started. I joined in and performed with him under the Space Needle. After the performance, I could see he was also impressed with my skills with the ball, and we had another exchange with each other. I found out that his name was Justin. Justin Dale. We exchanged our contacts and parted ways, promising we’d see each other again.
\nI didn’t know it then, but this encounter would change my life forever: My footbag awareness began there, as well as a fruitful and wonderful friendship that I still treasure.

\n

About 2 weeks later, I received a text from Justin. He invited me to come to the Space Needle again and perform with him. I of course agreed and even brought my freestyle football friend, Cole Morgan, there with me. The session/ performance was a huge success and we became good friends afterwards. I also was introduced to Reilley Adamson, another Rain City Shredder. For the entirety of 2010, 2011, and the beginning of 2012, I and my freestyle football friends would often join Justin and the RCS crew in training and performing. It was a time unlike any other in my life. I got to learn some awesome trick names and basic concepts: Ripstein is a double Swirl, there was a 5-revolution trick in footbag, the Czechs are the best at this game, and Vasek was once above everybody else in the sport by a mile\u2026 I was also introduced to many people who I became friends with: Dan Reed, Alex Zerbe (I only met him once and he showed me some Eclipses), and even Chris Dean. I felt like I belong. This seemed to be the crowd I could be with! I thoroughly enjoyed every moment, and I always looked at that time with fond moments later on.

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Sadly, my time in Seattle was not to last forever, and on April 2012, I departed the city (with no little amount of tears) in order to continue my graduate studies at the Pennsylvania State University. Fearing that I’d have no friend over in State College, I did an online search in order to try and find out if there was any football freestyler at Penn State. The search yielded a nice big fat zero. However, when I searched for “PSU footbag”, I was directed to something called the “Penn State footbag club”. I sent out a message asking to join and the guy on the other side replied and told me to come to the HUB on the first day of school. “Cool! I’ll come and see how good these guys are!” I thought to myself.

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On the first day of school at Penn State, I came to the HUB, and there it was: a circle of people kicking. There was a tall guy and another guy who seemed to be pretty good. I noticed they both were wearing Lavers (Adidas Lavers, the shoes that many footbaggers use), and was kicking around a bag with some other people who didn’t have Lavers. So I joined in and asked them what was going on. I introduced myself as the guy who messaged the “Penn State Footbag club” and they welcomed me into the circle. The guy who I thought earlier was pretty good was actually, well, VERY good. He could do clippers especially well, and he seemed to have a very good ability to get into a clipper position\u2026 hmm, I didn’t know how to describe it\u2026 like he could bend his ankle really really far in to create a great surface to stall the bag in the clipper. Sometime later I would find out that ability was called “cranking”. He had some good crank!

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After watching him for a while I asked: “Hey guys can you do Ripstein?” and the tall guy asked the guy with good crank: “Hey Nick, can you do a Ripstein?” Nick replied: “Hmm, let me see\u2026” and did a Ripstein first try. I was so impressed and told them I would meet up with them again and would follow their Facebook closely.

\n

For the second session (in the side area of Rec Hall), I was mostly by myself, working on some freestyle football stuff in a separate area from the footbaggers. Nick came over to try some stuff with the ball and he did a perfect clipper first try! I also was introduced to other members of the group: Nathan, who was REALLY tall, Ivan, who was also tall, Greg, who was stocky, and George, who looked very much in shape. I did not interact much with them, unfortunately.

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However, things got much better in the 3rd session. We all had a blast in front of the HUB again, and I got introduced to Ryan and Marc for the first time. Nathan, Nick, and Ivan also joined in. Everyone had a great time in that session, and I had the chance to try some footbag tricks, and I think I got my first ATW with a bag (stall it properly too) in that session, in my freestyle football shoes. I began to get hooked, and after Nick told me my game would improve tremendously in Lavers, I decided to go online and bought them for myself.

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And that was the moment when I decided to step into freestyle footbag for the first time. Since then, my level has improved, and I had some tremendous fun with the PSU footbag club. Many people came and went: George, April, Derek, Aidan, Kat\u2026 but the core members remained the same: Ryan, Ivan, Nathan, Nick, Greg, and later Ben. I attended PSU Jampionships III, IV, V, and hosted VI (with great help from Greg and Nathan). I became more or less brothers and sisters with everyone, especially Ryan Morris, who I still consider one of my 2 best friends as of this moment. I also got introduced to one of Nick’s student, who might one day be the next world champion: Nathan Bonslaver.

\n

In my time at Penn State, I also traveled to local Jams and Championships, including East Coasts (2013 and 2014), New Year’s Jam (2015), and even US Open (2013, 2015, and 2016). I met and befriended so many footbaggers, including (but definitely not limited to): Matt Kemmer, Kevin Hogan, Derek Littlefield, Cass Taylor, Alex Venis, Aaron Orton, Pete Bowler, Anton Briting, Zach Jahner, Johnny Sarah, Mathieu Gauthier, Ianek Regimbald, Ryan Thomas, Cory Allen, Tom KO, Zeb Jackson\u2026 and some absolute legends of the sports like Jim Penske, Evan Gatesman, Nick Landes, Gordon Bevier, Dustin Rhodes, Brian Sherill, Ken Somolinos, John Schneider, Lon Smith, Ethan Husted, Darryl Gentz\u2026 and many more.And in 2017, my journey in footbag reaches its highest point when I came to Worlds, met my long-time idol, Taishi Ishida, and also many more: Bruce Li (the amazing Jianzi player from China), Dave Clavens (FINALLY!), and Olav Piwowar (the man with spider legs who almost did Alpine Nemesis). I also did my first ever Worlds routine in my life, dropped 3 times, but came out happy. I also met the legend of legends, Vaclav Klouda, and it also brought my story full circle: began with Vasek, and now end of phase 1 (still got a lot more kicks in me) with Vasek.

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As my level increased, I began to notice that footbag could use some things from freestyle football, like for example the concept of sitdowns. I was aware that before me somebody did some sitdowns with the bag, but it never got popularized. As I had some prior knowledge with sitdowns from my experience as a football freestyler, I decided to introduce it again to freestyle footbag, and so far the response has been quite positive. It is my dream to one day see these sitdowns incorporated more into footbag, especially footbag routines.

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There are some other things that I also noticed, and I have decided to list them all here. I realize some of this stuff can be a bit jargon-full, so I will provide a short TL:DR for you guys here:
\nPoint number 1: Neither Freestyle Football and Freestyle Footbag is harder. They are just different from each other.
\nPoint number 2: The trick crossover and no touch combos for freestyle football, and the use of the clipper for footbag are the most fundamental technical differences between the 2 sports, besides from the fact that one is played with a bean bag and the other with a size-5 ball.
\nPoint number 3: Football freestylers (the majority of them) will never be disrespectful and ask the infamous question: “can you do it with a real ball?” for you footbaggers.
\nGot the gist? OK, Let’s go! \"\ud83d\ude09\"

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What is harder? Freestyle Football or Freestyle Footbag?
\nOne of the comments that a lot of my non-freestyle friends tell me when they see me play freestyle football and freestyle footbag at the same time is that: “man, when you do it with a ball and then switch to a bag, it must be so much easier!” Do I think that is true? Somewhat. I used to reason against it, because in my opinion, reducing the size of the object you are doing tricks with does nothing. The reason for this is that everything falls at the same acceleration, namely 9.81 m/s^2, so it doesn’t matter if you use a ball or a bag, they all fall the same. However, it is not actually so. I realized this when I could do Eggbeater with the bag quite easily now (on my strong side at least). However, its freestyle football equivalent, the Alternative Homie Mitchy Around the World (AHMATW) still eludes me, especially when I do the footbag (stall) set. The reason should be quite obvious: the size of the ball is bigger, which means you have to do bigger dexterities (revolutions) in order to complete the trick, which make the trick harder to execute. As the number of dexes increases, the difficulty spike compounds. It should be a “duh!” moment for everyone, but it actually took me a while to come to terms with this.
\nWell, so does switching from a ball to a bag make a trick easier? I now believe the answer is a resounding YES! If you have done for example Palle Around The World (PATW) with a ball, then you most likely will be able to do its footbag equivalent, Triple Around The World, with relative ease if you spend some time getting used to stalling the bag after going around it.
\nHowever, do I think the peak difficulty of freestyle footbag is less than that of freestyle football? F!@K NO! Why? Let’s look at some statistics of some of the highest level tricks in both sports:
\n4-dexterity (revolution) tricks:
\n– Freestyle Football: Kevin trick (disputable due to nobody ever hitting it clean), Mikolaj 4-rev trick (equivalence of Phasing Revup in freestyle footbag)
\n– Freestyle Footbag: Nemesis, Arch Nemesis, Phasing Revup, Clownface, Backside Clownface, Pixie Quantum Eggbeater, Blurry Flurry, Pixie Chainsaw Massacre, Furious (op) Double Leg Over, Furious (ss) Double Leg Over,\u2026 just to name a few.
\n5-dexterity (revolution) tricks:
\n– Freestyle Football: absolute big fat zero
\n– Freestyle Footbag: Nemesis Swirl, Heart (Pixie Plasma Swirl), with Arch Nemesis Swirl on the way by Jim Penske.
\nLooking at this list, it is obvious that by using a bag, the number of maximum dexterities you can do is higher. Do I think then that freestyle footbag is harder? Once again, F!@K NO! And I will concede this point only when Vasek, Honza, or Jindra can do a 4 dex trick like Nemesis with a ball!

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So, Khoa, WTF is your opinion then? I think both freestyle sports are EQUALLY AS HARD. They are just hard in different ways. For freestyle football, you need the explosive speed way more than freestyle footbag. You can see that everytime a football freestyler like Skora do a 3 revolution move. For freestyle footbag, you need to learn how to conserve every single one of your revolution way more than that of freestyle football. Just look at the way an accomplished footbagger like Matt Kemmer do Around The Worlds (yes, ATWs!) will show you the absolute mastery in conserving energy and revolution space that a master footbagger requires in order to do higher level footbag tricks: the bag looks like it only travels 1 inch below and then above the ankle every single time an ATW is done, never more.
\nNeither sport, at its peak, is harder or easier. They are just different.

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However, I do think there are aspects of both that the other can utilize. For freestyle football, we can incorporate the clipper not just as a “style move” but more like a regular component of normal lowers! I will elaborate this further in the section “The most significant difference between freestyle footbag and freestyle football”. For freestyle footbag, many more elements of uppers and sitdowns, main disciplines in freestyle football, can be utilized. In fact, I myself have tried to do elements of sitdowns with the bag, and so far I have already accomplished a lot. However, what I did was just scratching the surface of all the possible things one can do with a bag in a sitting position. I sincerely hope that more footbag freestylers will pick up these two elements of freestyle football because they will lead to new possibilities as well as opportunities for further utilization.

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What is the most significant difference between freestyle footbag and freestyle football?
\nTo me, the answer to this question comes down to two tricks: the freestyle football’s “crossover” and the freestyle footbag’s “clipper”.
\nWhat is a “crossover”? Well, here it is: Crossover (Tutorial). As you can see, the crossover is, well, to my best ability to describe, an air Zoid kick. So, why is this significant?
\nThe reason why comes down to the issue of utilization. In a traditional footbag trick, there is usually no kick in between. When you reach a kick, the trick ends. Also, kicks in footbag receive zero points (add), you see, so people do not use them often at the end of tricks. If you land a Double Around The World with a stall in the end, the trick is considered a 3-point (3-add) trick, because you have 2 revolutions (2 adds) + a stall (1 add) = 3 adds. However, if you end a Double Around The World with a kick, you will only end up with 2 revolutions (2 adds) + a kick (0 add) = 2 add trick. When you get to the “professional level” in freestyle footbag competitions, nobody wants to utilize tricks that are less than 3 adds (Guiltless) in difficulty, and thus, kicks are usually left behind.
\nHowever, in freestyle football, you can use a crossover in order to end tricks. As a matter of fact, football freestylers use this VERY frequently. Combining an Around the World (into out) with a crossover, and you got a trick called Touzani Around the World (TATW, so called because a Dutch guy named Soufiane Touzani invented it). Combining an Orbit (ATW out to in) with a crossover, and you got, likewise, a Mitch Around the World (MATW). So many tricks in freestyle football were created this way, including (but not limited to): Touzani ATW, Mitch ATW, Abbas ATW, Palle Trick (think Pixie Legover ending with a crossover), Skora ATW (think Eggbeater ending with a crossover), Skala Mitch ATW (Pigbeater ending with crossover), Eldo Mitch ATW (Fairy Eggbeater ending with a crossover)… et cetera. (Do a Youtube search and you’ll see what I’m talking about)

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But wait, it gets better! The fact that after the crossover ending of these tricks, the ball pops up provides an excellent opportunity to continue doing another trick afterwards before the ball ever hit the foot again! These combos are called “no touch”\u00a0combos because of that. So, the fact that in freestyle football you can have a kick in between a trick enables you to continue a seemingly endless combo of crossover-based tricks chained together without a touch in between them. Recently, Tobias Becs, a Norwegian football freestyler, did 32 Alternative Mitch ATWs no touch. This is a virtually unexplored avenue of freestyle footbag (well, except for Honza when he did a no touch combo in his “2013 Ultimate Footbag Combos” video, a video that has recently had its song altered, a sad fact given I have gotten so used to watching it with its original song. They went perfectly well together), and I feel like, with more people’s attention, this can widen the freestyle footbag’s trick selection tremendously!

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Everybody knows what a “clipper” is nowadays. And yes I mean even football freestylers. From the time when Vasek Klouda introduced it to freestyle football back in around 2009 – 2010, the clipper has exploded in popularity in the freestyle football community. Nowadays, football freestylers in Poland (Luki, Mikolaj…), Norway (PWG), and Japan (Ochio, Kazane, Pixy, and especially Ibuki), as well as the footbag world champions Vasek Klouda and Honza Weber are pushing the limits of clipper usage in freestyle football, meanwhile introducing many footbag tricks, including Reverse Swirl, Swirl, Whirl, Ripstein, Dimwalk, Ripwalk, Double Spinning Clipper, Whirr, Bedwetter, Blurriest, Mullet, and even Phasing Revup (the first 4-rev freestyle football move). However, the use of clipper is still very much limited, with the users usually utilize it as a stylistic move rather than something to be used all the time in combos. Except for Vasek and Honza, everybody else would only do clippers in blocking combos (combos when the ball is between 2 legs, and then manipulated around), or they’d use a combo of tricks that only contain clipper moves, usually only on one side (Yes I am looking at you Ibuki, haha! ;)).
\nIn freestyle football, the discipline that most resembles footbag is the style of”Lowers”. However, in lower combos, the ball will start from the toe surface of a foot, and end on the toe surface of that same foot, or the other foot. In freestyle footbag, combos usually have tricks involving the bag moving from either a toe surface or a clipper and end on same toe, same clipper, opposite toe, or opposite clipper.

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This may be a bit confusing, so please let me clarify my point. We’ll use a trick, let’s say, HTATW (Pixie Legover) to demonstrate this. You have 2 revolutions: the first is done inside to outside, and the second is done outside to inside. The trick will begin from one toe surface, and end on the other toe surface. That is usually how most tricks will be in freestyle football. These tricks will then be chained into combos. So most freestyle football’s lower combos are tricks involving revolutions done to the ball, then end on a toe surface.
\nNow, imagine this: what if instead of beginning the HTATW (Pixie Legover) from a toe surface, we begin it on a clipper surface? So the trick will be: clipper surface -> inside to outside revolution -> outside to inside revolution -> toe surface. That will be a Stepping far Legover.
\nNow how about beginning the trick from toe and end on a clipper (toe surface -> inside to outside revolution -> outside to inside revolution -> clipper surface)? The result will be a Pixie Butterfly (Dimwalk).
\nNow let’s say the trick begins and end on both clippers (clipper surface -> inside to outside revolution -> outside to inside revolution -> clipper surface), the result will be a Ripwalk.
\nSo you see, the way freestyle footbaggers use the clipper can add so much variety to one trick. In freestyle football there is only HTATW, in freestyle footbag there are Pixie Legover, Stepping far Legover, Dimwalk, and Ripwalk. 4 tricks in response to one! If anyone ever wonders why there are so many tricks in freestyle footbag, even though they are lacking the components of uppers AND sitdowns, you now know why!

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Yes, I do know that at the level football freestylers are at currently in clipper moves, we can’t do that just yet. But really, just imagine the possibilities! Clippers can be used for much more than just stylistic moves! One day, I hope I will be able to see it in every lower combo. The introduction of this use of clipper into freestyle football, in my humble opinion, will definitely change the way people approach lowers forever.
\n“Can you do it with a real ball?”
\nI’m just going to take the perspective of a football freestyler (that I am ;)) for this matter.
\nEvery footbagger has heard of this question, and every footbagger hate the sh!t out of it.
\nThat I have no problem with. I hate this question so much as well. However, what I do notice is that some footbaggers even developed a dislike for freestyle footballers because of this question. I will not antagonize you guys over that. I can see why you might think that way.

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However, I am here to tell you guys that no, we football freestylers don’t take pleasure in actually be able to “do it with the real ball”, and no, if we ever see you guys on the street performing, that question will be the ABSOLUTE LAST thing we will ever ask you. In fact, you will NEVER see any decent freestyle footballers use this question. The ones that do are JERKS, and they usually are hated within the freestyle football community as well.
\nFirst, of, we know and respect your dedication. We too know what it feels like to be obsessed with kicking an object around trying to do weird tricks with it. Other people may think it’s a silly thing to do, but we should be the last to think so. We get you guys. We really do! We are like that as well.
\nAlso, football freestylers LOVE footbag and they want to know more about it! I remember attending the US Freestyle Football Championship in 2013, and when I told everyone the names of footbag tricks, like Nemesis and Montage\u2026 they thought the names in footbag sounds so cool. That brought a smile to my face. I do believe many football freestylers do have the same attitude towards footbag. This year at Superball, a Japanese football freestyler named Yosshi finished his final routine by doing clipper to clipper\u2026 with a bag! That was unprecedented and I do believe he loved the footbag as well as he loved his football!
\nSecondly, we have our own version of that question too! That version is: “Can you do it on a field?”
\nEvery football freestyler have heard of it. Every football freestyler hate the sh!t out of it.
\nIn fact, there is just no end to it! When you can do it on a field, dumbasses will ask you: “Are you as good as Ronaldo or Messi? (2 best soccer players in the world)”, and when you ARE Ronaldo or Messi, they will find another way to bring you down. Those 2 are actually the ones with the most haters in the world.
\nThat’s just how the world works sometimes. Stupid, I know! The truth is, there are jealous people out there, who are just hating you simply because of the fact that THEY can’t do it THEMSELVES! In fact, they usually can’t do anything themselves. If not, they would have understood that it takes blood, sweat, and tears to develop the kind of skills that our sports require. Even though I hate these people’s guts, I too must say that sometimes I do pity them. These are the people whose lives are so boring they have to take it out on another, more interesting guy out there (us!). So we should not be discouraged because of that. We should be proud! We actually are so cool we have haters!

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So, everybody, I would like to end this piece of writing with a small note: our communities are very much alike, and we can learn so much from each other. I made a two-part video once about both sports (*), and I still believe in the message at the end of the 2nd video: “The way forward is together!” So let us go together. To the future!
\n(*) Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ck9bTe9RbKo
\nPart 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmBHIP9S-7g
\nThis year, after the video competition at Worlds 2017, one of these videos were featured after the videos of the competitors. When Justin Dale came to me and told me this news, he said that he thought the videos were very well researched, which brought an amazing warm feeling to my core. They were meant to be well-researched because I want every football freestyler to see the beauty of footbag, and vice-versa.

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Written by Khoa Nguyen

\n", "content_text": "As humans, you and I have something in common: most of the time, you would go through the motions in life, and can’t recall a lot about most of what you do throughout a typical day. However, sometimes, there are events that force you to think back, way back, and wonder: how the heck did I get to this point? Well, I am in the middle of one such moment.\nJust 3 minutes ago, I finished watching the famous Final Routine from Ryan Mulroney in the 2002 World Footbag Championship, and I enjoyed every minute of it. I also knew this routine was the one who inspired one of my favorite footbaggers of all time, Nick Landes, to start his own freestyle journey a while back. These events have made me realize one thing: hmm, Khoa, you seem to know a lot about freestyle footbag. However, didn’t you start out as a football freestyler?\nYes, I did indeed start out playing freestyle football back in 2007. At this current moment (2017) I have been doing this for over 10 years. Time sure flew, especially when you have been in a sport for as long as I have. The journey has been crazy, filled with all the ups and downs imaginable: I got really, really good, like world-class good (2007- 2012), lost my ability to juggle the football (2013 onwards) and struggled to come to terms with my lost abilities. My denial period lasted till 2015. Only after that year did I finally deal with the anger and grief of the loss, and has been steadily, and finally, letting it go. Then comes the new period of my life, beginning this year, when I finally entered the workforce, and now being the proud boyfriend to a wonderful girl, as well as a father figure of a little being (my cat) for the first time in my life. All this did come with more responsibilities, and I suddenly find myself not being able to freestyle for as long and as hard as before anymore (being older also contributed to that xD). Still, I still try to do freestyle (both of them) everyday, even for just 1 hour a session and learn how to live with that. It’s all a part of life.\nSo how does freestyle footbag fit into all this? I’ll tell you the story!\nI do not claim to know everything about footbag. However, I do know the basics: that it was invented by two people, one of them being Mr. Hacky Sack (John Stalberger). After that, footbag divided up into two: the casual hack circle, and the competition scene. On the competitive side, there have been a great lots of legends throughout the years: Kenny Shults, Rick Reese, Peter Irish, Tuan Vu, Tu Vu\u2026 and many others. However, generally, from a football freestyler perspective, the journey into footbag wouldn’t start until years later. Especially for me.\nThe year was 2010. It was the year when a footbagger came into freestyle football and changed things forever. That person’s name is Vasek Klouda. From him, football freestylers like Philip Warren Gertsson (PWG) and Kamalio began to popularize footbag concepts like Clippers, Eclipses, and Rakes in the freestyle football scene. The first time when I saw an Eclipse done with a ball, I freaked out. Like I understood an ATW, or a Double ATW, heck maybe a Triple ATW, but that? That blew my mind. I remembered trying it for a whole afternoon at Cal Anderson Park in Seattle with my friend Noah Garrabrant, and competing to get that trick with a soccer ball first (he won).\nStill, footbag at that point for me was just that: Eclipses, Clippers, and Rakes.\nThen, in 2010, when I was trying to find a good place to perform freestyle football (I usually tried to do that when I was not at school or doing homework), I wandered to the Space Needle, where an unexpected sight awaited me: a tall, athletic man was already there, performing some mind-blowing tricks with the footbag for the passer-bys. At first, my mouth fell open. I could not speak. I couldn’t believe my eyes! There was someone THAT GOOD at footbag right here in Seattle? That was insane! Even in a million years, I couldn’t believe the chance I’ve just been given.\nAfter I finished collecting my jaw from the pavement, I summoned my courage and walked over to him, and tried to talk to him. The conversation went as such:\nMe: “Hey man! Are you doing freestyle footbag?”\nMystery man: “Oh? Yes! I am!” (his eye widened a bit, indicating that I surprised him by knowing about the sport)\nMe: “Can you do a rake?”\nMystery man: “I can!” and then did it first try. My jaw dropped to the floor once again! YAY!\nMe: <stuttering> “Hey man, I can’t help but see that you are performing. May I perform with you?”\nMystery man: “Uhhh\u2026 (I could see that he was considering the important question: Who the heck was this guy, and more, would he screw up my performance? xD Finally he decided to give me a chance)\u2026 yes, you can!”\nAnd that was how it started. I joined in and performed with him under the Space Needle. After the performance, I could see he was also impressed with my skills with the ball, and we had another exchange with each other. I found out that his name was Justin. Justin Dale. We exchanged our contacts and parted ways, promising we’d see each other again.\nI didn’t know it then, but this encounter would change my life forever: My footbag awareness began there, as well as a fruitful and wonderful friendship that I still treasure.\nAbout 2 weeks later, I received a text from Justin. He invited me to come to the Space Needle again and perform with him. I of course agreed and even brought my freestyle football friend, Cole Morgan, there with me. The session/ performance was a huge success and we became good friends afterwards. I also was introduced to Reilley Adamson, another Rain City Shredder. For the entirety of 2010, 2011, and the beginning of 2012, I and my freestyle football friends would often join Justin and the RCS crew in training and performing. It was a time unlike any other in my life. I got to learn some awesome trick names and basic concepts: Ripstein is a double Swirl, there was a 5-revolution trick in footbag, the Czechs are the best at this game, and Vasek was once above everybody else in the sport by a mile\u2026 I was also introduced to many people who I became friends with: Dan Reed, Alex Zerbe (I only met him once and he showed me some Eclipses), and even Chris Dean. I felt like I belong. This seemed to be the crowd I could be with! I thoroughly enjoyed every moment, and I always looked at that time with fond moments later on.\nSadly, my time in Seattle was not to last forever, and on April 2012, I departed the city (with no little amount of tears) in order to continue my graduate studies at the Pennsylvania State University. Fearing that I’d have no friend over in State College, I did an online search in order to try and find out if there was any football freestyler at Penn State. The search yielded a nice big fat zero. However, when I searched for “PSU footbag”, I was directed to something called the “Penn State footbag club”. I sent out a message asking to join and the guy on the other side replied and told me to come to the HUB on the first day of school. “Cool! I’ll come and see how good these guys are!” I thought to myself.\nOn the first day of school at Penn State, I came to the HUB, and there it was: a circle of people kicking. There was a tall guy and another guy who seemed to be pretty good. I noticed they both were wearing Lavers (Adidas Lavers, the shoes that many footbaggers use), and was kicking around a bag with some other people who didn’t have Lavers. So I joined in and asked them what was going on. I introduced myself as the guy who messaged the “Penn State Footbag club” and they welcomed me into the circle. The guy who I thought earlier was pretty good was actually, well, VERY good. He could do clippers especially well, and he seemed to have a very good ability to get into a clipper position\u2026 hmm, I didn’t know how to describe it\u2026 like he could bend his ankle really really far in to create a great surface to stall the bag in the clipper. Sometime later I would find out that ability was called “cranking”. He had some good crank!\nAfter watching him for a while I asked: “Hey guys can you do Ripstein?” and the tall guy asked the guy with good crank: “Hey Nick, can you do a Ripstein?” Nick replied: “Hmm, let me see\u2026” and did a Ripstein first try. I was so impressed and told them I would meet up with them again and would follow their Facebook closely.\nFor the second session (in the side area of Rec Hall), I was mostly by myself, working on some freestyle football stuff in a separate area from the footbaggers. Nick came over to try some stuff with the ball and he did a perfect clipper first try! I also was introduced to other members of the group: Nathan, who was REALLY tall, Ivan, who was also tall, Greg, who was stocky, and George, who looked very much in shape. I did not interact much with them, unfortunately.\nHowever, things got much better in the 3rd session. We all had a blast in front of the HUB again, and I got introduced to Ryan and Marc for the first time. Nathan, Nick, and Ivan also joined in. Everyone had a great time in that session, and I had the chance to try some footbag tricks, and I think I got my first ATW with a bag (stall it properly too) in that session, in my freestyle football shoes. I began to get hooked, and after Nick told me my game would improve tremendously in Lavers, I decided to go online and bought them for myself.\nAnd that was the moment when I decided to step into freestyle footbag for the first time. Since then, my level has improved, and I had some tremendous fun with the PSU footbag club. Many people came and went: George, April, Derek, Aidan, Kat\u2026 but the core members remained the same: Ryan, Ivan, Nathan, Nick, Greg, and later Ben. I attended PSU Jampionships III, IV, V, and hosted VI (with great help from Greg and Nathan). I became more or less brothers and sisters with everyone, especially Ryan Morris, who I still consider one of my 2 best friends as of this moment. I also got introduced to one of Nick’s student, who might one day be the next world champion: Nathan Bonslaver.\nIn my time at Penn State, I also traveled to local Jams and Championships, including East Coasts (2013 and 2014), New Year’s Jam (2015), and even US Open (2013, 2015, and 2016). I met and befriended so many footbaggers, including (but definitely not limited to): Matt Kemmer, Kevin Hogan, Derek Littlefield, Cass Taylor, Alex Venis, Aaron Orton, Pete Bowler, Anton Briting, Zach Jahner, Johnny Sarah, Mathieu Gauthier, Ianek Regimbald, Ryan Thomas, Cory Allen, Tom KO, Zeb Jackson\u2026 and some absolute legends of the sports like Jim Penske, Evan Gatesman, Nick Landes, Gordon Bevier, Dustin Rhodes, Brian Sherill, Ken Somolinos, John Schneider, Lon Smith, Ethan Husted, Darryl Gentz\u2026 and many more.And in 2017, my journey in footbag reaches its highest point when I came to Worlds, met my long-time idol, Taishi Ishida, and also many more: Bruce Li (the amazing Jianzi player from China), Dave Clavens (FINALLY!), and Olav Piwowar (the man with spider legs who almost did Alpine Nemesis). I also did my first ever Worlds routine in my life, dropped 3 times, but came out happy. I also met the legend of legends, Vaclav Klouda, and it also brought my story full circle: began with Vasek, and now end of phase 1 (still got a lot more kicks in me) with Vasek.\nAs my level increased, I began to notice that footbag could use some things from freestyle football, like for example the concept of sitdowns. I was aware that before me somebody did some sitdowns with the bag, but it never got popularized. As I had some prior knowledge with sitdowns from my experience as a football freestyler, I decided to introduce it again to freestyle footbag, and so far the response has been quite positive. It is my dream to one day see these sitdowns incorporated more into footbag, especially footbag routines.\nThere are some other things that I also noticed, and I have decided to list them all here. I realize some of this stuff can be a bit jargon-full, so I will provide a short TL:DR for you guys here:\nPoint number 1: Neither Freestyle Football and Freestyle Footbag is harder. They are just different from each other.\nPoint number 2: The trick crossover and no touch combos for freestyle football, and the use of the clipper for footbag are the most fundamental technical differences between the 2 sports, besides from the fact that one is played with a bean bag and the other with a size-5 ball.\nPoint number 3: Football freestylers (the majority of them) will never be disrespectful and ask the infamous question: “can you do it with a real ball?” for you footbaggers.\nGot the gist? OK, Let’s go! \nWhat is harder? Freestyle Football or Freestyle Footbag?\nOne of the comments that a lot of my non-freestyle friends tell me when they see me play freestyle football and freestyle footbag at the same time is that: “man, when you do it with a ball and then switch to a bag, it must be so much easier!” Do I think that is true? Somewhat. I used to reason against it, because in my opinion, reducing the size of the object you are doing tricks with does nothing. The reason for this is that everything falls at the same acceleration, namely 9.81 m/s^2, so it doesn’t matter if you use a ball or a bag, they all fall the same. However, it is not actually so. I realized this when I could do Eggbeater with the bag quite easily now (on my strong side at least). However, its freestyle football equivalent, the Alternative Homie Mitchy Around the World (AHMATW) still eludes me, especially when I do the footbag (stall) set. The reason should be quite obvious: the size of the ball is bigger, which means you have to do bigger dexterities (revolutions) in order to complete the trick, which make the trick harder to execute. As the number of dexes increases, the difficulty spike compounds. It should be a “duh!” moment for everyone, but it actually took me a while to come to terms with this.\nWell, so does switching from a ball to a bag make a trick easier? I now believe the answer is a resounding YES! If you have done for example Palle Around The World (PATW) with a ball, then you most likely will be able to do its footbag equivalent, Triple Around The World, with relative ease if you spend some time getting used to stalling the bag after going around it.\nHowever, do I think the peak difficulty of freestyle footbag is less than that of freestyle football? F!@K NO! Why? Let’s look at some statistics of some of the highest level tricks in both sports:\n4-dexterity (revolution) tricks:\n– Freestyle Football: Kevin trick (disputable due to nobody ever hitting it clean), Mikolaj 4-rev trick (equivalence of Phasing Revup in freestyle footbag)\n– Freestyle Footbag: Nemesis, Arch Nemesis, Phasing Revup, Clownface, Backside Clownface, Pixie Quantum Eggbeater, Blurry Flurry, Pixie Chainsaw Massacre, Furious (op) Double Leg Over, Furious (ss) Double Leg Over,\u2026 just to name a few.\n5-dexterity (revolution) tricks:\n– Freestyle Football: absolute big fat zero\n– Freestyle Footbag: Nemesis Swirl, Heart (Pixie Plasma Swirl), with Arch Nemesis Swirl on the way by Jim Penske.\nLooking at this list, it is obvious that by using a bag, the number of maximum dexterities you can do is higher. Do I think then that freestyle footbag is harder? Once again, F!@K NO! And I will concede this point only when Vasek, Honza, or Jindra can do a 4 dex trick like Nemesis with a ball!\nSo, Khoa, WTF is your opinion then? I think both freestyle sports are EQUALLY AS HARD. They are just hard in different ways. For freestyle football, you need the explosive speed way more than freestyle footbag. You can see that everytime a football freestyler like Skora do a 3 revolution move. For freestyle footbag, you need to learn how to conserve every single one of your revolution way more than that of freestyle football. Just look at the way an accomplished footbagger like Matt Kemmer do Around The Worlds (yes, ATWs!) will show you the absolute mastery in conserving energy and revolution space that a master footbagger requires in order to do higher level footbag tricks: the bag looks like it only travels 1 inch below and then above the ankle every single time an ATW is done, never more.\nNeither sport, at its peak, is harder or easier. They are just different.\nHowever, I do think there are aspects of both that the other can utilize. For freestyle football, we can incorporate the clipper not just as a “style move” but more like a regular component of normal lowers! I will elaborate this further in the section “The most significant difference between freestyle footbag and freestyle football”. For freestyle footbag, many more elements of uppers and sitdowns, main disciplines in freestyle football, can be utilized. In fact, I myself have tried to do elements of sitdowns with the bag, and so far I have already accomplished a lot. However, what I did was just scratching the surface of all the possible things one can do with a bag in a sitting position. I sincerely hope that more footbag freestylers will pick up these two elements of freestyle football because they will lead to new possibilities as well as opportunities for further utilization.\nWhat is the most significant difference between freestyle footbag and freestyle football?\nTo me, the answer to this question comes down to two tricks: the freestyle football’s “crossover” and the freestyle footbag’s “clipper”.\nWhat is a “crossover”? Well, here it is: Crossover (Tutorial). As you can see, the crossover is, well, to my best ability to describe, an air Zoid kick. So, why is this significant?\nThe reason why comes down to the issue of utilization. In a traditional footbag trick, there is usually no kick in between. When you reach a kick, the trick ends. Also, kicks in footbag receive zero points (add), you see, so people do not use them often at the end of tricks. If you land a Double Around The World with a stall in the end, the trick is considered a 3-point (3-add) trick, because you have 2 revolutions (2 adds) + a stall (1 add) = 3 adds. However, if you end a Double Around The World with a kick, you will only end up with 2 revolutions (2 adds) + a kick (0 add) = 2 add trick. When you get to the “professional level” in freestyle footbag competitions, nobody wants to utilize tricks that are less than 3 adds (Guiltless) in difficulty, and thus, kicks are usually left behind.\nHowever, in freestyle football, you can use a crossover in order to end tricks. As a matter of fact, football freestylers use this VERY frequently. Combining an Around the World (into out) with a crossover, and you got a trick called Touzani Around the World (TATW, so called because a Dutch guy named Soufiane Touzani invented it). Combining an Orbit (ATW out to in) with a crossover, and you got, likewise, a Mitch Around the World (MATW). So many tricks in freestyle football were created this way, including (but not limited to): Touzani ATW, Mitch ATW, Abbas ATW, Palle Trick (think Pixie Legover ending with a crossover), Skora ATW (think Eggbeater ending with a crossover), Skala Mitch ATW (Pigbeater ending with crossover), Eldo Mitch ATW (Fairy Eggbeater ending with a crossover)… et cetera. (Do a Youtube search and you’ll see what I’m talking about)\nBut wait, it gets better! The fact that after the crossover ending of these tricks, the ball pops up provides an excellent opportunity to continue doing another trick afterwards before the ball ever hit the foot again! These combos are called “no touch”\u00a0combos because of that. So, the fact that in freestyle football you can have a kick in between a trick enables you to continue a seemingly endless combo of crossover-based tricks chained together without a touch in between them. Recently, Tobias Becs, a Norwegian football freestyler, did 32 Alternative Mitch ATWs no touch. This is a virtually unexplored avenue of freestyle footbag (well, except for Honza when he did a no touch combo in his “2013 Ultimate Footbag Combos” video, a video that has recently had its song altered, a sad fact given I have gotten so used to watching it with its original song. They went perfectly well together), and I feel like, with more people’s attention, this can widen the freestyle footbag’s trick selection tremendously!\nEverybody knows what a “clipper” is nowadays. And yes I mean even football freestylers. From the time when Vasek Klouda introduced it to freestyle football back in around 2009 – 2010, the clipper has exploded in popularity in the freestyle football community. Nowadays, football freestylers in Poland (Luki, Mikolaj…), Norway (PWG), and Japan (Ochio, Kazane, Pixy, and especially Ibuki), as well as the footbag world champions Vasek Klouda and Honza Weber are pushing the limits of clipper usage in freestyle football, meanwhile introducing many footbag tricks, including Reverse Swirl, Swirl, Whirl, Ripstein, Dimwalk, Ripwalk, Double Spinning Clipper, Whirr, Bedwetter, Blurriest, Mullet, and even Phasing Revup (the first 4-rev freestyle football move). However, the use of clipper is still very much limited, with the users usually utilize it as a stylistic move rather than something to be used all the time in combos. Except for Vasek and Honza, everybody else would only do clippers in blocking combos (combos when the ball is between 2 legs, and then manipulated around), or they’d use a combo of tricks that only contain clipper moves, usually only on one side (Yes I am looking at you Ibuki, haha! ;)).\nIn freestyle football, the discipline that most resembles footbag is the style of”Lowers”. However, in lower combos, the ball will start from the toe surface of a foot, and end on the toe surface of that same foot, or the other foot. In freestyle footbag, combos usually have tricks involving the bag moving from either a toe surface or a clipper and end on same toe, same clipper, opposite toe, or opposite clipper.\nThis may be a bit confusing, so please let me clarify my point. We’ll use a trick, let’s say, HTATW (Pixie Legover) to demonstrate this. You have 2 revolutions: the first is done inside to outside, and the second is done outside to inside. The trick will begin from one toe surface, and end on the other toe surface. That is usually how most tricks will be in freestyle football. These tricks will then be chained into combos. So most freestyle football’s lower combos are tricks involving revolutions done to the ball, then end on a toe surface.\nNow, imagine this: what if instead of beginning the HTATW (Pixie Legover) from a toe surface, we begin it on a clipper surface? So the trick will be: clipper surface -> inside to outside revolution -> outside to inside revolution -> toe surface. That will be a Stepping far Legover.\nNow how about beginning the trick from toe and end on a clipper (toe surface -> inside to outside revolution -> outside to inside revolution -> clipper surface)? The result will be a Pixie Butterfly (Dimwalk).\nNow let’s say the trick begins and end on both clippers (clipper surface -> inside to outside revolution -> outside to inside revolution -> clipper surface), the result will be a Ripwalk.\nSo you see, the way freestyle footbaggers use the clipper can add so much variety to one trick. In freestyle football there is only HTATW, in freestyle footbag there are Pixie Legover, Stepping far Legover, Dimwalk, and Ripwalk. 4 tricks in response to one! If anyone ever wonders why there are so many tricks in freestyle footbag, even though they are lacking the components of uppers AND sitdowns, you now know why!\nYes, I do know that at the level football freestylers are at currently in clipper moves, we can’t do that just yet. But really, just imagine the possibilities! Clippers can be used for much more than just stylistic moves! One day, I hope I will be able to see it in every lower combo. The introduction of this use of clipper into freestyle football, in my humble opinion, will definitely change the way people approach lowers forever.\n“Can you do it with a real ball?”\nI’m just going to take the perspective of a football freestyler (that I am ;)) for this matter.\nEvery footbagger has heard of this question, and every footbagger hate the sh!t out of it.\nThat I have no problem with. I hate this question so much as well. However, what I do notice is that some footbaggers even developed a dislike for freestyle footballers because of this question. I will not antagonize you guys over that. I can see why you might think that way.\nHowever, I am here to tell you guys that no, we football freestylers don’t take pleasure in actually be able to “do it with the real ball”, and no, if we ever see you guys on the street performing, that question will be the ABSOLUTE LAST thing we will ever ask you. In fact, you will NEVER see any decent freestyle footballers use this question. The ones that do are JERKS, and they usually are hated within the freestyle football community as well.\nFirst, of, we know and respect your dedication. We too know what it feels like to be obsessed with kicking an object around trying to do weird tricks with it. Other people may think it’s a silly thing to do, but we should be the last to think so. We get you guys. We really do! We are like that as well.\nAlso, football freestylers LOVE footbag and they want to know more about it! I remember attending the US Freestyle Football Championship in 2013, and when I told everyone the names of footbag tricks, like Nemesis and Montage\u2026 they thought the names in footbag sounds so cool. That brought a smile to my face. I do believe many football freestylers do have the same attitude towards footbag. This year at Superball, a Japanese football freestyler named Yosshi finished his final routine by doing clipper to clipper\u2026 with a bag! That was unprecedented and I do believe he loved the footbag as well as he loved his football!\nSecondly, we have our own version of that question too! That version is: “Can you do it on a field?”\nEvery football freestyler have heard of it. Every football freestyler hate the sh!t out of it.\nIn fact, there is just no end to it! When you can do it on a field, dumbasses will ask you: “Are you as good as Ronaldo or Messi? (2 best soccer players in the world)”, and when you ARE Ronaldo or Messi, they will find another way to bring you down. Those 2 are actually the ones with the most haters in the world.\nThat’s just how the world works sometimes. Stupid, I know! The truth is, there are jealous people out there, who are just hating you simply because of the fact that THEY can’t do it THEMSELVES! In fact, they usually can’t do anything themselves. If not, they would have understood that it takes blood, sweat, and tears to develop the kind of skills that our sports require. Even though I hate these people’s guts, I too must say that sometimes I do pity them. These are the people whose lives are so boring they have to take it out on another, more interesting guy out there (us!). So we should not be discouraged because of that. We should be proud! We actually are so cool we have haters!\nSo, everybody, I would like to end this piece of writing with a small note: our communities are very much alike, and we can learn so much from each other. I made a two-part video once about both sports (*), and I still believe in the message at the end of the 2nd video: “The way forward is together!” So let us go together. To the future!\n(*) Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ck9bTe9RbKo\nPart 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmBHIP9S-7g\nThis year, after the video competition at Worlds 2017, one of these videos were featured after the videos of the competitors. When Justin Dale came to me and told me this news, he said that he thought the videos were very well researched, which brought an amazing warm feeling to my core. They were meant to be well-researched because I want every football freestyler to see the beauty of footbag, and vice-versa.\nWritten by Khoa Nguyen", "date_published": "2017-11-07T14:03:04+00:00", "date_modified": "2017-11-07T14:05:01+00:00", "author": { "name": "asmus", "url": "https://modified.in/bsos/author/asmus/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/04c37ae2f760408975cf17dc683e43c4?s=512&d=mm&r=g" }, "image": "https://modified.in/bsos/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2017/11/23423529_160478254688553_717305721_o.png" }, { "id": "https://modified.in/bsos/2016/11/15/get-involved/", "url": "https://modified.in/bsos/2016/11/15/get-involved/", "title": "Get involved", "content_html": "

Hey footbaggers

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For our sport to survive and evolve we constantly need people to take off their shred gear and put on their workwear and do something for footbag.

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Here are some ways to get involved:

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IFPA

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Greetings IFPA Members,

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As you know, IFPA is a non-profit volunteer organization.

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Global footbag scene is run by this group of people with passion.

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The organization is ultimately led by the Board of Directors, elected by the players (or in some cases, appointed by the executive director).

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It is time again for the election for positions on the IFPA Board of Directors.

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The Board of Directors is elected by all footbag players worldwide.

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Actual Board of Directors list:

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Wiktor D\u0119bski Executive Director

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Julie Symons Secretary

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Tim Vozar Treasurer

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Grischa Tellenbachbach Sanctioning Director

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Caroline Birch Membership Director

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Alex Dworetzkytzky Rules Director

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Daniel Boyle Education Director

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Nick Polini Marketing Director

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See working group for more details: http://www.footbag.org/groups/list/1

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There are 3 positions on the Board that need to be filled.

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  1. Executive Director, (3 years of Term, 2017-2019) The mission of this position is to run the IFPA as a whole association, Ensure that all IFPA activities support our purpose.
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It’a a wide range task, that includes co-working with every World Footbag Championships, Run elections, Approve expenses, etc.

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  1. Rules Director (3 year Term, 2017-2019) Such person works as a chairman of International Footbag Committee (IFC) to keep the Official Rules of Footbag Sports up to date.
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Consults potential rules changes with the players’s community and incorporate new rules into the Rule Book.

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See more here: http://www.footbag.org/rules/

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  1. Membership Director (3 year Term, 2017-2019)
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The duties are to look after the footbag.org members database.

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Update the status of members if needed.

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Ask new players to register to footbag.org account., etc.

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Nominations are welcome until November 19, 2016, for any of these positions.

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After the nomination period there will be an online election.

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The election will be set online in late November.

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Please send your nominations to directors@ifpa.footbag.org or the me

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personally.

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Thanks for your support,

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Wiktor Debski

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IFPA Executive Director

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wiktordebski@footbag.org

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About IFPA: IFPA is a charitable (US 501c3) non-profit corporation dedicated

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to the sport of footbag world-wide.

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IFPA provides you with the www.footbag.org website, the annual World Footbag

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Championships, the Rules of Footbag, and more.

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Are you not ready to take a director position? The current and coming directors can always use a hand – feel free to contact them and offer your help.

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Not interested in IFPA? You can also get involved the following ways:

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EFC

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The EFC is the IFPA body responsible for the oversight of the development of footbag sports in Europe. One of its main responsibilities is the organisation of the European Footbag Championships as it moves from country to country each summer.

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http://www.footbag.org/groups/home/5

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LOCAL

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Contact your local club and get involved there. Footbag.org har a list of local clubs here:
\nhttp://www.footbag.org/clubs/index

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Other ways to get involved:

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– Host a footbag tournament or jam

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– Help Nick Polini with his instagram account.

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– Write something for bsos.it

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– Make a footbag video

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– Help Grischa with updating IFPA Players’ Rankings.

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– Teach and spread the word

\n", "content_text": "Hey footbaggers\nFor our sport to survive and evolve we constantly need people to take off their shred gear and put on their workwear and do something for footbag.\nHere are some ways to get involved:\nIFPA\nGreetings IFPA Members,\nAs you know, IFPA is a non-profit volunteer organization.\nGlobal footbag scene is run by this group of people with passion. \nThe organization is ultimately led by the Board of Directors, elected by the players (or in some cases, appointed by the executive director).\nIt is time again for the election for positions on the IFPA Board of Directors.\nThe Board of Directors is elected by all footbag players worldwide.\nActual Board of Directors list:\nWiktor D\u0119bski Executive Director\nJulie Symons Secretary\nTim Vozar Treasurer\nGrischa Tellenbachbach Sanctioning Director \nCaroline Birch Membership Director \nAlex Dworetzkytzky Rules Director \nDaniel Boyle Education Director \nNick Polini Marketing Director\nSee working group for more details: http://www.footbag.org/groups/list/1\nThere are 3 positions on the Board that need to be filled.\n\n Executive Director, (3 years of Term, 2017-2019) The mission of this position is to run the IFPA as a whole association, Ensure that all IFPA activities support our purpose.\n\nIt’a a wide range task, that includes co-working with every World Footbag Championships, Run elections, Approve expenses, etc.\n\n Rules Director (3 year Term, 2017-2019) Such person works as a chairman of International Footbag Committee (IFC) to keep the Official Rules of Footbag Sports up to date. \n\nConsults potential rules changes with the players’s community and incorporate new rules into the Rule Book. \nSee more here: http://www.footbag.org/rules/\n\n Membership Director (3 year Term, 2017-2019)\n\nThe duties are to look after the footbag.org members database. \nUpdate the status of members if needed. \nAsk new players to register to footbag.org account., etc.\nNominations are welcome until November 19, 2016, for any of these positions.\nAfter the nomination period there will be an online election.\nThe election will be set online in late November.\nPlease send your nominations to directors@ifpa.footbag.org or the me\npersonally.\nThanks for your support,\nWiktor Debski\nIFPA Executive Director\nwiktordebski@footbag.org\nAbout IFPA: IFPA is a charitable (US 501c3) non-profit corporation dedicated\nto the sport of footbag world-wide.\nIFPA provides you with the www.footbag.org website, the annual World Footbag\nChampionships, the Rules of Footbag, and more.\nAre you not ready to take a director position? The current and coming directors can always use a hand – feel free to contact them and offer your help.\nNot interested in IFPA? You can also get involved the following ways:\nEFC\nThe EFC is the IFPA body responsible for the oversight of the development of footbag sports in Europe. One of its main responsibilities is the organisation of the European Footbag Championships as it moves from country to country each summer.\nhttp://www.footbag.org/groups/home/5\nLOCAL\nContact your local club and get involved there. Footbag.org har a list of local clubs here:\nhttp://www.footbag.org/clubs/index\nOther ways to get involved:\n– Host a footbag tournament or jam\n– Help Nick Polini with his instagram account.\n– Write something for bsos.it\n– Make a footbag video\n– Help Grischa with updating IFPA Players’ Rankings. \n– Teach and spread the word", "date_published": "2016-11-15T08:25:25+00:00", "date_modified": "2016-11-15T08:25:25+00:00", "author": { "name": "asmus", "url": "https://modified.in/bsos/author/asmus/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/04c37ae2f760408975cf17dc683e43c4?s=512&d=mm&r=g" }, "image": "https://modified.in/bsos/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2016/11/14022126_1161547980574415_8859823829620247801_n.jpg", "tags": [ "Inspiration", "Knowledge" ] }, { "id": "https://modified.in/bsos/2016/09/22/conclusion-your-start-with-footbag/", "url": "https://modified.in/bsos/2016/09/22/conclusion-your-start-with-footbag/", "title": "Conclusion: Your start with footbag", "content_html": "

I did a survey and asked players who started after 01/01/2010 and a bunch of questions regarding their first experience with footbag. Here are my conclusions to their answers..

\n

If we want to attract new players, we need to know why new players start playing now; not why those of us that started 10+ years ago did so. Because of this, I did a small survey and asked you – the new footbaggers how you started playing.

\n

In business there is something called \u201cCustomer Acquisition Cost\u201d. It is the cost associated in convincing a customer to buy a product/service. In footbag I think we have a very high \u201cNew Player Acquisition Cost\u201d. Not in money, since we don\u2019t have any, but in time. I hope the results presented here, can help current players spend their time better when trying to acquire new players.

\n

Presented here are the results of the survey and my conclusion to the results:

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
AgeFirst saw footbagStarted playing footbag
Less than 1016,10%0%
10 to 1422,60%9,70%
15 to 1841,90%35,50%
19 to 229,70%29%
23 to 273,20%9,70%
28 to 326,50%9,70%
33 to 400%6,50%
\n

As we can see people are most like to start between 15 and 22. Trying to convince kids under 10 years of age, does not make any sense.

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
InfluenceFirst saw footbag %Started playing footbag %
YouTube18,7523,53
Footbag.org6,250
Other online3,1250
Friends or family31,2526,47
Other IRL (Festivals, schoolyard etc.)31,2526,47
Met footbagger9,37523,53
\n

Very few started playing the first time they saw footbag and if they did it was because it was friends who were playing. A lot of people saw footbag first online, but first started playing when they met somebody who did. Generally speaking seeing footbag multiple times in different places online and in real life makes the chance that people start bigger.

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Started playing
Net10,30%
Freestyle100%
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Now play
Net23,30%
Freestyle86,70%
\n

What we can see from these numbers are problably three things. 1. Net players should try to get new players through freestyle or 2. Freestyle is much better at acquiring new players. 3. It is easier to make the jump from kicking to freestyle than to net.

\n

My final question in the survey was \u201cDo you have any suggestions on how we can attract new footbaggers?\u201d. Here are all the answers I got to that question:

\n\n", "content_text": "I did a survey and asked players who started after 01/01/2010 and a bunch of questions regarding their first experience with footbag. Here are my conclusions to their answers..\nIf we want to attract new players, we need to know why new players start playing now; not why those of us that started 10+ years ago did so. Because of this, I did a small survey and asked you – the new footbaggers how you started playing.\nIn business there is something called \u201cCustomer Acquisition Cost\u201d. It is the cost associated in convincing a customer to buy a product/service. In footbag I think we have a very high \u201cNew Player Acquisition Cost\u201d. Not in money, since we don\u2019t have any, but in time. I hope the results presented here, can help current players spend their time better when trying to acquire new players.\nPresented here are the results of the survey and my conclusion to the results:\n\n\n\nAge\nFirst saw footbag\nStarted playing footbag\n\n\nLess than 10\n16,10%\n0%\n\n\n10 to 14\n22,60%\n9,70%\n\n\n15 to 18\n41,90%\n35,50%\n\n\n19 to 22\n9,70%\n29%\n\n\n23 to 27\n3,20%\n9,70%\n\n\n28 to 32\n6,50%\n9,70%\n\n\n33 to 40\n0%\n6,50%\n\n\n\nAs we can see people are most like to start between 15 and 22. Trying to convince kids under 10 years of age, does not make any sense.\n\n\n\nInfluence\nFirst saw footbag %\nStarted playing footbag %\n\n\nYouTube\n18,75\n23,53\n\n\nFootbag.org\n6,25\n0\n\n\nOther online\n3,125\n0\n\n\nFriends or family\n31,25\n26,47\n\n\nOther IRL (Festivals, schoolyard etc.)\n31,25\n26,47\n\n\nMet footbagger\n9,375\n23,53\n\n\n\nVery few started playing the first time they saw footbag and if they did it was because it was friends who were playing. A lot of people saw footbag first online, but first started playing when they met somebody who did. Generally speaking seeing footbag multiple times in different places online and in real life makes the chance that people start bigger.\n\n\n\nStarted playing\n\n\nNet\n10,30%\n\n\nFreestyle\n100%\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNow play\n\n\nNet\n23,30%\n\n\nFreestyle\n86,70%\n\n\n\nWhat we can see from these numbers are problably three things. 1. Net players should try to get new players through freestyle or 2. Freestyle is much better at acquiring new players. 3. It is easier to make the jump from kicking to freestyle than to net.\nMy final question in the survey was \u201cDo you have any suggestions on how we can attract new footbaggers?\u201d. Here are all the answers I got to that question:\n\nWhat was a good motivation for me was a rivalization with my 3 friends. Nobody likes to play alone, especially in the beginning.\nPost-session social events build friendships among players.\nTry and get the players that are extremely good to stop quitting the sport. Seems so much talent just sits on the sidelines or stops coming to events. Very frustrating to see at age 43 when I would give anything to have my youth back.\nMore emphasis/promotion on the tricks/sets\nSocial Media\nMarket to soccer players and martial artists. I find both groups pick up footbag quicker and easier than the general population.\nReally epic hype videos\nThere should be bigger footbags used in a video parts and competition. More than we see now. I think that very small footbag looks weird and not make interested the audience. It’s also hard or even impossible to see what happens, if you play small bag. Size of 5-6cm or something is valid…\nmore high production quality videos, more public kicking. First video I saw of freestyle was Klouda’s “King of Footbag” and I was hooked from there.\nLook for potential freestylers in the freestyle football pool. Some people can really underestimate the potential of that front.\nI’d pretty much just say carry a bag around with you wherever you go and whenever you have any downtime, start shredding!\nmore events!\nTV Spots \nPlay outside in public areas, be open to newbs who want to try, don’t get discouraged when people don’t stick, do awesome fun non footbag things with footbaggers to help them stick to the sport.\nmy girlfriend says “weed for everyone” but im not sure if that works i think we need more presence on media / internet. most young people are taking their information/news from there, so we can reach out for many of them there. youtube for example. maybe ask some big youtubers to come along and try footbag one time. they tend to have a big audience, so some of them could get interested.\nWell defined and established achievements. I will never get BAP, and have no desire to reach that level, but I do see so many intermediate players give up because they see that one goal that seems so far away, or would require years to approach. What if there was something, even just one thing, that was within reach? A simple designation that might act as the real initiation into the footbag community. A right of passage, and something to celebrate about and honor other with. It would increase member retention, by including and recognizing the lower level players. And it’s another excuse to party \nthe footbag is a very attractive sport, my proposal is that ach player from their place of residence teach the little ones , that I ‘m doing and I have several students footbag\nyes. show it to people (trainings on public places (change places to attract a new crowd, use social media (also the newer ones like instagram), do workshops, do shows, mingle with other jugglers/freestylers to do events together. Just play and have fun and let other people see that\nSponsors, celebrities, nick polini, playing in public\nHost public events in more populated locations. Maybe come up with news letters or brains storm cheap advertisement.\nnot really – maybe more freestyle for Kids\nFlyers stickers shirts and start a YouTube channel and promote to blogs and social networks\nNot sure, I have been giving away bags to kids that show any interest. Made videos more available on social media, made tutorials for easy moves more available.\ni am a sportteacher i think that we have to go to school and give them a paper with training- times and some informations…we could invite them for the first training….in all footbag-clubs the have to have some kickvolley- nets, for the new kickers….because when they start on a regular field- that is to hard and they will loose the interest and the self -motivation….", "date_published": "2016-09-22T11:49:02+00:00", "date_modified": "2016-09-22T11:49:02+00:00", "author": { "name": "asmus", "url": "https://modified.in/bsos/author/asmus/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/04c37ae2f760408975cf17dc683e43c4?s=512&d=mm&r=g" }, "image": "https://modified.in/bsos/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2016/09/preview_COLOURBOX18337625.jpg", "tags": [ "Knowledge" ] }, { "id": "https://modified.in/bsos/2016/08/28/to-be-a-footbagger/", "url": "https://modified.in/bsos/2016/08/28/to-be-a-footbagger/", "title": "To Be A Footbagger", "content_html": "

More recently, I\u2019ve started to question what it truly means to be a footbagger. What sort of criteria dictates the definition of a footbagger? What motivates us to progress and excel in such a sport? When does one really become a footbagger in earnest? These inquiries came about as I progressed a bit further into the world of footbag, myself being somewhere in the intermediate level after two years of playing. I do not represent myself to be any sort of expert on the philosophy of sports or footbag in specific\u2014what follows is simply my efforts to piece together a coherent response to the aforementioned questions that have been kicking around (no pun intended) in my brain lately.

\n

In order to be able to comment on when someone becomes a footbagger (physically and mentally), it is likely logical to first start with a definition of what constitutes a footbagger. A simple enough task if we stick to the quite literal interpretation of a footbagger as merely someone who engages in the sport of footbag. However, let\u2019s attempt to convolute this definition in the interest of creating an overarching argument to our story. A footbagger: someone who plays footbag, yes\u2014but at what skill level? How frequently does one need to play? Does the equipment or situation (i.e. solo or with another footbagger) they play in matter?

\n

Regarding the topic of skill level, my own personal experience has been the basis of writing this piece. As I have progressed further, learning and developing beginner tricks into strings of increasing length, I\u2019ve felt a shift in my brain in regards to being a footbagger. Now that I am a pretty comfortable tiltless player, my identification has started to shift from simply being someone who plays footbag to being a \u201ctrue\u201d footbagger. However, this is only my personal experience of transitioning, and should not be included in our definition of the true footbagger. In my opinion, skill set or expertise in footbag should not be a determinant of whether or not someone should be a considered a footbagger\u2014that would be, frankly speaking, elitism to the point of arrogance.

\n

Concerning the frequency of play to be considering a fully-fledged footbagger, this is one area where my opinion may not be elitist, but perhaps more exclusive than called for in our search for what defines a footbagger. It is my own opinion that in order to be labeled a \u201ctrue\u201d footbagger, some level of consistency must be maintained in regards to the intervals of play time that one commits to the sport. In the interest of providing an actual quantifiable amount to said consistency, I\u2019d propose that at least one or two sessions (length may vary) of footbag a week would suffice. You could miss a week or two here and there, but in relation to a base line amount of play, this is what I would consider sufficient.

\n

However, it is understood that this statement would not be inclusive enough to fit into our overall definition of a footbagger. Certain circumstances may prevent someone from playing with this level of frequency, or they may have other hobbies that take up most of their time. Along a similar thread of logic, I would consider, for example, someone who spends 90% of their free time drawing or painting and only 10% on footbag, to be an artist who happens to play footbag, not a footbagger who happens to practice the arts, if you follow me. What about someone who used to play footbag at some level of frequency but now only plays once or twice a year? For our interests, we can probably say for frequency of play: a footbagger is someone who does or has played, with some level of frequency as befits their schedule, the sport of footbag. A highly refined outline I\u2019m afraid these guidelines are not.
\nIn the area of equipment and situations of play, this aspect will enjoy some brevity of explanation as my own opinions, and what I will establish as an inclusive definition of footbagger in this area, are one and the same. Whether you play in the most pristine Lavers ever found on this graceful Earth, or shred in the most beaten up running shoes. Whether you are student or mentor, playing in rain or shine, day or night, I would consider that person a footbagger as long as they meet the above set standards for playing footbag. For our definition however, it will simply suffice to say that the conditions and equipment that you play in does not matter in regards to being defined as a footbagger.
\nWith all three of these aspects now covered, we can summarize all of the above to be simply read as what follows: a footbagger is someone who does or has in the past engaged in the sport of footbag with some amount of frequency at essentially any skill set level. What a highly concise and narrowed down definition, right? But let\u2019s try to add some more substance to our admittedly somewhat expansive description by discussing our second theme to this piece\u2014the motivations for playing footbag.
\nFor motivational factors related to why someone would play footbag, we need not necessarily look at the footbag world / footbag culture in specific; perhaps only determine why someone would play any sport in general. Certainly, what is arguably fundamental to any sporting event is the thrill or fun associated with either playing or watching it. To exceed and expand your own abilities and technical skills in said sport, most definitely another aspect of possible motivating factors. Also, on some instinctual level, the need for human interaction in regards to social events or gathering may also be presumed. I\u2019m no sociologist, certainly not any level of biological expert or practitioner. However, it is easily apparent to see the level of bonding or friendship that occurs when two people / a group of athletes play the same sport together.

\n

Thus far however, we have not really discerned any motivating factors that would lead one to play footbag in particular. In this area, I can think of several reasons that are readily apparent to anyone who has played footbag for more than a couple months / been to a footbag event, jam, or tournament. The community or culture in general, having a friend or crew to shred with, or even getting props or recognition on your game, a particular good run, or personally difficult trick. Last, but certainly not least, is the drive to constantly improve and develop your trick selections, variety, and skillset.

\n

Footbag culture or events are perhaps known for being highly welcoming and friendly, in my own experience and likely others as well\u2014more-so than any \u201cregular\u201d or mainstream sports. This statement has several different aspects to it which I would like to discuss, but for now let\u2019s focus on footbag events or tournaments themselves. Jams are informal to the point of being intimate\u2014what I mean by this is that virtually nowhere else in mainstream sports (that I have seen) will you likely find a group of players get together from all over the country (U.S. in this context) simply to play a sport together for the weekend, all the while crashing at some player\u2019s house for an extended amount of time. The closest analogy I can think of would be something akin to basketball or football (North American or European) camps, although the validity of such an analogy I cannot comment on from lack of experience in this regard.

\n

Overall, however, past the point of being informal, what strikes me as being somewhat unique about footbag is the very personal nature of events or tournaments. This is meant both in the form of footbaggers in general being known to be a pretty friendly or at least chill crowd, as well as the unusually high level of interaction between the very top and very bottom of footbag compared to other sports. Footbag events offer an opportunity for the inexperienced to look at and interact with the giants of the sport at a very human and individual level when contrasted with mainstream sports. However, bringing the conversation back from my slight digression, what I find to be motivating about all of the above discussed elements is 1) the friendliness, selflessness, and openness of the community, and 2) the opportunity to interact with both the top and bottom levels of the sport in an equal manner\u2014along with the realization that, given enough time and effort, you can push yourself to be at or near the top of the sport.
\nAs to having a friend or crew to play with, this is probably a core motivating factor to some footbaggers in the form of having others to gain insight or expertise from, or even just to shred with on a regular basis. Excelling and refining footbag skills by yourself is one thing, but quite another to have a whole group of footbaggers consistently playing and improving as a whole. One need only look at some of the crews around the U.S., let alone the rest of the world, to see the motivation and progression that comes from being in a group: Michigan, Boston, and PA, to name a few.

\n

The third point of getting props or recognition for your progression in footbag has, coincidentally, already been discussed somewhat in depth on the recent \u201cBAP\u201d thread in the Freestyle Footbaggers group on Facebook. However, leaving aside the arguments poised in that thread, getting recognition for your hard work and progression in a skill, hobby, what have you can be a highly motivating factor in continuing to succeed for some people. However, in order to advance, I think it highly more efficient and practical to cultivate a love for footbag itself rather than simply thrive on the recognition and props from others in order to progress. But this is simply my own opinion rather than being reflective of what could be a motivating factor for someone to play footbag in general.

\n

My last point\u2014or the drive to constantly improve and develop the self in relation to footbag progression\u2014I believe is the single most motivating factor that leads someone to continue to play footbag. The sensation that accompanies hitting a new trick, link, or combo are, in the words of Nick Polini: \u201c\u2026that feeling right there, chills all throughout my spine, perfect day man, perfect day.\u201d To anyone who has ever played footbag, I\u2019m sure this comment needs no further explanation.

\n

This element of footbag leads me into my third and final question (which may be somewhat easier to answer accurately now) that is: when does someone become a footbagger? In sum, there is no requirement on the level of shred you put out, nor any major requirement concerning the number of hours you put into the sports, nor even the necessity of having Lavers and a standard metal-filled 32 panel. At the end of the day, all that matters is an obsessive craving for that \u201cchills down your spine\u201d feeling that comes with consistently advancing and improving that one trick, drill, or concept. In short, being constantly addicted to progression in its purest form of footbag advancement\u2014the need to become better.

\n

Words and Photo\u00a0by Daniel Carey

\n", "content_text": "More recently, I\u2019ve started to question what it truly means to be a footbagger. What sort of criteria dictates the definition of a footbagger? What motivates us to progress and excel in such a sport? When does one really become a footbagger in earnest? These inquiries came about as I progressed a bit further into the world of footbag, myself being somewhere in the intermediate level after two years of playing. I do not represent myself to be any sort of expert on the philosophy of sports or footbag in specific\u2014what follows is simply my efforts to piece together a coherent response to the aforementioned questions that have been kicking around (no pun intended) in my brain lately.\nIn order to be able to comment on when someone becomes a footbagger (physically and mentally), it is likely logical to first start with a definition of what constitutes a footbagger. A simple enough task if we stick to the quite literal interpretation of a footbagger as merely someone who engages in the sport of footbag. However, let\u2019s attempt to convolute this definition in the interest of creating an overarching argument to our story. A footbagger: someone who plays footbag, yes\u2014but at what skill level? How frequently does one need to play? Does the equipment or situation (i.e. solo or with another footbagger) they play in matter?\nRegarding the topic of skill level, my own personal experience has been the basis of writing this piece. As I have progressed further, learning and developing beginner tricks into strings of increasing length, I\u2019ve felt a shift in my brain in regards to being a footbagger. Now that I am a pretty comfortable tiltless player, my identification has started to shift from simply being someone who plays footbag to being a \u201ctrue\u201d footbagger. However, this is only my personal experience of transitioning, and should not be included in our definition of the true footbagger. In my opinion, skill set or expertise in footbag should not be a determinant of whether or not someone should be a considered a footbagger\u2014that would be, frankly speaking, elitism to the point of arrogance.\nConcerning the frequency of play to be considering a fully-fledged footbagger, this is one area where my opinion may not be elitist, but perhaps more exclusive than called for in our search for what defines a footbagger. It is my own opinion that in order to be labeled a \u201ctrue\u201d footbagger, some level of consistency must be maintained in regards to the intervals of play time that one commits to the sport. In the interest of providing an actual quantifiable amount to said consistency, I\u2019d propose that at least one or two sessions (length may vary) of footbag a week would suffice. You could miss a week or two here and there, but in relation to a base line amount of play, this is what I would consider sufficient.\nHowever, it is understood that this statement would not be inclusive enough to fit into our overall definition of a footbagger. Certain circumstances may prevent someone from playing with this level of frequency, or they may have other hobbies that take up most of their time. Along a similar thread of logic, I would consider, for example, someone who spends 90% of their free time drawing or painting and only 10% on footbag, to be an artist who happens to play footbag, not a footbagger who happens to practice the arts, if you follow me. What about someone who used to play footbag at some level of frequency but now only plays once or twice a year? For our interests, we can probably say for frequency of play: a footbagger is someone who does or has played, with some level of frequency as befits their schedule, the sport of footbag. A highly refined outline I\u2019m afraid these guidelines are not.\nIn the area of equipment and situations of play, this aspect will enjoy some brevity of explanation as my own opinions, and what I will establish as an inclusive definition of footbagger in this area, are one and the same. Whether you play in the most pristine Lavers ever found on this graceful Earth, or shred in the most beaten up running shoes. Whether you are student or mentor, playing in rain or shine, day or night, I would consider that person a footbagger as long as they meet the above set standards for playing footbag. For our definition however, it will simply suffice to say that the conditions and equipment that you play in does not matter in regards to being defined as a footbagger.\nWith all three of these aspects now covered, we can summarize all of the above to be simply read as what follows: a footbagger is someone who does or has in the past engaged in the sport of footbag with some amount of frequency at essentially any skill set level. What a highly concise and narrowed down definition, right? But let\u2019s try to add some more substance to our admittedly somewhat expansive description by discussing our second theme to this piece\u2014the motivations for playing footbag.\nFor motivational factors related to why someone would play footbag, we need not necessarily look at the footbag world / footbag culture in specific; perhaps only determine why someone would play any sport in general. Certainly, what is arguably fundamental to any sporting event is the thrill or fun associated with either playing or watching it. To exceed and expand your own abilities and technical skills in said sport, most definitely another aspect of possible motivating factors. Also, on some instinctual level, the need for human interaction in regards to social events or gathering may also be presumed. I\u2019m no sociologist, certainly not any level of biological expert or practitioner. However, it is easily apparent to see the level of bonding or friendship that occurs when two people / a group of athletes play the same sport together.\nThus far however, we have not really discerned any motivating factors that would lead one to play footbag in particular. In this area, I can think of several reasons that are readily apparent to anyone who has played footbag for more than a couple months / been to a footbag event, jam, or tournament. The community or culture in general, having a friend or crew to shred with, or even getting props or recognition on your game, a particular good run, or personally difficult trick. Last, but certainly not least, is the drive to constantly improve and develop your trick selections, variety, and skillset.\nFootbag culture or events are perhaps known for being highly welcoming and friendly, in my own experience and likely others as well\u2014more-so than any \u201cregular\u201d or mainstream sports. This statement has several different aspects to it which I would like to discuss, but for now let\u2019s focus on footbag events or tournaments themselves. Jams are informal to the point of being intimate\u2014what I mean by this is that virtually nowhere else in mainstream sports (that I have seen) will you likely find a group of players get together from all over the country (U.S. in this context) simply to play a sport together for the weekend, all the while crashing at some player\u2019s house for an extended amount of time. The closest analogy I can think of would be something akin to basketball or football (North American or European) camps, although the validity of such an analogy I cannot comment on from lack of experience in this regard.\nOverall, however, past the point of being informal, what strikes me as being somewhat unique about footbag is the very personal nature of events or tournaments. This is meant both in the form of footbaggers in general being known to be a pretty friendly or at least chill crowd, as well as the unusually high level of interaction between the very top and very bottom of footbag compared to other sports. Footbag events offer an opportunity for the inexperienced to look at and interact with the giants of the sport at a very human and individual level when contrasted with mainstream sports. However, bringing the conversation back from my slight digression, what I find to be motivating about all of the above discussed elements is 1) the friendliness, selflessness, and openness of the community, and 2) the opportunity to interact with both the top and bottom levels of the sport in an equal manner\u2014along with the realization that, given enough time and effort, you can push yourself to be at or near the top of the sport.\nAs to having a friend or crew to play with, this is probably a core motivating factor to some footbaggers in the form of having others to gain insight or expertise from, or even just to shred with on a regular basis. Excelling and refining footbag skills by yourself is one thing, but quite another to have a whole group of footbaggers consistently playing and improving as a whole. One need only look at some of the crews around the U.S., let alone the rest of the world, to see the motivation and progression that comes from being in a group: Michigan, Boston, and PA, to name a few.\nThe third point of getting props or recognition for your progression in footbag has, coincidentally, already been discussed somewhat in depth on the recent \u201cBAP\u201d thread in the Freestyle Footbaggers group on Facebook. However, leaving aside the arguments poised in that thread, getting recognition for your hard work and progression in a skill, hobby, what have you can be a highly motivating factor in continuing to succeed for some people. However, in order to advance, I think it highly more efficient and practical to cultivate a love for footbag itself rather than simply thrive on the recognition and props from others in order to progress. But this is simply my own opinion rather than being reflective of what could be a motivating factor for someone to play footbag in general.\nMy last point\u2014or the drive to constantly improve and develop the self in relation to footbag progression\u2014I believe is the single most motivating factor that leads someone to continue to play footbag. The sensation that accompanies hitting a new trick, link, or combo are, in the words of Nick Polini: \u201c\u2026that feeling right there, chills all throughout my spine, perfect day man, perfect day.\u201d To anyone who has ever played footbag, I\u2019m sure this comment needs no further explanation.\nThis element of footbag leads me into my third and final question (which may be somewhat easier to answer accurately now) that is: when does someone become a footbagger? In sum, there is no requirement on the level of shred you put out, nor any major requirement concerning the number of hours you put into the sports, nor even the necessity of having Lavers and a standard metal-filled 32 panel. At the end of the day, all that matters is an obsessive craving for that \u201cchills down your spine\u201d feeling that comes with consistently advancing and improving that one trick, drill, or concept. In short, being constantly addicted to progression in its purest form of footbag advancement\u2014the need to become better.\nWords and Photo\u00a0by Daniel Carey", "date_published": "2016-08-28T18:23:33+00:00", "date_modified": "2016-08-28T18:23:33+00:00", "author": { "name": "asmus", "url": "https://modified.in/bsos/author/asmus/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/04c37ae2f760408975cf17dc683e43c4?s=512&d=mm&r=g" }, "image": "https://modified.in/bsos/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2016/08/mVoL9cqg.jpg", "tags": [ "Inspiration", "Knowledge" ] }, { "id": "https://modified.in/bsos/2016/08/05/footanque-a-new-footbag-game/", "url": "https://modified.in/bsos/2016/08/05/footanque-a-new-footbag-game/", "title": "Footanque \u2013 A New Footbag Game", "content_html": "

How to Play Footanque (Foo-tonk)

\n

\n

The Aim of the Game

\n

To get your bags closer to the sack than you opponent’s.

\n

The Place to Play

\n

Unlike most footbag sports Footanque can be played on any surface. Bumps, objects, plants and hollows add challenge and can add to the fun.

\n

Choose Teams

\n

Divide up into two teams. You can play Singles with one player on each side, Doubles with two players on each side, or Triples with three players on each side. For leisure play a good way to choose teams is for one person to take a bag from each player and kick them out all at the same time. The owners of the bags that lie closest to the kicker make up the first team.

\n

Select Bags

\n

Both teams select their bags. Each team’s bags should look similar to each other and be possible to distinguish them from the other side’s bags: that way, they will be easy to identify when counting up points. When playing Singles or Doubles, each player uses three bags and for Triples each player uses two bags.

\n

Decide Who Goes First

\n

Make up some trick challenge or kick challenge to decide who goes first.

\n

Kick\u00a0the Sack

\n

The team that wins the challenge chooses the starting location and then selects one of their players to kick out the sack. The starting location is indicated by a circle that is 14 to 20 inches in diameter. The circle can be drawn with chalk, etched in the dirt with a stick, or made from a piece of rope whatever works. Once the circle is drawn, the player then stands with one feet inside the circle and kicks the sack. The sack is the object the teams need to get close to with their bags to win. It needs to be significantly different from all the bags. The sack can be kicked in any direction but must land within 30 feet of the starting circle and three feet from any obstacle.

\n

Kick the Bags

\n

All bags must be kicked from within the starting circle and with one feet on the ground. The player attempts to kick the bag so that it lands as close to the sack as possible. It is okay to hit the sack. The player must remain inside the circle until the bag has landed. A player from the opposing team then steps into the circle and attempts to land his bag closer to the sack even if it means knocking his opponents out of the way. The bag closest to the sack leads or is said to be “holding the point.” The other team must continue kicking bags until they take the lead or run out of bags. There is no order that team members must follow when kicking their bags however, they must only kick their own bags, and they must go one at a time from within the starting circle. If they take the lead, the other team then tries to recover by landing a lead bag. If two bags laying still touch each other, the bags should be retrieved and kicked again.

\n

Winning the Round

\n

Once a team has used all its bags, the other side is allowed to kick the rest of its bags. When all bags are kicked, the points are counted. The team that has the bag closest to the sack wins the round. In addition, they also receive a point for each bag that is closer to the sack than their opponents closest bag. Only one team scores points during a round.

\n

Beginning a New Round

\n

Once the points are counted, the next round begins with previous round’s winners drawing a new starting circle. This starting circle is drawn around the final position of the sack in the previous round. The winning team then selects a player to kick out the sack from this new starting circle and then kick out the first bag.

\n

Winning the Game

\n

The first team to earn a total of 13 points wins the game. There is not a required number of rounds that must be played.

\n

\"footanque\"

\n

Invented by Asmus Helms

\n", "content_text": "How to Play Footanque (Foo-tonk)\n\nThe Aim of the Game\nTo get your bags closer to the sack than you opponent’s.\nThe Place to Play\nUnlike most footbag sports Footanque can be played on any surface. Bumps, objects, plants and hollows add challenge and can add to the fun.\nChoose Teams\nDivide up into two teams. You can play Singles with one player on each side, Doubles with two players on each side, or Triples with three players on each side. For leisure play a good way to choose teams is for one person to take a bag from each player and kick them out all at the same time. The owners of the bags that lie closest to the kicker make up the first team.\nSelect Bags\nBoth teams select their bags. Each team’s bags should look similar to each other and be possible to distinguish them from the other side’s bags: that way, they will be easy to identify when counting up points. When playing Singles or Doubles, each player uses three bags and for Triples each player uses two bags.\nDecide Who Goes First\nMake up some trick challenge or kick challenge to decide who goes first.\nKick\u00a0the Sack\nThe team that wins the challenge chooses the starting location and then selects one of their players to kick out the sack. The starting location is indicated by a circle that is 14 to 20 inches in diameter. The circle can be drawn with chalk, etched in the dirt with a stick, or made from a piece of rope whatever works. Once the circle is drawn, the player then stands with one feet inside the circle and kicks the sack. The sack is the object the teams need to get close to with their bags to win. It needs to be significantly different from all the bags. The sack can be kicked in any direction but must land within 30 feet of the starting circle and three feet from any obstacle.\nKick the Bags\nAll bags must be kicked from within the starting circle and with one feet on the ground. The player attempts to kick the bag so that it lands as close to the sack as possible. It is okay to hit the sack. The player must remain inside the circle until the bag has landed. A player from the opposing team then steps into the circle and attempts to land his bag closer to the sack even if it means knocking his opponents out of the way. The bag closest to the sack leads or is said to be “holding the point.” The other team must continue kicking bags until they take the lead or run out of bags. There is no order that team members must follow when kicking their bags however, they must only kick their own bags, and they must go one at a time from within the starting circle. If they take the lead, the other team then tries to recover by landing a lead bag. If two bags laying still touch each other, the bags should be retrieved and kicked again.\nWinning the Round\nOnce a team has used all its bags, the other side is allowed to kick the rest of its bags. When all bags are kicked, the points are counted. The team that has the bag closest to the sack wins the round. In addition, they also receive a point for each bag that is closer to the sack than their opponents closest bag. Only one team scores points during a round.\nBeginning a New Round\nOnce the points are counted, the next round begins with previous round’s winners drawing a new starting circle. This starting circle is drawn around the final position of the sack in the previous round. The winning team then selects a player to kick out the sack from this new starting circle and then kick out the first bag.\nWinning the Game\nThe first team to earn a total of 13 points wins the game. There is not a required number of rounds that must be played.\n\nInvented by Asmus Helms", "date_published": "2016-08-05T11:38:34+00:00", "date_modified": "2019-12-19T06:58:30+00:00", "author": { "name": "asmus", "url": "https://modified.in/bsos/author/asmus/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/04c37ae2f760408975cf17dc683e43c4?s=512&d=mm&r=g" }, "image": "https://modified.in/bsos/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2016/08/footanque2.png", "tags": [ "Competition", "Inspiration" ] }, { "id": "https://modified.in/bsos/2016/03/31/asmus-thoughts-on-organizing-worlds-2/", "url": "https://modified.in/bsos/2016/03/31/asmus-thoughts-on-organizing-worlds-2/", "title": "Asmus\u2019 Thoughts On Organizing Worlds", "content_html": "

There are no golden rules or answers set in stone here, every Worlds is different and there are hundreds of ways of doing things the right way.
\nI haven\u2019t touched on half of what hosting a World Championship is, but I hope this does answer some of the questions I have gotten up to, during and after Worlds in Copenhagen.

\n

It should also be said that these are my experiences and thoughts, not the opinions of the Worlds Operating Committee or FootbagDenmark.

\n

Host Application for Worlds

\n

The first thing you should do, if your club is thinking about hosting Worlds, is to get your hands on the Host Application. It sums up the requirements nicely and will make it easier for you to get an idea if you want to do this or not. The Worlds Operating Committee (woc@.ifpa.footbag.org) will be more than happy to send it to you.

\n

Commit!

\n

The second thing you need to do is to commit to the idea of hosting Worlds. First the core organising team have to commit to the idea and then you need to get the rest of your club to do it. Organising Worlds isn\u2019t easy and it isn\u2019t always a lot of fun. I would estimate that between us we spent over a thousand hours on Worlds even before it started. That is a big commitment and everybody has to sign off on it.

\n

The Team

\n

We were 5 in the core team and around 15 more volunteers. That is the absolute least you will need. Twice as many volunteers would have been great.

\n

The skills you will need are the following:

\n\n

A thing I would have done differently, if we had been a bigger team and knew what we know now, is assign some people to not work during week and only take care of the aftermath. The clean up, delivering back borrowed items, etc.

\n

Getting the Venue

\n

My tip on how to get an awesome venue for Worlds would be to become an officially recognized organisation. Obviously, how this is done and what you can get out of it varies from country to country, but here are some of the advantages you might get from it:

\n\n

Because FootbagDenmark is an officially recognized sports organisation, we can apply for indoor training facilities in Copenhagen. The municipality owns most of the gyms in the city and also the venue we used for Worlds. Indoor training facilities are not usually used much in the summer holidays which made it easier for us. We wrote an application to them. Here is the table of contents:

\n
    \n
  1. Introduction
    2. \n
  2. Collaborators
    3. \n
  3. Audience / Target Group
    4. \n
  4. Finals
    5. \n
  5. Estimated number of athletes
    6. \n
  6. Program
    7. \n
  7. Budget
    8. \n
  8. What is footbag?
    9. \n
  9. What can we offer you
    10. \n
  10. About us
    11. \n
  11. Contacts
    12. \n
\n

After that there was a couple of meetings and then a contract was signed.

\n

Sponsors and funding

\n

When you have found the venue, you will have to raise some cash money. The player registration fees and donations will not be enough. It was about a third of what we spent AND we got the main venue for free.

\n

We did not have a lot of success attracting sponsors and I think that could have gone better with a more focused effort by assigning one guy to focus solely on this. Preferably a person with telemarketing experience.

\n

We did however have a lot of success applying for grants and funding from foundations. How things like this work of course varies from country to country, but it is definitely the route I would focus on.

\n

One of the foundations had focus on development and implementation of socially beneficial initiatives and activities, the second one focused on supporting organized citizenry, research and social and cultural purposes. The last one supports activities and events that are helping to strengthen our district of the city’s social and cultural resources and which brings together citizens across social and ethnic backgrounds.

\n

Media

\n

Getting media coverage was one thing we definitely failed at. Early on we got a lot of verbal commitments from print and tv media that they would like to cover it, however once crunch time came we were too focused on actually getting the tournament up and running and following up on these verbal commitments took a back seat.

\n

A World Championship in footbag is definitely newsworthy and getting coverage should be possible. A way of avoiding our situation would be to have a person solely focus on this. The best would be if that person were a communications officer or journalist with experience in writing press releases.

\n

Digital World(s)

\n

Footbag lives in small pockets around the world and on the internet. During a very special week in late July or early August a big pocket appears wherever Worlds is hosted, but an important thing to remember is that there are still more people sitting waiting on updates on facebook or modified than actually at the championship. It is an important job for the organizing team to cater to them – not only because they are footbag but also because it makes the sport look much more professional if we have a strong online presence.

\n

I think we took some good steps in this direction, with frequent updates in text, pictures and videos during the week, a great website and online streaming of the finals.

\n

What I would like to see in the future is:
\n– Online streaming of all events (with commentary during Finals)
\n– Social Media Officers
\nThis could be players that in exchange for not having to pay registration fee instead had to make X numbers of posts each day on different social media apps and websites.

\n

I have more ideas in regards to this but I have to put some more thought into them.

\n

Prize Money

\n

Just to clear something up:

\n

We considered prize money at Worlds but finally decided against it. We even considered only giving prize money only to Doubles Freestyle since we had a sponsor who for unknown reasons really were into that event.

\n

Let me do some math that shows why I think that was a wise decision.

\n

If we take every official event (except the masters net competition, intermediate competitions, golf and women\u2019s sick trick since there was only two competitors), there are 16 events that should get prize money. This means 16 first places, second places and third places. 12 times the prize money is shared between two players because of doubles. So, if nobody got first through third in more than one event 60 players would get prize money. However only 34 players ended in the top three in any of the events. Let\u2019s say number one(s) get 100 euros, number two(s) get 60 euros and number three(s) get 30 euros. That would add up to 3040 euros. That is a lot of money.

\n

Where could we find that money? It is pretty much exactly the same same as it cost to give every (170+) players a free meal every day. Or it will would have been the same as raising the registration fee for over (170+) attendees with 50%.
\nSo we decided to benefit 170+ players instead of 34.

\n

Conclusion

\n

Organising Worlds is a hard and often thankless job. It is also one of the best experiences of my life. It feels amazing to give a lot back to the community that has given me so much. Not only do I appreciate footbag and footbaggers much more now, I also feel like I know them much better and I even feel like I know my own strengths and weaknesses much better. Would I do it again? Maybe. Would I recommend others to do it? Definitely.

\n

You are more than welcome to post questions here, if you questions you don\u2019t want others to see you can PM me and I will answer to the best of my ability.

\n

Written by Asmus Helms

\n", "content_text": "There are no golden rules or answers set in stone here, every Worlds is different and there are hundreds of ways of doing things the right way. \nI haven\u2019t touched on half of what hosting a World Championship is, but I hope this does answer some of the questions I have gotten up to, during and after Worlds in Copenhagen.\nIt should also be said that these are my experiences and thoughts, not the opinions of the Worlds Operating Committee or FootbagDenmark.\nHost Application for Worlds\nThe first thing you should do, if your club is thinking about hosting Worlds, is to get your hands on the Host Application. It sums up the requirements nicely and will make it easier for you to get an idea if you want to do this or not. The Worlds Operating Committee (woc@.ifpa.footbag.org) will be more than happy to send it to you.\nCommit!\nThe second thing you need to do is to commit to the idea of hosting Worlds. First the core organising team have to commit to the idea and then you need to get the rest of your club to do it. Organising Worlds isn\u2019t easy and it isn\u2019t always a lot of fun. I would estimate that between us we spent over a thousand hours on Worlds even before it started. That is a big commitment and everybody has to sign off on it.\nThe Team\nWe were 5 in the core team and around 15 more volunteers. That is the absolute least you will need. Twice as many volunteers would have been great.\nThe skills you will need are the following:\n\nGraphic and webdesign\nVideo editing\nStrong writing skills in a serious business language\nTwo people with driver\u2019s license and cars\nBudgeting\nA problem solver\nPeople with big networks\nExperience running tournaments\n\nA thing I would have done differently, if we had been a bigger team and knew what we know now, is assign some people to not work during week and only take care of the aftermath. The clean up, delivering back borrowed items, etc.\nGetting the Venue\nMy tip on how to get an awesome venue for Worlds would be to become an officially recognized organisation. Obviously, how this is done and what you can get out of it varies from country to country, but here are some of the advantages you might get from it:\n\nEasier to seek grants\nSupport from local government and municipality\nAbility to open bank accounts etc.\nLooks professional\nTax advantages\n\nBecause FootbagDenmark is an officially recognized sports organisation, we can apply for indoor training facilities in Copenhagen. The municipality owns most of the gyms in the city and also the venue we used for Worlds. Indoor training facilities are not usually used much in the summer holidays which made it easier for us. We wrote an application to them. Here is the table of contents:\n\nIntroduction\nCollaborators\nAudience / Target Group\nFinals\nEstimated number of athletes\nProgram\nBudget\nWhat is footbag?\nWhat can we offer you\nAbout us\nContacts\n\nAfter that there was a couple of meetings and then a contract was signed.\nSponsors and funding\nWhen you have found the venue, you will have to raise some cash money. The player registration fees and donations will not be enough. It was about a third of what we spent AND we got the main venue for free.\nWe did not have a lot of success attracting sponsors and I think that could have gone better with a more focused effort by assigning one guy to focus solely on this. Preferably a person with telemarketing experience.\nWe did however have a lot of success applying for grants and funding from foundations. How things like this work of course varies from country to country, but it is definitely the route I would focus on.\nOne of the foundations had focus on development and implementation of socially beneficial initiatives and activities, the second one focused on supporting organized citizenry, research and social and cultural purposes. The last one supports activities and events that are helping to strengthen our district of the city’s social and cultural resources and which brings together citizens across social and ethnic backgrounds.\nMedia\nGetting media coverage was one thing we definitely failed at. Early on we got a lot of verbal commitments from print and tv media that they would like to cover it, however once crunch time came we were too focused on actually getting the tournament up and running and following up on these verbal commitments took a back seat.\nA World Championship in footbag is definitely newsworthy and getting coverage should be possible. A way of avoiding our situation would be to have a person solely focus on this. The best would be if that person were a communications officer or journalist with experience in writing press releases.\nDigital World(s)\nFootbag lives in small pockets around the world and on the internet. During a very special week in late July or early August a big pocket appears wherever Worlds is hosted, but an important thing to remember is that there are still more people sitting waiting on updates on facebook or modified than actually at the championship. It is an important job for the organizing team to cater to them – not only because they are footbag but also because it makes the sport look much more professional if we have a strong online presence.\nI think we took some good steps in this direction, with frequent updates in text, pictures and videos during the week, a great website and online streaming of the finals.\nWhat I would like to see in the future is:\n– Online streaming of all events (with commentary during Finals)\n– Social Media Officers\nThis could be players that in exchange for not having to pay registration fee instead had to make X numbers of posts each day on different social media apps and websites.\nI have more ideas in regards to this but I have to put some more thought into them.\nPrize Money\nJust to clear something up:\nWe considered prize money at Worlds but finally decided against it. We even considered only giving prize money only to Doubles Freestyle since we had a sponsor who for unknown reasons really were into that event.\nLet me do some math that shows why I think that was a wise decision.\nIf we take every official event (except the masters net competition, intermediate competitions, golf and women\u2019s sick trick since there was only two competitors), there are 16 events that should get prize money. This means 16 first places, second places and third places. 12 times the prize money is shared between two players because of doubles. So, if nobody got first through third in more than one event 60 players would get prize money. However only 34 players ended in the top three in any of the events. Let\u2019s say number one(s) get 100 euros, number two(s) get 60 euros and number three(s) get 30 euros. That would add up to 3040 euros. That is a lot of money.\nWhere could we find that money? It is pretty much exactly the same same as it cost to give every (170+) players a free meal every day. Or it will would have been the same as raising the registration fee for over (170+) attendees with 50%.\nSo we decided to benefit 170+ players instead of 34.\nConclusion\nOrganising Worlds is a hard and often thankless job. It is also one of the best experiences of my life. It feels amazing to give a lot back to the community that has given me so much. Not only do I appreciate footbag and footbaggers much more now, I also feel like I know them much better and I even feel like I know my own strengths and weaknesses much better. Would I do it again? Maybe. Would I recommend others to do it? Definitely.\nYou are more than welcome to post questions here, if you questions you don\u2019t want others to see you can PM me and I will answer to the best of my ability.\nWritten by Asmus Helms", "date_published": "2016-03-31T15:24:37+00:00", "date_modified": "2016-03-31T15:24:37+00:00", "author": { "name": "asmus", "url": "https://modified.in/bsos/author/asmus/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/04c37ae2f760408975cf17dc683e43c4?s=512&d=mm&r=g" }, "image": "https://modified.in/bsos/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2016/03/tshirt7-e1459437816187.png", "tags": [ "Competition", "Inspiration", "Knowledge" ] }, { "id": "https://modified.in/bsos/2016/03/23/the-trademark-hacky-sack/", "url": "https://modified.in/bsos/2016/03/23/the-trademark-hacky-sack/", "title": "The Trademark \u201cHacky Sack\u201d", "content_html": "

So I have had this crazy idea bouncing around my head for a couple of weeks. I think we should buy back the trademark \u201cHacky Sack\u201d!
\n

\n

The Idea

\n

It will probably never happen but I will share my thoughts on it anyways.

\n

A little history lesson: Hacky Sack was invented in 1972 by John Stallberger and Mike Marshall. Marshall died of a heart attack in 1975 and Stallberger continued to push the sport and the business. It gained popularity in the early 80s and was registered as a trademark in 1981. In 1983 John Stallberger and others sold the title to toy producer Wham-O.
\n\u201cWhy should we buy it back?\u201d you might think. Here are my reasons:

\n
    \n
  1. Hacky Sack is a better name than footbag.
    2. \n
  2. We can control who produces hacky sacks, make sure they are of a certain quality and that they give out the right information
    3. \n
  3. We could earn money on licensing
    4. \n
  4. It is a worldwide known brand
    5. \n
  5. By buying it back and controlling the trademark we could work against the stoner image much more focused.
    6. \n
\n

The Image of Hacky Sack

\n

Wouldn\u2019t it be too hard to change the image of Hacky Sack?

\n

It would be hard, but not impossible.

\n

Public perception changes naturally over time for all sports. Skateboarding went from being considered a fad, to a DIY business sensation, to almost dying and today to be big business. And the perception of skateboarders has changed from being seen as long haired weed smokers, to destructive drug addicts and adrenaline junkies to well respected athletes and businessmen.>

\n

Our problem is that we are known to the public as hacky sackers, but we are so scared of the name (+ it is a trademark), that we have no chance of changing the perception of it.
\nAnother semi-related topic to this is fashion. Skateboard companies doesn\u2019t earn their money on selling boards but on clothes and shoes. This is a field I am sad that footbag hasn\u2019t tried to get into early. Now you might say that short shorts and no shirt is not fashionable and it probably isn\u2019t, but footbaggers could look more fashionable. Sneakers are big business and in fashion (why do you think the Rod Laver was re released?) and short shorts and tights are in fashion – Just take a look at Mr. Jeezus

\n

The Financing

\n

I have heard that the trademark was originally sold to Wham-O from around 1-1.5 million dollars. I don\u2019t know anything about big business or trademarks on a monetary scale but according to this site 1-1.5 million would be 2.5-3.5 million today due to inflation.

\n

I am pretty sure it would cost much more than that for a couple of reasons:

\n\n

*Cash cow is business jargon for a business venture that generates a steady return of profits that far exceed the outlay of cash required to acquire or start it.

\n

And now you might think \u201cWhy could this not happen?\u201d. Simply because I think it would be waaaay too expensive. However if I won a 100 million dollars I would totally give it an attempt.

\n

You can search up the trademark here: http://tmsearch.uspto.gov
\nHere is Wham-O\u2019s page about Hacky Sack: http://www.wham-o.com/product/Hacky_Sack.html

\n

 

\n

Written by Asmus Helms

\n", "content_text": "So I have had this crazy idea bouncing around my head for a couple of weeks. I think we should buy back the trademark \u201cHacky Sack\u201d!\n\nThe Idea\nIt will probably never happen but I will share my thoughts on it anyways.\nA little history lesson: Hacky Sack was invented in 1972 by John Stallberger and Mike Marshall. Marshall died of a heart attack in 1975 and Stallberger continued to push the sport and the business. It gained popularity in the early 80s and was registered as a trademark in 1981. In 1983 John Stallberger and others sold the title to toy producer Wham-O.\n\u201cWhy should we buy it back?\u201d you might think. Here are my reasons:\n\nHacky Sack is a better name than footbag.\nWe can control who produces hacky sacks, make sure they are of a certain quality and that they give out the right information\nWe could earn money on licensing\nIt is a worldwide known brand\nBy buying it back and controlling the trademark we could work against the stoner image much more focused.\n\nThe Image of Hacky Sack\nWouldn\u2019t it be too hard to change the image of Hacky Sack?\nIt would be hard, but not impossible.\nPublic perception changes naturally over time for all sports. Skateboarding went from being considered a fad, to a DIY business sensation, to almost dying and today to be big business. And the perception of skateboarders has changed from being seen as long haired weed smokers, to destructive drug addicts and adrenaline junkies to well respected athletes and businessmen.>\nOur problem is that we are known to the public as hacky sackers, but we are so scared of the name (+ it is a trademark), that we have no chance of changing the perception of it.\nAnother semi-related topic to this is fashion. Skateboard companies doesn\u2019t earn their money on selling boards but on clothes and shoes. This is a field I am sad that footbag hasn\u2019t tried to get into early. Now you might say that short shorts and no shirt is not fashionable and it probably isn\u2019t, but footbaggers could look more fashionable. Sneakers are big business and in fashion (why do you think the Rod Laver was re released?) and short shorts and tights are in fashion – Just take a look at Mr. Jeezus\nThe Financing\nI have heard that the trademark was originally sold to Wham-O from around 1-1.5 million dollars. I don\u2019t know anything about big business or trademarks on a monetary scale but according to this site 1-1.5 million would be 2.5-3.5 million today due to inflation.\nI am pretty sure it would cost much more than that for a couple of reasons:\n\nWham-O would want to get something back for what they have invested in promotion over the years<\nWith the way Wham-O seems to handle the Hacky Sack brand, I am pretty sure it is a decent Cash cow* for them. You don\u2019t want to sell your cash cows unless you get a lot of money for them.\nI am sure it is much harder to buy something from big business than the original inventor\n\n*Cash cow is business jargon for a business venture that generates a steady return of profits that far exceed the outlay of cash required to acquire or start it.\nAnd now you might think \u201cWhy could this not happen?\u201d. Simply because I think it would be waaaay too expensive. However if I won a 100 million dollars I would totally give it an attempt.\nYou can search up the trademark here: http://tmsearch.uspto.gov\nHere is Wham-O\u2019s page about Hacky Sack: http://www.wham-o.com/product/Hacky_Sack.html\n \nWritten by Asmus Helms", "date_published": "2016-03-23T09:58:18+00:00", "date_modified": "2016-03-23T09:58:18+00:00", "author": { "name": "asmus", "url": "https://modified.in/bsos/author/asmus/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/04c37ae2f760408975cf17dc683e43c4?s=512&d=mm&r=g" }, "image": "https://modified.in/bsos/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2016/03/hackysack.png", "tags": [ "Equipment", "Inspiration", "Knowledge" ] }, { "id": "https://modified.in/bsos/2014/11/20/a-dialog-with-ken-somolinos/", "url": "https://modified.in/bsos/2014/11/20/a-dialog-with-ken-somolinos/", "title": "A Dialog with Ken Somolinos", "content_html": "

First, thanks for taking the time. We’ve known each other for a long time now, I’m glad they tapped me\u00a0to interview you. I figure we can have this be nice and personal, but not too personal. You have a long\u00a0history in the sport now, so I’ll start back at the beginning and move forward. There will be some\u00a0greatest hits stuff mixed in with lesser known facts.

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As the greatest actor of our generation is known to say: “alright alright alright!”

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Ha ha yes. Kicking this off, when did you begin your freestyle career, and how did you get into it? I\u00a0remember meeting you for the first time at Worlds ’99 and you were already strong.

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I first got into hackysack in 1996. We were on vacation in the Fla keys and got locked out of our car, and\u00a0my sister bought one so we could kill time. I spent the next year or so learning to kick basic kicks and\u00a0fliers, and I think toe stalls? Then in 1997 my best hack friend told me he had bumped into players who\u00a0were way better than us (which I was skeptical was possible) and that there was an actual tournament\u00a0that weekend in NYC. I went to the tournament, met Goldberg, Tu Vu, Bruce Dole, Eric Wulff and Ian\u00a0Brill, and realized I hadn’t even scratched the surface of what was possible. I started going into NYC\u00a0every weekend to play and learn more, and by my first Worlds in 1999 I was pretty hooked. I\u2019m pretty\u00a0sure you were the one who challenged me to hit my first Superfly at 99 worlds.

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I think I remember that, Ryan and I saw you playing and were like “who’s this guy?” Then we went out\u00a0for lunch. You were definitely one of the strongest new players there. You dropped some big names\u00a0with the people you first met which leads me into my next question; who were your role models back\u00a0then? I think I can guess a few.

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Ron Jeremy?

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That’s one haha.

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I remember going for Mexican with you, Ryan, and Brian McK.

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That was it.

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I was just so excited and in awe that the people I had watched on videos really existed, and that they\u00a0were friendly and funny. My encyclopaedic knowledge of Simpsons finally paid off socially!

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That did impress us greatly!

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Ryan was probably my biggest influence back then.

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That was another guess. He influenced about everyone past, present and future.

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\"ryan
\nRyan Mulroney

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Yeah, I was a fan of lots of people, but if I had to single out one person it’d be Ryan.

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Good to one to choose, he led the pack for that generation. As you were coming up, did you have any\u00a0core schooling partners/buddies? There have been some epic schooling teams over the years, any\u00a0shredder you played with more than anyone else when you were on the rise, or after?

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Yes and no. My last year of high school I got to play with NYFA a good bit, but almost from the get go I\u00a0was the strongest player in that club, so I didn’t feel anybody was pushing me. The next 4 years I went to\u00a0undergrad in Rhode Island, and never built/found a scene there. So those first 5 years I only got to play\u00a0with NYFA, and occasionally with Yacine and the Montreal crew on trips…but nobody on a regular basis.

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Then after college, I moved to Japan…which had no footbag scene to speak of when I arrived. Over the\u00a0next 3 years I helped build up a pretty strong scene, and got to play with them on a weekly basis. It\u00a0wasn’t until the end of my time in Japan though that anybody was at a high guiltless level. I was always\u00a0jealous of places with footbag scenes with players at a high level, like the first family in San Fran, or the\u00a0Shred House in Boulder, or the dictators in Prague.

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Yup, I always liked to call them houses, like the house of Sole Purpose. It is more difficult to stay\u00a0motivated with no group around, I can see where some of your drive came from. That was great work\u00a0you did in Japan, we have seen the seeds of that for years now and currently with Taishi and his success.

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\"taishi
\nTaishi Ishida

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So proud of Taishi. I’m so impressed by people who follow their dream, and he’s really going for it. Such\u00a0a great guy too. But yeah, playing most of my career either entirely solo, or with small crews that are not\u00a0at the guiltless level, you have to find other ways to motivate yourself, and there are times it can be\u00a0hard to sustain that motivation.

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I bet, but the payoff to the perseverance it built definitely shows. Ok, now that we are getting into your\u00a0professional level career, let’s jump to 2003 and another one of your greatest hits so to speak. I\u00a0remember in Prague you were invited into the Big Add Posse, but politely declined. That was the first\u00a0time and last time I know of that happening. Can you give us some insight on why you chose not to\u00a0accept the invitation? Not everyone knows this story, or your thoughts behind it.

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Man, that feels like forever ago….and I guess 11 years kind of is a lifetime.

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Yup, to me it went by fast, darn it.

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We’re old dude. 11 years is longer than most people’s entire footbag careers.

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Haha you’ve held up better than I, but yup, we’ve been in the game a while now.

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You’ve got a couple years on me though. But anyway, to answer your question, I think it\u2019s easiest to look\u00a0at a few years/events.

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Please.

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From 97-99 I learned pretty fast, and was having a lot of fun. At 99 worlds people first started\u00a0mentioning to me that I had a shot at BAP, and for some reason that changed the way I approached the\u00a0game. I spent the next year focusing on trying to hit what the BAP guys were hitting, and frankly it\u00a0wasn’t much fun at all. I went to 2000 Worlds, but at that point footbag wasn’t really fun for me, and it\u00a0kind of showed. I didn’t play well that week, and I felt like I was disappointing everybody…which is\u00a0weird, because it\u2019s a hacky sack tournament, and what did I have to prove? I came home from that\u00a0Worlds and reevaluated why I was playing. I decided if it wasn’t fun for me, and I wasn’t getting much\u00a0out of it, then I should spend my time doing anything else. I took off 6 months from playing, and that\u00a0could have been the end of my career right there. Instead, I found my shoes 6 months later and started\u00a0messing around with the game again, rebuilding it from the basics up. This actually fixed some problems\u00a0with my clippers and stepping set, and my strong clipper and weak clipper switched. Anyway, I\u00a0rediscovered my original love for the game, and by consciously making a point to stop caring what\u00a0others thought of my game or my potential, I ended up getting a lot better than I was before I quit. In\u00a0the summer of 2001 I went to Denver for an internship, which meant I missed Worlds, but got to play all\u00a0summer with Rippin, Daryl, Jon S, Red, and Sunny. I played really strongly, and even hit some tricks like\u00a0Stepping Ducking Symple Blender clean on film.

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I remember.

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I had to miss Worlds that year, but I remember visiting Yacine in Montreal and he showed me the BAP\u00a0vote paper, and I had gotten some votes despite not being at the tournament. He told me he thought I\u00a0would have gotten in if I was there. If I was there, and was put on the spot with an invite, I’m not sure\u00a0what I would have said. But when I talked to Yacine that summer, it made me start thinking about BAP,\u00a0and since I had time to think about it, I realized that when I was motivated by BAP, my game went to\u00a0shit…and that when I let go of caring about other people’s expectations, my game flourished. Once I had\u00a0that realization, it seemed disingenuous of me to accept BAP. I thought that, since I benefited from\u00a0playing for myself, there might be other young players who would benefit similarly, and that the best\u00a0way to send that message would be to turn down BAP. At the end of the day, it really comes down to\u00a0proving stuff to yourself, and being happy with yourself, and not caring what others think about you.\u00a0That’s a lot easier said than done.

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At least in the case of BAP, it didn’t cost me anything material. You\u00a0look at Grigori Perelman in the math world for example, and that guy turned down a million dollars. You\u00a0could also look at other sports too… Dirk Nowitzki was told his entire young career to play back to the\u00a0basket and eschew 3 pointers. If he had followed other people’s advice, or done what he thought\u00a0everybody wanted him to do, he wouldn’t have ended up being Dirk. Verbose enough response for you?

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Yup, there’s a quote I always liked from Hemingway I believe; “There is nothing noble in being superior\u00a0to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self”. Sounds like there’s a little bit of\u00a0that here. I can tell you a lot of the BAP players and everyone else respected that, I certainly did. And\u00a0yup, you nailed it! To move on, what has been your favorite Worlds tournament that you have been to,\u00a0and why?

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Well, to help me figure that out, let me tally up the list of Worlds I’ve been to: 99, 00, 03, 04, 05,\u00a007,08,09,10,12,13

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That’s a good run of Worlds.

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I’m still kind of bitter I missed 2002 Worlds.

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I’m bitter I missed 2003!

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Really hard to say which was best. 13 was special to me because I finally made routine finals, but it\u00a0wasn’t my best performance either. 99 was special because I got to meet everybody. 03 was the most\u00a0fun in terms of partying and just shredding like crazy. 09 and 05 were run so well…I really don\u2019t know\u00a0which I would pick. Sorry for the cop-out answer on that one.

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Ha ha no sweat, it is tough to decide, I don’t know if I could say either. Just glad we have gotten to\u00a0attend so many.

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Yes, we’re lucky. It\u2019s weird, on one hand I can complain that my job doesn’t allow me to prepare as\u00a0much or play as hard as I want in preparation for tournaments…but if I didn’t have a job there’s no way\u00a0I’d be able to go to Worlds.

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Yup, it’s that life/balance thing, we have to deal with it at one point or another. Relating to this,\u00a0congratulations on your recent marriage. She’s awesome btw. Do you feel you’ve found a good balance\u00a0between life and footbag right now? Of course priorities come first, but it looks like you are still making\u00a0it work.

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\"ken
\nKen dancing with his wife

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It’s weird, because on one hand I could complain that I can’t dedicate as much time as I’d like to footbag,\u00a0but on the other hand I know if/when I have kids in a couple years, I’ll look back on this time of my life\u00a0and say: “look at all the free time I had to play back then!” I think in the future I’m going to have to\u00a0adjust my goals and expectations for footbag, and while that is a little bit sad, I feel like I’ve had a good\u00a0career, and it’s unfair to complain that I “only” had 17 years of playing.

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That is a good stretch of time, and you’ve made good use of it. One thing I have always respected about\u00a0you is the fact that since the late 90’s I don’t think you have ever taken a significant break from playing\u00a0(six months isn’t too bad). You always seemed to stay excited for the sport, where many of us from that\u00a0gen and later either retired or took long stretches of time off. It’s been quite an inspiration to the older\u00a0players and new to see you doing so well now. Do you think you’re in your prime presently, and do you\u00a0consider yourself in the OG category yet?

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\"ken
\nKen with a mohawk

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Thanks Red, that’s very flattering. As for how I perceive my current game…I’d say I’m probably still in my\u00a0prime. I set my new personal record for fearless (14) this year, I have done some of my best routines in\u00a0the past year, and I’ve crossed off some dream tricks too this summer. Objectively, I think my game in\u00a0the past year or two is better than any other stretch I’ve had. As for being an OG…it’s kind of crazy how\u00a0few of us players from the 90s are still around. Lon is a year older than me, and he’s still crazy good, so\u00a0no reason for us to stop yet.

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Agreed, you guys are really showing how far you can take it, and your 30’s aren’t too old are they? lol. I\u00a0believe it’s really a state of mind, and of course avoiding debilitating injuries. To keep it going, in 2013\u00a0you became the U.S. Champion and have consistently worked to present great performance routines.

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\"ken
\nKen, Nick Landes and Brian Sherrill at the US Open

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Do you have any other aspirations moving forward, things that haven’t been checked off the list yet?

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I turn 35 in April. As for goals, I think my last remaining one is to make Finals at Worlds again, and try to\u00a0medal in routines. It’d be ambitious, but that’s a good thing with goals. Even if I don’t, I’d like to finish\u00a0higher than I did in 2013. I think that’s achievable.

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Congrats on finals at Worlds before as well. You are known for speaking your mind, how do you feel\u00a0about where footbag is today, and what do you think will help it along? Anything you feel is hurting it\u00a0right now?

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I think lack of readily available footwear is hurting us. The days of people choosing easily between\u00a0Lavers, G-Units, and Quantums are gone. And that adds immensely to an already-steep learning curve\u00a0for beginners. I think it also hurts us that everybody makes the claim that the scene is significantly worse\u00a0now than it was 10 years ago. I think that’s a negative attitude that’s not really supported by evidence.

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As for what will help the scene, I think the key thing is for us to invest more in new players. That’d\u00a0probably take the form of doing more promotion, more tournaments, more PR work advertising our\u00a0tournaments, etc. I don’t think we need a radical sea change to our approach, I think we just need to do\u00a0a better job of it.

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The lack of current footwear is an issue at present, but something I think we can resolve. For where the\u00a0sport is at, I can say I’ve been around long enough that I’ve seen it fluctuate so to speak, but don’t see it\u00a0as being in trouble right now either. There are a few things to work on like anything, but I can say now I\u00a0see interest growing in the sport which I am optimistic about. I also agree stronger promotion helps, just\u00a0leveling up certainly ways we do things. The new players and veteran players such as yourself are\u00a0inspiring, I say lots more of that.\u00a0I sometimes wonder if the crazy advances we’ve made in terms of player skill may not have actually hurt\u00a0us. Like, when I first saw real players in 1997, I was blown away by what they were doing, but on some\u00a0level I thought I could get to the point where I’d at least be able to emulate them. Now though, if you’re\u00a0a new player and you see Milan hit Nemesis Swirl…it’s kind of more daunting than what we dealt with.

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I agree, and have thought exactly the same thing. There were still worlds to conquer (pun intended)\u00a0when we got into it, new moves to invent and combos to put together, a whole lot of undiscovered\u00a0country. Then Vasek and crew came along and it was like footbag was sent ten years into the future. The\u00a0physical standard got extremely high, I just watched Claven’s Autumn video again from four years ago\u00a0and it is absurd. Being a new player, if you’re not inspired I could see one being like “screw that” ha ha.\u00a0Inspiring or disheartening, depending on your viewpoint. I would hope inspiring.

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\"ken
\nKen on the West Coast

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Yeah, though on the plus side, the few kids who don’t get scared away will be insane because they now\u00a0know what’s possible.

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That’s the way it should work, what was a mountain to the previous generation is a mole hill to the next\u00a0one, you can hope.

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Yeah….though I wish we had more casual players and intermediates. Like, with basketball I know I could\u00a0never be an NBA player…but that doesn’t stop me from playing pickup. With footbag, I kind of wonder if\u00a0we’d have more intermediates, or more motivated intermediates if we hadn’t brought the sport to the\u00a0point where anything less than 10 fearless, or a 4 dex, or a beast, is considered blas\u00e9.

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I would like to see it be more inclusive and spin more directions, say just more motivation for casual\u00a0kickers to come to events and enjoy them/not be intimidated. There’s a lot of ground on the promotion\u00a0side we can still cover methinks.

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Agree.

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Ok, so final questions;

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Show your work?

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Haha absolutely. And you have. First question of two here; what are you most proud of thus far in your\u00a0footbag career?

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Japan. Next?

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I figured, and a good one to be proud of. Finally, what’s the most inspiring thing in footbag to you?

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http://footbag.jp/

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Hm. To answer your first question more seriously, “my involvement in the development of the Japanese\u00a0scene.” Though on a personal level I’d probably say winning Circles and routines in subsequent USOs.

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Ken Somolinos Open Routine – Finals – 2013 US Open Footbag Championships

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Good accomplishments.

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As for inspiration, I think it’s the same as in any sport or human endeavor. Seeing yourself and your\u00a0friends try their hardest, and push past their highest expectations. I remember my earliest goals and\u00a0dream tricks, and how thrilled I was to hit them, then surpass them with new goals. When you see\u00a0another player push so hard, and achieve something they thought was impossible, you can’t help but be\u00a0inspired. There’s nothing inspiring in seeing somebody do what they’re supposed to do. But seeing\u00a0somebody grow, and improve, and strive….I met Taishi in 2003 when he had only been playing for a\u00a0month. 11 years later he wins gold at Worlds, against a murderous field for that event. That’s inspiring.

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Absolutely agreed. It’s a wonderful feeling seeing someone you mentored rise up like that, I still have a\u00a0warm place in my heart for Nick Landes (shout outs) and all he has ended up accomplishing. Well,\u00a0thanks a bunch Ken for doing this interview, your work has been quite motivating and I look forward to\u00a0seeing where you go from here. Not to pay too much lip service, but you are one of the top players in\u00a0the U.S. and I would love to see a tournament/event where you, Lon, Jim, Evan, Nick, and Bevier all\u00a0converge. That would be a treat, meeting of masters ha ha. Hopefully soon.

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Hey, thanks a lot Red. This was fun. Hopefully I’ll see you in Boulder or Boise sooner than later. Have fun\u00a0at the party!

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Agreed, will do. I’ll tell Daryl and Jim you said hello, and as always, see you in the circles my friend!

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Right on. Take care Red!

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Here is Ken\u2019s most recent video, one of my favorites from this year.

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Article by Ethan “Red” Husted

\n", "content_text": "First, thanks for taking the time. We’ve known each other for a long time now, I’m glad they tapped me\u00a0to interview you. I figure we can have this be nice and personal, but not too personal. You have a long\u00a0history in the sport now, so I’ll start back at the beginning and move forward. There will be some\u00a0greatest hits stuff mixed in with lesser known facts.\nAs the greatest actor of our generation is known to say: “alright alright alright!”\n\nHa ha yes. Kicking this off, when did you begin your freestyle career, and how did you get into it? I\u00a0remember meeting you for the first time at Worlds ’99 and you were already strong.\nI first got into hackysack in 1996. We were on vacation in the Fla keys and got locked out of our car, and\u00a0my sister bought one so we could kill time. I spent the next year or so learning to kick basic kicks and\u00a0fliers, and I think toe stalls? Then in 1997 my best hack friend told me he had bumped into players who\u00a0were way better than us (which I was skeptical was possible) and that there was an actual tournament\u00a0that weekend in NYC. I went to the tournament, met Goldberg, Tu Vu, Bruce Dole, Eric Wulff and Ian\u00a0Brill, and realized I hadn’t even scratched the surface of what was possible. I started going into NYC\u00a0every weekend to play and learn more, and by my first Worlds in 1999 I was pretty hooked. I\u2019m pretty\u00a0sure you were the one who challenged me to hit my first Superfly at 99 worlds.\nI think I remember that, Ryan and I saw you playing and were like “who’s this guy?” Then we went out\u00a0for lunch. You were definitely one of the strongest new players there. You dropped some big names\u00a0with the people you first met which leads me into my next question; who were your role models back\u00a0then? I think I can guess a few.\nRon Jeremy?\nThat’s one haha.\nI remember going for Mexican with you, Ryan, and Brian McK.\nThat was it.\nI was just so excited and in awe that the people I had watched on videos really existed, and that they\u00a0were friendly and funny. My encyclopaedic knowledge of Simpsons finally paid off socially!\nThat did impress us greatly!\nRyan was probably my biggest influence back then.\nThat was another guess. He influenced about everyone past, present and future.\n\nRyan Mulroney\nYeah, I was a fan of lots of people, but if I had to single out one person it’d be Ryan.\nGood to one to choose, he led the pack for that generation. As you were coming up, did you have any\u00a0core schooling partners/buddies? There have been some epic schooling teams over the years, any\u00a0shredder you played with more than anyone else when you were on the rise, or after?\nYes and no. My last year of high school I got to play with NYFA a good bit, but almost from the get go I\u00a0was the strongest player in that club, so I didn’t feel anybody was pushing me. The next 4 years I went to\u00a0undergrad in Rhode Island, and never built/found a scene there. So those first 5 years I only got to play\u00a0with NYFA, and occasionally with Yacine and the Montreal crew on trips…but nobody on a regular basis.\nThen after college, I moved to Japan…which had no footbag scene to speak of when I arrived. Over the\u00a0next 3 years I helped build up a pretty strong scene, and got to play with them on a weekly basis. It\u00a0wasn’t until the end of my time in Japan though that anybody was at a high guiltless level. I was always\u00a0jealous of places with footbag scenes with players at a high level, like the first family in San Fran, or the\u00a0Shred House in Boulder, or the dictators in Prague.\nYup, I always liked to call them houses, like the house of Sole Purpose. It is more difficult to stay\u00a0motivated with no group around, I can see where some of your drive came from. That was great work\u00a0you did in Japan, we have seen the seeds of that for years now and currently with Taishi and his success.\n\nTaishi Ishida\nSo proud of Taishi. I’m so impressed by people who follow their dream, and he’s really going for it. Such\u00a0a great guy too. But yeah, playing most of my career either entirely solo, or with small crews that are not\u00a0at the guiltless level, you have to find other ways to motivate yourself, and there are times it can be\u00a0hard to sustain that motivation.\nI bet, but the payoff to the perseverance it built definitely shows. Ok, now that we are getting into your\u00a0professional level career, let’s jump to 2003 and another one of your greatest hits so to speak. I\u00a0remember in Prague you were invited into the Big Add Posse, but politely declined. That was the first\u00a0time and last time I know of that happening. Can you give us some insight on why you chose not to\u00a0accept the invitation? Not everyone knows this story, or your thoughts behind it.\nMan, that feels like forever ago….and I guess 11 years kind of is a lifetime.\nYup, to me it went by fast, darn it.\nWe’re old dude. 11 years is longer than most people’s entire footbag careers.\nHaha you’ve held up better than I, but yup, we’ve been in the game a while now.\nYou’ve got a couple years on me though. But anyway, to answer your question, I think it\u2019s easiest to look\u00a0at a few years/events.\nPlease.\nFrom 97-99 I learned pretty fast, and was having a lot of fun. At 99 worlds people first started\u00a0mentioning to me that I had a shot at BAP, and for some reason that changed the way I approached the\u00a0game. I spent the next year focusing on trying to hit what the BAP guys were hitting, and frankly it\u00a0wasn’t much fun at all. I went to 2000 Worlds, but at that point footbag wasn’t really fun for me, and it\u00a0kind of showed. I didn’t play well that week, and I felt like I was disappointing everybody…which is\u00a0weird, because it\u2019s a hacky sack tournament, and what did I have to prove? I came home from that\u00a0Worlds and reevaluated why I was playing. I decided if it wasn’t fun for me, and I wasn’t getting much\u00a0out of it, then I should spend my time doing anything else. I took off 6 months from playing, and that\u00a0could have been the end of my career right there. Instead, I found my shoes 6 months later and started\u00a0messing around with the game again, rebuilding it from the basics up. This actually fixed some problems\u00a0with my clippers and stepping set, and my strong clipper and weak clipper switched. Anyway, I\u00a0rediscovered my original love for the game, and by consciously making a point to stop caring what\u00a0others thought of my game or my potential, I ended up getting a lot better than I was before I quit. In\u00a0the summer of 2001 I went to Denver for an internship, which meant I missed Worlds, but got to play all\u00a0summer with Rippin, Daryl, Jon S, Red, and Sunny. I played really strongly, and even hit some tricks like\u00a0Stepping Ducking Symple Blender clean on film.\nI remember.\nI had to miss Worlds that year, but I remember visiting Yacine in Montreal and he showed me the BAP\u00a0vote paper, and I had gotten some votes despite not being at the tournament. He told me he thought I\u00a0would have gotten in if I was there. If I was there, and was put on the spot with an invite, I’m not sure\u00a0what I would have said. But when I talked to Yacine that summer, it made me start thinking about BAP,\u00a0and since I had time to think about it, I realized that when I was motivated by BAP, my game went to\u00a0shit…and that when I let go of caring about other people’s expectations, my game flourished. Once I had\u00a0that realization, it seemed disingenuous of me to accept BAP. I thought that, since I benefited from\u00a0playing for myself, there might be other young players who would benefit similarly, and that the best\u00a0way to send that message would be to turn down BAP. At the end of the day, it really comes down to\u00a0proving stuff to yourself, and being happy with yourself, and not caring what others think about you.\u00a0That’s a lot easier said than done.\nAt least in the case of BAP, it didn’t cost me anything material. You\u00a0look at Grigori Perelman in the math world for example, and that guy turned down a million dollars. You\u00a0could also look at other sports too… Dirk Nowitzki was told his entire young career to play back to the\u00a0basket and eschew 3 pointers. If he had followed other people’s advice, or done what he thought\u00a0everybody wanted him to do, he wouldn’t have ended up being Dirk. Verbose enough response for you?\nYup, there’s a quote I always liked from Hemingway I believe; “There is nothing noble in being superior\u00a0to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self”. Sounds like there’s a little bit of\u00a0that here. I can tell you a lot of the BAP players and everyone else respected that, I certainly did. And\u00a0yup, you nailed it! To move on, what has been your favorite Worlds tournament that you have been to,\u00a0and why?\nWell, to help me figure that out, let me tally up the list of Worlds I’ve been to: 99, 00, 03, 04, 05,\u00a007,08,09,10,12,13\nThat’s a good run of Worlds.\nI’m still kind of bitter I missed 2002 Worlds.\nI’m bitter I missed 2003!\nReally hard to say which was best. 13 was special to me because I finally made routine finals, but it\u00a0wasn’t my best performance either. 99 was special because I got to meet everybody. 03 was the most\u00a0fun in terms of partying and just shredding like crazy. 09 and 05 were run so well…I really don\u2019t know\u00a0which I would pick. Sorry for the cop-out answer on that one.\nHa ha no sweat, it is tough to decide, I don’t know if I could say either. Just glad we have gotten to\u00a0attend so many.\nYes, we’re lucky. It\u2019s weird, on one hand I can complain that my job doesn’t allow me to prepare as\u00a0much or play as hard as I want in preparation for tournaments…but if I didn’t have a job there’s no way\u00a0I’d be able to go to Worlds.\nYup, it’s that life/balance thing, we have to deal with it at one point or another. Relating to this,\u00a0congratulations on your recent marriage. She’s awesome btw. Do you feel you’ve found a good balance\u00a0between life and footbag right now? Of course priorities come first, but it looks like you are still making\u00a0it work.\n\nKen dancing with his wife\nIt’s weird, because on one hand I could complain that I can’t dedicate as much time as I’d like to footbag,\u00a0but on the other hand I know if/when I have kids in a couple years, I’ll look back on this time of my life\u00a0and say: “look at all the free time I had to play back then!” I think in the future I’m going to have to\u00a0adjust my goals and expectations for footbag, and while that is a little bit sad, I feel like I’ve had a good\u00a0career, and it’s unfair to complain that I “only” had 17 years of playing.\nThat is a good stretch of time, and you’ve made good use of it. One thing I have always respected about\u00a0you is the fact that since the late 90’s I don’t think you have ever taken a significant break from playing\u00a0(six months isn’t too bad). You always seemed to stay excited for the sport, where many of us from that\u00a0gen and later either retired or took long stretches of time off. It’s been quite an inspiration to the older\u00a0players and new to see you doing so well now. Do you think you’re in your prime presently, and do you\u00a0consider yourself in the OG category yet?\n\nKen with a mohawk\nThanks Red, that’s very flattering. As for how I perceive my current game…I’d say I’m probably still in my\u00a0prime. I set my new personal record for fearless (14) this year, I have done some of my best routines in\u00a0the past year, and I’ve crossed off some dream tricks too this summer. Objectively, I think my game in\u00a0the past year or two is better than any other stretch I’ve had. As for being an OG…it’s kind of crazy how\u00a0few of us players from the 90s are still around. Lon is a year older than me, and he’s still crazy good, so\u00a0no reason for us to stop yet.\nAgreed, you guys are really showing how far you can take it, and your 30’s aren’t too old are they? lol. I\u00a0believe it’s really a state of mind, and of course avoiding debilitating injuries. To keep it going, in 2013\u00a0you became the U.S. Champion and have consistently worked to present great performance routines.\n\nKen, Nick Landes and Brian Sherrill at the US Open\nDo you have any other aspirations moving forward, things that haven’t been checked off the list yet?\nI turn 35 in April. As for goals, I think my last remaining one is to make Finals at Worlds again, and try to\u00a0medal in routines. It’d be ambitious, but that’s a good thing with goals. Even if I don’t, I’d like to finish\u00a0higher than I did in 2013. I think that’s achievable.\nCongrats on finals at Worlds before as well. You are known for speaking your mind, how do you feel\u00a0about where footbag is today, and what do you think will help it along? Anything you feel is hurting it\u00a0right now?\nI think lack of readily available footwear is hurting us. The days of people choosing easily between\u00a0Lavers, G-Units, and Quantums are gone. And that adds immensely to an already-steep learning curve\u00a0for beginners. I think it also hurts us that everybody makes the claim that the scene is significantly worse\u00a0now than it was 10 years ago. I think that’s a negative attitude that’s not really supported by evidence.\nAs for what will help the scene, I think the key thing is for us to invest more in new players. That’d\u00a0probably take the form of doing more promotion, more tournaments, more PR work advertising our\u00a0tournaments, etc. I don’t think we need a radical sea change to our approach, I think we just need to do\u00a0a better job of it.\nThe lack of current footwear is an issue at present, but something I think we can resolve. For where the\u00a0sport is at, I can say I’ve been around long enough that I’ve seen it fluctuate so to speak, but don’t see it\u00a0as being in trouble right now either. There are a few things to work on like anything, but I can say now I\u00a0see interest growing in the sport which I am optimistic about. I also agree stronger promotion helps, just\u00a0leveling up certainly ways we do things. The new players and veteran players such as yourself are\u00a0inspiring, I say lots more of that.\u00a0I sometimes wonder if the crazy advances we’ve made in terms of player skill may not have actually hurt\u00a0us. Like, when I first saw real players in 1997, I was blown away by what they were doing, but on some\u00a0level I thought I could get to the point where I’d at least be able to emulate them. Now though, if you’re\u00a0a new player and you see Milan hit Nemesis Swirl…it’s kind of more daunting than what we dealt with.\nI agree, and have thought exactly the same thing. There were still worlds to conquer (pun intended)\u00a0when we got into it, new moves to invent and combos to put together, a whole lot of undiscovered\u00a0country. Then Vasek and crew came along and it was like footbag was sent ten years into the future. The\u00a0physical standard got extremely high, I just watched Claven’s Autumn video again from four years ago\u00a0and it is absurd. Being a new player, if you’re not inspired I could see one being like “screw that” ha ha.\u00a0Inspiring or disheartening, depending on your viewpoint. I would hope inspiring.\n\nKen on the West Coast\nYeah, though on the plus side, the few kids who don’t get scared away will be insane because they now\u00a0know what’s possible.\nThat’s the way it should work, what was a mountain to the previous generation is a mole hill to the next\u00a0one, you can hope.\nYeah….though I wish we had more casual players and intermediates. Like, with basketball I know I could\u00a0never be an NBA player…but that doesn’t stop me from playing pickup. With footbag, I kind of wonder if\u00a0we’d have more intermediates, or more motivated intermediates if we hadn’t brought the sport to the\u00a0point where anything less than 10 fearless, or a 4 dex, or a beast, is considered blas\u00e9.\nI would like to see it be more inclusive and spin more directions, say just more motivation for casual\u00a0kickers to come to events and enjoy them/not be intimidated. There’s a lot of ground on the promotion\u00a0side we can still cover methinks.\nAgree.\nOk, so final questions;\nShow your work?\nHaha absolutely. And you have. First question of two here; what are you most proud of thus far in your\u00a0footbag career?\nJapan. Next?\nI figured, and a good one to be proud of. Finally, what’s the most inspiring thing in footbag to you?\nhttp://footbag.jp/\nHm. To answer your first question more seriously, “my involvement in the development of the Japanese\u00a0scene.” Though on a personal level I’d probably say winning Circles and routines in subsequent USOs.\nKen Somolinos Open Routine – Finals – 2013 US Open Footbag Championships\n\nGood accomplishments.\nAs for inspiration, I think it’s the same as in any sport or human endeavor. Seeing yourself and your\u00a0friends try their hardest, and push past their highest expectations. I remember my earliest goals and\u00a0dream tricks, and how thrilled I was to hit them, then surpass them with new goals. When you see\u00a0another player push so hard, and achieve something they thought was impossible, you can’t help but be\u00a0inspired. There’s nothing inspiring in seeing somebody do what they’re supposed to do. But seeing\u00a0somebody grow, and improve, and strive….I met Taishi in 2003 when he had only been playing for a\u00a0month. 11 years later he wins gold at Worlds, against a murderous field for that event. That’s inspiring.\nAbsolutely agreed. It’s a wonderful feeling seeing someone you mentored rise up like that, I still have a\u00a0warm place in my heart for Nick Landes (shout outs) and all he has ended up accomplishing. Well,\u00a0thanks a bunch Ken for doing this interview, your work has been quite motivating and I look forward to\u00a0seeing where you go from here. Not to pay too much lip service, but you are one of the top players in\u00a0the U.S. and I would love to see a tournament/event where you, Lon, Jim, Evan, Nick, and Bevier all\u00a0converge. That would be a treat, meeting of masters ha ha. Hopefully soon.\nHey, thanks a lot Red. This was fun. Hopefully I’ll see you in Boulder or Boise sooner than later. Have fun\u00a0at the party!\nAgreed, will do. I’ll tell Daryl and Jim you said hello, and as always, see you in the circles my friend!\nRight on. Take care Red!\nHere is Ken\u2019s most recent video, one of my favorites from this year.\n\nArticle by Ethan “Red” Husted", "date_published": "2014-11-20T21:39:30+00:00", "date_modified": "2014-11-20T21:39:30+00:00", "author": { "name": "asmus", "url": "https://modified.in/bsos/author/asmus/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/04c37ae2f760408975cf17dc683e43c4?s=512&d=mm&r=g" }, "image": "https://modified.in/bsos/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/11/kens.png", "tags": [ "Competition", "Inspiration", "Knowledge" ] }, { "id": "https://modified.in/bsos/2014/10/23/polini-vs-iakimenko/", "url": "https://modified.in/bsos/2014/10/23/polini-vs-iakimenko/", "title": "Polini VS Iakimenko", "content_html": "

Many of you know who Ivan Iakimenko is. A young footbag player with loads of potential, a top-notch footbag stitcher, a talented footbag film editor, an inventor/innovator, etc… The dude is a saint in this community, from going to tournaments with an injury, unable to play, but filming the entire jam so others can enjoy it, to supplying pristine bags to so many players around the world. I had the privilege of being his room mate 2 years ago and I got to see a little deeper into what makes this awesome kid tick. I had a little chat-style interview with him so you can also get to know him better and take a trip into Ivan’s head for a bit. I hope you enjoy.

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– Nick Polini

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Hey, Ivan!

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hi Nick!

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How are you doing this fine evening?

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I’m doing quite well, thank you!

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Splendid! Let’s get this show on the road! Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

\n

Sure! I was born in St Petersburg Russia and moved to the states when I was 2. I played hacky sack in high school and grabbed my first pair of lavers without knowing about footbag. I am currently studying engineering at Penn State, which is where I met Nick Polini, who showed me what footbag was. Right now I’m still recovering from my Achilles injury, but I have been enjoying spending the time editing footage and making footbags.

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My name is Nick Polini, too! Small world.. Huge bummer about the Achilles injury. How much longer until you can play footbag again?

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I should be back around mid December if things go well. Btw, Nick is a pretty weird guy. Just putting that out there

\n

Well, that’s not too far off. Must be nice to see a light at the end of the tunnel finally. How long were you out for and if you don’t mind sharing, how did you get injured?

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I was playing Net in the doubles semifinals at the PA Net championships (first time playing) and I tore it. I haven’t been counting how long I’ve been out, but I think it’s been about 4 months now?

\n

Oi. It can be tough not being able to do one of your favorite activities. But you seem to have been very positive about the whole thing. What kind of stuff have you been doing in the meantime?

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Well, I’ve been spending a lot of time stitching bags for people. Since I like to make stuff in general, stitching is a nice relaxing activity that is footbag related, gets me a little bit of money, and lets me create cool things with my hands. I’ve also been going through a good bit of footage that I had stockpiled on my hard drive and putting out some videos. I’m slowly trying to improve the quality of my work and really enjoy learning new techniques in video production. Right now I’m working on an ECFC video, as well as a few other projects that people have supplied footage for.

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In non-footbag related activities, I really enjoy biking and have started to hike a bit. I also like to make a wide variety of things with my hands. I’ve carved sticks, drawn pictures, and am currently working on building a small town on a model train layout on campus.

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WOW! Sounds like you’ve been absolutely crushing it with other things! I should probably just state that you really do make some of the best bags in the world. Right up on the same pedestal with Marco, Bear, and Hania. I actually used one of your bags today in my session. I’ll also say that I taught Ivan to stitch footbags, back when we were room mates, and his first bag was visibly so much better than my 80something’th bag. I could tell he had an immediate knack for it. And your videos… words can’t describe them well enough so others can understand how great they really are… you just have to watch them for yourself, people. Your coverage of River Rock Jam ’13 in Richmond, VA was just incredible. Glad you’re able to hike and bike again. That’s gotta be a good sign. I know lots of people are excited for your return to footbag. You even had a tribute video made for you to assist you in a healthy recovery. What was your initial reaction to that?

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Thanks for the compliments! When that video went live, I was really surprised. I didn’t expect so many people, even players who I had never met to take the time to put something together for me. It was really humbling and it was a great lift at the time. I still enjoy watching that video every now and then – it is awesome to be a part of a community that close knit.

\n

Absolutely agree with you on the tight knit community. You even went to East Coast Footbag Championships and filmed the entire thing from start to finish, basically! That was seriously cool of you to do. What was your personal favorite highlight of that jam?

\n

Hmm, that’s a tough question. I think my favorite aspect was seeing everyone again and meeting the Cali crew for the first time. I’m usually too busy shredding or filming at tournaments and this time I managed to hang out with some people, at least for a little bit. Let’s be honest, that was the main reason I went, not to film or sell bags, although it’s cool that I got to do both.

\n

Yeah, you Penn Staters haven’t really been able to meet anyone from the West Coast or other distant lands. Must have been pretty cool. Very sick that the Cali guys came out. I knew Bear from a previous jam, but it was cool to finally meet Derek. Oh wait, unlike the other PSU kickers, you did meet plenty of non-eastcoast players at Worlds. What was that experience like for you?

\n

Worlds was an eye opener for sure. First of all, I had never been to a week long event, and even though everyone there kept saying that “attendance is down, ect” it was the biggest footbag competition I had ever been to. It changed my perception of footbag in about 2 minutes. First off, this was my first time seeing players like Honza, Aleksi and Felix live. One of my first circles was with Ken and Aleksi and man oh man, I couldn’t do a single clipper. It was unreal. That event inspired me to kick my butt into high gear to get better and was the driving force behind my improvements for the better part of last year. At the same time it was really sweet to see how approachable everyone was, even if I wasn’t confident enough to approach them. On the first night, I was playing Cards against humanity with Evan, Ken, Aleksi, Chris, and a whole bunch of awesome people I had literally just met an hour or two ago. These were people who I had spent hours watching videos of, studying how they did atomics or how they timed their double downs, and here we were drinking and BSing in a university dorm in Montreal. The amount of great tips I got there was staggering as well – having been in relative isolation in State College, it was amazing to have people like Ianek and Evan help me with butterflies and clipper form. Lastly, I also realized that I was worth more to the community as someone who filmed the competition rather than a competitor and that has been the inspiration that drives me to get better with video production to this day. Granted, I still want to get good at playing.

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Yeah man, I remember how quick those Worlds ’13 videos went up on youtube. Of course, I did get a behind-the-scenes look at you actually uploading them, since we were housemates for Worlds. But I think that was probably the quickest any Worlds (or any jam) footage has ever gone public. Very helpful. I feel like it made non-attenders feel like they were almost at Worlds that year, since the footage was only delayed by a few hours sometimes. It’s relieving to hear you say that you do want to get back into it and start getting good again. Let’s get into some real footbaggy talk, now that we covered some of the background stuff. What trick/component do you look foreword to coming back to the most?

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I’ve been thinking about plasma a lot, mostly because I enjoy both components a lot. Right before I got injured I worked a lot on both parts and think I should be able to get back on track to making that trick as easy as a ripwalk or something.

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Plasma is so sick. I remember you getting close to Quantum ss Double Down before your injury. I could see both being easy tricks for you soon enough. What are your top 5 favorite tricks?

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Are these tricks I can do, or just in general?

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In general…Who’s interviewing who? \"\ud83d\ude1b\"

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Lets, see – I’m a fan of blizzard and blurriest, and I’ve been wanting to hit full symp toe blurrier for a bit now. I also enjoy Scorps Tail and Mullet

\n

Quite a list. How about your top 5 favorite playas?

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That list changes quite often. These are not in any specific order: Dave, Evan, Pipebomb, Aleksi, Chris (Chinsen). If you ask me this in a week, I will probably give you a different list, depending on the videos I have been watching.

\n

Awesome list. All worthy of a top 5. What’s your take on the current Laver extinction/shred shoe crisis?

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oof. That’s a loaded question. I think it’s a shame they aren’t up to par anymore, but it was going to happen eventually. I really hope this drives the community to figure out a solution, but in the mean time we just have to make do with what we have at hand, even it if means branching out and using whatever shoes we have on hand – modded running shoes, older tennis shoes, random stuff kinda like what the net guys do. I think it’s a cool challenge to find a suitable shoe, but it’s also an annoying situation when a beginner asks about shoes. At the moment, I’m just working on resoling old lavers to give them more use

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Yes, the resoling jobs you do on Lavers are quite nice. I might need to talk to you about that sometime soon. Please pick up a footbag from your desk, throw it behind you, and let us know what it lands on?

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Well, I’m at my parents house right now so I don’t actually have any bags on me desk *looks around in embarrassment* I’ve got a small plastic bag of lead shot I can toss.
\nAnd it hit the most expensive thing in the room.

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When your parents ask why their expensive thing is broken, will you tell your parents that Nick had nothing to do with this?

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I nailed the quadcopter sitting in the corner of my room. It’s fine, but I haven’t flown it in over a year so this might be a sign that I should get it back in the air and filming footbag stuff… My parents don’t care \"\ud83d\ude42\"

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I think we always talked about it, but not sure if it’s been done by you yet… Have you filmed footbag from bird’s-eye-view with the quadcopter yet?

\n

Yes – I have some footage of a person dropping a bag a lot at old Main. I’ve also done some more non-footbag flying to hone my skills. It’s still a bit nerve racking flying around people to be honest. Plus current legislation is a bit prohibitive and I’m waiting for the FAA to give it’s ruling on personal SUAVs – until that happens, most places ban me from flying with a camera on board.
\nspoiler alert – there may or may not be aerial footage for the Jamps trailer I’m starting to plan out

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We should just tell the FAA to go to bed and let us fly our robotic helicopters in peace. I do hope they end up allowing you to fly and film soon. I’m stoked for Jamps! Readers, If you’re not stoked for Jamps, like I am, then you are wrong. Speaking of helicopters, what are some of your biggest dream tricks in footbag?

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Nice segway.

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Mall cops have nicer Segways

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Mall cops suck because they kick you out for playing “hacky sack and being dangerous” Drew and Ryan can back me up. But yeah, dream tricks. I would like to eventually hit alpine fusion rake when I get good… I just think it would look super sick. I would also like to get fairy gyro symple dyno.\u00a0Both sides, obviously.
\nAt this point, I would give a lot just to hit a decent butterfly though.

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Wow. I have never even thought of those combinations of components before. Very interesting. So what’s good with the PSU crew this year?

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PSU is doing well – we have a bit of an off year in terms of membership – we have a few new members but they are progressing slower than I am used to. However, it’s just as fun when they show up to kick and you can see the dedication and enjoyment which is the important thing. The established members are getting better very quickly and that is encouraging. We are planning a fun jam for Halloween and have set the dates for PSU Jamps V.

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That will be a fun tourney April 4-5th with a shorter competition schedule than last year, allowing more time for fun shred, party shenanigans and hiking/geocaching.

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Awesome! Readers, you heard the man.. I would adjust your schedules accordingly. We had 40+ shredders/shreditas at Jamps IV last year. It was HUGE. This year will surely be just as much fun, if not.. dare I say.. MORE? Awesome to hear that the club is still illin’ it. What are a few goals you have for footbag?

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Personally, I’d like to get back to shredding and be doing basic 2 adds by the time the year ends. After that, I just want to have fun – often that means drilling to get better, but I also aim to step back and see if I’m having fun. Sometimes we get lost in our training and ambitions and the game loses a lot of its appeal. In terms of stitching, I would like to make a few non standard patterns, keep making bags that people enjoy, and make some more cool 92 panel patterns. For video editing, my goal is to have a video for the christmas calendar, and maybe a few for the dead weeks that follow it. I want to keep experimenting with different angles and editing processes to make my videos more entertaining for both the general public and footbaggers alike. Overall, I just want to have fun and kick with all of the cool people I have met in the past three years. I don’t really care about competing.

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Great goals. I wish you the best of luck in accomplishing all of them. I’m looking forward to shredding with you again. It’s been too long, man. Anyway, looks like the interview is just about over. Do you have any final words/things to say/thanks you’s/etc…?

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Yeah, I suppose I’ll say a big thanks to everyone who has messaged me and talked, whether it be footbag, life or random stuff. Thank you Nick and Nate for getting me started in footbag and introducing me to this awesome community. Lastly, I would like to say thank you to Jay and Mads for making sweet edits – you guys do fantastic work that becomes the face of the sport whenever I have to explain it to others. Also, big thanks to everyone who does the little things for the sport – without your efforts, the sport wouldn’t be where it is today. Peace out shredders, hopefully I get to meet and kick with everyone of you at some point.

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Ivan, my dude, it’s been a total pleasure staying up past my bed time and conducting this interview with you. I really enjoyed it. Thanks so much for your time. We both deserve some ice cream now.

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Yes. I’ll go get some. Thanks for doing this, it’s an honor to be on BSOS.

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You’re beyond worthy of it, buddy.

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Ivan on YouTube and Modified

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Written by Nick Polini
\nPicture by Asmus Helms

\n", "content_text": "Many of you know who Ivan Iakimenko is. A young footbag player with loads of potential, a top-notch footbag stitcher, a talented footbag film editor, an inventor/innovator, etc… The dude is a saint in this community, from going to tournaments with an injury, unable to play, but filming the entire jam so others can enjoy it, to supplying pristine bags to so many players around the world. I had the privilege of being his room mate 2 years ago and I got to see a little deeper into what makes this awesome kid tick. I had a little chat-style interview with him so you can also get to know him better and take a trip into Ivan’s head for a bit. I hope you enjoy.\n– Nick Polini\nHey, Ivan!\nhi Nick!\nHow are you doing this fine evening?\nI’m doing quite well, thank you!\nSplendid! Let’s get this show on the road! Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?\nSure! I was born in St Petersburg Russia and moved to the states when I was 2. I played hacky sack in high school and grabbed my first pair of lavers without knowing about footbag. I am currently studying engineering at Penn State, which is where I met Nick Polini, who showed me what footbag was. Right now I’m still recovering from my Achilles injury, but I have been enjoying spending the time editing footage and making footbags.\nMy name is Nick Polini, too! Small world.. Huge bummer about the Achilles injury. How much longer until you can play footbag again?\nI should be back around mid December if things go well. Btw, Nick is a pretty weird guy. Just putting that out there\nWell, that’s not too far off. Must be nice to see a light at the end of the tunnel finally. How long were you out for and if you don’t mind sharing, how did you get injured?\nI was playing Net in the doubles semifinals at the PA Net championships (first time playing) and I tore it. I haven’t been counting how long I’ve been out, but I think it’s been about 4 months now?\nOi. It can be tough not being able to do one of your favorite activities. But you seem to have been very positive about the whole thing. What kind of stuff have you been doing in the meantime?\nWell, I’ve been spending a lot of time stitching bags for people. Since I like to make stuff in general, stitching is a nice relaxing activity that is footbag related, gets me a little bit of money, and lets me create cool things with my hands. I’ve also been going through a good bit of footage that I had stockpiled on my hard drive and putting out some videos. I’m slowly trying to improve the quality of my work and really enjoy learning new techniques in video production. Right now I’m working on an ECFC video, as well as a few other projects that people have supplied footage for.\nIn non-footbag related activities, I really enjoy biking and have started to hike a bit. I also like to make a wide variety of things with my hands. I’ve carved sticks, drawn pictures, and am currently working on building a small town on a model train layout on campus.\nWOW! Sounds like you’ve been absolutely crushing it with other things! I should probably just state that you really do make some of the best bags in the world. Right up on the same pedestal with Marco, Bear, and Hania. I actually used one of your bags today in my session. I’ll also say that I taught Ivan to stitch footbags, back when we were room mates, and his first bag was visibly so much better than my 80something’th bag. I could tell he had an immediate knack for it. And your videos… words can’t describe them well enough so others can understand how great they really are… you just have to watch them for yourself, people. Your coverage of River Rock Jam ’13 in Richmond, VA was just incredible. Glad you’re able to hike and bike again. That’s gotta be a good sign. I know lots of people are excited for your return to footbag. You even had a tribute video made for you to assist you in a healthy recovery. What was your initial reaction to that?\nThanks for the compliments! When that video went live, I was really surprised. I didn’t expect so many people, even players who I had never met to take the time to put something together for me. It was really humbling and it was a great lift at the time. I still enjoy watching that video every now and then – it is awesome to be a part of a community that close knit.\nAbsolutely agree with you on the tight knit community. You even went to East Coast Footbag Championships and filmed the entire thing from start to finish, basically! That was seriously cool of you to do. What was your personal favorite highlight of that jam?\nHmm, that’s a tough question. I think my favorite aspect was seeing everyone again and meeting the Cali crew for the first time. I’m usually too busy shredding or filming at tournaments and this time I managed to hang out with some people, at least for a little bit. Let’s be honest, that was the main reason I went, not to film or sell bags, although it’s cool that I got to do both.\nYeah, you Penn Staters haven’t really been able to meet anyone from the West Coast or other distant lands. Must have been pretty cool. Very sick that the Cali guys came out. I knew Bear from a previous jam, but it was cool to finally meet Derek. Oh wait, unlike the other PSU kickers, you did meet plenty of non-eastcoast players at Worlds. What was that experience like for you?\nWorlds was an eye opener for sure. First of all, I had never been to a week long event, and even though everyone there kept saying that “attendance is down, ect” it was the biggest footbag competition I had ever been to. It changed my perception of footbag in about 2 minutes. First off, this was my first time seeing players like Honza, Aleksi and Felix live. One of my first circles was with Ken and Aleksi and man oh man, I couldn’t do a single clipper. It was unreal. That event inspired me to kick my butt into high gear to get better and was the driving force behind my improvements for the better part of last year. At the same time it was really sweet to see how approachable everyone was, even if I wasn’t confident enough to approach them. On the first night, I was playing Cards against humanity with Evan, Ken, Aleksi, Chris, and a whole bunch of awesome people I had literally just met an hour or two ago. These were people who I had spent hours watching videos of, studying how they did atomics or how they timed their double downs, and here we were drinking and BSing in a university dorm in Montreal. The amount of great tips I got there was staggering as well – having been in relative isolation in State College, it was amazing to have people like Ianek and Evan help me with butterflies and clipper form. Lastly, I also realized that I was worth more to the community as someone who filmed the competition rather than a competitor and that has been the inspiration that drives me to get better with video production to this day. Granted, I still want to get good at playing.\nYeah man, I remember how quick those Worlds ’13 videos went up on youtube. Of course, I did get a behind-the-scenes look at you actually uploading them, since we were housemates for Worlds. But I think that was probably the quickest any Worlds (or any jam) footage has ever gone public. Very helpful. I feel like it made non-attenders feel like they were almost at Worlds that year, since the footage was only delayed by a few hours sometimes. It’s relieving to hear you say that you do want to get back into it and start getting good again. Let’s get into some real footbaggy talk, now that we covered some of the background stuff. What trick/component do you look foreword to coming back to the most?\nI’ve been thinking about plasma a lot, mostly because I enjoy both components a lot. Right before I got injured I worked a lot on both parts and think I should be able to get back on track to making that trick as easy as a ripwalk or something.\nPlasma is so sick. I remember you getting close to Quantum ss Double Down before your injury. I could see both being easy tricks for you soon enough. What are your top 5 favorite tricks?\nAre these tricks I can do, or just in general?\nIn general…Who’s interviewing who? \nLets, see – I’m a fan of blizzard and blurriest, and I’ve been wanting to hit full symp toe blurrier for a bit now. I also enjoy Scorps Tail and Mullet\nQuite a list. How about your top 5 favorite playas?\nThat list changes quite often. These are not in any specific order: Dave, Evan, Pipebomb, Aleksi, Chris (Chinsen). If you ask me this in a week, I will probably give you a different list, depending on the videos I have been watching.\nAwesome list. All worthy of a top 5. What’s your take on the current Laver extinction/shred shoe crisis?\noof. That’s a loaded question. I think it’s a shame they aren’t up to par anymore, but it was going to happen eventually. I really hope this drives the community to figure out a solution, but in the mean time we just have to make do with what we have at hand, even it if means branching out and using whatever shoes we have on hand – modded running shoes, older tennis shoes, random stuff kinda like what the net guys do. I think it’s a cool challenge to find a suitable shoe, but it’s also an annoying situation when a beginner asks about shoes. At the moment, I’m just working on resoling old lavers to give them more use\nYes, the resoling jobs you do on Lavers are quite nice. I might need to talk to you about that sometime soon. Please pick up a footbag from your desk, throw it behind you, and let us know what it lands on?\nWell, I’m at my parents house right now so I don’t actually have any bags on me desk *looks around in embarrassment* I’ve got a small plastic bag of lead shot I can toss.\nAnd it hit the most expensive thing in the room.\nWhen your parents ask why their expensive thing is broken, will you tell your parents that Nick had nothing to do with this?\nI nailed the quadcopter sitting in the corner of my room. It’s fine, but I haven’t flown it in over a year so this might be a sign that I should get it back in the air and filming footbag stuff… My parents don’t care \nI think we always talked about it, but not sure if it’s been done by you yet… Have you filmed footbag from bird’s-eye-view with the quadcopter yet?\nYes – I have some footage of a person dropping a bag a lot at old Main. I’ve also done some more non-footbag flying to hone my skills. It’s still a bit nerve racking flying around people to be honest. Plus current legislation is a bit prohibitive and I’m waiting for the FAA to give it’s ruling on personal SUAVs – until that happens, most places ban me from flying with a camera on board.\nspoiler alert – there may or may not be aerial footage for the Jamps trailer I’m starting to plan out\nWe should just tell the FAA to go to bed and let us fly our robotic helicopters in peace. I do hope they end up allowing you to fly and film soon. I’m stoked for Jamps! Readers, If you’re not stoked for Jamps, like I am, then you are wrong. Speaking of helicopters, what are some of your biggest dream tricks in footbag?\nNice segway.\nMall cops have nicer Segways\nMall cops suck because they kick you out for playing “hacky sack and being dangerous” Drew and Ryan can back me up. But yeah, dream tricks. I would like to eventually hit alpine fusion rake when I get good… I just think it would look super sick. I would also like to get fairy gyro symple dyno.\u00a0Both sides, obviously.\nAt this point, I would give a lot just to hit a decent butterfly though.\nWow. I have never even thought of those combinations of components before. Very interesting. So what’s good with the PSU crew this year?\nPSU is doing well – we have a bit of an off year in terms of membership – we have a few new members but they are progressing slower than I am used to. However, it’s just as fun when they show up to kick and you can see the dedication and enjoyment which is the important thing. The established members are getting better very quickly and that is encouraging. We are planning a fun jam for Halloween and have set the dates for PSU Jamps V.\nThat will be a fun tourney April 4-5th with a shorter competition schedule than last year, allowing more time for fun shred, party shenanigans and hiking/geocaching.\nAwesome! Readers, you heard the man.. I would adjust your schedules accordingly. We had 40+ shredders/shreditas at Jamps IV last year. It was HUGE. This year will surely be just as much fun, if not.. dare I say.. MORE? Awesome to hear that the club is still illin’ it. What are a few goals you have for footbag?\nPersonally, I’d like to get back to shredding and be doing basic 2 adds by the time the year ends. After that, I just want to have fun – often that means drilling to get better, but I also aim to step back and see if I’m having fun. Sometimes we get lost in our training and ambitions and the game loses a lot of its appeal. In terms of stitching, I would like to make a few non standard patterns, keep making bags that people enjoy, and make some more cool 92 panel patterns. For video editing, my goal is to have a video for the christmas calendar, and maybe a few for the dead weeks that follow it. I want to keep experimenting with different angles and editing processes to make my videos more entertaining for both the general public and footbaggers alike. Overall, I just want to have fun and kick with all of the cool people I have met in the past three years. I don’t really care about competing.\nGreat goals. I wish you the best of luck in accomplishing all of them. I’m looking forward to shredding with you again. It’s been too long, man. Anyway, looks like the interview is just about over. Do you have any final words/things to say/thanks you’s/etc…?\nYeah, I suppose I’ll say a big thanks to everyone who has messaged me and talked, whether it be footbag, life or random stuff. Thank you Nick and Nate for getting me started in footbag and introducing me to this awesome community. Lastly, I would like to say thank you to Jay and Mads for making sweet edits – you guys do fantastic work that becomes the face of the sport whenever I have to explain it to others. Also, big thanks to everyone who does the little things for the sport – without your efforts, the sport wouldn’t be where it is today. Peace out shredders, hopefully I get to meet and kick with everyone of you at some point.\nIvan, my dude, it’s been a total pleasure staying up past my bed time and conducting this interview with you. I really enjoyed it. Thanks so much for your time. We both deserve some ice cream now.\nYes. I’ll go get some. Thanks for doing this, it’s an honor to be on BSOS.\nYou’re beyond worthy of it, buddy.\nIvan on YouTube and Modified\nWritten by Nick Polini\nPicture by Asmus Helms", "date_published": "2014-10-23T07:26:57+00:00", "date_modified": "2014-10-23T07:26:57+00:00", "author": { "name": "asmus", "url": "https://modified.in/bsos/author/asmus/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/04c37ae2f760408975cf17dc683e43c4?s=512&d=mm&r=g" }, "image": "https://modified.in/bsos/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/10/iakimenkoreal.png", "tags": [ "Competition", "Equipment", "Inspiration", "Knowledge", "Satire", "Video" ] }, { "id": "https://modified.in/bsos/2014/10/19/an-innovative-solution-to-nail-loss-from-toe-stubbage/", "url": "https://modified.in/bsos/2014/10/19/an-innovative-solution-to-nail-loss-from-toe-stubbage/", "title": "An Innovative Solution to Nail Loss from Toe Stubbage", "content_html": "

\"glow_toe_animationB\"

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Nail loss from toe stubbage is a major medical issue that causes discomfort and effects up to 13% of the global population/year [1].

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Despite the convincing pumpkin re-enactment [2] in the GIF above my injury was actually acquired from a toe inspinning clipper. Toe inspinning for those that are unfamiliar is one of the most dangerous concepts in footbag [3]. While I ended up landing the trick, the large toe of my support foot jammed against the end of my shoe causing bruising and cursing.

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Unfortunately, even with the best attention modern medicine can provide it soon became clear that I was going to lose the nail. Not one to be discouraged, I decided to utilize the latest advancements in 3D printing to make myself a prosthetic nail:

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\"3Dprinted_toe_nail\"

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Also, not one to settle for merely restoring the normal attributes of a nail I briefly considered making the nail harder, faster, and stronger. Instead I added an integrated LED to create a glowing effect. Soon I was back to playing footbag hitting dexterities like nobodies business:

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\"glow_toe_datw\"

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References

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[1] Toodle Doo et al. “Convincing toe nail loss statistics,” in The High Impact Journal of BS.it, pp.122, 1999

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[2] No pumpkins were harmed in the making of this blog post.

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[3] Erik Chan. “050904-toespinning.wmv”, Hackrifice 2005: http://www.footbag.org/gallery2/show/12622

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Written by Rory Dawson

\n", "content_text": "Nail loss from toe stubbage is a major medical issue that causes discomfort and effects up to 13% of the global population/year [1].\nDespite the convincing pumpkin re-enactment [2] in the GIF above my injury was actually acquired from a toe inspinning clipper. Toe inspinning for those that are unfamiliar is one of the most dangerous concepts in footbag [3]. While I ended up landing the trick, the large toe of my support foot jammed against the end of my shoe causing bruising and cursing.\nUnfortunately, even with the best attention modern medicine can provide it soon became clear that I was going to lose the nail. Not one to be discouraged, I decided to utilize the latest advancements in 3D printing to make myself a prosthetic nail:\n\nAlso, not one to settle for merely restoring the normal attributes of a nail I briefly considered making the nail harder, faster, and stronger. Instead I added an integrated LED to create a glowing effect. Soon I was back to playing footbag hitting dexterities like nobodies business:\n\nReferences\n[1] Toodle Doo et al. “Convincing toe nail loss statistics,” in The High Impact Journal of BS.it, pp.122, 1999\n[2] No pumpkins were harmed in the making of this blog post.\n[3] Erik Chan. “050904-toespinning.wmv”, Hackrifice 2005: http://www.footbag.org/gallery2/show/12622\nWritten by Rory Dawson", "date_published": "2014-10-19T20:12:14+00:00", "date_modified": "2014-10-19T20:12:14+00:00", "author": { "name": "asmus", "url": "https://modified.in/bsos/author/asmus/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/04c37ae2f760408975cf17dc683e43c4?s=512&d=mm&r=g" }, "image": "https://modified.in/bsos/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/10/toe_stubC_header.png", "tags": [ "Equipment", "Inspiration" ] } ] }