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OGL Asia – Ultimate Footbag Challenge

In 2011 there were a number of events around Asia as part of Adidas using footbag to sell some perfumes and other products (unfortunately there was nothing to do with the Rod Laver shoe though.

As a bit of disclosure, I was involved in the Malaysian leg of the event where I gave some demonstrations and acted as a judge of the competition.

The inaugural Ultimate Footbag Challenge was organised by Kay Ess Enterprises, a local distributor for adidas body care & fragrances.

OGL’s main role was to reach out to the masses and gather support for the event by approaching several tertiary institutions to conduct Footbag workshops for students and staff.

As Footbag is a relatively new sport in Singapore, participants were guided to focus more on a freestyle routine rather than a monotonous juggle. This had helped to provide the Singapore winner with a competitive edge in the regional competition where Footbag champions came together from Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand & Vietnam. An online voting system was created on ESPN website and Singapore emerged as the regional champion!

Read more at http://www.ogl.com.sg/portfolio/ultimate-footbag-challenge/

Here is some footage from the original competition. Most players involved across the countries did not have a footbag background, but some came from other similar sports.

 

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SFGate – Footbag Players Go Toe to Toe in World Championship (2010)

When Worlds were held in Oakland in 2010 there was a day when the media were invited along and shown Nemesis and other tricks along the way. It definitely left an impression.

For years, no one thought that “the nemesis” was possible–that’s a freestyle footbag trick in which a player must kick a small leather ball, also known as a hacky sack, into the air, circle it twice with each leg then catch it on their shoe behind their back. Seven years ago this legendary trick was accomplished during a competition but, even today, the nemesis remains a trick very few people in the world can achieve.

“Normally it takes a hundred tries,” said U.S. footbag champion David Clavens, a 22-year-old player who demonstrated different tricks and maneuvers at Oakland’s convention center on Monday during the kickoff to the 31st Annual World Footbag Championship. “It happens quick,” Clavens warned. Then he flung the bag into the air with his foot, his legs whipped and spun, and a second later, his fans and colleagues were clapping, cheering and shouting “Yeah!” because he’d conquered the nemesis.

Read more here

As a bonus for this post, here is some video I took on the day of exactly what the media were seeing.