Proper Form & Preventing Injury

Jorden · Post by **Jorden** » 16 Feb 2006 21:39

I truly believe with proper execution of moves and effective stretching methods, one can prevent any type of nagging injury.

Footbag is a sport with many techniques that could be considered 'unnatural'. To this, I disagree. (for the most part) Aside from stalls requiring flexibilty (dragons, doof, zipper, etc.), footbag moves can be practised to become very natural regarding form. The body is only meant to move in certain ways. To put any sort of strain on your body as a sacrifice of hitting a move is VERY BAD. There is always a pain-free, more efficient way to do it. Knees are designed to bend one way. If you are bending your knees in any other direction, how miniscule the difference in angle may be, you NEED to fix your form.

One thing that's very common with players at the tiltless level is the forward facing orientation of butterflies and clippers. The support foot should be turned inwards and hips rotated away from the bag during the stall. The clipper should be futher 'behind' you with your knees together and both facing in the same direction. Keep the head and shoulders over the bag. Stay upright. Bad posture also equals bad form. I call hunching over 'zombie style'. This should never be practised on purpose for more than 5 minutes.

Taking these measures may prevent you from developing a nagging injury

This is, to me, the most efficient way of performing a clipper:

I have not suffered any serious or reoccuring injuries in my 4+ years of playing. It's not by luck as most people think.

Post any questions or tips you have on good form here.

brian relly · Post by **brian relly** » 16 Feb 2006 22:03

Stay on the balls of your feet.

When coming down from a nasty move (PS PAIN), give your knee a little extra bend--and thus cushioning--to help alleviate stress on your shins and the tendons in your knees.

santeri · Post by **santeri** » 17 Feb 2006 00:45

Now I really started to think about my clipper form...
This is a thing I have to test a lot to get the right form to come natural in different tricks.
I have no pain when I play, not at least yet, but still better to really think about this so I won't get any.

Dat · Post by **Dat** » 21 Mar 2006 15:02

That picture is really helpful. Thanks for the explaination.

sniper4life · Post by **sniper4life** » 27 Mar 2006 13:39

sweet that's exactly how I taught myself to clipper

tuomoruutufan · Post by **tuomoruutufan** » 28 Aug 2006 17:21

LOL LOL LOL

I remember me you and scott davidson were in a circle in the front lobby of the new years jam 05 venue.

You did a tiltless zombie run, and it was amusing and i dont know if you were shedding light on my form on purpose or not but either way i really started to straighten up and focus on better form after that event.

ShredOnLawn · Post by **ShredOnLawn** » 05 Sep 2006 23:35

Form

A Great Topic.

Each body may have slight form variations. Keep this in mind.

Clippers should be as far behind you as is comfortable.

I try to make my back actually bend backwards to keep my balance behind me where the clipper's at.

I learned good clipper placement by watching Vasek hit Mobius back to back. He doesn't sweep the osis. He just catches it straight up and down. It's underneath him and behind him. Definately NOT Beside him.

Clippers beside the body temp the spine to twist.

When doing a clipper stall try thinking only about your spine and see how far behind you you can confortably move your clipper stall.
Find your range of flat clippers and find your personal sweet spot for clipper and osis.

Mastering osis is also key to good form.

save.cullen · Post by **save.cullen** » 06 Sep 2006 22:44

Lon,

Justin Dale told me about your adventure with Vasek, and about your new clipper form.

I have taken it in, and I can say my game as been 100x better.

Thank you for sharing that info with Justin

Rash · Post by **Rash** » 10 Nov 2006 14:38

hello I have playing 6 months and my problem is on my clipper straight then whenever I do it beats with the flor and it moves all my game to me that I can do I am very of that clipper, I have three weeks with this problem.

Quetzal

Daniel · Post by **Daniel** » 26 Nov 2006 13:10

i would appreciate hints for a proper whirl technique. i can actually hit that move, still my knees are crying for help after doing only a few (!) attempts, independent of having hit it or not.
my clipper/butterfly is pretty strong i would say (can hit >30 consecutively w/out problems).

dyalander · Post by **dyalander** » 27 Nov 2006 18:44

Lon and Jorden, what do you think about "playing on your toes". Having only seen either of you play in videos, it's hard to know for sure, but I've always got the impression that both of you play more 'flat footed' than alot of players (Vasek for example, although again having never seen Vasek in person I couldn't say for sure, he may well go back down on his heals more than I think, but I've always had the impression that he plays more up on his toes than you guys). By that I mean both of you seem to distribute your weight more evenly across the toes and heal of your support foot, rather than playing up on your toes. I have heard alot of people say that playing on your toes is important as it reduces stress on your knees as you come down from a high impact move. What do you guys think?

Jorden · Post by **Jorden** » 29 Nov 2006 05:32

Actually, I play mostly on my toes.

It's a good habit to get into. Helps absorb the impacts of jumping.

JM

Pyroman924 · Post by **Pyroman924** » 29 Nov 2006 15:22

While I am far from being as experienced as Jorden or most others here, I would definitely say playing on your toes is better. I came to that conclusion when doing flying clippers and butterfly kicks and the like. I started out landing flat-footed but I could only do so many that way because neither my knees, nor my ankles could take my weight coming down so often. I tested out jumping off of my toes and landing on my toes and found I was much more consistent that way, not to mention the fact it was much less painful. Just my personal preference though. As many have stated in these forums, everyone is different in form and style. Try out different techniques and do what works best for you.

dyalander · Post by **dyalander** » 29 Nov 2006 15:41

Thanks for the reply - I've always played up on my toes, my heals never really touch the ground at all though so I think it might be too much. Comparing my clipper to the pic above, I don't think there's any point where my support foot is as flat (with the heal down) as that. I'm going to work on relaxing it just a little, I think staying on your toes too much has its own downsides so its worth getting right.

Jorden · Post by **Jorden** » 25 Oct 2007 18:33

Bump bump bump!

Form form form!!!

Post your form tips here.

JM

Paul Agostinelli · Post by **Paul Agostinelli** » 26 Oct 2007 03:47

i just had a chuckle to myself remembering you shred your ass of at glass where that photo was taken, and then seeing this thread when it first was written '...the most efficient way to do a clipper stall...", and then seeing it now that it was bumped, and remembering you and dave asking for clipper form tips from vasaek at worlds lol

Guest_1 · Post by **Guest_1** » 26 Oct 2007 09:36

I think I realized why my knees have been aching and hurting

My support knee beds inward. When I clipper, I don't allow my knee to bend inward and force it to bend straight. This is why I think it hurts.

Whirls just move the leg too fast for it to get into position to bend properly.

How do I balance my body to bend my knees correctly for a clipper?

Dat · Post by **Dat** » 28 Oct 2007 16:40

Stuff I learned the hard way:

Clippers are dynamic moves, not static positions. They have stages, the same way a baseball pitches have stages. Do all the necessary work before you catch the bag. Also, there are different clippers the same way there are different pitches. Don't be satisfied with the first one you figure out; continually tweak your clipper.

Find muscle imbalances, especially in your core ie torso. Address them with cross training, not more footbag. Form requires a threshold of strength to use comfortably with relaxed muscles. Relying on dominant muscles clenches them, locks up joints, preventing other joints from working properly, putting extra stress on your joints to make up for the loss in ease of balance. Weak, painful joints means muscles elsewhere aren't doing their job.

Spend time without the footbag (air shredding, visualization), and learn to ignore the footbag in regular practice. Instead of being distracted by the footbag and repeating the same mistakes trying to clear dexes and catching the bag, you will start building your body awareness. You'll learn to read the pressure, tension and resistance information from your skeleton, muscles and joints to put that information towards honing your balance and comfort. Don't forget your hips, shoulders, elbows, wrists and neck.

Use walking as cross training to also improve your awareness, balance and control. Turn your everyday walking into training sessions. Increase mental balance coordination effort to reduce muscle effort and joint stress. Get your whole body to work as a team instead of forcing all the work onto only a few muscles. Learn to focus on bending and carrying your swinging leg up and forward instead of pulling the ground rearward with your supporting leg. It is much more efficient to lift and carry one leg than to pull the weight of your whole body forward. If you get your walk efficient enough your body will loosen up naturally and stay that way on it's own. Improvements in walking efficiency carry directly over to footbag. If your walk sucks, your footbag game is going to suck, no exceptions.

When watching players in person or on video, learn to see tricks from their perspective. Put your eyes in their head so you can imagine what tricks actually look like when they are performed. Consider the location, trajectory, geometry, and relationship of limbs and joints. Imagine following along as you watch. Carefully choose which players and which of their tricks you study. Don't take in everything you see. In the same way, learn to sift through advice.

Keep a log for just footbag technique. This will let you progress without continually repeating the same mistakes.

HG · Post by HG » 31 Oct 2007 18:34

I have a shitty walk, and i think i have decent style and skill

ObArA'BaRs · Post by **ObArA'BaRs** » 04 Nov 2007 10:34

this is a good topic.