Look Ma, no dex!

shredzilla · Post by **shredzilla** » 06 Aug 2006 22:06

Hey, I just wanted to point out that Steve Blough isn't even dexing the bag in this pic.

I mean, what is he going for there anyway? Like flying toe point toward the flying bag that's escaping him? Yeah, great move dude, too bad we didn't get to see the after shot of you falling on your ass..

(Please, no comments on the nut-huggers)

NotHisRealName · Post by **NotHisRealName** » 06 Aug 2006 22:48

I can't comment about Steve B. I've never met the guy so why would I not like him?
Sure, he runs www.footbag.com and plays a different type of footbag to what I do, but what's not to like? His philosophy to the game?
I'm not competative, so should I dislike all the competative players of freestyle out there? I don't play net, so should I dislike all the net players out there?

And regarding the photo, I've seen lots of pictures of people stalling the bag - no dexing there!

I'm sorry, I just don't get the constant bagging out of the 'Danceman'. Sure his style of play looks stupid to me, but I'm not going to hate him for it.

Kyle Hewitt · Post by **Kyle Hewitt** » 06 Aug 2006 23:47

He is trying to save himself from "theing" an outside kick

shredzilla · Post by **shredzilla** » 07 Aug 2006 06:44

NotHisRealName wrote:I can't comment about Steve B. I've never met the guy so why would I not like him?
Sure, he runs www.footbag.com and plays a different type of footbag to what I do, but what's not to like? His philosophy to the game?
I'm not competative, so should I dislike all the competative players of freestyle out there? I don't play net, so should I dislike all the net players out there?

And regarding the photo, I've seen lots of pictures of people stalling the bag - no dexing there!

I'm sorry, I just don't get the constant bagging out of the 'Danceman'. Sure his style of play looks stupid to me, but I'm not going to hate him for it.

Have you watched the video on footbag.com? lol

hacksterbator · Post by **hacksterbator** » 07 Aug 2006 09:24

shredzilla wrote:Have you watched the video on footbag.com? lol

yes, i have, and i'm gonna have to go with gareth on this one. time to start worrying about your own game my friend, and let those who enjoy footbag in different forms do simply that.

shredzilla · Post by **shredzilla** » 07 Aug 2006 10:01

hacksterbator wrote:
shredzilla wrote:Have you watched the video on footbag.com? lol
yes, i have, and i'm gonna have to go with gareth on this one. time to start worrying about your own game my friend, and let those who enjoy footbag in different forms do simply that.

Wow you guys really know how to take all the fun out of blough-bashing! Or maybe you're just playing devil's advocate because I'm just another American with a silly opinion on something.

Wait wait...Footbag.com is not a footbag site. Am I missing something here? I'm lost guys sorry.

He hasn't updated the site in years...All it is is a series of 'product shops', some bunk-interview, the vid, and him proclaiming his style as a learned art form called 'Bloughchi', not even footbag!! Wow, you guys are joking with me right? That's like looking up basketball.com and seeing some guy in the corner bouncing a basketball against a wall or something.

Oh, PS- I'm not trying to not let him enjoy footbag however he wants. He could use his hands and I could care less. I'm knocking him for hogging the domain and refusing to sell it, and for mis-representing the sport, making it just that much more confusing for anyone who wants to learn more, or even become a fan.

RawSko · Post by **RawSko** » 07 Aug 2006 10:55

did you guys ever read this?
http://www.naturalphysiques.com/cms/?itemid=114

I dislike the way he talked about freestyle in this article

shredzilla · Post by **shredzilla** » 07 Aug 2006 11:29

The Mystique and Essence of Bloughchi Footbag: An Interview with Steve - The Danceman - Blough. Every so often the mainstream sports scene is struck by an athlete who seems to possess superhuman abilities on the playing courts and fields. He or she is always at least one step ahead of the opposition and consistently finds ways to get in the right position at the right time to make the really “big” plays.

Iron Clad Ben · Post by **Iron Clad Ben** » 07 Aug 2006 12:12

Yeah Blough is a megalomaniacal douchebag who misrepresents his sport. What can you do about it?

I found it rather ironic that they compared him to Pete Rose.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Rose

For you non-Americans, Pete Rose was a star American baseball player and coach who had a fall from grace after it had been revealed that he had been involved in illegal gambling related to baseball and was determined ineligble for the baseball Hall of Fame. He was basically completely disgraced and his reputation was ruined.

Steve is kind of the same way. He'll never make BAP or the Footbag Hall of Fame. You can have talent but if you're a d-bag that no one likes, it doesn't really matter.

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 07 Aug 2006 16:32

I agree with Grant that time is better spent improving one`s own game, rather than dissing on Blough. That said, I think Gareth is defending him a bit much: the man is an egotistical hypocrite, whose site hurts the spread of footbag.

I wrote this over 3 years ago on these forums, which still sums up my opinions on Blough and Bloughchi:

C-Fan wrote:I think the main problem most people have with Bloughchi lies not in what Bloughchi is saying, so much as in how it says it.

I think that most freestyle footbaggers would agree that it IS indeed fun to stand in a hack circle and just kick it with a bunch of friends. There IS something to Bloughchi`s assertion that having a good flow and just cooperatively booting around a beanbag with a bunch of other people is fun and rewarding.

For example, on the shred video Overground, I appear in a circle like this kicking it with some people I never met before. This wasn`t staged; I just like meeting new people and I find its a good way to warm up (though I now prefer 4 square). Its also a nice way to recruit new freestylers, since you break the ice and establish yourself as a non-intimidating presence. So even an admitted freestyle enthusiast like myself does not have an inherent problem with just kicking it bloughchi-style.

The problem with Bloughchi is in the pompous, often hypocritical, and ridiculous manner in which it presents itself. Let`s start with the most obvious: the name.

Many people before Steve Blough realized that kicking around a footbag can be a fun and expressive form of exercise. But even if Steve Blough WAS the first to realize this, it is the height of egotism to name a sport after yourself. And he didn`t just name it after himself, he had to tack on the suffix `chi` to it to make it sound like a martial art! This is just laughable really. Somolinos-chi! Naismith actually INVENTED his sport, but thankfully he had the good sense to name it Basketball, instead of Naismithball, or worse still, Naismith-chi.

So once people recover from the paroxysms of laughter induced by the ridiculousness and egotism of naming a sport after oneself (when you didn`t even invent it), people go on to read things like:

`By continuing development in the Bloughchi style, a kicker comes to the point of being able to put the footbag anywhere desired when returning a pass. Proficiency in Bloughchi allows the kicker to literally meet the footbag if it is physically possible and to kick it anywhere the kicker wants the footbag put. Think of how an extraordinary tennis player can block the ball with the racket and return it anywhere he or she wants. Or how an extraordinary baseball player can block the ball with the bat and put that ball anywhere in the park or out of it. You can control a footbag just as well with your foot! `

A practitioner of Somolinos-chi is incredibly able to pick up rolls of sushi with a pair of chopsticks! Just as an incredible skee-ball player can roll a ball perfectly into the 50 point hole, a master of Somolinos-chi can guide the food into his mouth- and then chew it!!!!! Maybe you can too!!!

Now seriously, come frikkin on. How are we supposed to take this seriously? I think its very safe to say that every guiltless freestyler can claim this level of proficiency in terms of controlling a footbag, and many tiltless or lower players can too. This is just such an obvious and easy benchmark of ability, that freestylers dont even bother mentioning it.

The problem lies in that by hyping up such minor possibilities of the sport (you can actually CONTROL where the footbag goes!!!), it makes the sport seem ridiculous. It also highlights the narrow vision bloughchi offers. If you set the bar that low, people will only rise to that level of mediocrity.

Lets examine some other assertions made by footbag.com and blougchi:

`Sometimes kickers stop developing that 360° ability and become more involved with tricks. That is fine if that is what they enjoy but the 360° ability to control the footbag insures even better tricks. `

1. The assertion that becoming `more involved with tricks` is somehow related to the stopping of the development of `that 360 ability` is patently false. To execute tricks, you have to be extremely aware of what Bloughchi describes as 360 ability. I argue that being able to hit a spinning mobius requires more awareness of your surroundings than just learning to kick. And the idea that learning to hit spinning mobius makes you less aware of your surroundings is just idiotic.

2. If the second line of the quote means: `mastering the basic kicks and having control of the footbag will allow you to learn tricks better,` then I wholeheartedly agree. Unfortunately, even when a point is made that I agree with, it is phrased in a manner that makes it seem contentious. The section I quoted above give the impression that Bloughchi is better than learning tricks, which isn`t supported convincingly anywhere.

OK, onto my assertion that bloughchi and footbag.com are hypocritical.

`This type of kicking requires a firm footbag, not a mushy one, so that it can be kicked hard enough and fast enough to provide time to accomplish spins, leaps, etc. Stalls are not advantageous to this type of kicking because stalling is basically an introverted activity rather than an extroverted one. If you stall the bag the rest of the circle will have no idea what you intend to do next and the bag is essentially out of play until you decide to do something different -- it stops the flow, the synergy. Stalling tricks are really an individual activity. Bloughchi style of 360° of control will enable better stalling but stalling will not lead to the synergistic movement and mind melding that occurs in a kicking circle dedicated to keeping the footbag in the air.`

Front page of footbag.com is a business for selling `stalling stars.` I`m resting my case here.

Finally, for a sport that emphasizes the synergy of the group, isn`t it weird how one man is idolized and held up as some sort of messiah? Or the instruction that in a circle the strongest player should become the `leader?` And for a sport which is supposed to be about non-competitiveness and good feelings, why the loaded language every time freestyle footbag is mentioned? Use of words such as `grandstanding` highlight an inherent bias against freestyle. Why the need to define themselves in opposition to freestyle? Why are they so afraid of people trying out freestyle? Could it possibly be that they fear people will like freestyle footbag more? Hmm....

I`ll end this hungover rant with some words of advice for the kids out there.
So listen up to your elders:

Kids, always be wary when somebody tells you to limit your thinking. If somebody tells you not to think for yourself, or somebody tells you not to experiment for yourself, or to not try new things, be very suspicious of them and their motives. The best way to learn the truth is on your own, by going out there and experimenting. This means don`t listen to the crap on the bloughci site, but also dont just take my word (or the word of other critics of blougchi) as gospel. Go read the site for yourself, go try out bloughchi yourself, come to your own conclusions.

NotHisRealName · Post by **NotHisRealName** » 07 Aug 2006 17:09

C-Fan wrote:I agree with Grant that time is better spent improving one`s own game, rather than dissing on Blough. That said, I think Gareth is defending him a bit much: the man is an egotistical hypocrite, whose site hurts the spread of footbag.

Maybe I am, but at the end of the day, footbag.com did not stop me from playing freestyle.
I don't know the guy and I've not really checked out his site to any great degree, but I just don't see the point of continually ripping the guy because of his choice of style.

james_dean · Post by **james_dean** » 07 Aug 2006 17:15

Yes Ken. That's why we hate the danceman.

*shudders*

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 07 Aug 2006 17:16

NotHisRealName wrote:I just don't see the point of continually ripping the guy because of his choice of style.

Check out the post I wrote 3 years ago. The point I was making, is that I have no problem with the Bloughchi style. I am not ripping him for his choice of style. I`m saying that he`s incredibly pompous and hypocritical, and gave more than a couple examples to back it up.

If you want to footbag dance, that`s perfectly cool with me. But naming the sport after yourself? Adding the suffix -chi? Discouraging people from learning freestyle? Condemning stalls, and then selling "stalling stars" on your website?

People don`t rip Blough just for his style.

Oroza · Post by **Oroza** » 07 Aug 2006 22:06

woah, I remember seeing that site when I was in high school kickin a 'hack', and thought "thats it? fuck that" and dropped my interest in persuing footbag more seriously.

Its was only until college when I met and started kicking with Tom Kotsakos who directed me to foobag.ORG that I was really impressed and finally understood the possibilities with a footbag. now, I could do a couple stalls and other 'hackysack' tricks back in the day, but really...seeing real freestyle footbag was like hearing that first song that gets you into music

so anyway, I think back at footbag.com and I feel mislead as, I'm sure, many others have.

That site is a nuisance to footbag, he should change it to bloughchifootbag.com or something, I'm serious, we should make a petition.

shredzilla · Post by **shredzilla** » 07 Aug 2006 22:25

Amen Alec, amen.

janis · Post by **janis** » 08 Aug 2006 04:39

I'm not fussed at all about "blougchi" he can do whatever he wants with his style, that is entirely up to him.

It's really annoying that after criticising stalling tricks and freestyle footbag he gets the stallingtricks.com and freestylefootbag.com domain names (don't even get me started on footbag.com).

Oroza · Post by **Oroza** » 08 Aug 2006 09:24

its a paradox that he obviously loves the sport, yet disregards/misrepresents the majority of the hardcore sport community.

Wasabi · Post by **Wasabi** » 08 Aug 2006 13:46

He'll probably regard it as a prank call and hang up. I'm sure he's got his share of verbal abuse from the freestyle footbag community, but he definitely has a ton of space for more.

I respect how he wants to concentrate on just kicking the bag and the style he plans on making into a discipline. However, being a hypocrite to what you work for from hosting a few domain names that don't critique to what your style is (as well as selling products that don't distinguish that said style), and having the nerve to place your name on a sport to mislead the public eye on what freestyle is, what true footbag is...

That's despictable.

HighDemonslayer · Post by **HighDemonslayer** » 08 Aug 2006 18:11

Flying outside kicks ...kick ass, historical baggage aside.

-n

Oroza · Post by **Oroza** » 08 Aug 2006 21:50

HighDemonslayer wrote:Flying outside kicks ...kick ass, historical baggage aside.

-n

flying spinning outide kick (The Vandam)

love it

modified

Look Ma, no dex!

Do you like Steve Blough?

Look Ma, no dex!