street/trials

sen · Post by **sen** » 14 Apr 2007 12:53

Apart from the risk of injury, is there any reason why street isn't done more often? Why isn't there a form of competition involving this?

Providing some obsticles to use in a competition wouldn't be that hard. Is it because there isn't any way to score or judge it? I think the first type of competition would just be sick street trick. That doesn't really require any scoring system. It would be subjective.

Another form of competition could be street shred 30 or something like. In this several obsticles would be provided, somewhat like a skateboard street competition, but obviously smaller. Players would have time to create their "lines" before the competion and each player would have some practice time. I think this could best be judged with a equation similar to Shred30, but this creates a problem. A mirage performed while traveling down a flight of five stairs would be the worth the same as one performed on flat ground. That is where it could get complicated, but if this where to happen we could create new street categories for the add system. Maybe .5 adds per stair covered in a move, or .5 for every foot of a ledge that a trick performed off of.

This is probably all very stupid, but I'd like to hear what people think.

david · Post by **david** » 14 Apr 2007 13:00

I've always really admired Allan for his work with street and I think Penske is good at it too (if you've seen fo shizza). I think it does have some sort of promise to be popular, and I wonder why more people aren't doing it. Maybe because they want to get tricks down on flat first before they go off stuff.

Personally speaking I just dont want to land a ps whirl wrong off a ledge and own myself. I don't know if the tradeoff is there.

I would go in a street sick 1 comp though.

dc

professor · Post by **professor** » 14 Apr 2007 19:11

I don't do it often because I'd rather spend my time improving my flat game. If they had a competition for street then I would probably try it more, but as it is, I'd rather get better for the existing competitions.

shredzilla · Post by **shredzilla** » 14 Apr 2007 20:21

Man for me it's like even just doing a butterfly of of a bench I feel like I could kill myself. It seems like it would be easy then you get up there and the timing's way different, and let's face it, landing wrong from 2 feet up poses more of a threat of leg injury.

But I like to watch, and occasionally I get brave.

pips · Post by **pips** » 15 Apr 2007 06:45

I love trials. I would randomly try some stuff if there are stairs or something nearby when I am practicing flat. But yeah, it is scary, and I'd hate to mess up and break myself. Sometimes I sit there all ready to do something and then I freak out and get back on the ground.

kyle · Post by **kyle** » 17 Apr 2007 12:55

I think a 30 second trials comp would be fun. You'd have to be allowed to catch the bag to climb the bigger obsticals though, and judging should be purly up to the judges eyes, not any crazy point system. Someone should host one, heck maybe i'll even have a fun trials event in michigan this summer.

I'd also be up for an informal, 'hey guys lets go do some trials' at any footbag gathering.

Outsider · Post by **Outsider** » 17 Apr 2007 13:58

Sen wrote:Apart from the risk of injury, is there any reason why street isn't done more often? Why isn't there a form of competition involving this?

I can't say why more people don't do it for fun (though personally I want nothing to do with it), but as for competition, its NEVER gonna be part of any IFPA SANCTIONED event, like Worlds, exactly because of that risk. Insurance is expensive stuff, and law suits probably much more so (its exactly because of the cost of personal injury law suits that people need insurance), and our humble little game probably simply cannot afford to host trials competitions yet. (Okay, so maybe NEVER is not the right word, maybe some day there'll be enough money in footbag that we can afford to insure ourselves enough to host more dangerous competitive formats, but to all you optimists out there, I'll believe it when I see it).

Yeah, yeah, footbag players won't file suit against a tournament director if they were to hurt themselves while playing. Fine. Maybe not. Probably not [though, perhaps, it hasn't happened yet only because a.) we aren't doing much Trials, and b.) hardly anybody ever even really gets hurt playing footbag {becaues of a.}, so, c.) there hasn't really been anything to sue about; but changing condition a. can lead to a change in b. and c. ...]. So, footbag players wouldn't do that to the hosts of competitions. But more and more, contestants at tournaments are minors. Who's gonna gaurantee that the parents of those minors will feel the same about sueing a tournament director for injuries sustained by their child? Hey, a broken ankle can cost thousands of dollars to the uninsured, maybe tens of thousands. Imagine if, instead of having to scrape up a few hundred dollars to host a footbag tournament, you wind up with a medical bill for ten thousand dollars...

I can't say for sure, but some of the events I've been to over the last couple of years, they probably simply would not have happened if they had included a trials competition. The people who run/own the Levy Tennis Pavilion rented space to Bob Reifer and Josh Benham at a very reasonable, affordable rate for them to host the Chilly Philly two years in a row. I can certainly imagine that they might have thought twice about it if they new we were going to be jumping up and down off of 4/5 foot high ledges... And the GRASS event at SUNY Rochester... I don't know about them either, but again its easy for me to imagine that somebody in charge of official events that take place on university property could easily have simply pulled the plug on anything featuring dangerous stunts... Maybe. I don't know, but I'd feel much the same about being in a postion of responsibility for an event with so much more potential danger than standard freestyle.

And for anybody out there who thinks "oh, come on, jumping down off a three and a half foot high stage isn't really any more dangerous than jumping around on level ground," I'd have to recommend that you start paying more attention in physics class. Force equals mass times velocity SQUARED. So , if you double the speed of a falling object, then it lands with QUADRUPLE the impact force. Fall off a four or five foot ledge and you hit the ground moving MANY TIMES as fast as you would slipping and falling down on level ground. Hit the ground with many times as much velocity, and you hit with many times TIMES many times as much force. The forces involved can very quickly grow to exceed what a body is meant to withstand.

kyle · Post by **kyle** » 17 Apr 2007 14:09

I help run a dirt bike club/org. We have a few thousand members and just like the ifpa we don't have much $$. We host events all the time and almost every time, someone gets hurt. Wether they break their leg, a colar bone, or break all their ribs and puncture a lung from a head on collision with a moose. The club has never been sued and will never be sued because everyone signs a wavier when they enter the event so that the club is not liable to any extent. Insurance is not an issue. And yes their is a danger factor to trials, but just like skateboarding it is relatively safe if you get half decent at it and don't go beyond your skill level.

sen · Post by **sen** » 17 Apr 2007 16:34

Maybe someone with some time on there hands (and a computer/internet connection) could set up an Online Street Competition. I think it'd it fun to see what people or doing.

I'd do it myself, but I have neither a computer or regular internet access. Also, I'm glad to hear other peoples thoughts about this, and I'd like to hear more. Keep 'em coming.

Blue_turnip · Post by **Blue_turnip** » 09 May 2007 06:03

Whether or not you get 'hurt'. I think the whole concept is a bad idea. jumping any height, when focusing on a footbag and not good landing technique is gonna fuck up your joints over time no matter how hard you try not to.

slapdash21 · Post by **slapdash21** » 09 May 2007 12:12

i hit gyro whirl off a bottom step of a three set to start a string.

mc · Post by mc » 09 May 2007 13:43

trials are cool, but not for me. the risk of injury is too great, and I don't want to jeopardize my game. Trials can be like circle comp, I guess. like, get a picnic table and everyone takes shots at it. or stairs. I can see whirligig down being really incredible. I think I might give that a few tries soon on some shallow stairs here at the shcool, now that I think about it.

matt

Skippy! · Post by **Skippy!** » 10 May 2007 05:44

Yeah I'm not gonna lie, trials scares the hell out of me. I've tried it a couple times, and once found myself sliding down the stairs on my ass. Not down. It's fun to watch, but I'll leave it to the pros.