The Mechanics of Footbag

General footbag-related topics that don't fit elsewhere go in here.
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SlashC
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The Mechanics of Footbag

Post by SlashC »

I did a technical presentation on Footbag today in front of an audience of about 50 mechanical engineering students. I successfully taught them the jobs/adds system. Woop Woop. Anyways, here's the abstract and actual presentation (w/ notes). I ended up mostly talking about jobs/adds because of the 10 minute time constraint, although I had also prepared a bunch of stuff on the physics of footbag... (impulse/momentum, particle motion, engineering of footbags/shoes, and moments/center of gravity). I hit magellan first try!... (but dropped the atw...) Enjoy! :D
MecE 200 Technical Presentation

Date: November 9th, 2005
Time: 9:30 am
Place: MecE 4-1
Speaker: Michael Rory Dawson (1097767)
Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of Alberta

The Mechanics and Nomenclature of Footbag

Abstract

In this talk I will be describing “footbag” from a technical perspective. A Hippy and a Fitness trainer invented Footbag in 1976. Since then it has developed internationally as both a hobby and competitive sport. This presentation will focus on the physics and technical nomenclature of “freestyle” footbag.

Previously the way tricks were described was undefined and this caused a great deal of confusion especially when trying to communicate over the internet. In this presentation we will use physics and technical nomenclature to derive a “coordinate system” to conclusively define and describe every possible trick. In addition, this coordinate system will also include a way to gauge difficulty making it very useful for competition.
The Presentation (powerpoint):

http://www.shredmonton.com/media/The%20 ... ootbag.ppt


The Notes:

Slide 1:
- introduce yourself
- ask what is footbag?

Slide 2 (underwater pic):
- This is footbag (look very serious)
- *pause for effect*
- Just kidding!

Slide 3
- You might know footbag as "hacky sack", but this is a misnomer blah blah...
- Pull out 32-panel, mr. sandbag, and hacky sack (I actually had the same one in the picture).
- Describe the qualities of an ideal footbag -> stallability, weight balance, high coefficient of friction, ect
- the hacky-sack is obviously the inferior bag.
- explain the difference in impulse/momentum (ft=mv) between kicking and stalling DEMONSTRATE!
- kicking is contacting the bag with your foot moving up
- stalling is contacting the bag with your foot moving down

Slide 4
- Footbag freestyle is all about tricks and linking them together
- What is a trick?
- Read "The lumberjack" ... "blah blah blah! This is ridiculous!"
- Footbag needed a "coordinate system" and a "free body diagram" to describe the tricks properly and concisely (frame of reference)

Slide 5
- definition of a trick
- ADD components

Slide 6 (blur picture)
- "And here's me doing all the components at the same time..."

Slide 8 (jobs)
- DEMONSTRATE
- put footbag on toe then set it and dance around like in blur picture then catch on opposite toe.
- walk through the notation

Slide 9 (dexterities)
- one of the main trick components are "dexterities"
- draw imaginary z axis perpendicular to the ground
- put your knee at the origin and rotate around the z-axis
- your leg will sweep out the volume of a cone
- can rotate clockwise/counterclockwise
- explain diff between in out and out in
- picture bag as sphere inside the volume of the cone
- for a trick to be "clean" the bag must be completely inside the cone
- DEMONSTRATE atw

slide 10(picture from footbag brasil)
- reinforce cone example
- make joke about it being in portuguese (fora - out and dentro is in)

slide 11 (uptime/downtime)
- as engineers we want to make things more efficient
- easiest time to picture dexing bag is when vertical component of velocity is zero
- why not dex on the way up and way down!?
- DEMO magellan

slide 13 (shred30)
- summarize all previous concepts
- adds/jobs play a role in equation
- walk through equation
- talk about strategies to improve score
- SHOW SHRED30 VIDEO (I used mine from shredmonton 05)

slide 14 (shred30)
- walk through how to calculate my awesome score
- The end!

Questions?! Feedback?
Rory "Tophat" Dawson

---

"You can ask a stranger, my legs is fast and danger!"
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David Morawski
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Post by David Morawski »

That was amazing. I wish I could have seen the presentation. I'm still waiting for a school assignment which I can relate to footbag somehow.

I especially like the fun chart at the end, though I wasn't aware fun could be measured in joules.
Invictus.
Footblog // Challenges
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Zeb Jackson
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Location: Boise,Idaho, USA

Post by Zeb Jackson »

i found this, and thought it was interesting, you still have the power point presentation?
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SlashC
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Post by SlashC »

Rory "Tophat" Dawson

---

"You can ask a stranger, my legs is fast and danger!"
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