Shredders in Footbal (soccer) Intensive Countries

Slowsis · Post by **Slowsis** » 11 Oct 2008 13:20

It is rare! What kind of a scene is there in Britain, Italy or Africa? Not much of one. Is this due to the prevelance of football? Discuss....

Asmus · Post by **Asmus** » 11 Oct 2008 15:00

What about Czech Republic, Germany and France.
They are great soccer nations aswell as great footbag nations?

Darkshredder · Post by **Darkshredder** » 12 Oct 2008 09:11

my personal experience in the UK has been that they have a lot of respect for footbag. They know it takes loads of practice and skill. But I think the only thing keeping them away IS the fact that they are so gung-ho over football and rugby and greyhound races that they really have no time (or too much pride) to be doing another thing that is focused on keeping a ball/bag in play, especially when it looks so much like Irish step dancing. . . something those football fanatics would rather shove under the carpet. And another thing, English and Irish and Scots (welsh? idk.. ) are VERY stubborn people. I mean that in the best possible way, because it's just an innocent observation. One which would be confirmed by the first guy you see cheering for Chelsey at some hole in the wall London pub.

I think all Africa needs is a bunch of people to go over on boats and show them how fun and meaningful footbag can be! - - and that's meant both in all honesty and poor form.

daLai · Post by **daLai** » 13 Oct 2008 07:16

Apart from having some really good freestylers in Germany I'm also of the opinion that we are suffering under a lack of an offspring in Germany.
On the one hand football does really really dominate the sport scene in our country. But on the other hand footbag is funsport, which is not that well organised in Germany. Imagining that there were contests in a regular period of time and a structure of clubs and stuff, footbag would be more appealing to the people who are playing football, because a lot of people play football due to the competitive character of the sport. (which means having matches every weekend)

Furthermore, football is one of the easiest sports one can perform. Of course, it gets harder the higher the professionalism gets. I myself played football a long time, so I can judge it.
With footbag it is a different thing...The first successes come pretty fast, but then you have to practice practice and practice...that's why the people lose their interest in doing such a sport...
It's always the same with people talking to me when they saw me shred...
Sometimes they wanna try it and can't hit the ATW on the first tries and thus consider it as too difficult and rather kick a football on a goal, although they have respect for the things I'm doing...
In my opinion Germans are often too less ambitious to invest time in a sport. Even if footbag is a funsport they think they'll have more fun in more competitive sports like football or something else, because it does not require so much time and discipline to see some results of what your're doing.

kidzanshin · Post by **kidzanshin** » 13 Oct 2008 11:04

Darkshredder wrote:And another thing, English and Irish and Scots (welsh? idk.. ) are VERY stubborn people

cheers mate

I think that football and footbag are completely different disciplines, although on the surface footbag can seem comparable to keepy uppies or freestyle soccer (although in england football is definately way more focused on the team sport than the offshoots like ball tricks)

I have managed to get some friends and other people i know who play football into a kicking circle, and they seem more interested than the average person in the sport, but i think the skills and attractions are completely different

however i do not think that the popularity of football means that noone wants to play footbag, i think it is more the severe lack of exposure of footbag

no-one knows about it or if they do really considers learning it as there is nowhere to learn it from (except from the internet) and noone to play with

compare this to football and there are thousands of clubs and virtually anyone you met would be up for a kick about

so i do not think the two sports interfere or conflict with one another at all, footbag is simply not played for the same reasons as any other country without a big football scene

mosher · Post by **mosher** » 13 Oct 2008 11:09

Yeah, I was wondering about this the other day.. I've not ever heard of even a single italian footbag player, odd.

The only thing about saying 'oh, well nobody plays it here so nobody is going to get into it', perhaps you overestimate how many people play elsewhere.. Basically everyone starts out on their own, unless they are lucky and have someone to get them into it, so that sorta negates that argument.

I will just stick with believing that nobody wants to do it because it's not cool yet. And unfortunately, that really really matters to some people.

kidzanshin · Post by **kidzanshin** » 13 Oct 2008 11:47

o yea, my point was that its the same as everywhere else, despite the fact that england is football crazy

i was just suggesting one of the reasons why football and footbag have a huge difference in popularity

PoisonTaffy · Post by **PoisonTaffy** » 13 Oct 2008 14:39

Israel is a pretty big soccer & basketball country. When I got to teach footbag at a local junior high, the first kids to join my group were those who weren't attracted to the competitiveness nature of soccer, who didn't want the pressure of playing in a team.
On top of those, during the year I've had a bunch of kids leave soccer to join my group because they didn't feel appreciated there, getting all the boring field positions, hardly getting to touch the ball, probably losing more often than winning, etc.

In other words, I believe that even in a soccer crazed country, there's plenty of room for a niche sport like footbag, and it can have a great appeal for those who never found their place in a team sport, and I agree with Matt in that the popularity of soccer has nothing to do with the lack of popularity or presence of footag in certain countries.

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 14 Oct 2008 23:27

I don't think there is any relationship between the popularity of soccer and the popularity of footbag.

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 23 Oct 2008 15:19

This is like comparing the relative popularity of ping-pong and tennis in any given country.

Wasabi · Post by **Wasabi** » 04 Nov 2008 12:05

Let's not get into the normative processes of why footbag hasn't spread around China, which people there primarily associate "kicking around a small object" with the typical shuttlecock, instead of a small pellet-filled bag.

However, I do feel compelled to play footbag all around China one day.

bobrifleman · Post by **bobrifleman** » 04 Nov 2008 14:41

i dont think that footbag hasnt spread much in the UK becuase of football dominance. I just think its more of a lack of exposure. Cause here in the States i know people who live and breath american football but still find time for footbag. The same for the uk. I bet if more people knew about it football wouldnt hold them back cause a lot of people would like how freestyle football and footbag share a lot in common