Why do you play?

[Rieferman]

I know there are tons of other reasons besides these, but just pick the one that's closest to being your primary motivation.

[max]

I voted for option 1 although it's quite far from why I actually play.

I don't aim to become pro, and I don't aime to improve anymore either. I don't have the time or dedication to put in the effort to continually improve (my footbag peek was somewhere around 4 years ago I guess).

Main reasons I play now:

1. To keep in shape
2. To let off some steam from work
3. To get a little gratification from footbag: that still happens every now and then

[hacksterbator]

change "pro level" to "open level" and that suits me i think. I'm not in it for money, just women.

[Rieferman]

I'm not sure how to update the poll options, can a mod assist?

It sounds like option 1 should be softened to be more of the flavor of "just having fun, getting exercise, hanging with friends etc."

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In any case, so far I'm extremely surprised to see a high number of people indicating that they're training to compete. It may just be the mix of people that have seen this thread and have responded, but in actuality I have normally experienced that 95% of those that I've ever met or played freestyle with could care less about competing. So I would have expected that choice to be picked infrequently.

[mattbeall]

You didn't include a "because I want an excuse to prance around my neighborhood shirtless in short-shorts," which, obviously, is why I play.

I would hate footbag if I approached it competitively.

[james_dean]

I picked training to compete but it's kind of a mix between that and the last option. I actually couldn't give a shit about competing, but I want to be a 'high level' shredder. I want to be recognised as a high level shredder but I couldn't care about competitions, screw that.

Of course I would need discipline to be recognised as a high level shredder...

[jon]

My footbag these days is most applicable to the first category. I would say I peaked about 2-3 years ago in terms of skill and dedication. These days when I do play, which doesn't happen often, I get a chance to see old friends and even make some new ones every so often. The people are why I still play and I guess there is also still a part of me that sees footbag as a part of who I am and a part of my self image. If someone where to ask me about my hobbies/passions I would of course include footbag but these days I play so infrequently I almost feel like it is a lie. I find playing more tiring and less rewarding lately and when I do session I tend to just talk most of the time, play for a little while, then sitting/talking while waiting for other people to finish playing. Footbag was so important to me for a number of years that I don't believe it will ever not hold some level of importance to me but it is no longer what it once was.

[Wasabi]

From some of the posts made above, I've had the opposite opinion and will vouch for option 2. I have very little time to play these days, especially to play solo, and I want to improve myself to achieve open level shred. It has been an unfulfilled dream for 2 years now, and my ambition has only been suppressed due to college studies, stitching and work. For me, I feel like I haven't yet reached that high peak in footbag yet, and I really feel motivated to continuously improve until I reach guiltless (and even tripless) shred. It's just the ever compounding responsibilities that I'm obligated to do - to graduate out of college, to stitch bags for other people, and to find work not only to progress as an individual in NYC but to help support my family in these poor economic times - that stresses more importance than footbag. But I love footbag, and I want to impress my peers in the sport more and more with my shred, so if I can ease one major responsibility like college out of my life then I believe I can manage my schedule much better to make footbag more a part of my life than before.

[Slowsis]

After years of falling into option 1 and 3, at 23 years old I have finally dedicated myselfr to improvement for competition. That said, the years of not caring so much about advancement and competition have made me realize no matter how hard I train, I have just as much fun playing footbag as I would in the most casual session.

[Drew]

I have the goal to continually improve, and compete, but mainly for fun! I don't want to focus on competing, rather compete for fun and gauge my performances as improvement, I guess.

I play for fun, for exercise, and for the self-fulfillment the game brings me. Footbag is pretty much my main cardio work out right now so that's another pretty big aspect.

[jay7]

I play footbag because it is simply the most invigorating and self-rewarding thing there has been for me to do, thus far. After jumping into many sports with both feet, and putting enormous amounts of daily time into them, nothing has given me what footbag has. Have any of you heard of Dave, Jim, Johnny, Jorden, Matt Cross, Lon Smith, or Vasek? Have you really? Ugh, they are SO awesome I just can't compare anyone else with any one of them. Like, on a day to day basis, I never meet anyone with half as much badass flowing through their veins as any of these individuals. Jebus, have any of you seen Anssi Sundberg? He can hit gyro illusion. Have you ever seen anyone on the street bust one of those out? If footbag wasn't the coolest thing ever to grace little debbie's heart, why would she so passionately have sponsored the cleaver? Hell, even 50-cent has his spot in the chain. Jim Penske plays footbag, he could have chosen to play badminton, or to draw those extremely cool murals with chalk on sidewalks, but no, he plays footbag. Imagine what it would be like to actually be able to levitate for a bit and hit a whirlwind and then, just because you felt like it, snap out a ducking symple pincher. Why would I ever waste my time with something that didn't give me enough freedom to use my feet in the most advanced and poetic way possible. Ugh, Ianek Regimbald, he COULD be a convict, but he decided to put much of his time and energy into hitting the most random and twisted links there are, and further the community by sharing his ideas. All the cool people who decide to play footbag further the community, are extremely accepting and make people like me feel better than anyone else ever has. Just the quality of life that people go through at jams such as NYJ and Terra-Verde worlds is better than any tropical-vacation expedia could ever offer or throw at you. The people in footbag are awesome, videos of footbag are awesome, playing footbag makes you feel awesome, and even stitching footbags is awesome. I don't care if last tuesday I dropped a clipper stall, last tuesday I'm sure I hit a double switchover that 99% of the world has never dreamed of. Footbag can blow minds, and does.

Ugh, now I have to think about reality and do physics problems for a midterm. Why do I play footbag you ask? To get my mind off of all the other insignificant things in life that just get in the way of footbag.

[LEGOMAN]

it helped me fit in school

and later saved my life.

i would be lost without footbag

its the biggest thing in my life and will always leave a huge impact in it.

[Jeremy]

I play because of I too much spare time, no girlfriend and I want to get better at soccer.

[gMoney]

^^
good one




I don't know why I play. I just kind of do. I've never really given much thought to why I play, other than it just being a kind of cool thing I wanted to get into. I guess if I were to categorize myself into one of the three above, it would be the third, but I don't feel like that really defines me. A lot of it is habit and a large amount of comittment and almost an addiction, but it's not like I don't find it not fun or anything. So in conclusion:

[PoisonTaffy]

#3 describes me well.
I started because I thought circle kicking was allot of fun, but I stayed because footbag has so many benefits that other sports didn't have for me.
-both sidedness
-excellent exercise that never gets boring
-No need to depend on partners to play
-low injury risk
-well defined path of progression to follow
-niche sport that attracts my kind of people

I wish I could one day compete respectfully at open level, but I think I started way too late for that to ever happen. As long as I'm progressing and meeting my tiny goals I'm happy.

[Asmus]

I voted 3.

But from time to time it's more the friendships that keep me in the game than the wish to improve or the fun of playing.

[Rieferman]

Does anyone else find these results surprising?

Specifically, the high number of people saying that they're preparing to be a pro/open-level competitor is really not what I expected.

For one, if you look at how many open competitors there are (even at Worlds), it's a very low number compared to the number of people that practice on a weekly basis.

For another, that number of competitors hasn't really drastically increased over time (i.e. the ratio of players to open competitors hasn't shifted towards competitors in recent years).

For yet another, in years of knowing players, my personal experience has been that nearly none of them are really interested in competing.

------

Did we happen to just get responses from the 20 people that compete already? Or did we get responses from an optimistic (but possibly not very realistic) set of players? Or something else?

Or am I the only one surprised by the results?

What do you think?

[Outsider]

Not really sure where you're coming from with this, Bob.

I mean, you've HELD a significant number of competitions. You hosted, players signed up, awards were awarded. These were all people you know. I like to compete. Ken Somolinos likes to compete. Josh Benham used to compete. I'm not sure exactly who it is out there in Pittsburgh you like to hang out with, but some of those guys compete (Jake Milofsky competed in New York City this summer, Caleb Abraham took 1st place in Intermediate freestyle at Worlds in San Francisco). Just how many examples of people who you know that actually compete (at least some of the time) do I need to give you before you'd say that the following statement:

For yet another, in years of knowing players, my personal experience has been that nearly none of them are really interested in competing.

just doesn't really make alot of sense?

Also,

For one, if you look at how many open competitors there are (even at Worlds), it's a very low number compared to the number of people that practice on a weekly basis.

Well, maybe its a matter of how you asked the question... Its almost certainly a matter of what evidence you suggest supports your point of view, though. People who are practicing and "would like to compete as pros" isn't necessarily the same thing as people already competing in open. Why not include all the competitors in the Intermediate bracket? Presumably most of them are interested in moving up to Open when they feel good enough. And then, there are some guys who feel they've progressed beyond Intermediate but they don't feel quite ready for Open... They might spend a season or two not competing while they work themselves up to their state of readiness...
I know I played for a long time before even entering as an intermediate, though I had almost always had it in mind to compete. In part, it was simply because there were no competitions near-by to me at that time. Also, I had never seen an actual competition before, so I just played alot at the first Worlds that I went to, because before I competed I wanted to see what competition looked like. I think there are probably alot of people here on-line who would like to go to competitions but simply can't often get to them, for reasons of money or time or any number of other things.

In short, yeah, there are people who compete, and people who would like to compete eventually, and people who are never really going to be interested in competing, and people who vote for one thing but do another, and a modest-sized sample of all of them have voted at the top of this page. Whats the big surprise?

[Rieferman]

Yes, I held events (thanks for the reminder )

At last Chilly Philly, we had 100 players attend. If I remember correctly, we had 9 open competitors.

edit: also, it's very clear that there's a far higher number of people that try intermediate competition, and then never graduate to pro/open level. so using 'intermediate' as a benchmark is flawed right out of the gate. It would be like taking all the people that played little league and saying "they're trying to be major league baseball players".

Also, the argument that I know a lot of people that have competed or currently compete, is just a silly argument. I know FAR MORE people that DON'T compete. You see, it's possible to know people that compete, and to know others that don't. C'mon now Jon, have your morning coffee.

---------------------
Anyhow, it sounds like you're not sure why I'm interested. In short, we have all these conversations about 'the future of the sport' (in various flavors) and I think it's important to really understand who's future we're talking about. My hypothesis is that the people with the long term goal of pro competition were vastly outnumbered by the rest... therefore the future we constantly discuss (which format of competition, how measure difficulty, blah blah blah) may be the wrong one to spend all our energy on.

But, it seems I was mistaken

[Outsider]

C'mon now Jon, have your morning coffee.

THE FUCKING MACHINE IS BROKEN, DAMN IT!!