Lost Motivation for Freestyle?

[Senor Grommet]

Reading Rieferman's post got me thinking about the players of my "generation" (i.e., starting in freestyle about 6-9 years ago), most of whom have either completely, or at least partially, lost motivation to progress in freestyle as they once wished. For some it was caused by injury, for others age, and for others, it was the realization they they would never attain the level of play they aspired to reach.

I see this as a problem. It seems like the turnover rate in the sport of footbag is quite high. But, it seems that the problem also seems quite easily solvable.

When I switched from freestyle to net, the change wasn't caused by any of the factors I mentioned above. For me it was caused simply by my exposure to the net game. That's right! As much as I dedicated my life to freestyle for 8 years, it was as easy to change as simply playing a few sessions of a new-to-me footbag game. I realized that although I was enjoying freestyle, Net presented an entirely new challenge, one that was worth changing my focus.

Now, net is in a really exciting time in it's history, although most people don't even know it. As far as I can think of, there are really only 3 to 4 young, up-and-coming American players whose skill levls will make them top-level competitors. The sport is ripe for young player development. All we need is a few young players to try it. I know that at least a handful will find it as intriguing as I do, especially those who have had a competitive background in either soccer or court sports such as tennis or volleyball.

What disappoints me is the fact that there has been a lapse of player recruitment and development in the US and Canada now for almost a decade. This obviously needs to change.

Just my thoughts.

[Johnny]

I'm very intrigued by footbag net. I plan on playing every chance I get, although I'm not into it enough to pursue setting up sessions at the moment. I like how accessible freestyle is for me, and the majority of people in the area are "freestylers", otherwise I would probably play net.

Maybe one day I'll start playing net seriously. I can see it happening before I'm forced to switch over by nagging injuries or whatever it may be that forces people to switch.

It won't be a struggle, I'll switch quite willingly.


Although, imo, freestyle will always have a flair that net doesn't have. Maybe that is just because of my brief-to-no exposure to the sport, or my lack of paying attention.

[krawallier]

i think what most people forget is that net and freestyle footbag actually are entirely different sports. they do have the same roots, and some people actively play both, but there is very few players that actually take both serious. almost always it is either-or, or before-after.

so when you are looking for new players for net, starting with freestylers might not be a horrible idea, because you know already that they into the foot-eye-coordination thing, but if you are really trying to recruit new players, forget about these freestylers. most of them are too old, (i mean, for people to become really good at it, you want to get these 14 year old kids who get really into it) and already preoccupied with a different kind of footbag, but most importantly, there isn't that many of them. i mean, how many freestyle players are there, even worldwide maybe one to two thousand players? thats a really small group if you consider how scattered they are, and inside of this group you want to find new players for a different sport. even if 10% of them would be interested in the sport of net, that be 100-200 new players worldwide. that's not that many.

footbag net is a sport that is easily comprehensible, it's fun once you get into it & you have somebody who shows you how to play, and it looks pretty cool. so IMO it should appeal to many people outside of footbag.

[C-Fan]

...the players of my "generation" (i.e., starting in freestyle about 6-9 years ago), most of whom have either completely, or at least partially, lost motivation to progress in freestyle as they once wished.

I see this as a problem. It seems like the turnover rate in the sport of footbag is quite high. But, it seems that the problem also seems quite easily solvable.
.

I just want to check to make sure I understand your argument correctly. The problem you are identifying is that people drop out of freestyle after 6-9 years, and the solution is for people to switch to net once they lose motivation in freestyle?

[Rieferman]

I voted 'not sure' because I don't expect I'll ever play net (although I played a decent amount in the past). Main reason in my case is that between family, career, other hobbies, and the fact that you need someone else to play net with (and someone that can juggle all their responsibilities too), net is just an inconvenient sport for me.

I'd also say this of net (kind of off topic, but not really... it speaks to the traditional difficulty of recruiting): when played poorly, it's really really tough to watch, and sort of embarassing to play. Freestyle, of course, is the same. The difference is that with freestyle you can hide in your basement by yourself while you build skills. With net, you're in a soccer field in front of everyone. From my experience, that hurts recruiting.

The solution I used back in the day (with a lot of success actually) was to use takraw as the method of getting people interested. I focused on soccer players, or former soccer players (aka, just about any guy in college has played soccer at some point). Within 10 minutes, you can be good enough at takraw to at least have some fun rallies. By lowering the bar to having some fun (instead of serve > shank > repeat until ankle is black and blue) people's minds opened up to learning more about hacking the sack in general. We'd have keggers and invite people down to play - keg fee was 1/2 if you played at least one game of takraw.

[Senor Grommet]

Lol, informative responses so far. Thanks!

Re: Ken's post:

With regard to the turnover ration, I feel that one potential preemptive measure is exposure to all of the different footbag games out there. That way, a new-to-footbag player is able to make an informed decision about which game to take up initially, and which game to potentially fall back upon if the first is not to his/her liking. Maybe a soccer player's calling is not freestyle, but net, esp. since that person has a competitive sports background. The same might go for volleyball or tennis players who get exposed to footbag somehow.

Exposure to both will allow a newcomer to have a choice of which game to play as opposed to seeing and believing that only one advanced form of footbag exists.

[Jeremy]

I voted "not sure" because I will never play net. It is the only sport I've played where I have a 100% win record and I'm not prepared to risk that.

[Asmus]

Maybe a soccer player's calling is not freestyle, but net, esp. since that person has a competitive sports background.

For me it was the opposite, a sport that wasn't competitive against others was just what I needed when I found footbag after playing soccer, basketball and so on for years.
I think alot of people has it that way.

I Denmark we have two generations of footbag players. The first generation that is around 10 years older than me and then a generation that is about my age. My generation is really small and I think we are only 2 or 3 players who actually plays.
The other generation is pretty big 10+ players but I don't know how many of those plays neither.

If I end up in Copenhagen (the footbag capital of Denmark) when the 10+ generation switches to net I will probably do it aswell.
I can see that happen in the next 3 years.

If this switch doesn't happen for them, I will keep on freestyling.

I like Riefermans ideas.

FOOTBAG!

[Zeke]

Now, net is in a really exciting time in it's history, although most people don't even know it. As far as I can think of, there are really only 3 to 4 young, up-and-coming American players whose skill levls will make them top-level competitors.

I'm curious as to whom these players are. Ben & Walt? Any links to videos of these players? I could use some inspiration during (my) off season.

[Senor Grommet]

There is no off season Zeke. Every week you don't play, players around the country get better than you, or at least that's the way you need to think about it.

Im thinkin:
Me (Chaos)
Ben (Memphis)
Walt (Memphis)

In the near future:
EJ? (Santa Cruz)
Zeke (Chicago)

In the distant future:
Brad Williams (Chaos)
John Araquistain (Chaos)
Josh DeClercq (Chaos)
Jake DeClercq (Chaos)

[Zeke]

Me? Hehe, I dunno about that. I think, in the long run, me being able to bring people out will do more for net (at least in Chicago) than my skills on the court.

[Elliott]

at least you get mention zeke. apparently after winning the '07 intermediate championship, i'm still lurking in the shadows of the net community. it's cool though... things are finally picking up in Nashville. we got 6 regulars coming out every sunday.

http://nashvillefootbag.blogspot.com/

[Senor Grommet]

It seems as if you are the King of Nashville Takraw now Elliot. I didn't even know you still played "small ball." How good are you at hitting the big ball for kills? I'd love to see some footage from those sessions. Are there any awesome killers there, or are they mostl fat older men who can still play pretty well?

[Zeke]

I too would love to see some takraw vids and another installment in your blog.

[Elliott]

after windy city cup i gave up footbag for a good 3 months because nashville only had one other net player. so i started playing takraw 2-3 times/wk; takraw season is only (March - October). when andrew c. moved up from atlanta i started to feel like i could finally make something happen here. so by mid-september we started to rebuild with 3 people & now we're up to 7. 2 of our members are amazing freestylers andrew coleman & lee van sickle. they play net, but they don't breathe it. I'm the old man of the group at 28! ages are 17, 19, 22, 22, 24, 28, & 28. it's not very competitive yet, but i think that will change as they get the basics down.

big ball kills: solepush, mousetrap, sunback, swat (a.k.a. bitch slap). i've managed a of couple killer sweeps on amazing sets, but it's rare. we play on concrete & that's enough to scare me away from trying a roll spike. i just bought a new camera the other day, so i'll try to document more takraw coverage too. i've been craving some competition since the season ended. most of the takraw players are in their 30's & 40's, & we've got 3 20-something players (including me). there are 3 amazing badasses that play out there late 30's i think.

[mosher]

I wasn't mentioned as an up and comer??



I kid, but for real, watch out! I'm willing to step up and learn the foundation so I can build up and ultimately dominate.

[Zeke]

Gainer = roll spike



I'm also curious as to what qualities & skills makes one player potentially better than another.