What does make players to quit footbag?

Ur · Post by Ur » 12 Apr 2009 06:25

- I am interested in this. Is it mainly because their bodies are not capable anymore, or lack of interest, or something else?

- What's the average age when players quit?

See, I am trippin', 'cause I am 22 and have only started playing, and seeing how most players started at their 14-18 makes me feel I am too late

(but I know I am not, 'cause it's not that I am in for the world championship title, I just like this game and wanna play it), so I am interested in what do you think - how much abuse a body can take before it says "ciao, no more"?
Obviously, there are a few players that are at their 40s, but I feel that they are rather exceptions than an example.

Cheers

Radek Deko · Post by **Radek Deko** » 12 Apr 2009 08:06

1. Well I think some people quit at a younger age, because some play because they wanna win something and if they see that they are not good enough they quit.

2. Some people dont have enough money to go around the world to tournaments and they dont want to play alone so they quit.

3. Injury/too old to play?

4. Some people feel they achieved all they wanted

5. They dont want to practice no more cuz they think its not fun anymore.

I think those are the 5 reasons people quit

mc · Post by mc » 12 Apr 2009 09:16

radek, you've only been playing for 6 weeks, how could you have anything pertinent to say about quitting?

at least you have that "footbagging since February 2009" caveat in your signature... makes me wish other players would put "can't hit 10 tiltless" in their signatures to go along with very experienced-sounding posts.

----

-boredom
1. Never became skilled, became frustrated with un-skilled status, gave up.
2. Got to be the best, and realized he didn't care as much about being the best hacky sacker in the world, got bored (seen that one a few times)

-injury

-job

-family

-----

hehe, so I criticized radek for making an uneducated post, but then I went on to give practically the SAME RESPONSES that he did...

go mc....

also, I don't know about an average quitting age. I've seen young players stop, I've seen old players stop. It's different for everyone.

I wouldn't worry about it too much. when it's right for you to stop, you'll stop. When it's right for you to keep playing, you'll keep playing. just have fun and try to improve, but don't stress if someone improves faster, or if good players are intimidating.

footbag rules!

Muffinman · Post by **Muffinman** » 12 Apr 2009 13:43

Yeah, when I read Radek's reasons, I was, like, yeah, that sounds about right.

I don't think 22 is too old at all. I know players who have started later than that and have a lot of fun with it. The only thing is that you will want to be more in tune with what your body is telling you, and definitely stretch a lot. You probably push the most when you are just starting because everything is foreign, so take it easy and listen to your body when you feel discomfort and pain. DON'T PLAY THROUGH IT (or you will be one of those quitting because of injury/old age

) The main disadvantage is that you might progress significantly slower.

max · Post by **max** » 12 Apr 2009 17:08

How about these little ideas:

- Just moving onto other hobbies
- Not finding enough time to play (example, long work hours, family, kids)
- Living in a country that has the world's shittest climate and not having the infrastructure freely available to play when you wish.

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 12 Apr 2009 19:30

I presume you're not talking about Australia Max

I think moving on to other interests is definitely a big one for me. Not that I have stopped playing, and in fact I'm playing more now than I have since about 2005 but there are lots of more important things in my life than footbag. I largely play footbag to relax and to focus on something less important than work or study - which is why I play all sport too I guess.

Another big thing is not having anybody to play with. It's pretty likely that I'll stop playing over winter because I won't have anybody to play with and I'll be playing team sports 6 nights a week - as well as obviously the lack of time through study and work.

Radek Deko · Post by **Radek Deko** » 12 Apr 2009 20:29

Matt Cross wrote:radek, you've only been playing for 6 weeks, how could you have anything pertinent to say about quitting?

at least you have that "footbagging since February 2009" caveat in your signature... makes me wish other players would put "can't hit 10 tiltless" in their signatures to go along with very experienced-sounding posts.

----

-boredom
1. Never became skilled, became frustrated with un-skilled status, gave up.
2. Got to be the best, and realized he didn't care as much about being the best hacky sacker in the world, got bored (seen that one a few times)

-injury

-job

-family

-----

hehe, so I criticized radek for making an uneducated post, but then I went on to give practically the SAME RESPONSES that he did...

go mc....

also, I don't know about an average quitting age. I've seen young players stop, I've seen old players stop. It's different for everyone.

I wouldn't worry about it too much. when it's right for you to stop, you'll stop. When it's right for you to keep playing, you'll keep playing. just have fun and try to improve, but don't stress if someone improves faster, or if good players are intimidating.

footbag rules!

Matt why do you say my post is not educated? I gave pretty good reasons, and I think those are the reasons why people quit all other sports. Its mostly the same, I've seen people quit soccer, and i know the reasons why they quit. From my own experience with other sports those are the main reasons I think.

mc · Post by mc » 12 Apr 2009 20:35

ok, fair enough, you can know about quitting from things other than footbag.

Asmus · Post by **Asmus** » 13 Apr 2009 04:42

I think another factor is when your friend/partner/etc you play with stops you might also loose interest.

I think that is also rather normal.
To alot of people the social part of footbag and the friendships are really important.

max · Post by **max** » 13 Apr 2009 05:50

Jeremy wrote:I presume you're not talking about Australia Max

you presume correctly

dp · Post by dp » 13 Apr 2009 17:19

I haven't exactly quit footbag, but I only play 1-2 times a month probably at this point. I "quit" because I had a stress fracture in my foot which didn't allow me to play for a solid 7-8 months, and by the time I recovered i decided spending time on the new hobbies I picked up was more important to me.

Sporatical_Distractions · Post by **Sporatical_Distractions** » 13 Apr 2009 18:06

-Pursuing life
ex) having a full time job, you just want to relax in your free time.

Rieferman · Post by **Rieferman** » 14 Apr 2009 09:56

i quit once because I wasn't progressing..

then I decided I didn't care about my skill level compared to everyone else. So I started again.

Then I quit because life/job/kids/other interests

then I decided I needed to get in shape and that kicking a hacky sack is way more fun than running on a treadmill like everyone else.

And now I'm nearly 33, and I feel like it's somewhat similar to what a 95 year old person must go through... they might feel fine today, but they know they're closer to the end than to the beginning. I think my next quit will be my last "serious footbag" quit, and will result from aches and pains or full on injury.

And after that I'll come back and just be a hacky slacker til I'm in a wheel chair.

Laroche · Post by **Laroche** » 14 Apr 2009 11:48

The excitement wears off after a while, especially the tournament scene, IMO. Nothing has progressed over the last 5-7 years, as far as I can tell... everything is a jam, nothing is really that serious, and it just goes in circles.

It's hard to focus on something that doesn't go anywhere... if there were actual opportunities to live off of footbag it would make a HUGE difference on players quitting or not, especially the for the top-tier players. It's almost impossible once you're in the real world (ie: out of school) to really make time for footbag, and even if you do, your day job or whatever normally saps your energy and just makes it that much tougher to will yourself to play.

Drew · Post by **Drew** » 15 Apr 2009 11:49

Laroche wrote: It's hard to focus on something that doesn't go anywhere...

I feel sympathy here, but if I may paraphrase Iron Clad Ben saying somewhere on modifizzied, footbag is comparable to a video game and leveling up. That's why it goes somewhere, for me at least, because I want to find my 'level cap', which translates into other aspects of my life.

Laroche · Post by **Laroche** » 15 Apr 2009 17:16

duffelbag wrote:
Laroche wrote: It's hard to focus on something that doesn't go anywhere...
I feel sympathy here, but if I may paraphrase Iron Clad Ben saying somewhere on modifizzied, footbag is comparable to a video game and leveling up. That's why it goes somewhere, for me at least, because I want to find my 'level cap', which translates into other aspects of my life.

Yeah I get that, but leveling up won't pay your bills and get you food. There's self-reward in footbag for playing for yourself, but if you really want to get good and you start pushing, eventually everything just blurs together with tournaments and tricks and all that, but it doesn't get bigger.. all jams have like 15-40 people, bigger events slightly more, and that's really it. The feeling of hanging with your buddies at this jams and worlds especially is like no other, but for the actual sport, I dunno.

Too bad there's no sponsors because the real top players train really really really hard and deserve monetary compensation for their skills.

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 15 Apr 2009 18:00

all jams have like 15-40 people

Not in Australia...

Laroche · Post by **Laroche** » 15 Apr 2009 18:59

There are footbaggers in Australia?

Slowsis · Post by **Slowsis** » 16 Apr 2009 04:49

Laroche wrote:There are footbaggers in Australia?

Yeah I was shocked to.....I guess they have to catch on the bottom of their feet or something...

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 16 Apr 2009 05:19

The weirdest thing about footbag in Australia and NZ is that all dexterities that are normally in-out dexes, are out-in.