A Master with a Riceball

[Asmus]

Daniel wanted to know my thoughts on attracting players to tournaments - footbag specific marketing - so here goes:

First off I really think one of the things I mentioned in the first interview in did with him is the most important thing. Basicly I said that the danish crew has a great connection with the rest of Footbag Europe. It’s easier to attract players you already know. Sure, footbaggers wanna go to tournaments but they do even more so if they know they can hang out, shred and party with people they already know.

There are two other things we did that I think other footbag tournament organizers can benefit from. 1. Convince or pay a key member of a huge crew to come. We paid for Anssi’s ticket and he basically convinced half of Finland to come. Great investment. 2. VIDEO HYPE! Yes, posting everywhere and try to get people hyped that way. But it seems much more professional and get’s much more attention if you do it with videos. As most of you probably remember we had funny videos from Jay, Anssi, Rene Ruhr and Aleksi! + A groundbreaking video from Vasek. A better way of getting attention in the footbag community you can’t find.

One more thing that worked for us was having good prizes. No, there wasn’t huge prize money. But if you were a top level footbag player and had to choose between a chance to win a GoPro camera and a chance to win two beers I know what I would choose.

That’s what I can think of. Any questions Daniel? Anybody else?



How many footbaggers from the Royal Danish Footbag Family do you recognize?


And now the important stuff - yesterday’s weekly session!
In attendance: Kim, Jan, Andreas, Jasper, Michael and a super well dressed Me

Before the session me and Kim talked about stuff we should hit at the session. I suggested we should try Symp Whirling Swirl. I thought he would be able to hit it quite easily and maybe incorporate it into runs right away and that I might hit it once or twice.

I hit it first try ever during warm-up and a couple more times later on. Felt pretty easy. Kim hit it once I think. But he did hit a beautiful Blurry Grifter so he wins! Andreas hit his first Drifter - inspired by the Pipenberg video.

Afterwards we went to Bankeråt and got drunk. I gave the cute bartender a DFO shirt. She liked it.

[C-Fan]

1. Convince or pay a key member of a huge crew to come. .

I think paying big name players to come is a bit risky, especially if they are competing. If you pay for BAP player X to attend (but not compete), and their attendance entices others to show up I think that's one thing (and a good thing).

But if you play BAP player X to attend and they compete, people could potentially question the objectivity of any judging. Say BAP player X ends up winning routines, beating BAP player Z (who you didn't fly out) in a close decision. People might question if judging was biased towards X, since the event organizers paid for him to come.

Alternately, I've seen events where 1 player is flown out, and similarly skilled players had to pay their own way. Those other players don't always take that well, since they wonder why their skills aren't as valued by the organizers.

The way I've gotten around these problems, has been to lobby good players individually, letting them know what the prize purse is ahead of time. Good players who think they can win the purse will still come, and it removes any questions about the objectivity of the judges/organizers.

Just my 2 cents.

[Asmus]

But if you play BAP player X to attend and they compete, people could potentially question the objectivity of any judging.

I don't really understand why the judging would be biased in advantage for Player X. I had no interest in Player X winning, if anything I had more of an interest in somebody else winning since Player X had already gotten something.
There was one member of the organisation crew judging, meaning 4 other judges that didn't have anything oficially to do with the event. The one judge who had probably didn't even know we payed for Player X.

I can't really see the issue.

Alternately, I've seen events where 1 player is flown out, and similarly skilled players had to pay their own way. Those other players don't always take that well, since they wonder why their skills aren't as valued by the organizers.

It's not nice playing in too small Lavers..
Player X did not just go to our event and play footbag. He was crucial in the promotion of the event and was always at our service during the event.
When you pay for a player to come to your event, I think it is ok to ask for more than them just showing up.

[boyle]

He was crucial in the promotion of the event and was always at our service during the event.
When you pay for a player to come to your event, I think it is ok to ask for more than them just showing up.

This is the key. If you are paying for someone to come to an event, it needs to be for more than them just to play. They basically need to be part of the organising team, whether that's in the promotion and attracting more players or the actions on the day(s). It definitely needs to be clear though exactly what is expected of them.

I think the problem for far away places, say if I did an event here, or in Australia, that's where you may get issues of jealousy, because we're talking pretty large amounts of money, generally about $2,000. What you really want to do is to make that payment come from the sponsor, and give them some benefit with that player. People always get concerned over money issues, because money makes the world go round. Everyone has different attitudes to how money would be spent as well, but I guess the most important thing is that the competition should have the pulling power to bring people (at least from nearby areas) together.

[Asmus]

Yesterday was the final thursday session of the year.

We were 9(!!!) players at the session. Lise made her glorious return to footbag after more than 6 months of not playing. She did fairly well. Rasmus flew in from Amsterdam to attend the session or to have christmas with his family. Who knows. Other than that we were Jan, Kim, Andreas, Troels, Jasper, Michael and me.

Before the session we were hanging out in the lobby catching up and in walks our trusted facilitator at the venue we use for the thursday sessions and used for Danish Open. She brought us candy, beers and Fernet Branca. What a sweetheart.

I started out playing with Lise and Jan. Jan played really well - Lots of good steps and ducks. Lise played well for not having played for so long. I really liked the combo Whirl > Whirl > Downtime Symposium Whirl from her. Jan stopped and me and Lise merged our circle with Kim and Rasmus.Kim played hardcore as usual. Somebody in Denmark needs to make a video of him soon. It was good to play with Rasmus again.

I didn’t play very well. A few beers with a co-worker after work and a beer before the session definitely had something to do with this. I still saw some progress with DLOs and my spins and I did hit a new trick - Scorpions Tail!

If you wanna see some photos from the session there are a few on the FootbagDenmark facebook page.

I hope to have another session before it’s 2014 since Nis will be back in the country soon. I am gonna do some sort of year in review post after that.


I leave you with this:

[C-Fan]

. I am gonna do some sort of year in review post after that.

Nice. Looking forward to this.

[Asmus]

. I am gonna do some sort of year in review post after that.

Nice. Looking forward to this.

This is still the plan. But I am having some trouble getting started.

Two days ago we had a New Years session at Nis' parents place. Very nice apartment with an amazing view.

We started off with coffee and some Russian cheese that tasted like sausage. Might not sound like out but it was actually quite delicious.
We were Nis, Kim, Rasmus and Me (so basically the board together in full effect).

Everybody played kinda shitty but we still had a lot of fun. I ended the session with a close to 40 contact run. Happy with that.
Kim left after about an hour and a half. The rest of us played for over two hours.
Here is a photo of the action:


Afterwards we got shit faced and enjoyed the luxury surroundings. Good times.

In other footbag related news I got a fresh pair of Lavers for Christmas. I can't wait to start playing in shoes that actually fit and not just Nis' old torn up shit shoes. Fresh sneaks is one of those little guilty pleasures you gotta enjoy. Here is a photo for comparison:


2014 is gonna be an awesome footbag year. I got a video camera, I got shoes, I am gonna play twice a week, I am gonna have money to go to footbag tournaments. Look out for your booooyyy! Haaaannn!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD6AfcoG4o8[/youtube]

Happy New Years!

[Asmus]

I changed my mind - I am not gonna do a year in review.. But I will say that I agree with Mr. Polini about the future. I am optimistic that this year will be a better year for footbag than 2013 was. People are working on exciting projects that will benefit us all. It’s good to see a bunch of older players coming back and new heads are starting to pop up. I am excited.

We played footbag on thursday. I was super hungover and tired from New Years and a long day at work, so I was proud that I had the discipline to make it. Played bad but under the circumstances I was happy with how I did. At the session was Troels, Andreas, Nis, Jasper, Kim and Me.

Here are some photos:


Troels hit DLO bs


Nis shredding


Jasper played really well. He hit his first Locomotion


Kim mid torque.


This pretty much sums up why Nis is nicknamed The King

[Asmus]

Another thursday another footbag partyah.

Nis, Kim and me met up early to have a board meeting. Lots of interesting topics touched upon and big plans ahead.
Some of the cool shit:
- We are gonna provide a website for primary school sports teachers and kids with video and text material about footbag.
Not only is it great promotion but we also get a bit of money for it.
- I met up with the Skullcandy/GoPro distributors before the session.
They were happy with the tournament and want to work more with us in the future.
- Nis has a sick venue for Danish Footbag Open 2014 already locked down.

And a lot more secret stuff that you will hear about sooner or later..



Andreas, Troels and Paul showed up and we got ready to shred.

I started playing with Nis and Kim and had problems getting into a groove. I was controlling the music and kept on being unhappy with it which distracted me more than it should have. So after a bit of frustration I took 10 minutes to play by myself and fix a couple of issues with my game.
Got some progress on my Quantum set which has been buggin me. Did some double dexes and a bunch of whirls.

Troels asked if I wanted to join their circle so I did that. Paul stopped soon after so it was a 3 man circle.
Troels was going off - he hit like 4 new tricks and had a bunch of good runs with 3 and 4 add tricks thrown in.
I encouraged him to start a footblog here. He seemed intrigued so maybe he will pop up in here.

Troels requestedBarfly b2b which is too hard but I did hit two really good flip barflies. Should be able to hit this soonish.
Nis ended the session hitting Barfly Swirl that was sick.He was also playing really well and he filmed all of it.

At the end of the session Michael showed up just to party so we got a few beers. Good times.



So it seems to be fashionable to write down goals for 2014 - here are mine:
- 50 tiltless then 70 tiltless then 100 tiltless
- 20 guiltless
- Half of Blubberman bs
- DATW > Terrage [rpt] on video
- Stop bailling to Same Clipper

[Asmus]

THE KING’s BIRTHDAY


We had a session yesterday at Nis’ parents’ apartment because it was his birthday and he is heading back to Moscow. I got there before the others so me and Nis had dinner, talked a bit about the future of footbag in Denmark and a couple of video projects. After that we watched some footbag videos. Troels showed up (welcome to the forums buddy!) and we updated him on a few old classic videos he had never seen (Shout out to Lon Smith!).

We got into our gear and started playing. Nis had a rough time getting into the groove and Troels also didn’t play as well as last thursday. Still possibly to see progress here and there on his game. If he keeps on working hard like this he will get pretty good. After 45 minutes Jasper showed up and after that Andreas also showed up. It was a bit cramped but we had a lot of fun.

I played well. I can feel some of the stuff I am working on coming together. Quantum felt better. Few drops on steps. A bunch flip double dexes and some decent whirls bs. Exciting!

After that we played two rounds of “HORSE”. Nis won both of them. I got second in one and Jasper got second in the other one. I feel like I should be able to beat Jasper in it but I fucked and didn’t hit Symple Swirl so he beat me on that. The second round me and Nis just dominated completely. Both of us was left with two letters each with the others out and we just kept on trying too hard stuff to try and beat the other one on something we hadn’t used already (Nis can’t do Fairy, Quantum and Rev Whirl so I had him on that and he can do a lot of things I can’t). In the end I kinda let him win. He was the birthday boy after all.

I am already looking forward to play again on thursday!

[Asmus]

Last night was my favorite part of the week; the legendary thursday party session.

In attendance was Kim, Jan, Verena, Troels, Andreas and Rich Homie Quantum Aka Me.

I played with Kim and Verena. Verena played super well. Lots of Whirr’s, lots of midstring fives, lots of shuffle. I am guessing that she is the technically best female player in the world at the moment with Tina being all babymamma like.

Kim started off a little slow but ended up busting super hard. A run with both Mobius’ after 30+ contacts was probably the coolest.

I started a little frustrated but got back in the groove and had some pretty decent highlights:

- Blingblang
- Terrawhirl
- DATW > PLO [rpt] to a good run
- Hit a Blurriest first try and played out of it. It felt really clean. Asked Kim if it was there and he said he missed it, so I did another one to handcatch that he said was perfect. Boom!

Afterwards we had a few beers because Troels turned thirty. Congratulations to him. Everybody knows the thirties are the new teens for footbaggers.

[boyle]

Great to hear Verena is still playing hard. These Thursday sessions do sound pretty fun, that's for sure.

[Asmus]

Some assorted footbag related thoughts:

Ted's post about getting his bid rejected for Worlds in NY sure made a big splash. I think a lot of it has to do with people being frustrated about a location not having been found but Ted is definitely a guy who causes a division. I like those kinda people, not that I like ever agree with him. I think it would be a good idea though if the process got more transparent. On a more personal level I am happy that Worlds will not be in NY this year, simply because I wouldn't be able to afford it. I definitely plan on going to NY in a foreseeable future and combining it with Worlds in 2016 or something like that would be cool. Also I really wanna go to both Worlds and Euros this year and if both of them happen in Europe it would be doable.

So my footbag plans this year look like this so far:
15. - 20. april I am in Berlin with my family and will definitely shred and party with the Footstars
Sometime in june we will have Danish Footbag Open 2014.
Not as big as last year but definitely bigger than the preceding years.
July/August will be Worlds and Euros
In autumn I plan on hosting some kinda camp or jam since I will have been playing for 10 years and turn 25.
Looks like it will be a great footbag year already!

Something I have been thinking about lately is to start a footbag clothing line. I am sure that it made a huge difference for skateboarding that it became a fashion trend. The companies put a lot of the money back into skateboarding and it increased visibility of the sports times millions. Short shorts and tight t-shirts come into season once in a while so it could work. Donating like 10% of every sale to footbag.org would be cool. I would also be more likely to support stitchers who did that.
I have the skills to design and market it and I have a pretty good connect for doing limited runs of t-shirts and such. Only thing is I don't wanna have the hassle of distribution and accounting. I would have to look into somebody who could handle that for me for a small cut.
I will probably just do a super limited run of something and bring it to the next tournament I go to. If it sell out quickly that might be the encouragement needed to do this.

Another related thing I have been thinking about is how we market footbag. Skateboarding have always been this badass thing for renegades and bullies. Footbag always tries to fight against our stoner-image even though we all know that over 50% of us get high and 90% of us are crazy and love to party. Why not embrace this? Kids like to look up to rad people. It might not be as hardcore as SHAKE JUNT but selling footbag as a cool lifestyle makes more than sense to me. This is exactly what Flipsider did well.

I am very happy to see the footblog section being so active at the moment - Anz and Klp sure are great additions to the subforum. A lot of other people are also posting great shit here (no one mentioned, no one forgotten).

I got a new avatar:

It came about because this became sort of a MEME in Footbag Denmark:

Click the image for video.
Bonus points if you can guess what book cover I used for it.

Feel free to comment. Questions on life, partying, art, Denmark and footbag are more than encouraged.

[C-Fan]

Agree that footbag clothing could be cool. Not just to wear something that shows footbag and makes it look cool, but also to have gear that plays well. My planetfootbag shorts are still my go-to, since they have the inner lining, and the waistband to length ratio works for footbag better than most shorts I find. But they're so old, they're falling apart.

Also, Clockwork Orange.

[boyle]

That's been a huge problem for me in the past year, I've had a few of my "regular" shorts practically fall apart. The first of them were the Planetfotobag ones from Berlin worlds, which were the oldest of the bunch. I also had this other pair, which I was wearing the other day, but they were simply ridiculous I couldn't get a run of more than about 5 without them falling down.

Also it terms of skateboarding/fashion trend, the key part to skateboarding and its success is in the late 80s-early 90s when it was "dead". It was at this stage that the skaters started up their own brands. Well, this had happened much earlier, but in the era when companies like Blind started out, it was basically "DIY or Die", as they say.

You are definitely right on Ted, this is a guy who causes a lot of friction, and most things is says are fairly disagreeable, but one day he's going to come up with a gem.

I think a more transparent Worlds process is imperative. I don't really think I can go this year, so it's not going to make such a difference for me, but I would love to see Medellin, Colombia in the running in the next years. I think this is a better South American bid than Venezuela, not only for the transport/safety aspects. But a South American worlds would be great. Maybe Chile one day...

[Asmus]

(...) it was basically "DIY or Die", as they say.

And that is exactly where footbag is right now.

Also, Clockwork Orange.

DING!DING!DING! Bonus points to Mr. Somolinos

These Thursday sessions do sound pretty fun, that's for sure.

They sure are! You should join some time. Here is a photo to commemorate the good times:

We had another one last night. In attendance were: Jasper, Kim, Andreas, Troels, Paul and Verena.

I mainly played with Kim but got to kick with everybody. Andreas hit his first Atomsmasher and Jasper hit Blurry Rev Whirl b2b and a lot of nice steps out of everything in general. I thought Paul’s game looked better than last time he was at a session. Troels is playing like everyday at the moment and Verena and KIm are hardcore as usual.

Nobody filmed yesterday but we have been filming a lot so there should come some videos out soon.

My Highlights
- Gyro Muted Legover > Terrage > Run
- DLO > Parkwalk > DLO > Run bs
- DATW > Toe Ripwalk > Twirl > Ripwalk > Ducking Clipper > Run with other Ripwalk

Afterwards we went to Bankeråt, recently we have been cheating on the old lady by going to other bars but last night Hole was at work so of course we were back! Topics discussed was young bartenders, handball, Rasmus Rendsvig’s lovelife and such.

[Asmus]

Great to hear Verena is still playing hard.

Here is a run from Danish Footbag Open of Verena throwing down.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGbcCczVAsE[/youtube]
Here is a new Danish video with Milan, David Clavens, Mathias Blau and others.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6qi-hibYik[/youtube]
I can't wait for summer!

I am spoiling you readers with these secret gems.

[Sporatical_Distractions]

whoa

[boyle]

Yeah. Good to stop by your blog every now and then, for the "secret content".

[Asmus]

I wasn’t planning on addressing this in here, but since there seems to be some rumors going around and that I have already gotten a few questions on facebook and twitter about it, I thought I might as well put it out there. Kasper, a Copenhagen footbagger and great guy died in an Avalanche accident in France this week. Kasper had an unique style in footbag and was a pillar in freestyle sports in general in Copenhagen. He was a chill dude who could never sit still and a helpful and warm hearted guy. All of my thoughts go to Kasper’s friends and family. This is obviously a huge loss and a big blow to footbag in Denmark. Yesterdays weekly thursday session wasn’t a party like it usually is. It was good to get together though, talk about Kasper and hug it out.

Lowlights:
- Terrage > Quantum Legover [rpt]
- Quantum Pickup > Fairy Same Legover > Atomic Legover > Pixie Same Pickup
- Legbeater [bsos] a couple of times
- DATW > Terrage [rpt]