Where is this sport going?

Slowsis · Post by **Slowsis** » 22 Jan 2006 21:44

Does it matter? I'd still play either way!!!!!!!!

(Though it would be nice to have a few more shredders in my area)

Faco · Post by **Faco** » 23 Jan 2006 05:17

Yup, we can't offer anything but the sport itself. How is this going to work in modern society...?

edit
I would also like to say that I don't care either. I will play anyway. I am happy as long as they can ship me some Lavers. But then I think...if everybody just said "I-don't-care", than NOBODY would ship me my beloved Lavers! I feel like I need to help somehow...damn this winter!

Shredfish · Post by **Shredfish** » 23 Jan 2006 14:24

I think this sport can go big with out being a gay "trend" that people abuse. A mojor portion of olympic sports are not trends. I don't see footbag going into the olympics but I do see hopes of one day people actually adressing it as footbag instead of hacky sack...

professor · Post by **professor** » 23 Jan 2006 14:34

I see footbag being in the olympics one day. Probably not professional, but definitely the olympics. It's the kind of sport that belongs in the olympics. They have figure skating in the olympics and that's very similar to footbag routines, minus the whole ice thing. Although playing footbag on ice might be interesting to try....

Bagira · Post by **Bagira** » 23 Jan 2006 14:37

Good luck landing a jump! >_>

sNale · Post by **sNale** » 23 Jan 2006 15:40

Outsider wrote: What I getting at is: why do I have to travel an hour in either direction to find the next serious kicker? I want there to be some serious kickers in every town between me and Xian, me and Troy, me and NYFA, but there isn't. Its like alot of empty space, alot of No-Man's-Land, and it shouldn't be. It's not like its sparsely populated around here. It's another town every ten feet around here, all with lots of people. And all those people aren't playing footbag. I don't care if we're "taken seriously as a sport" and I don't give a damn about sponsorships, but I don't like the fact that there just isn't anyone playing footbag in most places you go around here. There's no good reason for that, damn it. I want to see somebody playing just about anywhere I go. Thats what I'd like to see for footbag.
Growing too fast? Yeah, right. If only. Growing too fast? I'll drink to that.

I totally agree with that. Right now we'r five Footbag players in Munich + one player who visits us pretty often. My dream is that we have daily footbag meetings in different parts of the town, with gyms full of Footbagers! We can only accomplish that by ourselves! I think that 2006 will be a great year for Footbag.

Shredfish · Post by **Shredfish** » 23 Jan 2006 18:41

I definitely agree with that too. I just want to kick with more people. Right now I'm the best person in my group of three...and I'm far from awesome I'll just say that...I want to have people everywhere to learn from...I mainly learn from videos...

Lackey82 · Post by **Lackey82** » 23 Jan 2006 19:18

Yeah it's definately a huge advantage to have a guiltless shredder or two to learn from in your area, I mean videos are helpful but they don't give feedback.
I'm lucky enough to have Adam and Bill (though not as often) at York in Toronto, and it's enabled me to develop a decent Tiltless game in about 6 months.
And props to Camille 2 years ago for showing me my first legover and getting me thinking.

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 24 Jan 2006 00:29

Outsider wrote:Bander87 said:
The thing about skateboarding... I think why there are so many posers and whatnot is partly due to the fashion sense about it.
That's an excellent observation, Mr. Adler. I had this same notion a while ago. Actually, it wasn't my notion, but my sister's. She is very intelligent. Anyway, you can think of it as something that skateboard has to offer (i.e. something skateboard has to SELL!), a fashion that goes with it. Skateboarding has a particular fashion, and whats more, it is closely aligned with snowboarding fashion. Skateboarding isn't a big success because of how cool the sport it (actually, I do believe that it has, unfortunately, a lot to offer that footbag doesn't), but because it SELLS STUFF. There is hundred-dollar products to be sold. And there are clothes. Everybody needs to wear something, and even the people who don't actually skate, or don't skate that much anyway, can still PURCHASE skateboard-style clothes. Footbag does not have an ATTITUDE to copy, and even if it did, we don't have a FASHION LINE to go along with it (the attitude or the sport). Those lines of clothing, those products that can be sold to millions of people beyond just those who participate seriously in the sport, is one of several things that contributes to the success of skateboarding. A potential footbag fashion-sense would be much more limited, unfortunately. Running shorts, t-shirts... Nothing that can't already be sold with the help of some other sport to promote sales, or something besides a sport. Alas... All we've got are shoes, and we don't even have OUR OWN SHOES, mostly just some old-skool tennis shoes, and, more recently, some gangsta shoes. And the shoe companies sell plenty of those without our help. Shit. What is the solution? I'm not sure that there is one. C'est la vie. Sorry to be such a downer.

Footbag definitely sells stuff. I've made well over $3000 aud in the last 6 months from promotions for various companies etc. I tend to think the problem could be with the people who play footbag (waiting for things to come to them) - rather than with footbags ability to sell. We don't neccessarily need to be selling something that we use - one of my promotions was with a construction company - ie. they build buildings... Look at all the unrelated stuff that other celebrities are sponsored by.

Anexthesis · Post by **Anexthesis** » 04 Feb 2006 10:17

As almost everyone else has said I just want the sport to become bigger so that there are more people to play with. The closest club to me is an hour away and the one that I generally attend is two hours away. But on the other hand if, like skateboarding, footbag becomes big I'd be very disappointed if I saw Vasek's face on a huge billboard holding up a pair of lavers.

One of the things that made skateboarding so huge is the attitude and for the most part that attitude is SINAC. Something for those who play to shove in the face of authority. Yet footbag has introduced me to some of the nicest people I've met and moreover this is by far the calmest forums I post on. I'm not sure if its cause and effect but for me the footbag attitude it try your best and keep working at it which seems to attract decent people. But I think that nice is a far too optimistic platform for footbag to grow large on.

Anyway for the most part growth will depend on the personal efforts of individual players. This summer I'm starting up a club at the YMCA in my town and with some luck I can get a good base group going.

modified

Where is this sport going?

Stay underground or Go big?