footbag.org

Angus Smith (sharksrock) · Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2006 6:38 am Post subject:

(1) i dont care
(2) i dont care
(3) your not helping much either

Jeremy OWheel (owheelj) · Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2006 9:55 am Post subject:

Perhaps you'd be happier at www.footbag.com

To answer the question:

"is the IFPA necessary for footbag?"

I think ultimately the IFPA is not "necessary" for footbag - actually I don't really understand what that means however I have no doubt at all that the IFPA does a great deal to help spread footbag world wide and that it definitely has had positive outcomes for the sport.

There are a number of things the IFPA does that help the sport.

1. This website - This website is owned by the IFPA and is an awesome resource for people interested in footbag. It allows you to find other players in your area or in places that you're planning to visit, it has a fairly comprehensive trick list and faqs answering a lot of questions that help new players and for IFPA members there is free uploading space and the fantastic group function which is great for organising footbag related events. I have no doubt that were it not for the IFPA and this website I would never have taken footbag to anywhere near the level I play today - I would never have met any of the cool people I've met through the sport and my life would be completely different. Playing footbag has definitely had a huge impact on my life.

2. Legitmacy for footbag as a sport. The existence of the IFPA and other organisations gives footbag a great deal of legitmacy as a sport. Without official organisations like the IFPA - footbag would only be a past time or a hobby. Having official organisations makes it a great deal easier to recieve government grants and other funding and gives the sport greater recognition.

3. Influential promotion. The IFPA has influenced a great many people into playing footbag and into promoting footbag. A great example is about 6 months ago Ken Somolinos and I (with some great support) played at the half time break in a national soccer game - promoting footbag live to over 15,000 people as well as being broacast live on national TV. While the IFPA wasn't involved at all in this promotion - it came about because people like myself started playing footbag through this website. If the IFPA never existed that promotion would probably never have occured. It's impossible to calculate just how big an influence the IFPA has had on the promotion of footbag but I would say it's enourmas and the work carried out by the IFPA is fantastic in pushing footbag being seen as a stoner hippy past time.

Angus Smith (sharksrock) · Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2006 10:08 am Post subject:

Yeah footbag is doing fine in america but in almost every other area it is not doing anything good. If you went to The European Scene you would see that some people dont even have a decent footbag!

Jeremy OWheel (owheelj) · Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2006 10:39 am Post subject:

I think you're wrong. I live in Australia and am happy with the scene here. I also think the following countries have really good footbag scenes:
Germany - holding this years worlds in Frankfurt and holds some of the biggest footbag tournaments each year.
Finland: Held last years worlds and had 3 players make the finals for worlds in Freestyle (putting them in the top 10 in the world).
Czech Republic: Held worlds 2003 and has the top two freestyle players in the world (for the last two years and have had the number one player since 2002).
Poland - Has a huge amount of really talented players including one of the top female players in the world.
France - Has a number of talented players including one of the top doubles player combinations in the world.
Switzerland - Holds one of the biggest footbag tournaments in the world each year (footjam) and has a number of top players including the number 2 freestyle female in the world.
Austria - Has one of the top female players in the world.
Denmark - Has one of the top female players in the world.

I would say tha a lot of people think that Europe is really where the footbag scene is at these days - with bigger events and more sponsorship money than anywhere else. The UK isn't as strong as the rest of Europe unfortuantly.

Angus Smith (sharksrock) · Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2006 12:08 pm Post subject:

Matt Christopher (resonance) · Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2006 1:44 pm Post subject:

Angus, please stop; you're embarrassing yourself. It's even worse that you're from London - no wonder there's no scene here when all we have are aggressive little gobshites like you around.

I don't see how footbag has changed for the worse at all, especially in this country where the prevalance of the sport has been incredibly low-key for twenty years. The rest of Europe, however, seems to have flourished nicely.

Circle kicking's great, but there's really no reason for a dedicated forum. What could possibly be talked about? Circle kicking's always been a social activity in which most people aren't concerned with learning tricks. If that's your thing, then just keep going out and kicking with your mates.

Justin Eichenlaub (justin41) · Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2006 2:14 pm Post subject:

Benjamin Benulis (ironcladben) · Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2006 4:45 pm Post subject:

Could someone please ban this troll? It's pretty obvious this guy is just trolling.

Jeremy OWheel (owheelj) · Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 1:43 am Post subject:

I don't think it's necessary to ban him, however I'd appreciate it if people grew up a little and stopped being personally insulting. If you disagree with what somebody says, I think it's easy to express that while maintaining a sense of decorum. Everybody is intitled to their own views and if somebody thinks that the direction of footbag towards becoming a serious sport is wrong they are certainly intitled to that position - it's the same kind of view that is sometimes expressed to me - mainly by hippies - who also think the sport is called "hacky sack" and was invented by the Australian Aborigines, The Aztecs or some other ancient and "pure" civilisation - and that the the game has been corrupted by Americans and ultra competative people. You're bound to come across people like this if you keep playing footbag and I don't see that sheltering the forum from the real world would achieve anything. Learn to deal with it without getting yourself into trouble.

Angus Smith (sharksrock) · Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 3:50 pm Post subject:

I thought it was invented by John Stalberlger

Andrew Ronald (mongoose) · Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 5:30 pm Post subject:

Hey Angus where abouts in London are you? If you want to just kick the hack around a bit I am game but I must warn you I am a net player and I cant get excited about kicking soft bags around. No sand bags or Sipas for me please. If you want to hack with a net bag I guarantee you its more fun than a freestyle bag unless you want to do tricks. If you only want to kick it the net bag is the best I think. You will have fun and improve your skills for joining a net game later too.

Ben Cochrane (footbinc) · Posted: Thu Apr 27, 2006 2:49 am Post subject:

Jeremy OWheel (owheelj) · Posted: Thu Apr 27, 2006 9:14 am Post subject:

Fredrick Allen (PSI-Switch) · Joined: 29 Mar 2006 Posts: 14 Location: Albert Lea, MN, USA

Hacky sack is only ridiculed by immature sports jocks and spoiled prep childern that think that popularity in the school system will somehow pay for the things you need in life...

It's called jealousy. They are really good at hiding it, but it's mainly just jealousy. The biggest sports jock who is also super preppy, named Ben Shreiber. The ONLY thing, that he and I have in common, is Halo 2. We both love it, play together on XBL alot. Well, he's always you know... Making fun of Footbag when me and my friend Josh play. Josh is on the swim team and is neck and neck with Ben on that. Anywho. There was a huge Halo gathering at this one prep kid's parent's house. We went, got our crap hooked up, and we were waiting for everyone else to get networked and all that jazz. So Josh and I took out the Abshire for a while.

To my great surprise, Ben came up and was giving us props (Not even in an asshole sarcastic way either.) on how good we were at the sport. That was pretty cool.

You just have to get to know people just a little bit. It's all just an image.

For just random strangers on the street, I have NEVER seen ANYONE even look at us in a weird way (Except for astonishment and bewilderedness.) while we were shredding. I get nothing but approval from strangers that walk past. Even build a small audience sometimes, only around 10 people maximum.

But really, it's only immature people that think they need to hold up some form of an image that say these things about Footbag. So really, you can't say that Footbag is being ridiculed because of that.

Footbag in America isn't that great or well known... I'd have to say that Europe sees more Footbag than the US does... That's just my suspicion... I mean, I only know of 3 Footbag shredders in Minnesota... 3, that's it. I know one from Iowa too who lives kinda close.

IMO, the US is lacking in Footbag awareness.

Uhhh... Yea, I kinda just had a brain fart... And I dont seem to be recovering from it, so... [/rant]

Peace.

George Champlin (gripperm) · Joined: 01 Jul 2006 Posts: 3 Location: Milford, DE, USA