Not to mention this is the only section dealing with Net footbag. All the other sections of the forum are basically dealing with different divisions of freestyle footbag.
This is quite an interesting thread, don't have time to comment for now but will get back. That's a great idea Steve to provide this discussion forum. It look much more active than the list
Joined: 24 Sep 2003 Posts: 64 Location: Montpellier, France
Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2003 3:54 pm Post subject:
Hi guys,
just answering few points in our point of view in france and more generaly in europe : i play in intermediate in the last world championships in prague and i don't think that intermediate players (newbies) are that old most of the german, fin's and slovenian guys i have meet have between 20 and 25 which is not that old ???
So i 'm thinking that maybe newbies will come from europe (the same for freestyle), the problem is that afreestyler can progress because there's a lot of resources on the net, i am working on this for net with the help of PT and all the chaos team who help me to take videos during worlds. So i hope that i will be able to put vids on the internet on a new net website that i am actually building. And i am actually working on good videos on CD's to help newbies to progress easily because i have not ound anything more than a text , 10 pics and a short vid of 3 sec about a spike which look like Kung-Fu.
I hope that the newbies in europe at least will work for the growing of net by putting resources on the web.
PS: PT i am waiting for your vid... i'll send you mine as soon as it will be finished
Joined: 23 Sep 2003 Posts: 167 Location: Norfolk, VA, USA
Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2003 10:37 pm Post subject:
Personally I think that net will die because: why play net when you can freestyle? Don't you think freestyle is more "teamy" and enthralling anyways?? You can play it alone, you progress like mad, then you show off. Maybe you play in a circle, get noticed, and show off. Net is an offshoot of the actual freestyle. Since net is just a branch of footbag, and freestyle just being footbag, then the freestyle aspect must stay longer than the net aspect of footbag. Who really wants to play net over freestyle? Perhaps net won't even ever die, however, it will never thrive more than or close to freestyle. There will always be the net bums hanging on the court coaching people into following their path, but seriously, I would rather follow father mulroney on the trip to seven-add-dom.
Joined: 23 Aug 2003 Posts: 351 Location: San Carlos, CA, USA
Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2003 12:56 am Post subject:
Ludovic Lacaze (ludo88) wrote:
... i will be able to put vids on the internet on a new net website that i am actually building
Yep, Ludo, c'est parfait. Just go do your own thing, that's right. We definitely shouldn't be working together and contributing to a central place. Everyone go off and try it yourself. Good luck with that.
Joined: 17 Sep 2003 Posts: 336 Location: Oakland, CA, USA
Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2003 3:40 am Post subject:
Jon Robison (narfman0) wrote:
There will always be the net bums hanging on the court coaching people into following their path,
Hey buddy,
You need to settle down on the bums call.
Freestyle has subjective scoring, in other words judges decide who wins. Net has a score board. Sports with a scoreboard seem to be way more popular in the sporting world these days. Look at figure skating or a beauty contest compared to football. When footbag net rises rowdy crowds will erupt with it. Fans love a score board. You can't judge the sport as it stands now time will tell. Today's Freestyle footbag isn't the original footbag if I remember people used to pass it around a little more in the process of showing off. But lets not go there.
Jon Robison (narfman0) wrote:
But seriously, I would rather follow father mulroney on the trip to seven-add-dom.
You obviously have never crushed a good footbag spike either
Lets keep the net forum on the postive tip here.
Your footbag net bum
Grischa Tellenbach (grischa.tellenbach) IFPA Member
Joined: 18 Sep 2003 Posts: 323 Location: Paris, France
Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2003 12:05 pm Post subject:
Steve nobody ever said something about that you are putting new net stuff on footbag.org. (until very recently)
Searching for net related stuff on the internet was frustrating for the last years. the only one I know is this canadian site with really bad vid quality.
So, at this worlds tonnes of net players where filming top players, to get something to put on the internet.
But if you do it serisouly with PT on fbag.org it will hopefully fill this BIG gap.
Joined: 23 Aug 2003 Posts: 351 Location: San Carlos, CA, USA
Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2003 3:58 pm Post subject:
Grischa Tellenbach (grischa.tellenbach) wrote:
Steve nobody ever said something about that you are putting new net stuff on footbag.org
Grischa, you still don't get it. Nobody seems to. If you all wait for me to "put new stuff on footbag.org", you'll wait forever. I don't have time to just be everyone's slave building web pages. I am trying to provide much higher level value by creating mechanisms for people to publish things themselves on this resource. That's the way it's been since the beginning. But, the old addage, "if you build it, they will come," (okay, not so old) has not been true in footbag. I've found most people prefer the creative process of building their own independent websites which I think has really sapped the value we could have created as a team. This same argument applies to the whole issue of footbag organization in general. IFPA's supposed to be a framework for collaboration whereby organizers all around the world can participate in the governance of the sport, and assist with volunteer projects to help bring the sport to the next level. But until recently (it's better now, but only slightly), the Europeans (we should start this thread on the European channel on the forum) were all trying to organize their own rules and what-not. Anyway, I'm rambling but you get the idea.
Grischa Tellenbach (grischa.tellenbach) wrote:
But if you do it serisouly with PT on fbag.org it will hopefully fill this BIG gap.
I'm glad you think this, however, it's not me doing this with PT, it's PT stepping up (like others have failed to do) and starting to do work for the promotion of the sport using the tools provided, and giving me feedback on ways to improve the tools.
Joined: 24 Sep 2003 Posts: 64 Location: Montpellier, France
Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2003 7:18 pm Post subject:
Sorry steve if you take it wrong but what i need to publish video on the internet is a web access which i will obtain in less than a month after that i hope that the most important number of people will see them and i think that it will be in footbag.org so if you want ( i know you already ask for this and that's why i'm working on it because you ask someone to do it) i can upload my videos on footbag.org but what i need is only an hard driv or a way to comunicate links to vids (if you want me to put certain kind of vids or certain quality or size ... tell me or just give me an FTP pass or a place where i can add links and i can upload soem vids in a month.
Again sorry if you take it wrong but you already told me that you are really busy and i was working on a VHS but because i do it on my computer it will onl tke 1 hr to put it on the net.
Send me a mail or tell me directly on the forum what is interesting you.
Maybe see you soon on a net court in Montpellier.
Ludo
Joined: 23 Sep 2003 Posts: 16 Location: New Castle, DE, USA
Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2003 9:45 pm Post subject:
Back to the topic...
I think most of the major reasons for the decline in Net's popularity have been touched upon.
1.) Lack of internet exposure
When I started playing freestyle, I was also curious about net, but could find almost nothing in the way of videos or tutorials on the web. The spikes and clips recently put into the move list here are a huge step in the right direction. Net does not lend itself to video as well as freestyle. The games are too long to upload/download the whole thing. A site where one could download particularly exciting points from championship matches at tournaments would be really great.
2.) Lack of recruiting/ new blood
I'm not sure I agree with the statement that established players do not try to teach new players and bring them into the game. Vince Bradley has been trying to get me to come down to College Park to learn some net. Were I not injured, I would have already been there, because a teacher would be immensely helpful. This year at Funtastiks, Jaime Lepley inducted my buddy Jon Felix (another up and coming net player) into Team Net Wrecker. In my limited experience, people in the net community have seemed very willing to take newbies under their wings.
The steep learning curve is certainly a factor. Just getting used to kicking a net bag takes some time and effort, let alone setting and spiking with accuracy. However, the mid-atlantic region of the US has quite a few "pros-in-training." East Coasts and Funtastiks both had strong intermediate and novice fields.
3.) Tournament format
This has not been mentioned, so I thought I would bring it up. I think a majority of the new generation of net players are starting as freestylers. This is great, it gives them a base on which to build net skills. However, the events I have attended were not very conducive to playing both freestyle and net. The games seem to keep coming and coming. Don't get me wrong, I really like net, but at both East Coasts and Funtastiks I wanted to shred as the afternoon wore on only to realize I had like 8 games left. This could be a big turn-off to freestylers trying net for the first time.
I'll save what I think should be done for another post. For now, adios.
Joined: 23 Aug 2003 Posts: 643 Location: Victoria, BC, Canada
Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2003 10:10 pm Post subject:
Steve Johnson (Zescape) wrote:
3.) Tournament format
..snip... but at both East Coasts and Funtastiks I wanted to shred as the afternoon wore on only to realize I had like 8 games left. This could be a big turn-off to freestylers trying net for the first time.
I'd have to say I agree that this is a pretty major factor. I go to tournaments to freestyle, but although I like Net enough, I tend to shy away from the Net courts a little because it does seem like such a committment. Don't get me wrong; I know the committment is a part of the game -- espcially in a tourny environment. But freestyle is way less demanding. If I'm competing in any and/or all of the freestyle events I know that I'm able to "hang out" still and just shred with whomever I want and be casual for the bulk of the day. All I have to worry about is the half hour before my run (during which time my stomach does those wonderful flip flops), the two minutes (MAX) that I'm out there for and then it's back to hanging out and doing "whatever". You can hardly say the same for Net. If you compete, you're there for the day. From an outside perspective, it seems like some of "you net players" barely have time to run to the store for a drink on competition days
I really have no idea what the solution to this is -- I think Steve maybe touched on it in another thread somewhere in relation to having SO many freestyle competitors and how to seed them etc - perhaps Net tournaments need to have less rounds and separate the playing levels a little more. I dunno
I'd like to add that I think one of the things that will bring Net out of it's current slump will be the game of 4 Square. Not only are freestylers and net players brought together (to build on social alliances that would make it easier for "recruitment" to take place) on the 4 square court, but it also exposes many freestylers to a completely different game that is actually closer to net than freestyle -- even though it grew out of freestyle. How's that for a paradox?
Joined: 07 Oct 2003 Posts: 131 Location: Helsinki, Finland
Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2003 7:55 am Post subject:
Sorry if these points i am trying to make here have been discussed many times before, because i did not have time to read all the messages under this topic. I should note here that I am watching these things from a Finnish perspective.
It is obvious that the lack of new players is killing footbag net. So, why are there so few new net players? I think it after all is much of a promotional issue. At least here in Finland when we do footbag net demos there is always some freestyle involved as well. I think it is believed that there has to be some freestyle for the public to understand that the demo is after all about footbag, because freestyle is the form of footbag everybody is aware of. So, after a demo there are some young kids interested about the sport asking if they can try to kick some. They try to kick a netbag and find it really hard to do. They also kick a freestyle bag and surprisingly find it much easier and maybe even start to kick regularly.
You might think here, what the heck is wrong with that? I say nothing. But it could be possible to arrange things so that the net game would have better changes to get more attention as well. We could promote footbag net by arranging particularly net demos without any freestyle kicking. So footbag net would be "the main act" for the public. And when the interested kids come to ask about the sport and try to play themselves, it would all be about footbag net.
I know this is not a new idea, but it clearly has not been given enough thought, at least in Finland. All the freestylers reading this may think that why forcing people to play net if they like freestyle better. I am not saying that. I just think that in order to survive and get bigger footbag net should get the attention it deserves and not always be promoted as if it was just a side-act of footbag freestyle.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
