2010 IFPA World Footbag Championships

*Copyright © 2010, International Footbag Players' Association
A 501(c)(3) Non-Profit Corporation

The International Footbag Players' Association (IFPA) and event producer Fancy Footwork Productions, Inc. are proud to announce the 31st annual IFPA World Footbag Championships (click here to register), August 1 - 7, 2010, at the Oakland Convention Center, Oakland, California.

1 This years event is hosted by:
2 Footbag Sports
3 IFPA
4 Event Venue
5 Footbag Worldwide
6 About Marriott City Center:
7 Challenge your Feet
- 7.1 2010 IFPA World Footbag Championships

This years event is hosted by:

Bay Area Footbag League, BAFL

Stanford Footbag Club

Chaos Footbag Club

Santa Cruz Footbag Club

United Flyers of Sonoma, UFOS

Footbag Sports

Footbag Sports deliver both athletically and competitively and lead to a lifetime of health and fitness. Footbag Sports are all about competition. The sport of footbag can be defined as either playing a court game with your feet over a net against an equally motivated competitor, or executing a fully choreographed freestyle routine, in front of your peers and a panel of judges. The world's most amazing footbag practitioners will converge on the beautiful San Francisco Bay Area in early August for one of the most unusual and captivating athletic competitions of the year. It's the 31st annual IFPA World Footbag Championships.

Athletes will attend the Worlds from all around the globe - countries such as Slovakia, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Finland, France, Holland, Hungary, and many more - as well as the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. These are just a few of the countries where footbag is a well-organized and keenly appreciated sport.

The defending World Champion in freestyle footbag is only 23 years old from Prague, Czech Republic. Our young footbag prodigy, Vaclav Klouda, will defend his title for the Tenth time against the world's greatest footbag champions. Also defending her World Freestyle Championship is Tina Aeberli of Switzerland. Footbag Freestyle has exploded and is the single fastest growing footbag discipline. Freestyle is a great combination of artistry and unbelievable athletic ability. Players choreograph difficult routines to music, and then are judged in a variety of categories. Balance, grace, and foot speed are combined with body strength to generate technical maneuvers. The creative possibilities can only be left up to the imagination.

The footbag net competition will allow the up-and-coming players of the world a chance to try their setting, spiking, and digging skills against the best players in the sport to date - including reigning world champion, Emmanuel Bouchard, of Montreal, Canada, defending for the 13th straight year in singles play. Doubles Net World Title belongs to the German Team of Patrick Schrickel and Florian Goetze but will be closely contested by many very athletic teams from around the world. We will also be hosting many time world net champions Jody Welch of Mountain View, California and Tricia George of Portland, Oregon challenging current world champions from Canada, Maude Landreville and Genevive Bousquet.

Footbag Net is an incredible display of athleticism, combining the power and grace of martial arts, the court strategy of volleyball, and the highly refined foot control of elite soccer. Volleyball with your feet is the ultimate athletic challenge!

This will undoubtedly be one of the most impressive new athletic events in the USA in 2010.

IFPA

Charitable Efforts:

Footbag competition is overseen and sanctioned by the International Footbag Players' Association (IFPA), which is the international governing body of footbag sports. IFPA, Inc., is a US-based 501(c)(3) charitable non-profit organization whose purpose is to promote amateur athletics and international competition in the two primary footbag disciplines, Freestyle and Net Footbag. Footbag Sports are played in 206 countries around the world. IFPA is an all-volunteer player's association with 20,000 registered world-wide, run by the players and their elected representatives.

Freestyle Footbag

is a raw and powerful mix of dance, juggling and balance as competitors work the footbag in carefully choreographed routines, sometimes with jazz-like improvisational authority, set to music ranging from techno to hip-hop to classical to rock. The competition can be compared to figure skating or gymnastics, yet it's more unpredictable and edgy, with a vast array of personal styles and interpretations revealed. Hundreds were turned away from last year's sold-out World Freestyle Championships in Berlin and one exposure to championship footbag tells why. There's simply no other athletic discipline on earth requiring so many different skills. Spinning, stepping, jumping, and dexterity moves with precision, all in perfect synchrony and with rare drops at the top levels of play. At this competition, you will see athletically-toned performers in a rare mixture of art, grace, and athletic technique.

Footbag Net

is basically volleyball with your feet. Think, "Martial Arts over a five-foot high net." Athletes dig, set and hammer the footbag across the net, often hurtling their bodies through the air, head over heels, legs flying. Yet the footbag, a ball measuring just two inches in diameter, is successfully knocked from one side to the other until the hard-fought point is snatched and the battle begins again. As the world's great soccer legend Pele exclaimed in astonishment upon first witnessing championship footbag play, "This is incredible! I can't believe anyone could be so coordinated with their feet!" The IFPA World Net Footbag Championships are an exciting, adrenaline-pumping display of athleticism and foot skill.

Event Venue

Event Location

most of the Worlds event will take place at the Oakland Convention Center Exhibit Halls in Oakland, California. This huge indoor area is where we will play Footbag Net's Championship Brackets and freestyle's complete event.

World's Qualifying

The net competition will start August 1st, outside on Laney College grass Sports Fields with qualifying rounds of singles. Doubles stats Monday, August 2nd leading to a single elimination championship bracket. Consultation rounds in all categories will be played at Laney College ending Wed, August 4th.

Championship net bracket will start its rounds on Wednesday, August 4th inside The Convention Center Exhibit Hall West. We are using a Sport court surface for Championship Bracket play.

Freestyle will start its qualifying rounds on Monday, August 2nd inside the Convention Center Exhibit Hall East.

Both disciplines will have showcased finals inside The Convention Center Exhibit Hall Friday and Saturday nights.

Event Showcase

The showcase schedule for the finals weekend is as follows: TBA

Footbag Worldwide

The IFPA's website, footbag worldwide, www.footbag.org, is the official source of information for the sport, used by players around the world to access the official rules, instructional materials, and other information about the sport, clubs, and competitions world-wide. The IFPA World Footbag Championships have been held in a different city every year since 1994. This is a return of the World Championships to the USA after a two-year tour of Europe.

Over the years, the Worlds have been in Golden, (Colorado, USA), San Francisco (California, USA), Vancouver (Canada), Chicago (Illinois, USA), Portland (Oregon, USA), Prague (Czech Republic), Montreal (Canada), Frankfurt (Germany), Helsinki (Finland), and last year in Berlin (Germany).

For more tournament information, Go to www.footbag.org for information on the sport of footbag and all the events across the world. E-mail Fancy Footwork Productions, Inc., chris@footbag.org, or visit the official website of the 2010 IFPA World Championships, at http://www.footbag.org/events/show/1265745512 for sponsorship and registration information. Press-ready digital photos and answers to any questions may be obtained via e-mail to chris@footbag.org.

About Marriott City Center:

Located in the heart of downtown Oakland, the Oakland Convention Center is within walking distance of Jack London Square, Chinatown, Oakland Museum of California, Preservation Park and Oakland City Center. We are also surrounded by beautifully restored Victorian buildings and the finest shops, restaurants, art galleries and museums that our exciting city has to offer.

Rising 21 stories above the Bay Area, Oakland Marriot City Center offers stunningly beautiful views of Jack London Square, Berkeley Marina, Lake Merritt, the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges, and the dazzling San Francisco skyline. Connected to the Oakland Convention Center the Oakland Marriott is just steps away from your event.

The Oakland Convention Center and Oakland Marriott City Center offers world-class facilities in the heart of a prominent metropolitan area. BART(Bay Area Rapid Transit) located across the street from the Marriott offers easy access to the Bay Area and is just a 14 minute ride into downtown San Francisco.

<p>Let enjoy this years Worlds together.

Challenge your Feet