Ducking Sets

Ducking sets involve a “body” add, resulting from crossing the path of the footbag with the head or neck, thereby increasing the complexity of the move. There are two basic forms: “ducking” and “diving“.

With ducking, the footbag passes just over the back of the neck as the player ducks under the bag at its peak. Ducks are mostly commonly set from clipper, but can be set from any surface.

With diving, the footbag passes across the front of the neck on the way up, then back down the other side behind the neck (so the head appears to perform a “dexterity“). Note: true dexterities only apply to feet/legs, so of course diving is considered at the same level of difficulty as ducking (since only one “body” motion is involved in this particular component).

Ducking and diving are considered midtime sets because, in theory, other uptime components could be performed before the duck. For example, a move could involve a stepping set (uptime), followed by a duck (midtime), followed by a downtime move.

Here are the most common names for ducking/diving sets (where there is no separate uptime component):

  • Ducking – Setting the bag over the near shoulder, ducking, ending with an opposite side component. E.g., “ducking butterfly“.
  • Diving – Setting the bag past the far shoulder and diving (the bag coming back over to the near side of the body) followed by a near-side component. E.g., “diving butterfly”.
  • Weaving – Setting the bag over the near shoulder, ducking, and then performing a same-side component. E.g., “weaving butterfly”.
  • Zulu – Set the bag past the far shoulder, diving, and then turning the body to end with a far side component.