Net is really cool

Seath · Post by **Seath** » 10 Oct 2004 18:50

I'd love to play it, but I just cant seem to want to put the effort into getting out to play with others, I live real close to Quebec and I know there's tonnes of net players there but damn all my footbagging effort has to go to freestyle or I feel like im committing adultery, and thats a deadly sin, so you know I can't do that..

There needs to be more posts here tho, for sure.

mosher · Post by **mosher** » 10 Oct 2004 20:06

Does anyone on modified actually play net?

It's too much of a jock thing for me I think.

It requires a big open place to play and several other people. I bet it sucks to drill net components. (throw it up, spike it down, walk under net>rpt)

Seath · Post by **Seath** » 10 Oct 2004 20:28

haha both sides

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 11 Oct 2004 03:30

Yeah I agree with Tom.

I actually think that it seems like there is a very small connection between freestyle and net and it's a bit amazing that they are so closly linked politically when they're really completely different sports. It would be like soccer and hockey being run by the same organisation because they are both about getting the ball in the goals (real hockey).

I think sometime in the future we will be forced to split both the ifpa and the world championships so that each sport has their own organisation. At the moment it feels like the IFPA is dominated by net players and they seem to focus on that a lot more than on freestyle. - At this years worlds it sounded like there were a lot of problems because the net people didn't understand the freestylers very well and I think we'd have much smoother tournaments and promotion of both sports - especially freestyle if we broke away and had - something like - The International Freestyle Footbag Association (IFFPA) and the World Freestyle Footbag Championships and let the net people do their own thing.

I fear I'm being a tad controversial but it's bound to happen eventually.

edit: In fact why is it called net footbag. It should be called Foot Vollyball - because that's what it is - and the sport is closer to vollyball - especially beach vollyball than any other sport - they use different shoes, different balls/bags, have different rules and usually different players - why is net connected with freestyle at all?

mohkale · Post by **mohkale** » 11 Oct 2004 05:57

Jeremy, how many Australian net players do you know? I know none, and I think that could have something to do with your very controversial opinion. Ask a country that has big scene of both freetylers and net players if they want to split it. Ask Finland for example, we don't want to split them.

I can't speak for other countries but in Finland we (net & fs) are working very tightly together towards our common goal: developing FOOTBAG here.

How is net any less footbag than freestyle? Its not.

I'm hesitating to say this because I'm not 100% sure of its accuracy and I know it will anger some freestylers. Any way, in the early days of footbag, net used to drag freestyle with it, when freestyle was small and only few people did it. So what if freestyle is more popular at the moment, is that why you want to get rid of net.

I find it weird when in tournaments I see a lot of net players showing their support to freestyle and I see only a few freestylers supporting net. ITS ALL FOOTBAG.

I didn't mean to sound like a bitch but if I did, I did it for a reason.

Matti

Seath · Post by **Seath** » 11 Oct 2004 07:47

Well i suppose in the early stages of freestyle where runs were more kick oriented, the net and freestyle footbag probably mixed together well, but as the two different styles evolve into their own sport the differences are very evident.

Elliott · Post by **Elliott** » 11 Oct 2004 08:07

why i like net?
1.) it feels more natural to my body than freestyle.
2.) i improved faster in net. i've been shredding for two yrs & playing net fot one yr & a half. i would not step into a circle with Vasek, but i would take on the 'Manu' on a grassy knoll in a heartbeat.
3.) net involves teamwork that enstills a sense of...dare i say pride.
4.) it brings sense of communnity, due to the fact that's it's dependant upon more than one person, and that reliance builds friendships.
5.) there are no judges that give opinions of my performance, only judges that watch: lines, net, serves, spikes, sets, digs, and the scoreboard.
6.) i love spiking
to mosher: i think of jock sports as contact sports like american football & rugby. net is certainly not a "jock thing", and no man has ever patted me on the ass after i sole kicked the bag - only my lady.

full nelson · Post by **full nelson** » 11 Oct 2004 09:08

I agree with Matti. They are both footbag and should not split in my opinion. I like being able to go have a beer with net player as much as a freestyler.

Some people do play both. It's hard enough to make it to events already. How could I afford twice as many?

mosher · Post by **mosher** » 11 Oct 2004 10:58

I was not trying to denounce net.

I was just stating why it is not for me.

Well really I didn't even do that.

I am not a team player.

Finja · Post by **Finja** » 11 Oct 2004 11:30

As a netplayer I´m sad to read opinions like Jeremy wrote:(

Since 96 I´ve played only net in a competition level and I still have same amount of friends in a freestyle scene. For me the separation speculation is such a big BS and even listening that make me

. I love to watch freestyle and give props for the shredders. I love to discuss about the future of footbag and to meet my friends from all over the world.

Might be that the future will separate footbag for two individual sports but for me that´s like death of a brother. I mean, for you lazyass people that doesn´t even want to support or get to know your homies in a "wrong" form of footbag, that´s nothing, but for me it´s a big deal. That sentence was also meant to some netpalyers.

We don´t have to be one big family but it´s just much more nicer that way.

I´m one of the producer of the Worlds next year and I promise that we will pay 55% attention in both freestyle and net. And as a good will gesture I´ll buy a beer for Jeremy Tha Freestyla, a big one

Take care you all,

Jukka Peltola

Tsiangkun · Post by **Tsiangkun** » 11 Oct 2004 12:21

I went to a net tournament this past year.

The Oakland Green cup .

It was one of the best run events I had been to.
Free concessions . . . of course donations to the CHOAS team were encouraged
Bleacher seating
Standardized bag for all match play

Net is cool. There are definately two groups, but top level net is hardcore just like freestyle.

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 11 Oct 2004 15:13

Don't get me wrong - I enjoy every all sports and I'd be happy to play net and would if I had the opportunity and the time - I'm sure it's a very fun and enjoyable sport - just like vollyball is - which I played for four or fives years until it became obvious I was way too short to ever get into a national team.

But what I was trying to say is that I don't think it's in the best interests of Freestyle Footbag for it to be connected with Net - I think it would make much more sense for the sport I play if we broke away. I don't know if it would also benefit the net scene but maybe it would.

Once upon a time when freestyle was mainly about kicking the bag and both sports were very small it made sense - now freestyle and net have clearly moved in different directions and are big enough to not need each others support.

feel free to flame me

Stoke · Post by **Stoke** » 11 Oct 2004 16:53

There was a lot of talk at Worlds about the future of the sport and the possibility of a 'divorce'. Everyone knows they're two completely different sports. I talked to a lot of freestylers about it to see what their opinions were [I won't name names], and surprisingly, most of them were indifferent.

It made me sad, and it would make me a lot more sad if they actually did split up, because it's really one big community, not two separate ones. And if the two sports divorced, then you would take away a huge reason for a lot of people to meet eachother once or several times per year.

Hardly anyone plays both anymore, and if they do, the hardcore ones definitely won't compete pro in both at Worlds. No way. I think it would be cool if people actually did that, but it takes so much time and effort just to get to that level in ONE discipline.. No one has the time or energy to take both of them that far, and even if they did, how could you ask your body to go all out in both sports in the same week? I talked to Kenny Shults about it. I just wanted to see him get into the shred circles, and he said he might do that when the net tournament was over, but I don't think he ever did.

So on the one hand, it would be sad to see them separate, because the community would be divided, but on the other hand, I don't think it's unlikely that they'll separate, because they're two distinct, dissimilar sports, and it would make sense to divide them, even though they have the same roots.

And yea I thought it was fukt up that while the net finals were going on, only like 5% of the freestylers were there watching, while the rest were shredding across the street. But of course, at the freestyle semi-finals and finals, most of the net players were there watching and supporting. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that the net finals were in the afternoon while the freestyle finals were late in the evening, or maybe not. All those net players could've been out partying and hangin out in Montreal instead of supporting the freestyle finals..

I remember another discussion on the subject at Worlds.. There's a reason that net players are generally older than freestylers. Freestyle is pretty hard on your body, whereas net isn't so bad. When you first get into footbag, you hack, and then you freestyle, and then you might get into net. But you only get serious about net when your body can't handle the freestyle much more. So it's a chronological graduation. Most of the hardcore net players used to be freestylers. I'll eventually drop competitive freestyle and devote myself to net. I kinda started early, cuz I play both.

There was a really cool moment in the open doubles net semi-finals. I think it was Manu who spiked on Kenny, and he dug with the outside, and did a spin immediately afterwards, making it look really styley. Then he pointed into the bleachers to where Sunil, Ahren, Ellis, and several others were sitting and said "That was for all the freestylers!!" I had to cheer for that one.

Stoke · Post by **Stoke** » 14 Oct 2004 14:41

mosher wrote:I bet it sucks to drill net components. (throw it up, spike it down, walk under net>rpt)

That's a good point. There are a lot of drills to use to practice for net, just like with freestyle. It's easy to do even if you're alone. Probably the most important drill is just to do alternating outside kicks, sending the bag about 8 feet into the air. If you can set yourself consistently, you can set your partner.

As for spiking drills, it would help to have some extra space in your garage or some place like that. Tie a net bag or tennis ball to a string and hang it from the ceiling, about 5.5 - 6 feet off the ground. You don't have to kick it very hard, just make contact. If you can do that, you can kick it hard when you need to. Also, it's important to learn as many spiking kicks as possible, and definitely work both sides, for versatility. So the idea is that if you're close to the net, and you get a good set that's close to the net, then no matter which direction you're facing, or which side of your body the bag is on, you should be ready to spike it.

If you want to get really hardcore about the spikes, then you should put a lot of padding under the ball hanging from the ceiling. Because if you do one of Manu's high-flying roll-spikes, or Eric Wulff's backflip bicycle kick spikes, you're not gonna land on your feet. But by all means, train for those, because they're devastating to opponents. They're amazing to watch and virtually impossible to dig.

qphox · Post by **qphox** » 14 Oct 2004 17:06

I've got to agree with Jeremy. Each sport has grown, and they've grown in their own separate ways. There's no need for this interdependence.

zachatree · Post by **zachatree** » 14 Oct 2004 17:33

watching net is crazy fun, i saw it for the first, time at funtasiks, and it was Aw-strikeing when i got home i set up a net and got all my friends who are learning to kick playing, they like it more then i do now !

mongoose · Post by **mongoose** » 10 Nov 2004 11:50

way to go zach!

mosher · Post by **mosher** » 10 Nov 2004 14:15

Regardless of how cool net may be it still takes alot of work to organize a single frigging game!

I can barely pull together three people who would be willing to kick a bag with me let alone finding some place to play and all that jazz.

Kevin and Jeremy are feeling what I am feeling - they are way different sports.

Perhaps the reason so few freestylers watched the net comps at World's this summer was because across the street world class bad ass freestyle was being thrown down by the greatest players alive. Sure I could watch the greatest net players on the other side of the road but I am not passionate about net, I play freestyle.

I doubt anyone here wishes ill upon the future of net just like they don't wish ill upon the future of.. I don't know.. basket weaving.

Just like oranges and apples, they are different things, even though they may both be fruit not everyone likes a glass of freshly sqeezed apples in the morning.

Seath · Post by **Seath** » 10 Nov 2004 22:05

speak for yourself tom squeezed apples own your ass, mix em with toast and you have the power of unstopable breakfastness

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 10 Nov 2004 22:17

Actually I have apple juice in the morning - to be technical it's apple, carrot, orange and ginger - but there is more apple than anything else.

That's what gives me the energy to play footbag!