Footbag = alternative sport

[CRKDMike]

Ummmmm golf, MMA/boxing, tennis, I even see strong-man competitions on TV!!

Not to mention darts, and bowling. All of these sports plus more that I have missed are all great examples of individual sports that are "hugely popular" and have nothing to do with the Olympics.

Freestyle Footbag has had more than enough time to become mainstream, and it hasn't. Unless something drastically changes, it is doomed to stay underground with the likes of knife cutting competitions, and yo-yo competitions.

BTW, is that Ryan Mulroney in the intro of You Dont Mess With the Zohan?!? I gotta work on the butt crack delay next....you NEVER see that one

[Outsider]

Loving this discussion, but, in truth I've hardly read any of it -- family has been in from out-of-town for weeks and I haven't had time.

I'll catch up soon, but, I thought Nate Pipenburg captured my point-of-view pretty well. I still want to add my own commment (later).

As for Zohan, there were several well-known footbag players in the movie, pretty much all in that scene on the beach. I don't think I could stand to actually watch the movie again, but, I'm pretty sure Red Shred Husted and PT Lovern are on that beach too. (its a funny thing, to see a bunch of your old pals in the background of a movie). I've heard that Peter Irish actually filmed a fairly large scene that was supposed to have taken place in New York City (in Central Park, I think...), but that scene was cut from the movie completely. Maybe it'll make The Director's Cut version...

[C-Fan]

.

In the end, it's all for nothing though really, because as I said numerous times before, footbag will never be able to support it's players financially, and why promote something for any other reason than to generate income??

You yourself are posting on a footbag forum. You wouldn't be here, let alone posting, if you didn't get something out of footbag. I'm guessing that something isn't money.

I've been in footbag for 16 years now, and have met people all around the world who play footbag. Not a single one of them has done it for the money.

People do stuff all the time, regardless of whether or not they get paid. Most people who play video games don't get paid to play them, but when they find a fun one they want to share the experience. Why promote something for any other reason than to generate income? How about because it's fun? When people find something fun (and cheap to boot), they share it with their friends. They want to let others in on the secret.

If you personally don't feel like promoting, fine. But for a lot of us, the only reason we discovered footbag is because somebody else made the effort to promote. For me that was Josh Penney, who threw the first footbag event in NYC in 1997. For a lot of people, that person was the Solonoski's throwing Funtastiks in Pennsylvania. I still meet strangers who come up to me when I hack, and tell me they got into footbag because of Eli Piltz's work on Flipsider.com. Takumi discovered footbag through the Pepsi campaign we ran in Japan. In every one of these cases, dedicated footbaggers discovered their passion thanks to somebody's efforts promoting the sports. And guess what? In most cases these promotions weren't done with the goal of making money, they were done to spread the sport, to share the fun.

If you want to sit on your hands, play in your basement, do nothing...go for it. But in my experience, there's nothing to be gained from that. Finding and making friends through promotion, and having people to play with and hang out with is a lot more fun to me. But maybe that's just me.

[CRKDMike]

You yourself are posting on a footbag forum. You wouldn't be here, let alone posting, if you didn't get something out of footbag. I'm guessing that something isn't money.

Correct, I love footbag. I never said I didn't personally get something out of footbag. Please read the thread before posting, because my argument is that the sport will never reach the masses.

I've been in footbag for 16 years now, and have met people all around the world who play footbag. Not a single one of them has done it for the money.

Exactly my point, and it will stay this way is what I am saying here. Thank you for backing me up.

People do stuff all the time, regardless of whether or not they get paid. Most people who play video games don't get paid to play them, but when they find a fun one they want to share the experience. Why promote something for any other reason than to generate income? How about because it's fun? When people find something fun (and cheap to boot), they share it with their friends. They want to let others in on the secret.

I have watched a video interview where Vasek himself says he promotes the sport so that one day he will be able to make some money.....I laughed out loud, and then started this thread.

If you want to sit on your hands, play in your basement, do nothing...go for it. But in my experience, there's nothing to be gained from that. Finding and making friends through promotion, and having people to play with and hang out with is a lot more fun to me. But maybe that's just me.

I wouldn't mind if my current friends became interested in the sport, and I could shred with them, but I'm not about to go meet people from the internet just because we share an interest. Chances are I WON'T like you, and I will think you take the sport a little too seriously. Call me stuck-up, call me lame, but really I'm just anti-social, so don't hate! I can still have an opinion, and you can still disagree, and around and around we go....I use footbag for my own personal enjoyment, footbag doesn't use me......profound, I know.

[CRKDMike]

I also think it's kind of typical, how some people posting in this thread have turned to personal attacks because they have no valid arguments.

Any personal references I have made have either been in defence, or about myself.

[WyrmFyre]

I have no idea who you are CRDMike, but I get a feeling that if we were in a bar together, id have to consider finding myself a new local.

At the same time I feel almost a sympathy for you. You say your anti-social, that you wont travel to meet people you've met on a forum on the internet, and thats saddening, as your missing out on one of the best aspects of the footbag scene; the people. Rather than try to combat your anti-socialism, you seem to opt for sitting behind a screen and attacking people with a keyboard. Im all for you having your opinion; "I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend your right to say it" but right now, you convey your opinion with a childish, sarcastic edge (quote "Thank you for backing me up.") that seemingly only serves to infuriate and anger people, when all theyre really going to do is ignore you. If you want your opinion to be taken seriously, you might want to consider stopping it.

Please feel free to disagree with me, Im sure your fingers are reaching to the keyboard to do just that.....

[CRKDMike]

Haha, Ian, again a personal attack on me that has nothing to do with the topic of this thread....

You are also using this forum, so I suppose you just contradicted yourself. Forums are made for this reason, to voice opinions, and have conversations with people around the world while sitting at your desk at work LOL.

Sorry if some of my replies seem sarcastic, but I am truly thankful for the people who are backing me up because others are just attacking me instead of my argument. Keep it clean guys, after all, the people in this sport are the best thing about it right?

Get angry, ignore me, I don't really care LOL. I started this thread to voice my opinion, and if my opinions make you angry, move on!!! you have that right.

BTW, yes my fingers were reaching to the keyboard . It's almost as if you knew that I needed to type in order to reply to this thread (tongue in cheek, but definitely NOT sarcastic)

[WyrmFyre]

Its not a personal attack, its an observation. Perhaps the correct approach would have been to PM you rather than de-rail this thread. Im pretty sure you do have some valid points to make, but with some of your posts you almost have to read between the sarcasm and peel away the self-defensive comments to get to what your actually trying to say.

[CRKDMike]

Yea, tere were several footbaggers in the Zohan movie, and one of them even stunt doubled for Adam Sandler when he busted some moves. Before the ass crack delay

[DubleDex]

Freestyle Footbag has had more than enough time to become mainstream, and it hasn't. Unless something drastically changes, it is doomed to stay underground with the likes of knife cutting competitions, and yo-yo competitions.

This is an odd statement. Golf has been around since the 15th century. Tennis since the 12th century. Mixed martial arts has been around for at least 100 years (and if we start considering martial arts in general, much much further). Darts date back to at least the 16th century, maybe earlier. Bowling can be traced back in some form or another for 2,000 years, with standardized rules established in 1895.

Hacky Sack as we know it was invented in 1972. (Yes, some form of kicking a tiny ball or bag around, can probably be traced back further, and Takraw can be traced back to the 15th century). Freestyle didn't really "take off" until Kenny Shults truly developed and escalated the game (for the sake of brevity, I know there are plenty of other forefathers of freestyle) in the 80's.

Thanks to the internet and a tight-knit community, footbag freestyle has gone global in roughly 2 to 3 decades. That's a helluva lot of progress for a sport that is, realistically, less than 50 years old. (Especially when you consider that we're also fighting a slacker and stoner reputation.) Footbag isn't even an infant compared to the other sports you mentioned — it's barely a twinkle in someone's eye.

I realize that we live in a world where people want to see things happen now or even yesterday. But that's not a realistic expectation. I would rather footbag develops on the path it's going as opposed to becoming suddenly "mainstream" and end up being a passing fad.

So, I agree that footbag is currently alternative. I agree that it will probably be that way for longer than a lot of people would like (I won't even argue that it may STAY that way forever, because it very well could). However, I disagree that it's "had more than enough time" to go mainstream. And, as I've stated consistently, I disagree with the idea that it CAN'T go mainstream.

I also agree that having an Adam Sandler movie promote the butt crack stall (and show generally ridiculous computer generated kicking) certainly doesn't help the cause!

[CRKDMike]

As freestyle foootbag stands right now, in the current format, it will never be popular among the masses. I am OK with that, because that has no bearing on how much I enjoy the sport. Actually I sort of prefer to have unique interests in life, and footbag is definitely one of them.

Looks like this thread has finally chilled out, so everyone clearly agrees with my argument.

(again, tongue in cheek, just kidding, for those of you who are about to look-up my IP address and murder me in my sleep)

[C-Fan]

If nothing else, thanks for reaminating modified for a bit with your thread.

[DubleDex]

The reaminated modified frightens me.

[CRKDMike]

Be afraid Darren. Be VERY afraid lol. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but when I started this thread, the only other recent post (recent being this year 2013) was in the equipment for sale area and maybe some footblogs. However, if you look now, almost every topic under freestyle footbag has a recent post.

Ken, you're welcome

Now what's with the combine harvester? I'm afraid that went over my head.