Functional Training

brinard · Post by **brinard** » 20 Jan 2006 17:56

i believe training is an important role in any sport... not only is it good for your body, it strengthens your game. makes dexes faster, you can breathe better, and better balance can be a plus. but what do i know...

Senor Grommet · Post by **Senor Grommet** » 20 Jan 2006 19:33

heirarchy of athletic endeavors:

footbag>functional training>non-functional training>couch potato

CIC flurry · Post by **CIC flurry** » 20 Jan 2006 19:59

I had a discussion about this once with my colleague, Tim. I asked him if he thought it a good idea to do a particular exercise to improve with footbag. He replies that playing footbag itself would be time better spent in progressin in the sport. I agree, since I don't spend too much time training, I'd rather just play footbag, though I'm sure other traiing could be very beneficial.

From my experience, if you play footbag every day you don't get sore. If you don't play often than play lots - you get sore.

Caleb · Post by **Caleb** » 23 Jan 2006 12:29

At the level of competition that this sport has jumped to, I don't think it'd be risky to say that most of the top players supplement practicing footbag with some other type of cross training. John and Brad, I'd love to pick your brain sometime about the goofy contraptions you've seen in the physical therapy world. I would really like to use some of it in my training.

I used and still do use a lot of resistance training and stair/bike workouts to get my knee back to a healthy state and to get in shape for those long sessions of nothing but 50+ contact beastly strings

. My workout routine is pretty complex and I won't bore everyone with it. But for anyone whose interested (specifically those with knees that creek worse than a wooden ship, or anyone above the 6 foot mark that thinks "Why can't I hit PS whirls too?"), PM me and I'd be glad to share some of what I've learn from PT, research, and just plain trial and error.

Jas · Post by **Jas** » 24 Jan 2006 22:39

I really think that training is very useful for all you footbaggers. I mean look at Ales, he is the greatest example. Before he played footbag he used to be a sprinter, and to train for sprinting he'd need to focus on his POWER and SPEED attributes by doing leg squats, leg pressing etc. Other exercises to help increase running posture would be working the core of the body such as the abs and back. These exercises help these attributes and at the same time increase the persons posture which = better balance.
If you look at Ales's style (which is one of the best styles out there), his posture is absolutely awesome, and his dexterity speed is one of the best out of all footbag players in the world. This is all because of the training he did before footbag, and while he plays footbag. And look at him, his got MAN BOOBS! Having an all-round strong body, especially the core helps so much with moves such as torque and spinning moves, there is no slouch and laziness in his style.
So just think about that, a balance of all attributes for the body to develop is definately needed for an improved game, and may make your style look so much better. Attributes including, SPEED, AGILITY, POWER, BALANCE, ENDURANCE, and maybe FLEXIBILITY. There is no such thing as maxing out in POWER, there's always room for improvement for anything.
Now this topic can be seen to have a bit of contrast. If you look at Vasek, a slim lined body, he played footbag everyday for who knows how long (some crazy duration) and did not train these so called attributes. He played and played and played and he's the golden boy of footbag, but somehow didnt need to train to attain the attributes that we all need for footbag. Now all i can think of the reason being for this is that, Vasek dialled his tricks in because he repetitively did tricks, and we have this thing called muscle memory, which is something we all have, but only works for the ones that a committed in being repetitive.
So there you go, theres 2 answers in my post, figure out which one best suites u.

Cheers
Jason

Samurai · Post by **Samurai** » 27 Feb 2006 23:10

anyone else cross training?

shreddaily · Post by **shreddaily** » 28 Feb 2006 10:10

yes, caleb's blog has started a revolution

Dat · Post by **Dat** » 28 Feb 2006 10:48

couch potato > practicing footbag wrong and getting injured for 2+ months

crazylegs32 · Post by **crazylegs32** » 02 Mar 2006 22:47

My legs are particularly skinny so I think I will benefit from cross training more than many people. Its just so hard to get up off my ass.

beenjammin · Post by **beenjammin** » 26 Mar 2006 17:59

Although cross training will improve your endurance and muscle effiency it does not contribute directly to your footbag skills. You can ride bikes, run, or whatever it is you like to do but the one sure-fire way to improve your game is to play footbag! Stop reading and bust out a trick. Even if your inside and tired from working all day.

FOOTBAG ROCKS!!!!

Functional Training

Sound logical?