Ners' Footblog

Keep a diary of what you're hitting, what's frustrating you, and your goals.
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Ners
Egyptian Footgod
Posts: 1000
Joined: 23 Dec 2003 00:49
Location: Wroclaw (Poland)

Post by Ners » 10 Jan 2010 13:12

Footbag in Poland Report

1. PLAYERS

Taking into account the highest valued tournament of the year, that being the Polish Championships in Bialystok, we get the following numbers:

Open Freestyle players: 20 (-3 in comparison to the last year)
Women Freestyle players: 5
Intermediate Freestyle players: 3 (-1)
Net players): 6 (-1)

Which gives us 34 players total and a decrease by 5 in comparison to the previous year.

Current champion in Singles Freestyle: Marcin Bujko/Góra
Current champion in Women Freestyle: Karolina Modrzejewska/SÅ‚upsk (4th title in a row)
Current champion in Intermediate Freestyle: Marek Wierzbicki/Strzelin
Current champion in Singles Net: Piotr Bałtrukiewicz/Chocianów (2nd title in a row)

2. TOURNAMENTS/JAMS

The following events happened in the year 2008 (in chronological order):

Pomorski Shred 3, SÅ‚upsk, 7-8.02
End of Winter Jam, Wrocław, 18-19.04
Net Jam, Warszawa, 28-29.05
IFPA Mistrzostwa Europy, Strzelin, 26-28.06
Mazowiecki Jam 2, Nowe Miasto, 11-12.07
IX Mistrzostwa Polski, Białystok, 21-23.08
Zośka dla każdego!, Cieszyn, 28-29.08
NET DŻEM, Kraków, 26-27.09
Wilanów Cup, Warszawa, 10-11.10
Zocha Jam 2009, 5-6.12

Which gives us 10 events total, organized in 8 different cities (2x more cities then last year), out of which 4 were big tournaments (2x more then last year). The number of events increased by 4 in comparison with last year. There were only 3 months during the whole year when there was no event at all. For the second time ever, Poland hosted a big international event - European Footbag Championships in Strzelin.

3. INITIATIVES

- Wiktor Dębski became IFPA Rule Director
- Damian Piechocki created a judging guide for Freestyle Routines
- Wiktor Dębski created localized and improved judging cards for Freestyle Routines
- An instructional video for 2 Square was made (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGsEOhzBpZg)
- main footbag site www.footbag.com.pl was cleaned up and activated
- Polish Footbag Records on video project was started (http://www.youtube.com/user/footbagrekordy)
- more then 120 Planetfootbag bags were sold
- Krzysztof Sobótka started a footbag workshop for teenagers

4. PREVIOUS PLANS

- organizing a big, international tournament - SUCCESS - European Footbag Championships in Strzelin
- finishing the freestyle instructional videos series - FAIL
- increasing the number of events - SUCCESS - 4 more events then last year
- recruiting new Intermediate players - FAIL

5. PLANS

- starting a on-line shop at www.footbag.com.pl
- recruiting new Intermediate players
- footbag workshop for begginners, ending with a small tournament (Warsaw Footbag Association)
- creating a instructional video for Doubles Freestyle

Having more events is a good sign, the instructional videos is taking more time then it should, but it's a thing that will be useful for a long time. We are still unable to get new intermediate players. I think a wide school workshops project would be needed to change that, and our resources are too limited. Thanks to the cooperation with Planetfootbag we should start generating some money, so I'm optimistic.

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Szymon Kałwak (Ners)

Ners
Egyptian Footgod
Posts: 1000
Joined: 23 Dec 2003 00:49
Location: Wroclaw (Poland)

Post by Ners » 27 Feb 2010 10:25

I finished another tutorial video, this time showcasing Mirage:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYinR-Yt6Uw[/youtube]

Another great news it that there is a couple of new players, that are active on our forum - they are posting about their progress and post videos regularly.

Tommorow we're having a meeting of our association, since we need to change our legal adress and do some formal stuff (reports etc.)

I left the best thing for the end - today I was contacted by a news reporter and they ended up filming us and doing a short interview that will be broadcasted tommorow in the evening news of one of the biggest TV stations in Poland! That's the second time we make national news and I'm super stoked about it because it means LOTS of exposure for footbag and could potentially lead to new players. The segment is about sport disciplines that are not olympic but could be. I know they will also talk about underwater hockey, I think I need to google that.

AND to make things even better, a player from Wrocław who stopped playing a long time ago called me today and he's coming back!

This day is definitely awesome.

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Szymon Kałwak (Ners)

Ners
Egyptian Footgod
Posts: 1000
Joined: 23 Dec 2003 00:49
Location: Wroclaw (Poland)

Post by Ners » 30 Jan 2011 05:08

Footbag in Poland 2010 Report

1. PLAYERS

Taking into account the highest valued tournament of the year, that being the Polish Championships in Cieszyn, we get the following numbers:

Open Freestyle players: 10 (-10 in comparison to the last year)
Women Freestyle players: 3 (-2 in comparison to the last year)
Intermediate Freestyle players: 3
Net players: 10 (+4 in comparison to the last year)

Which gives us 26 players total and a decrease by 8 in comparison to the previous year. It has to be noted, that during the Polish Championships, 11 players competed in World Footbag Championship in Orlando, USA.

Current champion in Singles Freestyle: Bartosz Bubula/Strzelin
Current champion in Women Freestyle: Karolina Modrzejewska/SÅ‚upsk (5th title in a row)
Current champion in Intermediate Freestyle: Paweł Ścierski/Otrzeszów
Current champion in Singles Net: Piotr Bałtrukiewicz/Chocianów (3rd title in a row)

2. TOURNAMENTS/JAMS

The following events happened in the year 2010 (in chronological order):

End Of Winter Jam 2, Wrocław/Strzelin, 24-25.04
Mistrzostwa Pragi w Zośkę, Warszawa, 1-3.05
Footbag Freestyle Battle 5: Reaktywacja, Osieczna, 5-6.06
Mazowiecki Jam 3, Nowe Miasto, 17-18.07
Mistrzostwa Polski 2010, Cieszyn, 6-8.08
Net Dżem II, Kraków, 4-5.09
Wilanów Cup, Warszawa, 10.10
Zocha Jam 2010, Wrocław, 4-5.12.2010
Zawody Teraz Zośka!, Warszawa, 18.12.2010

Which gives us 9 events total, organized in 7 different cities. The number of events decreased by 1 in comparison with last year. All of the events had the status of a tournament, offering most of the popular disciplines.

Associations and events organized by them:

Warszawskie Stowarzyszenie Footbagu: 3 events (also coordination of the Polish Footbag Championships project)
Nowomiejskie Stowarzyszenie Footbagu: 2 events
Polskie Stowarzyszenie Footbagu: 2 events
Krakowskie Stowarzyszenie Footbagu MANIAC: 1 event
Strzelińskie Stowarzyszenie Footbagu: 1 event

3. PREVIOUS PLANS

- starting a on-line shop at www.footbag.com.pl - SUCCESS - Michał Róg from MANIAC association started an on-line shop where both beginner and professional footbags can be bought. The shop is linked on the main sites www.footbag.com.pl and www.zoska.pl
- recruiting new Intermediate players - SUCCESS (on this year's Zocha Jam tournament there were 5 new Intermediate Freestyle players, recruited during the Teraz Zoska footbag workshop project done by NSF and WSF),
- footbag workshop for begginners, ending with a small tournament (Warsaw Footbag Association) - SUCCESS
- creating a instructional video for Doubles Freestyle - FAIL

4. INITIATIVES AND OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS

- Freestyle Footbag section in the IFPA Footbag Rulebook has been completely translated to Polish,
- 11 players represented Poland in the World Footbag Championships in Orlando, USA, winning 22 medals,
- www.footbag.com.pl website became a well updated source of information about the sport, reporting recent events and archiving information about the past of the sport,
- WRC FOOTBAG created 3 new instructional videos, and a couple of shred video, and participated in the Modified Christmas Calendar project,
- Rafał Kaleta created 4 official Freestyle rankings - for Open Singles, Women Singles, Most Active Players and Circle Contest,
- Damian Gielnicki participated in the polish edition of Got Talent show, receiving three positive votes from the judges and showing Freestyle Footbag to the masses,
- NSF refreshed their webpage, now availiable under www.zoska.eu,
- an official Footbag club has been started in the city of Å

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C-Fan
Rekordy Polski
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Post by C-Fan » 30 Jan 2011 14:10

I love how organized you are, and how you set out goals and track them. It's no wonder the Polish scene is doing so well. Thank you for your hard work on behalf of footbag in Poland. I think it's extremely admirable.

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Lazy-Bonez
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Joined: 13 Feb 2007 13:11
Location: Russia, Moscow

Post by Lazy-Bonez » 31 Jan 2011 01:52

Yeah, Ners, props on your organization in general!
I wish russian players are organized and as full of enthusiasm as you...

Keep moving forward
Nikita Aleksandrov

Ners
Egyptian Footgod
Posts: 1000
Joined: 23 Dec 2003 00:49
Location: Wroclaw (Poland)

Post by Ners » 07 Feb 2011 08:06

Thanks a lot for the kind words guys! :)

I made a short video showing some basic tricks done by the latest addition to our footbag club - Sebastian Sośnicki. I think this will give him motivation to train even harder :)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYT2G6_OVBQ[/youtube]

EDIT: Somehow put down Inside Delay as a 2 add trick :roll: Quite a silly mistake indeed.

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Szymon Kałwak (Ners)

Ners
Egyptian Footgod
Posts: 1000
Joined: 23 Dec 2003 00:49
Location: Wroclaw (Poland)

Post by Ners » 06 Mar 2011 15:27

Short vid with three runs from today:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_Lges_lAI4[/youtube]

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Szymon Kałwak (Ners)

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Sporatical_Distractions
registered sacks offender
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Post by Sporatical_Distractions » 06 Mar 2011 17:09

Really enjoyed your links and meeting you at the us open.
Welcome to Flavortown

Kevin Crowley

Ners
Egyptian Footgod
Posts: 1000
Joined: 23 Dec 2003 00:49
Location: Wroclaw (Poland)

Post by Ners » 10 Mar 2011 16:10

It was cool to meet you too Kevin!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8SDyY2MzgU[/youtube]

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Szymon Kałwak (Ners)

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