Freestyle frisbee
Encyclopedia
Ultimate (sport)
Ultimate is a sport played with a 175 gram flying disc. The object of the game is to score points by passing the disc to a player in the opposing end zone, similar to an end zone in American football or rugby...
, freestyle discs are about 160 grams. Freestyle is an extreme version of throw-and-catch and is often looked at as hacky sack
Hacky Sack
thumb|right|200px|A Hacky SackHacky Sack is the trademarked name of a type of footbag.-History:The name "hacky sack" came from the 1972 inventors of the Footbag, John Stalberger and Mike Marshall. Although Marshall suffered a fatal heart attack in 1975, Stalberger continued the business. At a...
with a disc (although flying discs were created years before the footbag
Footbag
A footbag is both a small, round bag, and the term for the various sports played with one – characterized by controlling the bag by using one's feet. Although often referred to generically as a Hacky Sack, that is the trademarked name of one specific brand.Footbag-like activities have existed...
). When the sport emerged in the early to mid 1970s, it featured fast-paced trick throws and trick catches and "tipping", epitomized by the performances of the Velasquez brothers, Jens and Erwin. "Tipping" consists of striking the bottom of the disc while in flight to make it fly upward. Tipping can be done with the finger, foot, or other parts of the body.
Freddie Haft was the first freestyler to demonstrate the "nail delay" trick and gave the name to the move. In a nail delay the flying disc spins while balanced on the fingernail. This allows the freestyler to change the flight path of the disc and perform numerous balletic moves with it. He first showed the move in the 1975 Rochester Open Frisbee Tournament. It looks similar to spinning a basketball on the finger. The nail delay (a reference to the fingernail) became the foundation of modern freestyle. Athletes soon learned to move the nail-delayed disc under their legs and behind their backs, to pop the disc up and spin their body around and do another nail delay. Also in 1975 at the AFDO (American Flying Disc Open Rochester NY), Ken Westerfield
Ken Westerfield
Ken Westerfield is a pioneering Frisbee player.Westerfield and Childhood friend started playing Frisbee in High School, impressing the other students with a variety of controlled throws and trick catches...
introduced "Body Rolls", (the disc rolls between out stretched hands across the chest). The move of the day was the "Canadian Mind Blower" (front chest roll to back roll). Body Rolls are now an intrical part of all freestyle Routines. By the end of the 1970s, thanks to groundbreakers like Joey Hudoklin, freestyle had evolved into an entirely different sport built around technical and athletic nail delay skills.
The "airbrush" trick developed in parallel with the nail delay. Though the nail delay is the main skill used by most freestylers, airbrushing opens up entirely new possibilities for freestyle combinations, freestyling with others and playing in the wind. To airbrush, a player slaps the outside of the disc in the direction of the disc's rotation. The disc flies upward and away from the player. In the wind, the disc will return to the player (or fellow freestyler) for the next move. The airbrushing game demands a less planned and a more improvised
Improvisation
Improvisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols, and/or...
approach to freestyle, as the disc's interaction with the wind affects airbrushing more than that it does nail delaying. Airbrushing technique has developed to include brushing with other parts of the body, most often the foot. Players perform trick brushes under their legs or behind their backs. They can change the spin of the disc with one airbrush. Changing the spin refers to the disc spin change from clockwise to counter clockwise or vice versa. Experienced airbrushers can brush both into the wind and away from the wind. Airbrushing the disc around a complete 360 degrees is called an "around-the-world".
In 1974 Ken Westerfield
Ken Westerfield
Ken Westerfield is a pioneering Frisbee player.Westerfield and Childhood friend started playing Frisbee in High School, impressing the other students with a variety of controlled throws and trick catches...
and Jim Kenner teamed up with Jeff Ottis event coordinator for the Canadian National Exhibition
Canadian National Exhibition
Canadian National Exhibition , also known as The Ex, is an annual event that takes place at Exhibition Place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada during the 18 days leading up to and including Labour Day Monday. With an attendance of approximately 1.3 million visitors each season, it is Canada’s largest...
to produce the Canadian Open Frisbee Championships..It was at this Tournament that Westerfield and Kenner introduced an event called Frisbee Freestyle and won it. This was the first Pairs Frisbee Freestyle Competitionever. This event is now accepted as one of the premier events in Flying Disc Tournaments Worldwide.
Freestylers have pushed the limits of the sport by creating new moves, attempting increasingly difficult combinations of moves, exploring previously unheard-of turnovers. A turnover refers to moving the disc from upside down to right side up while doing a nail delay or vice versa. This turnover move also changes the spin of the disc from clockwise to counter clockwise or vice versa and adds to the difficulty of the move. and choreographing
Choreography
Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements in which motion, form, or both are specified. Choreography may also refer to the design itself, which is sometimes expressed by means of dance notation. The word choreography literally means "dance-writing" from the Greek words "χορεία" ...
intricate routines for competition.
The Freestyle Players Association (FPA) is the governing body of freestyle. It acts both as a players union and sanctioning body, developing guidelines for competitions, organizing the Freestyle Frisbee World Championship and promoting participation in freestyle around the world.
External links
- Freestyle Players Association (FPA) – governing body for the sport
- List of world champions
- The Freestyle Frisbee Page - News, Info and Links
- Frisbee Freestyle World Championship 2008, San Lazzaro (Bologna, Italy)
- Official FPA Freestyle Frisbee World Championships 2007 in Amsterdam, Netherlands - Freestyle Frisbee in Amsterdam (NL)
- Paganello World Freestyle Challenge in Rimini, Italy
- Indoor Freestyle Challenge in Prague, Czech Republic