Sunteți pe pagina 1din 5

Chase Stodden

Robert Arnold
UWRT 1101
December 7, 2015

Ethnography: Freestyle Football


The sport is known as soccer in the United States, but in most parts of
the world is known as football. Football can be found being played anywhere
and by anyone from children to adults, in all different forms and variations of
the sport. It is played for many reasons other than for just fun. Some play as
a way to get away temporarily from problems and others may play to pass
time or to relieve stress. It is said by many that when engaged in the sport,
nothing else in the world seems to matter. Football can be played as a team
or, believe it or not, as an individual. The individual side of the sport is one
that is much different than other forms of the sport and only a ball is needed;
it is called freestyle football. One can not fully understand or respect the
sport without observing it first hand. To most people freestyle football is
simply juggling a soccer ball, but to a member of the freestyle football
community it is an art.
Before freestyle football became an actual sport in the 20th century, it
was just juggling a ball, also known as keepie uppie, and originated over
100 years ago by circus performers, but it evolved. It started being seen
more and more in the 1980s and into the 2000s by world known football

players at the professional level like Diego Maradona and Ronaldinho. They
were seen on television commercials and on the professional stage juggling a
ball and throwing in some tricks as they were doing so. The tricks they would
do were simply amazing and never seen before; it took the attention of
many.
Over the past decade or so, the sport has really started to pick up.
More tricks have been invented, more people are getting involved, more
people are eager to watch, and rules have been established. What are the
rules? There are none. There are no limitations to the sport other than how
far one will push themselves to be better. Tricks are being created that the
founders of freestyle would have never thought of and they are complex! The
difficulty of a trick can almost be assumed by just hearing the name and
some of the names are hard to believe where others are exactly what they
sound like. A trick called a headstall would make one believe that the
person performing the trick would stall the ball on their head and that would
be correct, but some tricks like the one called new shit leaves one
guessing. Most tricks are variations of the basic tricks. For example, an
around the world is where the ball is stalled on the foot of the freestyler
and then the foot is quickly swung around the ball making sure the ball does
not hit the ground and it is one of the most basic tricks to execute, but there
are many, many different forms of the trick. The around the world
variations could be a Lemmens around the world or could also be a
Touzani around the world. Both obviously being much harder to perform

than the original trick. Professionals tend to turn something basic into
something that looks almost impossible to do. It is almost like taunting the
original creator of the trick.
One thing about freestyle football had in common with all the other
forms of football, and other sports as well, is passion. It drives people to do
things that are unheard of and have never been seen. Passion is a motivator
and is very easily identifiable when watching freestyle footballers perform
and compete. The sport developed because of the passion of others for
freestyle, creating tricks and making freestyle football more competitive and
increasing the level of difficulty. Without the passion of footballers, freestyle
football would not be the sport it is today. There would be no Freestyle
Football Federation (F3) or world championships where the best of the best
compete for the title of the number one freestyler in the world.
With passion comes many hours devoted into the sport and a whole lot
of effort. No one is naturally talented enough to the point where practice is
not needed. The known all-stars in all sports, whether it be Peyton Manning
in the NFL or Travis Pastrana in every sport he attempts, put in tremendous
amounts of work and it definitely pays off. With freestyle football, practice
focuses on repetition and of course touches on the ball; the more touches
the better. When asking a freestyler how much time they put into practice,
they responded, I like to get in at least an hour of getting touches on the
ball a day. Touches on the ball improves control and composure when
attempting tricks, which is a must when participating in the sport. Although

freestyle football is an individual sport, many freestylers tend to like to


participate in the sport with others. There are benefits to freestyling with
others. One benefit being that freestylers like to try to out do one another
leading to each freestyler pushing themselves to nail tricks for bragging
rights. Repetition is a huge factor in freestyle football. Being able to do a
trick once is no big deal, but being able to perform that same trick over and
over is what is ideal to a freestyler.
When putting everything into a passion, things do not always work out
perfectly; even with countless hours of practice. This is when frustration is
stumbled upon. Frustration is an odd emotion and is dealt with in all sports. It
can make or break, meaning some may perform better when frustrated, but
others will be torn apart by it and will lead to even more failures. This is
evident on the professional stage as well as on the practice side of things.
Another benefit to practicing with others is seen when a fellow freestyler is
frustrated. The other freestylers will motivate and help keep chins up, trying
to eliminate or lower the frustration. Observing people participating in the
sport of freestyle football, frustration seemed to either lead to cursing aloud
or punting of the soccer ball. Both of which may be necessary to release
some anger. This is not seen as much on the professional side of things, most
likely because they are trying to carry themselves professionally for they are
professionals, but throughout practice one can definitely believe there is
some releasing of frustration.

Freestyle football is a unique sport. It is unique in the way that every


person who participates in the sport is different. There are not two freestylers
in the world who are alike. When observing people freestyle, the immediate
differences were the way each freestyler carried themselves and they way he
or she moved their body while handling the ball, it is very similar to dancing
in a way. Every freestyler has their own style. Freestylers create new tricks
as well as come up with variations of old tricks and perform their tricks in
combos. This is how an individual style is created or found. A freestylers
individual style is a way of self expression and is why freestyle football is an
art.

S-ar putea să vă placă și