Freestyle football

Updated on Sep 23, 2024

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Contact Yes Equipment Football		Type Ball sport Olympic No

Highest governing body Freestyle Football Federation

Freestyle football, also known as freestyle soccer in North America, is the art of self-expression with a football, while performing various tricks with any part of the body. Similar in style to keepie uppie, kemari and the ball discipline of rhythmic gymnastics, it has become a widespread sport across the world and is practiced by many people. The official governing body for this sport is known as Freestyle Football Federation

Rules

Freestyle football involves competitors doing a short performance of their skills, either three 30-second performances or a single minute-long performance depending on the stage of competition and the competition's structure. Judges evaluate competitors on six criteria: difficulty, originality, all round skills, trick execution, mistakes, and variety. Players are not allowed to touch the ball with the hands or arms (e.g. acts which would be penalised as the handball offence in association football), such touches are considered mistakes by the judges.

Increase in popularity

Freestyle football has existed since the early 1900s, but it has seen a surge in popularity as a result of global advertising campaigns and digital media sharing. In the early 21st century, Nike began an advertising campaign which relied heavily on the freestyle form of football, including video clips of freestyle performances. The videos are called Joga Bonito which means "Play Beautiful." These advertisements featured famous players such as Ronaldinho, Cristiano Ronaldo and Edgar Davids. Many link such mass media attention to the start of the freestyle craze. In the YouTube era, however, many previously non-famous players have risen to prominence, and internet searches easily yield thousands of videos by amateur "freestylers" around the world.

Some of the more notable freestylers include: Hee Young Woo (Mr. Woo) of South Korea, Séan Garnier (France), Pawel Skóra (Polish), Michal Rycaj (Polish), D-Eleven (Brazil), Azun (Norwegian),Palle (Swedish), Reynoldz (Irish),Beto (Mexico), Andrew Henderson (UK) Akim kovalev (russia) Ricardinho (Brazil) PWG (Philippines) Tokura (Japan) Jawad Blunt (Pakistan) Victor Rubilar,Kamalio. Four time Guinness World Record Holder and John Farnworth, who appeared in Britain's Got Talent in 2009. Also in the same year of Britain's Got Talent (series 3) Uefa Training Grounds skill experts Woody & Kleiny were the first freestyle double act to ever hit the programmes screens and the duo were branded by Simon Cowell as the Anty & Decky of football juggling. Moreover, men are not the only ones capable of training this sports discipline. Since it started spreading all over the world more and more women have been taking up freestyle football. Some of the most notable women in the sport are current World Champion Kitti Szász (Hungarian) as well as runner up Mélody Donchet and North American non-competitive but high level freestyler Indi Cowie.

Freestyle has also become very popular in South America, with countries such as Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela and Chile forming freestyle crews of dozens or even hundreds of freestylers, some of the most important Latin Freestylers are Charly Iacono who got to the Semi finals of Talento Argentino, an Argentinian talent show, and Cristian "Rocky" Mayorga who came third in the South Africa 2010 Red Bull Street Style world finals.

Freestyle pioneers

Several freestylers have influenced the varying styles within freestyle football including Rickard "Palle" Sjolander, nicknamed the "godfather of airmoves". Palle invented many lower body tricks which are now used by several freestylers. Palle's progression of lower body freestyle was enhanced by Pawel Skóra from Poland. Since 2010, the progression within lowerbody freestyle has been led by a group of around 10 "limit pushers", including Pawel Skóra, MP, Hasip, Ars, Mirko, Gunther, Akim, LKR, Ethan, Memo and more.

The movie In the Hands of the Gods promotes football freestylers. The film followed five lads (Mikey Fisher, Paul Wood, Sami Hall, Danny Robinson and Jeremy Lynch) on a journey of a lifetime in search of arguably the best football player of all time Diego Maradona. The film became the largest release of a documentary ever in the UK, fourth biggest in the world when it came to screens on its opening weekend, was on show at the Cannes film festival and had a red carpet Leicester Square premier which was green AstroTurf for the boys.

Freestyle competitions

Shortly after the Joga Bonito advertising campaign Nike launched a freestyle football competition on the internet "Nike Football" in which participants could submit their own clips and receive feedback from a worldwide audience.

In December 2006 the "Masters of The Game" competition, held in Amsterdam and was won by Hassan Muxudin Ali. Nutmeg or Panna and other street football competitions have been held featuring street football players such as Edward Van Gils 'Edje', Issy Hitman, and Jermaine Vanenburg 'Vaantje'.

In 2007 there was a competition in Latin America called Red Bull Reaccion.

Also in 2007 Redbull futbol de calle was held in NYC's Webster Hall.

The French Arnaud "Séan" Garnier is the first world champion of Red Bull Street Style Soccer. The final of the Red Bull Street Style competition was held in Brazil In November 2008. Arnaud Garnier "Séan" beat out the other 42 competitors to win the competition.

The 2010 Red Bull street style was held in Cape Town South Africa April 24–28. The winner was Anders "Azun" Solum from Norway, who beat Kamalio Ranchod from South Africa in the final. The latest one was held in Italy where Kotaro Tokuda from Japan came first, and Daniel Dennehy from Ireland finished second.

Freestyle tricks

Football freestyle demonstration at the 2013 Masters à l'Epée, Levallois-Perret, France.

Freestyle football is divided into different disciplines/styles:

Lowerbody/Air Moves - This is the most popular with the new generation of freestylers. The ball is kept aloft using mainly the feet and legs. This style is considered to be the most difficult and the one that gives a multitude of opportunities to come up with new moves and impressive combinations.

Upperbody - This style is very popular in Japan and Russia. Most tricks are done with the head, chest and shoulders.

Sitting/Sit Down - This style has become well known. All tricks are executed while sitting on the floor with your legs in the air, and the inability to move after the ball greatly increases the difficulty of any trick performed.

Groundmoves - These are normal football moves, but then executed without an opponent. Skillful players can make the performance of groundmoves seem like a choreographed dance.

Special - This style has been introduced recently and refers to the acrobatic or break dance moves performed with a football that are becoming more popular in the freestyle football world.

Within the above disciplines, the following individual moves are among the most popular:

Around the World (ATW) is also popular; in this move, the player plays the ball off of one foot, and that foot then circles up and over the ball before returning underneath to play the ball again. It is subdivided into Inside and Outside depending on the direction in which you make the turn.

Crossover is one of the basic tricks. This move requires the player to kick the ball into the air by his trail leg, while the other leg goes around the ball.

Toe Bounce (TB): Similar to Crossover but without making the leap, letting the ball bounce in the foot.

Hop the World (HTW) is a famous move performed by pro footballers and freestylers all around the world. Kick the ball up with one foot, and circle the other around the ball.

Touzani around the World (TATW) is a favorite of most, It is a variation of an outside ATW and a crossover. Created by Soufiane Touzani from the Netherlands

Mitchy around the World (MATW) is also a favorite. The same as TATW except with an inside ATW. Created by Mitchell James Penn from the UK

Alternative Mitchy around the World" (AMATW) is a variation of an inside HTW and a crossover.

Lemmens Around the World (LATW) is a double ATW (you circle your foot twice around the ball in the air without a middle touch between the two revolutions).

Palle Around the World(PATW) is a triple ATW (you circle your foot three times around the ball in the air without a middle touch between the three revolutions). Created by Rickard Palle of Sweden

Stall moves involve catching the ball in a stationary position. Many freestylers are able to catch the ball on their foreheads, the backs of their necks, or wedged between their heel and the back of their thigh.

Combos are where one trick is connected to another without juggling the ball.

Combos were introduced in early 2000-2002 and are popular in freestyle football.

Nowadays, the number of new freestylers is constantly increasing so is the number of new moves. Connecting freestyle football with break dance moves has become more popular recently and has given name to the new style mentioned above - Special. It adds up to creativity in this sport and keeps it developing. This style of performing may be easily noticed in Japan but not solely there.

References

Freestyle football Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA