Freedom Footbags

Editor’s Note: This blog is the fourth in a series of the blog version of the Freedom Footbags’ Freestyle Footbag Fundamentals Flyer (FFFFFF). For a complete overview of the FFFFFF with comprehensive links, we recommend you begin with part one.

Fundamental Sets

Both the pixie and stepping are fundamental components of freestyle tricks, however they probably would not be considered beginner tricks. This is because in general beginner tricks are done with downtime components whereas stepping and pixie are both uptime components. (See the Parabolic Motion blog for description of uptime and downtime.)

“The Pixie Set”

Stationary frame by frame picture:

A note on style:

As I began to write the tips for this trick, something that I already knew became blatantly obvious, and that is that different players have different styles. There is no “one way” to do any of the tricks shown here. In fact everyone will do this trick slightly differently. I wrote the tips for the trick based on my own personal style and then after looking at the video I realized Jim’s style is quite a bit different, so I included both. Do what works for you.

Pixie Set Genzu Style
(Note, see the Outsides Move Drill on in our gallery (allows frame by frame) or on Youtube shows an example of my (Genzu’s) style. This video also shows that pixie doesn’t just have to be set from toe!)

1. The footbag travels straight up during the entire trick.
2. The knee travels in a semi-circular (180 degrees) motion, starting starting inward and upward.
3. During the first quarter of the inward/upward arc the knee only arcs travels about the width of your foot inward and then starts back outward for the last quarter of the trick.
4. The foot and lower leg follow the knee, basically going along for the ride.
5. Relax your foot and let the bag fall off of it as your leg travels upward. By letting the foot follow the knee while relaxed, it will naturally end up pointing towards the ground. (This can clearly be seen in the third still frame of the move above).
6. With practice the set can go over your head!

Pixie Set Penske Style

Most of the fundamental aspects of the trick are still the same (Straight up set; Bag drops off the set foot), but Jim’s knee starts by traveling straight up, doing only a quarter rotation, rather than in a half-circular motion.

Video version: (Note: If you cannot view the video below, check it out on YouTube, or download the medium resolution version where you can view this trick frame by frame.)

The reverse of the Pixie Set (In-to-Out Dexterity) is called the Fairy Set (Out-to-In Dexterity).

“The Stepping Set”

Stationary frame by frame picture of a Stepping Set:

Stepping Set Tips:

1. In order to master the stepping set, it’s critical to have a solid clipper stall first! This is really a fundamental theme throughout footbag: Master the basics first.
2. Again, it’s particularly important to use your entire body for this move - The upper body, back, support leg, arms, and set foot all start in an upward motion the moment after the initial clipper stall is completed.
3. The support (dexing) leg starts moving in an In-to-Out motion even before it has left the ground. The dexing leg comes up to the point where the upper leg is level with the ground. At this point, the knee is at a 90 degree angle.
4. One very important thing to keep in mind with a stepping set (which is not an issue with the Pixie Set at all) is cleanliness. By cleanliness, we’re not talking about showering, we’re speaking specifically of actually circling (dexing) the footbag. If the footbag stays on the foot for too long when performing a stepping set one can simply “pull the bag through” and now you’ve got an inside stall (that was previously a clipper). A stepping set performed this way (where the dexterity occurs while the footbag is still on the foot) would be considered “The” (pronounced like “duh”), or not clean. “The” stepping sets can also be called “Slurred” or “Slurry” sets. For the record, Jim’s stepping sets here are clean.

The Pixie Set is to the Fairy Set, as the Stepping Set (In-to-Out) is to the “Bubba Set” (Out-to-In), with the common difference being that both Stepping and Bubba are set from the clipper position. The Bubba set is particularly challenging because the leg has to travel the “long way” around the bag while it is still going up. The Bubba Set is rather advanced and beyond the scope of the flyer. We’re just pointing it out to remind the reader that the moves presented here are only some of the limitless possibilities.

Summary:

As we mentioned, pixie and stepping are bot uptime components. Probably the most fundamental two add move in footbag is called an Around The World Stall. The first Around The World Stall ever hit was surely done as a downtime trick (and before that it was done as an Around The World Kick - worth only one add, and rather uncommon these days). That is to say, the dexterity was done as the footbag was traveling downward. A pixie done as a downtime component is no longer a pixie, but a Pickup. Along those same lines, stepping done as a downtime component is no longer stepping, but a Mirage.

We can explore the terminology here even a bit deeper to emphasize how the same fundamental concept can be done with different styles.

• “Regular” vs “Muted”: A pixie or stepping set in which the dexing leg is not planted directly after the set is referred to as “Muted”. Both of the video and pictorial examples above are “Regular” style, not “Muted”.
• “Leggy” vs “Hippy”: Dexterities can be either “Leggy” or “Hippy” or somewhere in between. A “Leggy” dex is done with the lower part of the leg, whereas the “Hippy” dex is done with the upper part of the leg.

We’ve included a lot of vocabulary for one blog. So, take a quick gander at this video that covers many of these concepts, focusing particularly on the Triple Around the World: (If you can’t see the video below, watch it directly on YouTube, or download the full version:
http://www.freedomfootbags.com/video/playerspotlights/darylgenz/Genzu_Triple&4-5s.mov

Summary of the Triple Around the World in the above video:

• The initial set is a muted (non-planting), hippy (around the upper part of the leg), pixie (uptime In-to-Out Dexterity) set.
• The first and second dexterities, both done done In-to-Out, are clean.
• The second and third dexterities are both done downtime and leggy.
• The third dexterity is just slightly the, (not clean) as the foot does not fully circle the bag (it goes just over it) at the beginning of the dextirity.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 19th, 2007 at 10:38 pm and is filed under Beginner's Corner, Freedom News, Jim Penske. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.