Fundamental Footbag Trick: Butterfly (Slow Motion Video) + Clipper Hint

We’ve had the video of Butterfly posted on YouTube for ages now. The video in itself is great, but this post should help elaborate on the finer details of this move and the video. Let’s start with a snapshot collage of the move itself:

This is a move that is (generally) set from a clipper, and always ends by having one leg go over the bag out-to-in direction (i.e. the leg passes outside relative to the body around the bag – see the 8th frame above) finishing on a clipper stall (the foot that catches is always the opposite leg/foot of the one that circles the bag). In my beginning freestyle days, just as I was moving from hacker to (wanna be) shredder this was my first three add move. The funny thing is, I had thought I was doing a symposium whirl – or something similar (perhaps it was a symposium butterfly I saw). This just goes to remind me of how difficult this game is when you are first trying to figure it out – everything pretty much looks the same. It takes many many hours of training to get the brain to recognize and categorize what moves are really being done. Let’s see the move now in the video and I’ll continue elaborating…

(If you can’t view the video in your browser you may be able to watch it directly on YouTube.)

The above video shows:

1. @ 10%: Butterfly Stall to (Same Side) Butterfly Stall
2. @ 50%: Clipper Stall, Butterfly Stall, (Same Side) Butterfly Stall, Butterfly Stall, (Same Side) Butterfly Stall, Butterfly Stall, (Same Side) Butterfly Stall, Butterfly Stall, hand catch
3. @100%: Same sequence as 50% (No, this is not sped up)

There are a small number of footbag move names that are actually a combination of two or more moves, and Butterfly back to back is one of them: This is called an Infinity (note that there are no Same Side Butterflies in an Infinity.) Butterfly can also be done ending in a kick. Though this may not be an official name, sometimes a Butterfly Kick is also called a Butterflier. (This would be called a “superjester” or super-jester in some hack circles).

The Butterfly is arguably one of the top three intermediate building blocks for freestyle footbag (the other two being Osis and Paradox Mirage). I say intermediate, because there are a number of basic fundamentals that the aspiring player would need to have in their repository before attempting this move. Among the first steps would be a solid grasp of basic kicks (should be able to easily do 50) and the basic stalls (Toe, Inside, & Outside Stalls, and particularly the Clipper Stall).

I can’t seem to stress this enough: If you can’t land a Clipper Stall consistently, you’re not ready to be learning Butterfly (or any other complex move ending in Clipper)! That being said, here are a few hints on clipper that I did not include in my original post.

1. Before you can learn the Clipper Stall, you must have a solid command of the Inside Stall
2. To get good basic form on an Inside Stall, put your stalling foot directly in front of your support foot on the ground in front of you, such that the outside of the shoe that will stall the bag is on the ground.
3. While making a loose “fist” with your foot, bring it straight up such that your the heel of your stalling foot is just in front of your support leg’s knee.
4. Now get comfortable staying in this position, keeping your balance and using those strange new muscles
5. Once you can hold the inside stall consistently, practice slowing bringing it around behind your support leg while keeping it level. This is probably one of the best ways I know of to build up those clipper muscles.
6. Once you have that part down, practice bringing the bag back around from the Clipper Stall to the Inside Stall

When watching this video, keep in mind that Jim Penske has been playing for many, many years, and that for him, this is an extremely basic sequence of moves. In fact, I started this post earlier today, and, had the pleasure of shredding with Jim earlier today. I witnessed him landing the first four moves of the above sequence, except that on every trick before the butterfly he did a stepping set, and after the butterfly he did a swirl… That’s right, four unique triple dexes back to back, Stepping Same Side Butterfly Swirl, Riptide (Ripwalk Swirl, or Stepping Op Butterfly Swirl), repeat! That’s 12 times around the bag in four moves. Wow!