Is That Footbag Legal for Competition?

When joining new circles, or simply questioned by curious passers by, I often get asked a variety of questions or comments about the footbags I’m using. Almost inevitably, one or both of these two things come up:

1. That footbag looks small!
2. Is that legal for competition?

My answers are always the same. In short, “Yes, and, yes.” Now for the long answers:

1. In general, the footbags that are used by seasoned freestylers are significantly smaller than they were ten years ago. That’s because there has been more and more focus on moves with multiple dexterities (circling the footbag with the leg/foot). The upper echelon of players today can consistently land tricks with four dexes (e.g. nemesis, arch-nemesis, blurriest swirl, pixie paradon swirl…)! Getting around the bag four times with a big floppy sack is unnecessarily challenging, hence the shift toward smaller diameter bags.
2. The International Footbag Committee, specifically the Rules Committee, lists the specific characteristics of a legal footbag as follows:
   

   107.01. Footbag Specifications

   To be used in competition, footbags must:

   A. Be approximately spherical in shape;

   B. Have a soft, pliable covering; they cannot be rigid balls;

   C. Contain loose filling of any material; and

   D. Be subject to the following size and weight restrictions:

         1. Diameter of footbag: Minimum: 2.54cm (1.0 inches); Maximum: 6.35cm (2.5 inches)

         2. Weight of footbag: Minimum: 20g (0.71 ounces); Maximum: 70g (2.47 ounces)

All of the footbags sold on Freedom Footbags (with the exception of the Nighthack) would be considered legal for competition. See our footbag comparison table for size and weight data.

The following photos show a SandMaster (a good intermediate footbag, representative of how large footbags used to be – though maybe a bit larger) and a Fearless 55 (a top level professional bag – the typical size for a pro bag today – though maybe a tad smaller) with standard golf ball for comparison. My how things have changed!

• SandMaster:
  

• Fearless 55: