What does Freestyle Football need to be called a SPORT ?
Sport (UK) or sports (US) are all usually forms of competitive physical activity or games which,through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants, and in some cases, entertainment for spectators.
That is the proper definition of sports given in the know all Wikipedia.
And here is the definition of freestyle football given officially almost everywhere.
Football Freestyle is the art of performing tricks with a football.
Somewhere you will also find the reference that it is a sport/art related to tricks with football.
So it can be inferred here that the definition of freestyle football can be a bit confusing to define freestyle football itself.
So what I am trying to say here that there is something confusing with the definition of freestyle football that people are not able to understand it and often mistake it for various different things. It is only after they see a proper video or a live performance by a good freestyler that they get what we are talking about.
So what is freestyle football actually ?
To be honest, it is not simple to explain.
The true world and ideology of freestyle football is so vast and deep that it is difficult to fit it into some single line definition.
For some it is a sport-form, for others it is a way of expressing themselves. Some just want to push their limits, while others just want their originality and creativity to flourish. The ideas, the physical effort, the mentality all varies from person to person.
That is the beauty of freestyle football. It knows no bounds. Everyone is a free spirit and they adapt to this sport according to their own selves.
That was all the beautiful talk about freestyle football. But all is not beautiful here. The free form of freestyle football is also a factor that is stopping from it reaching to a world class level like the Olympics.
Freestyle football can be a rightfully called a sport because of the physical as well as the mental effort it requires.
But there is no criteria, no procedure, no specific rules that can categorize it a sport such as football or volleyball.
The competition criteria requires the personal opinion of judges that are there to judge who was better. Of course their can be no denying to a rightful winner, but a decision from a human perspective always has the chance of being proven wrong.
There is no proper structure or criteria of who will be the winner among two people. And because freestyle football is so vast, it is almost impossible to judge a winner between two people who have a completely different style from each other.
How can you compare a 20-sec. combo to a proper flow sit-down routine? Is Jordan stall more hard or an alternate Eldo Around the world? (This won’t make sense if you are not a football freestyler)
So even though freestyle football requires an utmost amount of physical as well as mental effort it is not proper to say this sport as a proper sport just yet. It is more leaning towards the art side only.
Freestyle football will one day reach its full potential. How? I do not know yet. Yet. Bet someone will find the answer sooner than expected.
Until then the definition of freestyle football, in my opinion, should be —
Freestyle Football is the art of expressing yourself through a football.
