The uncategorized category — SOLE
Freestyle football is something that lets us define ourselves without any restrictions or a particular set of rules (like most other sports).
It is an expression of who we are.
Hence it is very easy to create new tricks, because the possibilities are almost endless. Every other day you see some new trick or transition being pulled out by a random guy whom no one had even heard of before. That is the one of the best thing about freestyle football.
Even though one is allowed to do whatever he wants to do with the ball, we have decided upon certain sets of categories in which we would place certain tricks. This makes it easier to classify them and also can be explained better to a beginner or someone who knows nothing about freestyle football.
The major categories are —
- Lowers (Ex.- Around the world, Knee stall, PATW, LATW, Abbas ATW etc.)
- Uppers (Ex.- Head stall, Neck stall,Side head stall, Rollers, Chest roll etc.)
- Sits (Ex.- Shin stall, X-overs,Cross overs, Shin juggles, Dimmeto move etc.)
- Blocks (Thigh hold, Hamstring catch, Slaps, Slap ATW etc.)
The other tricks that are there are generally put in one of these or the ‘creative’ category.
Now here’s the big problem. Even though we can put around 60–70% of the tricks in one of the above categories, it still leaves a huge gap for categorization of dozens of tricks.
With the advancement of freestyle football, people have started doing tricks that involve the use of one or more categories of tricks simultaneously. So giving a definite category to a trick does not seem fair anymore.
But that’s a discussion for sometime later.
What I want to highlight here is that the dilemma of categorization of sole tricks (tricks done with the sole of the foot) in freestyle football.
Not only are sole tricks the most fun trick in freestyle football, they are one of the most used type of tricks in battles. Not one battle you will find nowadays that will not have one or more sole tricks used by either of the freestylers.
Sole tricks can vary from a simple lying down sole stall to one of the hardest tricks in freestyle ‘Jordan stall’. One can do dozens of variations while lying down with sole tricks. And then there are standing sole tricks such as dragon stall and V-stall. Also you have creative freestylers such as Jeremy “Jereminho” Park and Martin Schopf doing their own sets of creative tricks using the sole.
So the need for categorization of sole tricks rises not just from their wide applicability in different styles but their high usage in different battle formats.
If one is seeing sole tricks as a criteria for the winner in battles, why not a separate category is dedicated to them so that more emphasis can be laid on them by someone who knows nothing about freestyle football.
After all, the purpose of categorization should be a classification which allows for better understanding of tricks in general. It should help someone who is just starting out have a better knowledge of things he should learn in order to progress his level.
Even though, my personal opinion is that categorization leads to discrimination and an equal emphasis should be placed on all types of tricks in freestyle football.
However if there needs to be a categorization, it should be one that helps people get a better understanding of this art-form.
That’s all for now.
Thank you.
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