The 1995 meeting of the International Footbag Advisory Board (IFAB) was held August 7, 1995, in Menlo Park, Calif. As in past years, this annual pow-wow of the powers that be was held in conjunction with the World Footbag Championships. New members were added to the board, rule changes were made and the future direction of footbag was discussed.

NEW MEMBERS ON BOARD

Four excellent candidates were elected to the IFAB's membership this year:

Allan Petersen, long time competitor from Copenhagen, Denmark, has held the Men's Overall World Champion title for the past three years. Rich Cook has been actively promoting footbag, first in Edmonton, Alberta, and now in his current home base of Vancouver, British Columbia. Vince Bradley is active on the East Coast, where he helps run tournaments, clinics and demonstrations in many states along the eastern seaboard. Bradley is a student at the University of Maryland. James Harley has been running his own footbag league for several years in Columbia, S.C., and now joins the mainstream as an IFAB member. The addition of two player-promoters from outside the U.S. and two from the East Coast provides a needed balance on the board.

FOOTBAG RULE CLARIFICATIONS

Two footbag net game rules were clarified at the annual meeting. First, the board ruled that a "jump serve" will be illegal. A jump serve is defined as running up to the baseline during service and leaping into the air before kicking the footbag. The rules state that the support leg must be behind the baseline during the service kick. Being airborne during service is considered an infraction of the rule.

Second, fouls above the net can be serious safety issues. If you contact your opponent above the net or on his/her side of the net, it is a "plane foul." As in all aspects of footbag play, it is up to the players to make the best call they can. If conflicts arise during tournament play, players can request a judge or scorekeeper to monitor net plane fouls.

Footbag Freestyle saw a major rule change. Team freestyle routines have a new maximum time limit of three minutes, down from their previous four minutes. There is no change to the singles time limit of two minutes. The board decided three minutes was long enough to evaluate a routine, and that longer routines can be a strain on judges and sometimes spectators!

The formula for computing scores remains the same, although IFAB plans some "what if" studies to judge the effects of changes on results from previous tournaments. The relative weight of drops, adds, comp scores, and presentation scores could change in the future.

Finally, the list of "well known freestyle moves" in the rule book will again be updated for the 1996 rule book.

Footbag consecutive eliminated the "Fixed Length Rally" events from the rule book, such as 500 kick or 1000 kick rallies. These are rarely used in tournaments. Instead, a new consecutive event, the "Timed Footbag One-Pass," was added.

In Timed Footbag One-pass, players have a fixed amount of time, usually five or 10 minutes, to accumulate the most kicks with their partner(s), one kick at a time. There is no distance requirement; players can stand as close together as they like.

The alternating kicks requirement for Singles Timed Consecutive was clarified. The question of maintaining the alternating sequence when a drop occurs was addressed, and it was decided a player can start with either foot after a drop with no penalty.

Footbag Golf saw no significant changes. The rule against double-mandatories will be moved into a section of the rule book pertaining to course design. The IFAB's main goal is to prevent a footbag golf course from degenerating into a "miniature golf" course with silly mandatories.

A couple of other rule book topics were addressed by the board:

New board member James Harley has volunteered to help develop the IFAB's first tournament statistics center. If you run a tournament, no matter how large or small, please send tournament results to James Harley so the IFAB can begin to build this vital database. His address is listed next to this article. Your help will provide the information needed to determine accurate seeding at future tournaments.

Also, a number of tournaments this year featured pool play in the footbag net brackets, including the World Championships. Thanks to the help of Bay Area Footbag League's Jim Curtis, concrete details are now in place on how pools are organized in relation to initial seeding in the single elimination bracket. The basic format has pools of four or five players, with the top two from each pool advancing into a single elimination bracket. Details are outlined in the 1996 IFAB rule book.

GENERAL SPORTS PROMOTIONS

Finally, the board discussed footbag promotions. The sport generates more and more attention from the media with each successful event. Running your events professionally and attracting as much media exposure as possible will contribute positively to this trend. IFAB member Scott Davidson has put together a "talk it up" kit you can use to get the word out at the grass roots level. You can contact Davidson about this kit before your next event.

In addition, the World Footbag Association is revising its "How to Run A Successful Event" booklet. The new package, which will be available to tournament directors, will include sample posters, fliers, sponsorship proposals, equipment needs and more. IFAB members are glad to provide assistance. Feel free to contact any of them for tips on getting the best exposure for your event.

If you would like to join the IFAB, contact one of its members. You will need to prepare a statement and get supporting signatures from 5 or more board members before the annual meeting. Look for details in the new 1996 IFAB rule book, available in early spring.

Ed. Note: The IFAB is on-line, with member contact information and a complete web-based version of the Official Rules of Footbag Sports at the URL http://ifab.footbag.org/. SLG

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Copyright © 1996 World Footbag Association.

On-Line Edition by Steven L. Goldberg, January, 1996.