Freestyle frisbee is the most visually appealing flying disc sport. It involves performing various acrobatic and technical tricks with a frisbee, using primarily the rotation of the disc and all its possibilities to fly through the air.
The whole game is based on a basic trick called Nail delay, which is simply holding a horizontally rotating frisbee on your finger or fingernail. Once you learn to keep the spinning frisbee on your finger, you can start learning other tricks. The spinning disc can be thrown under your feet, jump over it, pulled behind your back, rolled around your body, kicked, etc. The possibilities are endless, it's up to the player's creativity and imagination, that's why it's "freestyle". The aim of the game is to combine elements into different combinations and then finish them with effective trick holds, ideally after interacting with other players.
Freestyle frisbee tournaments
As far as freestyle frisbee tournaments are concerned, they are usually competed in pairs and triples. Pairs are subdivided into Open, Mixed and Women; triples have only the Open category. The outcome is decided by a jury that evaluates three aspects of the game - difficulty, execution and artistic impression. The deciding factors are creativity, technical skill, physical difficulty and originality.
By the way, Prague hosts the biggest indoor freestyle frisbee tournament in the world - FRISBEER CUP.
How are the competitions judged?
The rating system in freestyle frisbee is in many ways similar to that of figure skating. Teams perform a prepared set of tricks to the accompaniment of selected music. One competitive round of pairs lasts three or four minutes, while trios have up to five minutes. Each player tries to perform the most difficult tricks that are appropriately integrated into the music, the whole team cooperates together and performs synchronized sets of interconnected tricks. Usually the nine-member panel of judges is divided into three parts, with each trio of judges evaluating difficulty, execution and artistic impression. Since freestyle, like other frisbee sports, is based on the idea of fair play, there are no professional referees and players evaluate each other.
Freestyle equipment
First of all, of course, you need a freestyle disc. The most suitable freestyle disc is the Discraft SkyStyler, which weighs 160 grams and has a slightly deeper rim than the more common ultimate discs, which allows a wider range of tricks. If you're serious about freestyle, you also can't do without artificial nails to keep your disc spinning for much longer so you can perform longer combinations of tricks. For the same purpose, i.e. to reduce the friction of the rotating disc, the silicone spray that freestylers use to lubricate the underside of the disc is also used.
Find out more about this sport on the Czech freestyle frisbee website.