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Freestyle football

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Freestyle football is the art of juggling with a football using feet, knees, chest, shoulders, and head while simultaneously performing creative, skillful moves and keeping the ball airborne.

1 Increase in popularity
2 Freestyle Competitions
3 Freestyling Tricks
4 Notable freestylers
5 Freestyle DVDs
6 See also
7 References
8 External links

Increase in popularity

Freestyle football has existed for some time, but it has seen a surge in popularity as a result of global ad campaigns and digital media sharing. In the early 21st Century, Nike began an advertising campaign which relied heavily on the freestyle form of football, including video clips of freestyle performances. These advertisements featured famous players such as Ronaldinho and Edgar Davids. Many link such mass media attention to the start of the freestyle craze. In the Youtube era, however, many previously non-famous players have risen to prominence, and internet searches easily yield thousands of videos by amateur "freestylers" around the world.

Freestyle Competitions

Shortly after, Nike launched a freestyle football competition on the internet "Nike Football", in which participants could submit their own clips and receive feedback from a worldwide audience. In December 2006 the "Masters of The Game" competition, held in Amsterdam and was won by John Farnworth. Nutmeg or Panna and other street football competitions have been held featuring street soccer players such as Edward Van Gils 'Edje', Issy Hitman, Jermaine Vanenburg.

Freestyling Tricks

Freestyle football is divided into different disciplines:

Lowerbody/Air Moves - This is the most popular with the new generation of freestylers. The ball is kept aloft using mainly the feet and legs.
Upperbody - This style is very popular in Japan. Most tricks are done with the head , chest and shoulders.
Sitting - This style has become well known. All tricks are executed while sitting on the floor with your legs in the air, and the inability to move after the ball greatly increases the difficulty of any trick performed.
Groundmoves - These are normal football moves , but then executed without an opponent. Skillful players can make the performance of groundmoves seem like a choreographed dance.

Within the above disciplines, the following individual moves are among the most popular:

One well-known move is known as the "Maradona 7", in which the player must play the ball with the right foot, then the left foot, then the right thigh, then the left thigh, then the right shoulder, then the left shoulder, and finally the head.
"Around the World" (ATW) is also popular; in this move, the player plays the ball off of one foot, and that foot then circles up and over the ball before before returning underneath to play the ball again.
"Crossover" is one of the basic tricks. This move requires the player to kick the ball into the air by his trail leg, while the other leg goes around the ball.
"Hop the World" (HTW) is a famous move performed by pro footballers and freestylers all around the world. Kick the ball up with one foot, and circle the other around the ball.
"Touzani around the World" (TATW) is a favorite of most, It is a variation of an outside ATW and a crossover.
"Mitchy around the World" (MATW) is also a favorite. The same as TAWT except with an inside ATW.
"Alternative Mitchy around the World" (AMATW) is a variation of a HTW and a crossover.
"Lemmens Around the World" (LATW) is a double ATW (you circle your foot twice around the ball in the air without a middle touch between the two revolutions).
"Palle Around the World"(PATW) is a triple ATW (you circle your foot three times around the ball in the air without a middle touch between the three revolutions).
"Stall" moves involve catching the ball in a stationary position. Many freestylers are able to catch the ball on their foreheads, the backs of their necks, or wedged between their heel and the back of their thigh.
"Combos" are where one trick is connected to another without juggling the ball. For example (lower combos) :

Simple combo : ATW - crossover; ATW - ATW; ATW-cross-ATW; ATW - HTW; HTW-ATW; crossover- ATW.
Intermediate combo : ATW - ATW - cross - HTW - ATW; toebounce (TB) - ATW - ATW - HTW - TATW.
Pro combo : ATW - ATW - HTW - HTW - ATW - TATW - TATW - {TATW - ATATW (no touch)}- LATW - ATW - ALATW.

Combos were introduced in early 2000-2002 and are popular in freestyle football.

Notable freestylers

Freestyle DVDs

Urban freestyler (2006) UK Freestyle DVD featuring Abbas Farid, Billy Wingrove, Mike Delaney, Dan Magness, Rob Walters, Faton Gerbeshi, Paul Wood, Joe Davies, Scott Griffiths, Craig Dobson, Al Johnson and Tommy Baker.