Flying disc freestyle
Freestyle began in the 1960s with a few players, like Victor Malafronte, John "Z" Weyand, Ken Westerfield, Kerry Kollmar and Dan Roddick trying to perform more complex trick catches and throws.
[6][7][8] Freestyle in the beginning before the invention of the "nail delay" catching possibilities would depend on the throw you were given, it was always spontaneous and unpredictable.
This technique allows freestylers to change the flight path of the disc and perform numerous balletic and technical maneuvers such as restricted pulls, holds, turnovers, and shoots.
[17] Famous appearances include freestyle legends Johnny Dwork, Joey Hudoklin, Donnie Rhodes, Bill Wright, and Jens and Irwin Valasquez.
[18] Subsequently, the growth of freestyle severely declined, with play mostly limited to Americans introduced to the sport in its first two decades.
The cause of this resurgence is debated, but most attribute the growth to Paganello (a large, Italian ultimate tournament that sponsored a popular freestyle event) and its early proponents (and FPA Board members) Larry Imperiale and Paul Kenny, the impact of touring American players like Jens and Erwin Valasquez as well as Tom Leitner and Sune Wentzel (as part of a Nike tour), and a popular Nike commercial featuring two leading American freestylers, Dave Murphy and Dave Lewis.
Today freestyle has a renewed popularity in the United States, as jammers across the country seek to emulate prodigy Emma Kahle (aka M-Maw), as well as in Germany, Czech Republic, Italy, Japan, Israel and Colombia.
Most competitive freestyle today centers around the nail-delay with many players using what are called delay-aids (plastic nails and silicone sprays).
In freestyle competitions, most advanced players wear fake nails made out of acrylic, some organic materials like bones or antlers, and other plastics, which are glued onto fingernails during play, though they are not necessary.
A faster throwing and catching version of freestyle (fast-freestyle) can be played without the use of equipment (nail-delay paraphernalia, sprays and plastic nails).
The delay is characteristic of more modern, technical freestyle, which uses the delay to perform more complicated maneuvers like turnovers and "against the spin" moves (manipulations that use angle and carefully applied friction to force the disc in a direction that its spin counteracts, a technique invented and mastered by Skippy Jammer).
The turnover is a popular, technical aspect of the game that requires proper leverage, a pivot point, and usually a "spin change."
[22] Blind catches are ones where the player cannot see the disc entering the hand and include popular moves such as scarecrow and phlaud.
