Maybe off topic..

[Tupac]

I take an advanced English/Writing class at Columbia College in the city. We received an assignment where we're supposed to reflect on the most important aspect of our life. It has to be conspicuous (obvious) to others why it influences oneself and give a clear conception of everything around it (work, school, leisure time.) I chose to do my project on freestyle as it's quite unambiguous it has a great influence on mine, and others lives. The daunting task of this entire project is the case in point that I can't use my own sociological perspective to present it, I have to use others.
Basically, I need to know everything about the way you guys feel about freestyle, I don't want it to be redundant (as in "Palle inspired me to freestyle so I did it.) But more specific, so if you could just answer the questions below that would be amazing.
If you choose not to answer any, at least answer the last one please!

Who inspired you to start? (I just need a name, I can search into them more.)
How did you find them? (youtube, friends, internet, t.v add, etc.)
How did they inspire you? (what captured your attention?)
What was your mindset when you first started? (where did you plan on going with it? any ambitions? goals?)
Before freestyle what did you do to occupy your time? (could be anything from playing games to kicking a can.)
What do you do for living? (ex: high school student, works at walmart, occasional live performances) - I need everything
Do you ever feel "tension" from other rising fsers? (do you compare yourself to others? if yes, on what level?)
How often do you train? (per day/week?)
How do you train? (music, friends, alone, in a certain climate, certain place, at home, or far away - be specific about the location and the way you train (how much time do you spend texting/finding a song/resting?)

Finally, and the most important one, what is freestyle to you?
 
If you could describe freestyle in your own words, what would you say?

[L_I_S]

Who inspired you to start? (I just need a name, I can search into them more.) Non freestyler, it was my friend.
How did you find them? (youtube, friends, internet, t.v add, etc.) Umm I met him in school.
How did they inspire you? (what captured your attention?) He could do many atws. I wanted to beat his atw record so I started.
What was your mindset when you first started? (where did you plan on going with it? any ambitions? goals?) Beat my friends atw record lol
Before freestyle what did you do to occupy your time? (could be anything from playing games to kicking a can.) Heaps(too many to mention) of other hobbies but when I found freestyle I really loved it and never looked for another hobby.
What do you do for living? (ex: high school student, works at walmart, occasional live performances) - I need everything I just finished my real estate rep course but I haven't started work yet. Most, if not all of my money comes from freestyle and of course my parents take care of my living arrangements.
Do you ever feel "tension" from other rising fsers? (do you compare yourself to others? if yes, on what level?) I used to, not any more. But not everyone can have the time or know the correct method of training, so I stopped caring because there's far too many variables...So I just enjoy watching their progress.
How often do you train? (per day/week?) When I feel like it lol. Maybe once in 2 weeks, sometimes 4 times in a week.
How do you train? (music, friends, alone, in a certain climate, certain place, at home, or far away - be specific about the location and the way you train (how much time do you spend texting/finding a song/resting?) How? Reptition. WIth music. Alone. When there's no wind. At home.

Finally, and the most important one, what is freestyle to you? A hardcore hobby.
 
If you could describe freestyle in your own words, what would you say? Art/tricks/moves with a ball.


FUCK! That was a lot longer than I first thought

[Tupac]

Haha thanks Elias <3

[Cogliono Grande]

Who inspired you to start? Azun, you probably know who he is.
How did you find them? (youtube, friends, internet, t.v add, etc.) I found him on a Norwegian freestyle forum, which is no longer active. It was called fotballtriks.no, then I found some videos of him on youtube.
How did they inspire you? (what captured your attention?) After I found him on fotballtriks, I saw him post on a forum called freestyle-soccer I believe, and then I kind of realized how good he was. The fact that he was Norwegian made me somewhat proud of being Norwegian myself, so that was a big thing for me. I think that the combination of him being Norwegian, and really good, made me want to start myself. I always enjoyed the technical part of football the most, so I thought freestyle would be nice for me.
What was your mindset when you first started? (where did you plan on going with it? any ambitions? goals?) I didn't have any ambitions when I first started, I just wanted to get into the freestyle community and get to know famous freestylers.
Before freestyle what did you do to occupy your time? (could be anything from playing games to kicking a can.) I played soccer, but I wasn't too good. I was and still am, very into music.
What do you do for living? (ex: high school student, works at walmart, occasional live performances) - I need everything I'm a high school student, I don't have any jobs although I'll start to work next month.
Do you ever feel "tension" from other rising fsers? (do you compare yourself to others? if yes, on what level?) I did before, but not anymore. I kind of felt pressure to improve likewise as other freestylers, but as I got less time, I stopped doing that. I think I realized that I couldn't improve as rapidely as they did, when I had such little time. It never really bothered me much, but it was definitely an issue of concern for me.
How often do you train? (per day/week?) Nowadays, I hardly train. Maybe 1-2 times per week. Usually for 3 hours.
How do you train? (music, friends, alone, in a certain climate, certain place, at home, or far away - be specific about the location and the way you train (how much time do you spend texting/finding a song/resting?) I train with Krogseter, and now that it's winter and alot of snow, we try to find indoor places. We've trained on the local school, in the corridor. At summer I practice at parking lots, basketball fields and school areas. I try to stick to areas where there are few, or no people. It makes me more concentrated. We usually listen to music, but we don't have too much focus on that particular aspect. It's just something to make the experience a bit more enjoyable. Whenever I'm with him or others, one of us practices whilst the others watch. We rotate and it's maybe 5 minutes per person. Nothing "strict" though, we just try for combos/tricks whenever we feel for it.

To me, freestyle is mostly an opportunity to get away from the daily life. It pulls my attention away from issues I may have on my mind. It is also something that I feel I can measure myself upon. If I have success in freestyle, I feel like a successfull person. Furthermore, freestyle is also the opportunity to get foreign friends, and to extend my social circle.

Hope it helps, I'd like to know the results you get. Also, would you change the topic name to get more replies? I think this is very interresting, and it's a great way to go more in depth on freestyle.

[anhkhoashevakt]

Who inspired you to start? (I just need a name, I can search into them more.) Rickard Sjolander.
How did you find them? (youtube, friends, internet, t.v add, etc.) on Expertfootball.com
How did they inspire you? (what captured your attention?) insane combos!
What was your mindset when you first started? (where did you plan on going with it? any ambitions? goals?) to become as good as he was at freestyle and doing combos - a goal that I don't think I'll ever achieve in my life. xD
Before freestyle what did you do to occupy your time? (could be anything from playing games to kicking a can.) Studying, Web surfing, Offline games.
What do you do for living? (ex: high school student, works at walmart, occasional live performances) - I'm a parasite: I must rely on my parents for my expenses; yeah I'm a student.
Do you ever feel "tension" from other rising fsers? (do you compare yourself to others? if yes, on what level?) Of course! Just that way they come out of nowhere and improve like crazy can be discouraging sometimes. Now I just don't give a sh!t and try to improve at my own pace. I'm no longer surprise if a guy start freestyle 1 year ago becomes better than me, or simply just don't care anymore.
How often do you train? (per day/week?) 2hrs/7days/week. Sometimes when I feel like doing something else I'd stop fs for a day.
How do you train? (music, friends, alone, in a certain climate, certain place, at home, or far away - be specific about the location and the way you train (how much time do you spend texting/finding a song/resting?) Somewhere quiet, no disrupting factors, with or without music depending on what I want to practice. I usually do things non stop (with 1 min intervals for water), but if I'm practicing with music and need to change the song, then OK, I'll spend 20 secs doing it. Anybody who texts or call me in my training period will just have to wait, because I'm doing one thing and don't wanna be disrupted.


Finally, and the most important one, what is freestyle to you? An artform which you can use to express your feelings. That's why I used to not interested in learning tricks that everybody's doing (especially lowers), simply because they do not not match the flow and the feelings I'm having. Even for an amazing lower combo, you will never able to get it to flow from one trick to another like you sometimes imagine in your mind. Too many limitations...
Now may be the mindset changes a little and I'm beginning to get more into a little harder lower tricks, because it can be great fun to practice them! However, I rarely do lots of lowers in my flowing sessions, more so with uppers and sits, even grounds. And I rarely, if ever, do lowers with music.  
 

[Damiano]

Who inspired you to start? - JF, RBSS finals
How did you find them? My friend told me to look on Uefa.com to find tutorials on how to do Bending freekicks and other soccer skills, one of these tutorials was on atw. I found this really cool so i started to research freestyle and i found some videos of John Farnworth, this captured my attention, and soon i watched videos of many freestylers, i found it amazing. When my countries own RBss champ Graeson was on NewZealand tv i became very excited aboiut freestyle and watched the rbss stream. After this i began to train freestyle after school and on weekends.
How did they inspire you? It just seemed amazing for me, and i wanted to acheive this high level.
What was your mindset when you first started? When i first started to watch freestyle videos i was in a fairly serious soccer team. They trained alot and it took up alot of my energy and time, going to trainings nearly everyday. I used to love soccer alot, but now i was playing and practicing alot it became less fun(i guess you can only have so much of a good thing). When i practiced freestyle, i found it more fun because i had no coach telling me what to do, and i wasn't stuck in a position(eg stiker goalkeeper). With freestyle i could do whatever which was much more fun 4 me Even though it was more relaxed than football training i still train strenouosly to get as good as possible
Before freestyle what did you do to occupy your time? Football( Soccer)
What do you do for living? Highschool Student
Do you ever feel "tension" from other rising fsers? Sometimes, this motivates me 2 train harder
How often do you train? mostly During school 1.5 hours at most, more on weekends, in holidays more
How do you train? I train alone, a small amount of time resting for water, ipod and txting, sometimes in my backyard or at the park, I train evry area of freestyle for a loong time,but mostly lowers
what is freestyle to you?
Freestyle is an escape, a challenge, a chance to make new friends from around ze world, fun, free and (throws bucket of water over his head) Freestyle is refreshing!

[alexfs]

Who inspired you to start? - very hard to say, not one person for sure - i love Fx - he is special
How did you find them? on yt
How did they inspire you? Fx - is the king - enough said - I like him because he does lowers and doesn't give a shit about pathetic allround shit - he does what he likes and that's cool
What was your mindset when you first started? i don't remember
Before freestyle what did you do to occupy your time? was studying a lot i guess
What do you do for living? i study in college and work part time in an internet company - mostly helping customers with wordpress and seo
Do you ever feel "tension" from other rising fsers? yes i do - it motivates me - i believe the talent shit is not true - result comes with work
How often do you train? 2 hours monday-friday - on weekend i practice one day only repeating old tricks and combos -sunday i rest - unless i watch some video - and then go practice
How do you train?
i train mostly lowers because i like them
first i warm up a little, then repeat all tricks and short important transitions (2atw-htw, 2atw-hatw-atw, tatw-htw htw-tatw, htw-2atw, htw-hatw etc both feet both in and out - just cause those transitions are important and that warms me up too), then i work on something new (tricks or nt), then i practice long combos (i always have 3 combos written on paper - each practice i add 2-3 more tricks to them and keep practicing it until it gets to 25-20 tricks - then i invent new combos or put something inside an old combo like lemmens trick for example and practice that) - then i make attempts to beat records - i am Russian wtf - i love records   atw (both in and out), htw, hatw, etc - i always try to do at least 2/3 of the record 3 times - then i spend more time on the the smallest records which i want to make bigger - then i do what i think i should - like i trying to beat my weak foot amatw record - something like that

i do listen to music during practice - kinda keeps me motivated - i try not to think about other things and concentrate - also sometimes i make breaks - eat granola bars

what is freestyle to you? that's a hard question - i do it because it makes me feel good