I'm not shocked by other opinions, but i find it weird when you write "I disagree with just about everything" when in essence you pretty much agree.
I don't agree however what you said here in the 2nd last paragraph: Being able to pull off the banana trick doesn't get you closer to being a football freestyler, also adding other tricks - where the ball is not a core part of the trick and can therefore not being considered as a freestyle football trick - to your repertoire does not. If for example you can do some flips from a springboard, and you can also do them with the ball between your knees, you are still not a football freestyler.
The "few things" the person can do have do be considered as tricks /things that can be classified as freestyle football tricks/things.
Defining what a "trick" is is quite hard. I don't know if i would consider kicking the ball 5m up and then keep juggling without letting it drop a "trick", but that counts as a "freestyle football thing" that gets you closer to being a football freestyler.
Also keep in mind that English is not my mother language and therefore i wrote "trick" sometimes when maybe another word which i don't have in mind would have been better suited.
This one I agree more with. I think you are confusing what I said about the banana trick(this is funny, because obviously no one does it.) I'm saying a football freestyler could do this. However, if that alone is there only trick, not so much.
To the acrobatic stuff, my opinion is if you like the idea of having the ball between your legs and doing backflips and other acrobatic moves, that is fine. If that's your entire freestyle repertoire, you are just a poor freestyler in my opinion. Since the acrobatic portion of the trick is what is difficult, I don't judge it as being as good as say a lowers combo which the football part is what's hard.
The word "trick" constitutes that you are doing something out of the norm. Typical juggling wouldn't be defined as a trick. Even stuff slightly less typical like head juggling, thigh juggling, or sitting juggling might not be considered a trick. This is actually where part of this comes from. There are people that criticize someone like Mr. Woo for not doing tricks. They consider him a juggler, because 90% of his tricks are juggles. However, I think to a point it becomes a trick, even if it's juggles. I find it hard to consider something like sole juggling not a trick.
However, your sentence about kicking the ball up 5m and not letting it drop is getting to my point. That is freestyle. It's not necessarily a trick or hard at all, but it can definitely be freestyle. Hypothetically, you could freestyle without any tricks(fairly strict definition of a trick needed probably).
Christof- We agree on about half of what we are saying with slight difference. This is normal. I actually think one of the things that's made the freestyle community decline is so many people have accepted standards for what is right or wrong. Not that many people actually do disagree with each other anymore. They all have the same opinion on what is good and bad. That makes it a boring place. I find it refreshing when I see a different view, sometimes even when it's something that's not really up my ally.
