World Fistball Organization to host Seminars on Fistball

With the announcement in September that the 2018 U18 Fistball World Championships will be held in Roxbury, NJ, the International Fistball Associations (IFA) and the United States Fistball Association (USFA) have partnered co-host Roxbury Township to create a dynamic event not only for the participating teams, but also for fans and the community.

Held at the Horseshoe Lake facility in Roxbury Township from July 11-15th, U18 Men's and Woman's national teams from across Europe, South America, New Zealand and India will compete in the 5-day international tournament

Along with hosting the event, a two-day educational seminar is being offered to help US educators and athletic departments explore Fistball progams within schools. The seminar is open exclusively to coaches, athletic directors and educators. Starting with Fistball fundamentals, the seminars offer advanced training aspects of the sport. The seminar, as part of the IFA Fistball Academy, is designed to give school programs the essential tools for fistball training to students 10 years of age and older.

As a side note, the USFA is actively recruiting student athletes to learn and play Fistball for both the Men’s and Woman’s USA U18 National Fistball teams. To be eligible to play athletes must be born after December 31st,1999. Tryouts and practice for new U18 recruits are Thursday, January 18th and Monday, January 29th at Roxbury H.S. All of the USFA current and former players participate in other sports: Soccer, Football, Lacrosse, Volleyball, Baseball, Basketball, Tennis, Swimming, and Track. Committed to another sport already? In an order to get the best athletes, every effort is made to work around practice and game schedules.

Seminar Schedule:

Friday, July 13th, 2018
From 9:00am – 12:00 pm: Basic practical training measures, part 1
Starting 2:00 PM: Observation of the World Championships

Saturday, July 14th, 2018
From 9:00am – 12:00 pm: Basic practical training measures, part 2
Starting 2:00 PM: Review of the training and advanced education and visiting the semi-finals

As an option: Sunday, July 15th, 2018
Visiting the final games of the IFA 2018 U 18 World Championships

As noted, along with the training session, attendees will be observing the U18 World Championships, featuring the top U18 Men and Women from around the world. Teams from Austria, Brazil, Chile, Germany, India, Italy, New Zealand and Switzerland are committed to play in the World Championships

The training is Free of charge to attend, but does have limited availability. Anyone interested can register by using the following link by February 15, 2018.

CLICK HERE to Register for the IFA Fistball Seminar

Further details will be sent directly to registered participants at the close of registration. Please direct any questions or if you need further information by contacting Bob Feid, President USFA b.feid@usfistball.com or Uwe Schneider, Chair IFA Youth Sport Commission u.schneider@ifa-fistball.com

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Information on Fistball in the USA

A brief background of Fistball in the USA includes the fact that Fistball has been played in the USA in NJ, PA and Wisconsin since the 1920’s while being played in Europe for hundreds of years. The international Fistball community had no idea that Fistball was being played in the USA for all those years until the Internet connected the USA to rest of the Fistball world during the mid-1990’s.

The IFA quickly invited the USA to compete on the world’s stage and in 1997, a Men’s team was sent to compete in the World Fistball Championships followed by sending a Woman’s Fistball team in 2014.

In 2015, the USA held the first Pan American Fistball Games in NJ and the first USA U18 Girls Fistball team competed at the 2016 World Championship in Germany. This past summer both a U18 girls and boys team were invited to participate in the 2017 U18 European Championships in Switzerland.

Youth Fistball has been the USFA’s focus the past few years and with Fistball having a good chance of being a demonstration sport for the 2024 Paris Olympics, the teenagers of today will be the future of USA Fistball

Fistball is currently played in the World Games, and in 2021 it will be hosted in Birmingham Alabama.

Here are some links to games, rules and history.

http://sportdeutschland.tv/faustball/faustball-em-finale-deutschland-vs-schweiz

This is a great men’s game.

http://www.ifa-fistball.com/history/ - History

http://www.ifa-fistball.com/rules/ - a short video of the rules

http://www.ifa-fistball.com/education/ - some short clips on basics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2sG6NVU_l4 - a u18 girls game. fast

forward the first 12 minutes to get past the opening.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01Czyi6FWfQ - a good men’s game. fast

forward the first 30 minutes to get past the opening

All Photos Credit United States Fistball Association