How to Play Hacky Sack
Hacky Sack, or Footbag, is a sport that can be played individually or with a group of people by kicking a bag with your feet. In addition to the feet, pretty much any other part of the body can be used except for the hands or arms – just like in soccer. This article introduces the basics kicks and stalls used that form the foundation kicking with a group or performing tricks.
Steps
- Understand the game. The ultimate goal for group “hacking” is to keep the bag in the air for as long as possible. In a group, if every person kicks the bag at least once then the group has completed a “hack.” When every person kicks the bag at least two times around then they have completed a “double hack” and so on. The objectives are different if you're by yourself. Individual freestyle footbag has evolved to a very complex sport with a myriad of kicks and stalls strung together to form tricks.
- Buy a good quality footbag, preferably a bag filled with sand or very small beads. The larger the beads, the harder it will be to stall the footbag. If you have a bag with large beads, consider rolling over it with something very heavy, such as a car, to break them down.
- Wear shoes that have very flat inside and outside surfaces and a wide flat top on the toe. Skate shoes can be good to learn with; they provide many areas from which you can kick and stall the bag. Beyond the basics, however, tennis shoes are a favorite among even the professionals.
- Wear shorts. Pants restrict your movement and provide a surface that increases the likelihood of knocking the footbag off its intended path.
- Practice the 3 basic kicks – inside (left and right), outside
(left and right) and toe kick.
- Inside kick: Gently drop the footbag in front of you. Use the inside of the foot, almost directly in the center of your shoe where the arch of your foot is, to kick the bag directly straight up. Angle your ankle so that the inside of the foot is parallel to the ceiling. This will ensure that the bag will go directly up and not off to the side. It helps to bend the other standing leg as well. After one kick, catch the footbag in your hand. Repeat dropping, kicking, and catching until you are consistently kicking the bag straight up. Next, try kicking the bag using alternating feet and no hands. See how many you can do in a row!
- Outside kick: Gently drop the footbag with your arm outstretched to the side, and use the middle of the outside of the foot to kick the bag. This is harder to do, but remember the tips above – angle your ankle to keep the outside of the foot parallel to the ceiling, and bend the standing leg.
- Toe kick: Gently drop the footbag in front of you, but at a greater distance than the inside kick. Use the toes to kick the bag straight up in the air. This kick is similar to the one commonly used to juggle a soccer ball.
- Practice the 3 basic foot stalls – inside (left and right),
outside (left and right) and toe.
- Inside stall: Drop the footbag in front of you. Using the inside of the foot, in the middle of the shoe, catch the footbag with the foot by gently lowering the foot a couple of inches (a few centimeters) in a cradling motion. This will help absorb the impact of the bag on the foot and keep it from bouncing off the side. Imagine catching the bag as you would a raw egg or water balloon.
- Outside stall: Drop the bag to the outside and cradle the bag by lowering the foot a couple of inches.
- Toe stall: Drop the bag to the front and again, cradle the bag by lowering the foot a couple of inches.
- Combine kicks and stalls. Try doing patterns, such as outside left, inside left, inside right, outside right, or whatever you want to make up. This will help you learn to control where you want the bag to go.
- Stay relaxed while kicking. This will undoubtedly increase the length of your kicking sessions and cause less strain on your muscles.
- Practice regularly. Like most motor skill activities it is better to practice for a few minutes or a half-hour each day than to practice for hours at a time every once in a while.
- Set goals for yourself, such as 100 inside kicks in a row, or 20 rainbow kicks (left outside above your head to a right outside kick), or 20 toe stalls.
- After becoming proficient in the basic kicks and stalls, join a footbag club or check out the internet to learn more advanced footbag moves.
Tips
- Once you have the fundamentals down, it’s a lot more fun to hack with other footbaggers. You can get a group of friends together, or you can find a club. There are footbag clubs in just about every urban area.
- Be patient. It can take a lot of practice to learn the fundamentals, but if you are diligent you can quickly get good. Some championship-caliber freestyle footbaggers only have a couple years' experience, but they practice daily.
- When hacking with a group, you may need to learn some special etiquette. For example, you shouldn’t serve to yourself.
- Although many people may be familiar with the term Hacky Sack, it is actually an incorrect name for the sport. Footbag is the true name of the sport, and Hacky Sack comes from the brand name given to one type of footbag. It happened to be the first type of footbag, so the name stuck.
- Hacking can be expanded from kicking a hack in a circle to games like "word". In "word", choose a word with 3 - 10 letters. Take the word "bet" - if the footbag is kicked 3 times someone must grab the hack and "peg" another player. This player then receives a 'c.' Once a player spells out "bet" he or she is eliminated. This game can be shortened to 'be' for new players so that he or she only has to hit it twice. Or it can be extended to longer words for more experienced players. An important note is that a stall counts for 2 hits and the same player cannot count more than one hit in a row.
External Links
- Footbag.org International Footbag Players' Association site. Forums, footbag club locator, pics and videos
- www.modified.in/footbag Worldwide forum with the best resources of any footbag site. View/contribute videos, trick tips, and get the low-down on all the equipment used by the pros!