Play Hacky Sack
Footbag, more commonly known as Hacky Sack (a name trademarked by Wham-O!) 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 “sacking it up” 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 “round” or a "hack." When every person kicks the bag at least two times around, they have completed a “double helix” and so on. The objectives are different if you're by yourself. Individual freestyle sack has evolved to a very complex sport with a myriad of kicks and stalls strung together to form tricks.
- Buy a good quality sack (Or make one), preferably a bag filled with sand, metal(shot), or even small beads. The larger the beads, the harder it will be to stall the sack. 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 a 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 sack 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 sack 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 sack 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 sack 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 sack 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 sack in front of you. Using the inside of the foot, in the middle of the shoe, catch the sack 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.
- Keep your feet low; it may seem hard at first, but you skill will undoubtedly increase if you can kick low sacks. Also, this helps with kicking too hard, or having kicks go off in random places; the knee is a pivot, and it will not go perfectly straight up.
- Get used to ending up with a sack in weird places. In order to keep a hack going, you may need to stall it on your back, chest, neck, face, knee, or even between your chin and neck. The important thing here is to keep it going.
- 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 sack circle or check out the internet to learn more advanced sack moves.
Tips
- When hacking with a group, you may need to learn some special etiquette. For example, you shouldn’t serve to yourself.
- 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 foot-baggers only have a couple years' experience, but they practice daily.
- 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.
- 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 'b.' 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.
- This game is called "Striker" but is also known as "kill" in the midwest. Once the Sack is kicked 3 times(or however many times you want, 2-hit is also popular), it is fair game to kick the sack at another player or "peg" him, giving either him, or you, a point(based on your scoring system). If a player gets hit and then continues to keep the sack in the air (a "save"), the hit doesn't count and the game continues. In this variation (midwest style at least), hits or pegs that land below the knee do not count. Some variations stipulate that the sack must be kicked (however many) times in a row by an individual before they can attempt a kill. But you could just as easily play the other way, letting all players contribute to the total hit count.
- Another game type is more of a variation of "word" and its called battle-hack more commonly known as 3 Hack Slap, rules to this variation are also much like "word" only instead of grabbing the sack to "peg" someone you smack it with an open palm. A person gets out in this variation by getting hit three times or whatever the designated number is at the beginning of the match.
- Games are great for practice and help build up your response to different passes. A good game for first-timers and pros alike is death( mainly known as Elimination and also known as; kill, slap, battle, two to boot, and triplets). In death the group picks a juggling count and the number of people that the juggles must pass between, 3 between 2 different players is the norm. When the count has been met, the player who has the footbag can choose to kick the footbag at another player, if it hits them and they are unable to recover it before it hits the ground they are out and game play resumes in this fashion until only one player remains.
- Although many people may be familiar with the term Hacky Sack, it is actually an incorrect name for the sport, and is a trademark. 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.
- One of the more common games is Red Dot. In this, a group attempts to get a normal hack. However, a person receives a red dot if they break rules. A red dot is given by having the offender stand {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} away from the person who passed the bag to him; the bag is then hurled at the offender as hard as possible. This thus gives them a "red dot." Standing forward, with hands covering privates and face bowed, is the best approach (A kidney shot hurts if you decide to stand backwards). Red dots are usually given for self-serving, "denying" (Knocking the sack down in mid-air), a "window" (having the sack go through an opening made by a limb), failure to serve, hogging the footbag (Usually set to 4 self hits; then it must be passed.), grabbing the footbag, or hitting it with the hands and/or arms, failed stall, and also kicking the footbag with excessive force. Other rules may be included.
Warnings
- It may be a good idea to stretch out your legs before you begin to play, to avoid muscle strain/pull from the repetitive movement.
- You may possibly get kicked by the person next to you, or get hit in the face and/or testicles with the hacky sack. Play at your own risk.
- You may injure your ankles, knees, legs and back if you are not careful.
Things You'll Need
- A footbag or koosh ball
- A good place to play
- Some friends if you want to play with others
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Sources and Citations
- Footbag.org International Footbag Players' Association site. Forums, footbag club locator, pics and videos
