Man, if this chick was a president she would be Baberaham Lincoln. If she were living in an ancient civilization, it would be Babeylonia. If she were a pig she's be... um, well you get the picture. THIS GIRL IS HOT! The girl practicing in the video is Caroline Bourgoin, she's a world champion and a Canadian too!The song playing is a personal favorite of mine, its called "Where is My Mind" and it's by The Pixies.
If you're new to the sport of Hacky Sack or a seasoned professional, check out my blog! It's worth checking out for cool tricks, videos and the company of discussing Hacky with other people.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Step 3: Starting a Fresh Round
Ok, so you now have your sack and a group of friends (or a wall). So playing must be easy right?
WRONG!
So now the pressure is on you to begin and everyone is looking at you. Picking it up with your hands every time is a pain when you mess up alot and looks lame. The easiest way to start a new hack is to use your non-dominant foot and drag the sack across the ground, then push it onto your dominant foot. Unfortunately, this just obliterates your sack like a cheese grater. Part of finding your unique style is to create new tricks. A good place to start *literally* is to figure out how to start a hack. Below I'm gonna list a few different ways I use to pick up the sack that I use to dazzle my opponents.
i) The Worm: Use your dominant foot and roll your shoe backwards over the sack, then with the right timing, flick your ankle forward to send the sack in the air off of the top of your shoe. This is the same as in soccer, but it requires more precise timing and a gentle touch. It's really easy once you get the hang of it and is the fastest way to get your game going again.
ii)The Ankle-Breaker: Use your non-dominant foot to push the sack to the side of your other foot. Then while holding the sack against the side of your dominant foot, use your upper body to flop your dominant foot over leaving your ankle at a 90 degree angle with the sack now resting on the flat side of your show by itself. Now, in the second part of the motion, bring your other foot over and to the ground, essentially crossing your legs. Finally flick the sack up with your dominant foot and begin playing. This three-step trick requires some practice and sorta hurts if you aren't gentle but looks really cool when you get it down.
iii) The Rainbow Kick: If you play soccer or have seen it played before, you probably think you know what this is but in Hacky Sack, a "rainbow kick" is alot harder to do. First, use your non-dominant foot and push the sack against the heel of your other shoe. Pinch the material of the sack with the toe of your shoe against the heel of your other one; now comes the hard part. Jump in the air with the sack secure between your shoes, bring them both up like you were kicking your own butt and release the sack while flicking your dominant foot up. This will send the sack either over your head and infront of you, or just into the air behind you; either way, this is an easy trick to do once you get the hang of it and looks pretty cool.
Just try out your own ones, try different variations or practice the ones you just learned. If you can figure out any of them, you'll start off any round of sack with any group of friends ,WITH STYLE!
WRONG!
So now the pressure is on you to begin and everyone is looking at you. Picking it up with your hands every time is a pain when you mess up alot and looks lame. The easiest way to start a new hack is to use your non-dominant foot and drag the sack across the ground, then push it onto your dominant foot. Unfortunately, this just obliterates your sack like a cheese grater. Part of finding your unique style is to create new tricks. A good place to start *literally* is to figure out how to start a hack. Below I'm gonna list a few different ways I use to pick up the sack that I use to dazzle my opponents.
i) The Worm: Use your dominant foot and roll your shoe backwards over the sack, then with the right timing, flick your ankle forward to send the sack in the air off of the top of your shoe. This is the same as in soccer, but it requires more precise timing and a gentle touch. It's really easy once you get the hang of it and is the fastest way to get your game going again.
ii)The Ankle-Breaker: Use your non-dominant foot to push the sack to the side of your other foot. Then while holding the sack against the side of your dominant foot, use your upper body to flop your dominant foot over leaving your ankle at a 90 degree angle with the sack now resting on the flat side of your show by itself. Now, in the second part of the motion, bring your other foot over and to the ground, essentially crossing your legs. Finally flick the sack up with your dominant foot and begin playing. This three-step trick requires some practice and sorta hurts if you aren't gentle but looks really cool when you get it down.
iii) The Rainbow Kick: If you play soccer or have seen it played before, you probably think you know what this is but in Hacky Sack, a "rainbow kick" is alot harder to do. First, use your non-dominant foot and push the sack against the heel of your other shoe. Pinch the material of the sack with the toe of your shoe against the heel of your other one; now comes the hard part. Jump in the air with the sack secure between your shoes, bring them both up like you were kicking your own butt and release the sack while flicking your dominant foot up. This will send the sack either over your head and infront of you, or just into the air behind you; either way, this is an easy trick to do once you get the hang of it and looks pretty cool.
Just try out your own ones, try different variations or practice the ones you just learned. If you can figure out any of them, you'll start off any round of sack with any group of friends ,WITH STYLE!
Step 2: Basic Rules
In the glorious and highly competitive *jk* world of "footbag", there's alot of different kinds of game play and versions. One of the oldest games is Vietnamese Footbag or "shuttlecock". I'm more of a purist and so I'm going to focus on freestyle footbag. It's the same game invented by Mike Marshall and John Stalberger, two friends just kicking a bean bag; they named the game "hackin' the sack".
Soooo in freestyle, you can play with a group of friends standing in a formation called the "hacky circle". This is done best with about arms-length space between players to give everyone enough space without being crowded. Then someone begins by kicking it up and does their thing (without being a sack hog) then passes it to someone else in the circle. This goes around to each player until someone messes up, then they start the round or "hack" all over again.
If you happen to be shy or have no friends who like to play, you can try by yourself and fail many, many times. In my opinion, the only good this will do is you'll get really good at picking it up without your hands. My solution to this problem (and my favorite way to play) is what I like to call "Wall Hacky". What you do is just play by yourself, but you stand beside a brick wall and instead of trying to kick it up straight, you kick it hard into (and up) the wall. It's actually really easy to do and you can try out all your cool tricks.
Freestyle is just a really easy and laid back game, plus it's a good way to meet new people and learn some new tricks and styles.
Soooo in freestyle, you can play with a group of friends standing in a formation called the "hacky circle". This is done best with about arms-length space between players to give everyone enough space without being crowded. Then someone begins by kicking it up and does their thing (without being a sack hog) then passes it to someone else in the circle. This goes around to each player until someone messes up, then they start the round or "hack" all over again.
If you happen to be shy or have no friends who like to play, you can try by yourself and fail many, many times. In my opinion, the only good this will do is you'll get really good at picking it up without your hands. My solution to this problem (and my favorite way to play) is what I like to call "Wall Hacky". What you do is just play by yourself, but you stand beside a brick wall and instead of trying to kick it up straight, you kick it hard into (and up) the wall. It's actually really easy to do and you can try out all your cool tricks.
Freestyle is just a really easy and laid back game, plus it's a good way to meet new people and learn some new tricks and styles.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Step 1: Get yourself a quality sack.
Before you can become a master sacker, you're gonna need a good hacky sack. The first thing you need to know is, being a beginner, you will be terrible. Most kickers start off in freestyle footbag (see Step 2) because it's the most casual and can be played by yourself or with friends. What this means is that anyone just starting to dabble in sackery will mess up and either kick the ball way too hard and send it flying or just miss completely and it'll flop dead on the ground. At this point you're going to need a durable hacky because the easiest way to pick it up (see Step 3) will quickly obliterate your hacky sack, leaving it a flappy, mangled cloth.
This starts us off at the outer layer. The skin of your hacky sack should be a good balance of durability and softness. A stiff and over packed ball will be too hard to control and (believe me), will just make you frustrated. I recommend a synthetic suede skin for your sack, they're not expensive and they play well. If you're really terrible and just eat new ones for breakfast, then I recommend the most durable types of synthetic suede, these are ultra-suede and poly fleece.
Next comes your filling. Inside the skin of your ball, there's a plastic bag that can either be filled with plastic pellets or sand. Each kind has it's perks and is suited for different styles (see Step 3). For a beginner, the best kind is the plastic pellets because they're easier to find in stores and they're good for most kinds of game play.
Now that you know what you want for a sack, there's different patterns and designs that are out there that will add some pizazz to your style. This is totally up to you. My fist sack was from the dollar store but i went through like one a day and like a trip a week. If your Mom is like my Mom, just spend the little extra dough and invest in a decent sack. Trust me.
This starts us off at the outer layer. The skin of your hacky sack should be a good balance of durability and softness. A stiff and over packed ball will be too hard to control and (believe me), will just make you frustrated. I recommend a synthetic suede skin for your sack, they're not expensive and they play well. If you're really terrible and just eat new ones for breakfast, then I recommend the most durable types of synthetic suede, these are ultra-suede and poly fleece.
Next comes your filling. Inside the skin of your ball, there's a plastic bag that can either be filled with plastic pellets or sand. Each kind has it's perks and is suited for different styles (see Step 3). For a beginner, the best kind is the plastic pellets because they're easier to find in stores and they're good for most kinds of game play.
Now that you know what you want for a sack, there's different patterns and designs that are out there that will add some pizazz to your style. This is totally up to you. My fist sack was from the dollar store but i went through like one a day and like a trip a week. If your Mom is like my Mom, just spend the little extra dough and invest in a decent sack. Trust me.
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