Hacky Sack / Footbag
Hacky Sack, also called footbag by many, is a game that is played with one or more people where the main goal is to juggle a small sack without the use of your hands and primarily with your feet for the purpose of keeping the bag from falling onto the ground.
This classic toy has been around for a long time which has allowed many enthusiasts to become quite skilled with it. Although there are many who have already mastered footbag on a very impressive level, it tends to be a very nonjudgmental culture which pervades the activity. Whenever someone breaks out the hackysack everyone is included no matter their skill level.
Hacky sack is a great game for social environments, as anyone can play and get started at anytime. It is nice because a footbag can easily and discreetly fit in your pocket so that you can break out the fun whenever you want. Typically people stand in a circle kicking the bag up into the air and try to work together to not let the sack hit the ground.
There are a huge range of technical type tricks that people do, some with names, and many left unnamed. There is a lot of influence on the type of tricks that are done when playing that stem from futbol or soccer. The act of hacky sacking looks very much like juggling a very small deflated soccer ball.
Hacky sacks are made from many different types of materials and have quite a variety of different types of filling. The makeup of a bag has a lot to do with the end goal of the user in mind and the quality level that they are looking for. Some of the fill types that you might find inside of a hacky sack include different types of plastic beads, sand, metal, or combinations of different material types. The amount of fill is based off of the preference of the bag owner as they can at anypoint adjust the amount of fill with the use of a simple thread and needle. You will typically see this filler wrapped in a woven type casing or sometimes in the format of many cloth panels sewn together. The woven type material casing is typically seen in lower end type bags but this is not always the case. The number of panels that you want on your bag is available across the spectrum and is once again a personal preference thing that depends on how you want the bag to perform.
Footbags range in size from about as small as a golf ball to about the size of a tennis ball. Of course the texture is much different and not exactly round which allows it to be stowed away easily.
As you start to get more advance with the game you will begin to find that the type of shoes you are wearing can have a huge impact on your overall performance. Sandals and high heals will of course make things more difficult. You will often times see people who take hacky sack more seriously have their shoes tied in specific ways as to create a better landing space for the toy which can make more complex tricks easier to do. There are even shoes that you can buy that are specifically designed for playing hacky sack.
No matter how serious you want to take this activity, it is one of those skill toys that can be broken out at just about any time where there is space and people are looking to play some type of communal game.
