Hacky Sack: seems to be a pretty good workout.

**CharlesTC** · Posted On: 3/14/2008 9:38am

Originally Posted by bad credit

I thought it was originally developed for soccer players to learn passing and ball control skills? My TKD instructor and I use to play all the time. We could keep it going for a little while but there was always some hippy who could keep the bag to himself for minutes at a time and make us look clumsy in the process. Teach and I would then proceed to serve high so the other one could hit the ball out of the air with a spinning or flying kick. If the hippies were gonna ruin our fun, we'd ruin theirs.

A little bit of advice to anyone who plays, espicially with wild kickers like we were; keep your fists clenched, I saw a guy in a game I wasn't in get his pinky dislocated by a kick.

I read this at http://inventors.about.com/library/i...lhackysack.htm

"
The co-operative kicking sport has ancient origins from China, Thailand, Native America and nearly every country. Hacky Sack or Footbag, as we know it today, is a modern American sport invented in 1972, by John Stalberger and Mike Marshall of Oregon City, Oregon.

Marshall had created a hand-made bean bag, that he was kicking around. Stalberger was recovering from knee surgery and was looking for a fun way to exercise his knees. Together, they called the new game "Hackin' the Sack." The two decided to collaborate and market their new game under the trademark of "Hacky Sack®".

Mike Marshall died of a heart attack in 1975, at the age of twenty-eight. Stalberger continued with the "Hacky Sack" cause and formed the National Hacky Sack Association. He later sold the rights for the Hacky Sack® Footbag to Kransco (operating under the Wham-O label), which also manufactured the Frisbee flying disc.

Following the invention of Hacky Sack (aka Footbag), different varieties of the sport have evolved including "Footbag Net" where players volley a Hacky Sack over a 5-foot-high net and "Freestyle Footbag" where players stand in a circle and do tricks with the Hacky Sack while passing it around the circle."

**Hex** · Posted On: 3/14/2008 9:44am

Take away the hacky sack, put a gi on this guy, and you're halfway to developing a new form of Bullshido (Hak Sak Do?).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A72jSPEtOJI

**BigDaveyB** · Posted On: 3/14/2008 10:23am

Originally Posted by Hex

Take away the hacky sack, put a gi on this guy, and you're halfway to developing a new form of Bullshido (Hak Sak Do?).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A72jSPEtOJI

No no no, that was his tryout video for River dance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rs-Yh-v29QU

**Kaoz** · Posted On: 3/14/2008 10:32am

Originally Posted by CharlesTC

Mike Marshall died of a heart attack in 1975, at the age of twenty-eight.

hmm physically active guy dying of a heart attack at 28 in the late seventies. This could not possibly be drug related

I guess all that fast living and hard partying associated with hacky-sack community took a toll on his body!

**Yohan** · Posted On: 3/14/2008 10:59am

I love hackey sack. It's a decent workout, but I wouldn't incorporate it into routine or anything.

It's great for recovery though. if you are sore as hell, just grab the sack and knock it around for 15 minutes or so and you'll feel tons better when you get done.

**Tanhalen21** · Posted On: 3/14/2008 1:04pm

Originally Posted by CharlesTC

"Footbag Net" where players volley a Hacky Sack over a 5-foot-high net

Sounds a lot like a sport I know...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXmjOMUdsPY

**tyciol** · Posted On: 3/16/2008 1:06am

It can be, it depends on how you do it. I used to hacky sack alone a long time. The odd thing is, the more competant you get at it, the more efficient you get and the less work you have to do to keep it up. I worked way harder when I was uncoordinated and having to jump all over the place to kick my bag and run after it and bend down to pick it up each time (or jump to get it up).

Once you can keep it up, you can stay in the same position and just continully flick it to keep it going, it's almost like being in a trance or something.

Once you've got that, then to keep improving your skill (and make it harder) you purposefully add in some rules about hitting it, like having to switch between different moves, or trying difficult tricks, that sort of thing.

Obviously competing against other people like in these videos is a great way to do it as well, like playing Ultimate Frisbee or something.

For anyone who's done even limited kicking stuff (I did TKD for half a year) you do find yourself trying to use your kicking motions to keep the bag up. Obviously due to the direction of force they need to be modified, so it isn't actually a kicking-specific drill, it's more for maintaining dynamic flexibility, balance, foot-eye coordination, rythm, etc.

**selfcritical** · Posted On: 3/16/2008 9:10pm

Originally Posted by Emevas

A little FYI: hacky sack was originally developed as a knee rehab exercise.

really? Because the game has been popular in the phillipines and parts of china for quite a while (in the PI it's called 'sepa-sepa' and is often used to train stomping kicks similar to the chause').

**bjjgame** · Posted On: 3/16/2008 11:19pm

Originally Posted by Hex

Take away the hacky sack, put a gi on this guy, and you're halfway to developing a new form of Bullshido (Hak Sak Do?).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A72jSPEtOJI

Hacky sack would make a great martial art. Seriously, do you want to merely kick somebody in the testicles, or kick one off, pop it around a little, stall it on the end of your foot, and kick it into his face?

**Emevas** · Posted On: 3/17/2008 9:22am

Originally Posted by selfcritical

really? Because the game has been popular in the phillipines and parts of china for quite a while (in the PI it's called 'sepa-sepa' and is often used to train stomping kicks similar to the chause').

The origin story was already posted. I didn't mean the notion of kicking a ball with your foot, but hackeysack as we know it in the states.