Dragonfly Footbags

How many footbag tricks exist? This question is particularly difficult to answer given that there are hundreds of footbag tricks throughout the world today. Since footbag often provides more than enough room for player interpretation, the combinations and possibilities that players come up with are mind boggling. Still, some footbag tricksters contend in a competitive manner, and these footbag experts are within a realm of their own.

Most footbag tricks fall under the category of “footbag freestyle” – a sort of competition that has gained a lot of ground lately.

Footbag freestyle can be quite technical, and some players can even perform their tricks in time with to music. Competitive freestyle tricks are judged according to presentation, difficulty, variety, and execution, (along with creativity and risk) though there are other freestyle tricks in existence as well.

A favorite form of footbag freestyling includes “shredding” in which players attempt to go through as many tricks as possible during one turn.

If a player is performing tricks competitively, the difficulty of a trick is rated, divided by the number of complete tricks, and then scored.

The goal of most footbag tricks is to remain fluid while keeping the footbag off the ground … not an easy task.

Extreme Footbag Tricks by Jorden Moir:

This post is inspired by a post on the Freedom Footbags blog titled “Is That A Sport“. Freedom Footbags has some sweet footbags available in their shop. The owner of Freedom Footbags, Daryl Genz, is the creator of the Mr Sandbag, arguably the best (and one of the cheapest) all around footbags available. You can buy the Mr Sandbag from the Freedom Footbags Shop for $7.00.

Is footbag a sport? This question has been debated time and again by those that love the game, and by those that have no concept of it. Still, the query has yet to be answered definitively. While dictionary definitions may shed some light on the topic, to really characterize a sport, the basic components of any game must be considered.

Sport can be defined as the very delicate dance between motion, agility, competition, and physical exhaustion. In short, sport can only exist when there are people involved in one activity that understand, and seek to conquer, this action.

Any sport whether it be chess, baton twirling, hockey, football, or footbag needs only to include one thing – a game that can be played by all, but only mastered by a select few.  Think Vasek Klouda, or Jorden Moir.

Therefore, whether or not those observing the game consider footbag a sport does not matter. The critical eye of others does not define any activity as sport – only those that act to become a vital part of a game can make this decision.

Footbag players take their sport seriously, competitively, and determinately … all essential components of a true sport.

So many times I pick up a footbag and kick it around thinking i’m playing some new and original sport. Well, on the American urban scene it is a pretty new sport. But I decided to do some more extensive research into the background and full history of the sport. Any footbag afficionado has heard of Mike Marshall and John Stalberger, but did you also know that Native American Indians played a version of hacky sack? I didn’t think so Read on…

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An interesting article at GameInformer.com states:

Wham-O Inc. announced today that it’s reached an agreement with FOG Studios to bring its toys—including the Frisbee, Slip ‘N Slide, Hula Hoop and Hacky Sack—to the video-game world. Read the Full Article

Hopefully this will mean more exposure for the sport of footbag in mainstream media. Although I would be interested to see exactly how they translate footbag into a console game. Can you imagine playing footbag on the Wii? That would probably ruin a few ontrollers.

In the article FOG talks about Dance Pads being used to recreate unique “foot toss” games like Hacky Sack. Very interesting.

A Google search for “footbags” shows a few interesting ads:

Google Foot Bags
Buy the Google Foot Bag For Only
$4.75. The Official Google Store

Google Footbags
Huge Selection of Google Products
Get A Google Foot Bag On Sale Now!

Here is a screenshot in case the ad isn’t active when you search for it (click to view larger image):

The only problem is that clicking on the Ad takes you to a page that says, “Oops! Sorry but it looks like we do not have any products to display. Please check back soon.”

I can only assume that the product they are meaning to link to is the “Footie Bag“. Or maybe the ad is for a new product they haven’t released yet?