How can I learn Hacky Sack tricks?

A: After seeing the YouTube videos from the blog many new players are inspired to learn Hacky Sack tricks or “Hack” Tricks. To this we say: “Awesome!” You are already on your way, and unlike some people (who say, “I could never do that”), you’ve started with a positive, optimistic attitude. Keep in mind that nearly all of the players from our blog videos including Vasek Klouda, Jim Penkse, Allan Haggett, and Freedom Footbags’ owner Daryl Genz have spent literally thousands of hours practicing, but the joy is in the journey.

We are pontificating here because really this is a question that has no simple answer, save the obvious, “Practice, practice, practice.” Yet there is far more to the answer than merely practicing. Unless you are practicing with the proper form, equipment, and attitude you are probably wasting your time and will likely get severely discouraged and possibly injured in the process. Our first recommendation would be to learn the language: The sport is actually called “Footbag” and, not Hacky Sack, and while there are many different “street names” for various tricks, for consistency we use those that have been officially adopted by the International Footbag Player’s Association (IFPA, a non-profit organization to whom we donate a percentage of our profits from this site). So, if you’re really ready to learn footbag tricks, we recommend you start by reading the online version of our Freedom Footbags’ Freestyle Footbag Fundamentals Flyer (FFFFFF). It contains a comprehensive overview of footbag trick notation, all of the basic kicks and stalls, and a few of the basic sets and concepts involved in more complicated tricks with both still frame examples and slow-motion videos.