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How To Choose A Hacky Sack

Updated on October 15, 2010

Kicking a hackey sack is a fun excersize that anyone who can lift their legs can get involved in. It takes a little practice to get good, but the flexibility comes quite easily with regular use. A hackey sack is gerneally either a knitted ball with small plastic beads in it, or a suede sewn bag with dirt or sand in it.

Both are fine for beginner hackey sack users but there is a learning curve to both of them. Choosing which you use may depend upon your experience with a hackey sack already. If you are used to playing in a circle with friends with a certian hackey sack, you may already be partial and want to buy hackey sack that you are already used to playing with.

kicking around a hackey sack
kicking around a hackey sack

How To Use A Hackey Sack

The game of hacky sack is little more then to do two things

  1. Keep it up in the air between friends.
  2. Do not use your hands

A group of friends gathers in a circular and using mostly their feet, kicks the hacky sack just enough to keep it in the circle and at a height that the person it is coming closest too can keep it up as well. A "Hack" is the term used when everyone in the circle kicks it or makes contact with it as least once.

This isn't just a guy sport, girls can play too. I have been known to play hackey sack in chunky flip flops for an entire summer. The added thickness of the rubber flip flops provided quite a advantage. Getting used to playing in tennis shoes when fall came was a challenge.

The only time hands can be used when playing hacky sack is during a serve. Shoulders, head, chest, ankles, knees, everywhere else on the body is perfectly fine to use to make contact and keep the game going. Stalls are not only ok, but encouraged to learn as a skill.

The Knit Hackey Sack

A knitted hackey sack is made of cotton with small plastic beads in it. When you first buy a knit hackey sack it will feel very round, firm, and full. The trick with knitted hackey sacks is that they will need to be broken in. With regular play the small plastic beads will slowly seep out of the hackey sack. The cotton knit will soften and the hackey sack with become easier to use.

When you first use a knitted hackey sack it will have some bounce to it. The trick to working in a knitted hackey sack is to wear it down in a way that it has less of a bounce. You want it to be able to stay in place when trying to do a stall, and have the right amount of bounce so that it doesn't go any further then to your intended target.

Suede Hackey Sacks aka Footbags

If you are new to the outdoor sport you may want to consider buying a suede hackey sack as your first hackey sack. The reason being it doesn't quite have the bounce like a knitted hackey sack. The sand and the shape of the suede footbag allows for the users to learn stalls faster and to have better control over the hackey sack due in part to the fact that these have less of a bounce to them.

  My very first hackey sack was a suede one very similar to the DirtBag Footbag pictured to the right. My dirtbag has lasted me for years and only recently did I decide I needed a new one. Suede footbags cost a bit more then the knitted hacky sack, they work better.

working

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