JUST DON’T CALL IT HACKY SACK

There’s something to be said for the unique sport of footbag

SIGNY HOLMES STAFF

There was a time not so long ago when skateboarding, snowboarding and Hacky Sack were considered underground sports, or worse, a waste of time. Now hugely popular, with multimillion-dollar industries behind them, two of these sports have moved to the forefront of popular culture. You can probably guess which one hasn’t. What is this ‘footbag’ of which you speak?

Need a hint? Hacky Sack, the term you’re probably familiar with, isn’t even the name of the sport — it’s a brand name owned by Wham-O Inc. but used by ‘commoners,’ just like Kleenex or Frisbee. Enthusiasts would prefer that you use the term “footbag.”

Put another way: you’ve probably heard of Tony Hawk, but have you ever heard of Váska Klouda, four-time World Footbag Champion at the tender age of 18? The difference in popularity has a lot to do with their choice of sport. Hawk has helped make skateboarding what it is today, while Klouda, who hails from the Czech Republic, is the World Champion of footbag.

Andrew Grant, local footbag champion and a student at the University of Winnipeg, says that while the average Canadian may not be aware of his sport, things are slowly changing overseas.

“It’s definitely gaining amazing popularity in Europe as a kind of underground sport, similar to how skateboarding was, and there’s people picking it up everywhere. From Portugal to Estonia, Finland all the way to Greece, all across Europe it’s just growing. . . . Three years ago in Japan there was nobody really playing and now everybody in the country knows about it.”

For those whose experience with footbag is limited to recesses and lunch hours long past, the idea of footbag as an international sport is probably a bit hard to grasp. In reality, said Grant, “It’s not just the high school dropout activity that everyone seems to think it is; it’s a really high-energy, difficult sport that’s a lot of fun.”

Players can choose between freestyle, where they show off their abilities by performing a series of tricky moves, or “footbag net,” a game similar to volleyball in which players use their feet to move a footbag across a five-foot-high net. Neither is easy.

Maxime Boucoiran, a French footbagger now living in Belgium, knows this first hand. Like many others, he discovered the sport relatively late in life, while in university.

“I have to say that footbag is very hard at the beginning. I can only compare it to skateboarding in terms of difficulty: the learning curve is fairly steep. It helped a lot having close friends who play, you can compare tricks, techniques, and exchange tips and goals.”

Grant also started playing footbag with friends, but wasn’t sure where to turn when he decided he wanted to get serious about it.

“When I started, it was grade 12, I had exams. I was freaking out because I wanted to get good marks, so I was nervous, really stressed and I was using footbag and playing it with friends to release tension.”

With no real knowledge about the sport, Grant did what any modern sports enthusiast would have done: he Googled it.

“I got the International Footbag Players Association website, and I was like, ‘Woah, what’s this?’ I saw Ryan Mulroney’s 2002 Worlds routine and it blew my mind, my jaw hit the floor. I thought ‘I have to learn how to do that,’” he said.

Grant got involved in Hackrifice, a local footbag club. He immediately felt very welcome there, because “everyone’s been there, everyone’s gone online and done the Google thing, been like ‘Wow I’ve got to do that’ and had to call someone and say, ‘Hey, can I come play?’”

Fellow Hackrifice member and University of Manitoba student Erik Chan recalls his own humble beginnings:

“I, embarrassingly, was introduced to footbag through the movie She’s All That in grade 7. . . . I decided that my goal in life after watching the movie was to be better than Freddie Prinze Jr. at Hacky Sack. I went home and looked up Hacky Sack on the Internet and found www.footbag.org — the definitive footbag website. I signed up with my contact info and a few weeks later Joel Dion, the founder of our club, Hackrifice, called me and invited me to shred with them — I was hooked.”

The Internet is not only many players’ introduction to the world of footbag, it’s also how many of them stay in touch. Most post videos of themselves freestyling and follow others’ progress, and many keep in touch with their competitors online.

The good, the bad and the ugly

Such a small, close-knit community has its advantages but can also be frustrating. Chan says footbag is currently given very little recognition as a sport.

“When I play in public, 99 per cent of people who stop and watch or comment don’t know the term footbag, and cannot appreciate the technical precision that is required to do what we show them,” he said.

Chan said that while many people tend to be really impressed and want to learn more about footbag, he has also had comments like: “You must have a lot of free time on your hands,” and “get a life/job” directed at him.

MuchMusic recently spoofed footbag by featuring it on their show “One Hit Wonders,” in spite of a polite letter from the unfortunately-named Footbag Association of Toronto (FAT) stating that they consider footbag to be a sport, not a fad, and showing that media exposure is not always a good thing.

Sponsorship is an ongoing battle, although Grant said that Pepsi Japan has sponsored recent tournaments, and Chan noted that Nestle is helping with funding in Australia while World Champion Klouda is sponsored by his government. Some of this difficulty may be due to unfortunate marketing decisions made earlier in footbag’s history.

“The original footbag tour was done by Snickers in ’98 or ’99 — a tour of Ireland — but it didn’t do a thing because not a single person in Ireland plays [footbag],” explained Grant.

“There used to be a lot of footbag companies that would do sponsorship, but a lot of them kind of dropped that for one reason or another,” he added.

This could help explain the insistence on the term footbag. “Hacky Sack is actually a brand name owned by the Wham-O toy company, the same company that owns Frisbee, . . . [and] in recent years Hacky Sack hasn’t really been supporting the sport; they’re just interested in making money,” said Grant.

In spite of the side effects of playing a little-known sport, players say there are huge advantages. Chan, Grant and Boucoiran each have their own stories of how tight the footbag community really is. Grant’s experience occurred while attending tournaments in Europe, a trip he describes as part of “doing the whole ‘gotta find myself’ thing.”

“I met [Czech footbagger Honza Weber] one time in Switzerland . . . . Then a month later when I was passing through Prague, I just fired him off an e-mail . . . . I get into Prague and give him a call, and he says I can come stay at his place . . . this big old-school communist apartment. I was absolutely blown away. I [had] met this guy once in my life, and he’s giving me the keys to his apartment. [They even] stocked the fridge for me. I don’t think any other community in the world is going to do that kind of stuff for someone simply because they play [the same sport].”

Boucoiran has a simple explanation for this incredible hospitality: “Footbaggers love talking about footbag.”

The future of footbag

Grant says that “no other sport lets you hang with the pros like that,” and he’s probably right. It’s something that makes footbaggers cautious about over-promoting their sport. On one hand, many feel that footbag deserves a lot more recognition and respect, and love seeing people get involved. On the other, no one wants to lose the unique spirit of the sport.

It may seem unlikely that footbag will be beating the media and the big corporations away with sticks anytime in the near future, but it once seemed equally unlikely for a little sport called skateboarding.

Boucoiran loves his sport the way it is, and though he welcomes new players as individuals, he isn’t keen on seeing footbag dragged into the spotlight. “I know a lot of ‘footbag messiahs’ out there who spread the word to all who care to listen, who try to get all friends and family into the sport. Personally, I don’t do that. Yes, footbag is a small community sport. Yes, it is growing, and I have witnessed tremendous growth over the past five years, but should footbag become a full-blown sport I fear the community feeling would be lost,” he explained.

It’s a difficult balancing act that could become even trickier in the next few years. Even in North America, where Grant said footbaggers are stuck with a certain stigma, there’s a younger generation of American players who are “really strong.” In Japan, where Grant recently won the Tokyo Open, the media exposure is “huge,” according to Grant.

The spirit of competition

They may be cautious about following in skateboarding’s footsteps, but these footbaggers have a sincere love and excitement for their sport: for an “underground sport,” tournaments are huge. Boucoiran believes there is a double appeal to tournaments, which are a chance not only to compete, but also to catch up.

“A lot of footbaggers see tournaments as a way of meeting a lot of other players or just seeing old friends. There are, of course, some very competitive players out there, but I would say that the majority of footbaggers see tournaments as a big footbag gathering. There is a very friendly community feeling at footbag tournaments, be it a local competition or a full-blown World’s tournament. “You usually end up on stage, all spotlights on you, your music is queued and you start your routine. It can be quite daunting at big tournaments when you have 2000 eyes on you alone . . . [but] no one is telling you what to do, it’s just you and the bag,” he said.

Whatever the future may hold, perhaps Boucoiran best sums up footbag’s present: “Can a young soccer player from France find soccer club listings in Japan, call up players they have never met and tell them ‘Oh, I’ll be in Tokyo for a couple of days, could you put me up? And could we get a game on?’ No. Well with footbag you can.” All in all, it makes being mocked by MuchMusic well worth it.