Washington City Paper Footbag Article

shredzilla · Post by **shredzilla** » 19 Feb 2009 10:41

Article detailing the history between Stalberger and Mattel as well as the history of Washington DC footbag. An interesting read.

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/display.php?id=36827

slapdash21 · Post by **slapdash21** » 19 Feb 2009 11:50

[quote]So Hacky Sack went from cool to anachronism pretty quick. If the game gets referenced in pop culture these days, itâ€™s likely to be as a punch line.

Footbag, for example, gets kicked around metaphorically throughout Adam Sandlerâ€™s 2008 comedy You Donâ€™t Mess With the Zohan. The opening scene shows Sandler ending a footbag freestyling routine by landing the beanbag in the crack of his ass.

Not exactly Breaking Away for the sack set.

Something called the Bad Fads Museum gives Hacky Sack an entry alongside â€œTalking to plantsâ€

shredzilla · Post by **shredzilla** » 19 Feb 2009 13:17

No one ever said footbag was glamorous

Btw, I'm fearless when it comes to plant-talking. Although in the plant world it's called "faunaspeak".

mc · Post by mc » 19 Feb 2009 14:18

greattttt.... nothing like some bad press to brighten my day

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 19 Feb 2009 15:15

Wow, that was horrible.

Here's the background I know:

1. The writer of this article interviewed Vince back in 1997.
2. Twelve years passed, and the "journalist" (I'll get into this later) decided that hacky sack in the area must have declined.
3. I don't know what he based that conclusion on.
4. He contacted Vince, who apparently didn't tell him much.
5. Vince told him to contact me and Adrienne.
6. The author sends us an email on Sunday night, which I receive Monday morning.
7. In the email, he says his deadline is 10 am on Monday. So he contacted me 15 or so hours before his deadline, 8 or 9 of which I was asleep.

I wrote back to the guy (after his deadline) telling him that footbag has expanded and become more advanced than it was in 1997. I included Age's
x-mas vid and the most recent vid of me.

He responded:

Dave McKenna wrote: "thanks for responding. my story was based more on the social version of hacky sack than on the hardcore, expert footbag stuff that you and adrienne do, but i just wanted to talk to as many folks in the sport as i could. i did the story because i haven't seen the kicking circles in the local parks and schoolyards in years, whereas they used to be ubiquitous around here. "

So, the guy is writing a story about the state of hackysack in DC, we show him what the locals can do, and he says that he wasn't interested in footbag? WTF? That's like somebody writing an article about how the quality of beef has gone to hell, speculates that Big Macs taste bad (at least they did 12 years ago), and then somebody offers him a free sample of filet mignon and he says: "sorry, not interested. I'm too busy writing about how beef sucks."

I was under the impression that a good journalist doesn't go into a story with his mind already made up, and instead reports based on what he finds out. The only facts in this article are clearly recycled from his article 12 years ago, and he made no real effort to learn anything new, even when he was given the contact info of people who were willing and able to help him write an accurate, interesting story.

The guy should be ashamed of himself as a journalist. Lazy work that borders on defamation. I'll follow up on this, and let you know how it goes.

Frank_Sinatra · Post by **Frank_Sinatra** » 19 Feb 2009 15:33

Looking forward to the follow up.

But setting all that aside for a moment, I also have gotten the impression lately that kicking circles are dying out. My perception is of course subjective and limited, the plural of anecdote is not data, blah blah blah... but... here are some anecdotes:

Here in Chicago we have a few big festivals downtown every summer. My first summer in Chicago I found people (including Zeke & Maynard of CIC, and future CIC member Fred) in a huge circle at one of the fests. At all the fests I went to that summer there were multiple circles. Sometimes because Zeke & the crew got a lot of freestylers out there, but more generally they were just people who wanted to hack. But they seem to be steadily declining. There was no sudden drop off that I remember at least. This last summer, the only people kicking were freestylers who made the effort to go downtown and kick at the fests.

Not that it has totally died out, but now it is far more likely for someone to join me for a few minutes, instead of finding a group of people that are content to stand around to kick & kill time for an hour or two.

Maybe now that everyone's losing their jobs it'll come back. Anybody else feel like casual kicking is dying in their area?

shredzilla · Post by **shredzilla** » 19 Feb 2009 15:47

Yeah, I had no idea about Ken and Vince's experience with this journalist, but I know for a fact that hack circles have died in Washington DC. I've lived here my entire adult life, and in a suburb before that. I used to kick in Dupont Circle which was like a major hack spot here. We had at least one hack circle going every single day in Dupont, and a lot of times we had 2 or 3. Sometimes the circles would get really huge.

There were always a few legends that hacked too, that were really good (by hackysack standards). I was kind of an up and coming guy at that time, but I was pretty well respected for a lot of unique head stalls and stuff, plus I rarely ever missed the hack. I think I kinda grew out of it for a while, but I went back a few years later and could never find a circle after that.

So did a lot of people I guess. I remember this guy Brian that used to kick there a lot, he was basically one of the legend types that had a lot of flare to his style, and he always was really vocal when trying to keep the hack going, which was kinda neat. He owns a bar in the bar district here now, and I haven't seen him hack since those days.

Idk, when I read the article, a lot of it was old news, but it also rang true in a lot of ways. Basically the guy SHOULD do a follow-up article with Ken and Vince telling about how footbag has progressed. But the hack scene and the footbag scene were two different things, at least where I kicked. I had only heard of footbag once during my years of hacking, and basically figured it was some elite pro thing that only super-gifted people (Like Peter Irish) could do.

Maybe I'll try to revive the hack scene in Dupont this summer. That would bring back some cool memories.

Drew · Post by **Drew** » 19 Feb 2009 16:15

Frank_Sinatra wrote:Looking forward to the follow up.

Anybody else feel like casual kicking is dying in their area?

Yeah, when I was a freshman at university in North Philly there were hack circles abundant. Some of the time my friends or myself were the ones starting them, but college kids have LOADS of time. Particularly freshman.

My friends and I have been noting recently how few circles there are around here

Only ones I've seen this year are ones I start

Slowsis · Post by **Slowsis** » 20 Feb 2009 06:15

Other than Chris' example of the public park, maybe a lot of those who feel like local kicking circles have died out, just don't spend as much time hanging around high schools and colleges like they used to.

I was feeling that way....until I went back to school.

zach4th · Post by **zach4th** » 20 Feb 2009 13:57

its winter. just wait until summer.

Wasabi · Post by **Wasabi** » 20 Feb 2009 17:16

Last autumn Hunter College has had a revival of circle kicking, with a slight flair of freestyle. As Drew mentioned in his post, they were a bunch of freshman that wanted to hack. I come in, presented some freestyle, and some of them feel like they might venture to the more technical part of the game (footbag).

I sometimes check on their progress from time to time, and some have gotten atw and clipper. Pretty exciting.

In a more localized aspect of this "kicking circle" dilemma, I've felt that the place where we (NYFA) used to kick pretty frequently, Union Square plaza, has experienced this diminishment in a way. The reason for the lack of circle kicking in the area might have been the Bush and Israel protesters that have flooded the area in the past 8 years, or the gentrification of skaters and "street grappling" going wild in the area, but I hope that that will change come spring.

And as Nathan mentioned I'm also guessing that there will be a revival of circle kicking now that the poor economy and lacking job market has become a harsh reality for us all, especially here in NYC.