Do you have a club? If so, how did yours start?

Spadrick · Post by **Spadrick** » 04 Sep 2003 09:10

Footbag has most definately changed me. It has changed the way that I feel inwardly and the way people percieve me outwardly.

At the begining of summer, I started a footbag club with my friend Adam, who also played hacky sack at the time. We knew about minor footbag moves like clipper and osis, and I could pull off a left side butterfly at the time. Adam was still working on his clipper.

We stayed up one night and thought up the basis for our club, and how it would run. .hack// is the name we chose, because it was catchy and it showed potential members that hacky sack was the basis that people knew, but after seeing what could be done, they would gradually move into footbag moves.

Our first meet. I contacted 6 people in Brantford, one showed up along with our crew at the time, Me, Adam and Norm. The one who showed up was John Suderman. Johnny and footbag changed me.

I saw Johnny pulling torque and ps whirl and I was absolutely speechless. We had two options at this point, to quit and take our leave and let it remain that we would never get that good at this sport, or to learn from this young man and get this show on the road.

3 months later, at the ending of the summer, our club has grown to 7 members strong - Dex, Atom, Marsh, Norm, Johnny, Jarret, Jorden. I started with a solid left clipper and a mediocre left butterfly, and now the basic stuff doesnt elude me (pixie, mirage, atw, legover). Atom is hitting butterfly both sides, mirage, pixie and ducking/diving moves, Marsh came from hacky sack straight to footbag, nailing mirage like no ones business, Norm is in the same boat, but has a stronger pixie, Johnny was hitting Mobius last time I checked, and Jarret has Osis and Drifter down to a science.

We meet twice a week, saturdays and sundays in the best footbag park ever created. This park was selected because of its awesome sun/shade ratio and there is an unbelievably gorgeous inlaid-brick circle about the diameter of an average above ground pool. Out of the four corners (?) of this circle, come inlaid-brick walkways leading to the four corners of the park. Alexandria, whoever you were, you named a great park, I wish I could have a park this great named after me...

The rest is history I suppose, but about my feelings having a footbag club, I would do it again if I had the chance. I have met some of the greatest people that I would never have met, I have become closer to those that I already knew, and I am living healthier and happier because of it.

If you havent started a club in your area, I would definately consider it!

~ Adam "Dex" Dexter
.hack// Brantford Footbag Asc.

Zeke · Post by **Zeke** » 16 Sep 2003 16:37

I hate playing footbag alone. Its not fun. When I started hacking in highschool, I could walk outside on any given day at any given time and find 2-3 large circles of hackers. I could jump from one circle to another to kick and socialize. I loved it.

When I started shredding I found that there were fewer and fewer people that would want to freestyle with me. So I made it a habit to get the contact info and any other good kickers and beggining (or any) freestylers that I came across.

At first it was me and 2 friends. We would kick at festivals and other busy public places. After my first tournament, Midwest Regionals, Jon Nagela started to come out to kick with us. Soon after Dan Klokow started to come out to play. After Worlds 99 we started kicking with Tom Kotsakos. I then ran into a tall skinny short haired kid named Eric Reile at my old highschool. He brought his friend Tim Werner (damn, drop enough names for ya?) to a winter freestyle class. When spring of 2000 came along we all started to get together about once a week to shred.

I had been considering the idea of starting a footbag club since before Worlds came to Chicago in 99. But it never really got going because I didnt think there would be very many members. But now I had 5-6 people I would kick with on a regualar basis... all wanting to be serious shredders. I got part of the name from X-men comics. I believe there was some group called the Hellfire Club. Within the club there was a smaller elite group who called themselves the Inner Circle. I thought it was beautiful. It described our little group, and the word circle was a perfect referance to our sport. Add Chicago to the beggining and its a play on "kick".

So I sent out an e-mail to the guys asking them what they think about starting a club. Click the club name on my signature below if you're bored enough to read it. Everyone agreed to join. I'd like to think the club has made a nice little name for itself. If I accomplish nothing else in life, I'll always be proud to have founded and be a member of CIC.

Now I can still jump into a circle to kick and socialize. I love it,
Zeke

MegaFighter_X · Post by **MegaFighter_X** » 16 Sep 2003 16:50

Lol. sounds good. Ask bum about details on our club.

xndru · Post by **xndru** » 16 Sep 2003 19:03

We started ours as an unofficial thing among each other. then I signed us up on footbag.org and footbag canada.

LameR · Post by **LameR** » 28 Sep 2003 22:34

i started back in 2001 when I found my dad's old hack lying around, I took it to school and me and a couple friends started just circle kicking, where getting 3 meant you were godly. I found footbag.org and registered and after awhile people stopped hacking. I started again last year in the second semester and have only stopped once since, when I broke my collarbone. My friends don't seem to be as motivated towards footbag as me. I'm still a super newb, but I'm going to a festival next month to watch and learn. I'm trying to get my friends back into it now.

Zeke · Post by **Zeke** » 03 Jan 2004 10:32

How did Oops! start up? Hackrifice? BAP? Cloud9? How did they come up with their names?

Juice · Post by **Juice** » 03 Jan 2004 19:55

My friends and I started a little footbag group (or club) a couple of months ago.

Muffinman · Post by **Muffinman** » 03 Jan 2004 21:42

hackrifice was founded by joel dion, orien juditt and jeremy..something something. i dont think i spelled oriens name right . i never met him. and i only knew jeremy when i had just joined. i think hackrifice has been around since like 97.
the three of them were circle kicking at joels house. they were really adamant about "dont let the hack touch the ground". one of them kicked the bag of up the roof. it rolled down -- joel and jeremy both went for it...but there was a railing between them. like to stairs. they fell in a pile and the bag landed on top of them i think. orien said, "now thats sacrifice". but joel and jeremy both heard "hackrifice".

i joined in 99 i think. i saw shes all that. looked up hacky sack. found footbag.org. found hackrifice website (really old!). signed the guestbook. joel looked me up on footbag.org (i had signed up) and phoned me, like, the next saturday. back then we played every saturday at 2-5 at the community centre.

joel asked me on the phone if i could do "around the world" and a bunch of other moves he asked if i could do. i didnt understand. and i asked, "around the world?". i met mark that day too. pretty amazing. i felt really dumb that i couldnt do anything. i remember trying around the world a bunch. it was really intimidating and i didnt really want to go back. but joel is AWESOME and he made me feel more comfortable. and we went back to my house and he showed me worlds 99, the shred video, and he showed me what a mirage was. and it took me like a week to understand how that move worked. prolly like another half year before i could hit it.

i was pushed to play harder when i met derek in...2001?

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 03 Jan 2004 22:36

I first discovered freestyle footbag in 2001 when I decided to search for hacky sack on the internet and came up with www.footbag.org I watched a video of Ryan's winning routine and haven't looked back. I played complete by myself for about a year. Actually I did manage to get a few people interested in the sport, but they only played once a month and only got the most basic tricks together. The first time I ever kicked with anyone else was at a music festival/tournament and I learnt 8 new tripless moves that weekend. Having now moved to an area with a number of good kickers and joined the MFC, I have improved immensly. I kick both with people and by myself, but believe that you learn much faster if you can kick with other people.

Zeke · Post by **Zeke** » 05 Jan 2004 01:43

chan wrote:"now thats sacrifice". but joel and jeremy both heard "hackrifice".

That's friggin' awesome

Earstall · Post by **Earstall** » 08 Jan 2004 18:25

Man, I always hack alone. Probably for lack of another choice. It's sort of nice though, because then I can practice a move over and over again and get better without boring other people.

Zeke · Post by **Zeke** » 10 Feb 2004 12:21

Rigth now, membership to the club is attained by being inducted by current members. The point is to have players that are truly dedicated to their game and to the teaching/promotion of the sport so that we can continue to find, attract, and teach new players. Current skill level has nothing to do with it. But it has been brought up that not having an open membership, where anyone and everone can join, is turning a lot of possible shredders away. I've always figured that it would just attract alot of people that would eventualy lose interest.

I would hate to see freestyle die out in Chicago (I plan to be shredding here a while) and I still believe that finding the truly dedicated is the key in the longrun. What do you think? Would an open membership create a boost in the number of shredders? Your thoughts are appreciated.

Posi-Cole · Post by **Posi-Cole** » 10 Feb 2004 14:05

Zeke wrote:Rigth now, membership to the club is attained by being inducted by current members. The point is to have players that are truly dedicated to their game and to the teaching/promotion of the sport so that we can continue to find, attract, and teach new players. Current skill level has nothing to do with it. But it has been brought up that not having an open membership, where anyone and everone can join, is turning a lot of possible shredders away. I've always figured that it would just attract alot of people that would eventualy lose interest.

I would hate to see freestyle die out in Chicago (I plan to be shredding here a while) and I still believe that finding the truly dedicated is the key in the longrun. What do you think? Would an open membership create a boost in the number of shredders? Your thoughts are appreciated.

I think membership should be open ... Footbag is too small of a sport to start segregating people out of clubs. I mean, if they join your club and end up quitting, it's really not much trouble for you, and they may decided later down the road they want to play again, or tell someone else they see kicking about your club ..... I think it's better to let everyone in.

CIC flurry · Post by **CIC flurry** » 13 Feb 2004 20:53

I don't think people start or stop playing footbag because they are affiliated with a club. They play because they like it and its fun. If they stick around long enough...we give em a shirt.

Tom
CIC

marsh · Post by **marsh** » 17 Feb 2004 14:46

im part of spadricks club, and ever since i started playing foot bag i have got a new appreciation for what it can do for your health and mind.. I played hacky for atleast 10 years and then started doing it ... although with school and all i find i cant fit it in all the time ... but i still got lots of time to wipe the rust off.

Spadrick · Post by **Spadrick** » 05 Mar 2004 21:23

Those are some good stories (Love it chan, LOVE IT).

I hope that people will make the effort to start footbag clubs all over the globe. I would like to see the day when there is a footbag club in every city.

w00t!
Go footbaggers go!

christof · Post by **christof** » 05 Mar 2004 23:18

i do wish i was in a club

Seath · Post by **Seath** » 08 Mar 2004 13:44

Im currently searching for Ottawa area shredders to play with... I've found two and Im so excited, because as of last week I was the only one I knew in my area who even knew what footbag is.

Thom · Post by **Thom** » 08 Mar 2004 13:52

Just out of interest, Seth how did you find other hackers in your local area?

Seath · Post by **Seath** » 08 Mar 2004 13:57

I went to footbag.org, there are 5 "clubs" listed for Ottawa but none of them are active so I contacted the people who posted those clubs to find out that they still play but their club never took off, or dwindled away, so I kinda rallied two of em to start back up and I'm meeting up with one of em on thursday for a little shred.

I'm hoping to find some more on April 20th:
http://www.modified.ca/footbag/viewtopic.php?t=4420