How to Play Hacky Sack
Hacky sack — properly called footbag — has exactly one rule: keep it off the ground without using your hands. Everything else is style. Here's how to go from dropping it every touch to holding your own in a circle.
1. Stand loose and low
Feet shoulder-width, knees soft, weight on the balls of your feet. Almost every whiffed kick comes from standing up straight and stiff.
2. Learn the inside kick
Swing your leg across your body and strike the sack with the flat inside of your foot, ankle turned up. This is the bread-and-butter kick — aim to pop the sack straight up to chest height, not out in front of you.
3. Add the outside kick
Turn your ankle down and out, and hit the sack with the outer edge of your shoe. It covers balls drifting away from your body and keeps you from hopping sideways after every kick.
4. Use the toe kick for saves
Point your toes and punt the sack straight up off the top of your shoe. It's the least accurate kick, so treat it as a rescue when the sack drops low and wide.
5. Bring in the knee
Lift your thigh so it's flat and drive the sack up off the top of your knee. Great for buying a beat of time when the sack comes in high and fast.
6. Learn to stall
Instead of popping the sack up, meet it and drop with it — let your foot fall as the sack lands so it settles and sits still. Inside stalls and toe stalls are the gateway to every trick that follows.
7. Get in a circle
Three to six people, a couple of arm-lengths apart. Serve underhand to someone's feet, keep the sack off the ground, and use your hands for nothing but celebrating.
Circle etiquette
A hack circle is cooperative, not competitive. Serve to the other player's feet, not their face. Call "hack" when everyone in the circle has touched the sack before it drops. If you shank one into the parking lot, you go get it. That's the whole rulebook.
Beginner mistakes to skip
- ▸Kicking with your toes pointed down on every touch — you'll fire the sack across the yard instead of up.
- ▸Watching your foot instead of the sack. Track the sack; your foot knows where it is.
- ▸Standing straight up. Bend the knees and stay bouncy.
- ▸Playing on grass at first. A flat, hard surface gives you a predictable bounce when you miss.
- ▸Starting with a sack that's too light. A pellet-filled sack drops slow and true; a beanbag-light one flutters.
Need a sack worth learning on?
The Big Baby Sack is 12 hand-stitched faux suede panels with pro-weight poly-pellet fill — it drops slow, stalls flat, and won't leak. $15, three colorways.
Shop the sackStill choosing? Read the footbag buyer's guide.