Footbag Kicking - Hacky Sack ^®
Is on the Rise Around the World!

"It (footbag) is an intimate game, where the players must stand close together, but where speed, power, distance, and intimidation (typical attributes of competitive sports) are not emphasized, while cooperation is." ("Have a Kick with Child Psychiatry," Mike C. Jones, Psychiatrist in training, University of Missouri Medical School, p. 7) Dr. Jones states further, "There is less opportunity for a child to use the game as a medium for protest or as a means of acting out in hurtful ways. It's a perfect example of what is known as 'NON-ZERO-SUM' gamesmanship. In zero-sum games (such as footbag net, a fiercely competitive example) you win only to the extent that your opponent loses; your margin of victory is exactly the opposite of his margin of loss, and so the sum of the margins, of course, is zero. In a footbag circle everyone's success and failure is shared. The object of the game is to keep the footbag in play, not to kick it past somebody. It's the essence of socialization."

The members of American society strive for social order whether it be a family planning a Thanksgiving Feast or overseeing pre-school children playing happily in a socially arranged atmosphere. New ways of developing intrinsic social order, techniques, are becoming available through social research. Bloughchi^tm, with its non-competitive style and unlimited growth potential, serves as a unique way to provide an activity (play) for children which will help fulfill a harmonious social order while also keeping their bodies fit.

Teaching a child the complexities of creating and holding a center is truly a challenging prospect. The balancing of the mind and body is an age-old quest.

The study of martial arts has fulfilled much of man's centering challenges. But the violence associated with martial arts is frightening and dangerous. Parents shy away from allowing these activities, even though they have great benefits other than offensive ones, and children are sometimes reluctant to become involved with them because they might get hurt. Bloughchi^tm provides many of these benefits without the danger of being hurt -- it teaches the child to hold a center and to stretch in every direction.

Children, or adults for that matter, who practice the Bloughchi^tm style gain control of the full 360° circle encompassing them, their personal space. They become attuned to it and responsive to it -- they also become respectful of other persons' personal space. It is also unique because it involves the overlapping of each individual's circle at times allowing for appropriate interfacing of personal territories.

The Bloughchi^tm concept of movement encourages multi-directional activity, acquiring the ability to change directions -- meaning, kicking the footbag with either foot, looking left/kicking right and spinning right or left as required to meet the footbag in the air, in the front or the back of the player. This multi-directional concept is not addressed much in established sports which tend to be front oriented and do not provide opportunities for right handed persons to play left or for left handed persons to play right. Developing the eye-foot coordination in the Bloughchi ^tm style allows for development of both sides of the body (and the brain).

Previously, sport in this society has been front oriented -- that is, the athlete is concerned with catching, throwing, running, and hitting in a forward motion. This type of orientation creates a well-defined 180° peripheral boundary, facing front only.