Garwin Bruce
"Coach Footbag" - I was playing on a softball team and was told that we were getting a new shortstop. They said his name was Johnny Hackysack (I actually thought that was his name for a couple of weeks).
When practice started I saw John Stalberger and other teammates warming up by kicking what looking like a beanbag. I tried it a couple of times but was recovering from injuries to both of my ankles. Within a couple of months in 1977 John moved into my house.
I have been an athlete all my life so John started teaching Ted Huff and me how to play this new game. The principle of using both sides of the body, better coordination, quickness of the feet, developing flexibility and strength in the ankles and knees connected to all the sports that I had played. I had just recently moved into my new house in Oregon City so I had joined this softball team to get back into team competition. I had spent the previously years working on my golf game.
When John moved in the discussion quickly turned to how to develop this game. The conclusion was to teach it through the school system. The idea of trying to get support for the schools led us to getting a booth at the Oregon State Fair. It turned out to be a good decision because we got the endorsement from the state school superintendent to teach the game in Oregon’s school system.
Since that time I have done school demos in Oregon, Washington, California and Arizona, along with numerous shows, halftimes of soccer and the NBA. I was Co-founder of the National Hacky Sack Association. When we first started promoting the game we originally had the idea that the net game would be played over an 8 foot net just like volleyball (too high). Then we experimented with a 3 foot net like tennis (too low), finally we decided on the 5 foot high net (just right). This was the period of time that I helped develop training exercises that were used to teach PE classes by the Hacky Sack Touring Teams.
I spent 13 weeks in Haiti setting up the first Hacky Sack factory. I helped form the first official footbag club the Footbag Pioneers Club. I was the first WFA sponsored tour member to teach a soccer club and promote the game of footbag in Paris, France.
From 1979 until around 1986 I averaged 2 tournaments a month. I don’t remember which events I won but I won my share. I would go to these tournaments to play with someone new and had the opportunity to teach the game of footbag to so many people. My particular passion was the back kick. To me it was the ultimate in balance, coordination, flexibility, grace and form. So the honor of being called “Captain Back Kick” was one of the highest praises I could receive.
As the years added up on my body I realized that there was a great need for a person to be Tournament Director so for many years I filled that role which included the World Championships held in Portland, Or. To this day I would still fill that role if the occasion arose. I have a tour story that I hope will help any new player wanting to become a better player.
After footbag got the endorsement from the State School Superintendent a tour team went to the coast to demo Hacky Sack and teach in the PE classes. I had only been kicking about two months and basically had a left inside and an occasional right outside. So here I am in front of 400 students to show the game of footbag. I remember I was doing a doubles demo with Guy McGee and every time he kicked it to me I missed the footbag. This didn’t detour me but drove me to learn this game and find an easy way to teach this game to all newcomers.
So the moral of the story is, don’t give up if it is difficult at first because eventually the joy of controlling a footbag will bring you great joy.”
The sports future: I see this sport becoming a worldwide sport due to the fact that the rest of the world is more accustom to games using their feet. I think the only thing holding back footbag is sponsorship.
