The sun deposits doses of light under the skin and radiates the soul. Is Friday! and this warmth feeling reminds me that another UCF Footbag Club session is going on in front of the Education Building. But what is Footbag?, following the Noah Hackers's Dictionary is "a fast growing sport that involves one to 2415896 players hitting a small bean-filled sack repeatedly into the air with various parts of the anatomy." This sport attracts more than 30 people every Friday. They usually hack in circles; laughing, screaming, and philosophizing about the most diverse themes, such as beans and the connection to non-polluting fuels. Big circles normally have a captain moderator, who controls the delivery of hacks, others play wild sonicsack (variation of Footbag by kicking the heck out of the sack and running around the field for it), and the most experienced try to hack at the same time of watching the cheerleaders practice their choreography.

The sport of footbagging was founded in the US by John Stallberger and Mike Marshall who met each other at a local festival in Oregon. Stallberger was rehabilitating his injured knee and found in footbaging a perfect therapy. Mike Marshall suffered a heart attack in 1975 and died at the age of 28. Stallberger continued the work creating variations of the sport such as Footbag Net. But lets comeback at the group of intrepid footbagers engaged on their holy ritual…

In the background, camouflaged behind the shadows of trees, someone takes a water break and decides to change the radio station and put on some Marley. Many complains are heard about distracted hackers, most probably coming from those circles facing the spectacular moves of the cheerleaders, who usually share the field with the club. Silence is usually broken by a bright comment about the learning experience of hacking on the racket ball, hacking at the arboretum, or hacking naked. And then the classic "RICOOLAAA" scream, that bounces in every wall of the campus producing an exhilarating echo. This is the imperial scream that makes allusion to the commercial and congregates the happiness of being able to interact with sun, ants, sand, cheerleaders, and specially good people. The bright blue sunny sky will continue to illuminate the passion of these intrepid Klan until tiredness and the plans of a party will conquer our warriors.

There is no experience required for this club since the main value enforced is cooperation. In contrast with other games where speed, force, and intimidation are common attributes, the integral part that holds the club together is the interest and participation of 47 members that keep kicking the bag. The sport is a coordination of the actions of your body with the reflexes for your mind. Whenever you make the bag do what your mind has created, then harmony is achieved. This sport reinforces basic principles of socialization and help develop areas such as discipline, confidence, respect, collaboration, social etiquette, and respect. These definite characteristics makes footbaging a suitable sport for everyone.

The act of aiming for a complete cooperation to achieve a hack (when everyone in the circle touches the bag) may contrast with our common systems in which we interact daily. Our economic system is regulated by the way we compete with each other. The school system makes your school friends look like your enemies competing for the best grade. Professional sports strive to convey a situation where a team must defeat another. All these situations train us to think individually and try to look for love and approval by defeating someone.

There are many benefits deriving from the sport of footbaging. Physical fitness is an important advantage of Footbag because is a cardiovascular exercise. It is also inexpensive and provides for continual growth of skills. But most important than all the physical or material factors is the feeling of belonging to a team where merits are found in the achievements of the whole rather than the "do better" than someone else. Most sports tend to alienate and restrict the proper growth of a person separating the inferior players from the superior performers. In Footbag we are all beans in a bag!

Finally, footbaging is the enjoyment of playing; not the satisfaction of winning ! So expand the mind, and extend the foot!