Here in Stony Brook, hacky sack seems to be a very popular hobby. For those who don't know what that is, it's just a game where you have to kick this little bean bag of some sort and keep it in the air around in a circle with several others. Many of these talented hacky sack players don't even play soccer. Just wondering how things would be like if all of them played soccer.
No clue. But I remember briefly playing hacky sack in the early 80's -- was that when it came out? -- and to this day still say "hacky in" when I want to join any sort of game ...
Here in SoCal, hacky is popular with soccer players. But I think the skills don't transfer that far. I mean, you learn ball (or sac) and body control in both, but the teamwork element is really missing. In hacky, you control the ball to yourself, so the timing of seeing a teammate and hitting them with a perfect pass, or creating space without the ball, is totally missing. IMHO
In my experience as a coach and player it helps a lot. I would tell my players to take it up. What many players lack is skill on the ball. Anything that can help the individual player helps the team. At the youth levels I think it's a great way for them to learn some ball controling movements that are common in hackey sack that you don't get often in team practce that makes the player more dangerous on the ball. To answer the original question of this thread, A teaam of soccer players that played a lot of hacky sack might look a bit BRAZILIAN. IMHO
It's not a bad thing, but something that was pointed out to me is that is sometimes can damage your touch. Settling a sack is far easier that a ball, each requires an impressive touch, but a different kind of one. Back in my club days some of my teamates and I would hack before games, or to kill time between tournament matchups. One time our coach stepped in and shocked all of us will some great moves. They proceeded to explain that he really didn't want us hacking before games, or ever during the season (typically year round back then). He frowned on the ugly habbit some had formed trying to juggle "side foot" as you do when juggling the sack. He then stalled it on his back heel and launched it over his head into a bag, and tossed us a ball and said, "juggle this instead."
Where I am from the best hacky-sackers were the kids who stood behind the pump house during school and smoked. None of them could play soccer though.
I think you're right on the money in this one. I was just playing this week. A couple huge smokers decided to join in and they performed the best tricks.