Maple Park, Illinois, USA
Hey, we're a club that's just starting up. We're trying to make this club
official at our current high school, so until then there are no official kick
times. This club is basically only open to anyone that goes to Kaneland High
School in Maple Park, IL, but feel free to contact one of us to kick with.
Here's the charter we're sending to the school for approval:
Dear Mr. Smith and other administrators of whom this is concerned:
Thank you for taking the time to listen to us and read our proposal. We
really appreciate the school’s willingness to accept our efforts. The club we
would like to start is to be dedicated to the up-and-coming underground sport
of freestyle footbag. Our sponsor is Mr. Horne. Our purpose is to spread the
concept of the sport to the school, and clear it from its casual,
hippy/druggie image, and portray it as the sport it is. But before we go into
more detail, we feel it necessary to explain the history of the sport.
Foot-related sports have been practiced all over the world, since ancient
times. From the Mayans, to China, to Europe, there has always been a
fascination with controlling the part of the body that is used primarily for
walking. In a sense, footbag has roots everywhere. But the real organization
of the sport came in 1972, when John Stalberger and Mike Marshall coined the
term ‘hacky sack,’ by filling a sock with rice, and kicking it around for
medicinal and rehabilitative purposes. Hacky sack was eventually turned into
a trademark under the Wham-O Corporation, and experienced a massive
popularity explosion in the 80’s. At one point, almost everyone under 18 in
America owned a hacky sack. The sport eventually organized into tournaments,
and competitors played different disciplines, to basically see who could keep
the bag up the longest with only their feet. Drugs were a notable part of the
sport, and it wasn’t a closeted fact. But then, one day, a man named Kenny
Schultz came along and revolutionized the sport, ridding it of
its ‘unsportlike’ manner. Kenny Schultz is the inventor of what is now known
as modern freestyle footbag. At first, he was met with much resistance, but
more and more people became involved in the sport. Now, over one hundred
countries worldwide have active players, and the numbers are growing.
Footbag is based on a points system, better known as the ‘ADD’ system. The
basic ADD categories are crossbody (having one foot behind the other), delay
(stalling the bag), dexterity (moving a leg around the bag), unusual (playing
the bag on an ‘unusual’ surface, such as a heel, or calf), and body (over
exaggerating movements to do a trick, such as a handstand, or a jump). Each
trick is composed of one or more of these 5 categories, and can range
anywhere from 1 ADD to 10 ADDs. Competitions are based not only on the ADD
system, but on both sidedness, number of drops, originality, creativity, and
sometimes synchronization to music. Players range from beginners who can
barely do one or two kicks, to advanced players who link difficult and unique
tricks together from muscle memory.
The club would meet everyday after school (of course, it wouldn’t be a
requirement to attend every day), and have an open door policy for anyone who
wanted to watch or play, since a major sense of almost any underground sport
is involvement with the public. If at all possible during the winter months,
we would like to play in the main lobby, where there’s plenty of room, water
fountains (after all, it is a sport), and passersby who can witness the game
in action. If not, we would like to request a gym or a wide hallway. These
locations seem ideal for playing, rather than a small, cramped classroom.
During the meetings, we basically plan to practice, but there will be other
activities, such as watching videos, learning about different concepts and
ideas of the sport, learning proper terminology and nomenclature for naming
certain tricks or certain aspects, learning good form, practicing good
habits, as well as good health and proper nutrition. Good health, balance,
confidence, social skills, and open-mindedness are all benefits of playing
footbag. Along with all this, we plan on teaching general knowledge of the
sport. This may include how to properly wash a footbag, how to modify shoes
to increase playability, stretching and warm-up advice, how to properly lace
shoes, circle etiquette, how to stitch your own bag, and the importance of
weight training.
In order to gain popularity, the club would like to hold a demo, or if at all
possible, hold a small tournament or jam. We could also (if at all possible)
do a small skit or demo for the Homecoming pep rally. For fundraising
purposes, we are also considering making a DVD with freestyle footbag
footage, possible interviews, and tutorials, to sell to people at school. We
would prefer if the proceeds from this went not only to the school, but the
IFPA, a nonprofit organization that assists in the development of footbag.
Although footbag is arguably the simplest sport when it comes to equipment,
each member is recommended to buy his or her own shoes, bags, and shorts. The
most accepted shoe among the footbag community is the Adidas Rod Laver,
although other shoes such as Reebok G-Units and Planetfootbag’s Quantums are
accepted alternatives. All shoes should be fit snug, but not too tight.
Shorts should be no longer than knee length, to assure they don’t get in the
way of the bag, but should not be restricting. Generally, most beginners
start with a Mr. Sandbag from www.freedomfootbags.com, and advanced players
should play with professionally stitched bags from private stitchers, such as
the bags in the “For Sale” subforum on www.modified.in.
Another notable purpose of the club is to get as many people to join and play
as possible. A long-lived goal shared by the footbag community is one day
making Olympic status, so that when people across the world turn their
televisions on to NBC every four years, they can watch and see who’s
competing for the gold medal in freestyle footbag. Our purpose as students at
this high school is not only to stand around and play hacky sack after
school, but to possibly build a strong base for the club to carry on into the
future, even after we graduate.
Thank you for your time and consideration. Without you, none of this would be
possible, and we sincerely appreciate it.
Sincerely,
The future members of the Kaneland Footbag Club.
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