Perhaps the single most eye catching trick of all-time is The Stall. This is the most fundamental and paradigm breaking move in Hacky Sack or Footbag Freestyle. Audiences of all ranges will understand and respect this trick. And with a little practice you will have this trick mastered.
The first thing you have to do is re-train your brain. Most people see Footbag and think Hacky Sack. When they think Hacky Sack they think Soccer. And when most people think Soccer they think immediately of kicks with the feet. The Stall is the opposite of a kick in many ways. Training your brain to recognize this paradigm shift will help you to better understand what your body needs to do in order to perform the move correctly and with little effort. Although Stalls can be performed as tricks themselves, they are more importantly an essential skill for more advanced Footbag Freestyle moves.
Let's get started re-training our brain. First we need to explore the aspects of a kick versus a stall. We'll start with the basic kick, it's flight path and the energy needed to make it fly, as well as, keeping control of flight. Then we'll examine the same aspects of a stall, then you'll be in business.
The Kick
Imagine the bag is falling straight in front of you from about head height. As it is falling it is gaining momentum and accelerating towards the earth below. Unless a force (your foot) acts upon the bag, it will continue upon its path and quickly smack the ground.
Now imagine that your foot breaks the bags path. Keep in mind the following laws of physics:
If your foot kicks the bag in the exact opposite direction it is falling, it will fly back in the direction it came from. Thus the straighter your kick is the striaghter the bag will fly off your foot.
But what if you stall the bag instead? What's the equal and opposite reaction to that?
in this case you want the footbag to coome to rest on your foot instead of flying off in the opposite direction. In order to acheive this you must match the speed of the bag flight downward and then gradually brng it to a halt. If a bag falls and you simply place you foot in front of it, it will most likely bounce off. The reason - your foot is like a solid wall which has potential energy inside. When th bag hits the energy is released within the bag (you know that equal and opposite reaction thing) causing it to try to fly in the opposite direction. Since the bag is falling faster than your foot is moving in the opposite direction, it will only release a partial amount of reaction as it would had you kicked it instead.
This difference in energy is enough to cause the bag to roll right off, or even bounce off. To prevent this you have to develop what I like to call the elevator effect an here is how it works.
The Elevator Effect
Ever noticed while riding in an elevator downward toward the lobby the elevator comes to a gradual stop? What would happen if the elevator didn't cuchion the impact? You'd most likely not be reading this article that's what.
Stalling a footbag follows the same basic principal, but how exactly does that work?
Well, as the bag falls in front of you it is gaining speed towards the ground. Your foot's job is to match that speed as best a possible and then gradually come to halt just like an elevator. Technically you would need to lift your Stalling foot (the foot you intend to stall the bag with) as the bag is falling, then quickly reverse direction downward matching the speed of the bag. When the 2 match, slow your foot down and bring it to rest.
Sounds simply enough in theory, but practice makes perfect. So go out and give it a try. If you don't get it the first ten tries, don't give up, it takes a while for your brain to shift to the new paradigm and accept this new way of thinking. After a few hundred attempts, I guarantee results and you will have it mastered in a day for sure.
Professionally speaking, this is the first freestyle move I ever learned and it took me a total of 10 repeated tries to land the trick successfully. Once you have mastered the Stall look try other tricks that use the Stall and see how many you can learn and master in a day. It only takes practice.
~peace