Sand or Plastic?

The question has been asked by many aspiring players over the years. To some the game is about fluidity of motion, artistic appeal, a battle over gravity among a circle of friends. To others it is much more than that, it's about the bond between you and your footbag, a struggle within to release your potential and explode in a furious display of coordinated control.

Whatever your end goal, keep in mind that Rome was not built in a day and through progess you will succeed. From day one, keeping the bag off the ground should be your main focus. Kicks are your best friend. Kicks while essential are not the only component, but hey, you are a beginner and this is the beginning. Once you have mastered kicks then you can move on to stalls, then from stalls to combos, and from combos --- skies the limit.

Which brings us back to the main question - which is better sand or plastic? Both have their advantages and disadvantages as listed below:

While viewing the chart above can be a little confusing, let's examine a little closer.

Sand: Basically the main purpose of a sand filled bag is to allow the player an easy way to stall the footbag. As a beginner the muscles in the legs are uncoordinated. Footbag is unlike any other sport and as such your muscle memory probably isn't developed enough to just stall a footbag the first time out of the gate. As such, sand filled footbags allow you to cradle the footbag. When it hits any surface it colapses and the sand spreads to cover as much surface area as the bags shell will allow. One of the most fundamental freestyle moves - the clipper stall - is used frequently to start and end most major footbag moves. This means that the inside surface of your foot would need to be a level as possible in order to perform the perfect stall. Few of us (with exception to various super stars in the sport) have perfectly flat clipper stalls.

Sand helps bridge the gap between never successfully stalling the bag and stalling the bag almost everytime. Your foot can be off by up to 30 degrees and still stall a sand filled footbag.

That sounds great! And it is, especially for the beginner who is more interested in learning new tricks than in proper form, difficulty of moves, linking difficult combos, etc...

But what about plastic? I hear all these great things about plastic, how can plastic help improve my game? Answer: Tremendously.

While plastic can be rolly, the benefits of learning to stall and control a plastic filled bag far outweigh the effortlessness of stalling a sand filled bag. First off think of the following example.

Johnny and Rick are in the kitchen one day practicing footbag tricks. Johnny is an experienced sand bag player, while Rick is a professional freestyler who only kicks with plastic. Rick decides to try stalling an egg. He succeeds because he is use to stalling a round plastic filled bag, while Johnny breaks the egg first try because the egg isn't colapsing on his foot the way a sand filled bag would colapse.

While this is a very unrealistic occurance, it demostrates the fact that not all stalls are created equal. Which brings us to plastic.

Plastic with its reputation of being rolly, and difficult to stall, has a major advantage over sand. The difference is control. The nature of plastic is that it bounces off itself inside its shell. This causes it to fill the entire area of the bag while in flight. A round sphere in flight will follow its intended flight path. It will rainbow from one place to another. A sand filled bag by contrast will become lopsided in the air if not set straight up. Because the nature of sand is to colapse, it will never become round in the air. The sand collects in one place inside its shell and then when in flight, will gather in one spot inside the bag.

I'm confused - do I want to be kicking the bag or stalling it?

Both bags can be kicked, both bags can be stalled. So which is better?

To finally answer the question you have to think about what you want out of the sport at this particular juncture in your footbag venture.

Are you a complete beginner with less than a few kicks under your belt? If so, then start with plastic for kicks.

Are you a beginner who is a kicking master but wants to learn stalls? If so, switch to sand.

Are you an intermediate that has most of the basics down already and is looking to move up in skill level. If so, switch back to plastic.

While it may seem contradictary to keep switching back and forth, the goal is clear, you want to improve, and you don't want to waste your time with a Hacky Sack. There are professionals who use both but the majority of beginners stick with sand. I have used both and have listed the advantages and disadvantages above. I use plastic because I personally feel that my game is at its best when I have full control of the bag, and I can get that from plastic.

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