From the C-pod to A-pod, small clusters of students and teachers gather in ring formation, engaging in casual conversation while hacking the sack. From stalling to swooping to simply kickin’ it, almost everybody can hacky sack, with enough practice.
“It’s really easy” says sophomore Xavier Prochaska, “It takes no set-up and it’s just something we can do whenever.”
“It’s caught on so much because we’re already standing around in circles to begin with and having something to do helps the conversation,” says Ze’ev Bernstein and Andreas Allaman.
And while hacking is a universally attainable skill, do expect a learning curve and some initial failures, as hacking is quite difficult to pick up, much less master. Before concocting extreme tricks and stalls, one must first get a solid understanding of the basics, which include learning how to angle one’s foot correctly to hit the sack, understanding the correct velocity at which to hit the sack, and knowing when the appropriate time to hit the sack in the context of a hacking circle is. Such skills only come with time and persistent practice as hacking calibration and technique varies from person to person.
According to senior and long-time hacker Alex Condotti, it helps to see yourself as the hack. When attempting to stall, hit or do tricks, he offers this advice: “act not like you’re hitting the hack but the hack’s hitting you.”
Others, like Mr. Garrett, offer this advice; “Find your inner sack and kick it.”
In the end, don’t be intimidated by the difficulties of hacking. As Sophomore Tony Garcia once said to me in the dying minutes of lunch, “Anyone can do it. Just do it.”