Sole Brothers get funky
with their footwork

Originally printed 8/25/05
Article by Wade Nkrumah

Imagine spending as long as eight hours a week balancing, on one foot, a soft
ball-like object that can fit comfortably in the palm of your hand.
The exercise is know as delaying or stalling. But Ethan "Red" Husted of Southeast
is not standing still.
He's jumping and spinning into tricks- "around-the-worlds,
double-around-the-worlds"- attempting, for as long as possible, to keep the object
off the ground.
"It's just a mental and physical disapline," Husted says, "except all your energy is
basically focused around this footbag."
Such is the challenge and obsession of freestyle footbag for Husted, 29; Brian
Cooper, 20; and Nick Landes, 18. They are members of Portland-based
Sole Purpose Footbag Group.
Footbaggers play individually, in pairs or in circles. They're often spotted in Pioneer
Courthouse Square or parks.
Husted, who is advanced, or professional, is among the top Pacific Northwest
freestylers.
He says most footbaggers don't focus on mastering tricks. For freestylers, Husted
says, it's all about the tricks.
"Our whole purpose is to see how many times we can get our foot to go around the
bag," he says. "Moves that take a lot of practice and precision. The average person
would not practice moves like that."
Cooper, a freestyler for 3 1/2 years, says its it addictive.
"Whether it's with others or by yourself," he says, "you always have the ability to
learn something new."
Landes, practicing to the metal music of Chimaira, Disturbed and Static-X, is driven
by the sense of accomplishment.
"When I do a string of tricks, at the very end of that, if it was good, I can feel that it
was good," he says. "And if you're in a circle, that's even better.
Everyone else around you knows: 'Wow, that was amazing. I gotta give that guy
props."
It basically starts with kicks.
"Being comfortable enough with kicking the bag that you could just kick it 100 times
whenever you wanted using both surfaces of your foot," Cooper says.
"And being able to comfortably delay the bag on both of what we call clipper
positions, which is where you have one leg crossed behind the other and you're
stopping the bag on the inside of your foot."
O-kay. Got it. Maybe.