She honed her accuracy by aiming at coffee cans set up on the lawn. She modified her shoes to their footbag-friendliest, ripping out a few seams and pulling back the laces to create a bigger toe box. She could even kick balls of tree moss or wads of paper, popping them from foot to foot.
In 1985 she went to her first world footbag championships, held in Golden, Colo. A year later, she collected her first prize money -- $12.50! -- by placing second in women's doubles net at a tournament in California. That same year she became a certified footbag instructor.
Lewis has competed at the International Footbag Players Association's World Footbag Championships almost every year since, traveling to tournaments as far away as Prague, Czech Republic, and Montreal. She collected her first world title in 1987, when she and partner Scott Cleere won at mixed doubles net. She added more world titles in 1995 and 2001.
This year has been particularly rewarding. At the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki, Finland, in July, she won women's singles footbag net and women's doubles footbag net. The meet drew 210 competitors -- 20 women and 190 men from 16 countries. She also was inducted into the Footbag Hall of Fame.
Lewis can't exactly retire on her footbagging earnings -- it is a sport known for its popularity among slackers, after all, not for big-money contracts and sponsors -- but she shows off the medals she has won with pride. She won 250 euros at this year's World Championships; the most she ever won in one tournament was $700. "I usually end up donating my winnings to International Footbag Players Association for the next year's Worlds," she says.
Footbag was invented in 1972 in Oregon City, Ore., by two guys kicking a handmade bean bag back and forth. They called the game "Hack the Sack." The two designed and trademarked the "Hacky Sack," and dubbed their new sport "footbag."
Since then, the game has evolved. Besides noncompetitive footbag circles, where players pass the bag around with their feet, footbaggers compete in freestyle competitions, demonstrating elaborate tricks, and footbag net.
Lewis has watched the sport develop, serving on the rules committee of the World Footbag Association for 15 years and on the board of directors of the International Footbag Players Association. She encourages other women to get involved in the sport, which is dominated by men.
The largest footbag circle ever recorded? In 2001, a circle was formed by 964 players and they passed a footbag around. Most consecutive kicks? In 1997, Ted Martin racked up 63,326 of them. It took 8 hours, 50 minutes and 42 seconds.
"Footbagging as a rule attracts people who are not necessarily into organized sports," Lewis says. "You think of the slacker people, but a lot are intelligent, educated people who do other things."
She has hundreds of footbags in her personal collection. They're made of suede, leather, rattan and crochet, and are constructed of anywhere from two to 92 panels of material. Some are filled with sand; others are packed with stainless steel ball bearings or plastic beads. Footbags used in net are larger and harder (about the size of a lemon); freestyle bags are the size of a key lime.
Twenty-five years after she took up the sport for its calorie-burning characteristics, Lewis, now a litigation attorney who does mostly pro bono work, sticks to kicking because it keeps her in shape.
"It can be very aerobic, because you have to move all over the court, and send (the footbag) to where the person is not," she says. It's also good training for other sports, as she likes to tell young athletes. "If you can keep your eye on that little bag, think how easy it's going to be with a bigger ball (like soccer or baseball)."
Lewis' long legs are muscular; her toes and ankles are like steel bands. At 47, she is often the oldest female player at a tournament, competing against 18- and 19-year-olds. So far, that hasn't mattered.
"At her age, she's still one of the top women in the game and competing at the world level," says Bruce Guettich, director of the World Footbag Association in Steamboat Springs, Colo. Lewis, he says, has strong fundamentals, good court awareness and can place the footbag with very good accuracy. "Opponents better be ready to run -- they better come out with their track shoes on."
Guettich got into footbagging about the same time Lewis did. He wanted to improve his lower body coordination, timing, rhythm, balance and concentration for downhill skiing. Like Lewis, he's stuck with it for the fitness benefits.
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