Simple fun episode 4: Foursquare

Do you want to have fun, but you don’t have a lot of “sports stuff” lying around? In these series, we will present you games that can be played with just some friends and, this time, three balls. Because exercise needs to be fun and simple!

Foursquare, a game similar to football tennis, but played in four players, and fun because it also relies on strategy. You need:

A flat surface of asphalt, wood or cement, divided into 4 adjacent squares, marked as 1,2,3,4 (see picture)

football/basketball/volleyball 4 people

Step 1: Each player will start doing kick-ups, and the player with the most kick-ups will be in position 1, the player with the second most in position 2, and so on.   

Step 2: The player in position 4 will start the match by “serving” the ball (tossing it with both hands) diagonally, to position 2. The ball needs to bounce once in your court, and once in the opposite court.

Step 3: Each player needs to let the ball fall once on the ground, then, using no more than two football kicks (hitting the ball with any part of the body EXCEPT hands and arms), sends it into one of the other positions. If after the player hits the ball, the ball touches anything else then an opponent’s court, the player “lost” the ball.

Step 4: If a player “loses” the ball, he is “demoted”. That means if he is in position 2, he will go to position 3, and the player in position 3 advances to position 2. If a player is in position 4 and “loses” the ball, he will get 1 penalty point.

Step 5: The player who was “demoted” (or who got the penalty point, if he is in position 4) is next to serve (see steps 2, 3, and 4).

Step 6: If a player gathers 3 penalty points, he is out of the game, and the remaining players continue (if they hit the unoccupied field, that counts as “loosing” the ball and they get “demoted”, or they get a penalty point if they are already in position 4). The last player left in the game is the winner.

Exception: if a player reaches the 1^st position, he/she gets all her penalty points erased.

Tip: if you think the game is too difficult for playing it with football rules (you are allowed to hit the ball with every part of your body except your hands and arms), you can use your hands/arms as well, but beware, you are not allowed to HOLD the ball, that counts as “loosing the ball”.