Outdoor Games
How to play Four Square
Serve and return a bouncing ball among four squares; a fault sends a player to the end of the waiting line.
What you need
A rubber playground ball and four equal adjacent squares marked on a safe flat court
Set up the game
- Number the squares 1 to 4, with 4 as the server's square. Put one player in each and extra players in a waiting line.
- Agree that the ball must bounce once in your square before you strike it underhand into another square. Set boundary-line and fault rules now; Four Square has local variations.
Serve, return, and rotate
- The player in square 4 serves the ball to another player's square with a bounce in the target square. That player strikes it toward any other square before it bounces twice in theirs.
- Continue hitting after one bounce. A player faults by missing, letting the ball bounce twice in their square, carrying it, or sending it outside the court under this format.
- The player who faults leaves for the waiting line. Players in lower-numbered squares shift upward to fill the vacancy; the first waiting player enters square 1.
- No fixed points are scored here. The aim is to reach and keep square 4; stop after a time limit or when the group is ready.
Who leaves after a double bounce?
The ball lands in square 2. Kai moves toward it but it bounces again before a hit, so Kai leaves the court. The player from square 1 moves to 2; the first waiting player enters 1. The server in 4 begins the next rally.
Call a fault consistently
The square where the ball first bounces determines who must play it. If it bounces a second time in that same square before a legal return, that player rotates out. A ball that clearly lands beyond the outer court is the hitter's fault. On an undecidable internal line, replay the serve instead of changing the rule.
Beginner decisions
- Aim toward open space rather than directly at a player's feet; the receiving player must have a safe chance to reach the ball.
- Position near the center of your square so you can move toward any legal incoming bounce.
Common rule mix-ups
- Arguing over a ball that touched a boundary line without having agreed whether lines are in or out.
- Catching the ball instead of striking it, or striking it before the incoming bounce in this format.
Questions about this game
Is a line in or out?
This chosen format treats an outside boundary as out and an internal line as a replay because it is ambiguous which square received the bounce. Choose another convention before play if preferred.
Can you hit it to yourself?
No in this version. Return the ball to a different square.
Four Square serving rules and playground variations →
Sources and edition notes
Schoolyard Four Square, one-bounce underhand format. There is no single authoritative rules publisher. Serving direction, internal lines, cherry-bombs and square ranking are local conventions.