Kickball facts for kids

Adults playing kickball.

Kickball (also known as soccer baseball in most of Canada) is a game and league game, similar to baseball. As in baseball, one team tries to score by having its players return a ball from home base to the field and then circle the bases, while the other team tries to stop them by tagging them "out" with the ball before they can return to the home base. Instead of hitting a small, hard ball with a bat, players kick an inflated rubber ball; this makes it more accessible to young children. As in baseball, teams alternate half-innings. The team with the most runs after a predefined number of innings wins.

Kickball is a popular playground game and is typically played among young, school-age children. The lack of both specialized equipment and highly skill-based positions (like pitcher) makes the game an accessible introduction to other sports such as baseball and softball.

Field

The game is typically played on a softball diamond with an 8.5 inch to 16 inch diameter inflated rubber ball. As in baseball/softball, the game uses 3 bases, a pitcher's mound, and a home plate. Sometimes, in less formal games, the field is not bounded by a fence as in softball or baseball, but is open. This may result in informal rule changes to accommodate the field, such as home runs being counted by number of bounces instead of by distance. Also it can be played on a rectangular blacktop area with chalk or paint outlines.

Kickball in the United States

In the past, kickball was mostly considered a child's game in the United States, although recently many US cities have created kickball leagues only for adults. Some US cities have multiple organized leagues for adults over 21 years of age. It gained prominence in the 1970s.

Kickball outside the United States

Kickball is popular among youth in South Korea. Known as balyagu [발야구 (foot-baseball)], it is a staple in PE classes within elementary schools. Kickball is referred to as Soccer-Baseball, Chinese Baseball or California Kickball in some parts of Canada. In Japan kickball is played by elementary school students and is known as キックベース(Kickbase). In England, the variation is often played in P.E. lessons in schools and is referred to as 'Football-Rounders', a mix of association football and rounders.

Images for kids

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  Example of a vintage kickball. This example was manufactured by Hutch Sporting Goods Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.

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  A game in Madison, Wisconsin, 2006

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  Girls playing kickball in Central Park, New York City, 1973

See also

In Spanish: Kickball para niños