In Australia there are a few common rules that seem to differ from those you posted here. I am a primary school teacher who grew up playing this wonderful game and has seen it played at many schools around Australia You are correct, we often play with a standard tennis ball, but also (becoming more popular) with a slightly smaller rubber ball (boy that that thing fly!)
Dear Sean, I have looked and looked online to find somewhere where it clearly defines what the rules are about a ball hitting a player before hitting the ground in their square. For example one player hits the ball from his square into another person's square and instead of it hitting the ground it hits the player's foot! What is the call?
Dear Sean, my students are organizing a charity four squares tournament at our school for the local food pantry, and we want to make sure we've got all the rules right. I'm a former Ragin' Narwhal and think I have most of them down pat, but we came up with one question. If someone legally hits the ball into your square, but the ball immediately starts to roll OR the ball stops cold (i.e. it's unable to play off), who is out?
The kind folks over at 3D Tulsa put together a very fine video based on our official four square rules. They used great graphics and cool visuals to really illustrate the game in a way that plain text does not. Enjoy, it's only about two minutes!
A lot of people from a lot of different industries are looking to us to answer questions about the standards of this playground game. Somehow we have become the official source for rules clarifications, managing behavior, and even consulting about world records. This week we're addressing a couple of questions about the size of a four square court. I will answer your questions in the order they were received...
