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Four Square Rules in Plain Words

There is no one official rulebook for four square. This page shows the two ways schools play it most — the Playworks way and the schoolyard way — side by side, because they run the game differently. This page has no sign-up and nothing to buy.

What the game is

Four square is played on one big square cut into four smaller squares. One player stands in each square. Players hit a ball with their hands into each other's squares. Make a mistake and you are out. Good players climb up to the top square — the King square — and try to stay there.

Players: 4 on the court, plus a line of players waiting. What you need: a playground ball and a square court. The Playworks court is about 10 feet by 10 feet, split into four squares.

The squares

Here is the first argument. Courts name the squares in different orders.

Playworks calls the squares A, B, C, D. A is the top square. D is the lowest. New players start in D.
Most schoolyards use numbers or royal names: King, Queen, Prince, Princess — or Baby, Jack, Queen, King. On some courts square 1 is the King. On other courts square 4 is the King. Look at how your court paints it, or ask the players in line.

How a turn works — the serve

Schoolyard way (most common): the player in the top square serves. The server bounces the ball once in their own square, then hits it underhand into another square. The server picks who gets it first.
Playworks way: the new player in the lowest square (D) serves to start. After that, play just keeps going.

How play works

When the ball bounces once in your square, hit it with your hands into any other square.
You must hit the ball after it bounces in your square. Catching it, holding it, or hitting it before the bounce is a mistake.
The ball keeps moving from square to square until somebody makes a mistake.

Mistakes — you are out if you…

Hit the ball and it lands on a line, or outside all the squares.
Let the ball bounce twice in your square.
Catch or hold the ball instead of hitting it.
Hit the ball before it bounces in your square.
Hit the ball into your own square and it stays there — the ball must leave your square.

What happens when someone is out — the second big argument

Schoolyard way (most common): only the player who made the mistake is out. That player goes to the back of the waiting line. Everyone below moves up one square. The first kid in line takes the lowest square.
Playworks "Blank Slate" way: when anyone makes a mistake, all four players rotate up one square, and a new player enters the lowest square. Every mistake resets the whole court.

Both ways are real published ways to play. Agree with your group which one your court uses before the game starts.

How you win

Four square has no final score. The win is reaching the King square and staying there as long as you can. When recess ends, the King is the champion of the day.

Ways schools play it differently

King's Court: In this published school version, the player in the top square may make up one extra rule after each out — like "no slamming" or "must bounce twice." The rule lasts until the next out. Only the King may do this.
Cherry bombs: Schoolyard move. A player hits the ball hard, downward, so it bounces huge and fast. Many schools ban cherry bombs because they are hard to return and can hit faces. If your school bans them, that rule wins over any book.
Around the World: The ball must be hit in turn, square to square in order, around the court. You may not skip a square.

Official rule, house rule, or schoolyard rule?

"Lines are good": Schoolyard rule on some courts — a ball on the line counts as in. The published rules above count a line ball as a mistake. Ask your court.

Overhand hits and slams: Published school rules serve underhand, but hits during play may be any clean hand hit unless your school bans slams. Where slams are banned, that is a school rule, and it beats the book.

"King makes all the rules": Only in the King's Court version. In the plain game, the King is just the top square — no rule-making powers.

Words to know

Serve — the first hit that starts play.

Rotate — to move up one square when a player goes out.

Cherry bomb — a hard hit spiked straight down so the ball bounces high and fast.

Common questions

Can I hit the ball with two hands?

Yes, in most published rules. One hand or two hands both count, as long as you hit it and do not catch or carry it.

The ball hit the line right between two squares. Whose fault is it?

The hitter's. A ball on a line is the mistake of the player who hit it last.

I am first in line. Which square do I take?

Always the lowest square. Everybody climbs up from the bottom.

Sources: Playworks, "Four Square" and "Four Square: Blank Slate" (playworks.org); Rockbrook Camp's published four square rules; a published school instruction sheet for the King's Court version. Read in full and rewritten in our own plain words. The two out-systems and the square names are printed side by side because schools print them differently.