How to Play Footanque (Foo-tonk)
The Aim of the Game
To get your bags closer to the sack than you opponent’s.
The Place to Play
Unlike most footbag sports Footanque can be played on any surface. Bumps, objects, plants and hollows add challenge and can add to the fun.
Choose Teams
Divide up into two teams. You can play Singles with one player on each side, Doubles with two players on each side, or Triples with three players on each side. For leisure play a good way to choose teams is for one person to take a bag from each player and kick them out all at the same time. The owners of the bags that lie closest to the kicker make up the first team.
Select Bags
Both teams select their bags. Each team’s bags should look similar to each other and be possible to distinguish them from the other side’s bags: that way, they will be easy to identify when counting up points. When playing Singles or Doubles, each player uses three bags and for Triples each player uses two bags.
Decide Who Goes First
Make up some trick challenge or kick challenge to decide who goes first.
Kick the Sack
The team that wins the challenge chooses the starting location and then selects one of their players to kick out the sack. The starting location is indicated by a circle that is 14 to 20 inches in diameter. The circle can be drawn with chalk, etched in the dirt with a stick, or made from a piece of rope whatever works. Once the circle is drawn, the player then stands with one feet inside the circle and kicks the sack. The sack is the object the teams need to get close to with their bags to win. It needs to be significantly different from all the bags. The sack can be kicked in any direction but must land within 30 feet of the starting circle and three feet from any obstacle.
Kick the Bags
All bags must be kicked from within the starting circle and with one feet on the ground. The player attempts to kick the bag so that it lands as close to the sack as possible. It is okay to hit the sack. The player must remain inside the circle until the bag has landed. A player from the opposing team then steps into the circle and attempts to land his bag closer to the sack even if it means knocking his opponents out of the way. The bag closest to the sack leads or is said to be “holding the point.” The other team must continue kicking bags until they take the lead or run out of bags. There is no order that team members must follow when kicking their bags however, they must only kick their own bags, and they must go one at a time from within the starting circle. If they take the lead, the other team then tries to recover by landing a lead bag.
Winning the Round
Once a team has used all its bags, the other side is allowed to kick the rest of its bags. When all bags are kicked, the points are counted. The team that has the bag closest to the sack wins the round. In addition, they also receive a point for each bag that is closer to the sack than their opponents closest bag. Only one team scores points during a round.
Beginning a New Round
Once the points are counted, the next round begins with previous round’s winners drawing a new starting circle. This starting circle is drawn around the final position of the sack in the previous round. The winning team then selects a player to kick out the sack from this new starting circle and then kick out the first bag.
Winning the Game
The first team to earn a total of 13 points wins the game. There is not a required number of rounds that must be played.
Invented by Asmus Helms