Kicking games have always been one of the most popular ways to spend a fun time. The creation of many of them was more than 100 years ago and millions of people still play them daily. Some of them have become professional sports and require maximum physical and psychological demand to be played at the highest level.
If you are intersted in kicking games there are many games to explore, practice and have fun with.
What are kicking games?
Kicking games means games that include a ball and the way to handle it is by kicking it with your foot/leg or head (basically anything accept your arms). The most obvious example is soccer, a game where two teams play against each other, and make progresse soley buy kicking the ball with thire legs.
But other games like football and rogby, are also sometimes regarded as kicking games despite they include mainly the use of hands for passing and progressing.
9 Most Popular Games Played By Kicking
For anybody interested in getting into kicking games, here’s a list with many options that can be easily played with your closest friends.
1. Hacky sack
An easy but yet very entertaining game that most people know and have played at least once in their life. People only need a footbag to play hacky sack. This is a small, round bag usually filled with sand.
While it can be played alone, it is often seen played in groups. They stand in a circle and pass each other the footbag with their feet without letting it touch the ground. People play Hacky sack both indoors and outdoors.
Mike Marshall and John Stalberger invented it in 1972, nevertheless, its beginnings go back to Asia around the year 1930, where similar games were a tradition.
2. Jianzi
One of the kicking games that Singaporean families have had as tradition since many years ago. The only equipment needed to play Jianzi is a shuttlecock. This is a small, flat object. A shuttlecock has several feathers fixed to its flat base to establish its weight.
It’s played similarly to Hacky sack. Either it’s a single player or in-group, the goal is to maintain the shuttlecock in the air as long as possible with the heel of the foot. While at it, players show their dexterity with one or both feet.
3. Sepak Takraw
Sepak Takraw is considered as one of the most challenging kicking games. It has similarities to volleyball, of course, with the exception, that you have to use your feet and not your hands. It is a sport native to Asia with great popularity in Thailand, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, and Cambodia.
The court dimensions vary depending on the competitive level, with a cord or nylon net in the middle of at least 6.1 meters in length to separate the two sides in equal halves. The ball utilized in Sepak Takraw is smaller than others in similar sports and it’s usually made of synthetic fiber.
Each team is comprised of three players most of the time. The winning team will be the first to win two out of three sets, which is necessary to score 21 points.
The basic rules are to pass the ball to the other side with the feet all the time, with one of the team members serving the ball from the back of the court as soon as the referee calls it.
It is expected to feature for the first time as an Olympic sport in Paris 2024.
4. Soccer
The most famous among kicking games in the world. Played by more than 240 million people in over 200 countries regularly.
There are two teams of eleven players, which are not allowed to touch the ball with their hands or arms, excepting the goalkeeper who can catch the ball with his hands to prevent the other team from scoring.
To win, a team must score more goals than its opponent. To accomplish that, the ball must go through the other’s team goal.
The first rules were written at Cambridge University in 1848. Since then, 21 world cups have been played at a senior level.
5. Kickball
Source: mr.throk under creative commons
Invented in the USA in 1917 by Nicholas C Seuss. It was called then as “kick baseball” and short after since it has become one of the most popular sports played in schools.
Similar to baseball as its name used to say, it is played in a field with four bases in diamond shape and a pitcher’s mound. Several players as much as 15 are allowed, and the team that scores the more runs across six innings will be the winner (number of innings may vary if both teams decide so).
If you play kickball and are looking for the best kickball cleats, we have covered it in the article here.
6. BULZiBUCKET
Consists of two-tiered buckets, where each team of two players has to score with their feet the most amount of footbags. A perfect fun game to play at the beach.
Each team will have three to four hacky sacks per turn and the goal is to place them in any of the three different cups of the bucket, being the smallest the one to give a major amount of points.
Although BULZiBUCKET is often played with the feet, some people just throw with their hands the hacky sacks to score.
7. Mexican kickball
It’s part of a large tradition of kicking games in Mexico. Consists of a relay race between two teams, where each member must kick a ball through an obstacle course faster than the opponent. When they pass every obstacle, they take the ball to the next member of the team so it can start passing the course.
8. Teqball
Source: Marco Verch under creative commons
A game rising in popularity, similar to ping pong but played mostly with our feet. It is played with a football and a curved table scientifically designed. One or two players on each side of the table must pass the ball to the other side and over the net. They have a maximum of three touches and cannot neither use their hands nor touch the ball twice in a row with the same part of their body.
9. Footvolley
It was created in 1965 by Octavio de Moraes in Brazil. It is a combination of football (soccer) and volleyball, and it has been rising up in popularity among kicking games recently.
Footvolley follows beach volley ground rules with a key difference, you cannot use your hands to pass the ball to the other side of the net. Besides, each team allows only two players and they have a maximum of three touches per turn. No player can touch the ball twice in a row.
Benefits of kicking plays
Kicking games have been around for quite some time, some have evidence to be played more than 1000 years ago! It seems kicking games are crossing cultures and continents and that many people of all kinds find it fun kicking balls around.
Kicking games allow individuals to develop certain skill that other sports or games cannot, mainly the foot-eye coordination that improves movement, ball driving or obstacle jump. Besides, unlike others, kicking games improve overall physical fitness in terms of muscular and bone strength, and coordination levels.
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