1. Logistics

A. Regular season structure

A regular season is a round-robin. Depending on team numbers, the LASC may create “pods” with teams randomly placed in each. Each team plays every other team in its pod once; an odd number means one bye per team. Round-robin games may finish in a tie (made known before the season starts). Once the round-robin is complete, scores are tallied and the LASC decides the finals format (see §4.C).

B. Field setup & layout

• The field is a square, played as a diamond. Bases are 18.288 m (60 ft) apart.
• The pitcher’s plate sits in the centre of the infield; the pitching zone is a 3.0 m radius around it.
• Foul territory runs parallel to the 1st/3rd baselines, ~3 m off the field. The sideline area is outside that. Only fielders, the kicker, base runners, referees and base coaches may be in foul territory. If the ball enters the sideline area during play, the game stops and runners take one extra base.
• Strike zone: about 1 m × 1 m, extending roughly one base-width either side of home plate, clearly marked with tape and a cone at each corner. Any marking is part of the zone — touch it and it’s a strike. The top of the ball must be below the kicker’s knee when it crosses the front of the zone.
• Double first base: a fair-territory “First Base” plus a differently-coloured Safety First Base in foul territory (~30 cm away). Runners from home use the safety base; fielders use the main base. Either base may be used when continuing to second.
• Safety home plate: placed ~1 m to the left of the main home plate and slightly forward. Runners must use the safety home plate — touch the main plate and you’re out. Fielders making a force-out must touch the main home plate.
• (Optional) Outfield boundary line: the LASC may set a boundary (ideally no closer than 18.28 m from a base). A ball that bounces/deflects over it = runners advance two bases; a clean kick over it on the full = home run.
• (Optional) Home plate commitment line: ~3 m from home toward third. Once a runner crosses it they can’t turn back, the play at home becomes a force-out (touch the plate, don’t tag), and tagging the runner past the line means they’re safe.

C. Equipment & uniforms

• Official ball: the red kickball, ~25 cm (10 in) diameter when inflated.
• Appropriate attire on the field; no props on the field.
• Footwear: soft or rubber cleats only — no steel cleats, no hard plastic/nylon/polyurethane toe caps.
• Clothing: nothing sharp that could puncture on contact. Anything you’re wearing or holding (veils, capes, wings, skirts) counts as part of you.

D. Referees

Up to three referees per game: a Head Referee at home plate (calls the game, time, balls, strikes, fouls, outs, runs) and two Line Referees near first and third. Any dispute among referees is settled by the Head Referee. Referees may call timeouts, postpone for darkness/rain/cause, and warn or eject for detrimental or derogatory behaviour (per the Standards of Conduct). Only the team Captain (or their designee) may engage a referee about a call, and only once play has stopped. Excessive engagement by general players can cost the team 1 run per noted incident.

E. Teams

• Max 15 financial members per team; field a minimum of 7 and maximum of 10 at a time.
• Be ready 10 minutes before game time / the pre-game captains’ meeting.
• A coin toss or rock-paper-scissors decides who fields/kicks first; the winning captain chooses home (fields top, kicks bottom) or away.
• Equal playing time for all; a fixed kicking order; late arrivals join the end of the order.
• Members must be 18+ at registration and a current registered player.

F. Base coaches

Two members of the kicking team may coach at first and third. They stay in foul territory, must not enter the diamond or interfere; interference adds an out to the count (no runner removed).

G. Attendance

Members should attend all games and keep their captain updated. To qualify for Finals, a player must be a current member and have played at least one game of the regular season.

2. Game outline

A. Games

• A game needs a minimum of 3 completed innings to be a regulation game.
• Games last a max of 7 innings or 45 minutes, whichever is first.
• At the 35-minute mark, the Head Referee announces “last inning.” If you’re in the top of an inning, that inning is the last; if in the bottom, the next inning is the last.
• If 45 minutes passes mid-inning, time is called and the score reverts to the end of the previous inning — unless the Head Referee extends time to finish the inning (see below).
• A tied regulation game is marked as a tie (no sudden death in the regular season).

B. Cancelled games

The LASC decides cancellations (referees may decide if no LASC member is available) for reasons including weather, unsafe/unfeasible conditions, an immovable injured player, public-health restrictions, or a critical incident. Before 3 full innings, a cancelled game isn’t a regulation game and may be rescheduled; after 3 full innings, the score at the last full inning stands. Cancelled games are appended to the end of the schedule.

3. Game play

A. Pitching

• 3 warm-up pitches in the first inning (2 for a mid-inning pitcher change).
• Pitches must be by hand and underarm. A sidearm action may be called a ball. No fastballs.
• The ball must roll smoothly with enough pace to pass the whole home plate; a slow ball that can’t clear the zone is a ball.
• The top of the ball must be below the kicker’s knee crossing the front of the zone.
• At least one foot on/behind the pitching plate at release; the pitcher may take up to 2 steps past it but must not advance on the kicker.
• Once the pitcher controls the ball within the 3 m mound radius, the play ends — runners off base and moving forward may take one base; otherwise return to the last base touched.

B. Strikes

• A strike is a pitch that crosses/contacts the front of the strike zone un-kicked, a missed kick attempt, the kicker stopping the ball with their body, or a foul ball.
• Three strikes is an out — but with two strikes, a foul gives one courtesy foul; the next foul or strike is out.
• Example outs: SSS, SFS, FFS (after 3); SSFS, SSFF, SFFF, SFFS, FFFS, FFFF (after 4).

C. Balls

• A ball is a pitch outside the zone (no kick attempted), above knee height at home, deemed sidearm/above, or without enough momentum to clear the zone.
• Four balls = walk to first; forced runners advance one base.
• On a walk, the kicker may strut to first (quickly!) — everyone’s encouraged to chant “strut, strut, strut.”

D. Fair balls

A fair ball lands and stays in fair territory; lands fair then rolls foul only after passing 1st/3rd; lands on the baseline; hits 1st or 3rd before going foul; is deflected fair-to-foul by a fielder; or is touched (not caught) by a fielder in foul territory. A kicker may elect to kick any pitch, even a “ball,” provided they’re between the front and rear lines of the zone.

E. Foul balls

• Foul balls count as strikes (with the two-strike courtesy foul). Four fouls in a row = out.
• A foul is: landing foul before being touched; caught in foul territory (kicker out); landing fair but touching foul before 1st/3rd; double-tapped in the zone; landing/caught in the sideline area; kicked outside the zone lines; or kicked on/above the knee or with the underside of the foot.
• Runners may not advance on a caught foul or an untouched foul and must return to base.

F. Kicking

Kick with at least one foot on the ground and behind the front of the strike zone (you may line up outside the zone). Four balls walks you; four strikes/fouls is out. An improper kicking-order claim must be made by the captain within the play — the intended kicker is out and play reverts.

H. Fielding

• Field 7–10; pitcher and catcher mandatory if short. All fielders except the pitcher and one designated fielder (usually the shortstop) must stay behind the base lines until the ball is kicked — they’re not frozen, they just can’t cross forward over the lines early. The one exempted fielder may move forward once the pitcher releases the ball, staying behind the roll of the ball.
• No infield-fly rule. A ball kicked high into the air over the infield (a “pop-up”) is not an automatic out. In some sports it would be — to stop the defence deliberately dropping an easy catch and trapping the runners — but in kickball it’s played live: it’s only an out if a fielder actually catches it, and if it drops, normal force-play rules apply. So never assume a high infield kick is automatically out.
• Catcher positioning. The catcher must start each play behind the kicker. Before the kick, they may not cross home plate, move in front of the kicker, make contact with them, or stand so close that it restricts the kicking motion.
• Overthrow rule: a ball played into the sideline area lets runners take one extra base (two if the referee deems it deliberate).
• 3rd out at home: if a runner reaches home before the third out is made, the run counts; if not, it doesn’t.

Ways to be out

• Your kick is caught on the full (fair or foul — but not in the sideline area).
• A fielder with the ball touches the base you’re forced to before you reach it.
• You’re tagged off base, or hit by the ball at shoulder height or below — this limit is a safety rule. A throw to the head or neck does not put an upright runner out (they’re ruled not-out and may advance), so head shots are never rewarded. But a runner who slides, ducks, or is otherwise not in a natural running position and takes the ball to the head/neck is out.
• You stray more than 1 m from the base running path, miss a base, pass another runner, or aren’t on your base when the ball is pitched (after a warning).
• You’re hit by a kicked ball off base, or you touch the main home plate instead of the safety plate.
• Any combination of four strikes/fouls.

J. Obstruction & K. Interference

Fielders not in an active play must stay out of the base running path; a runner hindered by them is safe at the base they were running to. Interference (a runner touching a live ball off base, a kicker hitting the ball with hand/arm, or a fielder crowding the kicker) ends the play with the appropriate penalty — the kicker may receive a ball/strike, the runner may be out, or the play is replayed fairly. Intentional interference is the Head Referee’s call and is an automatic out.

4. Team standings & finals

A. Standings

Managed per Section VI.F of the National ECKB Bylaws. Standings are based on win percentage; tie-breakers run fewest losses → total runs → head-to-head → runs head-to-head → last pre-finals game.

B. Variations during finals

• Players must have played at least 1 regular-season game to qualify.
• Finals run a minimum of 3 and maximum of 7 innings with no finish time limit; “last inning” is called at 35 minutes (25 minutes for round-robin finals).
• Substitutions don’t apply in finals — a team needs 7 original members to take the field.

D. Tie breaker (sudden death)

Regular-season ties stand. In knockout/single-elimination finals a tie is broken by an extra inning: each team kicks with a runner on 2nd (the last person out previously), each kicker gets one pitch (ball = walk, strike/foul = out, fair = play on), and the inning ends at 3 outs. Repeat until one team leads after a completed inning.

5. Other

Critical incident: any event causing (or likely to cause) significant physical/psychological harm or reputational damage to the organisation.

Cancellation policy: “We play, unless we’re sure we can’t.” The LASC aims to give at least 2 hours’ notice via the Captains/Ref chats, Facebook Members Group, Instagram and the ECKB website — but when in doubt, assume games are on.

Make-up games: the LASC will try to make up cancelled games (double-headers or an extra week); seasons may be shortened after more than two cancellations.

6. Glossary & attachments

Open the glossary of kickball terms

Additional base

A runner past halfway to the next base is awarded that base plus the extra one (e.g. on an overthrow).

Ball

A pitch that doesn’t cross the marked strike zone.

Courtesy foul

With two strikes, an extra foul that doesn’t count as strike three; the next foul/strike is out.

Extending time (referee discretion)

The Head Referee may extend play past the time cap to complete the inning in progress, rather than reverting to the previous inning (Rule 2.A.5.1).

Fair ball

A kicked ball in play within the foul lines, letting the kicker run.

Forced runner / forced out

A runner who must advance because of a runner behind them; the out is made by tagging the base before they arrive.

Knockout

Leading by 15+ at the end of the completed 5th inning.

Mercy

7 runs in an inning ends that half-inning.

Overthrow

A defensive ball that goes into the sideline area; runners take one extra base.

Pitching line

The diagonal line between first and third base.

Pod

A group (or “division”) of teams that play each other.

Safety base

The extra base at first and at home, used by runners for safety.

Steal

Advancing on an un-kicked pitch — not allowed.

Strike zone

~1 m × 1 m marked area; a pitch crossing it below knee height is a strike.

Tag-up

Re-touching your base after a catch before legally advancing.

Attachments (reference)

• A — Field: diamond, 18.288 m bases, ~3 m foul territory, sideline area beyond.
• A.1 — Strike zone: ~1 m × 1 m; ball below knee height; enough pace to clear home.
• A.2 — Safety first base: orange, ~30 cm from the white main base, in foul territory.
• A.3 — Safety home plate: ~1 m to the left of the main home plate.
• B — Equipment: red kickball ~25 cm; athletic cleats/sports shoes; no high heels, platforms, open-toe sandals or steel-cap boots.

Attachment C — Referee signals

Signal	Means
Arms extended horizontally	Safe
Fist raised / circular motion	Out or strike
Both arms raised, hands open	Time out or foul ball
One arm extended, pointing	Fair ball

National League Rules v1.4, Emerald City Kickball Incorporated — accepted at AGM, 13 January 2026. This web version is a plain-English reproduction for players; the official rulebook is the authoritative source. No local area may vary these rules without express NMC consent.