3 Way Soccer
Created democratically at the Nova Project,
a Seattle Public School in Seattle, WA

3-Way soccer! Tuesday Committee time This is an unorthodox sports workshop. We sit down for a pow-wow at the end of each game to talk about what rules we want to add and subtract to a constantly changing sport. 7 years of fine tuning in this way has produced a game that uses 3 teams on a circular field and a huge yoga ball that you dribble on the grass with your fist, or kick. It feels a bit like a bizarre circus act crossed with a blend of many familiar sports aspects. Meet at Stefan?s room to keep your bag safe, then we head over to the Dead Rat Field.
Rule set
1. Starting/Set up
3 way soccer is played on a grassy field with a wide circular range of apx 105 paces or more There are no boundaries, however the ball should not touch concrete. Fields with hills and obsicals should be considered for safety and fairness of goal position
It uses 2 inflatable rubber balls, 1 3? diameter spiky rubber Pilates ball and 1 peanut shaped rubber pilates ball apx 4? long, 1? in diameter at the center and 1.5? long in diameter at the 2 bumps 6 cones are used to set up the goals.
The game uses 3 goals set up at 120 degree angles. The distance from the center of the field to the center of each goal is apx 25 paces for games with 6-8 total players 30 paces for games with 9-12 players 35 paces for games with 15+ players
Distance between cones in each goal is 12 paces in games with 6-8 total players 14 paces in games with 9-12 players 16 paces in games with 15+ players
Before team selection, everyone participates in group stretching. People arriving late must do their own stretches for 10 minutes before joining the game.
Teams are randomly selected by the scorekeeper, and evenly divided into: Rats (team closest to the Old Nova) Bats (team closest to the 520 bridge) Cats (team closest to capitol hill)
The remaining players are Ducks (wildcards)
Example: a game with 10 players would have 3 per team (3 rats 3 bats, 3 cats) and 1 wildcard (1 duck)
Top of game Each team sends one member to go to the center to place one finger on the ball. Scorekeeper counts down from 7 to one then yells ?Go!? after which play begins
After a score The team that gets scored on can send as many players as they wish to the middle, all the other teams go back to their goals. Scorekeeper counts down from 7 to one then yells ?Go!? Once the ball is in play, the other teams must wait 10 seconds, or until the ball leaves the center circle before they can enter the center circle.
2: handling the ball.
Almost all handling of the ball is permitted except holding it while moving. (*with one exception) dribbling, kicking it, headbutting and punching it with one point (fist, open hand or two-hands held as one as in volleyball) are all permitted if you have held it either with one hand or two, you can only pivot on one foot or pass it to a teammate.
if you hold the ball above your head for more than 3 seconds you have to drop it and step away and step one foot on the center field before returning to the game.
you are allowed to use both of your arms to hit the ball if they are together in a sort of volleyball position.
you can use your legs to grab the ball. this is called the grecco grip.
you cannot jump-kick.
*you can do the fidel roll: grab the ball with one hand and start rolling.
if someone is holding the ball for too long you can start stall counting them up to ten at ten they have to drop the ball and go back to their goal. Yell your numbers like so: ?Stall 1, Stall 2? until you have reached 10.
you can only engage from the front, if you have been engaged the person cannot turn around and make it so you cannot engage them.
you cannot pick up people and run them into goals when they have the ball.
no tackling.
try to refrain from excessive roughhousing.
if a wildcard scores it acts as a pigpile.
if three or more people are touching the ball the scorekeeper can call a pigpile, the ball then switches out for the ball in the middle, if it seems to be purposefull the scorekeeper can choose to not call a pigpile.
during a pigpile wildcards cannot touch the ball in the center until the other ball has reached the circle.
no boundaries.
try to keep the ball off the cemented areas and the streets.
you can balance the ball with one hand and it does not count as holding it.
you can bounce the ball above your head legally.
3: Scoring Every team starts out with 7 points A team wins when they reach 11 points For the Rats, Bats, and Cats, when a goal is scored, 1 point is taken from the team that was scored upon, and 1 point is added to the team that scored. It?s best to use Legos to keep score. Goals can be scored from either side of goal posts. A goal can be blocked by any member of the guarding team by changing the trajectory of the ball by a degree noticeable. Even a ball which has clearly passed through the goal can be blocked if a defending member has noticeably changed the direction the ball is moving before or as it passes through the goal. When this happens, the ball is in play. A goal is too high if it?s above the reach of the tallest defender when they?re standing. A ball has to pass completely through to be considered a goal. A goal must be accepted by the defending team as a goal in order for it to be official. The Scoremaker and scorekeeper can give opinions. The score?s validity sometimes must be resolved with a vote from the entire defending team. When it cannot be resolved, the entire play is played over, with the last team to be officially scored upon starting in center again.
When the winning team is at 2 or more points above of the score of the 2nd place team, the last player to score is considered a Freelancer. Freelancers cannot score, but they are still considered part of their team.
When a team is at or below 3, that team can select a wildcard to become a part of their team. That wildcard leaves when they get back to 4 or above. A team?s final 1 point cannot be taken from them.
When a goal has been scored it must be registered with the scorekeeper before the game can continue.
4. Wildcards
Wildcards are randomly picked team members that act as game balancers, so if one team is lagging behind the wildcards would help said team to score some points to make the scores as even as possible. They all have the same rules that normal players do. When a Wildcard scores it starts a pig pile and the other ball is in play. The Ducks (wildcards) unlike the rest of the teams their score starts at 0 and win when their score reaches 11 or if the game ends in a 3 way tie.
5. Variants: Lava Pit: The circle in the middle of the soccer field is known as the lava pit, no one can enter the lava pit except lava monster which is one member from each team (except ducks) that can never leave unless tagged out. a freelancer can not become a lava monster
boomerang variant, there is a 4th goal in the center. to gain possession of the ball you have to bring the ball to your goal, once you have then you gain possession until another team brings it to their goal, to score the ball in the center you have to gain possession. all other rules apply
lava monster boomerang, a mixture of lava monster and boomerang.