The best part of Bocce Ball is its ease of play: The rules of the game are simple to follow, and many surfaces in your neighborhood or senior living community double as courts. While you do not have to adhere to official court dimensions when playing casually, playing in larger areas makes for more complex play, as well as a lot of fun. Simplicity is key in bocce since the objective of the game is to have as many bocce balls from your team placed as close as possible to the goal ball, the Pallino.
If your opponents are able to get their bocce balls closer to the Pallino than your team, you do not score, no matter how many balls you have close to the Pallino. If one team has more balls close to the Pallino than their opponent’s closest ball, then they score one point per ball. Teams may earn anywhere from 1-4 points depending on how many balls they have that are closer to 1 Pallino than their opponent’s closest ball.
Only one team scores each frame, and a point is awarded for each ball that the team that scores has closer to it than the other team’s ball. Scoring occurs at the end of each shift (frame), with only one team (the team with the closest ball to the paladin) earning points.
The player that successfully tosses the pallino in play will then be the first player to throw one side of their bocce ball. After this, tosses of the Pallino will alternate between each team until one side has tossed a pallino into a legal playing area. Once the pallino is in play, the team who delivered it has a chance to throw in one of its own balls.
If the Pallino does not land within the legal playing area, the opposing team gets a chance to throw the pallino. The team awarded the first pitch may throw the pallino any distance, so long as it lands inside the boundary of the field of play and passes the center line. If the first player/team makes two attempts at throwing the pallino and cannot either make it across the centerline or throw it past the boundary of the court, they lose their opportunity to their opponent.
The winning team always scores at least a point, and up to four points, provided that all their balls fall near. If the opposing teams’ two balls are within one square of each other, the team that has the ball will keep rolling until they tie. A coin flip decides who gets to drop their goal ball, and the first ball in the round, and the other team pick the color of the ball.
When playing with 4 players, you may use cross-hatched markings on the standard balls to make two teams of 2, or have everyone play against one another. While 2 individuals may play against each other, Bocce is an excellent team game, just form 2 teams of an even number of players typically, eight (4 per team).
Competitive games are required to be played on a constructed bocce ball court, with specific details on building the courts that are required by regulations laid out by the United States Bocce Federation in their official rules book.
