How to Play Boccia

By Jaques of London · Est. 1795 · Updated 2026-08-17

Boccia is a precision ball-sport played on any flat surface, indoors or out. Two sides take turns lobbing, rolling, or banking heavy balls toward a small target ball, trying to finish closer than their opponents. The tension between attack and defence, and the satisfying clack of a well-aimed strike, make it endlessly compelling for all ages.

Most commonly played on a lawn, gravel path, or hard court, Boccia needs almost no equipment and no special terrain. It rewards patience and spatial judgement rather than strength, which is why it works equally well as a competitive club sport and as a relaxed garden game for mixed groups of adults and children.

A little history

Boccia belongs to the wider family of target-ball games that includes petanque and lawn bowls. Its origins are unclear, though similar games involving throwing stones or balls toward a target have been played around the Mediterranean for thousands of years. The modern Italian form of the game, sometimes called bocce, became widely popular across Europe and the Americas through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries via emigration. A para-sport variant of the same name has been a Paralympic discipline since 1984, though the garden version covered here follows the traditional recreational ruleset rather than the Paralympic classification system.

Setting up

1. Agree the playing area: a strip roughly 4 metres wide and at least 8 metres long works well, though the game is flexible on dimensions.
2. Decide teams: 2 players play individually; 3-4 players typically pair into two teams; 5-6 players form two teams of 2-3. Each team takes all balls of one colour.
3. Determine who throws first, usually by coin toss or a short throw contest. This player opens the first frame.
4. Establish the target score before play begins: 12 points is the most common figure for a full game, though 7 or 9 suits a shorter session.
5. Mark or agree on a throwing line (the 'foul line') behind which all throws must be made.

How to play

1. The player who opens the frame throws the pallino from behind the foul line. It must land at least 2 ball-lengths from the far boundary and at least 1 ball-length from any side boundary to be in play. If it fails, the same player tries again; after two failed attempts the opposing team places the pallino anywhere within the valid zone.
2. The same opening player immediately throws one of their coloured balls, aiming to land it as close to the pallino as possible.
3. The opposing team now throws. They continue throwing until one of their balls sits closer to the pallino than the current nearest opponent ball, or until they have used all their balls.
4. Whenever a team gets a ball closer to the pallino than the opposing team's nearest ball, the throwing obligation passes to the opposing team.
5. The team currently losing (i.e. the team whose closest ball is not nearest the pallino) always throws next. If both teams are equidistant, the team that last threw throws again.
6. This continues, teams alternating as the situation demands, until all balls have been thrown.
7. Once all balls are played, score the frame (see Winning). The team that scored in the previous frame throws the pallino to open the next frame.
8. If a ball or the pallino is knocked out of the agreed playing area, it is removed from play for the rest of that frame.
9. A ball that touches the foul line before release, or a player who steps over the line during delivery, results in that throw being removed from play.
10. Continue playing frames until one side reaches the agreed target score.

Winning and scoring

Only one team scores in each frame. After all balls are thrown, identify the ball nearest the pallino. The team that owns it scores one point for every one of their balls that is closer to the pallino than the nearest ball belonging to the opposing team. Balls that are equidistant from the pallino are measured carefully; if they remain truly equal, neither scores for those particular balls. The first team to reach the agreed points total, typically 12 for a full match, wins the game. In some rulesets the game must be won by a margin of at least 2 points; agree this before play starts.

The fine points

The most common dispute is measuring distance. Always measure from the pallino to the nearest surface of each ball, not to the centre. A length of cord, a folding ruler, or purpose-made callipers all work; a straight stick or tent peg can settle most garden arguments quickly. If two balls appear absolutely equal and no measurement resolves it, those balls cancel each other out and neither scores, but any other balls belonging to the leading team still count.

A ball that moves the pallino is perfectly legal: wherever the pallino comes to rest, that is the new target, and all remaining balls are played to its new position. Similarly, striking an opponent's ball away is a legitimate and often decisive tactic. The only restriction is that a player must remain behind the foul line during delivery, and both feet must be on the ground (or within the throwing box in formal settings) at the moment of release. Any ball delivered in violation of the foul-line rule is removed immediately without further debate.

How to win more often

• Place your first ball tight to the pallino rather than simply near it: a ball sitting 5 cm away forces the opponent to be very precise, whereas a ball 30 cm away invites a simple roll.
• When you are the throwing team, consider whether to point (aim close) or shoot (knock away the leading ball). Shooting is higher risk but can eliminate an opponent's strong position in one throw.
• Do not exhaust all your balls early trying to beat one opponent ball. If you go ahead with several balls left, hold back and let the opponent use theirs trying to catch you.
• Aim the pallino throw to a spot that suits your strongest throw style. A pallino near a side boundary limits the angles available to the opponent.
• In team play, communicate before each throw. Decide whether the next player should point or shoot based on how many balls each side has remaining, not just the current scoreline.

Variations

Singles (1v1)

Each player uses all 4 balls of their colour. The rules are identical to the team game. With only two people, every throw matters immediately and there is no partner to recover a bad frame, making singles the most pressurised format of the game.

Triples

Two teams of three players each. Each player on the team throws 2 balls rather than the full 4, giving 6 balls per side per frame. This spreads responsibility across the team and tends to produce higher-scoring frames because more balls are in play around the pallino.

Accumulator

Played over a fixed number of frames regardless of score. At the end of the agreed number of frames, the team with the highest cumulative total wins. This format suits a time-limited session and prevents one-sided games from ending too quickly.

Moving Pallino

A rule variant popular with younger or newer players: if the pallino is struck and moves out of the agreed playing area, instead of being dead it is placed at the centre of the far end line. This keeps every frame alive and removes the tactical option of deliberately killing the pallino, making the game friendlier for beginners.

Boccia: frequently asked questions