Soccer and tennis, by themselves, are popular sports that have been around for a long time. However, combining the two sports and making it a new option to take part in can provide a fun new adventure for athletes everywhere.
What exactly is soccer tennis? Is it ever going to grow in popularity besides as a novelty? This is a complete guide to soccer tennis for those looking to jump into the game and see if it’s something to enjoy.
What is Soccer Tennis?
Soccer tennis goes by a few different names. Some people call football tennis, while others call it footnet. Either way, it’s played with a soccer ball and a court divided by a short net. You can play indoors and outdoors, taking inspiration from both sports.
The goal of the game is to score points against the opposition. The ball can bounce once in each half of the court before returning it over the net. If a player fails to return the ball, it results in a point for the opposition. The same goes for if it hits the net or goes out of bounds.
The easiest way to comprehend this is that the scoring method is the same thing as tennis. Players are allowed to use all parts of the body other than the hands and arms, just like in soccer.
Since it’s a little more difficult to get a soccer serve into a service box, some will use ping-pong rules instead. That means a ball just needs to land on the opposite side of the court to be considered “in”.
Is Soccer Tennis a Legitimate Sport?
Even though it’s not on the same level as soccer or tennis, there is an international football tennis Association known as the IFTA. It was established in 1987, officially changing its name a few years later to Federation International de Football Tennis Association.
Things have stagnated a bit as far as making it any bigger than just a minor sport. That started to change a bit in 2010, when the Union Internationale de Futnet started to govern and regulate the sport. This eventually led to just under 30 members on five continents playing the sport.
What is the List of UNIF Members?
The following countries are all UNIF members as of 2022.
- Australia
- Austria
- Basque
- Benin
- Cameroon
- Canada
- Colombia
- Costa Rica
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- England
- France
- Hungary
- India
- Iraq
- Ireland
- Italy
- Mali
- Poland
- Romania
- Slovakia
- South Korea
- South Africa
- Spain
- Switzerland
- Tunisia
- Ukraine
- United States
How Was Soccer Tennis Created?
The official story goes that soccer tennis was created in 1922 in the Czech Republic. Players on the Slavia Prague team played a mini-game where they kicked the ball back and forth over a rope.
Once it started to become more competitive, they switched the rope out to use a net instead.
As is the case with any new sport, they were constantly coming up with new rules as everything developed. Sometimes there would be one-on-one battles, but most of the time it would be teams of two or three players.
In the early days, each team touched the ball three times before sending it over the net. This made the game more like volleyball than tennis.
Like any sport, there was some minor tweaking of the rules early on to get it just right. Since some early changes, soccer tennis is pretty much the same as when it was first created.
That’s great news for the creators themselves, as it shows that the sport had an excellent start to get people interested in the first place.
Do Soccer Tennis Tournaments Exist?
A few tournaments started to pop up in the early years, but they took off in the 1960s. The Czech Republic was the epicenter of the sport early on, but it spread throughout Europe in no time.
Within 30 years, there was a European Championship held. In 1994, the first-ever World Championships took place.
Which countries have dominated most? Crowning a singles, doubles, and triple champion every tournament, the Czech Republic, Romania, and Slovakia almost exclusively win every time at the world level. The only other country to win a title in Hungary.
A lot of people believe that the reason why this happens is these countries take the game more seriously. The other countries are mostly using players who might have an interest in soccer, but they never really got to a high level.
In these countries winning consistently, they treat it like a professional sport trying to dominate the competition every time out.
How Is Each Version of the Gameplay?
Since most soccer tennis games are played as singles, doubles, or triples, it’s important to understand the rules for each.
Singles
- Court size: 29.5‘ x 42‘
- Net height: 3.6 feet
- Touches per play: two
- Bounces per play: one
Doubles
- Court size: 29.5‘ x 42‘
- Net height 3.6 feet
- Touches per play: three
- Bounces per play: one for men, two for women
Triples
- Court size: 29. 5‘ x 59‘
- Net height: 3.6 feet
- Touches per play: three
- Bounces per play: one for men, two for women
In any iteration of the game, everything goes by sets. A set is over when one team reaches 11 points before the other. Like many other racquet sports, a side must win by two points. However, it’s also a race to 15 points if no one can win by two.
Every match is a best-of-three sets format. If one side wins the first two sets, the match is over. Matches move relatively quickly, as a team can theoretically win the entire match by winning just 22 points.
As far as the style of play is concerned, one-on-one is the most physically demanding out of the three. Players need to be in tip-top shape to get through an entire match. There’s also more court covered than any other option.
Doubles and triples are more about teamwork than actual fitness. While players are still responsible for covering the court, dividing it up doesn’t cause that much of an issue.
Is Soccer Tennis a Drill or a Game?
There are plenty of people who take soccer tennis seriously. With that said, others use it as a drill to get better at soccer overall.
The first way it helps is that it gets everything moving as far as warming up is concerned. Players need to be warmed up and ready to go to play at a high level. Working on soccer skills during soccer tennis can be very beneficial.
It also requires a lot of quick thinking and teamwork when playing doubles or triples. Making quick decisions on smaller courts can get players ready for when they have to go battle on a big pitch.
This is where things seem to get a little bit crazy for those who take the game itself pretty seriously. Some people don’t want it to be viewed as just a warm-up sport, as it degrades the entire sport a little bit. Others are more than willing to have this happen because it still gives them recognition.
What usually ends up happening is a mixture of both. The average athlete isn’t growing up thinking that they are going to play soccer tennis.
They mostly grow up hoping to be a professional soccer player, but then they realize that they aren’t quite good enough to reach that level of play. Settling in with soccer tennis starts as a hobby, and then evolves into something much more.
A Final Look at Soccer Tennis
Soccer tennis isn’t a difficult sport, and some people are never going to fully respect it as something played on its own.
However, it’s not just a pop-up sport that will fade away after a few years as other fads might. It’s been around for decades, and people continue to play it at a high level to challenge themselves in new ways.
Anyone looking to have a little bit of a twist on a game should give soccer tennis a try. It has fast-paced action that doesn’t take long to play through. Everyone starts somewhere, and some end up competing at the highest level.