Help & rules
Playing on a team
No App Store download and no password. Your captain sends a link, you tap your name, done. Tap a topic to open it.
⚡ The basics · 12
How do I say if I am coming?
Open your team link, tap your name, then tap In, Maybe, Out, or Spectating. Change it any time before the game. If your captain texted you a personal link, that one skips the name step. You can answer for the next few Saturdays all at once from your own page.
Why does it ask for the last two digits of my number?
Your name is tied to a phone. The digits prove it is yours before another device takes it over. If your captain has no number for you, the first tap simply claims your name.
It says this phone already answers as someone else.
One phone gets one name. That is what stops people answering for teammates. If you really share a phone, ask your captain to reset the claim, or use a personal link.
I am subbing this week and I am not on the list.
On the team link, tap Not on the list? Add yourself. You land on that game right away. If you were sent a practice link instead, adding yourself there only puts you on that one scrimmage.
Can I invite someone in?
Yes, and you never need the captain first. For a practice or a night out, open the event and tap 🤝 Invite: on a phone that opens your share sheet, otherwise it copies the link. Your friend gives a first and last name, and an email or number if they want the reminder, and they are on the list for that one event, and only that one, so a link passed around in October cannot sign somebody up for November. For league games it is the sub pool instead: the 🙌 Know someone who could sub card on your Game tab, which adds them to the team's subs and gives your captain a heads up automatically.
Can I see who is coming to something later on?
Yes. Open any event on your page, not just the next one, and it shows who is in, who is a maybe, who is out, and how many have not answered yet. The same card holds the time and place with a map, the 📅 calendar button, and a 📋 Details block whenever your captain has written one: what to bring, where to meet, how it runs.
Where can I see things we already did?
Game → 📚 Past events, at the bottom of the tab. Every game, practice and night out already played, newest first, and each one opens to show who was there.
What are the tabs?
Game is where you answer and see when and where. Huddle is the team's own room: bulletins, photos, and the WhatsApp group link. Points is your level, the standings, and claiming points. Me is your info, notifications, sign-in, and this help.
Can I set up a team hangout?
Yes. Game → 🍻 Suggest something social: give it a name, a date, a time and a place, a ticket link if there is one, and details: what the plan is, where to meet, what to bring. It goes to your captain to approve, so nothing appears for the team until they say yes, and nobody is texted before that. Once it is up it works like any other event, and you can invite a friend to it with the 🤝 button.
Can I message the team?
By email, yes: Huddle → 📧 Email the team reaches every teammate with an address on file, under your name. Carpool plans, lost cleats, a question for everyone.Texts stay with your captain, and automatic RSVP texts start 5 days before a game and 48 hours before a hangout, so answer from the app anytime sooner.
A game says CANCELLED.
Your captain called it off, often weather but sometimes a field or league change. It stays listed so you know it was real, but it needs no answer, earns no points, and sends no reminders. Watch the Huddle for the makeup date.
What is the Season checklist at the top of my Game tab?
The once-a-season things that are not RSVPs, like ordering a shirt or paying dues. The app adds two rows itself, your player photo and turning on game texts, which check themselves off and vanish the moment you do them. For the rest, the task title is a button: tap it, do the thing, then Done. Not for you? Tap Skip and nobody chases you about it. Either way it moves to your Me tab with the link still on it, and Undo is there if you change your mind. Once the list is clear the whole card disappears. Nothing here moves money: paying happens wherever the link goes.
🗓️ Games and your calendar · 7
Why are games and socials on separate tabs?
So you answer the one you mean. Games and practice sit on one tab, socials on the other, and every event wears a label: Game, Practice or Social. When two things share a day, both say so, and the confirmation after you answer names the event.
How do I get a game in my calendar?
One game at a time: 📅 Add this game to my calendar on the Game tab, or the small 📅 beside a later date. The copy keeps whatever time it had when you added it, so if it was TBD, add it again once the real time is up. When a time is set or moved, the message about it has a link that drops the new time straight in, replacing what you saved.
Why does a game show as all day in my calendar?
Because there was no start time yet when you added it. It holds the date and is marked free so you do not look busy. Add it again once the real time is up.
What does TBD mean on a game?
No start time yet. Your captain fills it in when they know, usually about a week out, and if your team's schedule comes from the league's calendar it lands by itself. Either way everyone hears, and the message carries the time for your own calendar.
Where do I see where I am playing?
Once your captain saves a plan, your game appears on the Game tab with your place in the kicking order and your position for each inning. Nothing shows before that. On game day there is often also a live board on a tablet showing everyone’s spots, and your captain can share its link in the Huddle: it updates by itself as things change.
What is the weather line on the game?
The forecast for your field at first pitch, pulled fresh. It shows up when your captain has set a location the map can read, and it warns you if rain is likely.
Where do I see if we won?
On the Points tab, once your captain enters scores. The season record sits above the standings.
🏆 Points and levels · 3
What are points and levels?
(If your team runs no points program, the Points tab is hidden and none of this applies.) Participation earns them. Playing a game, coming to a practice, coming to a team night out, taking an officiating shift, helping with setup or teardown, bringing snacks or drinks: your captain sets what each one is worth and can switch any of them off, so the Points tab is the honest answer for your team. Points build your spot in the season race and the top finishers get whatever prize your captain has set. Every point counts toward your level too, however you earned it, so practices, socials and helping out all move your badge.
My captain missed something I did.
Points tab, then Claim points. Pick the event and what you did. It goes to your captain to approve rather than adding itself.
Can I volunteer to ump, bring things, or help out?
Yes. Answer IN or SPECTATING on the Game tab and the buttons appear under your answer: umping first base, snacks, booze, soft drinks, helping with setup, and helping with teardown. Check as many as are true. Umping is its own point and usually the biggest one. Bringing anything earns the bringing point once per game however many you check, and setup or teardown earns the helping point the same way. A practice or a night out has no first base, so the ump button only shows on a game. Nobody is assigned anything, your captain confirms it afterwards, and you can uncheck any of it.
🙋 Your info and privacy · 6
Who can see my phone number?
Your captain and any co-captains, since they hold a dashboard. Nobody else, unless you switch on Let teammates see my number and email on the Me tab. Even then it only shows to teammates who have signed in, never to anyone who just has a link, not even a player's personal link. Reply STOP to any text to stop texts entirely.
What does my captain see about me?
Everything on your card: your answers, and when and how you gave them (your link, a text reply or a notification), the date you last opened your link, attendance, and points. Teammates see the roll call and the points race as always; how and when you answered and when you last opened Kickstand are for captains only. Nothing tracks what you look at.
How do I see a teammate's number?
Sign in first, then Me tab, 👥 Your team lists everyone who chose to share, with Text and Call buttons that open your phone with the number already in. Your captain's contact is always there without signing in, on the Game tab, since they are who you chase about subs and being late.
I am on two teams.
That is fine, and common if you captain one and sub for another. Sign in once and the app asks which team you mean and remembers it. Switch team on your Me tab moves you between them, and each keeps its own answers, points and profile. About texting: a text cannot say which team you mean, so YES, NO or MAYBE answers whichever team texted you most recently, and the reply names it. If no team has texted you in the past day, it answers them all and lists each one. Either way, each team's own link answers only that team.
Do I have to sign in?
No. Signing in is optional and RSVPs never require it. It ties your spot to you, so it works on a new phone, nobody can answer as you, and you can see teammate contacts. Use Google, or a code by text or email, from the Me tab.
Why does it want my number?
Two things: game texts, and proving a spot is yours when you claim a name or sign in with a texted code. Teammates never see it unless you switch on sharing, replying STOP ends the texts for good, and you can skip it and add it later on the Me tab.
📱 Texts, alerts, and the Huddle · 8
Can I get notifications instead of texts?
Yes: Me tab, under 🔔 Notifications, app, and sign-in. On an iPhone you have to put Kickstand on your home screen first and open it from there; the 📲 card in the same drawer walks you through it. Turn it on from several devices and they all ring, and turning it off only quiets the one you are holding. Texts work either way.
Can I make the app dark?
Yes: Me tab, under 🎨 Look and help. Light, dark, or follow whatever your phone is set to. It only changes your own device.
Does this work without signal?
Mostly. Pages you have opened before come back from your phone rather than the network, so the game and the field plan still open in a dead spot. Answering needs a bar or two.
Can I look up a rule during a game?
If your captain has added your league's rulebook, yes: the rules search sits at the very bottom of this help, under the sport guide, and it answers from your own league's rules rather than somebody else's. It works with no signal, so it still answers at a park with one bar. Nothing on file yet means nothing to search, and that is your captain's to add in Setup.
What is the Huddle?
The team's own room, and everybody can post in it. It is for the things that should stay findable: announcements, photos from the game, a question for the group. New to the team? Say hello there and introduce yourself. Pick your name first, then you can post. Your captain can remove anything and you can remove your own, and new posts ping your phone if you turned notifications on. Posts from whoever runs the team carry a CAPTAIN or CO-CAPTAIN badge next to the name, so an announcement is easy to tell from chatter. 📷 shares a photo, ↩︎ replies to one message like texting, and ✏️ edits your own post, which then carries an edited tag. A post your captain pins sits at the top for everybody with a Pinned tag, which is where a parking change or a weather call goes. 📸 Gallery collects every photo the team has ever posted into one grid: tap and hold one to save it. Links you paste are tappable.
What are the documents at the top of the Huddle?
What your captain has shared with the team: the league rulebook, a field map, a handout. They sit above the chat so they do not scroll away, and they stay there all season. Tap one to open it.
Why the Huddle when we already have WhatsApp?
They do different jobs. If your captain has pinned the group link, the bear has a pinned post at the top of the Huddle and tapping it takes you straight there. WhatsApp is where the day-to-day chatter happens and scrolls away by Tuesday. The Huddle is where a thing stays put: the photos from Saturday are still there in October, and an announcement does not get buried under forty messages about who is bringing the cooler.
Who can see the Huddle?
Only the team. It never shows to somebody who just has the team link: you have to tap your name first, or open your own personal link. Somebody who signed up from a shared invite link for one practice or one night out is a visitor, not a teammate, and never sees it at all.
Typical rec kickball basics
How the game usually goes. Your league may differ: anything your captain pastes into Setup wins over this, and the search box at the bottom answers from their rulebook when there is one.
The game in one minute
Two teams take turns kicking and fielding. The pitcher rolls it, you kick it, and it is baseball from there: three outs an inning, force plays, tag plays, caught kicks are outs, fair and foul lines matter, and most runs wins. Usually no leading off and no stealing, so runners move once the ball is kicked. Leagues set their own numbers: innings or a time limit (often around 7 and 50 minutes), how many field at once (often around 10), and whether a big lead ends a game early.
Kicking: how to actually get on base
Wait for a pitch in the zone. Strikes and fouls put you out, though how many of each is a league rule worth checking. Kick LOW and controlled: high floaters are the easiest outs in the sport, while a hard grounder into a gap is a base almost every time. Many rec leagues allow a soft short kick (a bunt) and hold infielders behind a crash line until the pitch, which together make a well-placed one between pitcher, catcher and third the cheapest base available. Both of those vary, so check your league before building a night around them. Aim away from their best fielders. Run through first base: most leagues protect the overrun unless you turn toward second, so check yours.
Running the bases
Pick a natural path; you may dodge a tag but not by leaving your baseline entirely. On a caught kick, get back and tag up before advancing. Most rec leagues allow no leadoffs and no steals. A fielder blocking your path without the ball is usually obstruction, and what the umpire awards for it varies by league; touching a live ball on purpose makes you out.
Playing tips
Advice, not rules. Nothing below changes what is legal.
Every position, explained
Pitcher: Rolls the ball and anchors the middle. After the pitch you are the fifth infielder: charge slow rollers up the middle and cover bunts the corners cannot reach. Smooth, flat pitches get more strikes than fancy spin in rec play.
Catcher: Runs the strike zone and owns short kicks. You are the bunt police: anything dying in front of the plate is yours, and you back up wild throws home. Most leagues keep you behind the kicker until contact, so check yours.
1st base: Catches everything, footwork second. Most outs in kickball are force plays at first, so a sure-handed catcher here wins games. Stretch toward the throw, keep a foot on the bag, and never chase a bad throw into the runner's path.
2nd base: Quick feet, short throws. Covers the middle with the shortstop, takes the force at second, and turns the easy double play. Talk constantly with your shortstop about who covers the bag.
Shortstop: Your rangiest infielder. Most kickers are right-footed and pull the ball this way, so expect traffic. Field it clean, take the closest force, and do not force a long throw when the short one is there.
3rd base: Reaction time and bunt duty. You charge bunts with the catcher, guard the line, and make the longest infield throw. Strong accurate arm beats raw speed here.
Left field: Busiest outfield spot, again because of right-footed pull. Play deeper for big kickers, shade toward the line for pull kickers, and hit your cutoff instead of throwing home on a hope.
Left center: The glue of the outfield. Back up left field on everything, call the ball early and loud (a called catch is an easy out, a collision is a disaster), and remember caught kicks mean runners must tag up.
Right center: Covers the gap most teams ignore. Sneaky-fast kickers aim here on purpose. Stay honest, back up throws to second, and keep your own throws low and on a line.
Right field: More action than in baseball: weak kicks slice this way constantly. Charge everything, because the force at first from right field is a real play in kickball. Fastest arm-to-release wins.
Plenty of leagues restrict where a sub can play and require equal playing time. Check your league rules for substitution and playing-time requirements.
Team defense in three sentences
Put your surest hands at first and catcher, your fastest people in the outfield, and your strongest arm at third. On every kick somebody calls the ball, loudly, before anyone else moves. Know the force play before the pitch: the easy out beats the hero throw every single time.
🐻 Ask your league rules
No league rules on file yet. Your captain can add your league's rulebook in Setup, and this starts answering from it.