Build Your Own Human Foosball Table - Part 1

We set out to build our own human foosball table with an aim of spending less than $200 and dedicating less than 3 hours putting it together.  We achieved both!  Here's what we did:

The Design

We loved the high quality, custom-built designs like this and this, but we didn't have the time or the money to put something similar together.  Still, having the walls enclosing the playing field was a high priority.  Imagine playing real foosball without those walls!  There's so much strategy that comes from playing off the walls.  Plus, we didn't want to chase the ball every time it got kicked out of bounds.  We found that construction fencing seemed to do the trick (like this), so we decided to go with that.  

We opted for a smaller court to promote faster play and to allow players connected to different rods to interact.  Our final design was 35' x 14' with 6 ropes running across the field each 5ft. apart.  Twelve players could play at a time with 6 on each team.  We threaded PVC pipe over the ropes that players held onto allowing them to slide back and forth.  Square hay bales stacked on top of each other held the ropes up on either side.  

Next:  Part 2 :  The Supplies

Types of Human Foosball Tables

There are three basic types of human foosball tables.  The kind you choose will depend on what your budget is, the space you have to play in, and who is playing.

1.  Unenclosed, custom tables

Unenclosed tables are the easiest to pull off.  If you want a low-budget, low-effort human foosball game, you can put this together with some cones, a few ropes or poles, and a ball.  Use the cones to mark off the playing area either in an outdoor field or in an indoor gym.  Have players stand in lines holding the ropes or poles, throw the ball in, and start playing!  HowDoesShe describes an unenclosed human foosball game here.

2.  Inflatable rental tables

If you've got a decent budget and don't want to do much work to put together a game, renting an inflatable human foosball table might be the option for you.  These usually allow 10-12 players at a time.  Rather than holding onto a pole, a harness around your waist attaches you to a rope.  Instead of sliding back and forth, you are able to move as far as the rope allows you in all directions.  

3.  Enclosed, custom tables

In my opinion, the most awesome human foosball tables are enclosed, custom tables.  These are usually built outdoors and have walls lining the playing area made of wood, hay, or construction fencing.  The walls make for a more authentic foosball game since you can kick the ball past your opponents by bouncing it off the sidewalls.  Players slide back and forth by holding onto plastic pipe threaded over ropes or poles.  These set-ups can be costly and require more time and energy to put together.  Badge of Awesome describes his hay-lined human foosball table here.

We wanted to build a human foosball table that was as much like actual foosball as possible without breaking the bank.  After scouring the internet looking at all different kinds of designs, we ended up creating an enclosed table using a combination of construction fencing, hay, and rope.  Check that out here.

What is Human Foosball?

Have you seen the Human Foosball crazy that's been circulating the internet lately?  If not, check out this and this.  Human foosball is a lot like soccer in that lots of humans are in an enclosed area kicking a soccer ball around trying to score goals.  The catch is that instead of roaming freely, in human foosball you hold on to long poles as if you're the little plastic dudes attached to rods in foosball.  Instead of running around, you can only slide back and forth across the field to get the ball.

It looks fun...but is it?

YES.  After seeing a video online, we built a human foosball court for a group birthday party.  A group of about 30 adults and kids got together for a Saturday afternoon.  We weren't quite sure how it would go over, but we end up playing game after game after game.  It was even more awesome than we'd hoped!

When we were planning for the event, we found lots of videos and pictures online but few instructions on how to create the actual playing area, so we decided to put together an online resource here.  Check it out and share your own human foosball stories!