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Toss & Turf

Toss & Target Games

Toss & target games

Every game in this family works the same way: you stand at one end, you throw at a target, and the court is long and narrow rather than square. That shape is why these fit yards that nothing else fits.

By Sawyer V.Published September 4, 2026Last updated September 4, 2026
A bean bag mid-flight toward a target board on a lawn

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Top pick

GoSports 4 ft x 2 ft Solid Wood Premium Cornhole Set

Regulation 4 x 2 ft boards on solid pine frames with a 1/2 in cabinet-grade plywood top, eight 16 oz all-weather bags and a case — the complete tournament-legal setup in one box.

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Toss games are the most yard-efficient family on this site, and the reason is geometry. A regulation cornhole court is 33 feet long and 10 feet wide. A Kan Jam court is about 60 by 20. Both are corridors. If your usable space is a strip down one side of the house or a driveway, a corridor game fits where an open-lawn game like croquet or Spikeball simply does not.

The other thing this family shares is that the throwing is underhand and the targets do not move. That makes these the easiest games to teach at a party — a first-time player gets a bag on the board within a couple of throws, which is a much lower barrier than any net game.

Pick by your longest run

The four games, side by side

Published court dimensions and player counts. Sources at the foot of this page.
GameCourtPlayersSurfaceWins at
Cornhole27 ft between board fronts; about 33 x 10 ft total2 or 4Grass, hard, sand21 (cancellation)
Kan Jam50 ft between goals; about 60 x 20 ft total4Grass, hard, sandExactly 21
Ladder toss15 ft toss line; about 20 x 8 ft total2 or 4Grass, hardExactly 21
Horseshoes40 ft between stakes; about 48 x 10 ft total2 or 4Clay or sand pitVaries by format

Three of the four win at 21, which is not a coincidence — it is the shared inheritance of American backyard scoring. The differences are in how you get there. Cornhole uses cancellation scoring, where only the net difference in a round counts, so a round where both teams score well can move the total by one point. Kan Jam and ladder toss both require exactly 21, so overshooting is penalized. That single rule makes both games much longer and much more tense at the end than cornhole.

Honest steer

Cornhole is the default, and here is when it is the wrong default

Cornhole earns its position: the American Cornhole League publishes every dimension, so a home setup can be genuinely correct rather than approximately correct; it plays two or four; and the equipment is the most standardized in yard games, which means bags from one maker fit boards from another.

Three situations where it is the wrong buy:

  • Your longest run is under 30 feet. The court is 27 feet board-front to board-front plus a 3-by-4-foot pitcher's box behind each board. Under 30 feet you are throwing from the flowerbed. Buy ladder toss instead.
  • You need to carry it any distance. The lightest full set here publishes 38 pounds; the heaviest publishes 46. Kan Jam goals nest into one another.
  • You have ten or more people. Four players, then a queue. For a crowd, kubb takes 2 to 12.

If you are starting from nothing

What to buy first

Buy one regulation cornhole set with plywood tops and resin-filled bags, and buy the bags separately if the set includes six rather than eight. That is the whole first purchase. Everything else in this family is an addition to a party, not the party.

Our full ranking with published specs for each set is on the cornhole page. If you already own boards and the bags are the disappointing part — which they usually are — go straight to cornhole bags.

FAQ

Questions people actually ask

Which toss game needs the least space?
Ladder toss, at roughly 20 by 8 feet. The commonly published toss line is 15 feet, and the two ladders plus standing room add about another five. That is under a quarter of what a Kan Jam court needs.
Are lawn darts legal to buy?
No. The Consumer Product Safety Commission banned the sale of all pointed lawn darts in the United States effective December 19, 1988, under 16 CFR Part 1306. The regulation covers manufacturing, selling, distributing and importing, new or secondhand. We do not link them and we will not build a page recommending them.
Can toss games be played on concrete or gravel?
Cornhole and Kan Jam, yes — both are played on hard surfaces routinely, though boards walk a little on concrete when bags land heavy. Horseshoes, no: the NHPA specification calls for a clay or sand pit, and a steel shoe on concrete bounces unpredictably and far.

Why you can check our work

We have not played these. Every figure above is copied from a manufacturer's published listing or a governing body's published rules, and named so you can verify it. Where a maker publishes nothing, the field is blank rather than filled in. How we pick explains the whole method, including what would change a recommendation.

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A cornhole board set up on a lawn with bean bags resting on the surface

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Best cornhole boards

Five regulation sets ranked on published surface thickness, frame construction, weight and bags.

A flying disc mid-air in a park on a summer day

Picks

Kan Jam

Goals 50 feet apart, exactly four players, exactly 21 to win — and the deflection rule that makes it work.

A wooden ladder toss frame set up on grass

Picks

Ladder toss

Roughly 20 by 8 feet, a 15-foot toss line and exactly 21 to win — the game for yards cornhole cannot fit.

A horseshoe resting in a sand pit beside a stake

Picks

Horseshoes

40 feet between stakes, a built clay or sand pit, and a 2 lb 10 oz weight limit straight from the NHPA.

Sources

Every figure on this page is copied from one of these sources. If you find one that is wrong or out of date, tell us and we will fix it.