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Volleyball is a game played indoors or outdoors by teams
whose members try to score points in the course of hitting
a ball back and forth across a net. According to reliable
sources, William G Morgan invented this game in 1895, when
he was the Physical Director for the Y.W.C.A, in Holyoke,
Mass. His object was a game that was not too strenuous in
nature and one that would be suitable for men. During the
two World Wars, it was popular among U.S servicemen, who helped
to make it an international sport. In 1960, for the first
time, men's Volleyball was included as an event in the Olympics.
The Court.
The court is a rectangle measuring 18m x 9m, surrounded by a
free zone of minimum 2m and with a space free of obstructions
to a height of a minimum surface. For international matches,
the free zone shall measure a minimum of 5m from the sidelines
and 8m from the end lines. The free space shall measure a minimum
of 12.5 m in height from the playing surface.
The playing surface must be flat, horizontal and uniform.
It must be such that there is no scope of the players receiving
any injury. Volleyball is forbidden to be played on rough,
wet or slippery surfaces like cement, sand or grass.
The boundary lines are 5 cm in width and are a different
color from the court. Two side lines and two end lines mark
the playing court. The centerline divides the court into two
equal courts, measuring 9 m x 9 m. This line extends beneath
the net from side line to side line.
Net and Poles.
The net is a mesh 1 m wide and 9.5 m long vertically placed
over the axis of the center line to divide the playing space
into two parts. The net is made of 10 cm square dark stitches
mesh, with two-folds of white canvas 10 cm wide; each 5 cm fold
sewn along the full length of the top of the net and a flexible
cable stretched through to keep the net tense. A rope, threaded
through the bottom of the net, is tied to the poles to make
the net taut.
The height of the net is 2.43 m for men and 2.24 m for women.
The Ball.
The ball is spherical, made of a flexible leather case with
a bladder inside made of rubber or a similar material. It should
be of a uniformly light color. The circumference of the ball
is 65 to 67 cm and the weight is 260 to 280 grams. The air pressure
inside it 0.40 to 0.45 kg/ cm square.
The Game.
Before entering the playing court, the first referee carries
out a toss up in the presence of the two team captains. The
winner of the toss chooses the court or the right to serve first.
Each team has six players.
In the event a deciding set is necessary, the first referee
has to initiate another toss to decide the choice or service.
Prior to the match, each team has a 3-minute warm-up period
at the net. At the time the server hits the ball, each team
is within its own court in two lines of 3 players. The three
players along the net are the front line players and occupy
positions 4 ( the left), 3 ( the center) and 2 ( the right);
the other 3 players are the back line players and each one
must be placed further from the net than his corresponding
front line player, occupying positions 5 ( the left) 6 ( the
center) and 1 ( the right).
When the team receiving the serve wins the rally or the
opponents commit a fault, it wins the right to serve (side-out)
and its players must rotate one position clockwise. A fault
occurs if a player is not in his regulation position at the
time that the server hits the ball. If the server commits
a serving Fault at the moment he hits the ball his Fault shall
be considered decisive to the positional Fault and he shall
be penalized as follows:
(a) The players must return to their proper positions immediately.
(b) The scorer must determine exactly when the error was committed
in order to cancel all the points scored by the team at Fault.
The opponents' points remain valid.
(c) If the points are scored when the players were out of
position or out of service, order cannot be determined, the
team at Fault is only sanctioned by a penalty.
A Fault in rotation is committed when the service is not made
according to the rotation order. This represents an absolute
positional Fault for which the game must be suspended until
the error is corrected and the team at Fault penalized as
in the case of positional Fault.
Interruptions in the Game:
Legal interruptions of the game are the time-outs and the substitutions.
The referees only grant them when the ball is dead at the request
of either of the coaches or the game captains. A maximum of
2 time-outs and 6 substitutions per team are permitted.
An interruption shall be granted only upon request by the
game captain or the coach through use of the respective official
signal. It shall last only the time necessary to register
the change and allow the entry and exit of players. Each time-out
has a time limit of 30 seconds.
| Written By |
| Dr. Vineeta Prasad |
| Lecturer,JD Women's College, |
| Patna, India. |
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