You stare into the eyes of your opponent on the other side of the net. The ball sails above your team’s side of the court, just where you are poised to return it. Concentrating, you successfully pass it to another teammate who knocks the ball over the net and scores another point for your team!

Your teammates exchange high-fives and you grin along with them, glad that you learned to play the game.

Volleyball, traditionally an American backyard game, has evolved into an international Olympic sport, with variations from beach volleyball to footvolley. Volleyball is a sport the whole family can play. Indoor volleyball can be played year-round. Players of every skill level can enjoy the game—from gentle volleying games to high-speed, heart-pounding, competitive events.

American Sport

Volleyball originated in 1895, when YMCA physical education teacher William G. Morgan needed to develop an exercise program. He had previously tried working with the recent invention of basketball, but found that sport to be too violent and intense for the organization’s older members.

In an effort to find a suitable alternative, he combined elements of basketball, tennis and handball to create an indoor game in which all of the membership could participate, not just the younger, more athletic men.

Morgan first looked to tennis, but found that the rackets were a problem, although he thought the net was a good idea. He then found a similar game in India, called “minton,” which was a variation of badminton, and developed a racket-free version of the game that he called “mintonette.”

After further developing the rules, Morgan demonstrated a working version of the game at an 1896 YMCA college conference. A professor at the conference noticed that its most distinguishing feature was keeping the ball in the air, or “volleying” the ball. He suggested to change the name of the game to “volley ball.” The game was accepted at the conference and added to YMCA physical education programs that year, with a handbook appearing the following year. Volleyball’s popularity quickly spread throughout the United States and then internationally in the following decades.

Keep It Up!

Volleyball, as its name implies, primarily involves keeping the ball from hitting the ground. More specifically, it involves not letting the ball hit the ground anywhere on your side of the net, or “court,” while simultaneously trying to ground the ball on your opponents’ side of the court.

When the ball lands within defined boundary lines (a 9-meter-by-9-meter square area on either side of the net), a point is scored by the team on the opposite side of the net. However, if the ball lands outside the boundary lines on either side of the court, the last team to touch the ball awards a point to the opposing team. Also, whenever the ball strikes an obstruction (such as the ceiling or the poles rising from the net) the ball is ruled “out,” and the last team to touch the ball gives up a point.

When the ball passes over the net, the team receiving the ball has up to three hits to pass the ball back to the other side. A player cannot hit the ball twice in a row. He or she must wait until another player on either team touches the ball before hitting it again. Players are not allowed to maintain long contact, in other words “carry,” the ball. The ball cannot maintain contact with a player’s hand for more than a split second. Players may strike the ball with any part of the body, including the head, although hands and arms are more appropriate. Violating any of these rules adds a point to the opposing team’s score.

Play usually begins with a coin toss to determine the first team to possess the ball. This first play, as well as play after all subsequent points, must begin with a serve. The serve is a single hit by one player, behind the back boundary line, that must go over the net to the opposing team. As with all other parts of the game, a serve that lands outside the boundary line awards a point to the opposing team. Modern Olympic volleyball allows serves to touch the net before going over, but many variations still do not allow this and consider such hits “short.”

After the serve, play often continues with the receiving team handling the ball with three hits. First, one player attempts to “bump” the ball, usually using an under-handed forearm hit to make contact with the ball before it hits the ground. Next, another member of the same team “sets” the ball using an over-handed, two-hand hit to pass the ball to a third player who is waiting to “spike” the ball using an over-handed, one-hand, high-speed hit designed to ground the ball somewhere on the other side of the net. The original serving team then tries to receive the ball with the same “bump, set, spike” method.

Volleyball rules vary depending on the type of game and context in which it is played. Backyard volleyball often has loose rules regarding carries, multiple hits, and chances to redo mistakes, which makes it a more family-friendly game. On the other end of the spectrum, beach volleyball has more rigid rules. Indoor Olympic-style volleyball, probably the most commonly played game, strikes a balance between the two extremes. It allows for some double-contact hits as well as longer-lasting contact (which would both be ruled carries in beach volleyball), but still does not allow a player to hold or lift the ball in any way.

Gather a Group of Friends

Volleyball is an excellent team sport that promotes unity. You cannot win the game by trying to hit every ball yourself. Not only would you miss quite a few balls, you would likely run over your teammates in the process. Since nearly every play involves most or all of the players on a team, volleyball encourages collaboration between teammates.

To help one another, teammates need to communicate when they see that a ball is out-of-bounds or inbounds. Players should also alert their teammates when they are in a good position to hit the ball. Players on a good team will communicate to one another the direction they are hitting the ball, to whom they are setting, whether the other team is attempting to block, and what kind of hit is best based on the defensive setup of the opposing team.

All this productive talking and yelling is a great way to develop effective communication. You need to learn how to clearly—and quickly!—get your message across if you and your teammates want to win the match.

For youth in the Church looking for group activities, volleyball can be a fun game for mixed groups of boys and girls. It is an excellent opportunity to become comfortable interacting with and getting to know members of the opposite sex.

As always, remember to be a good sport and to use the basic rules of etiquette for competition. While you should strive to win, remember not to take it personally if you do not. If you lose, congratulate the winning team. If you win, remember not to mock or criticize the losing team. When another player asks for constructive criticism, give it honestly, but always be gentle and include both good and bad points. Always follow the rules and, when it seems a call is made unfairly against you, you may point it out, but if overruled, do not take it personally. Remember, the goal is to have fun.

Hit the Court!

Whether backyard volleyball, Olympic, beach, or even footvolley, this sport can be played with close friends during the week or with distant relatives once a year at a family reunion. The basic rules of volleyball can be learned in a single session. Most players find they can apply the basic hits after a few games.

Originally created as an exercise program, volleyball is good for you physically, mentally and socially—and it is fun. So take the time to learn the rules of whatever form of volleyball you like best, then get together with some friends and go play!