HISTORY OF VOLLEYBALL
WILLIAM G. MORGAN - FATHER OF VOLLEYBALL:
Born in 1870 at Lockport, New York, William G. Morgan spent his childhood years
attending public school and working at his father's boat yard on the banks of the Old Erie Canal.
In 1891 Morgan entered Mt. Hermon Preparatory School in North field, Massachusetts, and it
was there he developed a friendship with James A. Naismith, who was destined to be the
originator of basketball. Naismith was impressed with young Morgan's athletic skills and
encouraged Morgan to continue his education at the International Young Men's Christian
Association Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts (now called Springfield College).
While at Springfield, Morgan participated on the college's famous football team which played
championship ball under the leadership of Alonzo A. Stagg, one of the "Grand Old Men of
Football". In 1894, after graduation, Morgan accepted the position of physical director of the
Auburn, Maine YMCA. The following year he accepted a similar post in Holyoke,
Massachusetts, and it was here the story of Volleyball began.
INVENTION OF THE GAME:
The year was 1895 and physical director William G. Morgan had a problem. The newly
created game of basketball, while popular with the kids, was proving to be too strenuous for the
local businessmen. He needed an alternative - something these older gentlemen could play -
something without too much "bumping" or "jolting".
It had to be physical - playing a game, after work and at lunch time, should provide exercise, but
it also had to relax the participants - it couldn't be too aggressive. It had to be a sport, Morgan
said, "with a strong athletic impulse, but no physical contact."So, he borrowed. From basketball,
he took the ball. From tennis the net. The use of hands and the ability to play off the walls and
over hangs, he borrowed from handball. And, from baseball, he took the concept of innings. He
termed this new game "Mintonette". And though admittedly incomplete, it proved successful
enough to win an audience at the YMCA Physical Director's Conference held in Springfield,
Massachusetts the next year. It was at this conference that Dr. Alfred Halstead, a professor at
Springfield College, suggested a two-word version of its present name. "Volley Ball" And it
stuck.
The game of volleyball was quite a bit different from what we're used to. It was played
on a smaller 25'x50' court, with an unlimited number of players hitting the ball an unlimited
number of times, on either side of a 6'6" high net. Things tended to get a little crowded. Each
game was broken up into nine innings, each inning made up of three outs, or "serves". These
serves could be helped over the net by a second player, if the server didn't quite reach the net.
The basketball originally used proved to be a little too heavy, and the subsequent use of a
basketball bladder, too soft. Morgan remedied this by contacting A.G. Spalding, a local sporting
goods manufacturer who designed a special ball - a rubber bladder, encased in leather, 25" or so
in circumference. The "volleyball”. Though still in its infancy, the sport was slowly developing
and with the YCMA taking the reigns, Morgan was confident volleyball would continue to
entertain and relax the boys down at the "Y".What he probably didn't realize was that he had just
created what would become the second most popular team sport in the world.
WORLDWIDE GROWTH
The physical education directors of the YMCA, encouraged particularly by two professional
schools of physical education, Springfield College in Massachusetts and George Williams
College in Chicago (now at Downers Grove, Illinois), adopted volleyball in all its societies
throughout the United States, Canada (in 1900 Canada became the first foreign country to adopt
the game), and also in many other countries: Elwood S. Brown in the Philippines (1910), J.
Howard Crocker in China, Franklin H. Brown in Japan (1908), Dr. J.H. Gray in Burma, in China
and in India, and others in Mexico and South American, European and African countries.
By 1913 the development of volleyball on the Asian continent was assured as, in that year, the
game was included in the program of the first Far-Eastern Games, organized in Manila. It should
be noted that, for a long time, volleyball was played in Asia according to the "Brown" rules
which, among other things, used 16 players (to enable a greater participation in matches).
In 1916, the YMCA managed to induce the powerful National Collegiate Athletic Association
(NCAA) to publish its rules and a series of articles, contributing to the rapid growth of volleyball
among young college students. In 1918 the number of players per team was limited to six, and in
1922 the maximum number of authorized contacts with the ball was fixed at three.
Until the early 1930s volleyball was for the most part a game of leisure and recreation, and there
were only a few international activities and competitions. There were different rules of the game
in the various parts of the world; however, national championships were played in many
countries (for instance, in Eastern Europe where the level of play had reached a remarkable
standard).
Volleyball thus became more of a competitive sport with high physical and technical
performance.
THE FIVB
It has seen the start of two centuries and the dawn of a new millennium. Volleyball is now one of
the big five international sports, and the FIVB, with its 220 affiliated national federations, is the
largest international sporting federation in the world.
Volleyball has witnessed unprecedented growth over the last decade. With the great success of
world competitions such as the FIVB World Championships, the FIVB World League, the FIVB
World Grand Prix, the FIVB World Cup, and the FIVB Grand Champions Cup as well as the
Olympic Games, the level of participation at all levels internationally continues to grow
exponentially.
The beach volleyball phenomenon also continues to amaze. The overwhelming spectator and
television success of Beach Volleyball since its introduction to the Olympic Games at Atlanta
1996 and the stunning success of the FIVB Swatch World Tour and World Championships has
opened up volleyball to a completely new market.
THERE ARE 6 BASIC SKILLS:
1. Serving: The first action of every point. There are many variants of serving, but the
most common is the standing float serve.
2. Receiving/Passing: The act of playing a serve. Usually in the form of a forearm pass,
but an overhead pass does the job as well. A good pass sets up your teams offense. The
better the pass, the more options your attack has.
3. Setting: A overhead pass with the specific purpose of “setting up” an attacker on your
team
4. Hitting/Spiking: The act of aggressively hitting the ball with an over head attack
whilst jumping as high as you can.
5. Block: The first line of defense. Used to try to stop the ball from entering your court,
but should also funnel the attack to a smaller area of the court making it easier for your
defenders.
6. Defense: This skill is a lot like Receiving/Passing in it’s execution. The only reason
there is a distinction made is because it’s much harder to play defense than it is to
receive a serve because the attacker is MUCH closer (less than 20 feet, as opposed to
40–50 feet from the service line). Also, defenders must be skilled in reading both the
attacker AND their own blockers to position themselves in the best place possible to
get the dig. That in itself is a skill!
PASSING:
Without this skill you won’t be able to play any match (even with your friends: P). It’s
universal. You can receive the ball with the bump, pass it to your teammate and
sometimes play it over the net to the opposing team.
SETTING
It’s as basic skill as bumping. This passing technique let’s you move the ball in every direction
on the court, take high serve balls and most importantly set the ball for the attacker to spike.
[Link]
• Serve is the first thing with which you can try to win points and force your
opponent to make mistakes .
• On the recreational level if you know how to serve with precision and/or power
you are going to gain many point. :)
• On the pro level without the powerful serve it is very hard for your team to
defence as the opposing team has no problem to bump the ball and then pass it to
the attacker who will spike crushing your defence
4. HITTING (KNOWN ALSO AS SPIKING)
•
Spike is the best skill :), but the hardest to learn. You must know how to jump
very high, coordinate your body movement with the ball trajectory and hit the
ball so it ends inside the court.
1. BLOCKING
* Block is your temporary wall made of your arms. When the opposing team spikes, your
teammeates jump near the net, extending their arms to block the ball. Happily it will bounce of
and go straight down to the court of the opponent.
THE OFFICIAL RULES OF VOLLEYBALL
volleyball is governed by an international body that sets rules for competition matches and
tournament games. The Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB), which oversees the
sport, publishes these regulations in their 2017-2020 "Official Volleyball Rules." It contains
more than 20 sections, covering everything from scoring to the hand signals that referees use, to
the dimensions of the playing area.
PLAYING AREA
This section outlines dimensions of the playing court, which must be 18 meters by 9 meters, and
the bordering free zone, which is 3 meters wide. For competition matches, the free zone is
expanded to 5 meters wide at the sidelines and 6.5 meters at the end zones. Other subsections
outline playing court surfaces, the temperature of the playing area, and lighting standards.
NET AND POSTS
This section sets the standards for net height, width, as well as the height and positioning of the
poles that support the net. For men's competition play, the top of the net must be 2.43 meters
from the ground; for women, it's 2.24 meters. Nets must be 1 meter wide and between 9.5 and 10
meters in length.
BALLS
This brief section outlines material, size, and inflation pressure standards for all volleyballs used
in matches. According to FIVB, a ball must be between 65 and 67 cm in circumference and
weigh no more than 280 grams.
TEAMSAND TEAM LEADERS
Rule 4 includes regulations governing the number of players a team may have (12, plus two
support personnel), as well as how many players may be on the court, where they must sit, even
where the number must be positioned on a player's jersey. Rule 5, which is related, sets duties for
the team caption, who is the only person allowed to speak to the referee. Rule 6 outlines similar
conduct for the coach and assistant coach.
SCORING
This section outlines how points are scored and matches and games won. Points are scored when
the serving team lands the ball in their opponent's court, or when the opponent commits a fault or
a penalty. The first team to score 25 points (with a margin of 2 points) wins the game (also called
a set). The team that wins three out of five sets wins the match.
STRUCTURE OF PLAY
A coin toss determines which of the two teams will serve first. Other aspects of play governed by
this regulation include where players must stand before and during play, as well as how they
rotate in and out of the game, and related penalties.
INTERRUPTIONS
Interruptions in play may be for either time-outs or substitutions. Teams have two time-outs and
six substitutions each per match. This regulation outlines procedures for requesting an
interruption, how long they last, how to substitute a player, and penalties for violating these
regulations.
GAME DELAYS
These two sections outline penalties for delaying the game, such as when a player makes an
illegal substitution request or takes too long to change position. It also describes instances when
exceptions may occur, such as in the case of illness or injury during gameplay.
THE LIBERO PLAYER
In FIVB play, each team can designate two of their teammates as special
defensive players known as Liberos. This section dictates how a libero may enter the game,
where he or she may stand, and what kinds of plays they can and cannot engage in.
ROTATION AND ROTATINAL FAULD
In indoor volleyball, there are six players on the court at a time. The players are positioned
intentionally so that certain players follow others. Any time a team scores on the other team’s
serve, a rotation must occur.
THE DIAGRAM BELOW SHOWS HOW THE CLOCKWISE ROTATION OCCURS.
A rotational fault occurs when a player is not relatively aligned with the players in an adjacent
position.
Players in the same row (4–3–2 or 5–6–1) cannot overlap left to right.
Players in the same column (4–5, 3–6, 2–1) cannot overlap front to back.
Being aligned evenly is not a fault but beyond that would be.
Quick example: The player in rotation 6 must be even with or behind the player in rotation
three, even with or to the right of the player in rotation 5 and even with or to the left of the player
in rotation 1 (diagonal players do not need to be considered for that player).This allows for a
great deal of flexibility in how teams can line up. The players in 4, 3 and 2 can all stand right
next to each other as long as they are relatively ordered.
SERVICE ORDER
A side-out is when the other team has the serve, but your team wins the point. In volleyball,
you rotate clockwise. If your team wins the point when the other team is serving, then the
person in the front right moves to the right back, becoming the new server.
