The complete set of rules is extensive, but play essentially proceeds as follows: a player on one of the teams begins a 'rally' by serving the ball (tossing or releasing it and then hitting it with a hand or arm), from behind the back boundary line of the court, over the net, and into the receiving team's court. The receiving team must not let the ball be grounded within their court. The team may touch the ball up to three times to return the ball to the other side of the court, but individual players may not touch the ball twice consecutively.[3] Typically, the first two touches are used to set up for an attack. An attack is an attempt to direct the ball back over the net in such a way that the team receiving the ball is unable to pass the ball and continue the rally, thus, losing the point. The team that wins the rally is awarded a point and serves the ball to start the next rally. A few of the most common faults include:
causing the ball to touch the ground or floor outside the opponents' court or without first passing over the net; catching and throwing the ball; double hit: two consecutive contacts with the ball made by the same player; four consecutive contacts with the ball made by the same team; net foul: touching the net during play; foot fault: the foot crosses over the boundary line when serving or under the net when a front row player is trying to keep the ball in play. The ball is usually played with the hands or arms, but players can legally strike or push (short contact) the ball with any part of the body.
A number of consistent techniques have evolved in volleyball, including spiking and blocking (because those plays are made above the top of the net, the vertical jump is an athletic skill emphasized in the sport) as well as passing, setting, and specialized player positions. Offensive and defensive structures are also key plays.
William G. Morgan invented the sport in 1895 while he was the YMCA physical education director in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Because he originally derived the game from badminton, he initially named the sport mintonette. He was a one-time student of basketball inventor James Naismith and invented the game for his clients at the YMCA, most of whom were middle-aged businessmen for whom the physical demands of basketball were too great.
The first rules, written down by Morgan, called for a net 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) high, a 25 ft × 50 ft (7.6 m × 15.2 m) court, and any number of players. A match was composed of nine innings with three serves for each team in each inning, and no limit to the number of ball contacts for each team before sending the ball to the opponents' court. In case of a serving error, a second try was allowed. Hitting the ball into the net was considered a foul (with loss of the point or a side-out)—except in the case of the first-try serve.
After an observer, Alfred Halstead, noticed the volleying nature of the game at its first exhibition match in 1896, played at the International YMCA Training School (now called Springfield College), the game quickly became known as volleyball (it was originally spelled as two words: "volley ball"). Volleyball rules were slightly modified by the International YMCA Training School and the game spread around the country to various YMCAs.
In the early 1900s Spalding, through its publishing company American Sports Publishing Company, produced books with complete instruction and rules for the sport.
A nudist/naturist volleyball game at the Sunny Trails Club during the 1958 Canadian Sunbathing Association (CSA) convention in British Columbia, Canada The first official ball used in volleyball is disputed; some sources say Spalding created the first official ball in 1896, while others claim it was created in 1900. The rules evolved over time: in 1916, in the Philippines, the skill and power of the set and spike had been introduced, and four years later a "three hits" rule and a rule against hitting from the back row were established. In 1917, the game was changed from requiring 21 points to win to a smaller 15 points to win. In 1919, about 16,000 volleyballs were distributed by the American Expeditionary Forces to their troops and allies, which sparked the growth of volleyball in new countries.
Like basketball, volleyball spread quickly due to its simplicity and promotion by the YMCA and YWCA. The first country outside the United States to adopt volleyball was Canada in 1900. During and after World War I, the presence of YMCA instructors in American forces led to the spread of volleyball in Europe, where clubs were established in France as well as several Soviet nations. An international federation, the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB), was founded in 1947, and the first World Championships were held in 1949 for men and 1952 for women. The sport is now popular in Brazil, in Europe, where especially Italy, the Netherlands, and Eastern Europe have been major forces since the late 1980s, in Russia, in other countries, including China and the rest of Asia, and in the United States.
A volleyball court is 9 m × 18 m (29.5 ft × 59.1 ft), divided into equal square halves by a net with a width of one meter (39.4 in). The top of the net is 2.43 m (7 ft 11+11⁄16 in) above the center of the court for men's competition, and 2.24 m (7 ft 4+3⁄16 in) for women's competition, varied for veterans and junior competitions.
The minimum height clearance for indoor volleyball courts is 7 m (23.0 ft), although a clearance of 8 m (26.2 ft) is recommended.
A line 3 m (9.8 ft) from and parallel to the net is considered the "attack line". This "3 meter" (or "10-foot") line divides the court into "back row" and "front row" areas and the back court and front court. These are in turn divided into 3 areas each: these are numbered as follows, starting from area "1", which is the position of the serving player:
After a team gains the serve (also known as siding out), its members must rotate in a clockwise direction, with the player previously in area "2" moving to area "1" and so on, with the player from area "1" moving to area "6". Each player rotates only one time after the team gains possession of the service; the next time each player rotates will be after the other team wins possession of the ball and loses the point.
The team courts are surrounded by an area called the free zone which is a minimum of 3 meters wide and which the players may enter and play within after the service of the ball. All lines denoting the boundaries of the team court and the attack zone are drawn or painted within the dimensions of the area and are therefore a part of the court or zone. If a ball comes in contact with the line, the ball is considered to be "in". An antenna is placed on each side of the net perpendicular to the sideline and is a vertical extension of the side boundary of the court. A ball passing over the net must pass completely between the antennae (or their theoretical extensions to the ceiling) without contacting them.
FIVB regulations state that the ball must be spherical, made of leather or synthetic leather, have a circumference of 65–67 cm (26–26 in), a weight of 260–280 g (9.2–9.9 oz) and an interior air pressure of 0.30–0.325 kg/cm2 (4.26 to 4.61 psi; 294.3 to 318.82 mbar or hPa). Other governing bodies have similar regulations.
Each team consists of six players. To get play started, a team is chosen to serve by coin toss. A player from the serving team throws the ball into the air and attempts to hit the ball so it passes over the net on a course such that it will land in the opposing team's court (the serve). The opposing team must use a combination of no more than three contacts with the volleyball to return the ball to the opponent's side of the net. These contacts usually consist first of the bump or pass so that the ball's trajectory is aimed towards the player designated as the setter; second of the set (usually an over-hand pass using wrists to push finger-tips at the ball) by the setter so that the ball's trajectory is aimed towards a spot where one of the players designated as an attacker can hit it, and third by the attacker who spikes (jumping, raising one arm above the head and hitting the ball so it will move quickly down to the ground on the opponent's court) to return the ball over the net. The team with possession of the ball that is trying to attack the ball as described is said to be on offence.
The team on defence attempts to prevent the attacker from directing the ball into their court: players at the net jump and reach above the top (and if possible, across the plane) of the net to block the attacked ball. If the ball is hit around, above, or through the block, the defensive players arranged in the rest of the court attempt to control the ball with a dig (usually a fore-arm pass of a hard-driven ball). After a successful dig, the team transitions to offence.
The game continues in this manner, rallying back and forth until the ball touches the court within the boundaries or until an error is made. The most frequent errors that are made are either to fail to return the ball over the net within the allowed three touches, or to cause the ball to land outside the court. A ball is "in" if any part of it touches the inside of a team's court or a sideline or end-line, and a strong spike may compress the ball enough when it lands that a ball which at first appears to be going out may instead be in. Players may travel well outside the court to play a ball that has gone over a sideline or end-line in the air. A standard competitive volleyball match is played in a best-of-five sets format and typically goes on for about 90 minutes.
Other common errors include a player touching the ball twice in succession, a player catching the ball, a player touching the net while attempting to play the ball, or a player penetrating under the net into the opponent's court. There are a large number of other errors specified in the rules, although most of them are infrequent occurrences. These errors include back-row or libero players spiking the ball or blocking (back-row players may spike the ball if they jump from behind the attack line), players not being in the correct position when the ball is served, attacking the serve in the front court and above the height of the net, using another player as a source of support to reach the ball, stepping over the back boundary line when serving, taking more than 8 seconds to serve, or playing the ball when it is above the opponent's court.
A point is scored when the ball contacts the floor within the court boundaries or when an error is made: when the ball strikes one team's side of the court, the other team gains a point; and when an error is made, the team that did not make the error is awarded a point, in either case paying no regard to whether they served the ball or not. If any part of the ball hits the line, the ball is counted as in the court. The team that won the point serves for the next point. If the team which won the point served in the previous point, the same player serves again. If the team that won the point did not serve the previous point, the players of the team acquiring the serve rotate their position on the court in a clockwise manner. The game continues, with the first team to score 25 points by a two-point margin awarded the set. Matches are best-of-five sets and the fifth set, if necessary, is usually played to 15 points. (Scoring differs between leagues, tournaments, and levels; high schools sometimes play best-of-three to 25; in the NCAA matches are played best-of-five to 25 as of the 2008 season.)
Before 1999, points could be scored only when a team had the serve (side-out scoring) and all sets went up to only 15 points. The FIVB changed the rules in 1999 (with the changes being compulsory in 2000) to use the current scoring system (formerly known as rally point system), primarily to make the length of the match more predictable and to make the game more spectator- and television-friendly. The final year of side-out scoring at the NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Championship was 2000. Rally point scoring debuted in 2001, and games were played to 30 points through 2007. For the 2008 season, games were renamed "sets" and reduced to 25 points to win. Most high schools in the U.S. changed to rally scoring in 2003, and several states implemented it the previous year on an experimental basis.
The libero player was introduced internationally in 1998, and made its debut for NCAA competition in 2002. The libero is a player specialized in defensive skills: the libero must wear a contrasting jersey color from their teammates and cannot block or attack the ball when it is entirely above net height. When the ball is not in play, the libero can replace any back-row player, without prior notice to the officials. This replacement does not count against the substitution limit each team is allowed per set, although the libero may be replaced only by the player whom he or she replaced. Most U.S. high schools added the libero position from 2003 to 2005.
The modern-day libero often takes on the role of a second setter. When the setter digs the ball, the libero is typically responsible for the second ball and sets to the front row attacker. The libero may function as a setter only under certain restrictions. To make an overhand set, the libero must be standing behind (and not stepping on) the 3-meter line; otherwise, the ball cannot be attacked above the net in front of the 3-meter line. An underhand pass is allowed from any part of the court. The libero is, generally, the most skilled defensive player on the team. There is also a libero tracking sheet, where the referees or officiating team must keep track of whom the libero subs in and out for.
Under FIVB rules, a libero is not allowed to serve. By contrast, a libero can serve in NCAA volleyball, but only in a specific rotation. That is, the libero can only serve for one person, not for all of the people for whom he or she goes in. That rule change was implemented in 2004 and applied to high school and junior high play soon after.
Under FIVB rules, each team can designate two liberos at the beginning of play, only one of whom can be on the court at any time, and each libero can serve in one specific rotation. This rule was implemented in NCAA women's volleyball, effective with the fall 2024 season.
Other rule changes enacted in 2000 include allowing serves in which the ball touches the net, as long as it goes over the net into the opponents' court. Also, the service area was expanded to allow players to serve from anywhere behind the end line but still within the theoretical extension of the sidelines. Other changes were made to lighten up calls on faults for carries and double-touches, such as allowing multiple contacts by a single player ("double-hits") on a team's first contact provided that they are a part of a single play on the ball.
In 2008, the NCAA changed the minimum number of points needed to win any of the first four sets from 30 to 25 for women's volleyball (men's volleyball remained at 30 for another three years, switching to 25 in 2011). If a fifth (deciding) set is reached, the minimum required score remains at 15. In addition, the word "game" is now referred to as "set".
The Official Volleyball Rules are prepared and updated every few years by the FIVB's Rules of the Game and Refereeing Commission. The latest edition is usually available on the FIVB's website.