Sports General Knowledge: Volleyball

Olympic Games Rio 2016

Volleyball

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Volleyball games provide spirited fun and exercise for young people and adults. The players bat a ball back and forth across a high net, and often leap high to spike a ball, or drive it downward. Volleyball can be played on both indoor and outdoor courts and by mixed teams of men and women. The diagram shows the positions for teams of six players.

Rio 2016 Olympics:

12 things you need to know about the beach volleyball competition

Men

Key dates: Group play begins Aug. 6; gold-medal game is Aug. 18

Venue: Copacabana Stadium.

Big story: After getting silver in 2012, will Brazil’s Alison Cerutti claim his first gold on home soil with partner Bruno Schmidt, or can Brazil’s other top team, Pedro Solberg and Evandro Goncalves, spoil the party?

Top U.S. prospects: Phil Dalhausser won a gold medal with Todd Rogers in 2008. He and Nick Lucena are third in the FIVB Olympic rankings. Jake Gibb and Casey Patterson are sixth.

Others to watch: Outside of the Brazilians and Americans, the Netherlands has a pair of teams in the top five, Alexander Brouwer-Robert Meeuwsen and Reinder Nummerdor-Christiaan Varenhorst.

Little-known fact: Schmidt’s uncle Oscar is an accomplished international basketball player and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013.

Women

Key dates: Group play begins Aug. 6; gold-medal game is Aug. 17.

Venue: Copacabana Stadium.

Big story: Misty May-Treanor, who won the last three gold medals with Kerri Walsh-Jennings, is retired, meaning a new team will take home the gold in Rio for the first time since 2000.

Top U.S. prospects: Walsh is still playing, this time with partner April Ross, and the duo is ranked No. 3 in the FIVB Olympic rankings. The other American team, Lauren Fendrick and Brooke Sweat, will be a long shot.

Others to watch: Brazil has a pair of teams with a legitimate shot of winning the gold medal on its home turf. Larissa Franca and Talita Antunes are No. 1 in the Olympic rankings while Agatha Bednarczuk and Barbara Seixas are No. 2.
Little-known fact: Ross, now partnered with Walsh, lost with Jennifer Kessy in the gold-medal match to Walsh and May-Treanor at the London Olympics.
Useful links
Rio Beach Volleyball
A Volleyball Documentary
Manhattan Beach History
Hawaii Beach Volleyball
Beach Volleyball at Summer Olympics
Beach Volleyball Gold Medal Match
Misty May-Treanor and Kerry Walsh Jennings
April Rose and Jennifer Kessy
Kerri Walsh Jennings
Kerri Walsh's Wedding
A Day in the life of Kerri Walsh Jennings
Day in the Life of a Star Volleyball Player
Kelly McManus

Volleyball is a game in which the players hit a ball back and forth across a net with their hands or arms. It is one of the world's most popular team sports.

There are two main forms of volleyball. Indoor volleyball is played indoors on a court made of wood or other indoor surface material. It has six players on a team. Outdoor volleyball, also called two-man volleyball or two-person volleyball, is played outdoors on a sand or grass court. It may have two, three, four, or six players in a team. The two forms of volleyball have similar rules. This article discusses indoor volleyball.

William G. Morgan, a physical-education instructor in Holyoke, Massachusetts, U.S.A., invented volleyball in 1895. Today, the game is most popular in Asia and Europe. Indoor volleyball became an official sport of the Olympic Games in 1964. More than 150 nations belong to the International Volleyball Federation. This organization sponsors annual tournaments.

The ball is round and has a cover made of leather. It measures about 20 centimetres in diameter and weighs about 270 grams.

The court. Indoor volleyball is played on a court that measures 18 metres long and 9 metres wide. A net suspended across the centre of the court divides it in half. The top of the net is 2.43 metres high for men's games and 2.24 metres high for women's competition.

There are six positions in indoor volleyball—right back, centre back, left back, left forward, centre forward, and right forward. Until the ball has been served to start each play, players must assume a position on the court according to the order in which they serve. Two referees and two linespersons serve as officials.

The game starts with a serve by the right back of the serving team. The ball is served by hitting it with an arm or a hand. The serve must pass over the net into the receiving team's court. The receiving players must return the serve by cleanly hitting it with their hands. They cannot catch, lift, scoop, or throw the ball. A team may hit the ball no more than three times before sending it back over the net. If the ball is touched on a blocking attempt, that touch does not count as one of the team's three hits.

The players on each team try to hit the ball to the floor of the other team's court and to make it difficult for the other team to return the ball. A player may attempt to spike (slam) the ball past the opposing players, who try to prevent it from touching their floor. No player may touch the ball twice in a row unless the first touch was made in blocking an opponent's spike.

Only the serving team can score. It scores a point each time the ball touches the receiving team's floor or whenever that team hits the ball more than three times. The serving team also scores a point if a member of the receiving team hits the ball out of bounds or commits a foul. The right back continues to serve after each point until a serve hits the net, goes out of bounds, or is faulty in some other way. The serving team also loses the serve if it fails to return the ball. A loss of serve is called a side out.

After each side out, the opposing team serves the ball. But first, each of its players rotates clockwise one position. The right forward moves to the right back position, the right back becomes the centre back, and so on. The first team to score 15 points wins the game if it is ahead by at least two points. No game may exceed 17 points. If the score is tied at 16-16, the first team to score the next point wins.
Volleyball competitions are played as three-or five-game sets. In deciding games, the rally point system is used. A point is awarded after each serve. When the serving team commits a fault, the receiving team scores a point and gains the serve.