What is Volleyball?
Volleyball is a sport played on a court by two teams of six players. The game was originally called “Mintonette”, a name derived from the game of badminton, because of its likeness to the sport.
By whom, where and when was Volleyball invented?
William G. Morgan, a YMCA physical education director and a student at Springfield College, is credited with creating the game of volleyball in 1895 in Holyoke, Massachusetts.
Mintonette (as volleyball was called at the time) was designed to be an indoor pastime that could be enjoyed by older members of the YMCA, and took some of its characteristics from other sports including tennis and handball.
The sport quickly became known as volleyball 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 first rulebooks for the sport were produced in the early 1900s, with the first international federation (Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB)) following in 1947.
What are the rules of Volleyball?
The premise of volleyball is simple: land the ball in-bounds in the opponent's half of the court without the opponent returning it successfully. Players on a team must use a combination of no more than three contacts to return the ball to the opponent’s side of the net. A point is scored when the ball lands within the court boundaries or when a playing error is made.
The first team to score 25 points by a two-point margin wins the set, with each match following a best-of-five sets format. If required, a fifth set is played to 15 points (a winning margin of two points is still required).
How long is a Volleyball game?
There is no set time limit for a volleyball game, as the games are measured in sets. It is not uncommon to see games last as long as 90 minutes.
Volleyball and the Olympics
Volleyball first featured at the Olympic Games as a demonstration sport at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris. It made its debut as an official medal sport at the Tokyo 1964 Olympic Games with men’s and women’s team competitions, and has remained on the Olympic programme ever since.
Best volleyball players to watch
There have been a number of exceptional players that have graced Olympic volleyball courts over the years; two such athletes who continue to compete at a high level today are Tokyo 2020 gold medalist and two-time FIVB World League champion Earvin N'Gapeth (France) and three-time Olympic medalist and 2014 world champion Jordan Larson (USA) were named Most Valuable Players of the men’s and women’s Tokyo 2020 Dream Team, respectively.
Tijana Boskovic (Serbia), a two-time Olympic medalist and European and world champion, and three-time Olympic medalist Bruno Rezende (Brazil) remain formidable members of their national teams who, along with Japan, Italy, France, the USA and the People’s Republic of China remain among the top teams on the international stage.
