ORIGINS

• The game was developed in America by William g. Morgan, the physical fitness instructor at the YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association), Holyoke, Massachusetts. After spreading through America the game was introduced to the Far East via missionary schools.

• By 1913 it was already part of the Oriental Games. It spread to the West after the First World War. It wasn’t until 1964 that men’s and women’s teams were admitted to the Olympics.

SPACE REQUIRED

• Volleyball can be played indoors or out on a hard surface. The playing area must measure 18 metres long and 9 metres wide. There is a net at the halfway mark on the court, which are 2.43 metres high for men and 2.24 metres high for women. The net is 9.5 metres long and I metre deep, with square mesh.

PLAYING APPARATUS

• Volleyball can be played indoors or out on a hard surface. The playing area must measure 18 metres long and 9 metres wide. There is a net at the halfway mark on the court, which are 2.43 metres high for men and 2.24 metres high for women. The net is 9.5 metres long and I metre deep, with square mesh.

RULES AND REGULATIONS

• Volleyball is played by six players on each side. The hand is used as a racquet either singly, or two hands cupped together. The ball should go over the net and into the opposite court. Each team is allowed to touch the ball a maximum of three times on their side of the net.

• A point is scored if the ball is grounded in the opposition’s court before returning it to the other side, if the opponents hit the ball out of the court or if they do not get it over the net. A player continues to serve as long as his team wins rallies and therefore points. As soon as he loses the serve changes to the opposition.

• In internationals and other important matches there are five sets. A set is won by the team getting to 15 points first. If the score reaches 14-14 then play continues until one team is two points ahead. Teams change ends after each set. Six substitutes are allowed in each set.

RECORDS SET IN THS GAME

• Steve Timmons, born in Newport. Beach, California, in 1958, has won three Olympic medals, two gold and one bronze. He led the US team to gold in 1984 and 1988 and won bronze in the 1992 Games after a spell of playing professional volleyball in Rome, where his club II Messaggero won the World Club Championship in 1991.

DID YOU KNOW?

• Requiring little in the way of equipment, volleyball was the most popular sport among US troops and flyers based in South East Asia and Australia during the Second World War. In 1974 a survey revealed just how little is needed to play the game – it was the most popular sport in American nudist camps!