Volleyball - an under-rated sport in the UK (Volleyball in General)

Member Name: Pandora321

Product:	Volleyball in General
Date:	18/03/09 (82 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Get fit, meet new people, have fun, look like a pro on holiday, play in the 2012 Olympics!

Disadvantages: None

No one in the UK believes me when I say that volleyball is one of the most popular sports in the world, and in some countries is up there with football in the popularity stakes. Unfortunately, given it's my favourite sport, it is little known in Britain ('what do you play again? Netball? Basketball?'...) and even less understood. Which is a real shame as the sport is a great, physically challenging but non-contact activity, and an excellent spectator sport with its requirement of spot-on communication between team members and spectacular jumps and hits.

Volleyball originated in the USA in 1895 and only became an Olympic sport in 1964. When players refer to 'volleyball' they usually mean the 6-a-side indoor variety, not the 2-a-side 'beach volleyball' that everyone remembers due to the bikinis! The techniques are similar, but the tactics very different, and I find the indoor variety more fun to play and watch - the six players in their 9x9m side of the indoor court each have their own role and position, communication skills and teamwork are absolutely key, and the hits and retrievals are more spectacular with players leaping athletically all over the place. It makes for exciting viewing and an adrenaline buzz when playing.

- The Basics of Play -
Volleyball matches are usually the best of 3 or 5 sets. To win a set, a team has to get to 25 points - and be 2 points clear of the opposition - the last (3rd/ 5th) set, if it is needed, is only played to 15 (2 points clear again). A point starts with a player serving the ball onto court. The ball has to cross the net, and the opposition then have 3 touches before the ball has to cross the net back to the other team. A team doesn't have to use all 3 touches, but tactically it's usually the best option. The point is won, and ends, when a team gets the ball onto the floor of the opposition's court, the opposition hit the ball out, the opposition play more than 3 touches, the opposition serve into the net, or the opposition commit a foul. The team that wins the point gets to serve the next one.

Ideally, the 3 touches consist of:
1. The 'dig' or pass - the aim is to put the ball up nice and high, aimed towards the net to the player who is the 'setter' (see below). Usually a pass is made off your forearms.
2. The 'set' - this shot is usually played off the fingertips; the aim is to pass the ball along the net to the waiting hitters. The height of the ball's trajectory varies depending on which attacking tactics the team has agreed to go for.
3. The 'spike' or hit - the final touch aims to make it as difficult as possible for the opposition to make a good first touch on their side of the net, so the ball is hit (usually hard, but you can also do sneaky strategic shots) by a player jumping above the height of the net and walloping the ball down. [Incidentally, the net is almost 8 feet high for men, and just over 7'4" for women.]

Obviously if the opposition have just hit a massive spike at you, your pass may not be at all accurate and then the chase is on to get the ball back over the net to the opposition within 3 touches, in whatever form of shot you can!

- Positions -
Most people remember vaguely from long ago school gym lessons that you rotate players during a volleyball game. This is true, but in good teams each member plays a particular position, with key roles and responsibilities:

Setter - the setter takes the second touch of every point (in an ideal world), lining up the attack by setting the ball along the net to the front court players for them to whack it over the net at the opposition. The setter's position on court is on the right (as you look at the net).

Outside spiker - the outside player is on the left of the court (as you look at the net). Their job is to hit the ball and, hopefully, win the point.

Middle - this is my position :) - usually the tallest player on the team (at almost 6foot/179cms I would be deemed short by Olympic women's standards!!), it's the middle's job to get their hands in the way of the opposition's hits (a 'block') to take the speed off the ball - which can travel up to 90mph in men's matches - as well as playing attacking hits at the centre of the net.

The six team players line up with three players along the net, and three behind them 'backcourt'; the three positions are, therefore, repeated in the backcourt row, where the players pass rather than hit (although they can do a backcourt hit if required).

The final position was only invented in the last 10 years and allows shorter people to play competitively! The 'Libero' is a backcourt specialist. S/he is the best passer on the team, and can substitute temporarily for any other player (who is less good at passing) when they are backcourt. Once the libero rotates to front court, the libero goes off-court again (or substitutes for another backcourt player) and the original player resumes their position frontcourt for attacking.

The rotating happens thus: when your team wins the serve back from the opposition, your team all rotate one position clockwise - so you take it in turns to serve, and spend 3 rotations at the front of the court, followed by 3 rotations at the back. You have to be stood in your current rotation position before the ball is served, but as soon as the server hits the ball, all hell breaks loose as players scramble as quickly as possible to the actual position they want to be in (ie middles dash from the outside edges to the middle; setters run right; outside spikers zoom left!).

- Why bother playing? -
Volleyball is a great social sport. Given its lack of popularity among British people, local clubs always have a cosmopolitan flavour with many players from Europe, the States and, well, the entire rest of the World really.

Communication is such a key element to this team sport that it a superb way to make new friends.

Players have to have a varied repertoire of passing, jumping, hitting, serving, diving etc so volleyball is a fantastic all-over body workout, burning gazillions of calories into the bargain (ok, this may be a slight exaggeration but during a 2 hour match it certainly feels like it).

Volleyball is also an easy sport to get into - joining a local club is usually cheap compared to a lot of other sports, and normal sports kit is all you need to possess.

Learning the basics is fun and relatively easy, and clubs usually have a beginners' or development team where you can hone your competitive skills with other new players.

With the 2012 Olympics looming, where Britain will field a volleyball team for perhaps the first time ever, now's the time to get started!

Summary: Volleyball is a fun, popular and social sport - so why not try it out?