I wrote an article a few months ago about the new 2009-2010 net violation rule changes in USA Volleyball that you can read here. As much as I tried to keep it neutral, it was obviously slanted towards my negative feelings for the changes and my dread for the upcoming season. Now, a few months later and a club season in the bag, I’m revisiting the topic with experience in both coaching and refereeing the new changes for a club season. I’ll handle each topic the way I did in the previous article. Continue Reading
Category : General, Volleyball History, Volleyball News
Category : Volleyball History, Volleyball News
First, if you haven’t already heard, there are several rule changes this year for USA Volleyball this year. The most significant rule change, is the change to the net violation rule. Good or bad, this change is here to stay for at least two years. In this article, I would like to use the perspective of not having coached or officiated a single match with the new rules and what I expect the positives, or the fallout to be. I was very upset several years ago when the rules changed allowing lets, rally scoring, and a libero. I felt like they were trying to ruin the game that I loved. Now, after a few years I feel that it’s helped the game and made it more exciting. This is my new experiment to see how my opinion changes based on experience with the new rules. I will write this article again in March to see how my perspective changes.
Category : Volleyball History
In 1897, volleyball’s first rules were published in the first Official Handbook of the Athletic League of the Young Men’s Christian Associations (YMCA) of North America. As a result, many physical directors introduced the game at their YMCAs across the country. However, the first 15 years of volleyball’s history are known for being the time that the sport was shared with the world abroad. While attempting to spread the religion of Christianity, YMCA workers, were sent to U.S. Missionaries in other parts of the world.
They took the game from Holyoke, Massachusetts to US missions in Asia. Volleyball also caught on in Russia. By 1900, volleyball had spread to Canada, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, South America and Cuba. A new set of rules, as revised by A. E. Day, was published. Match length was set at 21 points, the use of innings was discarded, and the net was raised to 7 feet, 6 inches.
Hyozo Omori, a graduate of the YMCA’s International Training Institute in Springfield, Massachusetts introduced the sport to Tokyo, Japan in 1908. Max Exner and Howard Crokner brought it to China and Elwood Brown introduced it to the Philippines at the YMCA in Manila in 1910. The game became very popular in the Far East and was played in the Oriental Games as early as 1913. The rules were revised again in 1912. The skill and power of the set and spike had been introduced. The number of players was set at six per team, the size of the court was increased to 35 by 60 feet, and rotation of players before service was established.
Volleyball was added to the recreation program of the U. S. armed forces in 1914 and American soldiers introduced the sport to France and Italy during World War I. The sport also became popular at many colleges at this time, although college rules were not adopted at first.
Category : Volleyball History
In 1916, the YMCA and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) collaborated on a new set of rules and Volleyball was added to school and college physical education and intramural programs. A match was defined as the best two-out-of-three games, and the number of points required to win a game was lowered from 21 to 15. The net was raised to 8 feet and the weight of the ball increased to between 8 and 10 ounces. Also, the rule that a player couldn’t have two consecutive contacts with the ball was added.
A team was allowed an unlimited number of touches before sending the ball over the net before 1920, when another revision set the limit at three. Court size was reduced to 30 by 60 feet.
The basic nature of volleyball was changing, along with the rules. By design, it had originally been a slow game for older men. Many young men (and some young women) were being introduced to volleyball through colleges, as well the armed services and YMCAs, and they were making it a faster-paced sport requiring a full range of athletic skills.
In the Philippines, an offensive style of passing the ball in a high trajectory to be struck by another player (the set and spike) were introduced. The Filipinos developed the “bomba” or kill, and called the hitter a “bomberino”.
During 1917, the YMCA spread volleyball to Brazil and in 1919, American Expeditionary Forces distributed 16,000 volleyballs to it’s troops and allies. This provided a stimulus for the growth of volleyball in many more foreign lands.
In 1920, the rules were again changed to allow only three hits per side and back row attack specifics were added.
Spiking and blocking became essential elements of world-wide volleyball during the early 1920s, requiring some rules changes. In 1922, spiking was formally defined and limited to front-line players only. At the same time, the first YMCA championships were held in Brooklyn, NY. 27 teams from 11 states were represented.
You know a sport has really arrived when official governing bodies are established. For volleyball, this happened in 1928 when the United States Volleyball Association, currently USA Volleyball, was formed. This allowed even non-YMCA teams to compete in tournaments. The first of which was the U.S Open.
In 1930, the first two-man beach game was played. Volleyball, both indoor and outdoor, was coming into it’s own and turning into a world-wide phenomenon.
Today there are more than 46 million Americans who play volleyball. There are 800 million players worldwide who play volleyball at least once a week. Many players and coaches are unaware of the history of the sport. This article and the proceeding history articles are meant to teach those interested individuals how the sport has evolved for over a century. The history of volleyball is closely linked to that of another popular court game. In fact, just eight miles and four years separate the historic development of volleyball and its closest cousin, basketball. Continue Reading
