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.
