VOLLEYBALL

Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team’s court under organized rules.[1] It has been a part of the official program of the Summer Olympic Games since 1964. The complete rules are extensive, but simply, play proceeds as follows: a player on one of the teams begins a ‘rally’ by serving the ball (tossing or releasing it and then hitting it with a hand or arm), from behind the back boundary line of the court, over the net, and into the receiving team’s court.[2] The receiving team must not let the ball be grounded within their court. The team may touch the ball up to 3 times, but individual players may not touch the ball twice consecutively.[2] Typically, the first two touches are used to set up for an attack, an attempt to direct the ball back over the net in such a way that the serving team is unable to prevent it from being grounded in their court.

William George Morgan (January 23, 1870 – December 27, 1942) was the inventor of volleyball, originally called “Mintonette”, a name derived from the game of badminton which he later agreed to change to better reflect the nature of the sport.^[1] He was born in Lockport, New York, US.^[2]

He met James Naismith, inventor of basketball, while Morgan was studying at Springfield College in 1892. Like Naismith, Morgan pursued a career in Physical Education at the YMCA. Influenced by Naismith and basketball, in 1895, in Holyoke, Massachusetts, Morgan invented “Mintonette” a less vigorous team sport more suitable for older members of the YMCA but one that still required athletic skill. Later Alfred S. Halstead watched it being played and renamed it “Volleyball”, because the point of the game is to volley the ball back and forth over the net.

There are three main types of serves in volleyball. The underhand serve is most common for beginners. The overhand topspin and the overhand float serve are the most common serves for competitive volleyball.