From The Sand To The Olympic - The Story Of Beach Volleyball

Soon after William Morgan invented the volleyball in 1895 this sport quickly spread throughout America and around the world. Some of the reasons why people really enjoy playing this game are probably because it's so fun and only requires some basic equipments so they can play it just about anywhere including on the beach. Those people didn't even had an idea that what they were doing will become a really revolutionary stage in the volleyball history.

Actually there are some different opinions as to when and where the beginning of the beach volleyball history. A few believe that beach volleyball was first being played in Waikiki Beach in Hawaii around 1915, and others really believe that it was played for the first time in France on some nudist beach. However the most popular story says that it begins in California in the 1920's when many people play this game during their holiday in Santa Monica Beaches.

However, this game was really having a blast during the great depression in 1930's. A lot of people were looking some low cost activities that they can do for recreation and playing volleyball on the beach was a really cool and inexpensive option. During this era most people played beach volleyball with 6 players on each side, but they also began to vary the number of players like playing 2 on 2, 3 on 3, also 4 on 4.

The 1950's is probably the first important stage in the beach volleyball history because tournaments are started to held. However at the beginning this was not just a sporting event, in order to attract more people, they mixed it with some other forms of entertainment including beauty contest. From that moment, the development of beach volleyball seemed to be unstoppable, more and more people in America and even the rest of the world were in love with this sport and the sponsors were starting to come.

One of the very first sponsors of beach volleyball was Winston Cigarettes in a tournament in 1975. With many sponsors came along, the beach volleyball tournaments were also getting better, and in 1979 one of the most important beach volleyball tournaments was held for the very first time, The King Of The Beach Tournament. As the popularity increased, people started to play beach volleyball anywhere even in the middle of the city where they built artificial sand courts, with this improvement even the people who live in countries with no coastlines are able to feel the sensation of playing volleyball on the sand.

Beach volleyball even became more popular around the world after being played as a demonstration sport in 1992 Olympics and soon after, officially being competed in Atlanta for the 1996 Olympics. Today beach volleyball has been played by hobbyists and professional athletes from all over the world, and also more world class tournaments are being held. There is no doubt that the creation of beach volleyball marked a very important stage in the history of volleyball game, and this is also a living proof for us that a humble pastime activity could become a world class sport.