The History Behind Volleyball

The history of volleyball was started in Massachusetts, the city of Holyoke to be exact. This is the city where William G Morgan first introduced this remarkable game at the YMCA in 1895. Just 4 years earlier his colleague James Naismith who was a director at the Springfield YMCA invented basketball that rapidly gained its popularity, but not many older people can keep up with this fast-paced game, so that gave an inspiration for Morgan to create a less physically challenging sport that can be played by people of all ages. Due to its rather similarities with badminton judging by its court and the net, William Morgan called this game "Mintonette". After an exhibition match, the name of this game was changed into "volley ball" (2 words).
There are so many changes being made to modify this game since the first time it gained popularity, all these changes are finally make this game a lot more interesting and challenging. At the first time, volleyball can be played by as many players as long as they could fit in the court, there were absolutely no limitations for the number of participants. this rule later changed and only 6 players on each team were allowed. Another significant change was the introduction of the three touch rule, before this, the players can hit the ball as many as they want before crossing it to the other side.
The next stage of the volleyball history took this game outside of the USA to other parts of the world, YMCA workers who worked in Missionary schools brought this game to Asian countries. In Europe, volleyball was introduced by the US military being stationed in European countries during the world war I.

 

 

Perhaps some of the most significant improvements in the volleyball history was when the governing bodies of this sport were begin to formed, USVBA was formed in 1928 and followed by the international federation of volleyball in 1947 that helped to improve this game greatly. Those governing bodies made possible for international class tournaments to be held, and this made volleyball gained even bigger popularity and attract a lot of young people, they even started to introduce this game as being a part of physical education program in highschools and colleges.
Volleyball also became a favorite pastime game people play on their vacation, in 1940s this game is really popular along the California Coast played by beach visitors. But this fun holiday activity later changed into a new breed of volleyball game played by two players on each side. This resulted in the introduction of a new independent sport called beach volleyball.
Volleyball finally became one of the sports in the Olympics in the year of 1964. From that point, the expansion of this game seemed unstoppable, anyone seemed to be fall in love easily on this game. Today there are more than 800 million volleyball players in the world, and in fact this game has become the second most played sport in the world after soccer.

Volleyball Terms - Useful Information For Volleyball Fans

Playing or watching a sporting match would be great if we know a lot about the game, including the rules of the game and all the terms being used in the game. Volleyball as a well established sport also has a long list of terms commonly used during the game and by understanding these volleyball terms you will have better knowledge of the game thus you can enjoy the game more. Below I have listed a number of the most common volleyball terms that could enrich your knowledge of volleyball information.

Ace: When no opposite team player can touch the ball after being served until the ball hits the ground and gives score to the server.

Assist: Tossing the ball to the teammate so he can make a kill, it only calls an assist when the next touch of the ball results in score for the team.

Attacker: A player that attacks the ball with intention for scoring, it's also known as hitter or spiker.

Attack Line: This is an area 3 meters away from the net which also called the 10ft line

Back Row Attack: When a player jump from behind the attack line to attack the ball.

Block: A move to avoid the opponent's attacker to score by deflecting it back to the opponent's court.

Ball Handling Error: A violation when a player consecutively touches the ball twice or lifting/throwing the ball.

Bump Pass: Passing the ball by clasping the fingers together and hitting the ball with the forearms.

Center Line: The line that divides the court equally which is located under the net.

Dig: The act of saving the ball being spiked by an opponent's hitter by reaching for it and pass it to the teammate.

Double Hit: A player touch the ball twice consecutively.

Floater: A serving style that the ball is not spun or rotated, usually the direction of the ball is quite hard to guess.

Jump Serve: Serving by throwing the ball and then followed by a jump hit.

Red Card: A card shown by the referee that implies whether a team forfeits a serve or forfeits a point, or a player should leave the game.

Rotation: Players moving clockwise to switch position after a serve.

Serve: The way to start a gameplay by hitting the ball to the opposite team's court from behind the end line.

Service Error: A serve that doesn't executed correctly, perhaps the ball doesn't cross the net or touching it, the server's foot touches the line, or the ball is out of bound.

Setter: Usually the player that touches the second ball then positions the ball so the attacker could hit the ball perfectly.

Side Out: A circumstance that a team gets the right to serve because they just score a point or an error committed by the serving team.

Actually there are much more terms being used in volleyball, but as a start you at least have to know the volleyball terms listed here to have a better understanding of this incredible game.