Volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which players use their hands to hit a volleyball over the net in an attempt to land the ball on the opponent’s ground. Each team of six players has a maximum of three consecutive touches, a rally, to attempt to return the ball across the net. Points are scored when a team makes a kill by grounding the ball on the opponent’s side or if a player makes a fault or foul. Common strategies used in volleyball are spiking and blocking the ball at the net which both highlight a player’s height and vertical abilities. Volleyball is played on both indoor courts and beach courts that are both sanctioned as official Olympic variants of the sport.
Volleyball was invented by William G. Morgan in 1895 as a game that conceptually combined various aspects of tennis, badminton, basketball, baseball, and handball. The original name for volleyball was ‘mintonette’ which was a spin-off of the name badminton.
Volleyball teams consist of six players on the court at any one time with a maximum of twelve total players listed on the roster. Beach volleyball is played with teams of two.
The average volleyball game lasts between 60-90 minutes with each individual game lasting roughly 20-25 minutes. Volleyball is not timed and a game is only completed when a team has won three games out of five possible games.
