These were voted on during the FIVB World Congress in September, but they were actually only just published a couple weeks ago. If you're a masochist like me, you can read the full documents here (for indoor volleyball) and here (for beach).
Very little was changed from the old rulebooks. For beach, the 'net rule' that's been in use in indoor is now officially extended to them. Officially, "Contact with the net by a player is not a fault, unless it interferes with the play." In practice, it means you can touch the bottom of the net, but not the top. Meaning it's more of a concern for blockers and hitters in indoor (third contact players in beach) than setters (second contact players in beach). It's meant to promote more athletic play and to stop rallies from ending with ticky-tack calls that happen for no reason other than they're in the rulebook (which by itself is not that great a reason).
Other than that, though, I was hard-pressed to find any new stuff. Supposedly, the libero rule was also streamlined and simplified, but I tremble in terror imagining what it used to be like if the current byzantine language governing it is considered streamlined or simplified. So for me it became interesting to read about how FIVB rules differ from NCAA rules. For instance, the FIVB mandates that:
– teams be no more than 12 players and three coaches (one head and absolute maximum of two assistant). Obviously NCAA teams regularly exceed both of these numbers.
– player numbers fall between 1 and 20. Those are still the most commonly-issued numbers in the NCAA, certainly, but I've seen player numbers in the higher 20's, the 30's and even 40's.
– matches must be held on light-colored courts, and that for championship-level play (Olympics, World Championships, World League/Grand Prix), court lines absolutely must be white. Since so many NCAA volleyball courts are also basketball courts, black lines are more the rule in college, and I wouldn't exactly call basketball hardwood a light color.
– warmup time before a match be restricted to just 10 minutes, maximum. If a team had access to a warmup court before coming to the competition court, it's just 6 minutes. Obviously there's no such thing as warmup courts in college. The NCAA provides a detailed protocol specifying who can use the court and when in the hour preceding first serve of a college match. I used to know it by heart back when I was a PA announcer.
– timeouts last just 30 seconds rather than 60 or 90 as in college (I've seen both).
And a few DYK's:
– players are permitted to play barefoot
– the rulebook specifically calls on the team captain to thank the officials. Hooray sportsmanship!
– player/coaches seem to be permitted. I'll just quote verbatim a short section addressing the assistant coach:
5.3.2 Should the coach have to leave his/her team for any reason including sanction, but excluding entering the court as a player, an assistant coach may assume the coach's functions for the duration of the absence, once confirmed to the referee by the game captain.
(emphasis mine)
– rules about rotation errors are a bit more stringent than I'd expect. Whereas if you bat out of turn in baseball, there's no penalty unless it's noticed immediately, if in volleyball you have an illegal substitution or incorrect rotation, you lose all your points from when it happened to when it was discovered, regardless of when it is discovered.
– prior to service, back-row players must be further from the center line than front-row players. No crowding the net till the ball's in play! – you can't physically "support a teammate in order to hit the ball" (how would that even work?) but it is allowed to physically hold someone back from committing a fault (net violation, back row attack)
– serves cannot be received overhand.
– by rule, serves don't have to come off the hand – they can come off "one hand or any part of the arm." It's tough to imagine how they'd be kept legal coming off anything but the hand, though.
So, some interesting stuff. Read up and look smart 😛
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