The basics

Some people I have pointed to this site have suggested that it may be a good idea for me to do a post on the basics of the game. So, if you already have a fair base of knowledge in the sport, this will be an okay post for you to skip. Don’t worry, there’ll be more coming soon.

The rules of the game are, by and large, common between indoor and beach volleyball. I’ll point out any differences and exceptions as I go. The principal difference between beach volleyball and indoor is the court itself. What’s that I hear you saying – “duh” ? Well, yes, that, but also the court in beach volleyball is smaller in area than the indoor court (pretty much has to be, with only 2 people on the team). The sand also offers an advantage for particularly close calls on potential hitting and blocking attempts or errors — just like measuring the long jump in track and field, you can see where the impact was and go off of that if you need to.

The object of the game is to score points either by hitting the ball in such a way that the opposing team is unable to legally return it, or by having them commit one of any number of possible faults (more on those later).

A play in action is called a rally, and volleyball at all levels is played under rally scoring. This means either team can score at any time. Previously (prior to 2000), sideout scoring was the rule, which meant you could only score when serving. That made matches interminably long and not terribly spectator-friendly, so the change was made. “Sideout” is still a term used in the game, meaning to acquire the serve (and accordingly, scoring on serve reception).

Volleyball matches are played to best-of-five sets in indoor and best-of-three sets on the beach. The first four sets are played to a winning score of 25 points in indoor (was 30 in the NCAA before a 2008 rule change) and the first two to 21 points on the beach. In both forms, the final set, if needed, is played to 15 points, and in all sets in both forms, a team must hold an advantage of at least 2 points to win a set. So if a set is tied at 24-24 in indoor, or 20-20 on the beach, the next point is not the last of the set, but it will decide who may be able to win the set on the rally after.

A coin toss determines which team serves first and on which side of the net each team will play in the first set. Teams switch sides every set in indoor and every 7 points in beach, until the final set — the teams switch sides in indoor when someone reaches 8 points, and it’s every 5 points in the final set in beach. The team that is on service reception is at the advantage (though this advantage is much more pronounced in beach) because, assuming they receive the serve cleanly, they will have the first opportunity to set up their offense. A team may contact the ball in the air three times before hitting it back over the net.

Maybe you’ve heard the phrase “Bump, set, spike” ? That’s the most common sequence of contacts. Bump refers to what might more accurately be called a dig, or a pass, which is the reception of a serve or a hitting attempt from the other side. The player doing this, often the libero or defensive specialist (more on this player later) will try to direct the ball to the setter, who will then set the ball for a spike (or, more formally, an attack) from one of the outside hitters. If this hitting attempt is successful, and the opposing team can’t return it, it’s called a kill, the most coveted statistic for hitters. Some people errantly refer to any swing by a hitter as a kill — you can’t dig a kill. If the defense successfully digs the attack, this counts against the hitter’s hitting percentage. Hitting percentage is simple — kills minus hitting errors (swings which cause a point for the other team, by hitting the ball out of bounds or into a successful block) divided by total attacks. And just like baseball, the number you want to hit is .300

The opposing team will attempt to defend the spike first with a block attempt. Which is just what it sounds like — one to three players jump up and throw their arms in front of the ball, trying to get it to fall back on the hitter’s side. The block attempt does not count as one of the team’s three contacts in indoor volleyball, but it does in beach (where, naturally, only one player is ever attempting the block, while his or her teammate waits behind).

Play continues until one team cannot legally return the ball, either because it hits the ground in bounds on their side or because it deflects off of one of their players and hits the ground anywhere, in bounds or out or even on the other side of the net (you see this commonly in blocking errors — sometimes it’s a little tough to tell who has scored when a block attempt ends a rally, unless you’ve got a great vantage point to see whether the ball lands in or out of bounds on the other side).

When a team sides out, players for both teams must rotate clockwise:

This makes substitutions and player specialization important. There are four positions:

Middle blocker – largely self-explanatory. They’re the ones who put up block attempts or, on somewhat crafty or desperate plays, will make hitting attempts of their own. This position usually draws the tallest and strongest players. Whereas the outside hitters will usually take a long run-up to the set before their spike attempts, if it’s the middle doing it, usually he or she will take off before the setter puts the ball in the air, effectively setting it directly into the middle’s hand. The result is a powerful smash, but the downside is if the swing is dug, it’ll be in the front row or by the midline, making for a pretty easy ball to send to the setter on the opposing side.

Setter – it’s the setter who runs the offense, really. He or she is pretty much the quarterback out there. Through strong communication and pre-set plays, the hitters will know where sets are coming. The setter ideally receives a ball that’s easy to handle from the back-row player who receives the serve, and puts the ball in ideal position for the attack. It must not be too close to the net, or too far away from it, or too high or too low. Setting is one of those things that looks easy, but is so not. A setter must have impeccable ball control skills and a soft touch. It helps to have a tall setter, since they’ll often be tasked with assisting in the block attempt, but the setter is usually a fair bit shorter than the middle blocker or outside hitter and is sometimes as short as the libero. The setter arguably must also have the best physical condition of anyone on the team, as he or she is not normally substituted for a back-row rotation in contrast to hitters and (especially) middles, unless the team is changing setters altogether. Setters will sometimes play every point of the match. Every now and then you’ll see a setter attempt a dink, which is a shot over the net that looks like a set until the last possible moment when the setter lightly redirects the ball to just barely clear the net and go over, with the goal of surprising and disorienting the defense. This shot is illegal in beach volleyball. Anything like it must be done with a closed fist.

Outside hitter – sometimes you’ll see this further differentiated into outside hitter versus opposite hitter, but all that really specifies is the side of the court from which they attack (outside is the left side, opposite is right. Because sure it is). That’s important to know if you’re drawing up defensive schemes for a team, but in terms of simply understanding play unfolding in front of you, it really isn’t. Most attack attempts come from the outside hitters. This position is very physically draining, as it requires constant leaps above the net and also pretty frequent taking balls off the face, arms, and hands on the block attempt.

Libero – if you’ve ever seen a volleyball match and wondered why the shortest player was wearing a different colored jersey, it’s because he or she is the libero (pronounced LEE-buh-ro, although you’ll also hear lee-BEAR-oh pretty frequently). The libero is a fairly new rule, being enacted in 1998. This position also called the defensive specialist, though this can also refer to a different position in use in leagues where substitutions are unlimited, or to players who would otherwise be the libero but aren’t the best at the position on their team and therefore suit up in the same color as their teammates. The libero can substitute for any back-row player at any time, without prior notice to the referees, and this substitution does not count toward the team’s quota of 15, 12 or 6 (more on that in a moment) per set. NCAA and international rules differ on whether the libero can serve — there’s no libero serve in the international game, and the NCAA is considering removing it as well, but as for now the libero can serve in place of one player when his or her rotation to serve comes up.

The libero may substitute for any back-row player, but can only be replaced by the player who was substituted for in the first place. This isn’t as complicated as it sounds — a big hulking middle goes to a back row rotation after a sideout, so he is replaced by the libero, who stays on until the team sides out three further times, at which point the middle can come back in for his front-row rotations. Sometimes the libero will sit out only one sideout before going back in to swap out for another hitter or blocker on their back-row rotation. The libero is nearly always the shortest player on the team, usually has the quickest reaction time, and is certainly the most skilled defender. The libero cannot attack the ball from in front of the 3-meter midline (you can see it on the image above, dividing front and back row), and cannot do an overhand set from in front of it either (he or she may do an underhand, or bump set, from anywhere). The scorekeeper’s table will contain a libero tracking sheet to determine who the libero subbed in for and, therefore, who must sub back in for the libero when the time comes. The libero cannot be a front-row player under any circumstances, so he or she remains in for a maximum of three sideouts.

The libero must wear a different colored jersey than his or her teammates, and a 2012 NCAA rule clarification specifies that the libero’s jersey must be of a solid color, with numbering also in contrast to his or her teammates. I’m not sure who would have been violating that rule previously, but still, they felt compelled to spell it out. One of the interesting quirks of the libero rule is that there can only be one libero per set, but teams may change liberos between sets. I have seen this myself once, when the team’s initial libero went out injured and was replaced during the halftime break after the second set. The new libero must still wear a different-colored jersey than his or her teammates, and may, if needed, assume the number of the old libero (this is in fact what happened the one time I saw it).

Substitutions not involving the libero are carefully tracked and regulated. They must be announced before the up referee signals for the next service. In the international game and NCAA men’s play, teams are allowed just 6 substitutions per set. The NCAA used to allow only 12 for women (some rec leagues will still follow that rule). A 2012 rule change allows 15 substitutions per team in the women’s college game. I like this rule change, because it allows for greater tactical play, but I can understand why someone might not — the classical notion of a volleyball player is one who stays on the court throughout all rotations. To that I say college players are not professionals and just about none of them will ever become professionals. But I digress. This can make for some fun little chaos in particularly long sets when the score extends past the winning score of 25 points, because too far beyond 25 and teams will just run out of substitutions. You’ll see middles in the back row, and middles who have the ball control skills of you or me pressed into serving. It’s a little like a 20 inning baseball game when they have the centerfielder come in and pitch.

Aside from kills, blocks, errors, and aces (when a serve cannot be returned by the opposing team), points can be scored by a team committing any of a number of faults. Here are some of the most common:

Double contact – the FIVB (International Volleyball Federation, the sport’s governing body and an IOC-recognized sanctioning body) set out a directive in 2009 instructing officials to be somewhat more lax calling double contact on the team’s first contact on serve reception, but it’s still easily the most common fault. The rule is that a player must make one contact only when making contact with the ball. Overhand sets are the big culprit, and it’s often more about hearing the fault than seeing it — on an overhand set, a player must make contact with the ball with both hands simultaneously, and the easiest way to spot it is to hear the slap-slap of two hands touching the ball one right after the other nearly instantaneously. There’s some gray area here, and some give-and-take as to how tightly an official will construe “both hands simultaneously.” The 2009 ball-handling directive has officials ease up on calling double contact if it’s the result of an honest effort to start setting the team’s offense. This fault is even more common in beach, to the point where lots of beach volleyball players don’t even do overhand sets, pretty much ever. There’s a tradeoff – overhand sets are easier to control, but it’s nigh on impossible to be called for a double hit with a bump set (underhand forearm set).

Four contacts – a team is allowed three contacts before the ball must be back over the net and on the other side. If they have four, that’s a fault and an automatic point for the other side. This only happens if something has gone wrong, like an attempt at a deceptive soft shot becomes too soft and doesn’t actually clear the net, or if on serve receive the ball redirects off the defender’s hands or arms and well off the field of play such that it can’t be returned to the other side fast enough. Often times teams who know they’ve failed to return the ball in three contacts will simply stop the play, meaning there isn’t an opportunity for four contacts to actually be called (since the ball will just drop to the ground).

Lift or carry – this one runs a bit corollary to double contact, as sometimes when I’ve expected one to be called it turned out to be other. The point is that you’re allowed to hit the ball into the air — you must not catch it or cup it in your hands in any way. Go too low with an overhand set attempt, and this can easily be called against you. I’ve also seen it called when a defender wasn’t in great position and wound up having the ball roll off their arm (as opposed to bouncing off on a legal bump/dig).

Foot fault – similar to the rule in tennis with the same name, but more stringent. On service, the serving player’s feet must both be out of bounds until the ball is in play, and his or her teammates’ feet must all be in bounds. That’s really all there is to it, so to have this called against you is usually the result of carelessness or a really bad form in serving. In tennis, you have to do this twice to lose a point, but in volleyball, it’s just once.

Back row attack and back row block – these ones are kind of complicated. A team is called for a back row attack fault if a back row player makes an offensive shot from in front of the midline while the ball is entirely over the net. Sending a free ball (softly returning the ball to the other side with no realistic expectation of scoring — it happens when a team’s offense breaks down because of a poor set) to the other side does not trigger this fault. It also does not count against a hitter’s hitting percentage, if he or she is the one sending it. If the ball is not entirely over the net, then this fault also should not be called. So you can definitely see there’s a little bit of officiating subjectivity in this one. The same rules apply to block attempts, and the same fault can be called.

There are no rotation-related faults of any kind (nor are there rotations) in beach volleyball. Either player may freely play any portion of the court.

In the net – probably the second most commonly called fault after double contact. It’s just what it sounds like — you’re not allowed to touch the net. The international game has relaxed this rule a bit with regards to touching the bottom of the net (say, as a player runs after a wayward pass) and I imagine the NCAA has done likewise (haven’t found anything explicitly saying so, though). But touching the top of the net is always illegal and will always result in a fault. This can be dicey when a couple of middles (or any players in beach) are involved in a joust (a tussle above the net as both teams try to play the ball). This is usually the result of a set that’s too close to the net, leaving the ball available to be played by both sides. Jousts do not count as a team contact in indoor and I don’t think they do in beach (I am not certain — and I freely admit I don’t know the beach game quite as well as I do indoor).

And that about concludes your crash course in Volleyball 101. Any questions?