Watching the players thwack the ball back and forth on the beach makes volleyball seem like an easy sport to play. But if you're a beginner and ever tried to join in on a game, you surely discovered it wasn't as easy as it looks. Not all of us were born with a natural talent for sports, but that doesn't mean you have to be left out, you just a few tips and tricks.
You don't need to be a professional, but you can get enough to play for fun, and isn't playing one of the best parts of life. Before you're casually tossing that ball back and forth, you just need some basic rules to follow. Now, the first thing you need to learn about volleyball is that the object of the game is to keep that ball in the air on your side and get it to drop on your opponents' side.
In the past, the game was played up to 15 points and a point was usually scored when a team won a rally. Nowadays, the rally scoring means that you score a point after each play. Most of the games score up to 25 points. Don't worry, don't worry, if you're not sure what we're talking about. We've dived into the sport of volleyball and come up with some key things you should learn so you can play.
How To Play Volleyball
Choosing the players
Ideally, you should have six players playing on each team for the game to be competitive. If you are playing with your friends, keep the same number of players on each side. You should have the players stand in two rows with the first one being closest to the net and the other row should be in the rear boundary of the court.
The player standing in the back right corner is supposed to serve the ball. You can keep rotating players around the court in order to ensure you have a new server for each game. Before starting, however, you should determine which team shall serve the ball first by tossing a coin or agreeing before the game starts.
Winning the rally
When you first start learning the game, it is important to know how to score a point. In order to score, your team must win a rally. A rally is when the ball goes back and forth over the net until it drops on one side. If it drops on your side, the other side gets a point. A rally kicks off when the volleyball is served into play over the net. The opposing team gets three hits on their own side before they have to get it back over the net. If the ball drops on their side or if they can't get the ball over in three points, the other side gets a point.
A team wins when;
- The opponent is not able to return the ball successfully.
- A player hits the ball down in the court of the opponent.
- A player hits an out of bounds ball.
- A team hits the ball off of an opposing player.
- When a player commits a fault when they are playing the ball.
Always serve the ball from the line that is in the back of the court
If you serve from the front of the line, it shall end up being a point for the other team. This is what is known as a “foot fault.” The ball must always go over the net but it shouldn’t touch it. It also has to land within the corners of the court for it to be good. The player standing on the right of the court always serves. Each player will receive only one attempt to serve during a rotation. You may serve as many times as you want in order to get the ball in the opponent’s court.
If you are on the receiving end, return the ball
This is how the rally begins. A play shall be a bump, set, and spike. As long as it goes over three hits, it’s a good one. You can technically hit the ball using any part of your body as long as the ball doesn’t come to a rest. Players are allowed to go over the lines but the ball should never do that. If an opposing player hits the ball over the bounds of the court, then you can run to retrieve it.
Continue to hit the ball in a back and forth pattern across the net until one of the teams makes a fault
This is how the game works, you keep serving the ball to each other until one of the following happens;
- The ball hits the ground – this shall score a point for the serving team.
- The ball hits the ground on the serving team’s side. In this case, the other team has the opportunity to serve the ball.
- If the ball hits the ground from the side for the receiving team, then the team that served the ball gets to serve again.
- If someone touches the net, then the team from the opposing team gets a point.
- If someone hits the ball twice in a row consecutively, this is a fault as players are not allowed to strike the ball twice in a row.
How To Play Volleyball Conclusion
And there you go, it really isn't that complicated to learn how to play volleyball. And we shouldn't forget to mention that volleyball is an excellent sport for getting the whole body tone. Sometimes the most challenging thing when learning how to play is serving because everyone's eyes are on you. But if you just do some practicing, like hitting the ball back and forth on the beach with your bestie, you can learn.
