OFFICIAL VOLLEYBALL RULES 2009 - 2012
	GAME CHARACTERISTICS Volleyball is a sport played by two teams on a playing court divided by a net. There are different, versions available for specific cir­cumstances in order to offer the versatility of the game to everyone. The object of the game is to send the ball over the net in order to ground it on the opponent’s court, and to prevent the same effort by the opponent. The team has three hits for returning the ball (in addition to the block contact). The ball is put in play with a service: hit by the server over the net to the opponents. The rally continues until the ball is grounded on the playing court, goes “out” or a team fails to return it properly. In Volleyball, the team winning a rally scores a point (Rally Point System). When the re­ceiving team wins a rally, it gains a point and the right to serve, and its players rotate one position clockwise
	Philosophy of Rules and Refereeing
	Introduction
	Volleyball is one of the most successful and popular competitive and recreational sports in the world. It is fast, it is exciting and the action is explosive. Yet volleyball com­prises several crucial overlapping elements whose complimentary interactions render it unique amongst rally games: In recent years the FIVB has made great strides in adapting the game to a modern audi­ence. This text is aimed at a broad volleyball public - players, coaches, referees, spectators, or commentators for the following reasons: - understanding the rules allows better play - coaches can create better team structure and tactics, allowing players full rein to display their skills; - understanding the relationship between rules allows officials to make better decisions. This introduction at first focuses on volleyball as a competitive sport, before setting out to identify the main qualities required for successful refereeing.
	Volleyball is a Competitive Sport
	Competition taps latent strengths. It exhibits the best of ability, spirit, creativity and aesthetics. The rules are structured to allow all of these qualities. With a few exceptions, volleyball allows all players to operate both at the net (in attack) and in the back of the court (to defend or serve). William Morgan, the game’s creator, would still recognize it because volleyball has re­tained certain distinctive and essential elements over the years. Some of these it shares with other net/ ball/ racquet games: - service; - rotation (taking turns to serve); - attack; - defence. Volleyball is, however, unique amongst net games in insisting that the ball is in constant flight – a “flying ball” - and by allowing each team a degree of internal passing before the ball must be returned to the opponents. The introduction of a specialist defensive player – the Libero – has moved the game for­ward in terms of rally length and multi-phase play. Modifications to the service rule have changed the act of service from simply a means of putting the ball in play to an offensive weapon. The concept of rotation is entrenched to allow for all-round athletes. The rules on player positions must permit teams to have flexibility and to create interesting developments in tactics.
	The Referee within this Framework
	The essence of a good official lies in the concept of fairness and consistency: - to be fair to every participant - to be viewed as fair by the spectators. This demands a huge element of trust – the referee must be trusted to allow the players to entertain: - by being accurate in his/her judgement - by understanding why the rule is written - by being an efficient organiser - by allowing the competition to flow and by directing it to a conclusion - by being an educator – using the rules to penalise the unfair or admonish the impolite;
	Get involved!

---

Main Page


Print out