Basic Rules
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The simplest description of volleyball is using one to three hits to hit the volleyball over the net to the other team without letting the ball touch the ground. Also do NOT touch or cross the net!
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Granted, there are many more core concepts to worry about, such as what is considered "out.” The entire court is 60' by 30', so anything outside of that perimeter, marked by floor lines, is considered out. When you hit the ball over the net, the ball cannot hit outside of these boundaries or you lose the point. Now, if a player on the other side of the net touches the ball before it hits the ground, you get the point. If you’re playing in a more traditional indoor setting, a court may have red and white striped antennas. If the ball ever hits these or crosses on the outside of them, the point is immediately forfeited.
Okay, so how do these points work? Whenever the ball drops on the other side of the court or if the other team hits it out, you get a point. If your team wins the point, you get to start the play and vice versa. Depending on where you play, the goal score changes. Sometimes you need to get to 21 to win, other times you need to get to 25. But, you do need to win by 2 points, so sometimes there are score caps set in place so that you can’t go on forever. Many places make you play best two out of three, and rarely best three out of five. The last game usually has a goal of 15 points.
So now that you get the main idea of how to win and lose points, what do you do to interact with the ball? In the next few lessons, we will cover specifically how to perform these actions, but for now we will just explain how they are used. Each time the play starts, the side that won the point last starts with the ball. Whatever player is in the serving spot goes back to behind the back court line. Then the server will serve the ball into play, then come back onto the court. Now, in order to send the ball back over the net in a manner that will more likely gain a point, we try to get a spike in. In an ideal situation, when the ball comes over the net someone will go to the ball and either bump or set it to whoever is the setter. The setter will then set the ball to one of the hitters, and the hitter will spike it at the other team. A huge part of volleyball is learning how to get that system working while dealing with a situation when something goes wrong.
Have I completely lost you yet? Let’s move on to our next lesson where we will break down how to bump a ball.
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