Game played by two teams, usually of six
players on a side, in which the players use their hands to bat a ball back and
forth over a high net,
trying to make the ball touch the court within the opponents’ playing area
before it can be returned. To prevent this a player on the opposing team bats
the ball up and toward a teammate before it touches the court surface—that
teammate may then volley it back across the net or bat it to a third teammate
who volleys it across the net. A team is allowed only three touches of the ball
before it must be returned over the net.
History
Volleyball was invented in 1895 by William G. Morgan,
physical director of the Young
Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) in Holyoke, Massachusetts. It
was designed as an indoor sport for businessmen who found the new game of basketball too vigorous. Morgan
called the sport “mintonette,” until a professor from Springfield College
in Massachusetts noted
the volleying nature of play and proposed the name of “volleyball.” The
original rules were written by Morgan and printed in the first edition of
the Official Handbook of the Athletic League of the Young Men’s
Christian Associations of North America (1897). The game soon proved
to have wide appeal for both sexes in schools, playgrounds, the armed forces,
and other organizations in the United States, and it
was subsequently introduced to other countries.
In 1916 rules were issued jointly by the YMCA and the National
Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The first nationwide tournament in
the United States was conducted by the National YMCA Physical Education
Committee in New
York City in 1922. The United States Volleyball Association (USVBA)
was formed in 1928 and recognized as the rules-making, governing body in the
United States. From 1928 the USVBA—now known as USA Volleyball (USAV)—has
conducted annual national men’s and senior men’s (age 35 and older) volleyball
championships, except during 1944 and 1945. Its women’s division was started in
1949, and a senior women’s division (age 30 and older) was added in 1977. Other
national events in the United States are conducted by member groups of the USAV
such as the YMCA and the NCAA.
Volleyball was introduced into Europe by American troops
during World
War I, when national organizations were formed. The Fédération
Internationale de Volley Ball (FIVB) was organized in Paris in 1947 and moved
to Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1984.
The USVBA was one of the 13 charter members of the FIVB, whose membership grew
to more than 210 member countries by the late 20th century.
International volleyball competition began in 1913 with the
first Far East Games, in Manila.
During the early 1900s and continuing until after World War II,
volleyball in Asia was
played on a larger court, with a lower net, and nine players on a team.
