How To Get Into Playing Volleyball

Volleyball is one of the most fun team sports out there and is the perfect game to play with your friends if you have a ton of people to play with! It requires intense concentration, fast reaction times, good jumping power, and great team coordination.

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While volleyball is a challenging sport to master, most people can understand the rules quickly after playing a couple of times.

The Rules

The objective of volleyball is to get the ball to hit the floor on the opponent's side of the court.

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There are many ways to do this, but the most common way is to spike it. This is commonly done through team coordination and setup (Bump, Set, Spike). The first team to score 25 points wins.

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There are many rules of volleyball, but here are the basics:

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Positions

• Each side is split into 6 positions (3 in the front, 3 in the back)
• The player in the bottom right position is the designated server for that round

‍Serving

• Server must serve behind the end line
• Ball must be served either underhand or overhand
• Serve must be returned by a bump. You cannot set or attack a serve

‍Rallies

• Each side can only touch the ball a maximum of 3 times
• Players may not hit the ball twice in a row (blocking doesn't count as a hit)
• Players cannot touch the net
• Players can only touch the ball for a brief moment (no carrying, palming, or throwing)

‍Rotation

• If your team wins a point, players must rotate their positions 1 spot clockwise

‍Scoring

The attacking team will score if:

• The ball hits the ground on the opponent's half
• The ball touches the opponent's body and then goes out-of-bounds
• The opponent touches the net
• The opponent doesn't return the serve with a bump

‍The team receiving will score if:

• The server fails the serve
• The ball goes out-of-bounds
• They successfully block the ball and it lands in the opponent's half

‍How to Get Better

Although learning how to play volleyball and understanding the rules may be simple, putting that knowledge into practice isn’t the easiest thing to do.

Volleyball is one of the harder sports to practice as one of the best ways to get better is to simply play more. However, volleyball is a sport best played with 12 players and the same team so that you can build team coordination.

Fortunately, there may be volleyball pickup games near your local area! If you’re located within Toronto and interested in finding out if there are any games near you, download Javelin on iOS or Android as we host multiple volleyball games within the GTA each week!

However, if you can’t find any games to play, there are other ways to practice as well!
If you have a friend, you can practice peppering, which is a popular warm-up drill used by volleyball players as it involves using the 3 basic movements in volleyball: bumping, setting, and spiking.

To start, stand roughly 6 meters away from each other. Then toss the ball to your partner so that they can bump it towards you. You then set the ball towards them and they will spike it gently towards you. You will then receive the ball by bumping it back to them and then you will continue that pattern with your partner

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The result should look like this:

• Person 1: Toss the ball to Person 2
• Person 2: Bump the ball to Person 1
• Person 1: Set the ball to Person 2
• Person 2: Spike the ball to Person 1
• Person 1: Bump the ball to Person 2
• Person 2: Set the ball to Person 1
• Person 1: Spike the ball to Person 2

Continue to bump-set-spike until the ball drops

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If you don’t have a volleyball partner yet, don’t stress about it!

Using a wall can be incredibly useful as a beginner, especially for improving your serving, spiking, and setting skills! By practicing your serving, spiking, and setting against the wall, you can get more comfortable with the ball and improve your control over the ball.

Join a Team or Attend Weekly Pickups

Volleyball is a team sport! Even if your individual skill gets better, you can only do so much by yourself.

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Once you get comfortable with your own skills, look to join a team or regularly attend pickup games. Often times when you attend pickup games, you’ll see the same people come back each week, making it easier to build friendships and improve your synergy with them.

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By watching other players and playing with them, you can learn from them and get first-hand experience!

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