History of Volleyball - How the Volleyball Rules Changed
Throughout the history of volleyball changes have been made to the rules of the game. Intially the net was set at six feet six inches tall, but in 1906 it was raised by a foot to be seven feet six inches high. Also, the innings were done away with, and the game was played until one team reached 21 points, although that number would vary throughout the years.
It is recorded in the history of volleyball that the YMCA actually created a committee in 1912 to improve the game. At that point there were several changes made to the rules of volleyball. The committee set a uniform size and weight for the volleyballs, the balls needed have a circumference of 26 inches and they needed to be between 7 and 9 ounces in weight. Also, the court size was enlarged and the number of players was set at six per side. Teams would have more than 6 players, but only 6 were allowed on the court at a time. It was written into the rule book that players would rotate so that each person would take aturn serving the ball to the other team.
The next year, several other changes went down into the history of volleyball, and then National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) actually joined the YMCA to oversee the sport of volleyball. The net height was raised again by another 6 inches, and the weight of the ball increased to 10 ounces. The new rules set forth that a player could not touch the ball twice in a row, and if a player held onto the ball it would be considered a “foul.” Also the winning team needed to reach 15 points to end the game (instead of 21) and a given team had to win 2 out of 3 games to be considered the winner. These new rules were published for men’s volleyball in the Spaldic Athletic Library’s Blue Cover series volleyball rule book.
The history of volleyball shows that changes continued to occur for several years. The court size was changed slightly and measured thriy by sitxy feet in 1920, which is the size of court that is used for indoor play today. In 1922 it was decided that the ball could only be hit by a team a maximum of three times before volleying it over the net to the other team. A new scoring rule was put into place that said if the teams were tied 14-14, two consecutive points would need to be earned in order to win the game. In 1923 the new rules said that a team would consist of a total of 18 players– six on the court and twelve off court to substitute in. Each player was required to wear a numbered jersey. The serve would always be delivered by the player on the right side of the court in the back corner, and the tema would rotate clockwise when a team earned the right to serve the ball.
In 1925 the rules of volleyball became even more defined– the rules of scoring were changed yet again, if the teams were tied at 14-14 the team did not have to earn 2 consecutive points to win, but they did need to gain a margin of 2 points to claim victory. Also 2 time outs were allowed per team in 1925, and that was adjusted even more in 1932 when the rule books changed to state that timeouts were limited to one minute each. In 1926 the net length was adjusted to 32 feet, so that the net was slightly longer than the width of the court.
Although these rule books were followed in the US, not all countries adopted the new rules. Throughout the history of volleyball the rules varied from country to country. Although there are changes and adjustments here and there, the idea is still the same: players use their hands to volley a ball back and forth over a net. The purpose of the game is to return the ball over the net to the other side of the court without letting it hit the floor on their side. Volleyball would continue to grow through history– new techniques were developed and athletic organizations unified the sport.