Playing beach volleyball is really cool! Let’s discover five valuable volleyball facts for kids.
The first ball designed for volleyball was created in 1896 by the Spalding Sports Company. The first volleyball ball was made of real leather and it has a circumference of 65 cm. The ball was filled with air and weighed roughly 9 to 10 ounces. Modern volleyball balls are made in a similar way. Volleyball is played on a court that is 18 metres long by 9 metres wide.
In volleyball two teams, with six players each, hit the ball back and forth over the net until one team scores a point. A team scores a point when the ball they hit lands on the opposition’s side. A team also scores a point if the other team hits the ball out of the volleyball court. In volleyball the team that wins the best of three sets is the winner. The first two sets in volleyball are played until one team reaches 25 points. The third set is the first to 15 points. The team that wins must be two points ahead of the other team.
William G. Morgan invented the game of volleyball in 1895 at the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) in Holyoke, Massachusetts. He called the name he had invented “mintonette” but it was soon changed to “volleyball” as it was easier to pronounce. This new name also reflected what the game was about. In 1947 an organisation known as the Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) was formed to be the governing body over the sport. In 1964 volleyball became a sport for both men and women in the Summer Olympics. Have you ever watched volleyball in the Olympics on the tv?
The two types of volleyball are team volleyball and beach volleyball. Both are Olympic sports and both have competitive leagues. The rules in both games differ. Team volleyball is played indoors on a hard court, while beach volleyball is obviously played outdoors on the sand. Team volleyball has six players per team, while beach volleyball is played with 2 players per team. Beach volleyballs are much lighter and softer than indoor volleyball, and they are also much bigger. The rules of play and height of the net are both the same.
In volleyball different terms are used to describe different shots and moves. Some of these you may be familiar with and others not. A “one-handed block” in volleyball is often known as a Kong. This got its name from the famous gorilla King Kong who hit planes with one hand while scaling the Empire State Building in his movies. A “dig” is a move where a player bounces the ball with both arms into the air. A “spike” in volleyball is when a player smashes the ball over the net. A spike often follows after a dig.
We hope you enjoyed learning more things about volleyball as much as we loved teaching you about them. Now that you know how majestic this sport is, you can move on to learn about other sports and activities like: Table Tennis, Super Bowl, Football World Cup and Olympic Games.
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