Basic Volleyball Rules for Six Players on a Side

While beach volleyball has been the rage since it was introduced as an Olympic sport in 1996, indoor volleyball has history and accessibility on its side. Indoor volleyball, and Olympic sport since 1964, was invented in 1895 by William Morgan at YMCA in Holyoke, Mass. Games are played by teams of six, rather than the more demanding two-player teams typically seen in the sand.

  1. Serving and Rotation

    • Players rotate positions one place clockwise after every change of serve. When a player serves, he continues to serve until his team loses possession. When it regains possession, all players rotate one space clockwise, so a new player serves. Serves must begin from behind the baseline. The server may not step into the court until the ball has left his hand. A serve is legal as long as it lands within the boundaries of the opposing team's side of the court, including a ball that hits the net and goes over.

    Offense

    • Teams are allowed up to three offensive touches per side. The ball must be returned over the net to the opposing team by the third hit. The only time a team can touch the ball four times is if one of the touches is a block. In other words, if a player blocks the ball that is hit by an attacker, but the ball remains in the blocker's side of the court, his team still has three more hits to get the ball back over. The block does not count as a hit because it is a defensive play.

    Defense

    • The only time players are allowed to reach over the net to touch the ball is when it is being attacked, or spiked, by the opposing team. In this case, defensive players may reach over as far as they can to attempt to block the ball, but they cannot touch the net. Defensive players who receive a hard-driven spike or a serve are allowed to make what otherwise would be considered a double-hit; in other words, the ball strikes them at one spot and ricochets off another.

    Other Basics of Play

    • In modern times, volleyball has added a player known as a libero. This is a defensive player who must wear a different-colored uniform from his team members and who plays the back row only--a substitution is made when he is to advance to the front row.

      No player can attack the ball once he is past the 10-foot line, the line drawn parallel to the net and 10 feet back from it on both sides of the court. However, a back-row player may jump from behind the line, attack the ball and land inside the line.

    Scoring

    • A team scores a point if it wins a rally, regardless who served. Games are played to 25 points for the first two or four games of a match--the first two in best-of-three matches and the first four in best-of-five matches. The last game is played to 15 poiunts. All games must be won by two. If a team is not up by two points when it reaches 25 (or 15), play continues until one team achieves a two-point margin.