Volleyball Rotation Rules

Volleyball is a competitive sport played at the high school, college and professional levels. There are specific position rules for the front and back lines and the way the players must rotate (move around) on the court after each point.

  1. Positions on the Court

    • Each side of the court is divided into six sections. They are left front, center front, right front, left rear, center rear and right rear. The left front player is called the setter, the center front player is called the middle blocker and the right front player is called the right side hitter. The left rear player is called the outside hitter. The center rear player is also called the middle blocker and the right rear player is called the setter.

    Rotation

    • The right rear player is also the first server. When that serve is completed, that player moves to left front. The left front goes to center front and the center front goes to right front. The right front goes to left rear and left rear goes to left center. These changes are made after the serving team completes its serving run.

    Positional Rules

    • By rule, each player is supposed to stay in his own section as a point is being played. There are no specific lines drawn on the court, but the volleyball referee should imagine the court being divided in half from front to back and in thirds when going from one side to the other. The referee may call a fault if a player leaves his zone and award a point to the competing team. However, this is almost never done. The rear center player often moves up to hit the ball and the only time the referee would call a fault is if he was in front of the center front player. There are no switching of positions once the ball is in play.