Rules of Beach Volleyball

Beach volleyball is a challenging, competitive game played on a sand court. In order to play a legitimate game you need to familiarize yourself with the set up and rules of the game. There are a number of rules that lay out the way in which teams score, commit faults and win.

  1. Size

    • The first rule that you'll encounter when playing beach volleyball concerns the structure of teams and court. The game is played between two teams of two players. If there are more people, additional teams of two will form and rotate play. The team that is next up to play referees the current match. The game will be played on a sand court, with lines designating boundaries in a rectangle of 16 by 8 meters. Teams should switch sides every third of a set, seven points (set one and two) or five points (set three), to neutralize wind and other side advantages.

    Time Frame

    • Official beach volleyball is played using rally point scoring, in which a point is scored during every volley. The team that wins the point also serves the next rally (round). The first team to reach 21 is the winner. However, the team must win by two or more points. So if the opposing team has 20, the game will continue until 22. Play continues like this until one team wins by two points. A team wins a match by winning two out of three sets. If a third set is needed in a one to one tie, it is played to 15 rather than 21. The two point win is still necessary.

    Features

    • Games begin with the first serve (service can be determined using a volley for serve or coin flip). The server must be behind the back boundary line when he jumps or makes contact with the ball. The serve must go over the net in the field of play. It can hit the net, so long as it goes over. Players on each team volley back and forth until ball hits the ground or a fault is committed. Volley rules are as follows:
      Each player can only hit the ball once consecutively. If a player commits a double hit, it is a fault and other team wins point and serve. On the first hit of the team, a player is given some latitude in having the ball contact more than one part of his body, provided that it occurs during the course of a single action and that it is underhanded.
      Each team has three hits to get the ball over the net. If they hit the ball more than three times, they lose the point. If two teammates touch the ball at the same moment, it is still considered two hits, unless they are both blocking a spike.
      And, hits must be clean. No lifting, carrying or holding of the ball is allowed.

    Warning

    • There are various faults in volleyball that will result in loss of the rally. In addition to the faults discussed in the last section others are:
      Illegal sets. Beach volleyball regulates setting particularly strictly. Sets need to be performed cleanly without holding the ball.
      Touching the net. A player cannot touch the net with any part of her body. The only exceptions are if a ball is hit into the net causing it to be forced into a player, or incidental contact of the hair.
      Players cannot reach over the net to hit the ball when it is on the opponent's side, except when blocking (cannot touch ball until it's been hit by opponent). Extending beyond the net is legal if it occurs after the player has spiked the ball.
      Ball must be hard hit over the net. No setting, or tipping or dinking with an open hand.
      Interfering with opponents. If a player lands onto the opponent's side of the court and interferes with opponent's play, it is a fault.
      Serve order fault. Players on each team must rotate every time that they begin a new serve. Player remains server until her team loses the serve. The next time her team gets the serve, her teammate will be server.
      Assisted hit. A player cannot take assistance from another player or court structure when playing a ball (that is, being boosted into the air by a teammate).
      If two faults are committed simultaneously by a member of each team, it is called a double fault and the rally will be replayed.

    Misconceptions

    • There are certain exceptions to the fault rules above. If a ball is held momentarily as the result of receiving a hard driven spike, there is no holding fault. If a ball is held as the result of a player from each team touching it simultaneously, there is no holding fault--in this case, the team whose side of the court the ball projects onto has three more hits to get the ball over.
      Blocking counts as a hit. After a block, the team has two additional hits. Ball can hit a player twice during a block as long as it is during one blocking action. No double hit fault is assessed in this situation.

    Geography

    • Boundaries are important to scoring. If a ball lands on Team A's side of the court within boundaries, Team B wins the point. If a ball lands out of bounds, the team that hit it loses the point. A ball must traverse over the net within the boundaries. For instance, if you are hitting the ball over from well out of bounds, it needs to travel over the plane of the net (between the antennas, if they are there). If any part of the ball touches a boundary line it is in-bounds. Ball is out if it touches a post or other object outside of the court (person, table, fence).

    Effects

    • When receiving the ball off a serve, players cannot complete an attack hit when the ball is served completely over the top of the net (that is, no spikes on serve). Serves cannot be blocked.