Volleyball (Amateur)

William G. Morgan, a Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) instructor in the state of Massachusetts, developed the sport of volleyball in 1895. His intent was to create a safe, noncontact sport that combined the physical skills required to play other sports like tennis, basketball, baseball, and handball. At this time, volleyball was called mintonette. Basketball had been developed a [Page 775]few years prior to the development of mintonette, and began gaining widespread popularity among energetic American youth. Basketball did not, however, provide much appeal to older, less physically mobile individuals at the time. Mintonette was developed to appeal to this older category of athlete. The sport of volleyball has since developed into a popular sport played throughout the world, with over 86 million Americans playing amateur volleyball, and over 800 million individuals playing at various levels worldwide.

Beach volleyball was popularized in Southern California, but is now played worldwide, even in places without beaches, such as Switzerland. Beach volleyball became an Olympic team sport in 1996.

The term volleyball was introduced shortly after the term mintonette, as it seemed more fitting to a game that involved volleying a ball back and forth. A special ball was then developed in 1900 to be used specifically for volleyball. At this time, the sport was not the high-flying, hard-hitting game of today. Instead, it involved the overhand volleying of a ball back and forth over a raised tennis net. In the early 1900s, volleyball began to spread outside of the United States, taking on new rules and techniques in the process.

In 1916 a new technique was developed in the Philippines that involved spiking or hitting a set ball at the opposing team. This was termed the “bomba” or what is now commonly referred to as a “kill” when performed successfully without the opposing team being able to return the spiked ball. This development changed the speed and intensity of the game; it was no longer just a game of volleying a ball back and forth, but now required vertical jumping to hit and block, coordination to connect with the ball midflight, and power to hit the ball hard and fast enough to not be returned by the opposing team.

This new faster-paced version of volleyball spread quickly throughout the world. The spreading of the game was facilitated by American military forces, who were often equipped with Volleyballs for recreation. As American military forces traveled around the world following World War I, so to did the introduction of volleyball to the places where they were stationed. This increasing popularity of volleyball worldwide led to the inauguration of the Federation Internationale De Volley-Ball in 1947; the first World Championships held in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in 1949; the inclusion of volleyball in the Pan American Games in 1955; and the designation of volleyball as an Olympic team sport in 1964.

As the popularity of the indoor game of volleyball increased, it also became increasingly popular as an outdoor sport played on sandy beaches worldwide. The original intention of the game was as both and indoor and outdoor game; however, the outdoor game of beach volleyball did not become common until the 1930s and did not receive Olympic recognition until 1996, 100 years after the game had been originally developed. Beach volleyball has since become a popular international sport that is no longer played strictly on natural sand beaches, but also in outdoor courts with trucked in sand and even on indoor sand courts for year-round playing, regardless of climate.

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