Beach Volleyball - Rules and Regulations

International Volleyball Federation is the governing body of beach volleyball. The rules are made to make the game fair and transparent. Listed below are some of the important rules −

• Like indoor volleyball, a team is always desperate to ground the ball in the opposition’s court.

• The team which is able to ground the ball at the opponent’s side wins a point.

• If the opponent sends the ball in an illegal manner they commit a fault.

• Before sending the ball to the opponent’s side there may be consecutive contacts made by the players. These contacts have to be made by different players and only three touches are allowed for a team before sending the ball to the other side.

• The beach volleyball playing area is completely made up of sands. Any type of rocks and debris is removed from the surface of the court to prevent any type of injuries as normally players like to play with bare foot so these precautions are taken.

• The level of sand should be minimum 40 centimetres deep inside the court. It may increase in different competitions.

• A standard volley ball court has a length of 16 metres and breadth of 8 metres and the court is rectangular in shape.

• Surrounding the court, a free zone is there which has a width of 3 metres and there is no obstruction for at least a height of 7 metres.

• Players in beach volley can play with bare feet; it depends on the choice of the players.

• In each team, there are only two players. So a total of four players can compete with each other.

• Scoring system in beach volley is an interesting one. The best of three sets played between the players. In each set, a maximum of 21 points can be scored by a team to win the match. If the match is moved to the third or the deciding set, then the maximum points are reduced to 15 instead of 21.

• Open hand touches are not allowed in beach volley. Any type of open hand touch or dink or tip is recommended as an illegal action.

• During the match, if a block is occurred at the net, then it will be counted as a touch and the number of allowed touches is reduced to two.

• During the match, the players can switch the sides at will. Teams can change or switch ends of the court at every seven points.

• A net is used in beach volleyball game and the players always try to shoot the ball above the net. The height of the beach volleyball net is around 8 feet for men and 7 feet 4 inches for women. The height of the net varies for teenagers.

• The net that is used for beach volleyball has a length of 28 feet and each end of the net is padded. In official competitions the referee stand is usually attached with the net.

• The net is also bordered on top and bottom with 4 inch wide canvas.

• In beach volleyball, the ball is the centre of the play. A spherical ball used in beach volley is either made up of flexible synthetic material or leather.

• The ball is striped with bright colours which makes it look beautiful and attractive. The weight of the ball is around 300 grams.

• The internal air in the ball is around 0.200 kg per square centimetres. The circumference of the ball is not above 70 cm and is not below 65 cm.

Safety

As beach volleyball is an outdoor sport, certain guidelines has to be followed by the players for safety and some of them are described below.

• Kneepads are very important for the players who are playing beach volleyball.

• Kneepads provide stability to the leg of the player which allows him to play up to his potential. One of the major advantages is that it prevents injury to a player and if anyone is having injury, then by wearing kneepads, the player can relax his knee.

• Since these matches are normally held under the Sun in open ground, the players are very keen on protecting their body and specially their eyes. To protect their eyes, they must wear sunglasses. But the glasses they put on should not have any power. This is also a safety guideline for the players.

• For protection of their body, they put sunscreen.

• As the sun rays contain ultraviolet and infrared rays which can cause cancer. So by putting cream on the skin the players can make their skin safe from directly exposing towards sun.

• While playing the players should wear sporting shoes for feet protection though it is not mandatory.