The History of Volleyball
This year, the sport of volleyball celebrated it's 120th birthday! Volleyball first made its debut in 1895 in Holyoke, Mass., when the YMCA instructor, William Morgan united different elements from basketball, baseball, tennis and handball. The original intention of the game was to create a sport with less physical contact between players, but with similar effort required to play basketball. At the time, the game was called mintonette and used a tennis net, raised 6'6 feet off the ground. Each point would start with an overhead serve, similar to tennis, just without the racquet. The sport proved to be popular, quickly spreading throughout North America and Asia.
By the turn of the 20th century, the sport's name was changed to its modern day name Volleyball, and its very own ball was developed. In 1916, players in the Philippines employed a strategy of releasing the ball at a high trajectory, parallel and close to the net allowing for another player to hit it down. They referred to it as a "bomba" which translates to "kill". This strategy was adopted world wide and plays a huge role in the game today. At this point, all passes were overhead and called a volley. In the late 1940's, a forearm pass was created by creating a platform for the ball with extended connected hands. With the addition of the forearm pass or sometimes known as a "bump", the rule of 3 touches was created and the pattern of pass, volley, hit took over the game. Up until this point, the sport was played indoors with 6 players on each team, but in 1930, the first 2 player game was played on the beach, taking the sport in another direction. In 1964 at the Tokyo Olympics, volleyball was recognized and played at the global level and beach volleyball finally made its olympic debut in 1996 (101 years after it was invented!!)
By the turn of the 20th century, the sport's name was changed to its modern day name Volleyball, and its very own ball was developed. In 1916, players in the Philippines employed a strategy of releasing the ball at a high trajectory, parallel and close to the net allowing for another player to hit it down. They referred to it as a "bomba" which translates to "kill". This strategy was adopted world wide and plays a huge role in the game today. At this point, all passes were overhead and called a volley. In the late 1940's, a forearm pass was created by creating a platform for the ball with extended connected hands. With the addition of the forearm pass or sometimes known as a "bump", the rule of 3 touches was created and the pattern of pass, volley, hit took over the game. Up until this point, the sport was played indoors with 6 players on each team, but in 1930, the first 2 player game was played on the beach, taking the sport in another direction. In 1964 at the Tokyo Olympics, volleyball was recognized and played at the global level and beach volleyball finally made its olympic debut in 1996 (101 years after it was invented!!)