by Kevin Kahlsdorf, Germany
Volleyball
Volleyball is a game played by two teams, each one consisting of six players (indoor), in which the players use their hands and other body parts to get a ball over a net. The aim is to make the ball hit the ground within the opponents’ playing area. To prevent this, a player of the opposing team tries to reach the ball and play it towards a teammate before it touches the floor. The teammate then plays it back across the net or towards another teammate. This guy then has to play the ball over the net since a team is only allowed to have three touches before playing the ball back over the net.
History
Volleyball was invented in 1895 by William G. Morgan, physical director of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) in Holyoke, Massachusetts. It was designed as an indoor sport for men who found basketball too violent. The original rules were written by Morgan. The game soon proved to have wide appeal for both sexes in schools and many other people. Many countries then took the American game as a role model and introduced Volleyball in their country.
Game Rules
Volleyball can be played indoors or outdoors. The court and the rules differentiate a bit.
Indoor
The game is played on a court 9 metres wide and 18 metres long. It is divided by a line into two equal areas, one for each team (6 players). Players may not step over the line during the game. There is another line 3 metres apart from the middle, which separates the front from the back area. Beyond this line back players are not allowed to kill the ball above the net, except they start jumping before crossing the line in the air. A net is placed across the court above the middle line. An antenna extends the net at the outer edge of each side.
The ball must be passed over the net entirely between the antennas. The service area to serve is marked behind each court’s end line. During a point each team is allowed to touch the ball 3 times before returning it to the other team. Blocking the ball or touching it while trying does not count as the first touch.
Outdoor
The game is played on a court 8 metres wide and 16 metres long. It is divided by a line into two equal areas. It is most common to play on the beach or on specially created places with sand to play on. Each team has 2 players and both are equally allowed to play the ball. This means that there are no area restrictions to either of them, except staying on their side of the net. Like indoor volleyball each team is allowed to touch the ball 3 times, but touching the ball during a block-action does count as the first touch. Also there are some restrictions on how to play the first and the third ball, for example, you are not allowed to play the first ball with an upper pass. The ball is also different in weight and shape.
Free Time-Volley
If you are thinking right now ‘rules and more rules…I cannot play volleyball’, do not worry, there is a place for everybody. If you just want to play with some friends, you do not need to pay too much attention to the rules. Most often people only use the rules for the court and the net, but do not look closely at mistakes when playing the ball. This is just the way to do it because it is pretty hard to learn how to play the ball correctly and not practical for “just for fun players”.
Do you know the movie, Harry Potter? Do you know the game of Quidditch? Yes, you can play this sport in the true life. Some explanations: How do you play this sport? “To score points, chasers or keepers must get the quaffle, a slightly deflated volleyball, into one of three of the opposing hoops which scores the team 10 points. To impede the quaffle from advancing down the pitch, chasers and keepers are able to tackle opposing chasers and keepers at the same time as beaters using their bludgers—dodgeballs—to take out opposing players. Once a player is hit by an opposing bludger, that player must dismount their broom, drop any ball being held, and return to and touch their hoops before being allowed back into play. The game is ended once the snitch is caught by one of the seekers, awarding that team 30 points.”[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quidditch_(sport)]. Don’t believe you can fly on broomsticks! You have to run with it between your two legs. It’s difficult, but, with a little bit of exercise and training, it becomes easy. What equipment do you need to play this sport? Is it a physical sport? Quaffle (from volleyball), bludgers (from dodgeballs), snitch (from tennis ball), brooms, hoops. It is a physical sport because it is a mix between different sports: basketball, volleyball and American football. Where is this sport from? Where was the first team in the world? Sure, this sport comes from the movie Harry Potter and the origin of this movie is British. So the first team to play to this sport were British people. The sport was created in 2005 at Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont (USA), by Xander Manshel and Alex Benepe, who later became the first commissioner of Quidditch. So, this sport is 12 years old. It is now an international sport, played around the world: in Europe, in the USA, Australia and China. Each year there is an international competition and this year it will happen in Oslo in Norway. About my experience? I have already played this sport when I was studying Dutch in Antwerp before to come in Santa Barbara. I played this sport with my host-family in one of the best clubs in Belgium: Dodo’s. I played it for only 4 months and a lot of people told me that I was really good at this sport. Now I’m going to Oslo inside the Belgium’s national team of quidditch to play a very big competition: international competition (I think). At the beginning, to run with a broomstick between my legs was really strange and really ridiculous, but everyone runs like this so I did the same. I felt better because I saw that everybody looked ridiculous to run like that but it didn’t cause any problems for anybody.
e is Woodsball.Woodsball, most of the time is played in big scenarios like in a forest, where you can cover yourself with nature like with trees, bushes, trenches, etc. Paintball has lots of benefits like full body workout, increasing of interpersonal skills and self-confidence, major stress relief. It also promotes teamwork where a lot of companies in the world are using paintball as a tool to fortify the relationship between co-workers.
n Woodsball they have the UWL (Ultimate Woodsball League), where bigger scenarios are played and there are 10 players on each team. Having a lot of tournaments in Ecuador is good because it maintains a high performance of game between the players on a national scale.
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