Why is it important to know the history behind volleyball? You may have heard the saying “In order to know where you are going, you have to know where you have been.” This is true with the sport of volleyball. You should know a little bit of volleyball history.
History Behind Volleyball
So where did it all start? It started back in February 9th, 1895 with a man named William Morgan. He created a game called Mintonette and he took pieces of other sports like tennis and handball. Basketball was gaining in popularity and he was looking to make a sport that did not require as much physical exertion.
Initially, mintonette had a net that was six feet high since Morgan liked the net used for tennis but felt the net was too low.
There were also issues with the ball. A tennis ball was too small and a basketball was too hard and too large. A few short years after the game was invented, the first volleyballs that were specific to the sport were made.
Eventually, the sport caught on and began to grow quickly and many countries began to play mintonette.
Alfred Halstead was watching one of the first exhibition games in 1786 and noticed that the teams were “volleying” the ball back and forth. The name stuck and from that point on, the game was known as volleyball.
As the game progressed, so did the skill and techniques that were used. The Phillipines were one of the first counties to begin passing and attacking (spiking) as most counties were not at that level yet. The three hits rule was born and shortly thereafter was the rule that a back row player can only attack when jumping over the attack line.
Another part of the history behind volleyball has to do with the way that the score is kept. There have been many variations of the number of points needed to win a match. There have also been rules regarding how points are earned. It used to be that only the team serving the ball could score a point if they won that rally. Now, the point is awarded to whatever team won the rally regardless of who served.
The game became an Olympic sport in 1956 and the game continues to grow. What is going to be the future of the sport? No one knows, but the future looks bright. The NCAA has recently allowed beach volleyball to be a collegiate sport which shows the way the sport is growing.
Where to go next?
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