Volleyball – History and evolution
Volleyball is the classic case of a hybrid sport. The game can trace its origin from many modern sports being played today. Volleyball has borrowed from basketball, tennis, baseball and handball. Volleyball’s founder, William G.Morgan, invented the sport
in 1895 and called it mintonette. It changed names after a comment from a spectator described the game as the ‘volleying’ of the ball. In 1896, the game began to be called Volleyball after Alfred Halstead coined the name.
Morgan, who was the Director of Physical Education at the Holyoke, Massachusetts, Young Men’s Christian Association, met with James Naismith. Naismith was a sports coach and had invented basketball for his students back in 1891. Taking inspiration from this
inventor, Morgan started laying the grounds for volleyball as he thought that the adults at YMCA should have a more exciting game to play. In contrast to basketball, volleyball was made a bit less energetic to suit the age group it was targeting.
The initial volleyball rules and regulations were quite simple and straightforward. There was no restriction in the number of players that could take part in the game, neither was the number of times to make contact with the ball before passing it over the
net was specified. The height of the net that was used in the fledgling years of volleyball was six-feet and six-inches while the court size was 25 feet by 50 feet. Each team was allowed a total of three serves per inning with nine innings per match. In case
the serve hit the net, it was declared a foul and a point was given to the opposing team. There was a special exemption made for women, who were allowed to take hold of the ball before making a hit.
The first game of volleyball was played at Springfield College on the July 7th, 1896. Gradually, the sport began to gain popularity and in the early 1900s, a proper ball for volleyball was made and it was in 1922 that the first YMCA national championship
took place in Brooklyn, New York. A total number of 27 teams from 11 states became part of the competition. The United States Volleyball Association was also established in 1928 so that standard rules and regulations could be formulated.
By this time, volleyball had travelled across the globe to countries like Cuba, Canada, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, Brazil and Philippines. It was here in the Philippines that the kill as well as the set and spike tactics were first practiced. Up to now, the scoring
had changed from 21 to 15 points and the rules were also standardised so that the ball must be hit a maximum number of three times before passing it over the net.
It took some time for volleyball to reach a professional level. However, it is gaining a lot of momentum around the world. According to a research conducted in 1951, volleyball was played by more than 50 million people annually in over 60 countries. It entered
the Olympics in the 1957, when it became an Olympic team sport. However, the first volleyball Olympic match was played in 1964 in Tokyo.
From then on volleyball has soared in popularity and came to be appreciated in almost every part of the world. There are several volleyball championships that are held annually. The major ones include the National Collegiate Athletic Association, European
Championships, European League Cups, Men’s and Women’s World Championships, Federation Internationale de Volleyball World Grand Prix and ofcourse, the Olympics.
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