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Volleyball (Olympic sport since 1964)
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History |
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Equipment |
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Glossary | Volleyball, like basketball, is a sport whose origin is known almost to the day. Oddly enough, both sports were invented at the same college and within a few years of one another. Volleyball was invented in 1895 by William G. Morgan, a student at Springfield College and a director of the YMCA at Holyoke, Massachusetts. The game was originally called "Mintonette".
Volleyball quickly spread around the world and became more popular in other countries than in the United States. The F¨¦d¨¦ration Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) was formed in 1946. The sport was introduced to the Olympics in 1964 by the Japanese, although it was never contested as a demonstration sport at the Olympics. No country has been truly dominant in volleyball, although the Soviet Union has won the most medals. Originally the Japanese had the world's best women players while the United States had the best men's team in the world throughout the 1980s.
Volleyball has now reached great heights of popularity in the United States and Brazil, largely thanks to the discipline of beach volleyball.
The beach volleyball phenomenon, although hugely visible, is still just in its infancy. From the first FIVB World Tour event just over ten years ago, to the overwhelming spectator and television success of 'Beach' at the Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, beach volleyball has opened up Volleyball to a completely new market.
History
Discipline's origin
Beach volleyball first appeared in the early 1920s in Santa Monica, California. It was intended as family fun. In no time, though, the discipline had spread across the world and, by 1927, it was the chief recreational activity of a French nudist colony.
The game reached countries like Czechoslovakia, Latvia and Bulgaria by the 1930s, then enjoyed a hike in popularity back in the United States when the Depression left people desperate for a break from their everyday travails and heading for the beach. The first official two-man tournament took place in 1947, and the first beach-volleyball circuit, involving hundreds of players and five California beaches, began in the '50s.
Soon, the discipline had the critical ties to popular culture that would launch it to new heights. Beauty contests began to add to the whole show atmosphere. During a 1957 tournament, the female star of the Hollywood film "Pajama Tops" was named Queen of the Beach, and kissed the winning players. One was Gene Selznick, the first King of the Beach in volleyball, who was fast accruing a large fan club.
In the 1960s, the Beatles appeared at Sorrento Beach in Los Angeles for a hit. Marilyn Monroe and other film stars were speaking favourably of the place, and United States president John F. Kennedy even went for a look. The natural progression was for sponsors to follow with their prize money in the 1970s, and by the end of that decade the discipline had a new, professional life.
Olympic history
Beach volleyball made its Olympic debut in 1996 at Atlanta.
The gold medal winners of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games were the United States for the men's event and Australia for the women's event.
Equipment
Ball
Knee pads
Net
Shoes
Sun protection
Sun glasses
Glossary
Ace: A serve that lands in the opponent's court without being touched.
Attack: An attempt by a player to win a point by hitting the ball over the net.
Attack line: A line three metres from the net which marks the limit for where a back-row player may advance to hit a ball from above the net.
Block: To block an opposing player from spiking the ball by jumping at the net with arms in the air.
Chuck: Pousser ou lancer la balle plutôt que de la frapper (argot).
Crossing space: The zone above the net and between two antennae through which the ball must pass during a rally.
Dig: A defensive move in which both arms are placed together in an attempt to bounce a hard-hit ball up into the air.
End line: A back boundary line of the court.
Facial: A boom or spike that hits an opponent in the face (slang).
Fault: A foul or error which results in the loss of the rally.
Ground: To hit the ball to the ground, preferably on the other team's court.
Heater: A hard-hit or spiked ball (slang).
Hit: To touch the ball as an offensive player, one of three "hits" allowed a team in getting the ball back over the net.
Hold: To let the ball settle into the hands briefly on a shot instead of releasing it immediately.
Kill: To smash the ball overarm into the opponent's court; also called a "spike".
Kong: A one-handed block, named after King Kong's style of swatting biplanes in the original King Kong movie (slang).
Lip: A good dig (slang).
Match: A series of sets to determine a winner.
Mintonette: The original name for volleyball.
Missile: A spike or serve hit out of bounds (slang).
Rally: The exchange of plays that decides each point.
Screen: To impede the opponent's view of the ball during the serve.
Serve: The stroke used to put the ball in play at the start of each rally.
Set: 1. The part of a match completed when one side has scored enough points to win a single contest. 2. To position the ball so a team-mate can attack.
Setter: A player who excels in setting up team-mates to attack.
Sideline: A side boundary line on a court.
Spade: An ace (slang).
Spike: To smash the ball overarm into the opponent's court; also called a "kill".
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