Get Out & Play Volleyball

Indoor volleyball is the most popular discipline of volleyball. It’s played on a hard-surface indoor court with up to six players per side. The U.S. has won 10 Olympic medals since volleyball was introduced as a summer sport at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo. USA Volleyball supports and trains the U.S. Indoor Men’s and Women’s National Teams at the National Team Training Center in Anaheim, Calif. Indoor volleyball is also offered as a collegiate sport at more than 1,800 colleges and universities in the United States.

Competitive indoor volleyball play is available in most parts of the United States at the middle and high school levels, as well as a nationwide network of USA Volleyball clubs. Clubs can field teams, offer lessons or training programs, and may choose to compete both regionally and nationally. Top junior and adult indoor volleyball teams compete to earn bids at national qualifying events to vie for a coveted national title at USA Volleyball National Championship events each year.

Beach volleyball is a discipline of volleyball typically played in the sand with teams of two players per side. Most of the skills and basic rules of the game are the same, with each pair covering the full court and working together to score points. Beach volleyball was introduced as an Olympic summer sport in 1996, and USA Volleyball teams have won 10 Olympic medals since the discipline’s debut. As one of the fastest-growing sports at the college level, there are more than 100 beach volleyball varsity programs at colleges and universities across the United States. USA Volleyball supports and trains the U.S. Beach National Teams at the Beach National Team Training Center in Torrance, California.

Beach volleyball is an emerging scholastic sport at the high school level, but competitive play is available in the U.S. through various clubs and recreational organizations. USA Volleyball offers the USA National Beach Tour, a system of regional and national qualifying events that give young athletes the opportunity to compete for a national title at the USA National Beach Tour Junior Championship each year.

Sitting volleyball is a Paralympic sport governed by the same set of rules as the able-bodied game with a few differences. In sitting volleyball, the net is about 3 feet high, and the court is 10 x 6 meters. Athletes must remain in contact with the court at all times when handling the ball. Different rules, including the ability to block the serve, make sitting volleyball a fast-paced and exciting game to play and watch. Invented in the Netherlands in 1956, sitting volleyball was introduced as a Paralympic sport in 1976. The United States has won four medals since its debut.

Anyone can play sitting volleyball, and there are sitting volleyball divisions that allow able-bodied players to compete at the USA Volleyball Open National Championship each year. Athletes who have a disability are encouraged to contact the Sitting National Team program to learn more about selection to the U.S. Sitting National Teams based in Edmond, Oklahoma.

Snow volleyball is a three-player variant of beach volleyball played in winter conditions. Teams are allowed one reserve player and two substitutions per set, and each match is best of three 15-point sets.

Since developing in Austria in 2008, the sport has since grown across Europe and in the Americas. Snow volleyball was showcased as a demonstration sport at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea, and the inaugural FIVB Snow Volleyball World Tour began in March 2019. The FIVB aims to offer a World Championship in the sport in 2021, and along with USA Volleyball is aiming to make snow volleyball a medal sport at the Olympic Winter Games. This would make volleyball the first sport to be offered in both the Summer and Winter Games.