Volleyball

Overview

Two teams of six compete on a court divided by a net. A team may contact the ball three times before returning it, and no player may touch it twice in succession — except immediately after a block. A rally ends when the ball lands, goes out, or a team commits a fault.

This entry is checked against the FIVB Official Volleyball Rules 2025–2028, approved by the 39th FIVB World Congress and in force for all competitions beginning after 1 January 2025. Rule numbers below are FIVB's own. Where NCAA, high school or beach volleyball differ materially, it is noted.

1. The court and equipment

Playing area

The court is 18m long and 9m wide, surrounded by a free zone of at least 3m on all sides. For FIVB, World and Official Competitions that free zone grows to 5m from the side lines and 6.5m from the end lines, with 12.5m of clear height (Rule 1.1).

Lines are 5cm wide. A ball is "in" if any part of it touches the court including the boundary lines (Rule 8.3).

The attack line has its rear edge 3m back from the axis of the centre line, marking the front zone (Rule 1.3.4). In FIVB competition it is extended beyond the side lines by five 15cm dashes.

The net

The FIVB rules give two heights and no others (Rule 2.1.1):

Level	Height
Men	2.43m
Women	2.24m

The net height is the only difference between men's and women's volleyball in the FIVB rules. The ball (Rule 3), the court, scoring and every playing rule are identical; the word "women" appears in the rulebook only beside that 2.24m figure.

Age-group and veterans' heights are set by national federations, not by FIVB, so check your own association rather than trusting a table on the internet — including this one.

Measured at the centre of the court, and it must not exceed the official height over the side lines by more than 2cm.

The net is 1m wide (±3cm) and 9.5–10m long. Vertical antennae, 1.8m long and 10mm in diameter, are fastened at the outer edge of each side band, the top 80cm standing above the net. The ball must cross between the antennae. Touching an antenna is a fault.

The ball

Circumference 65–67cm, weight 260–280g, internal pressure 0.30–0.325 kg/cm². FIVB matches use three balls with six ball retrievers.

2. Teams and players

A team may list up to 12 players, plus a coach, assistant coach, trainer and doctor. FIVB competitions permit 14 with two liberos.

Six players are on court at any time — three front row (positions 2, 3, 4) and three back row (positions 1, 5, 6).

Only the captain on court may speak to the referees, and only when the ball is out of play.

Positions and rotation

At the moment the server strikes the ball, every player must be in their correct rotational position. Front-row players must have at least part of a foot closer to the centre line than their corresponding back-row player; right-side players must be closer to the right sideline than the centre player, and so on.

Once the serve is struck, players may move anywhere — the restriction applies only at that instant.

Winning a rally while receiving grants the serve and a clockwise rotation of one position.

3. Scoring

Volleyball uses rally scoring: every rally produces a point, regardless of who served.

• Sets are played to 25 points, won by a margin of at least two.
• A match is best of five sets.
• A deciding fifth set is played to 15, again by two.
• There is no ceiling. A set continues until someone leads by two.

Teams change ends between sets. In the deciding set they change again when the leading team reaches 8.

A team wins a rally by grounding the ball in the opponent's court, when the opponent commits a fault, or when the opponent receives a penalty.

4. Playing the ball

Team hits

A team is entitled to three hits to return the ball. A block does not count as one of the three, so a blocking team still has three contacts afterwards.

Consecutive contacts by the same player are a fault, except:

• After a block — the blocker may make the team's first hit.
• During a single simultaneous action on the first contact of a rally.

Characteristics of a hit

The ball may touch any part of the body, including the feet, legs and head. Kicking the ball is entirely legal and is a normal emergency save at professional level. This surprises people constantly — the restriction was removed from the Laws in 1995.

It must be struck, not caught or thrown, and must not come to rest — a held ball or lift is a fault.

A ball may rebound off multiple parts of the body only if the contacts occur simultaneously.

Simultaneous contacts

Two teammates may touch the ball at the same moment. It counts as two hits, and neither may play the ball again next. If two opponents contact it simultaneously over the net and it stays in play, the receiving team gets three new hits.

5. The net

Ball at the net

The ball must cross the vertical plane between the antennae. A ball crossing outside the antennae, or touching an antenna, is out.

A ball that touches the net during a rally — including on the serve — remains in play.

A ball may cross into the opponent's free zone and be played back, provided it returns to the player's own side via the crossing space.

Player at the net

Reaching over. A blocker may reach beyond the net, provided they do not interfere with the opponent before or during their attack hit. An attacker may follow through over the net after contact on their own side.

Contact with the net. Touching the net between the antennae during the action of playing the ball is a fault. Incidental contact with hair, or contact outside the antennae, is not.

Centre line. The rule is different for feet and for everything else, and this catches people out.

• Feet (Rule 11.2.2.1) — you may touch the opponent's court provided some part of the penetrating foot stays in contact with or directly above the centre line, and you do not interfere with an opponent.
• Any part of the body above the feet (Rule 11.2.2.2) — a hand, a knee, an elbow — may touch the opponent's court with no centre-line condition at all. The only test is interference.

So a hand flat on the opponent's floor well past the line is legal. A foot in the same place is not.

6. Serving

The server strikes the ball from behind the end line, within the 9m service zone, after the first referee's whistle.

• The ball must be clearly released or tossed before being struck.
• Eight seconds are allowed after the whistle.
• Only one toss is permitted. A dropped ball may be re-tossed once without penalty in some rule sets — FIVB does not allow this.
• The server may not touch the end line or the court until after contact.

Screening is a fault: teammates may not obstruct the receiving team's view of the server by waving arms, jumping, or standing grouped together.

The same player continues to serve while their team keeps winning rallies. A serving fault after the whistle, or an incorrect server, loses the rally.

7. Attack and block

Attack hit

Any action directing the ball toward the opponent, other than a serve or block, is an attack hit. It is completed the moment the ball fully crosses the vertical plane of the net.

Back-row players may attack at any height from behind the front zone. At take-off their foot must neither have touched nor crossed the attack line (Rule 13.2.2.1). They may land inside the front zone (Rule 13.2.2.2).

They may also attack from within the front zone, provided that at contact part of the ball is lower than the top of the net (Rule 13.2.3). It is only a fault when the ball is entirely above net height (Rule 13.3.3).

Attacking a serve

A serve may not be attacked while the ball is entirely above the top of the net and in the front zone. In practice this means you cannot spike a serve, and you cannot block one either.

Block

Only front-row players may block. The block is the action of intercepting a ball coming from the opponent by reaching above the net.

• A block is not a team hit.
• Blocking a serve is a fault.
• Blocking the opponent's set or pass — a ball not directed at your court — may be a fault for interference.

8. The libero

A defensive specialist wearing a contrasting jersey, designated before the match.

The libero:

• Plays only in the back row.
• May not complete an attack hit on a ball entirely above the top of the net.
• May not block or attempt to block.
• May not serve in FIVB rules. NCAA permits the libero to serve in one rotation.
• May replace any back-row player, without counting as a substitution, but replacements must be separated by a completed rally.

If the libero sets the ball using overhand finger action while in front of the attack line, a teammate may not then attack that ball above the height of the net.

9. Interruptions and intervals

Interruption	Allowance
Timeouts	2 per set, 30 seconds each
Substitutions	6 per set (FIVB)
Interval between sets	3 minutes
Interval before deciding set	3 minutes

A substituted player may re-enter, but only in their original position, and only once per set.

Technical timeouts of 60 seconds at 8 and 16 points were used in FIVB world competitions for many years. They do not appear anywhere in the 2025–2028 rules. Some competitions still run them under their own regulations, so check the event.

An improper request — asking for a timeout when none remain, for instance — is rejected and recorded, and a second one in the same match is sanctioned as a delay.

10. Conduct and sanctions

Almost every summary of this online gets the cards the wrong way round, including, until recently, this one. A yellow card is a warning and costs nothing. It is the red card that costs a point. Rule 21.6:

Shown	Meaning	Effect
Verbal	Warning, stage 1	Nothing, not recorded as a sanction
Yellow card	Warning, stage 2	Nothing. Still not a sanction
Red card	Penalty	Point and service to the opponent
Red + yellow together in one hand	Expulsion	Out for the rest of the set
Red + yellow held separately	Disqualification	Out for the rest of the match

The trigger points (Rule 21.3): first rude conduct is a penalty; a first offensive conduct, or a second rude conduct, is expulsion; a first physical attack or threatened aggression, or a second offensive conduct, is disqualification.

Delay sanctions are separate: the first delay in a match earns a warning, and every subsequent delay by that team earns a penalty.

11. Officials

Rule 22.1 names six roles, not four:

• First referee — on a stand at one end of the net, controls the match and has final authority.
• Second referee — on the floor opposite, handles substitutions, timeouts, centre line and the benches.
• Challenge referee — where the video challenge system is in use.
• Reserve referee.
• Scorer (with an assistant scorer in FIVB competition) — records the match and verifies the rotation order.
• Line judges — four, or two, signalling in, out, antenna and foot faults.

The Challenge and reserve referees and the assistant scorer are required for FIVB, World and Official Competitions.

Commonly argued

• A ball on the line is in. The line is part of the court.
• A block is not a hit. After blocking, your team still has three contacts.
• Net touch is only a fault when playing the ball. Brushing the net while walking under it during a dead ball is nothing. Hair touching the net is not a fault.
• A foot in the opponent's court is legal if part of it stays on or above the centre line. A hand or knee has no such condition — only the interference test applies.
• The serve may touch the net and still be good. The "let serve" rule that made this a fault was abolished in 2000.
• You may play a ball that has crossed outside the antenna, provided you send it back through the crossing space on your own side.
• You can kick the ball, and use your head. Any part of the body is legal. The foot restriction disappeared in 1995.
• You cannot spike or block a serve. Attacking a serve in the front zone while it is entirely above net height is a fault (13.3.4), and blocking a serve is a fault outright (14.6.3).
• A yellow card is only a warning. The red card is the one that concedes a point. Expulsion is both cards in one hand; disqualification is both held apart.
• FIVB publishes two net heights only, 2.43m and 2.24m. Everything else is a national federation's rule.