a team sport played with a ball by two teams, each consisting of six people. The players of one team, hitting the ball not more than three times with any part of the body above the waist, try to direct it to the other side over a net stretched across the court. The object is to make the ball touch the ground within the boundaries of the court, or to force the opponents to break the rules of the game in their return. The court is a rectangle 9 m by 18 m, divided into two equal halves by the net. The height of the net varies for women (2.24 m), men (2.43 m), and different age groups. A match consists of three or five games, each one proceeding until one team scores 15 points. If the score of a game reaches 14-14, play continues until one team has a two-point margin.
Volleyball began in 1895 in the USA; W. M. Morgan (Massachusetts) is considered the inventor of the game. It spread to Japan, China, and the Philippines. In Europe, volleyball was first played in Czechoslovakia (1907). The International Volleyball Association was formed in 1947, uniting 110 countries (on Jan. 1, 1971). The association sponsors official competitions for men and women: world championships (since 1949); continental championships, including Europe (since 1948); national team competitions for the World Cup (since 1965); and club team competitions for the European Cup (since 1961). Since 1964, men’s and women’s volleyball competition has been included in the program of the Olympic games. Volleyball is played most extensively in the USSR, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Japan, Mexico, and Brazil.
The first rules of the game in the USSR were enacted in 1926. In 1932, the All-Union Section of Volleyball was created (now the Volleyball Federation of the USSR). The first official championships of the USSR were held in 1933 among select city teams. Since 1938, national championships have been played every year among club teams. The most successful teams in these competitions have been the Moscow women’s teams Spartak, Lokomotiv, Dinamo, and the Central Sports Club of the Army, and the men’s teams Spartak (Moscow and Leningrad), Dinamo (Moscow), the Central Sports Club of the Army, Kalev (Tallinn), and Burevestnik (Alma-Ata).
In 1948 the Volleyball Federation of the USSR joined the International Volleyball Association. Soviet volleyball players have won many international competitions. The USSR women’s team won the European championship in 1949, 1950, 1951, 1958, 1963, and 1967, and the world championship in 1952, 1956, 1960, and 1970; they were the winners of the Olympic games in 1968. The USSR men’s team was the European champion in 1950, 1951, and 1967, and world champion in 1949, 1952, 1960, and 1962; they won the Olympics in 1964 and 1968. Soviet volleyball teams have repeatedly won the European Cup for national champion club teams. Among the best Soviet volleyball players are the Honored Masters of Sport V. A. Oskolkova, L. S. Buldakova, I. V. Ryskal’, A. I. Chinilin, K. K. Reva, andG. G. Mondzolevskii.
In 1970 in the Soviet Union, 6 million people regularly played volleyball; there were approximately 1,000 Masters of Sport, 64 Honored Masters of Sport, and 26 Honored Volleyball Trainers of the USSR.
IU. D. ZHELEZNIAK, V. I. SAVVIN, and O. S. CHEKHOV