Monday, 9 June 2014

History of Volleyball





Volleyball


Volleyball sport has come a long way since it started in 1900. This sport has gained much popularity in its first 100 years up till 1995. After football, volleyball is considered the next most played sport followed by a huge number of people across the world. The sport has start of two centuries and the dawn of the new millennium. First county played volleyball was US. The volleyball now is of the most popular sports in Brazil, and most of Europe, especially Italy, the Netherlands and Serbia, as well as Russia and some countries in Asia. Volleyball is now considering one of the five biggest sports in the world. It has the largest international sporting federation called FIVB which has 220 affiliated national federations under it. FIVB was founded in 1947, the first world championship for men was held in 1949, while the first world championship for women was in 1952.  
Also it is one of those few sports which gained exponential growth in the last decade with some great volleyball events of world competition.. With these successful sporting events, beach volleyball is also making its place and the viewership is increasing every day. The successful volleyball events conducted by FIVB have made volleyball a never ending sport due to its wide reach and exposure.


History of Volleyball


William G. Morgan (1870-1942), a US national was born in New York and is known as the inventor of the game volleyball. Originally, he named volleyball as “Mintonette”. Morgan was a physical instructor at the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA).. He thought he should come up with an interesting type of recreational that required to be designed in a way that would demand less physical contact as compared to basketball. It was same time when the game of basketball was also beginning to develop which was becoming popular among young men. Morgan had to invent such an activity which was less violent, intense and along with younger men, older men can also take part in it actively.


Morgan started working on inventing a sporting activity and was of the objective that the sport should require least equipment. According to Morgan, as he said once, he was inspired by tennis but it required a ball, rackets, net and other equipment so he ruled out that option. He had to come up with something simple.  As a result of his own sports training methods and his practice experience in the YMCA gym, he thought to blend the elements of basketball, baseball, tennis and handball. He thought to use the net and placed it at a height of 6 feet above the ground and finally came up with an idea of a sport in which only a ball was to be used. The sport is now commonly known as volleyball. He asked a firm named A.G. Spalding Bros. to prepare the ball which was leather covered with a rubber inner tube. The ball was not more than 280 g with a circumference less than 67 cm. Morgan’s and his friends Frank Wood and John Lynch set the basic concepts and rules of the sport “Mintonette”. Morgan explained the rules to the conference of YMCA directors.


The first laws of the sport that Morgan’s putted were that two teams divided by a net, Each of the team can only play with six players on court. A team can touch the ball three times on its side of the net. Also the players cannot catch the ball. As well if the players touching the net while attempting to play the ball, or a player penetrating under the net into the opponent's court, it will score point for opponent's team. The concept of the game is to send the ball over the net in order to ground it on the opponent's court, and to prevent the same effort by the opponent.


 In 1964, the sport was officially included in Summer Olympics. The Olympics also set some of new rule. Such as, Matches are played in five sets. The team who win the first two sets will win the game. In 1998, the FIVB introduced a new player with specialist role called the libero. This player must wear a different colored uniform from the rest of the team and can only be substituted in backcourt for any player on the team. The libero cannot send the ball over the net, but plays a vital role for the team in serve reception and backcourt defiance.


 Volleyball in UAE


Volleyball Is one of the most popular world sports in UAE. there have been a lot sporting events recently in which volleyball was prominent. These events are creating more and more presence of volleyball sport among UAE citizens. United Arab Emirates volleyball association was founded in 1975. UAE men team located in the ranking 75 in FIVB and 6 in AVA (The Arab Volleyball Association). In 2013, UAE hosted a volleyball tournament in Dubai where most of the Asian teams participated including Korea, Iran and China. These events are broad that volleyball sport is getting promoted in UAE. Government as well as private sector including hotel and tourism industry is taking keen interest to facilitate this sport within UAE.





 
References


History of Volleyball » NCVA. (n.d.). NCVA RSS2. Retrieved June 9, 2014, from http://www.ncva.com/history-of-volleyball/


Schmitting, N. (n.d.). What Is a Volleyball Libero?. About.com. Retrieved June 9, 2014, from http://video.about.com/volleyball/What-Is-a-Volleyball-Libero-.htm


Volleyball. (2014, July 6). Wikipedia. Retrieved June 9, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volleyball


 

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