The archive
Every guide on the site, by section. Fifteen pieces across four sections.
Section 01
Every serve became a point
- Every serve became a pointRally point scoring arrived in 1999 and turned an open-ended match into one that fits a broadcast slot, which changed how squads are built.
- The let serve, and other small rewritesA serve touching the net stayed in play from 2000, and a handful of similar changes quietly removed dead time from the game.
- What the jump serve did to everything elseOnce the serve became an attack, first contact became the hardest skill on the court and the rest of the rulebook adjusted around it.
- The touch that is not a touchJudging a block touch decides possession, and it is the call officials most often have to make on sound.
Section 02
She may not attack, may not block, may not serve
- She may not attack, may not block, may not serve in rotationThe libero is a defensive specialist in a different shirt, exempt from rotation and barred from attacking — a role invented to keep rallies alive.
- The shirt that tells the refereeThe contrasting kit exists so officials can police the restrictions in real time, which is a rule enforced by clothing.
- What a defensive specialist costs youOne roster place spent on someone who cannot score is a real trade, and not every system takes it.
Section 03
Legal at the whistle, then anywhere
- Legal at the whistle. After that, anywhere.Six players must be in a legal order at service and are then free to move, which is why the game looks chaotic and is not.
- The overlap faultPositional faults are judged at the instant of contact, and a team can be penalised for standing still.
- Five-one, six-two, and why a team picks oneThe number of setters a system uses decides how many front-row attackers are available in each rotation.
Section 04
The best players are not where you think
- The Nations League, and the summer the world seesThe FIVB's annual competition is the format most viewers encounter, and it is a recent invention with a commercial structure behind it.
- The NCAA, three divisions and a stadium recordAmerican college volleyball has a scale and an attendance record that surprises people who only watch the international game.
- The clubs, where the season actually happensItaly, Poland and Turkey run the leagues most of the world's best players spend most of the year in.
- Beach is a different sportTwo players, no rotation, no substitutions and a surface that punishes a different body — the codes share a name and little else.
- Names on the record, with the year attachedDocumented achievements, dated — the only way to write about players without writing about people.