The sport of women's beach volleyball is more than just fun in the sun on the sandy beaches of the American coastline. It may have started out that way, but over the last twenty years, the game has grown into a full-blown sport that is now a Summer Olympic sport. A hybrid of indoor volleyball, beach volleyball - especially on a competitive level - is only played with two people instead of a team of six. The rules are little different and they include some interesting hand signals to help the players. Here we will take a look at women's beach volleyball and how it has grown into such a popular sport.
Santa Monica, California is the home of beach volleyball. It started in the 1920s and quickly spread to Europe. By the 1960s the first professional beach volleyball league was attempted. It failed in the United States, but was a success in France where the first professional tournament was held. In 1960 the first organized American tournament was held on Manhattan Beach in Southern California. It was a huge success, getting touted as the 'Wimbledon of Beach Volleyball'. Within ten years, professional tournaments in Santa Monica found sponsors in beer and cigarette companies.
Players continued to hone their volleyball skills and the game became extremely popular in the 1980s. International beach volleyball tournaments became more and more commonplace with the United States, Brazil, and Australia becoming the three heavyweight nations of the sports. European countries and China became interested in this summer sport, one that became extremely popular among the women in the world. The 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona exhibited the sport and it became an official sport of the Olympics in 1996. The women's beach volleyball events have garnered gold medals once for each of the three heavyweight countries since.
The basic volleyball rules that govern women's beach volleyball are very similar to those used in standard indoor volleyball. The two man team in beach volleyball must score a point by forcing the ball to ground on the opponent's court. They can also score a point when the opposing team commits a fault - an error or illegal action. The ball can only be touched three times before it must cross the net and the contact must be made consecutively by the two players. The game is played on a sandy surface instead of a hard court that is slightly smaller than an indoor court. There are other minor differences between the two games and the beach volleyball is actually a bit larger and softer than the standard indoor ball. Also, players play in their bare feet.
Volleyball drills are important for players of beach volleyball as some of the minor differences have more to do with how the ball is volleyed across the net. Players of women's beach also use hand signals behind their backs to help their partner on the court know what type of play they intend to make once the ball is served. These hand signals can be given with one or both hands and when used wisely, they can make all the difference in the world to the outcome of a women's beach volleyball match.
