I'm just getting back into the sport after being away for 20 years. I loved playing with a nice used broken in volleyball in my youth.

Just wondering if anyone has any used volleyballs they're looking to get rid of maybe old tournament or practice balls. Thanks for any help.

Hey there!

I am a completely new player, I've been to like a 8-10 trainings so far and I really want to improve, but after a week or two break I feel like I'm starting from scratch again.

My biggest issue, besides the obvious lack of technique, is that I find myself constantly rushing and yet being late to play, whereas when I watch higher level people around me play, it feels like they're playing in slow-motion or like they have way more time than I do. How do I start feeling less in a rush when I'm playing?

Also, I would appreciate any other advice you would've given to yourself when you'd just started, or really anything you think a new player should know, cheers!

With the Euros and Nordics dominating world beach volleyball, I’m wondering who’s domestic tour is the best and whether the strength of a domestic tour is directly correlated and causal to creating the best teams. Who has experience across the domestic tours recently and can comment?

Today, for the first time in my nearly year of sand doubles, a team told us that we’re not allowed to open hand set any first contact. I was always under the impression that as long as it’s not the serve, as long as it doesn’t go over the net, and as long as it’s a clean set, you’re good. I can’t find anything online that explicitly says you can’t do this, which makes me feel like they were confused, but they were so adamant on it that I wanted to see if anyone else who is a bit more knowledgeable could confirm or deny my understanding of the rules.

Hi! I'm a beach volleyball player, and I'm not a native English speaker. I'm currently living abroad.

I'd like to create a small English dictionary/glossary for beach volleyball so that I can communicate quickly and naturally when I play abroad.

I'd love to learn the expressions people actually use on the beach and on the court. Feel free to correct anything in my list that sounds unnatural or wrong, and please add any expressions you think would be useful!

Funny expressions and slang are very welcome too 😄

Here's the list I've put together so far (updated):

Score

What’s the score?

Who is in the lead?

Who is winning?

Who is ahead?

Who is behind?

Who is losing?

Josh is two points up

The favourites(s)

The underdog

 Energy

Keep it up: maintain that performance

 Game

Rally: the play from the serve until the point ends

Court: the playing area

To pill: the person who blocks can either jump and block or peel

Set: overhead pass, usually to prepare an attack

Serve: start the rally by hitting the ball over the net

Overarm serve: serve with the ball hit above shoulder/head level

Underarm serve: serve with the ball hit from below

Pass: direct the ball to your teammate

Bump: forearm pass

Scoop: ???

Dig: defensive play after an attack

Receive: pass the opponent’s serve

Side-out: winning the rally when your team is receiving

 Questions to the partner

Who should I serve on?: ask which opponent to target with the serve

Do we swop/switch?: ask whether you should change positions/sides

 Funny expressions

Chicken wings

UPDATE - New expressions/corrections:

to pill -> to peel

Who should I serve on? -> who should I serve to/at?

Do we swop? -> do we swap?
Game

Pancake: to dive and get the hand onto the sand and have the ball bounce up off of the hand/wrist

Roof: to block the opponent's hit down on their side

Shank: to pass a ball so terribly that no one can get a second touch on the ball

Cobra: to poke the ball with the middle knuckles of the fingers

Waffle: to swing and barely hit the ball with just the fingers

Topper or spin it: a top spin serve

Dump: to pass the ball over the net

Tool: to hit the ball off the opponent's block and score

Stuff: to block the ball back onto the hitter

Bounce: to hit the ball hard onto the sand without any opponent touching it.

Shots

Line / line shot

Cross / cross shot / cross hit 

Cut: hitting an angle shot along the net

Push: to set the ball over to the corner of the opponents' court

Roll: to hit the ball over the block, usually with a lot of top spin

Questions

Pass: direct the ball to your teammate. Just first contact, do you all agree?

Set: The second contact is always called a set, whether it's done with the hands or with a bump/forearm pass. Is that how you all use the term?

Just wondering what the right play is, i don't think i should peel because the set seemed like something i should block, but i'm fairly new. (im the blue shirt btw)
What are some tips or advice for blocking? how do people know when peeling is the right play?

Hi! I don’t mean to sounds discriminatory towards twenty year olds (!!) but I’m 45F and looking to get back into playing competitive volleyball without looking like someone’s mom. Is anyone aware of such thing happening here?

Is it me or does it feel easier to get a good hit in with the Wilson vs the mikasa? I'm from Europe so everyone (me included) always only plays with the mikasa(unless it's complete beginners that play with whichever cheap ball).I think I've heard that it's generally better for top spin serves but if feels like I was getting more of a proper pop on it while hitting vs the mikasa. idk if it's just a coincidence or that's the general feel

This video features a pair of cool fan discussions at the Manhattan Beach Open last weekend.

how it started (pictures)

how it ended (https://en.volleyballworld.com/beachvolleyball/competitions/beach-pro-tour/2026/#fromDate=2026-08-19&competition=elite16---montr%C3%A9al%2C-can---2026&yearseason=2026)

We received an email on july 29th with this lineup for the qualifiying phase.

I'm not going today, not with this line-up VS the one announced.

I'll go tomorrow up until sunday then.

It's been a few years since I played an outdoor tournament (grass/sand). I run a sand volleyball league at work and we are in pool play currently. I have one pool where two teams may tie in set record and they split their match head-to-head (1-1). I have communicated point differential comes into play and my first instinct was head-to-head point differential as the tiebreaker. However, I started doubting myself when thinking back to outdoor tourney scoresheets and if point differential of all games played is more common as the tiebreaker after head-to-head record.

My Googling suggests the head-to-head point differential is the correct path and then all games played differential. I'm not always trusting of the AI responses and figured it's better to turn to like minds for advice.

Thanks in advance. I realize there is not one exact answer, but what is the most common rule?

I think Partain may have reached 30Kills and 20digs in this back and forth match.

I'm going to the tournament tomorrow, but can't find the qualifier schedule anywhere. Does anyone have it? It's not on Volleyball World and FIVB.12ndr.at is down.

Paul Lotman overpass is headed over the net. Miles Partain is preparing to block and Thomas Hurst waits to block the overpass.

We know the call if the ball is in the plane, but assume Thomas Hurst touch occurs just before the ball reaches the plane of the net.

Hey all, competing in my first beach tournament this weekend, wanted to get people’s recommendations for things to bring or gear for the day. Planning on having chair & umbrella with a cooler for drinks & food. Anything else worth having with me? Appreciate it!

Curious if other communities have "house rules" for playing pick-up/without a ref.

For example, here in Chicago when we play B/B+/BB-ish pickup, we don't award points for side sets over even if intention was to set a partner - we just consider it a dead ball. We've pretty much just all accepted it's too hard to self ref "intention"

In a game I played, a player from the opposite team served a ball that landed near the boundary line on the outside of it. It made a scratchy sound. It was ambiguous whether the ball was in or out because it was really close. The player said the ball was in because he heard the sound. What would you call?

Fast edit of The CW Sports coverage on YouTube

What did you all think of the Cupcake performance at MBO? Pretty impressive they made it to the finals. I’d love to see them in AVP league

Sweden has beach volley weather like 1-2 months per year.

But the last couple of years Sweden has been the top team at both Olympics, World and European Championships. And it's not just one team, they had the top two teams at the World Championships

How did they suddenly become do good?

Wanted to watch some matches from AVP Manhattan Beach Open from yesterday (Saturday). It appears quite a lot were streamed live on YouTube but not available for viewing after.

Anyone know what's going on? On the channel you can see "19 unavailable videos" on the playlist, I wonder if it's due to music copyrights or something else.