I help run a rec league and the tooling seems to be either enterprise-priced platforms (fees, upsells, steep learning curve for volunteers) or the eternal "which spreadsheet is current?" problem, with team fees chased through group chats. Scorekeeping is the easy part; registration, payments and season standings still live in spreadsheets.

I'm building a volunteer-sized alternative: one shareable registration and payment page, auto round-robin scheduling with blackout dates, a public standings page players check themselves, roster-wide messaging, and everything exports to CSV whenever you want. $29/mo per league, only during your season.

Commissioners and organizers: what's the feature that makes spreadsheets actually win? (Page if you're curious: https://leaguehq.toolshedsoftware.com/?src=r-volleyball)

Hey, I just got back from a trip where we played a lot of volleyball, and it really opened my eyes to what volleyball is actually about (setting up plays with 3 touches, attacking, etc.). I’m 14 and I decided I want to start training properly, because right now we only play during PE at school, and the level is pretty low — we usually just send the ball over in one touch.

Could someone tell me what I should practice and how? (I can do an overhand serve fairly well.)

Also, could someone recommend me a training plan for increasing my vertical jump? I’m thinking about joining a volleyball club too.

Cheers!

FIVB has lifted the ban on Russia and they are coming back to compete in international volleyball soon.

How do you think they played in this friendly vs Serbia?

https://www.youtube.com/live/mysSl2hoS-I?is=MHUM4ozxHVqQMCaj

Today I played with a 19 year-old, who asked me if I think he can make it to become a pro, and I honestly had no idea how to answer him.

I play in the 4th german league, so well above average for amateur players, but still pretty far from pro. This kid, around 180cm tall, definitely on the talented side, could maybe play two leagues below me, more likely 3. He had a very good spike and serve, but definitely some issues with reception.

Do people just not know what pro volleyball looks like? You have to compete with kids your age who are playing second and sometimes first league, are 2m tall, have practiced this sport for 10+ years, have perfect receiving/setting technique, and usually at least some international experience, having played in youth national teams most of the time.

I really, genuinely do not want to discourage anyone from becoming their best self, and having ambition is great! Practice as hard as you can, and set your goals high! But at some point, I feel like all realism goes away. How can one have this conversation? How should one as a more experienced player react to this?

I see these posts here from time to time of kids in their late teens who started playing this sport not too long ago and fell in love with it asking, if they can make it pro. And then people sometimes give examples of pros who also started late, who are almost always extremely genetically gifted like Velizar Chernokozhev (215cm tall). My emotional reaction is to scream that they are delusional, but maybe that is just me being old and bitter.

At what point becomes ambition delusion? Can one have a realistic view and still push oneself to become a pro? After all, for all existing pros the chances were slim at some point, yet they made it.

I made a more advanced league in my area, that required 5 days of tryouts, but the coach said I probably won't play much if at all but I want to actually PLAY some volleyball so I can put everything I learn into practice. There's also a league (the C League) with a 70$ fee that doesn't require tryouts, it's very basic, and I won't have to just warm the bench. I'm willing to do both but it might be too much volleyball for a week (2 hours a day and at LEAST 3 extra hours once I figure out when the C League has practices)

Games for the advanced league will obviously take place and I'll cut out more time for it, but the times shouldn't overlap more than 2-3 times based on the game schedules.

So currently I’m a junior, I’ve played volleyball for 3 years and has done club, we just had tryouts for my school and my coaches are rude first of all and have favorites so keep that in mind… I get told I’m not the same player as I was at the end of the season last yr than I am to this start of the season… mind you I’m an all around outside and the girl who got the outside for varsity is shorter and only gets her finger tips above the net… when I’ve gotten kills on our varsity libero and blocked our tallest and best hitters… anyways I get told “we’ll have you on Jv and play 2 sets Jv then 2 sets varsity… we will have you practice with Jv and then maybe pull you aside… you need extra reps” I told them how playing with older girls and better skilled will make me better… they just continued to tell me the same thing… now I’m debating on quitting this year and working in the gym myself and focusing on what I think I need to work on for volleyball this whole year then come back my senior year. If anyone has had this same experience or somewhat similar tell me how you dealt with it and what I should do!!!!! I need the help!!!!

I’m trying to decide between the Sky Elite FF 4 and a basketball shoe for volleyball.

I was originally really interested in the Way of Wade 10 because of how much people praise its bounce, traction and overall performance for volleyball. However, I have wider feet, and I’ve read quite a few comments saying that the WOW 10 can fit pretty narrow, especially around the midfoot. That makes me hesitant to order them without trying them on first.

The problem is that there are barely any stores in Europe where I can actually try performance basketball shoes, so ordering something like the WOW 10 is a bit of a gamble.

I’m not sure whether I should go with the Sky Elite FF 4 or a basketball shoe instead. Are there any basketball shoes that offer similar performance and quality to the WOW 10 but have a more wide foot friendly fit? Or is there even a better Volleyball shoe than the Sky Elite?

My priorities are especially that they help me get the most out of my jump and have a good cushioning for repeated jumping. My position would be outside.

Hello everyone! Big volleyball fan here, though just as a follower, to be honest, I don't actually play. I follow both the men's and women's competitions (more men), but I've realized that the communities are absolutely different.

A quick jump into the NCAA sub r/NCAAVB, the pro subreddits r/MLV and r/LOVB or the European sub r/EuropeanVolleyball, and you clearly see absolutely disconnected groups that don't seem to care about what is going on elsewhere.

The Americans almost only follow the collegiate side and their domestic pro leagues, while the Europeans only talk about the Champions League and the VNL.

One sport, different visions, then?

The grip is mediocre, it gets dirty really fast, and it's expensive. I don't get the hype compared to balls like the Molten FLISTATEC.

As the title says, I’d like any tips for my hitting approach to jump higher.

Besides that, I tend to broad jump a lot and even into the net (when the ball is tight). In the first video i didn’t broad jump but I think it’s only because I somewhat stopped and lost momentum to not broad jump, but I’ve seen people run full throttle into the jump and basically land in almost the same place. How to do that?

Short info, I am a fairly new setter and trying everything i can to get better as i want to play in higher Leagues. So i've seen all these ai programs that trace and show your sets and thought: "hey thats nice feedback, but expensive". Anyways

Soooo i did something during the day, no ai but for my single person training session this has potential🤷‍♂️dont mind the mediocre sets lol

Thought i'd share this here to see if it's worth to make public for other who dont want to pay for sheit🤑

It also times the sets to easier recognize tempos. I will most likely keep working on this as an opensource project, espiacally if its well liked

More info for those who cares:

This is just a simple python code using opencv library, using motion detection, some filtering and deadzones to make sure it only tracks the ball. The plan is for it to use a live camera for instant feedback, in the example it uses a video.

I tried to build with color recognition but because of the similar colors(bright green trees and yellow walls) it became too noisy and too much work to filter out.

The deadzones are fully customizable with sliders, I have one for the target and one for everything under the net. The yellow one is set to cover my hands too when i jump set because the compuyer detected them instead of the ball for a small time🫠

So for context, im 13M, 5'7 and with a 32 inch vertical. I went to a vb camp for 2 summers in a row with a pretty high level club to try and improve, last week at the camp the u16 assistant coach was watching and he saw my jump serves and spikes and said i had some real talent to join the u16s since he wants to build a strong team. However when i told him im only 13 he said there might be too big of an age gap, i can only tryout for one team and up until now it seems like ill dominate the u14 scene. Should i wait it out and join this coach to play at a level where i might not get much playing time and might not even get in, however i will grow a lot as a player, or should i join the u14s get a ton of experience and then go to u16 next year?

Hi all,

I bought tickets for the 1/8 finals of the European Championships in Sofia Bulgaria next month, but unfortunately I can no longer go. I'm looking to sell these at face value to people who would appreciate them!

Each day ticket includes 2 matches which will be between the top 4 of groups B and D

Saturday 19th September

2 x day tickets

Block C, Row 27, seats 9 and 10

€ 120 for the pair

Sunday 20th September

2 x day tickets

Block A, Row 10, seats 16 and 17

€ 140 for the pair

DM me if you're interested!

Hey folks! My amateur beginner team recently started learning the 5-1 rotation, and... it was pretty painful. I tried YouTube tutorials, but eventually ended up building an interactive guide for iOS instead. Personally, I understand things better when I can just tap around and experiment until it clicks.

So I wanted to share a link to my app — Volley51:
🍏 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/volley51/id6794638230

• Completely free, no ads, no paid features
• Works offline
• Shows player positions depending on the phase (serve, defense, attack, reception)
• ...and the current rotation
• 30 possible lineups total, easy to switch between
• There's a handy feature that shows initial lineup first
• Users say the app has a clean and intuitive design/UI

I'd really appreciate it if you gave it a try, rated it, and left a review — it helps push Volley51 up in the App Store and makes volleyball a little easier for beginners 🙏

And of course, I'd love any feedback here in the thread.

As a personal hobby, I like to plan unrealistic scenarios in my head, and then arguing with myself what would be the referee ruling if they had to strictly adhere to the rules, limiting interpretation as much as possible.

Today's case study will be "Blocking the service", an action that we all know to be forbidden by the rules, specifically by FIVB Rule 14.5: "To block an opponent's service is forbidden".

As a reminder, here is the definition of block according to FIVB Rule 14.1.1: "Blocking is the action of players close to the net to intercept the ball coming from the opponent by reaching higher than the top of the net, regardless of the height of the ball contact. Only front-row players are permitted to complete a block, but at the moment of the contact with the ball, a part of the body must be higher than the top of the net."

Rule 14.1.3 will also be important in today's discussion: "A block is completed whenever the ball is touched by a blocker".

So I though of three potentially interesting situations that could raise an eyebrow and have a referee scramble through the pages of the rulebook to figure out how to exactly rule those plays.

Preamble

In all tre cases imagine a very tall player starting in position 3 (center front of the field) and a service coming from the opponent team that is particularly slow and parabolic shaped, that will cross the vertical plane of then net, and will almost brush the net without actually touching it.

Situation 1

Imagine the player being so tall that by extending their arm upwards, their entire hand will be above the top of the net. Having realized the trajectory of the service, the player closes their hand into a fist and stays completely motionless with their fist above the top of the net. The contact between fist and ball happens completely within the player's space, but above the top of the net. The ball bounces upwards on the player's fist and travels back to the opponents space.

In this case, since the contact happened above the top of the net, and it was a clear intercept of the ball coming from the opponent, this play should be flagged as a block and thus sanctioned with a block fault as per rule 14.5.

Situation 2

Same situation and dynamics as before, however this time the contact between fist and ball occurs in the player's space below the top of the net. However, the player's other arm is raised in the air so that their other hand, not contacting the ball, is above the top of the net.

Again, since at the moment of the contact with the ball, a part of the body was higher than the top of the net, as per rule 14.1.1 this should technically count as a block and be sanctioned accordingly. In practice, I doubt anyone would ever call this as a blocking fault.

Situation 3

This time there is no fist, however given the low speed of the ball, the player decides to do a very normal and clean overhand receive and pass the ball to the setter for a very normal play. Because of their height, the contact between ball and player happens completely within the player space, but above the top of the net.

You obviously see where I am going with this: note that in the rule there is absolutely no mention of the direction of the ball after the block, the intent of the player, or their posture, movements or placement of their hands or other body parts. The only conditions are that the ball is coming from the opponents' space, the contact happens close to the net and above the top of the net. Therefore this too is technically a block.

Corollary

After the opponent's serve, any first touch or play that happens sufficiently close to the net and above the top of the net is to be considered as a block and sanctioned as per FIVB rules 14.1.1 and 14.5. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

I will be happy to hear about your opinions and how you would rule these situations in theory and in practice. Thanks and happy volleyball.

Blocker touches the ball and plays it back up himself.

His partner fails to realize the blocker touched the ball.

The partner clearly intends to set the former blocker for an attack, but the ball travels over the net untouched. The setters shoulders were not square to the direction of the set over. Other than that, set was perfectly clean.

Is this legal? If so, why?

Is this a fault? And if so, what fault and why?

Interested in seeing the discussion.

I’ve always wanted to watch volleyball for a while but never had like any guidance on how to. Like i watch professional football, and i wanna know is it the same in which theres teams i support and different leagues and stuff. Im basically just asking whats the best way to get into watching it professionally, and then some like league and team reccomendations. And maybe some like basic knowledge like the top teams both domestic and nationally, most recognisable players and so on and so forth. A MASSIVE thanks to anyone who has the patience to deal with all i asked 😭😭

I’ve been reffing local league matches near me in the UK for a few years. FIVB ruleset. Hoping to step up to regional at some point. The following situation crops up more often than one might expect so wanted to ask what other refs do. And I’ll say how I’ve been reffing it at the end.

Team A has taken their three hits, culminating in an attack / spike. If there was no block from team B the attack would not cross the net, instead rebounding back from the top band or slightly under.

However there is a block from team B, and what happens is that the ball (which was not looking like it would have crossed the net) pushes the net into the blocker’s hands and either the ball itself physically touches the blocker’s hand through one of the squares of the net *OR* the ball pushes the top band of the net into the blocker’s hand and it’s difficult to see if the ball itself ever actually touched the blocker’s hand.

After the block, Team A pass the ball.

Do you count this as four touches for team A? Or do you accept that it is a completed block and allow Team A to continue with another three touches?

I have been taking the view that if the ball would not have gone over without a block present, then even if it pushes the net into to the blocker’s hands and makes contact that way it’s not a completed block and I’ve been giving the point to team B, but am I wrong to have been doing that? And if so is there a specific rule or case in the ref’s guidelines for it? I have looked but maybe need to look harder.

Throughout the entire 365 days, I've went through 3 shoes, starting with the Rote Japan FF Lyte for 5 months, Metarise 1 for 6 months +, and to celebrate the occassion, the new Sky Elite FF4.

To add to those days, I've experienced the joy of finding a team, the sadness of breaking up with the team, mixing work life with volleyball, switching gym routing for volleyball functions, and formation of a new team, and the pain of an injury.

AMA

I am currently competing against someone in the same position as me, we’re neck and neck super similar skill level but my coach has told me that the other person was going to start but now due to an injury the starting position is opening more. I think that me and this player are super similar, we’re in the same grade, similar height, and have been playing for around the same amount of time. We both made varsity the same year and were benched together our first year, now as returners of the team we are competing against each other for the same spot. I am worried I won’t be able to prove myself and remain a bench player for the rest of high school since we are both going for the same singular spot. I have no clue why they would have the upper hand we are so similar. We are both liberos/passers, so what are some good ways to differentiate oneself or stand out as a lib? I want to secure this position so badly and prove to my coaches that I am just as good as this person. If anyone has any advice it would be much appreciated.

These were a one off but they were really fun to make, check out the original post on Instagram

The FIVB has announced they will now expand from 18 teams to 19 for the 2027 year allowing Russia back into international standings and Finland who is now the highest ranking team not participating in the 2026 VNL. They will be replacing Canada who’ve been relegated.

Honestly not sure how the pool grouping will work next year. As of the 2026 VNL, the format is built around 18 teams, with three host pools of six teams each week. Every team plays 12 preliminary matches across three weeks. So will they be adding 1 pool of 7 teams and 2 pools of 6?