This is based on the 2023,2024 and 2024 Olympics and if it wasn't obvious ITS MY OPINION but you can tell me what you would change I would like to hear it

It's always unfortunate when someone lands on someone's foot, as it's dangerous, nonetheless it happens.
As an amateur ref seeing this situation in pro-play in the last weeks and it being called differently, here's my question to the other rule aficionados, how you would call the following:

FIVB Rule 11.2 Penetration under the net.
Specifically 11.2.4

The attacker lands on the blocker's foot within their space, just the penetration alone would've been legal, what call do you make? A situation like 3.14 in the casebook:
a. successful hit, attacker lands on foot after ball is dead
b. successful hit, ball still in play

The other way around, blocker lands on attacker's feet:

c. successful block, ball dead
d. successful block, ball in play

Casebook 3.14 "Interference means a player stops an opponent from moving, or playing the ball, or disturbing the opponent while attempting to play the ball."
Pretty much a definition for interference.

|| || |3.14 A spiker landed with his heels on the center line, but with most of his feet on the feet of the opponent’s blocker preventing his ability to move. Is this interference?|Ruling Yes. This is interference. Interference means a player stops an opponent from moving, or playing the ball, or disturbing the opponent while attempting to play the ball.|

-This goes for multiple sports that I know stories for but just specifically volleyball due this Reddit channel. Mainly towards hospitalizations from biological women to be fair since not counting certain sit out on the bench injuries. -I met a former volleyball player who is wheelchair bound for life because her opponent who was also a biological woman/young adult had injured her badly. Bad teamwork played a small part in the injury since the team was overall bad but that shouldn’t matter with a major injury involved. She’s friend with wheelchair bound friend so that’s how we met. She tried to speak out with her teammates plus other people but no luck. -Another incident was with my one friend who was temporarily paralyzed after an opponent had spiked too hard. The opponent was strong as the character Trunchball from Matilda for a reference. Opponent has hurt people in high school gym class volleyball in the past but apparently that didn’t matter since opponent wasn’t a trans woman. My one friend was temporarily wheelchair bound after the hospital visit. She got slightly better with physical therapy but she still has wheelchair when needed and has the handicap placard long term since she can only walk very short distances. My one friend was in college volleyball when it happened.

Update:Yes, cisgender is a better word and I do use it for myself if asked by non-binary, trans, etc. Also, cis is a hated word by some. The wheelchair bound incident was taken as seriously due to the team known for losing a lot.

31M 6" but decent vertical for my height. I play in adult competitive leagues. We build our own teams so I kinda have the opportunity to change where I play if I really needed to.

Basically I've been playing middle for the last 1.5 years and it seems to be a rollercoaster for me with my confidence. Sometimes I'll play with a setter during a blind draw tourney or at a competitive open gym and we'll vibe and I will absolutely smash as a middle. But most of the time I'll build or get on a team with a new setter (who to be fair probably isn't as skilled yet as some of the setters I really vibe with) and I will totally lose all my confidence and it causes my play and enjoyment of the game to really suffer.

I'm not trying to be a ball hog out here or anything but I'd appreciate getting the ball a few times per set. I usually follow the setter in a 5-1 so the options are only really me or outstide (or technically backrow but that's not as frequent). I spend most of my leagues only getting maybe 1-3 sets a MATCH and it really drains me mentally.

I never feel warmed up and I cannot for the life of me predict when my setter is actually going to get me a ball (hell it is frequently 0-1 times during a set) so I end up going all out to get back to the 10 and ready for the ball for the first several sets and then lose momentum and enthusiasm for the 3-6 set range. Plenty of juice left but I know I'm not going to get touches so I unintentionally think I stop trying.

I have been more of an endurance athlete most of my life and I feel like I play best when I am constantly moving and my heartrate is up in the 140-170 range. When I play with setters who utilize me more frequently I feel like I'm warm, my swing is dialed in, my blocks are better and my read of the play is so much clearer. When I go a whole set only blocking and without getting to swing I feel cold and sluggish and it's really hard to pull myself out of that funk.

Is this just a normal middle mental hurdle I need to work through? Do I need to talk with or continue find new setters? Should I switch positions to something where I attack more? What do you think?

Hey all, I’ve been on a D1 team for the past 2 months or so, which is great! At least that’s what you’d think. The thing is, I want to quit. I have never felt more depressed, even though the season hasn’t even started yet. But the main problem is, there’s not a lot of players at my position, like only one more than necessary, which in turn makes it hard for me to leave without putting the team and the coach in a lot of trouble. So even though I want to quit, I can’t. If anyone has any advice for me, that would be great, if not, that’s alright too. Thank you!

Im wondering who is the smallest middle blocker so I can watch on the internet as I am my self only 190cm and a middle blocker

Hi folks,

I'm recovering from a solidly herniated disc. It's a pretty common injury but I don't see a lot on return to volleyball after it. Anyone have experience with disc herniation? Were you able to ever return to playing? Just trying to get a feel for long term outlook.

I think I just lost all my motivation to continue playing competitively. I started playing volleyball when I was around 13, right now I’m 21F playing for my college team. Ever since I started I trained and played as an outside up until this point, when my coach decided that from now on I’ll have to play as a middle just because I’m “tall”.

And the worst part is, I’m not even THAT tall between other middles (5’11). Everything is so confusing now, I never know where I’m supposed to move to get out of the way of the setter and my other teammates, when I should receive and when not, and I just can’t hit properly anymore I’m always one step behind.

I don’t mind blocking, but I suck at everything else that comes with playing in the center and the pressure of having to prove I’m still a valuable player is insane.

Some of you in this sub can probably relate to this rant, how did you guys get used to your new position? I don’t want to quit yet.

Thank you for reading this!🫶🏻

New-ish to beach volleyball but think the rules would apply for indoor or sand. Was playing in a league tonight when I went up for a spike and the defender went up for a block. On the way down from the spike our knees banged and he went down. Neither of us made contact with the net, and play eventually stopped so we could check on him. I truly don’t know what the ruling should have been in this case, and am wondering what would have been the correct call?

There was no judge to say if anyone was under the net, but there is a good chance that I was under his portion of the net after the spike, but there is chance he came under our side as well based on how our knees banged. Would this be a foul on either side?

This is my first year coaching high school girls volleyball and I have found myself in a tough spot.. one of if not my best player is a jerk. She isn’t nice and isn’t well liked by any of the other girls. I thought it was jealousy when I began, but now I see.. she just isn’t nice or a good teammate. I think it’s a reason we just got our 4th loss in a row. There’s no chemistry on the court. How do I go about this?? Do I try to continue to fix it or sit her? We are more than half way through our season and she isn’t showing any improvements after various types of conversations. I’m desperate for some guidance.

Should I quit? I'm having a tough time deciding if I should just call it or not. I'm in my first year on high school volleyball, but I have been playing since I was in 5th grade. My teammates talk bad about me, they're stereotypical Midwest mean girls, and my coach is making me cry after every single game and most practices. I adore the sport, but it's taking too large of a mental toll that even my regular therapy isn't helping. Only three people (including myself) play my position (setter/rightside) and one got injured, but instead of letting me play, my coach is letting people who have never even practiced the position play instead of me. And when I do get to play she only lets me do either front of back row. I've asked for advice on how to get better, but she only tells me I'm fine. I don't want to play if I'll be ridiculed by my teammates and stuck on the same team until my senior year when it's required to be on varsity. I don't even see myself as a bad player. But we're not allowed to ask or complain about playing time either so I can't even ask her how do I work to gain more. Any advice?

So been trying to find out what clubs are open to boys so i’ve emailed multiple coaches that all refer to one coach that I emailed 5 days ago. How long should I wait without a reply to follow up? I wanna play volleyball really bad and this could be one of my only opportunities.

Hi. I love volleyball, I started playing in the 7th grade and all I ever wanted was to play on the high school freshman team. Even I when I failed to get into Club, I told myself I would get better and make the freshman team. I didn't. I cried for a few hours before I pulled myself together. Crying wasn't going to fix anything it sure as hell wouldn't get me on the team. I didn't touch my volleyball for a few days and then since the universe hates me my first class of the day was the same class where the volleyball girls went to get their jerseys. I was absolutely crushed. It's been two weeks and I haven't gotten the strength to actually pick up my volleyball and do something. If I can't make it to the freshman team how will I make JV next year or Varsity the year after that. I want to get better, because I love the sport but what do I do? The happiness when I get on the court I don't know if I'll be able to feel it again other than in P.E. I've never been the most athletic but I ran, I exercised. I built stamina and strength because I wanted to play volleyball, I wanted to be good at it. My entire high school plan, revolved around it. I have a hand made poster on my bedroom wall about volleyball in my bedroom. I don't love, sleep and breathe volleyball, I exist for it. I know I should think the people on the team worked harder than me but I know they didn't because I put every single thing, ever fibre of my being into that sport.

And now I'm stuck and I have no idea how to move forward

Sorry for the rant

Edit: I've seen your comments and there's a running theme. I didn't make BVC last year and I've gotten better. Tryouts are in December so I have two months to practice and I plan on doing that. Thank you for all the support and I finally started practicing again. Today, the varsity team had a home game and I watched. I wanted to be on that court and just because I failed once doesn't mean I won't get on there. Failure is the first step to success after all.

Today was the second day of tryouts, didn’t think much of it, I never played competitively after all, (literally only played during P.E. classes), wanted to try something to start exercising. Fast forward to the end of the practice, the coach tells me he would really like to put me on the advanced team but he needs to focus on first years 🫠. Ultimately I understand his decision but on the other hand, I think I would prefer it if he didn’t tell me I’m a good fit at all haha now I feel bitter over my own choice of not trying volleyball out in my first or second year of uni.

The serve is basically coming off my fingers short with back spin. I’m not pushing it I do not believe but more or less the ball rolls off my fingers sort of and lobs over with backspin every time. Is this legal?

I'm so happy we can finally share our leagues with the world. Watch it guys! Especially plusliga since it's arguably the best league in the world (hard to tell which one is better, Polish or Italian league).

I'm making this post after seeing some of the responses to the recent discussion about transgender athletes in women's volleyball. Some of the arguments completely miss the bigger picture and dismiss legitimate concerns about fairness. The conversation has taken a turn that undermines what women have fought for in sports for generations, and it's important to address why fair competition matters for everyone involved.

This argument that “because a transgender athlete isn’t dominating, it’s not an issue” is completely missing the point. It’s not about who’s winning or losing at this very moment—it’s about the fundamental fairness that women have fought for over hundreds of years. This is bigger than just one athlete or one season. Women have spent generations fighting for the right to compete in sports on a level playing field, free from the disadvantages posed by biological differences. Now, that’s at risk of being undermined.

Regardless of anyone’s political beliefs, we should all be able to agree on one thing: women deserve fair competition. They’ve fought tooth and nail to carve out a space in athletics where they can compete against their peers in an environment that’s equal and safe. Allowing athletes with inherent biological advantages into their leagues directly contradicts that progress.

The argument that “they aren’t dominating” misses the entire purpose of sports—competition should be fair at its foundation, not only when someone starts winning every game. Women’s sports were created to give female athletes a fair chance to showcase their talents and abilities. Pretending that biological males don’t have physical advantages, even after transitioning, is dismissive of all the sacrifices and hard work female athletes have put in over the years.

We owe it to women to protect the fairness and integrity of their sports. This isn’t about hate or discrimination—it’s about ensuring that the progress women have made in athletics isn’t thrown aside in the name of political correctness. Every female athlete deserves to know that when they step on the court, they’re competing on an equal footing. That’s what true fairness is, and we need to protect it.

I'm a 4th grade coach. During a serving drill I was service returning and one of my Fourth Grade players hit a torque (aka side) serve and the ball knuckleballed! I could see it had almost no rotation and it shifted right before I hit it. She managed to do it maybe only 1 in every 5 serves. We tried to drill down how she was doing it:

1. She dropped her left hand away right before hitting it. (We discourage players from throwing the ball to themselves as they have very poor throws, but dropping the hand away is allowed.)
2. She hit with closed fist, the thumb side of her hand, right in the middle of the ball. Any hits with any angle tended to spin.

At her level, a knuckleball serve would absolutely devastate the already weak service return. She asked me how to get the knuckleball more consistent and.... I didn't have an answer.

Anyone have any advice or suggestions for "floating" a torque serve? Is it just reducing spin by having the ball not rotating before contact and hitting the ball right in the middle?

Thanks in advance! I'm a poor volleyball player, and while I know about float serves, I don't actually have one myself. This player is pretty weak at defense but she prides herself on her serves and if I can help her "float" her serves, it would really help her morale (I'm glad she's found a volleyball role she's passionate about while we work on her defense.)

BTW, here's the torque serve: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mh4XBH091I Seems to be less common these days.