Term Paper on "Volleyball Is an Olympic Sport"

Term Paper 12 pages (3976 words) Sources: 10 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Volleyball is an Olympic sport in which two teams separated by a high net use their hands, arms, or (rarely) other parts of their bodies to hit a ball back and forth over the net. Each team is allowed three hits to get the ball over the net to the other team. A point is scored if the ball hits the ground in the opponents' court, if the opponents commit a fault, or if the opponents fail to return the ball properly (NCAA).

Volleyball can be very active. Vertical Jumping is an athletic skill emphasized in volleyball, because many offensive plays involve contacting the ball above the top of the net.

The history of volleyball stretches from February 9, 1895 to today, with the game becoming more and more popular and spreading quickly during the early 1900s throughout the world. Soldiers in World War II played it on the beaches and it was picked up by players in countries wherever it was demonstrated. It became an international sport in the 1940s.

An international federation, the Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB), was founded in 1947, and the first World Championships were held in 1949 for men and 1952 for women. Volleyball was added to the program of the Olympic Games in 1964, and has been part ever since.

Volleyball includes not only the regulation sport, but has divisions that include Indoor Volleyball and Beach Volleyball, with differing rules, facilities and equipment. The participants are forbidden to wear certain objects and the formatting of the play is strictly enforced by rules set up by the Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB 2004).

Volleyball

Volleyball is played on volleyball courts 18 meters long and 9 meters wide. The court is divided into two by a one-meter wide net placed so that the top of the net is 2.43 meters above the center of the court for men's competition, and 2.24 meters for women's competition. There is a line 3 meters from and parallel to the net in each team court which is considered the "attack line." This "3 meter" line divides the court into "back row" and "front row" areas. (Laveaga p 45)

The team courts are surrounded by an area called the free zone which is a minimum of 3 meters wide. If a ball comes in contact with the line, the ball is considered to be "in." The players may enter and play within this free zone after the service of the ball..

The volleyball is round and 65-67 cm in circumference. It is made of leather or synthetic leather and inflated with compressed air (FIVB 2006).

History

On February 9, 1895, in Holyoke, Massachusetts, William G. Morgan, a YMCA physical education director, created a new game called Mintonette as a pastime to be played by any number of players. The game took some of its characteristics from tennis and handball.

The next year, after a demonstration given at the YMCA in nearby Springfield, the name "Mintonette" was replaced with the name "Volleyball," when an observer, Alfred Halstead, noticed the volleying nature of the game. The game quickly became known as volley ball. The volleyball rules were written up by the Springfield YMCA and spread around the country (Rules 5)

It was not until 1900 that the rules became generally how we know them today and a ball was made specifically for the new game. It took until 1916 for the skill and power of the set and spike to be introduced, and four years later a "three hits" rule and back row hitting guidelines were established. In 1917, the game was changed from 21 to 15 points. In 1919, American Expeditionary Forces distributed 16,000 volleyballs to their troops and allies: this provided a stimulus for the growth of volleyball outside the United States.

Canada was the first "foreign" country to adopt Volleyball, in 1900.

Cuba discovered 6-man Volleyball in 1906, thanks to a North American army officer, Agusto York, who took part in the second military intervention on this Caribbean island.

The sport is now popular in Brazil, all of Europe (where Italy, Netherlands and Serbia have played since the late 1980s), Russia, other countries including China and the rest of Asia, as well as the United States.

Volleyball reached Japan in 1908, when the game was first demonstrated on the YMCA courts in Tokyo. Volleyball officially landed in China, thanks to Max Exner and Howard Crokner. Until 1917, play was between 16-man teams and went to 21 points. It was imported by the YMCA director in Manila, Elwood Brown, to the Philippines.Shortly, there were 5,000 public and private courts. In the U.S.A., Prevost Idell, YMCA director in Germantown gave impetus to the sport.

In 1912, the court size was changed, becoming 35 X 60 feet. A uniform size and weight of the ball was established. The number of players on each team was set at six; and it was decided to rotate players before service. Volleyball was put on the program for the first Far Eastern Games held in Manila in 1913, where teams were made up of 16 players.

The recreation and education program for the American armed forces in 1914 included Volleyball, since George Fisher, secretary of the YMCA War Office included it. The number of players on court again became variable, game time was set and it was decided that the team losing a game had the right to begin serving in the next game.

The game was popular in Eastern countries, where cold climates made gym sports attractive. World War I brought Volleyball to Africa andEgypt. In 1916, volleyball became a part of the program of the NCAA, the body that oversees college and university sports in the U.S.A. At the Allied Forces air base in Porto Corsini, where Ravenna's sports palace is now located, American airmen introduced Volleyball into Italy.

Volleyball made its first official appearance in Russia in the Volga in 1920 - Gorky and Kazan - and at the same time in Khabarovsk and Vladivostok.

In 1922, the first National Federation was founded in Czechoslovakia, quickly followed by Bulgaria. The first national championship was played in the U.S.A., in which only YMCA teams competed. In 1927 in Russia, there was political action by the Communist Party against the YMCA, but Volleyball remained.

In the U.S. In 1928, the U.S. Volleyball Association was founded basically under YMCA principles as a leisure sport. Cuba organized the first men's tournament according to "American" rules at the Caribbean and Central American Games during 1929. Between the World Wars, great efforts were made to give unity to the movement by establishing a single set of rules and creating an international federation. These were first efforts, but nothing concrete happened.

The first national championship was held in the U.S.S.R. In 1933, where there were already over 400,000 players. For Soviet Volleyball, it was a big year. In January, a challenge between Moscow and Dnepropetrovsk was played on the stage of the Bolshoi Theatre (U.S. p. 145).

In 1945, the first postage stamp on a Volleyball subject was issued in Romania. In January of 1946, the Spartak Prague team went to play in Poland, with efforts at creating an international Volleyball organization. The meeting produced the first document of the future FIVB, with the creation of a commission for the organization of the International Federation, the promotion of a constituent congress, and the decision to launch a European or world championship soon. (FIVB 2004)

Therefore, in 1948, the first European Championship was held in Rome and won by Czechoslovakia.

The history of the game continued for another century and is further spelled out under the next sections of this paper entitled Volleyball in the Olympics, Indoor Volleyball and Beach Volleyball.

Nevertheless, by 1994, the AVP held 27 events, including an Evian sponsored indoor event at Madison Square Garden, and four Nestea-sponsored events, with $4,000,000 in prize money. NBC broadcast 10 of these events, totalling 21 hours. Volleyball had hit the big-time.

The 2007 USA Adult Open championship will be held in Austin, Texas at the Austin Convention Center, 500 East Cesar Chavez Street, 78701 on May 26 - June 2, 2007. (AVP 1)

Volleyball in the Olympics

Volleyball was first played in the Olympics as part of an American sports demonstration event in 1924. After the foundation of FIVB and some continental confederations, it began to be considered for official inclusion. In 1957, a special tournament was held at the 53rd IOC session in Sofia, Bulgaria to support such request. The competition was a success, and the sport was finally included in the program for the 1964 Summer Olympics.

Originally the Olympic volleyball tournament was a simple competition, whose format paralleled the one still employed in the World Cup: all teams played against each other team and then were ranked by wins, set average, and point average. The number of teams involved in the Olympic tournament has grown steadily since 1964. Since 1996, both men's and women's events count twelve… READ MORE

How to Reference "Volleyball Is an Olympic Sport" Term Paper in a Bibliography

Related Term Papers:

Sports Shoes and Sports Clothing Market and Trends in Turkey Research Proposal

Sports Shoes Turkey

Sports Shoes and Sports Clothing Market and Trends in Turkey

Brief History of Turkey

Turkey is an internationally recognized center for sports enthusiasm and participation. The interest… read more

Research Proposal 30 pages (8792 words) Sources: 150 Style: Turabian Topic: Sports / Exercise / Fitness

---

Volleyball Women's Volleyball Was Not Always Played Term Paper

Volleyball

Women's volleyball was not always played in today's aggressive manner. In 1895, an instructor at the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), William Morgan, decided to blend elements of basketball,… read more

Term Paper 3 pages (939 words) Sources: 3 Topic: Sports / Exercise / Fitness

---

Sports Medicine Research Proposal

Sports medicine specializes in preventing, diagnosing and treating injuries related to participating in sports and/or exercise, specifically the rotation or deformation of joints or muscles caused by engaging in such… read more

Research Proposal 6 pages (1759 words) Sources: 7 Style: MLA Topic: Sports / Exercise / Fitness

---

Title IX: Negative Effect on Men's College Athletics Essay

Boost for Women's Athletics but a Bane for Men's Athletics?

"No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the… read more

Essay 10 pages (3098 words) Sources: 6 Style: MLA Topic: Sports / Exercise / Fitness

---

Women in Sports Essay

Women in Sports

Sports, as well as other areas of social reality like politics or labor, have been viewed as a man's world for many centuries. As it has happened… read more

Essay 6 pages (2207 words) Sources: 6 Topic: Sports / Exercise / Fitness

---

View 100+ more related papers  >>