Beach volleyball

Beach volleyball is a team sport played on sand. The court which is divided into two equal halves by a net is a little smaller than an indoor volleyball court and measures 16 x 8 metres.

The top of the net is set at the height of 2.43 metres (for men) or 2.24 metres (for women).

It is said that Beach volleyball was first played in Hawaii in 1915, but most people think that it begun in Santa Monica, California as form of family fun at the beach in the 1920s, approximately 25 years after the indoor version of the game was invented in Massachusetts (USA).

By the 1930s, Beach volleyball was being played in quite strange places like in Riga, Sofia and Prague, the capital cities of Latvia, Bulgaria and former Czechoslovakia.

By the 1950s, competitions were being held in California, where beauty contests and other forms of entertainment where included in the program. When the sport continued to grow it didn't take sponsors long to take advantage of Beach volleyball's popularity. A fully fledged pro Beach volleyball tour was founded in the 1970s. The international Volleyball federation, Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB), recognized the sport in 1986 and from then on, Beach volleyball’s World Tour has spread from the USA into Asia and Europe.

[edit] Weblinks

• Professional Beach Volleyball
• Beach Volleyball Database
• Official website of the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball

Created by: Berlin Last edited by: Juni