Volleyball is an athletic team game in which two teams of 6 players are segregated by a net. Each team attempts to score points by charging into the opponent’s court and grounding their ball into the court below. Since it was a part of the Olympic program at the Summer Olympics in 1964, Volleyball has grown in popularity. Although there are several professional teams that compete at the Olympic level, this sport can also be enjoyed by the entire family in the comfort of your own home.
The first Olympic team to play volleyball; at the Olympics was Italy. They qualified for the medals after placing fourth out of six teams at the international games. The Italians have won four Olympic games and currently hold the overall record with seven. USA went second in the synchronized swimming and diving events and third in the men’s basketball event.
The United States became interested in organizing a volleyball program; when they realized that the Italian team was excelling at the Olympic games. It was obvious to the organizers of the games that the United States needed to establish their own team to compete in the games. A volleyball recruiting tournament was held to select the best volleyball players from amongst the colleges and universities throughout the country. A national tournament was then organized by the USF Varsity Volleyball program and the United States entered its first ever team into the Olympic games.
Another interesting characteristic of volleyball that the United States; has is that both the men’s and women’s volleyball teams wear very similar uniforms. The colored stripes on men’s volleyball are blue and white and the women’s uniforms are green and red. This may seem like an unnecessary symbolism but it actually serves a practical purpose. As Volleyball is an outdoor sport, it is important that players can easily get together and practice their game without being wet or muddy. Therefore, the uniform is necessary to ensure that these factors do not affect the players during practice.
- Basketball and volleyball have some very interesting similarities.
- Both sports require a lot of practice, especially if you want to become good at either of them.
- As with volleyball, a good player must also be able to make quick movements with the ball.
- This makes it more important that the athlete playing volleyball has the right skills; this means that they must learn how to hit the ball with great force so that it will curve and shoot down the court and into the basket.
Finally, volleyball and basketball both use a ball called a volley ball; It is the difference between the two sports in terms of ball design. Volleyball, because it uses air pressure, requires players to have much better upper body strength in order to score goals. On the other hand, basketball uses gravity to propel the ball so the ball needs to be less heavy and therefore have less upper body strength.