Jennifer Brady, age 14, of Casper, Wyo., for her question:
WHEN DID VOLLEYBALL BECOME AN OLYMPIC EVENT?
Volleyball is a very popular team sport that is played by hitting an inflated ball back and forth over a high net. Volleyball competition was featured in the Pan American Games in 1955 and was included in the Olympic Games for the first time in 1964 in Tokyo.
In Olympic competition, the USSR won the men's in 1972 and the women's championship in 1968 and 1972. Japan won the men's in 1972 and the women's both in 1964 and 1976. Poland won the men's in 1976 while the USSR won both the men's and women's in 1980.
In the Olympic Games held in Los Angeles in 1984, the United States won the gold in the men's competition while China captured first place honors in the women's division.
Volleyball was invented in 1895 as a recreational pastime by an American named William Morgan. He was the physical director of the Young Men's Christian Association chapter in Holyoke, Mass. The game is now played in all parts of the world.
A volleyball court, 30 by 60 feet in area, is divided into two sides, each 30 by 30 feet, by a net higher than the heads of the players. Indoor rules recommend clear, unobstructed area at least 26 feet high above the entire court. The net is 32 feet long and three feet wide and is made of four inch square mesh of black or dark brown linen twine. It is stretched across the court by its four corners.
The height of the top of the net is set at eight feet for men, seven and one half feet for women and seven feet or lower for children.
A volleyball is an inflated sphere with a laceless leather cover. Smaller and lighter than a basketball, the volleyball is 25 to 27 inches in circumference and weighs nine to 10 ounces.
The six players on a volleyball team include three forwards, who stand near the net, and three backs.
A number of skills contribute to successful volleyball team play. One of these is accurate service, optimally to a weak spot on the opposing side, delivered either with speed or as a deceptive floater, that is, a ball that seems to wobble and slip in the air.
A vital part of volleyball offense is the so called spike, a powerful smash over the net. To spike a ball a player must jump high in the air, using good timing in punching the bail to place it so that is is virtually impossible to return.
Control is likewise important in receiving the service, in recovering a spike and in deflecting the ball accurately to fellow team members.
Generally speaking, volleyball teamwork is developed by players working together, each learning intuitively what the others are going to do or can do, and practicing various patterns of play.
Defensively, a single or multiple blocks are sometimes employed in volleyball. In such a defense one or more forward players jump up on their side of the net, with hands and arms placed in front of an attacking spiker, to hit the spiked bail back across the net.