Mary Tomlinson, age 12, of Barre, Vt., for her question:
WHO INVENTED THE GAME OF VOLLEYBALL?
Volleyball was invented in 1895 by a man named William Morgan. He was the physical director of the Young Men's Christian Association in Holyoke, Mass.
Morgan wanted a game for businessmen that was less strenuous than basketball. He stretched a tennis net across the gymnasium at a height of six feet six inches and took the rubber bladder from a basketball for a ball. Two teams then batted this ball back and forth across the net.
Since Morgan's day, volleyball has become a very popular game with official rules. It is played by using skill and strategy.
The United States Volleyball Association was formed in 1928. This association sets official rules and standards for play and equipment.
Modern volleyball can be played either outdoors or indoors. The game can be played at any speed, depending on the age and skill of the players.
A volleyball court is 30 feet wide and 60 feet long, with a net stretched tightly across the middle of the court at a height of eight feet for men and seven feet, four and a half inches for women. The net is lowered a few inches for younger girls and boys.
The rules for the men's and women's games are the same.
The volleyball has come a long way since Morgan's day. It is now a leather covered rubber bladder not less than 25 inches or more than 27 inches in circumference, and weighs not less than nine ounces nor more than 10 ounces when properly inflated with air.
There are six players on each team. They stand in two lines of three players facing the net. One player of the serving team stands behind the end line of his side and serves the ball by striking it with the hand or fist so that it goes over the net into the court of the receiving team. The receiving team players may send the ball back by striking it with the hands or any part of the body.
The ball may be struck three time before it recrosses the net to the serving team, but the same player may not strike it twice in a row. The ball must be clearly batted. If it is caught and thrown, it is counted against the team catching it.
A game is usually 15 points, and the winning team must have an advantage or lead of two points to win a game. A point is scored whenever the serving team wins a rally that is, whenever the receiving team fails to return the ball legally to the serving team.
A team wins a match when it wins two af a three game series. Points can be scored only by the serving team.
If the serving team loses a rally, the serve passes to the other team. Each time a team wins the serve, the players rotate or move in a clockwise direction to the next position. The server then continues to serve as long as his team wins the rallies.
Volleyball is played in more than 60 countries by more than 50 million people every year. In some countries it is also a great spectator sport.
Volleyball was introduced as Olympic sport in 1964 in Tokyo, Japan. That year Russia won the men's championship and Japan won the women's championships.
Volleyball promises to be an exciting event in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.