What Is Volleyball? A Simple Definition and Beginner Guide

Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams, separated by a net, try to send a ball onto the opponent’s court while keeping it from landing on their own. Players use brief contacts rather than catching or holding the ball. Standard indoor volleyball has six players per team on court. FIVB basic rules

The simplest way to understand it: keep the ball off your floor, help a teammate control it, and send it over the net. A powerful spike is one way to score—not a requirement for playing.

How volleyball works

A rally is the sequence of play from the serve until the ball lands, goes out or a team commits a fault. These are the essentials for standard indoor volleyball:

• The serve starts play. A player hits the ball over the net to the opposing team.
• Each team has up to three contacts to return it. An indoor block contact does not count toward those three. Teams may return the ball in fewer contacts.
• The ball must rebound from contact. Players cannot catch or throw it.
• Every rally awards a point. A team can score by landing the ball in the opponent’s court or when the opponent commits a fault, such as hitting out or failing to return the ball legally.
• Winning back the serve triggers rotation. When the receiving team wins a rally, it scores, gains the serve and rotates one position clockwise.

These principles come from the FIVB’s indoor basic rules.

Under the standard FIVB indoor format, a match is best of five sets. The first four sets are played to 25 points; a deciding fifth set is played to 15. Every set requires a two-point winning margin. Youth and recreational formats may differ. FIVB scoring format

What do serve, pass, set and hit mean?

These terms describe the main actions you will learn:

Skill	Purpose
Serve	Put the ball into play over the net.
Pass	Control an incoming ball toward a teammate, often using joined forearms.
Set	Deliver a ball a teammate can attack, commonly with an overhead hand contact.
Hit or attack	Send the ball toward the opponent’s court to challenge their defense. A spike is one type of attack.

A common sequence is pass → set → attack, but the rules do not require that pattern. The first two contacts usually prepare the attack. USA Volleyball’s explanation of play

For learning, work on serving and passing before adding complex sets or hard attacks. Start by making the first contact useful to a teammate.

Try a serve-and-pass drill

Setup: Use three players: a server across the net, a passer and a target on the passer’s side, safely away from the net. For this beginner practice, shorten the serving distance if needed; that is a drill adjustment, not a legal match serving position.

Action: The server sends a controlled underhand serve. The passer uses joined forearms to direct the ball toward the target. The target catches it, then returns it to the server. The catch is a practice reset—not a legal rally contact. Rotate roles after 10 playable serves.

One cue: “Angle your forearm platform to send the ball toward the target, then hold that angle.” This follows USA Volleyball’s passing guidance to establish and trust a stable platform angle.

Checkpoint: Aim for 8 of 10 passes that the target can catch with no more than one step, across two rounds. Use that as a practice goal before increasing serving distance or replacing the target’s catch with a set.

Need help forming the platform? Start with how to pass with your forearms, then build toward live play with beginner volleyball drills.

Is beach volleyball the same game?

It shares the same basic objective, but standard beach volleyball uses two players per team rather than six. One important rule difference: a beach block counts as one of the team’s three contacts; an indoor block does not. USA Volleyball formats · FIVB contact rules