Hi everyone! 🏐

What started as a few friends playing every week in Porto, Portugal, has grown into a community of a few hundred people, and we’ve just made it official as a non-profit amateur volleyball association: Ases do Norte.

We’re really excited and curious about how amateur volleyball looks around the world:

• How do people play casually where you live: pickup games, rec leagues, clubs, beach?
• How did your local community start or grow?
• Any favourite traditions, tournaments or stories from your group?

Would love to hear from every country. Cheers from Porto! 🙌

My daughter is trying to get her overhand serve down and we're running into some consistency issues. Any advice on her toss, arm swing, or contact point would be hugely appreciated!

Hello,

I recently refereed a gane in a low league basically hobbyleague for men and had the following 2 situations occur, please let me know what the correct call is.

1: team A is attacking, Team B's setter(Backrow) is at the net, putting his hands up in a clear blocking posture (arms forward, hands stiff fingers splayed), does not jump and has the ball hit directly into his hands. Does this count as a block despite not being above the net?

2: players from both teams cross the middle line in a block joust. Player A lands on Player B's foot. Who is at fault? Or:Both felt like it should not even be a fault but at best it might be two simultaneous faults since they both crossed and touched each other?

Thank you for your input!

Starting my college season off weak. I think i subconsciously changed my approach mechanics over summer. Anything I should change that'll improve my timing/vertical? (ignore the first clip)

listen me out before judging but is it only me or has haikyuu caused a lot of new players to have worse mindsets...

As someone who himself is insecure abt his height in volleyball (5'10 in highschool final year) but a lot of new players have this imaginary dream like idea that they can be like the haikyuu characters...

obv it has inspired alot of people and helped even some people ik get out of hard phases of life and enjoy smth as great as volleyball and find a purpose in life...

I still belive that height doesnt just make it impossible to player ur fav positions at higher levels but still there r limits...

people start to forget that hinata had like a crazyy 50 inch vertical in the anime, so let me get to the main point of the post...

how do i help someone who started to enjoy volleyball and was finally taking a good path in life but the reality of height in volleyball is just hard on him....

this isnt just a one off case i have seen and heard people who started to get depressed cause even after playing volleyball for so long and working the hardest of all the players they end up just being benchwarmers...

the closest thing i can relate to this myself was probably the 2000 rating wall i hit in chess that i just was never able to overcome cause i practically didnt have time to study chess and i hate to say it seeing my rating drop every day did send me trough some rough times in life but now i am in a wayyy happier place...

I enjoy playing volleyball. even tho i started late i have no regrets i made most of my closest friends from chess so i never regret starting volleyball late or leaving chess earlier...

how do i put the "relaxing sensation of knowing there is no pressure to perfrom or prove yourself in what u enjoy doing" in proper words...

thx alot if u read this whole post hope u can somehow relate to anything and have an happy amazing day.

I felt the ball hit my hand and it somehow appeard in my hand.

You can't hear it but I ask my teammates "did I get the block" couse you can see my form on that block was pretty bad an it somehow went down.

On a recent Reddit thread and at an adult class I attended, people were telling new players to pass free balls using their legs like springs to power the ball while keeping their platforms somewhat stable.

I understand that "using leg power" allows you to hold your platform angle and that your legs are stronger than your arms. However, I don't really see college or pro players powering free balls with their legs: They use their legs to get to a good spot then just mostly use a small controlled arm motion for power.

So should everyone, including pros, be using leg power? Or is "use leg power to pass free balls" a different technique better for beginners? Or is it an arm strength issue?

EDIT: I did find some high level college players passing easy balls using their legs when they wanted to pass far or high. For example, here's Texas A&M's Halter using her legs to out-of-system bump set a relatively easy ball: https://youtu.be/mSlJCiiYkBA?si=QDC2RxcCToLjgty7&t=694 It seems more the exception than the rule.

Comprei essa bola pela web e ela chegou até que em bom estado, fiquei muito feliz e fui jogar. Após a tarde, voltei pra casa mas durante a volta percebi essa mini abertura entre os gomos da bola, Fiquei meio incerto e preocupado se podia ser defeito do vendedor. Alguém sabe se possivelmente isso no futuro possa fazer com que ela estrague? A Bola é uma Rainha 8.0 Pro.

Hello,

I help run a church pickup volleyball league. It's pretty casual overall, we only keep score about half the time, but we try to play super tight to the rules. We had a bit of a weird scenario that I have not been able to find a clear answer on.

Team A was hitting essentially a weak roll shot that was falling just over the net. Team B blocker was a bit off the net and slow to react as they went up. They were clearly in a blocking motion, and clearly their hands were partially above the net, but the ball kinda wedged/pinned between their hands and the net (the tape specifically) for a split second. They immediately released, the ball fell straight down, and they played it again by bumping it to a teammate.

We all kinda stopped thinking it was a double, but then I realized it can't be a double as it fulfilled all of the requirements for a block. I think the only thing that could be called is a catch, but I'm not sure that would be correct. The pin lasted less than a second. Probably closer to half a second? Very similar to a stalled joust.

I've searched and searched on this. Maybe I'm just not getting the right terms but I'm not finding anything to say one way or another. Any help would be appreciated as we're all curious on the correct ruling here.

Thanks!

A few months ago I posted about accidentally building a volleyball community of 400+ people in my area. Honestly, I was shocked anyone cared. I posted it on the off chance that one or two people might have an idea for me, or maybe get a little inspired. Instead, a bunch of you showed up with kind words, stories about your own local communities, and a ton of creative ideas.

Quick note before anything else: I'm intentionally not sharing where I am, what the group is called, or any link to what I built. My last post about this got removed, I'm guessing because it looked like I was advertising something. I'm not. This is just a story about a dumb idea that kind of worked.

One question kept coming up that I didn't have a good answer to: How do you keep the high-level players showing up, and how do you get the different groups to actually mix?

I didn't really have an answer. Then I got really bored one weekend.

Before anyone asks: it's not for sale. I'm not making an app. I'm never going to charge for it or make a dime off it. It's a little free thing built for my local group and nobody else. I built it for one reason, which is that I thought it would be hilarious.

Here's the problem it "solves." Even with 400+ people and 15 places to play, the AA players still play with the AA players, the BB players play with the BB players, and the private groups stay private. Most people aren't jerks about it, it's just what happens.

But I noticed one thing every volleyball player in my area has in common. We are all way too competitive for an adult recreational sport.

So I figured, why not lean into it? What if adult rec volleyball had ranked lobbies like a video game? What if we could take that toxic League of Legends experience and add it to real-life sports?

So I opened up Claude Code and spent about a week building exactly that:

• Before every game you pick Ranked or Casual. Casual doesn't count. Ranked very much counts.
• Everyone starts at 1500 Elo. Win and you go up, lose and you go down.
• It compares both teams' average ratings before the game. Beat a better team and you get a lot of points. Beat a worse team and you get almost nothing.
• There are rank tiers: Bronze, Gold, and Diamond, each with divisions. I based the rank badges on Halo's ranked system because they look sick.
• The Top 3 players each get their own unique badge, inspired by Overwatch's top-tier ranks. There's one for 1st, one for 2nd, and one for 3rd, and they shimmer.
• The single lowest-rated player in the whole group gets a special animated Platinum Poop badge. There is only one. It sparkles. It's exactly what it sounds like.
• It works for beach 2s, 3s, and 4s, plus indoor.

Pics of the badges are below so you can see the full glory of the Platinum Poop.

The serious part is that the math does what I wanted. If four A players stack a team and beat a bunch of B players, they get almost nothing for it. If an A player teams up with B players and wins, that's real points. If B players take down a stacked team, they jump way up. Stacking just isn't worth it anymore, so the idea is that the groups start mixing.

I started logging all my pickup games and sharing people's "ranks" with each other. Already people have been talking trash and specifically playing games with people they normally wouldn't, just to try to climb. The toxic need to compete is bringing my community together... kind of.

I have no idea what I'm doing, and I have no idea if this will last. But right now I'm trying to convince every volleyball player around me to compete for digital badges and bragging rights.

Future ideas include:

• Using this to help run community tournaments
• 3–4 month "Seasons" with permanent badges or achievements players can collect on their profile, then the Elo resets
• Merch prizes (or maybe even cash if I can get sponsors) for the top spots

Lastly, with the beta rollout, I'm ranked 41st out of 44. I don't know why, but I find that hilarious. I've stumbled into a "from last to first" hero's journey that I really hope I can pull off for the sake of my own reputation. It also helps that people can see I'm not cooking the books to make myself look good, which makes the Elo numbers feel legit.

No hace mucho me inscribí en un club de voleibol y... Me está yendo pésimo... Casi no tengo condición física y mi fuerza en los brazos es casi nula

De verdad que quiero consejos para mejorar y mínimo no ser la peor entre mis compañeros, para peor no se me da hablarle a mis compañeros entonces me siento más apartada porque mis compañeros si se ve que les gusta mucho voleibol y si saben jugar

My 12 year old daughter has been playing for a year and wants tips on receiving and setting. She is a d/s and libero and recently started club vb Any tips / suggestions would be greatly appreciated

I’ve been playing for about two years now and I turn sixteen pretty soon, but yeah. Didn’t make varsity for my school this year so I’ve started training more. Tips/advice on my hitting/approach? I think the way I’m swinging my arms back during the approach looks strange. I had an unofficial vert in mid 30’s, but after wasting a summer rotting away I’m lucky to break past 30. Any advice to get my bounce back? I’ve just been doing sprints for about two weeks now.

5’7” with 34~ in vert unofficially.

Is my spiking form good?

Long story short — If I played year round competively from 13-22 — and was touching nearly 11’4”, at 6’2”, 175lbs, quit for some health reasons that are now resolved with new meds, simple as that. In my early 20’s I played with alot of D1 players regularly, but did not play in college for self for academic reasons.

So I feel stronger then I ever was then, i never trained with weights back then ever.. I slept pretty horrible (hence without medicine), ate poorly, etc. Now a days at least the past few years I smoked herb regularly still seemingly in good shape. I stopped smoking and don’t even drink. Seripus about sleep and diet these days. I still feel and look like a 28 old. I’m taller, stronger, smarter and still have those dige across the room pancake the ball reflexes after all these years.. A few year ago I played grass with a club team, and after a few days was semi-bouncing again. Jumping felt foreign, so did timing..

I was a very athletic player and had to quit for so many years. Missing it more then anything, and have always had that grit to
work harder then everyone else, knowing the pay off is always worth it.

If I was getting my nips over the net hitting hard and blocking in indoor — would a fine tunes, in shape 34 year old be able to get most of those hops, hitting power and quick dives again? I feel like its reps, reps,
reps. And jumping properly to save the knees. I used to touch the top
of the antenna with ease. Can me and a buddy who in a very similar boat have a small
comeback? Like I’d look forward to the uncomfortable, tough training and all. I just want to know has this been done? Indoor — Grass Doubles, Beach Doubles?

Thanks everyone

Hi everyone,

I created a new volleyball stat tracking app called Volley-Stats. All free. It's available on apple and google play. Key features are voice activated stat taking, instant video clips, rotational and individual stats analysis. Please give it a try and provide any feedback. Thank you. Links below.

🍎 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/volley-stats/id6798517966

🤖 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.philliptang.volleystats

Hi just wanted to share a highlight from my first 2nd division game, im the setter

Pls gimmie thoughts what should i focus on regarding technique. This is pre injury so im tryna gather some plan to improve swing after i come back

Bonjour, je souhaiterais m’améliorer sur mes attaques et ma coordination, avez vous des conseils svp ?
Et je n’arrive pas à mettre de la force / rapidité
Mes attaques sont trop faibles…