History/Creation of Volleyball

Volleyball is a sport played by 800 million people worldwide. Chances are you have probably played it during PE. Like many other sports, volleyball has changed throughout the years since it was created. Because it is personally my favorite sport I decided to dive deeper into its history.
William G. Morgan was a sports director at the YMCA and in 1895, he had a goal for a new game. He wanted a sport that required less physical contact than basketball but was still competitive. Those are two of the things I like most about volleyball because I am competitive but I hate physical contact with people I don’t know. Morgan studied many sports and decided to take different components from them. The ball originally came from basketball, the net from tennis, and the concept of using your hands from handball. With this he created a game called “mintonette” and it had the goal of volleying a ball back and forth over a net. A year later he presented the sport at the YMCA Physical Directors Conference in Springfield College, Massachusetts.
In the 1920s Japan, Russia, and the United States started volleyball associations and it spread in Europe when the U.S. brought it overseas during the war. In later years the sport made its Olympic debut and competitive clubs were created. Throughout the decades many changes were made to the game. For example, the ball used, the skills needed, and the rules to play. The evolution shaped “mintonette” into the sport we now call “volleyball”. A sport that millions of people and I enjoy.

Position Rankings

If you have played volleyball in PE then you know there are 6 people on the court. But, you may not have known there are also 6 different positions. This is because players specialize in different skills. They then all have to do their different jobs on the court. In this blog, I will be sharing my opinion on the hardest position to the easiest.
They are often overlooked but starting at the hardest is the setter. They have to make sure to get every second ball and their job is to set one of the hitters so they can get a spike. I think this is the hardest position because they have to hustle to every ball and it takes lots of skill and procession to be good at it. Going for second place I think is the middle, because they have to spend lots of practice timing their blocks and hitting certain sets. For third place is the opposite hitter also known as the right side. They may not get set the most but it is definitely harder to hit from the right side than it is from the outside. The next hardest position is the outside hitter. They do have to do a lot and usually get all the fame but it is not very hard to play this position. Coming in at number 5 is the libero. It definitely takes a lot of effort to receive and passing is very important, but in the end, it all comes down to having a good platform and moving your feet. They do not hit and they don’t always have to serve. For number six, the easiest position is the defensive specialist. They hardly get any playing time and all they do is sub for people who are having a hard time passing.
No matter what, all of these positions require lots of skill and practice. They all have a purpose and are essential to the game. Everybody is important and without any of these people, the team would be incomplete. However, these are just my personal opinions on the hardest to easiest positions, other people may think differently or have different experiences.