Volleyball history
We explain everything about the history of volleyball, its creation, and its development to the present day. Its rules and technical fundamentals.
Volleyball history
With more than 120 years of history, volle,yball is one of the most popular sports today.
Volleyball history
The name volleyball in Spanish (and its variants volleyball, volibol, balonvolea, or volley) derives from the English “volleyball.” It refers to a discipline of more than one hundred years of existence that was created in 1895 by William G. Morgan, director of physical education in the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) of the United States.
Originally it was called “mintonette,” but during a demonstration, they noticed that the volley of the ball over the net described the essence of the game, and that’s why they started calling it “volley ball.” In 1952, the North American Volleyball Association unified the wordscontactcall “volleyball officially.”
Volleyball is a sport that is played on a court divided in half by a net, where two teams of six players face each other. The game’s objective is to pass the ball over the net so that it touches the ground in the opposite field without the opponent being able to reach it.
It is played by hitting or driving the ball; each team has three touches to pass it to the opposing field. Players on the same team rotate their position as they earn points.
volleyball creator
William_G._Morgan-history of volleyball creator
William G. Morgan was the director of physical education for the YMCA.
In 1870 William G. Morgan was born in Lockport, New York. During his childhood, he attended public school and worked in his father’s shipyard on the banks of the old Erie Canal. Attending Mount Hermon Preparatory School in Massachusetts, he met James A. Naismith, then a YMCA physical education teacher and creator of basketball.
Naismith was impressed with Morgan’s athletic abilities and encouraged him to continue his education at the Young Men’s Christian Association International Training School (now called Springfield College). In 1894 Morgan graduated, and here would begin the path that would culminate in the invention of volleyball.
origin of volleyball
In 1895 William G. Morgan took over as director of physical education at the YMCA and encountered a problem; he had to provide exercise without being too aggressive or intense. Despite being very popular, he noted that the game of basketball was too exhausting.
He wanted an alternative that didn’t require as much banging or shaking, so it would suit a larger audience. Morgan took ideas from various sports, such as the ball from basketball, the net from tennis, the use of hands from handball, and the concept of innings from baseball. Thus, he created a discipline that he called “mintonett.”.
A year later, the mignonette game proved very popular, gaining an audience at the YMCA Physical Directors’ Conference in Massachusetts. Dr. Alfred Halstead, a professor at Springfield College, noted that the highlight of the game was volleying the ball over the net. Therefore, he suggested renaming it “volley ball.”
In its origins, the “mintonette” was quite different from the volleyball performance. It was played on a smaller court, with a hefty ball, a lower net, and too many players hitting the ball an unlimited number of times.
Although Morgan probably didn’t imagine it at the time, volleyball became the second most popular team discipline in the world after soccer.
