FIVB rules test update

LAUSANNE, Switzerland, March 6, 2014 – The International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) has announced a modification to its planned rule test for 2014 in order to streamline the testing process.

Following the confirmation of the venues of all four age-group beach volleyball tournaments in 2014, the FIVB has announced that the rule tests focused on the block rule and the first hit in beach volleyball will now be conducted only at the FIVB Beach Volleyball Age-Group World Championships and not the World Tour as previously announced. An additional test concerning the position of coaches at beach volleyball matches will also be implemented at the age-group tournaments.

The first test - which studies the use of the block rule (14.4), as currently used in volleyball, where a block will not be counted as a hit, allowing players a maximum of three hits (in addition to blocking) to return the ball – will be conducted at the FIVB Beach Volleyball U23 and U21 World Championships that will be held in Myslowice, Poland from June 10 to 15 and Larnaca, Cyprus from July 22 to 27 respectively.

The second test - which will study beach volleyball players’ use of the same first hit action in volleyball (Rule 9.2.3.2) where players will be able to come in contact through overhand action with the fingers, as long as the ball rebounds immediately (therefore involving the non-application of beach volleyball rule 9.2.2.1) – will be done at the FIVB Beach Volleyball U17 and U19 World Championships that will be held in Acapulco, Mexico from July 15 to 20 and Porto, Portugal from July 29 to August 3 respectively.

The third test concerning the position of the coach being seated behind the players area and interacting with the players at certain moments (i.e. warm-up, time out and technical time out) will be implemented at all four Age Group (U17, U19, U21 and U23) World Championships and at all first phase tournaments of the Continental Cup.

The age-group World Championships were selected since the competition conditions are similar to that of senior level tournaments with many players at this age level also competing on the FIVB World Tour.