Most experts name Karch Kiraly of the United States, the only player to win Olympic gold both indoors, in 1984 and 1988, and on the sand, in 1996, and the figure FIVB honoured as the best male player of the 20th century. In the women's game the equivalent is Cuba's Regla Torres, a three-time Olympic champion whom FIVB named the best female player of the century.
Indoor volleyball is played six against six on an 18-by-9-metre hard court, with specialised positions, rotations, substitutions and a libero, in a best-of-five match to 25 points a set. Beach volleyball pits two against two on a smaller 16-by-8-metre sand court, with no positional specialisation, no substitutions and players covering the whole court themselves.
Pick two names from this sport’s all-time list. The larger number in each shared stat is highlighted.
| Stat | Karch Kiraly | Regla Torres |
|---|
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Most experts name Karch Kiraly of the United States, the only player to win Olympic gold both indoors, in 1984 and 1988, and on the sand, in 1996, and the figure FIVB honoured as the best male player of the 20th century. In the women's game the equivalent is Cuba's Regla Torres, a three-time Olympic champion whom FIVB named the best female player of the century.
Indoor volleyball is played six against six on an 18-by-9-metre hard court, with specialised positions, rotations, substitutions and a libero, in a best-of-five match to 25 points a set. Beach volleyball pits two against two on a smaller 16-by-8-metre sand court, with no positional specialisation, no substitutions and players covering the whole court themselves.
Six players from each team are on the court at any time, arranged in the three-front, three-back rotational order. A full match-day roster typically carries 12 to 14 players, including one or two liberos and specialists who substitute in. Teams rotate one position clockwise each time they win back the serve, so every player must play front and back court.
The object is simple to state and hard to execute: ground the ball inside the opponent's 9-by-9-metre court, or force them into an error, before they can do the same to you. A team may contact the ball three times - conventionally a dig or pass, a set, and an attack - and must send it back over the net without catching, carrying or hitting it twice in a row. A block does not count as one of the three touches.
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