Wheelchair Volleyball

posted on May 02 by Brian in the Disability News, Fun, Wheelchair Sports category

There aren’t many sports, if any, that can’t be adapted to include wheelchair athletes. Otherwise known as sitting volleyball, this sport is quickly becoming one of the most popular sports among the disabled. The sport accommodates those that use a wheelchair, amputees, and those with cerebral palsy to be one of the most accommodating wheelchair sports today. The sport is an ideal activity for groups of the disabled community with rules allowing it to be played co-educationally. It is based on camaraderie and sportsmanship regardless of both age and sex.

Sitting volleyball also allows those who are of a minor disability to participate in an activity with those are are more severely handicapped, which creates an environment based on equality and love of the sport rather than severity of disease. With no expensive equipment or wheelchair modification, sitting volleyball is truly available to all members of the disabled community.

The rules of sitting volleyball are only slightly modified from regular volleyball. The size of the court isn’t changed although the net is lowered for the wheelchair athletes being only a meter tall and 10 meters wide. The court itself is divided into an attack zone which stretches two meters on both sides of the net. The position of each player is determined by the position of their bottom. The rules of sitting volleyball define a person’s bottom as the upper part of the body, from the shoulders to the hips. Players are allowed to touch the opponents side of the court so long as part of the hand on the opponents side remains in contact or directly above the net itself.

Players in the front row of the attack zone are not allowed to lift their “bottom” from the court when performing any type of offensive or defensive move.  In other words, no jumping is allowed. Referee’s must remain on the side of the court during play due to the fact that the net is lowered and the players are sitting. This allows the referee’s to have the best vantage point possible to call plays.

The history of sitting volleyball is much like other wheelchair sports being invented after WWII when the number of soldiers in wheelchairs reached an all time high. Wheelchair sports like sitting volleyball were invented to keep the morale of the injured soldiers up as much as possible. Sitting volleyball was invented in the Netherlands and the first competitive international match in 1957.  In 1996, it became a mediated sport in the Paralympic Games.