Volleyball is a sport of agility and tactics, played by two teams of six athletes each. The mission is to score points by making the ball fall on the other team’s ground. In 2016, it will be played at Maracanãzinho Arena, from 6 to 21 August. There will be men’s and women’s events and the three best teams will be awarded with gold, silver and bronze medals.
In the court version, matches include up to five sets. In the first four sets, the winning team must reach 25 points, with a difference of at least two points. There is no maximum score, so sets continue until the difference is reached. In the fifth set, the winning team must achieve at least 15 points with a difference of two points over the other team.
Skills
There are six basic skills the teams have to master: serve, set, pass, attack, block and dig.
Serve
A player stands behind the inline to begin the service. His goal is to make the ball pass over the net into the opponent’s court, in such a way that the opponent find it hard to receive and pass the ball.
Reception
The reception is the attempt by a team to properly handle the opponent's serve, or any form of attack. Proper handling includes not only preventing the ball from touching the court, but also making it reaches the position where the setter is standing quickly and precisely.
Set
The set is usually the second contact that a team makes with the ball. The main goal of the setter is to put the ball in the air in such a way that it can be driven by an attack into the opponent's court.
Attack
The attack is usually the third contact a team makes with the ball. Attack’s goal is to make the ball land on the opponent’s court so that it cannot be defended.
Block
The block happens when the players standing in the net stop or weaken the opponent’s attack. It is an important feature used by the teams to recover the service.
Dig
It is the ability of preventing the ball to touch the court after an attack when the ball is near to touch the ground. Digging is the movement in which athletes throw their bodies frontward and slide in the ground.
Rewinding
Originally called “Mintonette", Volleyball was created in the United States, in 1895, and quickly became popular throughout the world. Its international federation was formed in 1946 and the sport became part of the Games in 1964 in Tokyo.
Currently, Volleyball is very popular in the United States and Brazil, in large part due to beach Volleyball, which debuted in the 1996 Olympic Games.
