#Hand signals for volleyball officials full#

In volleyball you actually can touch the net providing it does not affect the rally or run of play. This is certainly one of the more well known rules in volleyball however even this simple rule is sometimes misunderstood. If the referee is not stood on the referee stand they may use their other arm vertically to create a net whilst placing their other arm horizontally over the top to indicate the same thing.

You can also reach over and attack the ball if the ball is travelling on to your side and there is no possibility of the opposition playing the ball again.Ī referee would indicate that a hand over (or over-the-net) has occured by placing their arm over the top of the net when stood on the podium or steps. You are allowed to reach over the net to play the ball if the opposition have you used their 3 allocated touches, hence why you are allowed to press a block over the net. In volleyball you are not allowed to reach over the net to attack the ball, however, there are actually quite a few exceptions to this rule. Now this rule is actually not as straightforward as it sounds and to the untrained or inexperienced player this is actually a very misleading rule. If for whatever reason the player takes longer than the allocated 8 seconds, the referee will award the point to the other team for the delay in service.Ī referee will show this has occurred by raising their hand with a flat open hand before awarding the point to the opposition team.

Once the referee has blown the whistle to initiate the start of the rally, a player has 8 seconds to serve the ball. The referee would then move their palm upwards to signify an illegal hit has occurred.

The referee would place their forearm out in front of them with their palm facing upwards. The most common forms are things such as lifts or carries.Ī lift or carry is called if the ball comes to rest on a player for a prolonged period of time.Ī carry would be called if the ball visibly changes motion or direction whilst still in control of a player.Ī referee would should an illegal hit has occurred by doing the following. With that in mind there are a lot of movements and motions that are considered illegal when playing the ball. The official would point down at the offending line to indicate that a line violation has occurred.Īlthough volleyball looks rather simple and easy to pick up when you dive deep into the technique it can actually be very challenging. If a line judge or even referee spots a player stepping on or over the line when serving they would indicate this in the following way. The officials that are normally in charge of the side and baselines are the line judges. The baseline are the two lines that form each end of the Volleyball court. When serving in volleyball it is illegal to step on or over the baseline during the serve. The referee would then make small circle motions to indicate that a rotation area has occurred. If a team is stood in the wrong location at the time the serve commences or the wrong person serves the ball, the other team will be awarded the point.Ī referee would indicate this by straightening their arm at a 45 degree angle towards the floor on the side that is at fault. However in short once a point is won when the other team is serving you must rotate 1 position in a clockwise direction. To learn more about rotations and in what order players should stand you can read my article here. This means players must stand in the correct order on court. In Volleyball teams must start each rally in a specific rotation. Once you have the fundamentals worked out from reading the below, head over to Amazon by clicking here to get your volleyball essentials So on that note let’s dive into more detail about exactly what call means and how the referee will show it. Now I appreciate some of the pictures may be a little confusing and on top of that if you don’t understand the terminology and small write up, you may still be unclear as to what has been decided.

#Hand signals for volleyball officials full#

If you will look below you will see the full exhaustive list of all official hand signals. Unless you can watch with an informed commentator you may have to rely on your own deduction skills to work out exactly what is going on.įortunately the hand signals aren’t too hard to get to grips with and hopefully by the end of this article you will know exactly what each of them mean. If you have ever watched volleyball I’m sure there has been a stoppage and point awarded that has left you feeling somewhat confused.Īs you turn to the referee to look for clarification you may just see a variety of hand signals which only adds to the confusion.