Significant Rule Changes to the USAV Rules Modified for 2000-2001

By Tom Blue, USA Volleyball Rule Interpreter

The USA Volleyball Rules of the Game Commission met on February 5, 2000 to discuss rules recently modified by FIVB and to propose rule changes in the USA Volleyball Rules Modified for the 2000-2001 season. ROGC has stated that the United States Rules, which govern competition at the Open Division of the USA Volleyball National Championships, are the FIVB rules as published in the FIVB Official Rules of Volleyball, modified only by a few rules necessitated by safety and administrative considerations in the United States. The FIVB rules are available at the FIVB web site – http://www.fivb.org . The exceptions will be published shortly at the USA Volleyball web site – http://www.usavolleyball.org . The USA Volleyball Rules Modified, which govern most of the competition in the USA, other than the Open Division noted above, will be published in the 2000-2001 official rule book. The following rule changes and modifications for USA Volley-ball Rules Modified were passed by the Rules of the Game Commission.

Rules 10.3.3 (position fault) and 10.4.2 (rotation fault)
These rules now state that, in addition to canceling points that are scored during a term of service subsequent to a position or rotation fault, any time-outs, substitutions and delay warnings or penalties that occur subsequent to the fault during the term of service will be cancelled.

Rules 11.2.2 and 11.3
Competition organizers may elect to use these rules in place of Rule 11.2.1, with advance notice to participating teams. The rules permit the use of the Libero player, but if the election is made to use these rules, teams are allowed a maximum of eight substitutions per game instead of the fifteen team substitutions permitted under Rule 11.2.1. The entire competition must be played using either Rules 11.2.2 and 1.3 or Rule 11.2.1. If the election is made to use these rules, officiating work teams during the competition must supply an assistant score-keeper to track the Libero replacements during the matches.

The Rules of the Game Commission solicits comments and opinions concerning the use of this optional rule from those who elect to use it. A decision whether or not to replace 11.2.1 with the combination of 11.2.2 and 11.3 will be made at the winter meeting of the Rules of the Game Commission in 2001.

Rules 15.2.1 and 17.9.3.1
Competition organizers may elect to use these rules in place of Rule 15.2 and Rule 17.9.3, with advance notice to participating teams. These rules allow continuation of play if a served ball touches the net and then crosses the net to the opponents within the crossing space.

The Rules of the Game Commission solicits comments and opinions concerning the use of this optional rule from those who elect to use it. A decision whether or not to replace Rule 15.2 and Rule 17.9.3 with Rule 15.2.1 and Rule 17.9.3.1 will be made at the winter meeting of the Rules of the Game Commission in 2001.

Rule 17.5.5
This rule clarifies the rule concerning the execution of the service. Only one toss or release of the ball will be permitted the server on each serve. Preparatory action (dribbling the ball, moving it from one hand to the other) is permitted, but when the server tosses or releases the ball for service, it must be hit with one hand or arm before it touches the floor or some other part of the server’s body.

Deletion of Commentary 18.2 and Commentary 19.1
The deletion of these commentaries changes the definition of a blocker. In order to be considered a blocker, a player close to the net must be reaching higher than the net at the time the contact is made with the ball coming from the opponents. The player will no longer be consid-ered a blocker if contact is made with the ball after the player is no longer reaching higher than the net. Any contact made when the player is below the height of the net will be considered the first team hit, even if the player has not yet returned to the floor after being higher than the net at some point during the effort.

Rule 20.3.1
This rule creates a new method by which a team may request (a) substitution(s). Under this rule, if an incoming substitute enters the substitution zone, the action is considered a request for substitution , and the coach/captain is not required to take any further action. If more than one substitution is being requested in this manner, there must not be any significant delay between the time the first substitute enters the sub zone and the time the subsequent substitute(s) enter(s) the zone or the team will be limited to one substitution.