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| I get asked this stuff a lot by email...so here it is!
Playing court dimensions are 9m x 18m or 29' 6" x 59' for FIVB, and USA Volleyball indoor play. The AVP USED to use a 30'x60' court for beach doubles, but the in 2001 the FIVB reduced the playing court size for Beach doubles (doubles only) to 8mx16m (because some inordinately lazy guy actually emailed me to do the metric conversion for him I'll say that 8m is 26' 3"), and AVP has followed suit, using the shorter court for their competition starting in 2002. At least in Illinois, USA, there has been little uptake on the use of this shorter court in amateur tournaments, but in some regions there has been widespread adoption for competitive doubles play. Net height is 7' 11 5/8" for men. 7' 4 1/8" for women. Co-ed competition is played on a men's height net. The official height measurement is made in the center of the net. The height of the net at the sidelines can be no more than 3/4" higher than the official height. If you're playing on sand, these measurements are all made with the sand raked level. No accomodation is made for your feet sinking in the sand. If you're playing on grass, the measurements are made to the ground...not the top of the blades of grass. John Kessel wrote a thorough article on building a sand court that is quite good. Sand depth by the rulebook must be at least 30cm (12"). Pay close attention to sand quality--visit the aggregate supplier and feel what you'll be getting!! Kessel's article goes into much detail on this, and it's probably the single most important thing you need to know about a sand court. |