Did you know that you can play sitting volleyball at Sovicos every Monday evening from 9 p.m.? We train with a nice group at Sportcampus Zuiderpark and we are still looking for new sitting volleyball players.
What is sitting volleyball?
Sitting volleyball is a Paralympic volleyball variant and uses the basic elements of volleyball. Only you perform this sitting instead of standing. In the Netherlands, and therefore also at Sovicos, everyone can participate. With and without disabilities.
Sitting volleyball is played on a playing field of 6 by 10 meters (smaller than the playing field of indoor volleyball which is 9 by 18 meters), divided in two by a net. This net has a height of 115 centimeters for the men and 105 centimeters for the ladies. The two teams consist of six players each.
As opposed to standing volleyball, sitting volleyball players must have at least one buttock in contact with the floor during the game.
The history of sitting volleyball
In 1953 we saw the first signs of volleyball for the disabled in the Netherlands. The start of disabled sport was initiated by the Military Rehabilitation Center Aardenburg. One of the sports activities was wheelchair volleyball. The players were so-called “cross-sectional injuries” and victims of war. A team consisted of 4 players and a set lasted a maximum of 15 minutes. At this time, various ball sports were already played while seated. And so, of course, volleyball could not be left behind.
In 1955, 2 men from Beverwijk, Tammo van der Scheer and Anton Albers, developed sitting volleyball as we know it today. At the time they were members of the sports committee of the Military Rehabilitation Center Aardenburg. The competitions that were set up were no longer only open to war victims, but also to civilians with disabilities.
The rules of regular indoor volleyball have been adapted to play seated. The rules were as follows:
The playing field was 10 × 6 metres and the height of the net was 1.10 metres. The buttocks must be in contact with the floor when the ball is played and it is forbidden to smash with the fist. The game turned out to be well thought out as so far only the height of the net has changed in 2006.
Would you like to join us sometime? You can!
The game is just as fast and dynamic as standing volleyball, so give it a try. And if you want to train with us, you train right away with Yves Nkomezi, a player from the men’s sitting volleyball team of the Netherlands.
Every Monday we train at 9:00 PM in Sportcampus Zuiderpark. Want to see if it’s for you? Try it out. Mail the TC and join us.