Sitting volleyball is a form of volleyball for athletes with a disability organized by World ParaVolley. As opposed to standing volleyball, sitting volleyball players must sit on the floor to play.

History

Sitting volleyball was invented in the Netherlands by the Dutch Sport Committee in 1956 as a rehabilitation sport for injured soldiers. In 1958, the first international sitting volleyball contact was held between Germany and Dutch clubteams. It was created as a combination of volleyball and sitzball, a German sport with no net and seated players. Sitting volleyball first appeared in the Toronto 1976 Paralympic games as a demonstration sport for athletes with impaired mobility, and both standing and sitting volleyball became officially included as medal sports in the Paralympic games at Arnhem in 1980. Women’s sitting volleyball was added for the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games. After the London 2012 games, VolleySLIDE was founded by Matt Rogers to promote and develop the sport globally. Eight men's and eight women's teams competed in the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games.

Rules

In sitting volleyball, a 7 m, 0.8 m net is set at 1.15 m high for men and 1.05 m high for women. The court is 10 x 6 m meters with a 2-metre (6.6-foot) attack line. The rules are the same as the original form of volleyball with the exceptions that players must have at least one buttock in contact with the floor whenever they make contact with the ball and it is also possible to block the serve. Athletes with the following disabilities are eligible to compete in sitting volleyball: athletes with amputations, spinal cord injuries, cerebral palsy, brain injuries and stroke. Classifications of these athletes by disability are placed into two categories: VS1 and VS2 formerly D and MD. While VS2 athletes have lost only a fraction of their muscular strength and flexibility in a joint preventing them from successfully playing standing volleyball, VS1 athletes have lost all of their muscular strength and flexibility in that joint. Only two VS2 players are allowed on the court at a time; this is to keep the competition fair between rival teams. The rest of the team must be classified as VS1 players.

Skills

Skills are largely identical to the sport of volleyball and the following game terminology apply:

Members

List also includes former members (national teams that took part in previous major tournaments). Defunct national teams

Championships

Paralympics

Sitting volleyball was first demonstrated at the Summer Paralympic Games in 1976 and was introduced as a full Paralympic event in 1980. The 2000 games was the last time standing volleyball appeared on the Paralympic programme. The women's sitting volleyball event introduction followed in the 2004 Paralympic Games.

World ParaVolley (formerly WOVD) World Championships

Sitting

Men's Sitting – past winners

Ranking

Women's Sitting – past winners

Ranking

Standing

Beach

ParaVolley Europe (formerly ECVD) European Championships

Euro Federation https://paravolley.eu/ https://paravolley.eu/competitions https://paravolley.eu/competitions/history/roll-of-honour NATIONS LEAGUE 2024

Men's Sitting – past winners

Women's Sitting – past winners

Men (1981–2023)

Women (1993–2023)