Why did volleyball get more popular?

One of my players asked me last night if i could help her with a school assignment about why volleyball has grown in popularity. Statistically and anecdotally, it has gotten a lot bigger in the last 20 years. I had a few ideas, but to tell you the truth, i have no real conclusive idea why. so i thought i’d post up my ideas and see what people think since a lot of terrific authorities on the game have contributed their ideas when they feel i’ve gotten it wrong!

Teacher’s college

Before it became part of Uni SA, we had a teacher’s college in Magill, where there was a thriving volleyball competition. These people went out and spread volleyball to the schools they worked in.

Clubs

At some point, at least in SA, it was made prerequisite that any state league club had to have a men’s team, a women’s team, a junior girl’s team and a junior boy’s team. suddenly getting more people to play was part of compliance. A lot of teams/clubs folded because they couldn’t measure up. but the net effect was a much more sustainable environment for growth.

School’s Cup

Back in the 70s and 80s I think volleyball was a sport people took up in their late teens. Usually when they started University with the many University based teams and competitions. Some great players of that generation started volleyball at that age and made it to the national team. I think Mike Reu started quite late, and I’m definitely sure Denise Kloeden was about 20 when she started! You didn’t really start playing volleyball any younger than that unless you were ethnic.

What i think really changed this was School’s cup which started in the mid 80s. Suddenly, schools had a reason to have teams and start teaching kids in high school. By the time I started playing (mid 90s), it was becoming increasingly common for people to start when they started high school – when grail seeking teacher/coaches finally got their hands on them.

High School Programmes

School’s cup also gave us the SIV programmes. 130 odd kids at Heathfield. Anywhere up to 500 at Brighton. The kids at Girton, Luther, Upwey, Rossmoyne, Craigslea etc. ‘Nuff said.

Mini-Volleyball/Spikezone

kids tend to have to be a bit older to have the strength to start playing volleyball (and enjoy it) than they do with other sports. I remember Eldo describing the counter-intuitive nature of volleyball when i did my Level 1 coaching certificate: “it’s sport where you’re asking kids to play the ball with the softest part of their body…no, the second softest part….”.

Problem with that is, a lot of the best athletes have already picked sports by then. You’re either getting second rate athletes, or competing with other sports for a better athlete’s time and budget. So one of the best things that they did was introduce a modified version of volleyball for primary schools that would compete head on with Footy, Basketball and Netball at the grass roots. My observation is our junior programme grew with a lot of kids that wanted to pursue the experience they got in spike-zone further. A lot of these kids are firt rate athletes. and a lot of them aren’t really interested in other sports.

The starting age in volleyball went from adults in the 80s, to early teens in the 90s, to young kids in the 00s.

Expanded Junior League

Junior league in SA exploded when they (1) got rid of the age categories and put it all into skill-level, and (2) let non-club teams enter.

Expanded State Teams

Love it or Hate it, it got more people playing

Kerri Pottharst and Natalie Cook winning gold

I think Beach certainly got a lot more popular after they won in Sydney. In SA, social indoor declined as interest in social beach soared, building a business case for the two beach centres. whether this effect was cannabilistic on existing participation or brought in new people i do not know.