Beach volleyball is volleyball for two players a side, played barefoot on sand. There are no fixed positions, no substitutes and no bench: whatever happens in the rally, the same two of you have to deal with it. The sand makes every movement expensive, the wind and the sun are genuinely part of the tactics, and the rules are tightened in small ways that reward clean contact over trickery.
The setup
- Two players per team, and that is the whole squad — no substitutions, no libero, no rotation positions. Either player may play anywhere on their side of the court.
- The court is 16 m × 8 m, smaller than indoor, and there is no attack line: you can hit from anywhere.
- The net is 2.43 m for men and 2.24 m for women — the same heights as the indoor game.
- The ball is slightly bigger and softer than an indoor ball, at a lower pressure, so it floats more and hurts less on the forearms.
Serving
- You serve from behind the baseline, anywhere along its width, and you get one attempt only — there is no second serve.
- A serve that clips the net and still lands in is live; play it.
- Teams keep a serving order, so the two partners alternate serving. Whoever wins the rally serves next; if that team was already serving, the same player serves again.
- Wind rewards the float serve — hit flat with no spin and let the ball misbehave on the way over.
Playing a rally
- Three touches per side, and no player may touch the ball twice in a row.
- The block counts as one of the three. This is the big difference from indoor: block the ball and your team has two touches left, not three.
- Open-hand tips are illegal. You may not direct the ball with your fingertips — use knuckles, a cobra, a roll shot or a hard swing instead.
- If you set the ball over the net with your hands, it must travel perpendicular to your shoulders, so you cannot disguise a sneaky set as an attack.
- You may play the ball with any part of the body, and you may not touch the net while playing it.
Scoring
- Rally scoring: every rally scores a point, whichever team served.
- Sets are to 21 points and you must win by two clear points.
- A match is the best of three sets, and the deciding third set is played to 15.
- Teams switch ends every 7 points (every 5 in the deciding set), so neither side keeps the good end of the wind and sun.