Co-Ed Volleyball: What Is It, What Are The Rules, And How High Is The Net?

If you’ve been around volleyball very long, you’ve probably noticed that the formal structure of our school and club volleyball leagues is always separated between men and women. For many areas there isn’t even an option for men to play, it’s simply a female sport. In more informal settings, co-ed volleyball is very popular.

What Is Co-Ed Volleyball?

Co-ed volleyball is volleyball that is played by a combination of men and women. In many recreation and intramural leagues, co-ed is a popular variation of the sport. There are a few specific rules that are common to co-ed games.

Co-Ed Volleyball Rules

While rules in your particular league or tournament may vary, here are some the common rules for co-ed volleyball:

1. Half the players on the court are men and half are women at all times. So for 6 player teams, there should always be 3 of each on the court. There are some leagues that have a rule for at least 2 women minimum instead of 3.

Some programs allow a team to play short a player instead of forfeiting if they don’t have enough women present. So, for example, a team could play 5 on 6 with only 1 woman to keep from forfeiting their game.

2. One touch each time over the net must be made by a woman.

3. Rally scoring is used, with a win by 2 rule. Some programs may have a time limit maximum.

4. Substitutions are informal and may be made anytime the ball is out of play.

5. Teams may use a traditional substitution format where they rotate on and off when they reach the end of the front row, as long as they keep a balance of men and women on the court at all times.

6. There is only 1 timeout per game.

7. Kicking may be allowed. This varies from league to league, but this follows the international rules for volleyball and since this is a more recreational system, often kicking is allowed.

8. All other general volleyball rules apply.

There are some leagues and tournaments that get really specific with rules involving the sex of the player. For instance, some have the men only playing the back row for an entire set, while the women play the front. Then the next set, they would switch. During a tie-breaker set, they would switch halfway through.

While this could seem like a good idea of the skill level is that different between the male and female athletes, I would avoid taking the rules to this level of specificity. Co-ed volleyball is meant to be fun and in most cases bringing the rules to this level of exactness is extreme.

Co-Ed Volleyball Net Height

You may be wondering, how high is a co-ed volleyball net? When you play co-ed volleyball, you use the men’s standard net height. So the answer is 7 feet, 11 ⅝ inches or 2.43 m high.

If you would like to learn more about net rules, check out our article called: 23 Net Violations In Volleyball And The Rules Behind Them.

Co-Ed Sand Volleyball Rules

It’s very common in co-ed sand volleyball for the teams to be 6 on 6, or 4 on 4 instead of 2 on 2. In general, the requirement is whatever the team size, half the players should be men and half women. In most places, if the team has an imbalanced number of men and women on the court, it must be more women playing than men.

In the beach version of co-ed volleyball, usually, any player can spike and block. The physical advantage for men is somewhat less because of the sand surface, which makes the play a little more even between men and women.

Remember in traditional beach volleyball there is no rotation, it’s simply you and your partner and you take turns serving at each new serving possession. So how do you rotate in sand volleyball? Whether it’s 4 on 4, or 6 on 6, you have to have more of a traditional indoor volleyball mindset and maintain a rotation. This isn’t strict as far as who can play front row or back row, but you must begin the rally in your general rotational area.

Remember that in tradition beach volleyball it’s 2 on 2 with no substitutions. So how do you substitute in beach volleyball?

Substitutions in beach volleyball are more of a function of getting everyone to play than strategic role exchanges like in indoor volleyball. So in general, the rule is that in sand volleyball you have to play a complete rotation when you substitute in. Most places require a consistent location that the substitutions happen, for instance off the front right position and on as the server (back right).

What Does Reverse Co-Ed Mean?

In reverse co-ed volleyball, there is a different emphasis put on adjusting the rules to accommodate the play between male and female players.

In reverse co-ed, you are using the women’s net height instead of the men’s standard net height. So instead, the net will be 7 feet, 4 ⅛ inches or  2.24 m high.

In common reverse co-ed rules, men are not allowed to block at any point and aren’t allowed to attack from above the height of the net in the front zone at any point. So even when they are playing the front row, men are not allowed to attack from in front of the attack line, if the ball is above the net when they make the contact.

This puts a greater emphasis on the female players, relying on them to mount the attacks for the team. Men may hit from above the height of the net as long as it’s behind the attack line.

In many settings, there is a rule that men have to touch the ball in all multiple-contact offensive plays. Because the female athlete is promoted in reverse co-ed, it’s possible for the men to be completely left out.

So the rule is whenever a team touches the ball more than once on their side of the ball, a man has to have 1 of those contacts. This encourages many teams to use a man as the setter.

Reverse Co-ed Blocking Rules

Since only women are allowed to block in reverse co-ed play if only one woman is playing on the front row, another female player is allowed to come from the back row to block, but not to attack. If there are 3 women on the court, all 3 are not allowed to combine for a block, the third must stay behind the attack line until contact has been made on your side of the court.

Related Questions

Is Volleyball A “Girl” Sport?

Volleyball is a popular sport for people of all types, men, and women, young and old, competitive athletes and casual athletes. It does seem to Americans that volleyball is more of a female sport because in our school system there is a stronger and more consistent structure for females to pursue volleyball throughout the country, while the men don’t have volleyball programs available in many areas.

In most countries around the world, volleyball is played just as much by men as by women. I hope that one day, volleyball is just as open to young men to play in our school system, as it is for the ladies.

What Is The Difference Between Men’s and Women’s Volleyball?

The only difference between the rules for men’s and women’s volleyball is the height of the net. All other rules through the FIVB international rules for volleyball are the same.

What Determines Who Serves First In Volleyball?

Before the game, the referee will perform a coin toss with a captain from each team present. Whichever team wins the toss will be given a choice. They may choose who serves first or which side of the court they would like to play on. The loser of the toss gets the remaining choice.

After the first set, the first serve is given to the other team, alternating each set. If the match goes to a tie-breaker set, a new toss is made to determine who gets to serve for that set.

Teams usually choose to serve first because in most cases this is such a strong advantage.

If you would like to learn more about the different variations of volleyball, here’s a list of articles to visit.

Photo credits:

Feature image by H. B. from Pixabay

Beach co-ed image #1 by NavyLifeSW on flickr.com: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/, cropped.

Beach co-ed image #2 by Holger Schué from Pixabay

Grass co-ed image by Matt Sims on flickr.com: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Casual girl at the net image by Beccalee from Pixabay