Volleyball: Is It In Or Out?

Have you ever been watching a game and seen a sideline call that you totally disagree with? Maybe you disagree with the referee or maybe the people watching the game around you. It can be frustrating and leave you feeling like the right call wasn’t made.

A very common question when watching volleyball is, “How can you tell if the ball was in or out?” In volleyball, if any part of the ball touches any part of the playing court, including the line, the ball is in. It has to be completely outside of the line for it to be called out.

Of course, that’s a very simple explanation, but putting it into practice can be difficult in real-time. The referees and line judges have a challenging responsibility to be accurate with their calls.

The difficult part is watching for where the ball actually changes its path due to the bounce. You have to train your eye to focus on that spot even after the ball continues on.

In today’s world of instant replays and slow-motion videos, we have a high expectation that referees and line judges get it right every time. We probably all need to have a little more patience and understanding because making that call is harder than it may look.

Would you like to find our recommended equipment for volleyball officials? Check out our Officials Equipment page.

Can The Volleyball Hit The Antenna?

The ball can’t make contact with the antenna at all. If it does, it’s immediately considered out. If you think about it, often the ball hitting the antenna would actually bounce it back inward which would create an unfair advantage.

If you hit the ball wide, outside the antenna, you must play it back toward your side of the court and if you have enough hits left to play it, then hit the ball across the net within the space between the two antennae.

Can The Volleyball Hit The Net Outside The Sideline Boundary?

If you look at the net there are lines that descend from the antenna down toward the sideline. These are the straps that hold the antenna in place. They are called sidebands.

They also designate the “in bounds” part of the net and where that ends. If you hit the ball against the net on the outside of this line, it will be called out.

Can The Volleyball Hit The Post, Cables, Or Referee Stand?

The ball can’t hit any obstacle out of bounds, so hitting the post, any cables, the referee’s stand or chair, those are all out of bounds. The ball can’t make contact with the scorer’s table either.

You may see players chase a ball far out of bounds to try to save it. While this is entertaining and exciting, it’s also very dangerous.

Players are allowed to chase the ball and do whatever they can, as long as the ball doesn’t hit the ground, any object or any other person. Unless the rules of that facility or tournament prohibit it, they may jump over or onto objects like chairs or stands to try to make the play.

Can The Server Step On The Line?

The server has to contact the volleyball and put it in play before stepping on the end line or into the court. It’s perfectly fine for players to jump, hit the ball in the air, and then land on the line or inside the court.

Players should know how close they can stand and take a comfortable approach to the ball for their usual serve. Developing a consistent serving routine will help this.

If you are just stepping into a regular overhand serve, you just need to leave yourself a little more space than a regular step so that you don’t step onto the line.

If you are performing a jump serve, you need to have a very methodical, consistent approach. This should be similar to your left-right-left approach for hitting the ball. Practice this until it becomes very routine.

If you are having difficulty figuring out how far to start behind the end line, check out this article: Volleyball Serving Rules: Your Questions Answered.

What Are The Line Judges Signals For In Or Out?

When the ball is out of bounds, the signal is to hold the hands or flag up. The referee’s signal is to hold both hands straight up, hands open and flat, palms facing their own body.

If the ball is in bounds, the signal is to point the hands or flag down toward the middle of the court or the sideline. The referee’s signal is to point their arm and fingers toward the floor on whichever side of the court the ball has landed.

How Does A Line Judge Signal That The Ball Was Touched?

If a player touched the ball before it went out of bounds, that’s critical information for the referee to know. The signal is for the line judge to raise the flag up in front of their body and with their free hand, touch the top of the flag.

How Does A Line Judge Signal A Serving Foul Or A Foot Foul?

The signal for the line judge to call a foot fault on the service is to raise the flag over their head and wave it around in a circle and point with their free hand to the line that was touched. It’s important that the line judge does this immediately and very noticeably or the referee may not see it and the play may go on.

Who Makes The Best Line Judges?

It’s just an opinion, but I believe other players or former players make the best line judges. During the club season teams that are not playing are used to help staff the officiating crew. In club tournaments, the tournament provides the 1st referee, and the “working team” provides a scorekeeper, line judges, and a 2nd referee or “down ref”.

During these seasons, in my experience, it seems like the calls are made more accurately with much more consistency. The players are used to watching the lines and having the pressure of making the right call.

As a spectator, it may seem easy to make the right call, but volunteer to try it at a school game some time. It can be pretty stressful feeling the pressure to make the right call quickly with a whole crowd of fans for each team waiting on your decision.

I believe if we all volunteered for this job just once, we’d realize that it’s a tough, thankless job. Who wants to have that pressure? Who wants to have to make the right call when it means your kid’s team is going to lose the point?

Everyone knows it’s part of the game. Someone has to make the call whether the ball is in or out. It’s never going to be perfect every time, but the officiants will do their best to make it fair.

Related Questions

What Is The Most Important Rule In Volleyball?

The most important rule in volleyball is don’t let the ball hit the ground on your side of the court. There are many other opinions as to what rule is the most important, but the very basic concept of volleyball is to keep the ball in the air when it’s on your side of the court.

Are You Allowed To Kick In Volleyball?

In international volleyball, the rules allow for kicking the volleyball, but if you play in the U.S.A. school system, there’s no active kicking allowed.

If you play in an American middle school or high school, the rule is that any contact with the ball below your waist needs to be passive. If the ball bounces off of your leg or foot, it needs to be planted on the floor at the time.

If you would like to learn more about kicking in volleyball, check out this article: Can You Really Kick The Ball In Volleyball?

Can You Punch The Ball In Volleyball?

Certainly, it’s completely legal to punch the ball in volleyball. You’re allowed to contact the ball with any part of your body. Since a punch would be a hit made with a closed fist, you would not be lifting or carrying the ball.

Punching the ball isn’t ideal because you don’t have as much control with that kind of strike. A punch is usually only used in a quick reaction save type situation.

Photo credits:

Feature image by Tania Van den Berghen from Pixabay

Antenna hit image by martagalpe3 from Pixabay

Casual server image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay

Olympic beach image by Craig Maccubbin on flickr.com: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Beach diving image by Funk Dooby on flickr.com: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/