What Is Wallyball? – Better At Volleyball

If you find it challenging to participate successfully in volleyball, wallyball might be the best sport for you. However, not many people seem to understand what wallyball is and the logic behind it. So, let’s find out more about the sport here.

Wallyball is a fast-paced sport that combines some aspects of volleyball and racquetball. It’s also known as rebound volleyball and is played in a racquetball court but with a Volleyball-esque ball and volleyball setup. However, in wallyball, players are allowed to hit the ball off the walls.

Keep reading this article to learn more about wallyball, including its differences from normal volleyball, who plays it, and the regions where it is most popular.

If you’re looking for Wallyball equipment, I’ve linked to the most common items below on Amazon:

Wallyball

Wallyball Net

Net Clamps

Training Kit

Understanding Wallyball

Wallyball is a fast-paced indoor sport that borrows a lot of features from volleyball and some from racquetball. It is played in a racquetball court with a volleyball setting and a ball that’s similar to volleyball.

The name “wallyball” is a blend of the words “wall” and “volleyball,” and as the name suggests, wallyball has something to do with walls. Specifically, its primary highlight is that, unlike volleyball, the walls are live, meaning that players are allowed to bounce the ball off one of the side walls.

Because players can bounce the ball off walls, and because the court is a bit smaller, it’s more fast-paced than volleyball. As a result, it demands excellent hand and eye coordination from the players.

Both men and women play wallyball, and there are between two to six players. Just like volleyball, it’s played by keeping the ball off of your side of the court and hitting the ball over the net to the opposite side. Currently, Wallyball is popular in the Eastern United States, where the winter season keeps people locked indoors but it’s slowly and steadily gaining popularity across the world.

We’ll continue to discuss the details of this dynamic sport, but first, let’s take a look at its history.

History and Origin of Wallyball

Joe Garcia is credited as the inventor of Wallyball. However, Bill Dejonghe from California devised this exciting sport in a racquetball club known as Calabasas Racquetball Club in 1979.

This club faced a declining number of visitors during summer, and Bill created this sport to attract more visitors and boost the club’s business during this decline.

Even though Bill was the mind behind wallyball, he didn’t contribute much to its popularity, that is where Joe Garcia comes in.

Joe Garcia helped popularize the sport by taking it mainstream. And since this sport had a lot in common with volleyball, his first step in popularizing it was approaching Al Scates, the legendary UCLA Volleyball Coach.

He invited coach Scates to their club to play wallyball. Scates loved the game, and the two collaborated in setting the game’s rules, outlining the skills needed to play, determining the equipment that should be used, among other rules.

From here, wallyball grew in popularity, and today, people play it in most parts of the world. Wallyball is regulated by the American Wallyball Association (AWA).

You may find it interesting to compare this to the history of volleyball.

How Is It Different Than Normal Volleyball?

Wallyball is different from normal volleyball in a number of different ways, including:

The number of players in each game (two to six for wallyball vs. six for volleyball).
The court dimensions, and equipment.
The way each game is scored.
The specific rules for each.

Let’s now delve deeper into the differences between wallyball and regular volleyball.

Number of Players

Each team in wallyball includes two to six players, but the American Wallyball Association allows for two, three, or four players on each team.

However, the Wallyball Information Network, the organization in charge of promoting wallyball worldwide, allows for up to five or six players on each side.

On the other hand, each indoor volleyball team includes six players.

Court Dimensions and Equipment

One striking difference is that, unlike volleyball, wallyball is played on a racquetball court. The court measures 40 ft X 20 ft (12 m x 6 m). In contrast, the volleyball court is a bit bigger, measuring 59.1 ft x 29.5 ft (18 m x 9 m).

In both sports, a net divides the court into two halves, but it comes in different sizes and is set at different heights. The net in wallyball is 3 ft (0.91 m) tall and is set at the height of 8 ft (2.44 m) for male players and 7.5 ft (2.29 m) for female players.

In standard volleyball, the net is 3.3 ft (1 m) tall and is set at the height of 7.9 ft (2.43 m) for men and 7.3 ft (2.24 m) for women players.

Additionally, the court in wallyball has live walls (meaning players can bounce the ball off the walls), while a standard volleyball court doesn’t factor in the walls. It’s illegal to bounce the ball off the walls in regular volleyball.

While speaking of differences, we can’t forget to mention that although wallyball uses a volleyball-esque ball, and is made of rubber, while the ball used in volleyball is made of leather or synthetic leather.

Scoring

Although scoring in wallyball is similar to volleyball’s scoring system, there is a slight difference between the two. Wallyball has a feature called speed scoring.

In volleyball, players score on every point, which is known as rally-point scoring. However, with the speed scoring aspect of wallyball, players only score when serving. Here, points are scored on every serve until one of the teams reaches a freeze point.

The freeze point is when one team is three points shy of the number of points required to win the game. When this occurs, a point is often awarded on the next side-out.

Rules

Most rules are similar in both sports. However, a pretty big difference is that players in wallyball are allowed to block and attack a serve. In volleyball, however, blocking or attacking a serve from the opponent’s team is illegal.

Additionally, during the serve in wallyball, the ball can hit one of the walls on either side of the net. In a nutshell, this means the ball can go over the net to the opponent’s team after hitting one wall on the serving team’s side.

On the contrary, players in volleyball aren’t allowed to bounce the ball off the walls during a serve.

Who Usually Plays Wallyball?

Both men and women play wallyball. Each playing team consists of two to six players, and all the players are expected to wear the appropriate attire, such as training shoes, shorts, and t-shirts. Players should be physically fit and possess good hand-eye coordination.

Wallyball players need to develop the skill of being able to predict or anticipate where the ball will be after rebounding off the wall. In most sports, this is what’s called “tracking the ball.” To achieve this, they must factor in the angle of the hitter’s hand, the speed of the arm, the speed of the ball, and the spot on the wall where the ball hits.

With these factors in place, any player participating in this sport can successfully exchange hits with their opponents without missing. Basically, most players with general volleyball knowledge can blend well in this fast-paced indoor sport.

Where Is Wallyball Most Popular?

Wallyball is most popular in the eastern United States. Although in the beginning, wallyball was invented as an alternative indoor sport in the areas hard hit by winter, it has since spread across the world.

Since its inception in 1979, wallyball has attracted millions of players worldwide.

Wrapping It Up

Wallyball isn’t just a form of volleyball played in a racquetball court. It’s a dynamic indoor sport with a set of rules and a governing body, the American Wallyball Association. The major highlight that makes wallyball stand out among other indoor sports is the wall factor.

If you have a good mastery of volleyball with good and speedy hand-eye coordination, you can try out this fun, exciting, fast-paced, and dynamic sport.

To learn about other variations of the game of volleyball, check out our category page by clicking here.

Sources

Photo Credits:

Feature image by Lynne Nelson on flickr.com: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/, cropped to zoom.

Court image by Lynne Nelson on flickr.com: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/