The State Sports General Administration recently issued a statement saying that my country will not resume football, basketball and marathon gatherings for the time being. The most optimistic estimate is that the return of major events to normal will not be until summer at the earliest, when beach games will become a good choice for outdoor activities that combine entertainment and competition. In November this year, the 6th Asian Beach Games will be held in Sanya, China, and beach volleyball is one of the 16 major events. The history of
is long and short: the project started a bit late. The development history of beach volleyball is actually close to 100 years, but the development history in our country is not long.
In 1895, American William G. Morgan invented volleyball. In the 1920s, beach volleyball gradually became a beach entertainment on the coast of California. Soon, this sport of blue sky overhead, sandy beaches and sunshine gradually spread in the United States, Europe and South America.
In 1987, the first World Beach Volleyball Championship was held in Rio de Janeiro. Nearly 30 years later, in 2016, Rio became the first city in South America to host the Summer Olympics. The hosts Brazil's Alisson and Bruno defeated the Italian combination of Nicola and Lupo 2-0 to win the men's beach volleyball championship.
In the 1990s, the world's beach volleyball grand prix and tournaments gradually increased. At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, beach volleyball became an official event. In the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games, beach volleyball became the official event of the Asian Games. It is estimated that more than 100 countries and regions in the world currently carry out beach volleyball and participate in relevant international competitions.
Also in the 1990s, my country launched beach volleyball. In 1994, my country included beach volleyball into the national competition plan; in 1997, beach volleyball became a national game event; since 2000, beach volleyball has had a national championship and a national championship.
beach volleyball is widely carried out all over the world, on the one hand because it is synonymous with sunshine and health, and its exercise volume can be large or small, and the number of participants can be large or small, which has gradually become a trend. On the other hand, it does not have high requirements for the site. Although it is constrained by beaches and weather conditions, the threshold for development is relatively low. As long as there is a beach, a net and a roll of landmarks can be played.
In fact, beach volleyball and games can be played where there is no beach. Many cities not near the sea have used detachable equipment to build competition venues, which is not only low cost and environmentally friendly, but also popularizes this project. The beach volleyball court for the 2012 London Olympics is a temporary structure built by the Royal Cavalry Guards parade, which greatly reduces the cost of the organizing committee's venue construction and follow-up maintenance. The rules of
are the same and different: they are very different from indoor volleyball.
Beach volleyball and indoor volleyball are both under the jurisdiction of the International Volleyball Federation. In the Olympics, they belong to two different sub-items under the volleyball category. Speaking of indoor volleyball is the "big brother", beach volleyball is the "little brother". In fact, these two projects are still different.
First of all, the venue is different. The standard indoor volleyball court is 18 meters long and 9 meters wide. The half court is a square with a side length of 9 meters. The back row attack must be outside the 3-meter line. The beach volleyball court is slightly smaller, 16 meters long and 8 meters wide. The half court is a square with sides of 8 meters long. Of course, the elasticity of the beach is different from that of the floor, and the jumping and technical requirements of the players are also different.
Caption: Chinese women's volleyball player Zhang Changning used to be a sand volleyball player, but after returning to indoor volleyball, he played a new world.
Second, the number of people is different. Indoor volleyball has 6 people on the field, while beach volleyball has 2 people. In addition, the indoor volleyball players have a relatively clear position, and now there are more free agents, there are substitute players, and the whole team is 14 people. But beach volleyball has no substitutes, so the teamwork is very important. When beach volleyball players are injured or in poor condition, it affects their performance. Also due to the number of players, indoor volleyball adopts a 5-game 3-win system, with a score system of 25 points per game and 15 points in the final game; sand volleyball has 2 wins in 3 games, 21 points per game, and the final game is also 15 marks.
Third, the rules are different. Beach volleyball is not an exchange of venues, but the sum of the points scored by both sides is 7 or a multiple of 7, and the venue is exchanged; in the third round, the venue is exchanged for 5 points or a multiple of 5. In addition, the beach volleyball block is also considered a hitThe ball; the coach can't direct the game during the game, it's up to the players to play on the spot. Except for the position of the server, the beach volleyball players have no clear standing requirements in the game.
In other words, there is no clear division of labor for the two players in beach volleyball. Take the service for example, both of them can receive the ball, unlike table tennis and badminton, which are specific to each point, there are fixed service receivers. In fact, there are only 2 players on the beach volleyball side. Although the tactical changes are simpler, the technical requirements for the players are more comprehensive. For example, each player serves more times, therefore, the player's serving skills must be excellent. In addition to serving, the passing, smashing, and saving skills of the players cannot have obvious weaknesses.
Generally speaking, the sand volleyball competition venue is slightly smaller than indoor volleyball, and the ball is lighter than indoor volleyball, and it is more susceptible to air velocity to change the flight trajectory. In the case of a larger “average area”, the beach volleyball team players rely on “genius” to score points. Players not only need to master all the offensive and defensive techniques of indoor volleyball, but also quickly read changes on the court, so sand volleyball players can be called all-around players. Our country's Zhang Changning, Zheng Yixin and other players switched from sand volleyball to indoor volleyball, demonstrating good qualities and values. However, the height of the net for beach volleyball is the same as that for indoor volleyball, and other rules are roughly the same.
high and low level: there is a gap with the world's strong teams
The current beach volleyball strong countries in Europe, Brazil, the United States and so on. For example, the American women's "golden combination" Walsh and May won three consecutive Olympic championships since the 2004 Athens Olympics; the German combination won the 2016 Rio Olympics women's championship.
Chinese beach volleyball has made significant progress since the 1990s and has entered the ranks of world masters.
In the first Asian Beach Volleyball Championship in 2000, Chinese players won the women's championship and runner-up. At the 2005 World Beach Volleyball Championships, my country's women's sand volleyball team won third place and won the World Series medal for the first time. In 2006, the Chinese women’s team absorbed advanced concepts and training methods of sand volleyball through overseas training camps, and carried out a “high-high combination” attempt, and through competition-based training, they frequently participated in the FIVB World Tour, and their level improved greatly. Soon, won the championship of the tournament and the finals. At the 2007 World Beach Volleyball Championship, Tian Jia and Wang Jie won the silver medal. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the two pairs of women's teams, Tian Jia, Wang Jie, Xue Chen, and Zhang Xi, wrote the best results of my country's beach volleyball in the Olympic Games with one silver and one bronze score. At the 2012 London Olympics, Xue Chen and Zhang Xi finished fourth.
Chinese men’s beach volleyball also performed well. In the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games, Li Hua and Gu Hongyu won the men’s beach volleyball championship. In the 2006 Doha Asian Games and the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games, Chinese players participated in the finals twice and won the championship and runner-ups. In the 2014 Incheon Asian Games, they won silver and bronze medals; Last, the combination of Xu Linyin and Wu Penggen participated in the Beijing and London Olympics.
In recent years, due to the low popularity of outdoor sports and the loss of talents, the level of China's beach volleyball has declined. For example, the men's sand volleyball team did not enter the finals at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games, which was the lowest point in the recent 4 Asian Games. In fact, the amount of beach volleyball exercise is greater than that of indoor volleyball, and training and competition are mostly carried out outdoors. It is common for athletes to be exposed to wind, rain and sun. In terms of selection, volleyball is also played, and indoor volleyball is more well-known, so the selection of beach volleyball is smaller. Statistics show that there are currently only 230 registered beach volleyball players in China. Perhaps after this epidemic, more people will go outdoors and understand that beach volleyball is a good event.
The Chinese beach volleyball team has been working hard for the Tokyo Olympics tickets. At the Sand Volleyball Asian Championships held in Udon Thani, Thailand in February 2020, No. 2 seeds Wang Fan, Xia Xinyi and teammates Wen Shuhui and Wang Jingzhe won the championship and runner-up; the men's team Wu Jiaxin and Halikjiang won the silver medal. In the Tokyo Olympic Qualifying Tournament last September, my country's Wang Fan and Xia Xinyi combination unfortunately lost. They need to raise the ranking to the top 15 or win tickets in the five continents competition in June this year. Due to the epidemic, the Tokyo Olympics were postponed to next year, and the FIVB also cancelled or postponed the sand volleyball event in June this year. The postponement gave China Sands more time to queue up to "grab" tickets. Of course, this is the same for competitors, depending on who is more comfortable with the impact of the postponement of the Olympics.
Caption: ShanghaiPlayer Xu Linyin's partner Wu Penggen was once China's strongest men's beach volleyball team.
Beach Volleyball also has a connection with Shanghai. In the Eighth National Games held in Shanghai in 1997, beach volleyball entered the National Games for the first time. Beach volleyball can also enter the city streets. In 2003, the National Beach Volleyball Championship was held in the center of Shanghai. At that time, 1,000 tons of sand built a beach volleyball court on Nanjing Road Pedestrian Street. Xu Linyin from Shanghai participated in the Beijing and London Olympics consecutively and won the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games.
According to the rules, there are 24 pairs of men and women in Olympic beach volleyball, 96 people in total. For each individual event, a country and region can only participate in a maximum of 2 pairs of players. Olympic tickets are determined through qualifiers, rankings and continent games. Speaking of the Olympics, I want to ask weakly, as the International Olympic Committee welcomes women's events and mixed events into the Olympic Games, will beach volleyball add a mixed event for men and women in the near future?
(Associate Professor Chen Guoqiang from Shanghai Sport University also contributed to this article)
