The volleyball we know today, with quick sets to 25 points and matches of overall predictable duration, has not always existed. For much of its history the scoring system has been completely different, and that change has had a profound impact on the game, the tactics and the public’s perception of it.
The “classic” system: the ball change
For decades, volleyball has adopted the so-called “side‑out scoring system“, known in Italian as “ball exchange”. According to this method, only the serving team could score a point. If the receiving team won the rally, they did not get a point, but only the right to serve (the so-called “side-out”) and therefore a chance to score a point later.
In practice, many rallies did not produce any points, and the game was often divided into “phases”: winning the serve, building up, and finally the possibility of scoring a point. This structure had important consequences, starting from the slow and discontinuous pace of scoring, with matches that could become very long and unpredictable in duration because, even by winning many rallies, a team could not get close to the final score until it had serve. Very balanced matches, played point to point, risked turning into a continuous change of ball with very few points scored.
This system is the one that accompanied the great successes of the men’s national volleyball team in the 1990s, the Generation of Phenomena coached by Julio Velasco who won 3 consecutive World Cups and 8 World Leagues between 1990 and 2000.
A problematic system for television programming: change
With the ball exchange system, it was necessary to reach 15 points with a 2 point lead to win a set. But as the years passed, one problem became increasingly apparent: the side-out system did not adapt well to the growth of volleyball as a mass sport, the increase in media attention and the growing television opportunities of the sport. A high-level match could easily last three hours, making television programming difficult and complicating the understanding of the game for the general public.
The turning point came in 1998, with the official introduction of rally point system and its application at an international level starting from 2000. This new system has radically changed the logic of scoring: each action (rally) assigns a point, regardless of who serves, and the team that wins the point also gets the serve for the following rally. In this way the games immediately become more understandable for everyone, because every action converts into a change in the score. With the rally point system, sets are played to 25 points, maintaining the obligation of a minimum advantage of 2 points, with the possible 5th set played to 15 points.
A faster, more ruthless and athletic sport
With the introduction of the new scoring system, matches have taken on a shorter and more predictable duration, usually between 90 and 120 minutes, becoming more enjoyable for a wider audience and easier to fit into the very busy television schedules. Along with the new scoring system, other rules have been changed to make the game more fluid and spectacular, many of which we take for granted today, such as the validity of the serve even after a touch of the net and the introduction of the role of libero. Predictably, the dynamics of the game itself have also changed. With rally point, every action counts immediately, every error weighs more and the match strategy is simplified: the “service phase” and the “reception phase” no longer exist, because whoever wins the rally always scores the point.
