Volleyball in the Philippines

Volleyball in the Philippines

The Lady ALTAS Volleyball Team of the University of Perpetual Help, the back-to-back Champion during the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Beach Volleyball Tournament 2013.
First played	1910
Characteristics
Type	Volleyball in the Philippines
Equipment	Volleyball

The history of volleyball in the Philippines refers to the history of volleyball in the Philippines as a recreation and as a sport. Philippine volleyball history began in 1910 when the Philippines was a United States territory (1898–1946). The Filipinos have made significant contributions to volleyball in its evolution as a professional and international game. The Filipinos continued playing volleyball up to the modern-day period in its status as an independent republic (1946–present).

It was introduced to the Filipinos by an American named Elwood S. Brown, the then Physical Director of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA). It became a popular game held in backyards and at beaches in the islands. At first, the Filipinos invented their own rules for the game. US soldiers who were assigned to the different islands of the Philippine during the period also helped in the widespread introduction of volleyball to the Filipinos. These American military servicemen encouraged the Filipinos to join them in playing during their time-off from military duties. Early in the history of the game of volleyball in the Philippines, the Filipinos used trees as makeshift net holders (the net was hung between the two chosen trees).

The Filipinos contributed two items to modern-day volleyball:

The first contribution was that the Filipinos inspired American players to create the "three-hit limit" for each player in modern-day volleyball. This number of limits in hitting the ball was based by American volleyball players from the Filipino way of letting each player hit the ball before sending or "volleying" it over to the side of the opponent team. The Americans revised this method to become the "three-hit limit" because the old way of taking turns in hitting the ball took too much time, and had been observed to affect the intensity of the game and the motivation of the participating volleyballers (lessens the "challenge and the competitive nature" of the game).

The second Filipino contribution was the "set and spike" maneuver, also known as "set and hit", "setting and spiking", or just "spike". A spike is a form of volleyball "attack" done by the player by jumping, raising one arm above the head and hitting the ball so it will move quickly down to the ground on the opponent's court. The set, on the other hand, is an over-hand pass done by the setter (another player) using the wrists to push finger-tips at the ball.