The Origin of Volleyball

While a game which somewhat resembled volleyball was being played in England as far back as 1591, it was only in 1895 that the American William G. Morgan developed a game, which was to be the predecessor of our present-day volleyball.

Spread by the U.S. troops and the YMCA, this sport which had meanwhile gained some momentum, reached the rest of the world.

The start of Sport for the Disabled

Sir (then Doctor) Ludwig Guttmann - Neurologist and Neurosurgeon - emigrated with his family to England in March 1939 as a refugee from Nazi Germany. At the beginning of 1944, while he was doing research at Oxford University, he was asked by the British Government to set up a Spinal Injury Centre at Stoke Mandeville Hospital. At this institute, he put into practice unique ideas of treatment and rehabilitation of spinal cord paralysed patients - hitherto regarded as hopeless and helpless cripples with only a short expectation of life. That he was successful in establishing a spinal cord injury service, a model to the whole world, is a matter of history. But there was a particular aspect of his philosophy and foresight that was to have far-reaching influence on the lives, not only of spinal cord paralysed persons, but to many other types of disabled persons all over the world.

Sir Ludwig Guttmann used to say: "If I ever did one good thing in my medical career, it was to introduce sport into the treatment and rehabilitation programme of spinal cord sufferers and other severely disabled".

In 1948, the first Stoke Mandeville Games were held with a participation of 16 paralysed wheelchair competitors in archery. The Games became "International" in 1952 with the participation of a Dutch team of war veterans.

Sitting Volleyball

The first sports club for the disabled was established in the Netherlands only as late as 1953. Athletics and Sitzball - originating from Germany - were the main sports. Soon it was found that Sitzball, which is played sitting down on the floor, was too passive; more mobile forms of sports were looked for.

In 1956, the Dutch Sports Committee introduced a new game called Sitting Volleyball, a combination of sitzball and volleyball. Since then Sitting Volleyball has grown into one of the biggest sports practised in competition not only by the disabled in the Netherlands, but also by interested "able-bodied" volleyball players with an injury of the ankle or  knee.

Development

Since 1967, international competitions have taken place, but we had to wait until 1978 before the International Sports Organisation for the Disabled (ISOD) accepted Sitting Volleyball in its programme. The first official International Tournament - under the umbrella of the ISOD - took place in 1979 in Haarlem (the Netherlands). In 1980, it was accepted as a Paralympic Sport with the participation of seven teams.

The international development can be called tumultuous. Clinics have been held all over the world and regular World, European and Regional Championships are organised annually.

Since 1993, Sitting Volleyball championships are organised for men and women. It has become one of the main team-sports in the Paralympic Programme. It is a fast, exciting and crowd pleasing sport, which can show the atletic skills of disabled sportsmen(women).

Sitting Volleyball has the radiation to grow into a sport in which the disabled and non-disabled persons can play on a high technical level.

Standing Volleyball

Standing Volleyball was played by disabled sportsmen long before the International Federation was founded. It has its roots in Great Britain and was originally only played by amputees. Due to the variations of amputation, a classification system was set up and players were put into one of nine categories. To encourage those with a more severe amputation to participate, a point system on court was introduced - each player received points for the degree of amputation - and 13 points was the minimal team requirement on court.

In 1984, it was decided to open up the game to allow other disability groups to take part, thereby encouraging more nations to participate. Although this initially created more classification problems, the WOVD finally, after four years, established criteria for classification, which includes those players with various arm or leg disabilities.

Development
Small international competitions have taken place since the 1960s, although it was not until 1976 before volleyball was accepted into the Paralympic Programme in Toronto. Since 1980, volleyball has had a regular international calendar.

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