Volleyball is a sport that has progressed a lot over the years.
If I were to answer this question a few years ago my article would be extremely short.
However, with many variations of Volleyball popping up left right and centre the answer has become a lot more blurred.
If your perception of Volleyball is strictly the traditional form of Volleyball being Indoor Volleyball.
There are 6 players per team on the court at any one time in traditional indoor volleyball. However, you are allowed 12 players per roster noted on the team sheet.
This means throughout the game you can make substitutions.
If you are more familiar with the various disciplines of volleyball see the below table for each number of players per discipline
| Discipline | Number of Players Per Team (On Court) |
| Indoor Volleyball | 6 |
| Beach Volleyball | 2 |
| 4 Man Beach Volleyball | 4 |
| Snow Volleyball | 3 |
| Sitting Volleyball | 6 |
Now there are some strict terms in how these substitutions can be used which I will touch on later.
Now the reason I mentioned about what your perception of volleyball is, is because there are lots of different strains of volleyball now, all of which have different players per team.
There is Beach Volleyball, Snow Volleyball, Sitting Volleyball and more.
Well you know how many players are on each team, which means you are half way there.
Get your volleyball essentials by heading over to Amazon by clicking here and complete that missing half.
Table of Contents
Indoor Volleyball Team Size and Rules
Now it is worth noting that different leagues may have different rules relating to this, however, for the sake of this article I am talking about the general rules of most competitive leagues such as NCAA, FIVB etc.
So as stated above an indoor Volleyball team has 6 players per team on the court at any one given time.
The oncourt team is different to an active roster though.
You are able to put upto 12 players on the scoresheet before a game begins, as a volleyball match can consist of 5 sets it would be reasonable to assume that players need a break or your team may need a switch up to get out of a slump.
With this in mind, you are able to make upto 12 substitutions per set. One thing to note with these substitutions per set is that once a player has been subbed out for a specific player they can only be subbed back in for the player that previously replaced them.
What I mean by this is if you are a middle hitter and you are subbed out of the game, if your coach wants you back on the court you can only sub back on for the middle that replaced you initially.
Once you have made them two substitutions you can no longer sub that position.
As mentioned above you have 12 available substitutions per set, so if you don’t use all 12 in one set they will be lost, not carried over.
Beach Volleyball Team Size and Rules
Beach Volleyball has been one of the fastest growing variations of Volleyball over the last few years.
It is action packed, beautiful to watch and even better to play.
In Beach Volleyball you have 2 players on each team and no substitutions or reserves.
In Beach Volleyball it is you and your partner vs the world.
In the last few years it has snuck it’s way into the olympics and been one of the most watched sports everytime it has been included.
Beach volleyball is here to stay and in fact it may even be adding a new variation into the mix.
4 man Beach Volleyball
In beach volleyball you have an awful lot of court to cover and when an extremely good team plays a lesser team, the game can become very dull and one sided.
One in which this can be improved upon is by adding more players to match the court size. This not only makes the game more competitive, faster paced and ultimately more enjoyable to watch.
Although 4 vs 4 dates back as early as 1930 its traction and grew has been extremely recent. In fact there is now even an official set of rules created and published to regulate the sport.
Recently the 2019 Beach Games were held in Doha, Qatar.
Due to the popularity of the 4 man beach game, they opted to include it in the event.
It was extremely well received and enjoyed by all spectators that I honestly think it will be appearing in more and competitions and even has the chance to become an olympic sport in the not so distant future.
So as the saying goes, watch this space’
With that being said the 4 man beach volleyball game obviously has 4 players per team on court at any one given time.
However, unlike traditional beach volleyball you can actually have up to 6 players on a team so the team line up can be altered set to set.
Each team is allowed upto 4 subs per set and although a specific serve order must be followed, players are allowed to roam freely on court throughout the rally.
Snow Volleyball Team Size and Rules
The last variation that is taking the volleyball world by storm is Snow Volleyball.
Yes you heard that right.
Volleyball played in the snow.
I know it goes against every fibre in your being that you would want to freeze yourself playing volleyball in the snow.
But it is actually very entertaining and more importantly very appealing to watch as it continues to grow in popularity.
Snow volleyball is much like all other forms of volleyball accept it is played on a snow court.
Snow volleyball consists of 3 players per team on court at any one time with a 4th player on the bench who can be subbed in.
You are only allowed 1 substitution per match so make sure you use it wisely.
In snow volleyball you wear cleats or (moulded shoes) when playing to allow you to cope with the 3 different snowy conditions you might face.
- Slushy
- Icey
- Freshly Compacted Snow
If you are interested in learning more about snow volleyball my absolute favourite resource is The McKibbin Brothers on youtube.
Sitting Volleyball Team Size and Rules
Sitting Volleyball was originally designed as a rehab sport for injured soldiers in 1965.
Originally the sport was a combination of Volleyball and Sitzball which was a German sport that had no net.
Slowly over time the sport transitioned more and more away from the sitzball elements and closely mimicked traditional volleyball.
In 1976 at the Toronto Paralympic games in 1976 both standing and sitting volleyball were included as medal sports.
Sitting Volleyball is played on a smaller court at just 10m x 6m with a 2m attack line as opposed to the traditional 3m line.
The net is much lower at 115cm for men and 105cm for women.
Much like traditional volleyball Sitting volleyball consists of 6 players on each team on court at any one time.
So there you have it the number of players for each team depending on which discipline you play in.