How many players on a volleyball team? Six, twelve or fourteen

How many players on a volleyball team you need depends on the question. On court there are always six, more may be on the scoresheet, and your roster has to be bigger to get six every week. Here are the numbers from the rules in one place, for indoor, beach and smaller formats.

Six players on court, the whole match

A team must always have six players in play (rule 7.3.1 of the Official Volleyball Rules 2025-2028). Three are in the front row at the net, three in the back row. The starting line-up fixes the order in which they rotate, and that order stays the same for the whole set. Who starts where and how rotation works is in all the volleyball rules at a glance.

The libero is not a seventh player. He replaces a back-row player, usually a middle who rotates to the back row, and comes off as soon as that spot comes back to the front. So even with a libero there are always exactly six players on court, and only one libero may be on court at a time (rule 19.1).

How many players can be on the scoresheet?

The FIVB rules allow a team a maximum of twelve players for a match (rule 4.1.1). In international FIVB senior competitions it may be fourteen. Only players on the scoresheet may go on court, and once the coach and the captain have signed, you no longer change that list (rule 4.1.3). So a player who is in the gym but not on the scoresheet cannot come in.

Note two details. The liberos count towards the maximum: with twelve players on the scoresheet and two liberos you have ten regular players. And one of the players is the captain, with a stripe under his shirt number. Whether a libero is compulsory and what changes if you have none or two is in volleyball without a libero. The rules for the six substitutions per set, such as the position a starting player comes back to, are in the substitution rules.

National federations use the FIVB rules as a basis, but may set different numbers for their own competitions, for example for youth or lower divisions. The competition regulations of your league decide.

What happens if you are short of players?

Without six players you cannot play. If a team does not appear on court on time without a valid reason, it loses the match 0-3 and every set 0-25 (rule 6.4.2). If someone gets injured during the match and you can no longer make a regular substitution, you may make an exceptional substitution (rule 15.7): any player not on court at that moment may go in, except the liberos and the player the libero replaced. If that does not work either, your team is incomplete (rule 6.4.3). You lose the set or the match, the opponent gets the points or sets it still needed, and you keep what you already had.

That leads to a practical rule for small rosters. A libero is not in the starting line-up: he only comes on court after the line-up has been checked, replacing a starting player (rule 19.3.2.3). So if you have exactly six players with you, do not designate a libero, or you only have five for the line-up.

And in your roster: how many players do you need?

The rules say how many players may take part, not how many you need to get six every week. Say every player can make four out of five matches, independently of the others. With eight players you then end up with fewer than six in roughly one in five matches. With nine it is roughly one in twelve, with ten one in thirty and with twelve roughly one in 250. In reality absences often come together, with a flu wave or a holiday week, so the real risk is higher. How to split those ten to twelve players across setters, outside hitters, middles, opposites and liberos is in building your roster.

How many players in beach volleyball and other formats?

Outside the gym the numbers change. Sand and snow have their own FIVB rules, smaller formats usually the rules of a federation or tournament.

Beach volleyball is played with two players and no substitutions (rules 4.1.1 and 15.2.2 of the Official Beach Volleyball Rules 2025-2028); whoever starts finishes the match. The rest of the beach rules are in the beach volleyball rules. Snow volleyball is three against three with one substitute and two substitutions per set, according to the FIVB Official Snow Volleyball Rules 2021-2024, the edition the FIVB offers on its site in November 2026. Sitting volleyball is played with six players on court, as indoors, under the World ParaVolley rules; what else is different there is in the rules of sitting volleyball. The official texts are on the FIVB site: Official Volleyball Rules 2025-2028.

Your roster, your line-up and your subs in Koach

In Koach your whole roster sits in one team, and for each match players let you know whether they are coming. With Plan lineup you set your six in advance; whoever else is there sits on the bench, sorted by who signed up. If you are one short, use Add guest player to bring in a player from another team for that one match, as described in one player short. Under Roles you assign your setter, your middles and your libero, with two liberos at most.

During the match the app counts your substitutions per set. If you want to substitute a seventh time, the app tells you that you have already had six in this set. If a starting player comes back to a position other than his own, or a sub who has already been in and out wants to go on again, the app asks Is this substitution allowed? What Koach costs after the 14 free days is on the pricing page.

Frequently asked questions

Further reading

Building your roster: how many players do you need per position? How many substitutions in volleyball? 6 per set: the rules Volleyball rules: all the rules of the game at a glance (2026)

Browse 200 volleyball drills with animations Download a complete practice plan of 8 to 28 weeks