Refereeing volleyball: your first match, step by step

In twenty minutes you will be standing by the post with a whistle in your hand, and the only reason you are doing it is that nobody else was available. It is not as bad as it sounds: an amateur match consists overwhelmingly of a handful of decisions that keep coming back. What catches beginners out is rarely a lack of knowledge, but the order — whistling too late, hesitating, and then reversing a decision. This is the plan, from thirty minutes before to five minutes after the last ball.

Thirty minutes before: four things you check yourself

Always do this round yourself, even when somebody says it has already been done. It takes three minutes and it prevents the discussions you would otherwise get in the second set, when you can no longer do anything about them. If you arrive later and only have twenty minutes, everything simply shifts up: the order stays the same.

• The net. Measure or judge the height in the middle and at both posts; in the middle a net usually hangs slightly lower, and that is the height that counts. Which height belongs to this match depends on gender and age category and differs by federation — the common heights are in net heights per category. Check the tension too: throw a ball into the net and it should bounce back rather than stay hanging.
• The antennae. Are they in place, are they upright above the sidelines, and are they secure? An antenna that falls over halfway through the first set interrupts the match and costs you authority.
• The floor and the run-off. Loose balls to the side, bags and bottles behind the lines, and the space behind the end line clear. This is the only part of your job that is about safety, and there you are unconditionally strict.
• The balls. Put out a few of the same type and check that they are hard enough. Designate one as the match ball and put the spares by the table, so you don't have to go hunting when a ball splits or rolls away.

Twenty minutes before: toss, lineup sheets and one agreement

Call both captains over for the toss. The winner chooses either the serve or the side, the loser gets what is left — how that choice tends to play out and what teams usually do with it is in serving or receiving after the toss. Pass the outcome straight to the table, because the whole set hangs off it.

Then collect the lineup sheets, before the teams start hitting. Each team submits the six shirt numbers on positions 1 to 6 for each set. Without that sheet you can't answer a single rotation question later on, and that is exactly the situation in which a beginner comes unstuck.

Finally, make one agreement with the scorer, in one sentence: "If the score on your sheet doesn't match the board, put your hand up immediately — not three points later." Also agree that the scorer tracks the substitutions and time-outs and warns you when a team has none left. What all goes onto that sheet is in filling in the score sheet; if you know what the scorer is doing, you can ask for help specifically.

If you are on your own, without a second referee, say so out loud to both captains: "I'm here by myself, so what happens on the far side of the net at the centre line I won't always see. I whistle what I see." That isn't showing weakness, it is being clear up front — and it saves you a lot of grumbling.

The routine per rally: four steps, the same every time

1. Whistle. Short and loud. A hesitant whistle lets players play on and then you have half a rally on your hands.
2. Point to the side that gets the point and will therefore serve.
3. Signal what it was with the matching hand signal. You don't have to invent the signals: they are listed in all the referee signals. Print that list and take it with you.
4. Look at the table until the scorer is ready, and only then release the serve.

Step four is the one beginners skip, and it is the step that keeps the match calm. Release the serve while the scorer is still writing and you gradually build up a score discrepancy that only comes to light at 18-17. Make sure your eyes are above the net band: if there is a raised stand by the post, use it. That stand is usually on the side opposite the table, so you have the scorer straight in front of you. Predictability weighs more heavily than infallibility — go through the same four steps every rally and you are accepted quickly, even when you get one wrong.

The seven whistle moments that are almost the whole match

Count up your decisions after any recreational or youth match and virtually all of them fall into these seven categories:

1. Releasing the serve. Both teams are ready, the ball is with the server, you whistle and point. From that moment the time within which the serve must be struck starts running.
2. Ball in or out. Watch the line, not the ball. You are judging the contact point with the floor, and you only see that if your eye is already on the line.
3. Ball into the net or not over. Point to the opponent, done. This is one of the faults you see most often and at the same time the easiest one to judge.
4. Four hits. More than three team contacts before the ball goes over the net.
5. Net fault or centre line. Contact with the net during your own action, or sliding completely under the net.
6. Granting a time-out or substitution. A team requests, you whistle, you give the signal, the scorer notes it. You make sure nobody substitutes while the ball is in play.
7. End of set and end of match. Whistle, give the signal, and have the teams change ends.

Everything beyond that — reaching over the net, a back-row player attacking above the net height from inside the three-metre line, an assisted hit — comes up so rarely at this level that you don't have to fill your head with it. If you see it, you whistle it. If you don't see it, it didn't decide the match.

What you always whistle, and what you let go

You don't referee a recreational match the way you would a top-division game, and nor should you. What does always apply:

• Anything to do with safety: a foot completely under the net, a player ending up in the run-off of the next court, an injury.
• In or out, and ball not over the net. These are facts, not taste.
• Four hits and a clear net fault.

Where you are lenient at this level:

• Lifts and doubles on the first ball. On the first team contact the ball may touch several parts of the body in one action; only genuinely catching it stays a fault. The distinction is worked out in double contacts and technical faults.
• The spinning set of a beginner setter. Whistle that every time and play stops every other rally and nobody dares to set overhand again.
• The time limit for the serve. Only step in if somebody structurally takes their time; otherwise remind them once without whistling.

The one unforgivable mistake is a standard that changes. Strict in the first set and letting everything go in the last feels to players like bias, even when you know it is fatigue. So choose your standard before the first serve and hold it for the whole match. You don't have to announce that standard — you only have to keep to it.

The three moments where beginners freeze

Net fault or not. Ask yourself three questions, in this order. One: did the player touch the net between the antennae? Two: did that happen during his own action with the ball — approach, jump, hit or landing? Three, and this is the most honest one: did I actually see it? Three yesses means whistle. If you saw the net move but not who touched it, you don't whistle. The borderline cases, such as the net being pushed against a blocker by the ball, are in the net fault rules.

Four contacts after the block. This is the situation almost every beginner gets wrong once: block, dig, set, attack — four touches, and yet no fault. A block touch does not count as a team contact. The practical trick: only start counting from the first contact after the block, and count along to yourself — one, two, three. If you aren't sure you counted right, you don't whistle.

The rotation that has slipped. Somebody serves who wasn't due, or a team is standing wrongly at the serve. You don't have to know the correction rule by heart. You have to do one thing: stop play and walk to the table. The lineup sheet and the score sheet together tell you exactly who should have served; how that order runs is in the rotation fault explained. The main line in the international rules is that the team loses the rally and the lineup is corrected. How far points scored earlier are rolled back differs by rulebook and by level — look that up once beforehand in your own federation's competition regulations and write it on the back of your sheet. Take a calm thirty seconds over it in the hall and explain in one sentence what you are doing: slow and correct beats fast and wrong.

Protest: the question that ends the conversation in thirty seconds

There will be a moment when a captain walks over to you. Two things matter then. First: only the captain on court talks to you, and only about the application of a rule — not about a judgement. Second: you don't have to separate those two yourself, because you have one question for that.

"Are you asking about the rule, or about my judgement?"

If it is about the rule, you explain it in one sentence: "The block doesn't count as a team contact, so that was three contacts." Done, play on. If it is about your judgement, you say: "Then you already have my answer. I saw it as a net fault, and I'm not going back on that. Return to your position, we're playing on." Then turn away and release the serve. Standing there and continuing to talk extends the conversation; walking away ends it.

If the bench or a coach shouts something, your line is: "I only speak to your captain." Repeat that word for word, every time, without getting into a discussion about it. If it persists, stop play, address the captain and say that you will note it on the match sheet. Most rulebooks then have an escalating scale from warning to card, but which powers you have without a licence differs by federation — what you are allowed to do without qualifications is covered in becoming a volleyball referee. Look it up once beforehand and you won't have to think about it in the hall.

One thing you never do: reverse a decision to restore calm. It works exactly the other way round. From the moment the hall notices that protesting works, there will be protests for the rest of the match. If you have doubts afterwards, say so to the captain after the match — not during.

The last ball and the five minutes after it

Whistle the end of the match, give the signal and wait until both teams have thanked each other. Then walk to the table and check the sheet before you sign: do the set scores add up, is the final score right, are the substitutions and time-outs on it? If something unusual happened — an injury, a card, a team that was late being complete — write it down briefly and factually: what happened, at what score, and nothing about how you felt about it. Make sure both captains sign before they disappear into the changing room; that costs ten seconds now and saves you half an hour on the phone later.

Finally, take two minutes for yourself. Which two decisions did you doubt most? Look them up this evening — the complete rules of the game are exactly right for that. Do that after every match you referee and within a few matches you will be standing calmly by that post instead of wondering what could go wrong.

Frequently asked questions