Volleyball Court Dimensions
Official indoor and beach volleyball court measurements
Volleyball Court Dimensions
Official indoor and beach volleyball court measurements
What are the Official Volleyball Court Dimensions?
Volleyball is played in two distinct formats with different court dimensions: indoor volleyball (governed by FIBA's volleyball equivalent, FIVB) and beach volleyball. Indoor volleyball courts measure 18m × 9m, divided by a net into two equal halves of 9m × 9m. Beach volleyball courts are slightly smaller at 16m × 8m, reflecting the more demanding surface and smaller team sizes (2 players vs 6 players).
The net height varies by competition category. For men's indoor volleyball, the net is set at 2.43 metres. For women's indoor, it is 2.24 metres. Beach volleyball uses the same heights. The net is 1 metre wide and extends 1 metre beyond the sidelines, supported by posts set 0.5–1 metre outside the court.
The attack line (3-metre line) in indoor volleyball is a critical boundary — back-row players may not attack the ball above net height from in front of this line. This rule shapes team tactics significantly, creating the specialised roles of opposite hitter, libero (defensive specialist), and setter. Beach volleyball has no attack line due to the smaller team size.
How to Read This Diagram
Key Court Zones
- • Attack zone (indoor): 3m from net — back-row players restricted here
- • Service zone: Behind baseline — 9m wide for indoor
- • Free zone: 3–5m around court — minimum clear space required
- • Libero zone: Back-row only — specialist defensive player rule
- • Beach: no lines: No attack line, no substitutions — simpler rules
Why Court Size Splits Volleyball Into Two Different Games
Indoor and beach volleyball share a name and a net, but the court dimensions push them into genuinely different sports at the tactical level. Six players comfortably specialising into setters, liberos, and hitters only makes sense across an 18×9m court — shrink the same specialisation onto a 2-player beach team and there simply isn't room or manpower for dedicated roles, which is why every beach player has to be a competent all-rounder in a way an indoor specialist doesn't.
The attack line is the clearest example of a single rule that only exists because of the court's width: it stops back-row players from attacking close to the net, forcing teams to build their offense through front-row hitters and giving defenders a genuine tactical reason to track who's standing where before the serve. Beach volleyball skips this rule entirely, not out of simplicity for its own sake, but because a 2-player team physically can't maintain the same front-row/back-row distinction on a court that size.
?Frequently Asked Questions
Beach volleyball teams have only 2 players versus 6 in indoor volleyball. A full-sized 18×9m court would be impossible to cover with just 2 players, so the court is proportionally reduced to 16×8m. The sand surface also slows movement significantly, making the smaller court more appropriate. Both formats are governed by FIVB (Fédération Internationale de Volleyball) but have distinct rule sets.
The libero is a specialised defensive player introduced by FIVB in 1998, identified by a different coloured jersey. The libero can freely substitute for any back-row player without counting against the substitution limit, but cannot serve, attack above net height, or set from the front zone. The role was created to improve the quality of back-row defence and rally length in professional volleyball.
FIVB regulations require a minimum free zone of 3 metres on all sides for recreational and national-level play, increasing to 5 metres on the sides and 8 metres at the ends for international competitions. This means a full international indoor volleyball facility requires a playing space of approximately 34m × 19m minimum, with ceiling height of at least 12.5m above the court surface.
The attack line exists to stop back-row players from attacking too close to the net, which only matters when a team has enough players to maintain separate front-row and back-row roles. With just 2 players per side in beach volleyball, both players cover the whole court and attack from wherever the play takes them, so a line restricting where a "back-row" player can jump from wouldn't have anything meaningful to enforce.
The two antennas — thin rods mounted directly above each sideline — mark the outer legal boundary a ball may pass over the net through. A ball that crosses the net outside the antennas, even if it lands inbounds, is out of play. They effectively extend the sideline vertically upward, closing a loophole that would otherwise let players hit sharply angled shots around the edge of the net rather than over the marked court width.
Yes, with one key exception: a ball may legally touch the net during a rally, including on a serve in modern rules (a "let serve" is no longer a fault in FIVB volleyball, unlike some other net sports). The one thing a player cannot do is touch the net themselves while the ball is in play — that's a fault regardless of whether it affects the rally.
Indoor teams get up to 6 substitutions per set (unlimited for the libero specifically, within libero rules). Beach volleyball allows zero substitutions — with only 2 players per team, there's no bench to substitute from, and the small squad size is part of what keeps beach volleyball's pacing and specialisation so different from the indoor game.