Beach Volleyball is an Olympic discipline played outdoors, barefoot on a sand court with a ball, by teams of two players divided by a net.

The object of the game is to send the ball over the net in order to ground it on the opponent's court, and to prevent the same effort by the opponent.

The team has three hits for returning the ball (including the block touch).The ball is put in play with a service: hit by the server over the net to the opponents. The rally continues until the ball is grounded on the playing court, goes “out” or a team fails to return it properly.

The match is won by the team that wins two sets.

The team winning a rally scores a point (Rally Point System). When the receiving team wins a rally, it gains a point and the right to serve. The serving player must be alternated every time this occurs.

A set (except the deciding 3rd set) is won by the team that first scores 21 points with a minimum lead of two points. In the case of a 20-20 tie, play is continued until a two-point lead is reached (22-20, 23-21 etc). In the case of a 1-1 tie, the deciding set (the 3rd) is played to 15 points with a minimum lead of 2 points.

There are many similarities between the rules of the beach volleyball and the volleyball. But there are also many differences.

(1) In beach volleyball, there are only 2 players. No more and no less. So the two players in each team must participate in the game from the beginning to the end. There is no player substitution or change of player during the match.

(2) The players of the beach volleyball may stand in any positions of their own court. So there is not positional fault.

(3) In beach volleyball, it is a fault if a player completes an attack-hit using an “open-handed tip or dink” directing the ball with the fingers. However, it is allowed to hit the ball by the finger tip or finger joint.

(4) In the beach volleyball match, it is a fault if the players complete the attack hit when the tracks the over-arm pass are not vertical with the connecting line of the two shoulders.

(5) If simultaneous contacts by the two opponents lead to a “held ball” at the net, the match continues.

(6) In beach volleyball, an injured player is given a maximum of 5-minutes recovery time one time a match.

(7) In beach volleyball, the teams switch after every 7 points (Set 1 and 2) and 5 points (Set 3) played.

(8) In beach volleyball, each team is entitled to a maximum of one time-out per set. In sets 1 and 2, one additional 30 second Technical Timeout is automatically allocated when the sum of the points scored by the teams equals 21 points.