Where does volleyball come from?

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Volleyball was actually invented to be a combination of a few different sports: basketball, baseball, tennis, and handball. The man who invented it, William G. Morgan, was an instructor at the YMCA in Holyoke, Massachusetts. He wanted a game for his class of business students that wasn't as rough as some other sports.

With the net from a tennis court, raised high off the ground, he created a sport where players hit a ball back and forth over a net, trying to get the other team to miss the ball or hit it out of bounds.

The path of the ball through the air is called a volley. That's where the name comes from!

 

Nothing but Net

Think of different sports you play with a net.  There's volleyball, badminton, ping pong, and tennis to name a few. How does the net make these games different from other sports, like basketball or soccer?

Try playing your own net sport at home (or maybe there is a tennis court nearby!). Do you think you run around more with these "net" sports? Or do you run around more in a game like basketball or football?