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WSV – Policies

Aims, Standards and Values

The aims, standards and values are described on the About WSV page.

Competitive Rules

Although WSV is very much about social volleyball and inclusiveness, to achieve competition a few very basic rules are required. These Rules are defined by the organisers and will be adapted as required in an effort to achieve handicapped competition in a similar way to golf competitions. This is aimed at bringing on the less experience and weaker players whilst also encouraging best performance from highly competant players.

COVID-19 Policies

At the time of updating (16 Aug 2023) these policies there is no requirement to comply with our COVID-19 Policies, however we will keep them available in case the government implement future restrictions.  

Rules

1. Competitive Team Constitution

  • Maximum number of players = 9
  • Minimum number of players to compete = 4
  • Less than 4 players or inclusion of players from other teams in the same division are acceptable but the team constitutes a “social team” and will forfeit that competitive match. The match is invalid.
  • A young persons team consists of players below the age of 16 on the first day of the season. These teams must have at least one responsible adult to oversee the team in attendance at matches.  
  • In that matches are played over a men’s height net, to encourage development of all teams, a team may have a maximum of three male players who play within competitions that exceed the Dorset geographical area
    • A maximum of 2 of these male players are permitted on court at any time.

2. Substitutions

  • Rolling – A player may rotate off from position 2 and their substitute rotate on at position 1 during the normal time of service preparation. If this system is used Standard Substitution is not to be used.
  • Standard – Other than during the last 5 minutes of a timed set, any player may be substituted for any team substitute during the normal time of service preparation.
  • Injury Substitution – If, due to injury, a player needs to be substituted the point should be stopped. The substitution completed and a Let played as the next point.

3. Time Out

  • Other than during the last 5 minutes of a timed set, a maximum of 1 Time Out of 30 seconds per set is allowed.

4. Play Up

  • Players of the same Club may play for a team in a division competition above their own, where that team is short handed, without compromising the competitiveness of that team.  
    • Teams of the same Club have similar names, like “Waves Ripple” & “Waves Tsunami”.   
  • Players playing for another team in the same division or a lower division does compromise the competitiveness of that team and thus that team constitutes a “social team”, although the match may still be played.

5. Handicap

  • The handicap system is designed to ensure weak teams can play a competitive game against strong teams. This encourages weaker team to develop and stronger team to play well.
  • Each team has a handicap calculated after each match.
  • The Handicap of one team is subtracted from the other and the result is applied as points at the begining of each set of the next match, thus giving the weaker team a “head start”.
  • The side with the “head start” serves first in the first set.

6. Playing with less than 6 players on court

  • A team playing with 4 or 5 players rotates normally but will forfeit the service point of any missing players during each rotation. This forfeit is applied as a player gap arrives at Position 1.  
  • If 5 players, the missing player will be position 6 at the start of the set
  • If 4 players, the missing players will be position 6 and 3 at the start of the set
  • The points allocated for missing players per rotation equates to the number of discrepancy between player numbers.
    • A team of 4 playing a team of 5 relinquish 1 point per rotation. 

7. Referees and Scoring

  • Teams will be allocated to referee matches.
  • A team should supply a minimum of 2 people to conduct the referee duties. More are preferred.
  • People should be allocated to the following duties in priority order:
    • First Referee – Provide own whistle (WSV provided whistle)
    • Scorer
    • Second Referee – (Not required)
    • Base Line Judge x 2 – (Not required)

8. Playing of the ball from below the waist

  • Div 1 – The ball may be played from limbs below the waist, but not over the net.
  • Div 2 – To improve basic skills, a ball played using a limb below the waist is deemed a foul.

9. Youth Players

  • Youth players are considered as those U17 on the first day of the the season.
  • Teams including youth players must have at least one adult in attendance at all times.

10. Second Phase

  • No team may accept new or transferred players from the start of the final phase. This does not effect the “Play Up” policy at paragraph 4 above.

11. Private Competition

  • As stated on the Team Application page, please remember, this league is run as a private competition run by the Organisers who retain the right to refuse entry of any team or individual without explanation.
  • In addition, the hiring of the Weymouth Community College Sports Centre hall is a private hire of the space and the right to refuse entry to anyone is also reserved by the Organisers.  

At the time of updating (04 Aug 2022) these policies there is no requirement to comply with our COVID-19 Policies, however we will keep them available in case the government implement future restrictions.  

Rules Amendments

These and further rules will be amended from time to time as seen fit by the organisers, keeping competitive fairness at the heart of their decisions.

Amendments can be applied at any time during the seasons as the organisers see fit.  Amendments from last year have now been incorporated and any further amendments will be listed below by date colour and description.