Player's Guide to Volleyball Canada Beach Volleyball 14U-Senior 2026

From the FIVB Official Beach Volleyball Rules 2025-2028 (used at Volleyball Canada Beach Nationals apart from Volleyball Canada variations):

• Open-hand tips: it is an attack-hit fault to complete an attack-hit using an open-handed finger action, or using finger tips that are not rigid and together (rule 13.2.3).
• Overhand sets that go over the net: it is an attack-hit fault to complete an attack-hit with an overhand pass whose trajectory is not perpendicular to the line of the shoulders. The exception is when the player is attempting to set to a teammate (rule 13.2.5).
• First contact with the fingers: if the first hit of the team is played overhand with the fingers, the ball may not contact the fingers or hands consecutively, even within one action. For other first hits, consecutive contacts are allowed if they happen in one action (rule 9.2.2.2). Extended contact is allowed momentarily on a hard driven ball.
• Catch and double contact: the ball must not be caught or thrown, and a player may not hit the ball twice in succession (rules 9.2.2, 9.3.3, 9.3.4).
• 15U and below: overhand finger contact on the first contact is not permitted at all, and a double contact on the second hit is not a fault if a teammate plays the ball next (see the 15U question).

Sources: FIVB Official Beach Volleyball Rules 2025-2028; 2026 Youth Beach Nationals Competition Guide, section 6.

• The server must hit the ball within 5 seconds after the first referee whistles for service.
• A service executed before the referee's whistle is cancelled and repeated.
• If the serving team wins a rally it scores a point and keeps serving. If the receiving team wins the rally it scores a point and serves next.

Source: FIVB Official Beach Volleyball Rules 2025-2028, rules 6.1.3 and 12.4.

Under the FIVB Official Beach Volleyball Rules 2025-2028:

• Each team may request a maximum of one time-out per set.
• There are no substitutions.
• Only the captain may request a regular game interruption.
• A time-out is requested with the hand signal when the ball is out of play and before the whistle for service, and lasts 30 seconds.
• Time-outs for both teams may follow one another in the same interruption.
• Intervals between sets last one minute.
• For FIVB, World and Official Competitions, sets 1 and 2 also get one automatic 30-second Technical Time-Out when the teams' combined points reach 21. In the deciding set there is no Technical Time-Out.

Source: FIVB Official Beach Volleyball Rules 2025-2028, rules 15 and 18.1.

Net heights (2026):

The official ball is the Mikasa BV 550C. Game balls are supplied for matches, and teams bring their own warm-up balls. Line width is 2.5 to 8.0 cm.

Source: 2026 Youth Beach Nationals Competition Guide, section 11; 2026 Senior Beach Nationals Competition Guide, section 9.2.

The 2026 Youth Beach Nationals Competition Guide lists these Volleyball Canada variations for 15U and below:

• First contact: receiving serve or making the first contact with an overhand motion using the fingers (volleying or setting) is not permitted, regardless of the quality of the contact. The first referee signals it as a double contact. Exception: a hard driven ball.
• Second contact: on a team's second hit, contacting the ball more than once with the fingers in a single attempt to play the ball is not a fault if the ball is next legally contacted by a teammate.
• Service order: the scorer must indicate the proper server order and correct any incorrect server. A scorekeeper's error is corrected when discovered, with no penalty. A service order fault is punished by loss of rally or points scored only if the team was correctly notified, before serving, that it was out of order.
• Service receive: in sets 1 and 2, up until the technical time-out, the last player to serve for their team (at the moment the opponent serves) must be positioned closer to the right sideline than their teammate. These positions are kept until the team regains the right to serve.

The guide says a full description of all Volleyball Canada rule variations is on the Volleyball Canada website.

Source: 2026 Youth Beach Nationals Competition Guide, sections 6.1 to 6.4.

The 2026 Beach Nationals offer girls/women and boys/men divisions in six youth age categories (14U, 15U, 16U, 17U, 18U and 20U) plus an open Senior division. All matches are 2v2.

2026 events:

• Toronto (Ashbridges Bay), August 14-16: 14U to 18U, 20U and Senior. Check-in is August 13.
• Vancouver (Spanish Banks East), August 21-23: 14U to 16U only.

Youth format: Day 1 is pool play, Day 2 is power pools and Day 3 is playoffs. Matches are best of three, with a maximum of four matches per day. Volleyball Canada aims for at least seven matches per team but cannot always guarantee it.

Senior format: round-robin pools followed by an elimination round, with a prize purse of $27,000.

An event counts as a Beach National Championship only with at least eight teams from three PTAs (16U to 20U) or two PTAs (14U/15U).

Sources: Volleyball Canada 2026 Beach Nationals page (volleyball.ca/en/competitions/2026-beach-nationals); 2026 Youth and Senior Beach Nationals Competition Guides.

Eligibility (2026):

• Each team is two players, and a player can be on only one roster in one age category per event.
• Athletes must be registered, in good standing members of their Provincial/Territorial Association (PTA) and Volleyball Canada, in the province or territory where they live.
• Athletes must play their PTA championship, unless Volleyball Canada approves an exemption (for example NORCECA or FIVB circuit, Canada Cup, Provincial Team programs, Canada Games, National Team membership, extenuating circumstances, or the 17U Girls event). Exemption requests were due by July 20.
• Minimum age for athletes and team personnel is 11. Senior athletes must be at least 16, with exemptions possible in special circumstances.
• Teams can register for only one tournament (Toronto or Vancouver) before July 1.
• Athletes from different PTAs can play together, but the team declares which province it represents at registration.

Playing up and down:

• Playing down (a lower age group than at provincials) is not permitted, and a team found doing so must withdraw.
• Playing up is allowed, but seeding points are adjusted.

17U Girls: in 2026 this event is Canada's selection event for the Youth Olympic Games in Dakar. It is open to athletes born in 2009 or later, with no playing up or down restrictions and no provincial championship requirement.

Source: 2026 Youth Beach Nationals Competition Guide, section 1; 2026 Senior Beach Nationals Competition Guide, section 1.7.

Youth Beach Nationals 2026: Volleyball Canada is piloting self-officiated play for all matches before the medal rounds, so teams call their own in and out balls and no player-referee assignments are issued. A volunteer (for example a coach, family member or another athlete) may flip the scoreboard, or teams can keep score themselves. The winning team enters the final score into VolleyballLife. Court Supervisors (official Volleyball Canada referees) monitor play, and all Championship Tier medal matches are officiated by a Volleyball Canada referee. Volleyball Canada says that in earlier player-refereed play, teams handled straightforward in and out calls well but ball-handling calls were often hard to apply consistently.

The Youth Competition Guide (last updated June 2026) still describes the earlier player-referee system, with a $100 fine for missing an assignment. The pilot announcement is the newer document for matches before the medal rounds.

Senior Beach Nationals: coaching is not allowed. Volleyball Canada defines coaching as advice, instruction or external assistance of any kind to a team or player.

Sources: Volleyball Canada 2026 Self-Officiated Play announcement; 2026 Youth Beach Nationals Competition Guide, section 10; 2026 Senior Beach Nationals Competition Guide, section 2.

All teams must follow the Volleyball Canada Concussion Protocol.

• An athlete with a suspected concussion is strongly encouraged to visit the on-site medical team for an assessment using the Sport Concussion Assessment Tool (SCAT6).
• The athlete, the athlete's parent or guardian, or the athlete's coach can request an assessment.
• If an athlete under 18 declines an assessment, a parent or guardian can override that decision.
• An athlete who fails the assessment is removed from play, and the team's later matches are recorded as forfeits.
• To return, the athlete submits a Medical Assessment Letter to the on-site medical team or competition staff. It cannot be submitted to clear an athlete for immediate return after the first round of playoffs.
• If a medical professional is on site to manage concussion assessments, athletes may not use an off-site professional instead.

Medical services (first aid, concussion management, taping) are free to participating teams.

Source: 2026 Youth Beach Nationals Competition Guide, section 14.

Teams must start on time and in line with the posted schedule.

• If a team has not shown up within 10 minutes of the start time, its first set is automatically forfeited.
• After a further 10 minutes, the whole match is forfeited.

Source: Volleyball Canada 2026 Youth Beach Nationals Competition Guide, section 13.4.