Player's Guide to Volleyball Canada Sitting Volleyball All Ages 2025-2028

• Court: the playing court is 10 x 6 m. The centre line divides it into two courts of 6 x 5 m, and the attack line's rear edge is 2 m back from the axis of the centre line.
• Net height: 1.15 m for men and 1.05 m for women, measured from the centre of the playing court.
• Players: six per team on court.
• Rally point: the team that wins a rally scores a point. The receiving team that wins a rally also gains the serve and rotates one position clockwise.
• Sets: a set is won by the first team to 25 points with a two-point lead (play continues past 24-24 until one team leads by two).
• Match: won by the first team to win three sets. At 2-2, the deciding fifth set is played to 15 points with a minimum two-point lead.

Source: World ParaVolley Official Sitting Volleyball Rules 2025-2028, Rules 1.1, 1.3, 2.1 and 6; Volleyball Canada sitting volleyball page.

Lifting is a fault in playing the ball: part of the player's body between the buttocks and shoulders loses contact with the court during a playing action.

• At all times during playing actions, you must contact the court with some part of the body between the buttocks and shoulders.
• To stand up, raise the body or take steps is forbidden.
• Lifting at the moment of an attack hit is an attack hit fault.
• A server who lifts his or her buttocks commits a service fault.
• The exception is a defensive action on a ball that is not entirely higher than the top of the net (see the question on lifting while defending).

Source: World ParaVolley Official Sitting Volleyball Rules 2025-2028, Rules 9.3.5, 9.4, 12.6.1.3 and 13.3.4.

Lifting is permitted all over the court when you play the ball in a defensive action (first, second or third contact), as long as the contact is made when the ball is not entirely higher than the top of the net.

• Your buttocks are also allowed a short loss of contact with the floor at any time and in any area of the court, except when performing an attacking action.
• A loss of contact is allowed as a reaction after performing the action.
• If, after the defensive action, the ball legally crosses the vertical plane of the net, play continues.

Volleyball Canada's sitting volleyball page describes this exception in terms of defensive actions in the back zone; the World ParaVolley 2025-2028 rule text says "all over the court".

Source: World ParaVolley Official Sitting Volleyball Rules 2025-2028, Rule 9.4.1; Volleyball Canada sitting volleyball page.

Positions are judged by where your buttocks contact the ground, not by your hands or legs.

• Each front-row player must have at least part of the buttocks closer to the centre line than the buttocks of the corresponding back-row player.
• Each right (left) side player must have at least part of the buttocks closer to the right (left) side line than the buttocks of the centre player in that row.
• At the moment the server hits the ball, each team must be within its own court (except the server). The receiving team must be in rotational order, but the serving team is free to occupy any position.
• After the service hit, players of both teams may move around and occupy any position on their court and the free zone.
• A team commits a positional fault if any player is not in the correct position when the server hits the ball.

Source: World ParaVolley Official Sitting Volleyball Rules 2025-2028, Rules 7.4 and 7.5.

• The ball is hit with one hand or any part of the arm after being tossed or released from the hand(s). Only one toss or release is allowed, though dribbling or moving the ball in the hands is permitted. A service hit without a toss or release is allowed only for players with a classified hand impairment.
• At the moment of the service hit, the server's buttocks must not touch the court (the end line included) or the floor outside the service zone. The server's foot (feet), leg(s) or hand(s) may touch the court and the free zone outside the service zone.
• The server must hit the ball within 8 seconds after the first referee's whistle for service.
• The server lifting his or her buttocks is a service fault.
• Screening: the serving team must not stop the receiving team seeing the service hit and the ball's flight path by waving arms, moving sideways or sitting grouped. Serving-team players may not raise hands above the head during service until the service hit, and back-row players cannot have arms or hands above their shoulders.

Source: World ParaVolley Official Sitting Volleyball Rules 2025-2028, Rule 12 (screening wording as updated in the February 2025 approved rule changes).

• Blocking the opponent's serve is permitted, and so is attacking it.
• A front-row player may complete an attack hit at any height, provided the contact is made within his or her own playing space.
• A back-row player may attack from behind the front zone at any height, provided his or her buttocks have neither touched nor crossed the attack line at the hit. After the hit, the player may move his or her buttocks into the front zone.
• A back-row player may also attack from the front zone if, at the moment of contact, part of the ball is lower than the top of the net.
• A back-row player or a Libero may not complete a block or take part in a completed block.
• A blocker who lifts his or her buttocks while playing the ball or taking part in a block commits a fault. Lifting while blocking without touching the ball is not a fault.

Source: World ParaVolley Official Sitting Volleyball Rules 2025-2028, Rules 13 and 14.

Yes, within limits.

• Contact with the net by a player is not a fault unless it interferes with play.
• A player may touch the post, ropes or any other object outside the antennae, including the net itself, provided it does not interfere with play.
• It is permitted to penetrate into the opponent's space under the net, and to touch the opponent's court beyond the centre line with any part of the body, provided it does not interfere with the opponent's play.
• A player may enter the opponent's court after the ball goes out of play.
• In blocking, a player may touch the ball beyond the net, provided he or she does not interfere with the opponents' play before or during their attack hit.

Source: World ParaVolley Official Sitting Volleyball Rules 2025-2028, Rules 11.1 to 11.3.

Each team may request a maximum of two time-outs and six substitutions per set. Every requested time-out lasts 60 seconds, and players in play go to the free zone near their bench during it.

• A player of the starting line-up may leave the set once and re-enter once, and only to his or her previous position in the line-up.
• A substitute may enter the set in place of a starting player only once per set, and can only be replaced by that same starting player.
• A team may not make consecutive substitution requests during the same interruption, and there must be a completed rally between two separate substitution requests (except for a forced substitution for injury, expulsion or disqualification).
• Substitutions are made within the substitution zone.
• For World ParaVolley, World and Official Competitions, World ParaVolley may reduce a team's time-outs by one.

Source: World ParaVolley Official Sitting Volleyball Rules 2025-2028, Rules 15.1 to 15.6 and 15.10.

A team may designate up to two Liberos, who are specialist defensive players. Only one Libero may be on court at a time.

• A Libero may replace any back-row player.
• A Libero may not serve, block or attempt to block.
• A Libero may not complete an attack hit if the ball is entirely higher than the top of the net at the moment of contact.
• Libero replacements are not counted as substitutions and are unlimited, but there must be a completed rally between two replacements involving a Libero.
• Replacements happen only while the ball is out of play and before the whistle for service, and only through the Libero replacement zone.
• A Libero must wear a uniform with a different dominant colour from the rest of the team, numbered like the rest of the team.
• The Libero counts toward the court limit of one VS2 player, so the six players on court must still meet it.

Source: World ParaVolley Official Sitting Volleyball Rules 2025-2028, Rules 7.3.1 and 19.