Player's Guide to Volleyball England Junior Volleyball Under 14-Under 18 2026/27

• Player registration: every player must be individually registered with Volleyball England as a Junior Player – Junior Competitions for 2026/27 on VolleyZone, and linked to the team roster and team sheet. It costs £11, plus VolleyZone's 3.2% and 50p service fee.
• Club affiliation: your club, school or organisation must be affiliated to Volleyball England, and coaches and bench staff must also be registered on VolleyZone.
• Team roster and sheet: clubs complete a team roster at the start of the season and a team sheet before each Grand Prix, which goes to the scorer on the day. Players who aren't there must be removed from the sheet at the start.
• Squad size: up to 12 players on a Grand Prix team list, and up to 14 at the Super 6 and Cup Finals. A bigger squad can travel, but then a separate team sheet is needed for every match.
• Liberos: a roster of 12 to 14 players must include at least one libero.

Coaches responsible for juniors should hold a Volleyball England Level 2 Coach Award (or equivalent), have completed safeguarding training and hold a valid DBS check.

Under Volleyball England's 2026/27 junior regulations:

• More than one age group: yes, players may play in more than one age group.
• Same round: you can't play for two teams in the same Grand Prix round, or for more than one team in the same age group on the same weekend.
• Tier 1: you can't play for different clubs in different Grand Prix rounds within the same age group (exceptions must be requested in writing at least 14 days before the next round). You may play for another team within the same club before the Super 6.
• Tier 2: you can play for different teams or clubs in different rounds.
• Moving between tiers: once you've played in 2 Tier 1 Grand Prix events, you can't play (or return to) Tier 2.
• Super 6 and Cup Final: only players who were on a validated team sheet for that team in an earlier Grand Prix can play, and only for one team at the Super 6.

If a team plays an ineligible player, that match is recorded as lost 25-20, 25-20.

Volleyball England runs a Junior Grand Prix series with separate boys' (open) and girls' competitions in each age group:

Teams earn Grand Prix points each round, which make up the national rankings. After the penultimate round, the top 6 go to the Super 6 (two pools, then semi-finals and the national final), and teams ranked 7th to 30th play for the Gold, Silver and Bronze Cups. Cup Finals weekend is 24 and 25 April 2027.

Within a pool, matches between teams from the same club are played first, and pools usually have four teams.

Every rally wins a point (FIVB rules). If the receiving team wins the rally, it scores and serves next.

Junior Grand Prix (Tier 1): best of 3 sets, played to 25, 25 and 15. Each set needs a 2-point lead (26-24, 27-25 and so on). In a pool of five teams, sets may be shortened to 21 points so all matches fit in the day.

Tier 2 (Under 15 and Under 16): best of 3 sets is preferred, but the competition lead can vary the format depending on pool size and hall time.

Volley 4s: usually timed sets of 6 to 8 minutes.

Cup Finals: best of 5 sets under full FIVB rules (sets to 25, deciding 5th set to 15, each with a 2-point lead).

Pool points: win 2, draw (where possible) 1, lose 0. Ties in rankings are split by set difference per match, then point difference per set, then the result between the teams, then a coin toss.

Teams arriving more than 20 minutes late for their first match forfeit the first set, and the match if not ready within a further 20 minutes. Arriving less than 20 minutes late loses the team's time-outs in the first set.

Net heights in Volleyball England's junior national competitions for 2026/27:

Six players are on court: three front-row (positions 4 front-left, 3 front-centre, 2 front-right) and three back-row (5 back-left, 6 back-centre, 1 back-right). The starting line-up sets the rotation order for the set.

At the moment of the serve (FIVB 2025-2028 rules)

• The receiving team must be in rotation order: each back-row player further from the net than their front-row partner, and players in each row in the right left-to-right order. Positions are judged by where the feet touch the floor.
• The serving team's players may stand anywhere on their court (only the server's turn in the order matters).
• After the serve, everyone can move anywhere on their court and the free zone.

Rotating: when your team wins the right to serve, you rotate one place clockwise (the player in 2 moves to 1 to serve, 1 moves to 6, and so on). The server has 8 seconds after the referee's whistle to serve.

Faults

• Positional fault (receiving team out of position at the serve): point and serve to the opponents, and positions are corrected.
• Rotational fault (wrong player serves): point and serve to the opponents, the order is corrected, and any points the team scored since the fault are cancelled if the scorer can tell when it started.

Number of substitutions: under Volleyball England's adopted test rules for 2026/27, each team may make up to eight substitutions per set (the standard FIVB rule is six).

Who can swap with whom (FIVB Rule 15)

• A starting player can leave the game once per set and come back once per set, but only into their original position in the line-up.
• A substitute can come on once per set, in place of a starter, and can only be replaced by that same starter.
• Several players can be substituted in one request, but a team can't make two separate substitution requests in the same break: there must be a completed rally in between (except for an injury or expulsion).
• If an injured or expelled player can't be replaced legally, the team gets an exceptional substitution: any player not on court (except a libero or their regular replacement) can come on, and the injured player can't return in that match.

Time-outs: each team may take two time-outs per set, each lasting 30 seconds, requested by the coach (or game captain if there's no coach) when the ball is out of play and before the whistle for service.

Libero replacements don't count as substitutions. Volley 4s has its own substitution options.

How many liberos (Volleyball England 2026/27)

• If a team roster has 12 to 14 players, it must include at least one libero and may choose two.
• With fewer than 12 players, a team can have none, one or two.

What a libero can't do (FIVB Rule 19)

• Play anywhere but the back row.
• Serve, block or attempt to block.
• Complete an attack hit from anywhere if the ball is entirely above the top of the net at contact.
• If the libero sets with an overhand finger pass from inside the front zone (in front of the 3 m line), a team-mate can't complete an attack on that ball while it is entirely above the net. From behind the 3 m line, the ball can be attacked freely.

Replacements

• Libero replacements aren't counted as substitutions and are unlimited, but there must be a completed rally between two replacements.
• The libero can replace any back-row player, and can only be replaced by that same player or by the second libero.
• Replacements happen when the ball is out of play, before the whistle for service, through the libero replacement zone. At the start of each set, the libero can't come on until the second referee has checked the line-up.
• Only one libero may be on court at a time, wearing a contrasting shirt.

If the only libero is injured, ill, expelled or disqualified, the coach can re-designate another player not on court as libero for the rest of the match.

FIVB basics

• A team has a maximum of three hits to return the ball (a block doesn't count as one).
• A player can't hit the ball twice in a row, and the ball must rebound, not be caught or thrown.
• On the team's first hit, the ball may touch different parts of the body one after another, as long as it's one action.
• You can play the ball with any part of the body.

Volleyball England's adopted rules for 2026/27

• Setting: on a pass between team-mates on the second contact, consecutive contacts in the hands with an overhand finger action are not a fault if they happen in one action.
• Catch, push, carry, throw: applied strictly. No push, lift or carry is allowed. A tip must be made with one hand, with a short contact, and directed in a straight line.
• Whistle: referees don't always need to whistle the end of a clear and obvious rally.

In Tier 2, referees set a level of ball handling that lets the game flow while keeping the key rules.

Volleyball England's junior regulations say:

• Tier 1 Grand Prix: team shirts and shorts should be uniform. Shirt numbers 1 to 99, front and back, are recommended.
• U18 Super Series: matching uniform is compulsory, and each player is given a fixed shirt number at the start of the season.
• Liberos: must wear a shirt in a contrasting colour to the rest of the team (under the FIVB rules, a different dominant colour, numbered like the rest of the team).
• Tier 2: ideally the same as Tier 1, but players without matching shorts and numbered shirts are still allowed to play.

Venues usually require non-marking sports shoes, and hosts may restrict food, drink containers and noisy items such as drums and airhorns. Teams bring their own warm-up balls, and each team or coach should bring a first aid kit.

Volley 4s is Volleyball England's 4 v 4 entry competition for players aged Under 14 and below, with separate girls' and boys' pools and four Grand Prix events in 2026/27 (boys: 31 October, 28 November, 6 February, 20 March; girls: 1 November, 29 November, 7 February, 21 March). Its adaptations:

• Court: ideally a badminton court using the outside tramlines (about 13.4 m x 6.1 m).
• Timed sets: usually 3 sets of 8 minutes (6 to 8 minutes is preferred and can be adjusted), so results are 3-0 or 2-1. If the ball is in play when the whistle goes, the rally is finished and counts. A tied set is decided by one final point.
• Time-outs: one per set, when the first team reaches 8 points.
• Substitutions: squads of more than 4 choose either normal substitutions (A replaces B, and only B can come back for A) or a rotation system where players rotate off and back on to serve. No substitutions in the last 3 minutes of a set unless using the rotation system.
• Serving runs: after 3 successive serves by one player the team rotates but keeps serve; after 6 successive serves the ball passes to the other team (the score doesn't change).
• Ball contact: any part of the body may touch the ball, but kicking is a fault and loses the point.
• Roles aren't specialised, and the server counts as a back-court player.
• Reduced-weight balls (Mikasa VS170W recommended) are advised.

Referees come from the teams in the pool and are asked to let the game flow, setting a level of ball handling that suits the players' development.

Any player, coach, bench person or team manager who is expelled or disqualified at any stage of a Volleyball England junior competition is automatically suspended for their next match in any of the competitions, and the case is referred to the Junior Competitions Working Group. Further disciplinary action can follow under the National Volleyball League regulations.

Spectators are expected to follow the competition philosophy (respectful, responsible, role model) and the Volleyball England Code of Conduct. Clubs are responsible for their spectators, and the host, Volleyball England event lead or safeguarding officer can ask a spectator to leave if they breach the Code of Conduct or safeguarding guidelines.