How do rotations and positions work, and what is a positional fault?

Line-up (Rule 7.3): there must always be six players per team in play. Before each set, the coach hands in a line-up sheet. It fixes the rotational order, which must be kept for the whole set.

Positions (Rule 7.4): front row 4 (left), 3 (centre), 2 (right); back row 5 (left), 6 (centre), 1 (right, the server).

At the moment of the serve:

• Receiving team: players must be in rotational order. Each back-row player must have part of a foot further from the centre line than the front foot of the matching front-row player (5 behind 4, 6 behind 3, 1 behind 2). In each row, the players must also be in the right left-to-right order. Positions are judged by where the feet touch the floor.
• Serving team (new for 2025-2028): players are free to stand anywhere on their own court at the service hit. They must still serve in the correct order.

After the serve, everyone may move anywhere on their court and in the free zone.

Positional fault (Rule 7.5): if the receiving team is out of position at the service hit, the opponent gets a point and service, and positions are corrected. If the server makes a fault at the moment of the hit, the serving fault counts first.

Rotation (Rule 7.6 and 7.7): when you win the serve back, rotate one position clockwise (2 goes to 1 to serve, 1 goes to 6, and so on). Serving out of order is a rotational fault: the opponent gets a point and the serve, the order is corrected, and any points your team scored from the moment of the fault are cancelled, if the scorer can pinpoint when it happened.