Smiles Per Hour – Giving Them a Love of Sitting Volleyball

By John Kessel

In May 2025 I travelled to Tanzania with Let’s Keep the Ball Flying on an activation project on Day 2 the coaches in my clinic were brought to a covered dirt covered concrete space, where two badminton nets were set up at sitting volleyball height. There were kids playing and laughing already with an oversized OmniKin bounce ball, but the look on some of the coaches faces at seeing the floor was not one of joy. An hour later, the smiles per hour seen on those two courts was too many to count – so how do we do that?

It starts with moving, then spiking, then serving, then playing…nothing more.

When you get players to first experience Paravolley, you know they know volleyball already. You might show – in the spirit of beginning with the end in mind – a video clip of a long paravolley rally that are on YouTube (one between Egypt and Brazil in the 2016 Paralympics is a classic). The main challenge is they just will not know how to move with their arms yet. Take a minute to let them feel how to move in all four directions (where they will discover it is easier to scoot back than push forward).  Then show them how two players can overhead pass, set, and spike by demonstrating it – then let them at it.

It may be that the hitter/setter combo will more likely slap, slap and swing – not too technically “perfect” but that’s ok. If you want, show them the forearm pass option, but always start with overhead passing – as it does not hurt.  They are already doing 3 contact volleyball and getting the joy of hitting a ball over the lower net. The smaller space and lower set height a novice does still ends in the focus of spiking, and that is our hook. Note that if you string a rope or ribbon down the middle of a regulation court at waist height, you have created three 6 meter wide courts (from the endline to 3n line/3m line to 3m line/3m line to the other endline). This allows for a minimum of six groups Pass/set/spiking, and you likely can get nine groups, three per court, if you set right, middle and left side. Keep any line as short as possible.

Next you let them serve over the ribbon/net/rope, half on one endline that is the regulation court sideline (yeah, splitting the court this way means the length of a court is only 4.5m and an official paravolley court is 5 meters – don’t worry about being that official yet). Let every player experience sitting sideways to the net, not facing, and torque serve the ball over – this twist takes advantage of the biomechanics of the shoulder twist, that provides nearly 40% of a players hitting power, along with a fast arm-swing. Give the player choice of ridged/consistent contact point, and a mulligan on serving the first time, and they will all, no matter how small a player, serve the ball over this lower net.

Then PLAY, for they are PLAYers after all. We share the four or so rule differences – 1. Legs can be over a line or under the net as long as your bottom is not. 2. Keep one bottom cheek on the floor (no “air-butt”) 3. You may block the serve (and of course any other hit). 4. You can touch the net, just not the top of it.  We recommend filling the court, even going beyond the regulation number of six, so there is no one sitting out waiting their turn to be on the court. The more bodies on the court the longer the rallies. Since you have 3 paravolley courts now, you might also have smaller team sizes, so everyone gets more touches and learns faster in doing, rather than watching. In order to keep the opportunities to respond to be higher, corralling the balls with some low barrier helps, or as “coaches” hold two balls to deliver a new one to the next server to get them back on task, while you being already standing can get the errant balls, so can any spectator. Using balloons makes for really long rallies and so does the oversized Omnikin type bouncy balls.

Sitting volleyball is a great leveler.  Play it mixed at any number per gender, Parents can play with their kids (those under 5 can even stand and run, not sit, since they are so short), able bodied play with disabled, and CEOs can play with secretaries.  Indeed, paravolley is the #1 USOPC sponsor experience in smile per hour and on the surveys, when they come to our training centers. When you have three sitting courts of players, you can create a fast 5 minute per match round robin tourney so everyone plays everyone in less than 30 minutes. Simply leave one team on their court who stays (on one of the top or bottom of the 6 half courts), and every other team rotates in the same direction (clockwise or counter clockwise) to meet up with a new opponent each time. Winner gets ice cream in my gym…Have fun and enJOY the game!

Enjoy some behind the scenes of that trip here:

Photos and thumbnails by Milene van Arendonk