The sport originated in the United States, and is now just achieving the type of popularity in the U.S. that it has received on a global basis, where it ranks behind only soccer among participation sports.

Today there are more than 46 million Americans who play volleyball. There are 800 million players worldwide who play Volleyball at least once a week.

In 1895, William G. Morgan, an instructor at the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) in Holyoke, Mass., decided to blend elements of basketball, baseball, tennis, and handball to create a game for his classes of businessmen which would demand less physical contact than basketball. He created the game of Volleyball (at that time called mintonette). Morgan borrowed the net from tennis, and raised it 6 feet 6 inches above the floor, just above the average man’s head.

During a demonstration game, someone remarked to Morgan that the players seemed to be volleying the ball back and forth over the net, and perhaps "volleyball" would be a more descriptive name for the sport.

排球历史

1892年在美国马萨诸塞州，耐史密斯博士挂起了两个篮筐从而发明了篮球，而摩根在观察了他的朋友的新发明之后想，对于那些已过中年的商人来讲篮球运动也许过于激烈了一些。因此，四年之后，摩根发明了自己的运动项目。又过了一个世纪，他的发明——排球同篮球一道成为了奥运会上速度最快、对抗性最强的比赛项目之一。

摩根最初给他的发明起的名字是“mintonette”，当地的一位教授很快将其定义为一种把球击过球网的游戏，于是，它最初的名字也就发生了改变。