Beach Volleyball Boracay
Popular Olympic Event Sport Played on Sand

One of the more popular team sports played on sand, Beach Volleyball Boracay is fast becoming one of the regular pastimes of beach aficionados in Boracay.

Olympic Team Sport

Beach volleyball is an Olympic team event sport played on sand.

Two teams, positioned on either side of a net which divides a rectangular court, hit a volleyball, usually using the hands or arms.

Players on each team attempt to hit the ball over the net in such a way that it touches the ground inside the court boundaries, and to prevent the ball from touching the ground on their own side of the court.

Women's Beach Volleyball

Beach volleyball is a popular recreational activity on many beaches around the world, and is generally most popular in areas with wide sandy beaches; however, it is also frequently played on inland sand courts, and has become quite popular in some land-locked countries, notably Switzerland.

Though the official rules call for two players per team, recreational (non-competitive) games often have more players.

Rules and Origin of the Sport

Beach volleyball evolved from indoor volleyball, and the two sports remain very similar.

• a team scores points by grounding the ball on the opponents' court, or when the opposing team commits a fault (error or illegal action);
• teams can contact the ball no more than three times before the ball crosses the net; and
• consecutive contacts must be made by different players.

The most important differences between beach and indoor volleyball are the playing surface (deep sand rather than a hard floor), and the team size (two players per team rather than six).

Beach Volleyball in Boracay

Recreational Beach Volley

Boracay has become the beach volleyball capital of the Philippines.

Aside from being a team sport played in the Olympics which in 2008 will be hosted by Beijing, China, beach volleyball is contested in world championships sponsored by the Federation International de Volleyball (FIBV), the official governing body of world volleyball.

As preliminaries to the World Beach Volleyball Tournament usually held in September, Nestea Philippines sponsors a yearly beach volleyball competition which effectively serves as a training ground for aspiring athletes who want to join the national team.

The next Nestea Beach Volley competition will be held in April, 2008 and will be the 12th year that the event be hosted in Boracay.

Nestea Beach 2007

Last April 2007, Nestea sponsored the event for the 11th year which featured the best male and female volley players from all over the Philippines.

Three days of intense competition from among 27 of the country's best teams saw the Mindanao State University (MSU) team triumphant in the finals against Far Eastern University (FEU) in the men's division.

In the women's division, it was a toss-up between two Visayas teams, with University of Visayas (UV) coming out on top as champions over Southwestern University (SWU).