9 Man Volleyball
For those of you familiar with volleyball, you know that this is traditionally played with 6 players on a side, but mainly in the Chinatowns in major cities in the US, there is also a variation played in tournaments called 9-Man volleyball. Volleyball was introduced to China by missionaries although in this variation the court was enlarged, and the number of players was also increased. It’s this version of the game that found its way to the Chinatowns in the US.
A lot of the restaurant and laundry workers back in the 1930s were working quite hard and life outside of Chinatown was not friendly to them. With limited time and money, they organized volleyball games. Eventually word of these volleyball games spread to other cities, and this has evolved into a tradition with tournaments being played across the country. Some of the earliest games were played between Boston and Providence and New York.
One of the biggest tournaments is the North American Chinese Invitational Volleyball Tournament which is held every Labor Day weekend. This year’s tournament will be held in San Francisco from September 1-3 at the North Beach Playground which is on Lombard and Mason St. For more history and information, visit the web site.
Some of the major variations of the game include:
- Slightly shorter net (235 vs. 243 cm)
- No rotation
- The block counts as one of the three hits
- The ball can be briefly carried during a spiking motion
There are a few others, but it’s a very quick and fun game to watch. I found a clip, and although it has some really bizarre (and annoying) video effects, you get a sense of what the game is like: Click here to watch
or here is another clip of an actual game although the previous link has more highlights.
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