Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
Ahead of the 2001 season FIVB (Fédération Internationale de Volleyball) reduced the beach volleyball court dimension from 9×18 m to 8×16 m, and changed the scoring system from side out scoring (scoring only from one’s own serve) to rally point scoring. The purpose of this study was to investigate the quality and efficiency of game actions in top international beach volleyball for men before and after these changes in constitutive rules. The winning teams in 17 semi-finals and finals in three World Tour tournaments in 1999 and 2000 (sample A) were compared with the winning teams in 17 semi-finals and finals in the same tournaments in 2001 and 2002 (sample B). Serve efficiency, reception efficiency, set efficiency, attack efficiency, block efficiency and defense efficiency in the two samples were analyzed, using established evaluation scales. Mann-Whitney U-test was used to test any significant changes in efficiency values on the game actions in the two samples. The results showed a significant reduction in serve efficiency and attack efficiency after the change of regulations, as well as a significant increase in block actions and block efficiency. The results indicate that the change of rules and court dimension only to a certain extent have led to the expected intensions of FIVB, as the field defense actions nor showed an increase in number nor in efficiency in this study.
Ronglan et al. (Thu,) studied this question.