Volleyball

Indoor volleyball is governed by the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB), and the current rule set is the Official Volleyball Rules 2025-2028. The rulebook is written in metres, and it is unusually specific about space: it fixes not only the 18 x 9 m court but the free zone around it and the clear height above it. Everything on this page and in the guide below is read from that document, with the metric figure first and the imperial conversion second.

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Dimensions and layouts

The playing court is a rectangle of 18 x 9 m (59 ft 0.7 in by 29 ft 6.3 in). The boundary lines are drawn inside that rectangle, so the court measures 18 x 9 m to the outside of the paint. All lines are 5 cm wide (1.97 in). The centre line divides the court into two courts of 9 x 9 m, and each attack line is drawn with its rear edge 3 m (9 ft 10.1 in) back from the axis of the centre line.

Space around and above the court is part of the rule, not an afterthought. A free zone of at least 3 m (9 ft 10.1 in) is required on all four sides. FIVB, World and Official Competitions need 5 m from the side lines and 6.5 m from the end lines, which is deliberately not uniform. The free playing space above the court must be a minimum of 7 m (22 ft 11.6 in) clear of obstruction, rising to 12.5 m (41 ft 0.1 in) for FIVB competitions.

The full table, including the men’s and women’s net heights, the net and antenna sizes, post placement and total playing areas, is in the volleyball court dimensions guide. Every row carries the rule it comes from.

Equipment

The net stands vertically over the centre line. Its top is set at 2.43 m (7 ft 11.7 in) for men and 2.24 m (7 ft 4.2 in) for women, measured at the centre of the playing court. Over the two side lines the readings must match each other and may not sit more than 2 cm (0.79 in) above the official height. That 2 cm is a tolerance on rigging and sag, not a second legal net height.

The net itself is 1 m deep, with a tolerance of 3 cm, and 9.50 to 10 m long, made of 10 cm square black mesh with a 7 cm white band along the top. An antenna 1.80 m long is fastened at the outer edge of each side band, with its top 80 cm above the net; the antennae are part of the net and mark the sides of the crossing space. The posts are 2.55 m high (8 ft 4.4 in) and stand 0.50 m to 1.00 m outside the side lines, fixed at 1 m and padded for FIVB, World and Official Competitions.

Overhead plan

The same surface seen from straight above, drawn to scale. Nothing is foreshortened here, so every figure can be read off the drawing the way a tape measure would take it.

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Detail sheet

A rule book fixes more than the shape of the surface, and the rest of it is too small to draw at court scale: a mark a few centimetres long, a post standing a metre off the sideline, the clearance around the whole thing. Each one here has its own frame and its own scale.

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Official sources

• Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB), Official Volleyball Rules 2025-2028 (English, v05), Rule 1 Playing Area, Rule 2 Net and Posts, and Diagrams 1b, 2 and 3. 2025-2028 edition, approved by the 39th FIVB World Congress 2024. Rulebook PDF. Consulted 5 September 2026.
• Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB), Official Volleyball Rules document library, used only to confirm the current edition. FIVB rules library. Consulted 5 September 2026.

See how we label and verify every figure in our methodology, browse the other sports, or report an error on the corrections page.