• USA Volleyball-sanctioned beach games are played in pairs.beach volleyball image by Pix by Marti from Fotolia.com
  
  If you have watched any professional beach volleyball matches on TV, you have no doubt heard and seen a lot of references to the Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP). The AVP is the beach game's promoter and organizer, setting up tournaments and getting athletes and spectators involved. The rules of the beach game, however, are determined by USA Volleyball, which also governs indoor volleyball. There are some notable differences between the rules of each.
  
  

Players

• USA Volleyball sanctions only men's and women's doubles competition in beach volleyball. There are no rules for coed games or for games involving more than two players per team. Although players must alternate serving, just as in indoor play, they may otherwise change positions at any time; in other words, one player may always play the left-side of the court and the other the right, if they wish.
  
  

Court

• A sand volleyball court measures 52 1/2 feet long and 26 1/4 feet wide, making it somewhat shorter and narrower than an indoor court. Unlike with indoor games, there is no center line (the line that runs below and parallel to the net in indoor games) and no 10-foot line that delineates the attack area from the back row. Sand volleyball players may spike the ball from any position on the court. Net height is the same as for indoor games: 7 feet 11 and 5/8 inches for men and 7 feet 4 and 1/8 inches for women.
  
  

Playing Action

• A player may cross completely into the opponent's court to retrieve a ball as long as she does not interfere with an opponent. Blocks in beach games count as hits, and if two players on the same team make simultaneous contact with the ball, it counts as two hits. The ball must be hit over the net, such as by spiking or an off-speed hit. Tips, or dinks, and pushes are illegal. Any open-hand contact with the ball must be a set, unless it occurs on a "hard-driven" hit. Serves are not considered hard-driven hits, so a player who receives a serve open-handed must be deemed to be setting it.
  
  

Scoring and Matches

• Games use rally scoring, meaning a point is scored on every serve, regardless of which team serves. Teams switch sides of the court after every seven points for the first two games and after every five points during the third game.
  
  Matches are the best two out of three games for both men and women. The first two games are played to 21 with a required two-point margin of victory; if a third-game tiebreaker is needed, it is played to 15. There is no point cap, meaning games can continue past 21 until one team gains a two-point lead.