Beach volleyball is a sport where tall players are generally preferred over short ones. This is mainly because of the volleyball Net height that requires a high reach to be able to spike and block without the ball hitting the Net …
Does this mean that short players can’t participate? Of course not, shorter players can play beach volleyball and can be as effective as taller ones as far as they play at the best of their abilities.
In this article I breakdown how can short players perform in sand volleyball without being impacted by their lack of height.
Pros and Cons of being short in beach volleyball …
PROS
- Short players can move more quickly across the field and are sometimes more agile than taller players. This is not a general rule, yet it is usually true.
- Quick reaction time is a common characteristic of shorter players. This ability is extremely important to save balls and to initiate quick counter attacks.
- Short players can cover more ground in a shorter amount of time. The beach volleyball court is quite restrictive, making it harder for taller players to move. This means short players have the ability to save some situations and some balls not in the teams favor.
CONS
- Short players are usually not as effective when playing closer to the Net. Even if they can reach over the Net to spike or to block, it still might take them a bit more time to do so unlike taller players.
- Shorter players might struggle to properly and accurately strike the ball. Indeed, since they might not be as high while spiking this means that their spikes might not fall in the opposing team area.
Of course those 2 Cons could be fixed with proper training. In fact, I highly invite you to check this wonderful Resource to learn more on how to refine your beach volleyball skills even if you are not that tall.
Perfect height range for beach volleyball players
There are no strict rules when it comes to height for beach volleyball …
Indeed, the perfect height range for beach volleyball players does not really exist, yet there are some average numbers that you can consider as a reference.
If we take the NCSA statistics for US beach volleyball leagues as an example …
D1 upper-level requires the blocker to be between 6‘0” and 6’4” while the defender is usually between 5’8’’ and 6’0’’.
The D1 mid-lover level prefer the blocker to be between 5’10’’ and 6’3’’, while the defender is required to have a height between 5’6’’ and 6’1’’.
We can see that these numbers vary drastically, that is because of the players selection throughout the recruitment process.
Keep in mind that the NCSA guidelines I’ve shared above stand for female players also.
Important Tip: If you are an amateur and not used to hot sand while practicing, the you definitely need to use sand socks. They will also give you a more stability and strength when jumping which would results in better performance overall. For example, these quality sand socks are reliable and will help in that regard.
Hard beach volleyball moves for shorter players …
Short players may have some struggles regarding the execution of some sand volleyball moves during.
The first one is the blocking move. Indeed, blocking may be hard to perform for short players, because of the net height…
If a player cannot jump high enough above the net, he might not be the favorite choice for a coach.
Keep in mind that this doesn’t mean that it is not possible for them to properly execute the move. Jumping, just like blocking can be practiced, and with a lot of practice you can compensate the height deficiency.
The second move that short players may have a hard time with is the hitting move. This is directly linked to the required blocking height of the NCSA …
Indeed, if a player cannot jump high enough for a block, he will not be able to jump high enough in order to perform a hit.
There are other moves (like diving …) that we might talk about, but those were the most important ones.
Again, with proper practicing you can surely overcome those issues within few months.
Do Beach Volleyball Recruiting Guidelines require being Tall?
According to the NCSA Guidelines … In general yes, you will need to be tall in order to play beach volleyball.
However, keep in mind that there are a lot of things that are required besides the height …
For example how high can a player jump over the net. The jump usually ranges from 9’ 5’’ to 9’5’’+ for the blockers (both D1 categories are included) to 9’5’’+ to 9’7’’ for the defenders. Meanwhile jumping is pretty much correlated with the height, you can still develop powerful vertical jumps that can help you reach those numbers.
You can learn more abou the importance and benefits of being tall in beach volleyball …
3 Great Beach Volleyball Short Players …
As you can imagine there are a lot of short beach volleyball players in the world. The best short volleyball players are in our case 3 males. The first is David Ryan Vander Meer, the second Jose Gregorio Gomez and finally Alexander Huber.
David Ryan plays for the team Vander Meer. He was born on the 4th of October 1992 in the Grand Rapids in the US. He has a height of 176 centimeters, or 5’9’’ in height. His weight stands at 74kg. He has played 2 seasons, one in 2010 in Oporto, Portugal and one in 2018 on Huntington beach in the US.
Jose Gregorio Gomez was born in Venezuela on the 15th of February 1996, in the town of Torunos. He plays for the team known as Tigrito (meaning tiger). He has a height of 179 centimeters or 5’10’’. He weight about 72kg, his block jump can reach 195 centimeters and his spike is 210 cm. His career is full of tournaments and games, from 2013 to 2019. He has played in both Americas and Europe for that time.
Alexander Huber was born in Austria in the town of Feldkirchen on the 25th of July 1985. He is playing for the team Huber, A. He has a height similar to Gomez’s of 179 centimeters or 5’10’’. His weight is around 65 kilograms. He has a long career stretching to the beginning of this century. He started playing way back in 2002, up until 2021.
Final Thoughts …
This article was not only about answering your questions on whether short should or should not play beach volleyball? Instead the real goal is to encourage any short player out there that he actually can make it and even play at the highest level regardless of their height …
You’ve seen the examples of short players I’ve shared above who were able to compete at high levels.
Finally, it is well worth mentioning that beach volleyball players need to be at a certain weight to help maximize their performance. Check that article I highlighed in blue to learn about that …