Sand Volleyball Courts

• Design
• Construction
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• Rules & Regulations

Sand Volleyball Courts Designs

Survey and Layout
The regulation size for volleyball courts is 29'6" wide and 59 feet long, with a minimum 9'10" surrounding free zone which is actually part of the playing area.
 
Once the location and layout of the court has been determined, the next step is to survey the existing grade. Take elevations at the corners, the midpoints of each side and end, and the center of the net. It's a good idea to take elevations 25 feet to 50 feet outside the court to get a clear understanding of the contour of the surrounding terrain. That will help determine the need for cuts and fills, catch basins, and swales, and will also help in determining a finish grade for the court.
 
A thorough survey is also important for another reason: a sand volleyball court often needs an installed drain system, and the readings will help determine the direction of the collector drain for the system. Be sure to look around for existing catch basins and storm drains that the new drain system can be tied into. If these structures are in place, take a reading at the flow line. If there are no catch basins or storm drains to tie into, it will be necessary to run the collector pipe to daylight (that is, to a grade point lower than the downward sloping collector pipe).
 
17.2b Design Criteria for New Construction
 
At some facilities, the presence of a newly-installed drain system may tempt the designer to allow the surrounding area to drain into the court. This temptation should be resisted. Like any sports field, a sand volleyball court should be treated as an individual drainage unit, and not be expected to serve as a drain for the grounds around it. The final grade for a sand volleyball court is level, which works fine as long as no outside water drains onto the court, the sand has the right particle-size distribution (see Table 17.1), and good drainage is in place underneath the sand.
 
When calculating the elevation of the subgrade, plan for 12" of compacted sand. That translates to 14" of installed sand, which will settle about 2". USA Volleyball, the major sanctioning body of outdoor volleyball, requires that sand for competition be at least 12" deep, so don't forget to allow for settling.
 
Net posts should be installed between 19½" and 39" outside each sideline. For safety's sake, posts must be rounded, smooth and, preferably, adjustable. The recommended height of the posts is 8'4". If guy lines are used to support the posts, they are to be made of bright-colored material and marked with flags.
 
17.2c Multiple Court Layout
 
In planning for multiple-court facilities, leave sufficient room for each court to have its own free zone, and do not expect two adjacent courts to share a free zone. That will mean a space of 20 feet between the sidelines of two adjacent courts.
 
17.2d Sand Selection
 
At the mention of "sand volleyball," the mind naturally flashes images of beach volleyball by the ocean. However, it's important to remember that "beach sand" is not always loose and pliable like that seen on televised sand volleyball matches. Visitors to such heavily used beaches as Daytona Beach in Florida may remember that beaches are sometimes major thoroughfares for vehicular traffic. This particular sand is suitable as a roadbed, but is definitely not the best choice for sand volleyball courts.
 
In specifying sand for a volleyball court, it's very important to get only the desired grade of sand, with a minimum of gravel and fines (tiny particles of very fine sand, silt and clay). Sand with residual silt and clay mixed in is sometimes referred to as "dirty sand."
 
However, even specifying a sand without gravel or fines is not sufficient to guarantee acceptable performance on a volleyball court. For instance, Table 24.2 in Chapter 24 presents useful information on the relationships between sand size, the minimal depth for gravity drainage, and the resulting saturated hydraulic conductivity of the sand, all of which affect the drainage characteristics of the completed court. These guidelines can be used to determine appropriate depths of various sands to achieve adequate drainage.
 
For most purposes, a "medium-to-fine" (0.1 mm. To 0.5 mm. Diameter) sand will be best for a volleyball court, with less than 7% passing through a 100-sieve screen. (See Table 17.1 for recommended particle size distribution for sand volleyball courts.) Sand in this recommended range will provide the desirable firmness for footing, without being so firm as to discourage players diving for the ball. A 12" depth of sand in this range will also allow for rapid drainage. A uniform "masonry sand" is usually suitable for volleyball courts, but "concrete sand," which contains fairly equal proportions of all gradations in size, is a poor choice, since it readily compact and can be abrasive to players' skin.
 
Table 17.1. Recommended Particle size Distribution for Sand Volleyball Courts
 
17.2e Installed Drain Systems and Catch Basins
 
Installed Drain Systems
Where the subsoil does not permit adequate percolation to maintain a dry playing surface, an installed drain system should be constructed. Figure 17.1 shows a typical system that will prove effective in a wide variety of circumstances.
 
This system is based on a network of strip drains laid in trenches 4" wide and 12" deep in the sub-base. The trenches should be sloped ½% to 1% toward a collector drain, and should be placed at 10-foot intervals. The trenches which contain these strip drains should be backfilled with sand matching that to be used for the court itself. (See Chapter 8 for more information on strip drains.)
 
It's tempting to avoid installing a drain system, instead relying on measures like sloping the sub-base to an exit pipe at one side or corner of the court to assist internal drainage. This step is usually taken with the expectation that water will drain through the sand to the sub-base, then follow the slope of the sub-base to the exit pipe. A court built on this design works fine until the sand is installed, then quickly runs into drainage problems.
 
The primary shortcoming of a court of this type is that all water must exit through one drain or an insufficient number of drains. All of the water next to the drain exits first, then the water right next to that, and so on through the and. Water that falls on the portions of the court that are a long way from the drain must migrate all the way through the sand to the drain, and that can take hours or days.
 
Figure 17.1. Installed drain system for sand volleyball court.
 
The installed drain system we recommend removes water simultaneously from all parts of the court, without forcing it to "wait in line." Water has to move only a maximum of 6 feet to reach (1 foot down through the and, 5 feet laterally to the drains). The whole process happens much more quickly than with a sloped sub-base, more efficiently restoring the playability of the court.
 
Even courts that are installed aboveground (with curbing to contain the sand) operate by the same drainage dynamics as those of in-ground facilities; installed drains are virtually a necessity for good sand volleyball courts.
 
Catch Basins
Before finalizing the drainage system design, take a hard look at the surrounding terrain to make sure water can be effectively channeled away from the court. It may be necessary to install catch basins outside the sand area. (A minimum 20-foot clear space is needed.) Don't forget to install a small grid on top of the basin to provide pedestrian safety around the court (See figure 17.2)
 
Figure 17.3. Layout for sand volley ball court (with post detail).