Volleyball is one of the most noteworthy sports in the world. Maybe not all of us are experts at the rules of this game but I think that everyone knows more or less what it is about and had chance to take part in volley match: for example on a PE lesson or on some kind of meeting with friends. But, has anybody ever wondered how it came to be? Or, how long have people known that sport? So, today I’m going to present a historical side of my passion.
Volleyball was invented in 1895 in the USA, by a PE teacher - William G. Morgan. It was a kind of an indoor pastime, inspired by tennis and handball but requiring a bit of athletic effort. The premiere match took place on 9 February and the game was called Mintonette. The first rules were obviously different than the current ones - a match had nine innings with three serves for each team in each inning (now we have 3 or 5 inning, which depends on the final score) ,there was no limit to the number of ball contacts for each team before sending the ball to the opponents' court (now the limits equal 3 hits) or the fact that in case of a serving error, a second try was allowed (now a second try is not allowed and a serving error makes your team lose one point). In time, rules were being changed. In 1900 the first official volleyball ball was designed and created . 
Volleyball came to Poland in 1919 with YMCA’s help. The first Polish Championships took place in 1929 in Warsaw, where some men’s and women’s clubs competed. The winners of this event were: for men - YMCA Łódź, and for women- AZS Warszawa.
In 1947 an international federation - the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) was founded and 2 years later held the first World Championships for men and in 1952 for women.
The Polish National Team won a gold medal in 1976 in Olympics in Montreal and they were also winners of The World Championships two times – in 1974 in Mexico and in 2014 in Poland.
That’s a part of the history of volleyball and history of Polish volleyball as well. I think it’s really interesting that people have played this sport for more than 100 years and are changing the rules all the time, which makes it more exciting!
My sources:
I vividly remember Hubert Wagner's team from the 1970s - his training methods seemed outrageous but the success he achieved with them was unquestionable.
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