A team gets three hits after the opponent sends the ball over—and an indoor block touch is extra.

The ruleset and effective version used here

This page applies the FIVB Official Volleyball Rules 2025–2028 for six-player indoor volleyball, especially Rules 9.1–9.3 and 14.1–14.4. The edition was approved by the 39th FIVB World Congress in 2024 and applies to competitions beginning after 1 January 2025.

The rule is the international baseline, not a claim that every school, college, national federation or recreational league uses identical wording or challenge procedures. A separate section below identifies the relevant FIVB beach-volleyball difference and the limited 2026 FIVB indoor tests.

What counts as one of the three hits?

Rule 9.1 defines a hit as any contact with the ball by a player in play. A forearm pass, set, attack, foot save, shoulder deflection or accidental brush can therefore consume a team hit; the rule does not require an intentional volleyball technique. The ball may touch any body part, but it may not be caught or thrown (Rules 9.2.1–9.2.2).

The team may return the ball on hit one, two or three. “Pass, set, spike” is only a familiar pattern, not a required sequence. The fault occurs when the team actually uses a fourth counted hit before returning the ball, not merely because its third hit fails to cross immediately.

Only a real block receives the indoor exception

FIVB Rule 14.1.1 defines blocking as an action by players close to the net to intercept a ball coming from the opponent while reaching higher than the top of the net. At ball contact, some part of the blocker's body must be above the top of the net. Only a front-row player may complete a block.

If those conditions are satisfied, Rule 14.4.1 says the block contact is not a team hit and the team still has three hits. If a player near the net touches the ball without meeting the block definition—for example, every part of the player is below the top of the net—that touch is an ordinary team hit. Calling every deflection near the net a “block touch” gives the team an extra hit it does not have.

The blocker may make the next hit

After a legal block touch, any player may take the first team hit, including the player who touched the block (Rule 14.4.2). That sequence is not a double contact because the block is treated separately from the first team hit.

Quick, continuous contacts by one or more blockers during one blocking action remain block contacts under Rule 14.2. They do not turn the action into two or three team hits. But an illegal completed block by a back-row player or Libero is a blocking fault under Rule 14.6.2; play does not continue with a fresh three-hit allowance.

Two simultaneous teammates usually use two hits

When two teammates touch the ball at the same moment in an ordinary play, Rule 9.1.2.1 counts two team hits; three teammates touching together count three. If several players reach but only one actually touches the ball, only one hit is counted. Their collision by itself is not a fault.

This can exhaust the allowance quickly. If two defenders simultaneously contact the opponent's serve, the next legal contact is team hit three and must return the ball. The team cannot then add a fourth contact. The exception in the rule text is simultaneous contact during blocking.

Several body contacts do not always mean several team hits

Rule 9.2.3 permits simultaneous contact with several body parts as one hit. It also allows the ball to contact several body parts consecutively on the first hit of the team, provided the contacts occur during one action. FIVB's definition includes serve reception, receiving an opponent's attack, and playing a ball rebounding from either team's block.

So a hard-driven first ball that rebounds from a defender's forearms to the shoulder in one playing action can remain team hit one. The exception does not grant unlimited separate attempts: a player who plays the ball and then makes a new second action has contacted it twice in succession, and the double-contact rule applies. See double-contact and catch rules for the separate contact-quality question.

A joust does not use the teammate rule

When two opponents touch the ball simultaneously above the net and the ball remains in play, Rule 9.1.2.2 gives the team receiving the ball another three hits. If the ball goes out after that simultaneous contact, the fault belongs to the team on the opposite side from where it lands out.

If the opponents' simultaneous contact becomes extended, Rule 9.1.2.3 says play continues even when the contact finishes above the opponent's court. This is different from two teammates contacting together and should not be counted as two hits against one side.

The net does not create another team hit

A ball driven into the net may be recovered only within the existing three-hit limit (Rule 10.3.1). The net is not a player, so its rebound neither consumes a hit nor restores the allowance. After pass, set and attack into the net, a teammate touching the rebound commits four hits.

Nor does the count restart merely because the ball reaches or partly passes the net plane. Rule 10.1.2, for example, allows a first-hit ball that crosses wholly or partly through the external space toward the opponent's free zone to be retrieved through the same external space while the original team's hit count continues. A normal return to the opponent must pass through the crossing space between the antennae and their extensions.

How to count a disputed rally

1. Identify the last opponent play. Start a new team sequence when the ball comes from the opponent.
2. Classify any net-front touch. Apply the block definition before excluding it from the count.
3. Count players who actually touched. Two simultaneous teammates are two hits unless the action is blocking.
4. Keep one action together. Apply Rule 9.2.3 to simultaneous body contacts and its first-hit exception.
5. Ignore the net as a hit. A rebound is still subject to the unused part of the three-hit allowance.
6. Stop at the first fault. The fourth counted contact is four hits; an earlier catch, double contact, net fault or illegal block controls instead.

A low deflection at the net

Situation: Blue 7 is close to the net and reaches upward, but no part of the player's body is above the top of the net when the opponent's attack touches the hands. Blue then uses a dig, set and attack.

FIVB 2025–2028 ruling: four hits. Blue 7's touch did not satisfy Rule 14.1.1's block definition, so it was team hit one. The later attack was hit four.

The middle blocker plays the rebound

Situation: Blue 8 legally blocks an attack. The ball rebounds behind the blocker, who turns and digs it; two teammates then set and attack.

FIVB 2025–2028 ruling: legal. The block does not count, and Rule 14.4.2 expressly permits the blocker to make the first hit after the block. Dig, set and attack are Blue's three team hits.

Two receivers meet the serve

Situation: Blue 3 and Blue 5 both make simultaneous contact with the serve. Blue 2 then sets, and Blue 9 attacks.

FIVB 2025–2028 ruling: four hits on Blue 9's attack. The simultaneous teammate contacts count as hits one and two under Rule 9.1.2.1; the set is hit three.

The third hit rebounds from the net

Situation: Blue passes, sets and attacks into the net. The ball rebounds toward Blue 6, who keeps it off the floor.

FIVB 2025–2028 ruling: four hits as soon as Blue 6 contacts the live ball. Rule 10.3.1 permits recovery from the net only within three team hits; the net rebound did not erase the first three.

The rally ends, the opponent scores and the referee shows four

Under Rules 6.1.1–6.1.3, a fault gives the opponent the rally and a point. If the opponent was serving, it continues to serve; if it was receiving, it serves next. Diagram 11, signal 18, is four fingers raised and spread. There is no advantage provision allowing play to continue after an observed four-hits fault.

Where the FIVB Video Challenge System is installed, the 2025 regulations specifically make a disputed block touch reviewable when the ball remains in play and the existence of that touch changes a later four-hits or double-contact decision. Challenge availability and procedure belong to the competition regulations; the Laws of the Game alone do not give every match video review.

The setting trial does not add a fourth team hit

For the 2026 Volleyball Nations League, FIVB U17 World Championships and 2026 Continental Championships, FIVB announced that double contact during a setting action on the second contact continues to be allowed when the ball remains on the same side. The same notice says the tests remain subject to review and do not themselves update the Official Volleyball Rules.

That interpretation concerns whether a setting action is an illegal double contact. It does not convert the setting action into two team hits or remove Rule 9.1's maximum of three. Other competitions should use the rules and interpretations formally appointed for that event rather than importing the 2026 test automatically.

FIVB beach volleyball counts the block as hit one

FIVB beach volleyball uses the same three-hit maximum but a different block count. Under the Official Beach Volleyball Rules 2025–2028, Rules 14.2 and 14.4.1, quick and continuous block contacts in one action count as one team hit. The blocking team therefore has only two hits left.

The blocker may make the next contact, but that contact is team hit two. A beach sequence of block, dig, set, attack would be four hits; the indoor version can be legal because the indoor block is outside the three-hit count. This page does not extend the beach variation to sitting volleyball, youth modifications or local recreational rules.

Five claims that lead to the wrong count

• “Every touch at the net is a block.” Height, position, action and player status determine whether Rule 14 applies.
• “A block is indoor hit one.” A legal indoor block contact is outside the three-hit count.
• “Two teammates together make one hit.” Their actual simultaneous contacts count separately except during blocking.
• “The net resets the count.” It is not a player, and recovery remains within the three-hit limit.
• “Four hits and double contact are the same fault.” Four hits is the team's excess count; double contact concerns one player playing twice in succession when no exception applies.

Governing-body sources and effective version

• FIVB — Official Volleyball Rules 2025–2028, Rules 6.1, 9.1–9.3, 10.1–10.3 and 14.1–14.4
• FIVB — Video Challenge System Regulations 2025, block-touch challenges and four-hits decisions
• FIVB — rule tests for named 2026 international competitions, announced 27 February 2026
• FIVB — Official Beach Volleyball Rules 2025–2028, Rules 9.1 and 14.2–14.4

Checked on 28 August 2026 against the FIVB indoor rules effective for competitions beginning after 1 January 2025, the official 2026 test notice and the current FIVB beach edition. Competition handbooks and domestic governing bodies may supplement or modify the baseline, especially for video review and trials.