A screen hides both the service hit and the ball's path.

The rule and version used here

This page covers six-player indoor volleyball governed by the FIVB Official Volleyball Rules 2025-2028, approved by the 39th FIVB World Congress in 2024 and implemented in competitions beginning after 1 January 2025. The controlling provisions are Rules 12.5-12.7, with scoring in Rule 6.1 and referee responsibility in Rule 23.3.2.3(a).

It does not claim that NCAA, NFHS, a national federation, a youth league or a recreational competition uses identical wording or referee procedure. Beach volleyball also has a separate FIVB rulebook. Where another code governs the match, that appointed code controls.

Visibility has two required parts

FIVB Rule 12.5.1 protects the receiving team's view of the service hit and the flight path of the ball. Rule 12.5.2 then makes the threshold explicit: both must be hidden until the ball reaches the vertical plane of the net. If the receiving team can see either one, the rule says it is not a screen.

• Contact hidden, flight visible: no Rule 12.5.2 screen.
• Contact visible, part of the flight hidden: no Rule 12.5.2 screen.
• Contact and flight both hidden to the net plane: the visibility part of the screen test is met.

This is stricter and more precise than asking whether the receiver was distracted, surprised or disadvantaged. Those effects are not substitutes for the two visibility requirements.

Which actions can make a screen?

Rule 12.5.2 identifies four ways in which the serving team can create the obstruction during the execution of service:

• A player waves the arms.
• A player jumps.
• A player moves sideways.
• Players stand grouped.

The first three can create an individual screen; a grouped formation can create a collective screen. The action or formation still has to operate so that both the hit and the ball's path are hidden to the net plane. Diagram 6 in the FIVB rulebook illustrates the collective-screen concept.

Height and ordinary positions are not enough

A tall front-row player standing normally is not automatically guilty merely because the server is behind that player from one receiver's angle. Nor does every compact formation become a fault on sight. For Rule 12.5.2, the referee must connect a listed action or grouped formation with the required concealment of both contact and flight.

The rule does not create a separate perfect-view test for each receiver or require proof that the eventual pass was affected. It asks whether the receiving team could see either of the two required elements. Equally, a team cannot defend a genuine screen by calling the formation a blocking system or tactical starting position: the actual conduct and visibility decide the call.

Rule 12.5.3 adds a bright-line restriction

The current FIVB text separately forbids a serving-team player from raising the hands above the head during service until the ball has passed beyond the net. Read in its screening context, this governs teammates who might form the visual barrier; it is not a ban on the server's necessary toss and striking action.

Do not collapse this restriction into the two-part visibility test. A teammate cannot justify above-head hands by arguing that the receiver could still see the ball. The safe, rule-compliant position is to keep the hands at or below head height until the served ball has crossed beyond the net.

The referee follows the whole service to the net

The relevant window is the execution of the service and the ball's flight up to the vertical plane of the net. A freeze-frame before the whistle cannot settle the question: a player may wave, jump or move sideways during the service, and the ball's actual route determines whether the formation conceals its flight.

FIVB Rule 23.3.2.3(a) assigns faults of the server and serving-team positions, including screening, to the 1st referee. If called, the official signal is Diagram 11 signal 12: both arms raised vertically with palms forward. The same signal is also used for a blocking fault, so the context matters.

The referee may correct a suspected deliberate screen

Rule 12.5.3 permits the 1st referee to caution or advise a team through the game captain when deliberate screening is suspected. This is preventive communication, not the automatic award of a point and not, by itself, a misconduct card.

FIVB's 2024 Refereeing Guidelines—the latest indoor guideline currently listed by FIVB, although issued with the previous rule edition—describe the practical mechanic in more detail. When players are clearly grouped to screen or have hands above head height, the referee may stop the pre-service sequence and direct them to separate or lower their hands. If they refuse and the service is then made, the guideline instructs the 1st referee to call the screen. The current Rule 12.5.3 now supplies the express above-head restriction; event instructions may further specify the communication mechanic.

A called screen gives the receivers the point and service

Rule 12.6.2.3 classifies a correctly hit serve that passes over a screen as a fault after the service hit. Under rally scoring in Rules 6.1.1-6.1.3, the receiving team wins a point and serves next. It rotates one position clockwise before serving, as required by Rules 7.6.2 and 12.2.2.2.

The ball does not remain live so that the receiver must play out the rally. Once the referee whistles the screening fault, the ball is out of play under Rule 8.2.

A screen does not always become the recorded fault

FIVB distinguishes faults at the service hit from faults that arise after a correct hit:

• Server fault at contact: an improper execution or wrong service order is sanctioned ahead of an opponent's positional fault under Rule 12.7.1.
• Correct hit, then screen: if the receiving team was out of position at the service hit, that positional fault occurred first and is sanctioned under Rule 12.7.2, even though the serve later passed over a screen.
• Successive faults generally: Rule 6.1.2.1 counts only the first of two or more successive faults.

This is the precise sequencing rule that should replace the loose idea that the most obvious fault, or the fault the referee notices last, always controls.

Screening is not a named FIVB challenge category

The FIVB Video Challenge System Regulations 2025 permit challenges only through the listed menu. That menu includes matters such as ball in/out, block touch, net fault, antenna touch, foot fault, floor touch, last touch and, where the technology is available, reaching beyond the net. It does not list screening as a direct challenge category.

A team therefore cannot assume that a missed screen can be selected for review. There is a narrow procedural distinction: if a valid challenge opens a review and the video clearly shows an earlier fault, regulation 13 says the first fault observed in the reviewed sequence prevails even when it was not the requested menu item. Competition-specific challenge regulations still control the event.

How to judge a suspected screen

1. Name the code. Confirm that FIVB 2025-2028 indoor rules govern the match.
2. Identify the conduct. Was there arm-waving, jumping, sideways movement or a grouped formation during service?
3. Check the service hit. Could the receiving team see the ball being struck?
4. Track the ball to the net plane. Could the receiving team see its flight before it reached that plane?
5. Apply both visibility tests. If either the hit or flight was visible, Rule 12.5.2 says no screen.
6. Check hands separately. Were serving-side screen players' hands above the head before the ball passed beyond the net?
7. Check earlier faults. Apply Rules 6.1.2 and 12.7 before deciding which fault is sanctioned.
8. Give the outcome. If the screen is the controlling fault, award a point and next service to the receiving team.

Three players hide a jump serve

Situation: three serving-team players stand tightly grouped in front of the server. As the server jumps, two of them also jump. From the receiving side, both the contact and the ball remain hidden behind the group until the ball reaches the net plane.

FIVB 2025-2028 ruling: screen under Rules 12.5.1-12.5.2; point and next service to the receiving team. The decisive facts are the grouped formation and jumping, combined with concealment of both required views for the full period specified by the rule.

The contact is hidden but the flight is visible

Situation: a stationary group briefly blocks the receiver's view of the server's hand at contact, but the ball becomes clearly visible immediately after the hit and remains visible as it travels to the net.

FIVB 2025-2028 ruling: no Rule 12.5.2 screen. The service hit was hidden, but the flight path was visible; the rule expressly says that visibility of either defeats the screen test. Any separate Rule 12.5.3 hands-above-head violation would still need to be addressed on its own terms.

Hands stay high although the ball is visible

Situation: two front-row teammates hold both hands above their heads before and during service. The receivers can see the contact and the complete ball flight.

FIVB 2025-2028 ruling: the visibility facts do not establish a Rule 12.5.2 screen, but the hand position is prohibited by Rule 12.5.3. The 1st referee may advise the team through the game captain. Under FIVB's published referee guidance, the players should lower their hands; persistence after a preventive instruction can produce a screening call after service.

The receiver is out of position first

Situation: at the service hit, the receiving team commits a positional fault. The service itself is correctly executed but then passes over a formation that meets the screen test.

FIVB 2025-2028 ruling: sanction the receiving team's positional fault. Rule 12.7.2 expressly treats that fault as occurring before a correctly hit serve later becomes faulty by going over a screen. The serving team wins the point and continues to serve.

Claims the FIVB rule does not support

• “Any player in front of the server is screening.” Position alone does not satisfy Rule 12.5.2.
• “The receiver must prove the screen affected the pass.” The rule tests visibility to the net plane, not the quality of the eventual reception.
• “Hiding only the contact is enough.” Both the hit and the flight path must be hidden for a Rule 12.5.2 screen.
• “Visible ball means hands can be held anywhere.” Rule 12.5.3 separately restricts hands above the head.
• “A team must request the call.” The 1st referee is responsible for deciding screening.
• “Every screen can be challenged on video.” Screening is not a named category in FIVB's 2025 challenge menu.

Current trials do not rewrite the screen test

On 27 February 2026, FIVB announced rule, regulation and procedure tests for the 2026 Volleyball Nations League, FIVB U17 World Championships and 2026 Continental Championships. Those tests include a change to when receivers may move out of rotational position, plus other playing and challenge procedures, but the announcement does not amend Rule 12.5 screening.

For those named events, use the event's test instructions alongside the 2025-2028 rulebook. For other competitions, do not import a 2026 trial unless the governing federation or competition has formally adopted it.

Governing-body sources and effective version

• FIVB — Official Volleyball Rules 2025-2028, current English edition: Rules 6.1, 8.2, 12.5-12.7, 23.3.2.3(a), Diagram 6 and Diagram 11 signal 12
• FIVB — Refereeing Guidelines and Instructions 2024, Rule 12 guidance, item 5 (preventing and calling screens)
• FIVB — Video Challenge System Regulations 2025, regulations 3, 5 and 13 (menu and earlier faults found on review)
• FIVB — Board-approved rule tests for specified 2026 competitions, 27 February 2026

Checked in August 2026 against the current FIVB 2025-2028 indoor rulebook, effective for competitions beginning after 1 January 2025, plus FIVB's latest listed indoor referee guidance, 2025 challenge regulations and announced 2026 tests. The 2024 referee guideline predates the current rule edition and is used only where its preventive-screening mechanic is consistent with Rule 12.5.3. National, school, college and event regulations may supplement or replace this baseline.