How Tall Are They Really?

For as long as I’ve been involved in volleyball, players have been getting bigger.  If there are two things you can be sure to hear if you hang around volleyball for any length of time, they are ‘the rallies are too short’ and ‘players are getting bigger’.  If players really were getting bigger at the rate I’ve been hearing, they would all be around 2.20m by now.  They aren’t.

In fact by my reckoning, the average height of top level volleyballers at Olympic and World Championships level has increased by 1 cm since the 1994 World Championships.  However, that reckoning is based on heights published in official documents, and there is no way to know how accurate those figures are.  In some cases they are not accurate at all.

Reid Priddy revealed on the December 14th edition of ‘The Net Live‘ podcast (but not in the transcript) that although he and Riley Salmon are listed as being 196cm and 197cm, they are in fact 192cm and 190cm.

Maybe volleyballers are NOT getting bigger, just faster, stronger and more athletic.