GUIDES · BETSLIP DOCTOR
Is hiding the service hit alone enough to be an indoor-volleyball screen, and when may serving players raise their hands?
Under the FIVB indoor 2025–2028 rules, the service-screen definition requires the serving team’s action or grouping to hide both the service hit and the ball’s flight path from the receiving team until the ball reaches the vertical plane of the net. If either is visible, that defined screen is not present. Separately, serving-team players may not raise their hands above their heads during service until the ball has passed beyond the net.
For Readers distinguishing a service screen from ordinary serving-team positioning. · Updated
The screen definition has two parts
Rule 12.5.1 bars individual or collective screening that prevents opponents from seeing the service hit and the ball’s flight path. Rule 12.5.2 describes actions such as waving, jumping, moving sideways, or standing grouped when they hide both elements through the net plane.
The rule’s visibility condition is conjunctive: the hit and the flight path must both be hidden. If the receiving team can see either one, the action does not meet this screen definition. That conclusion does not decide every other service rule.
Raised hands are a separate restriction
Rule 12.5.3 separately forbids any serving-team player from raising hands above the head during service until the ball has passed beyond the net. A formation could fail the two-part screen definition and still need to be assessed under this hands rule.
Advice through the captain is permitted
The first referee may caution or advise the team through the game captain when deliberate screening is suspected. The rule permits that advice; it does not make a prior warning a condition for the screen rules to apply.
Keep the rulebook separate from event tests
The FIVB index lists its 2025–2028 English indoor edition as current, with implementation stated for competitions beginning after January 1, 2025. A separate February 2026 announcement covers selected tests in named event groups and says updates are subject to review. It does not establish universal adoption or a particular event’s instructions.
A hidden hit, a visible hit, and raised hands
In a fictional formation, the server’s hit and the ball’s flight are both hidden from the receiving side until the ball reaches the net plane; that meets the stated screen definition. In a second formation, the hit is hidden but the flight remains visible; the two-part definition is not met. In a third, a serving player raises hands above the head before the ball passes beyond the net. That is a separate condition under Rule 12.5.3. These branches describe rule predicates, not a call on real camera footage.
Related questions
If the service hit is hidden but the ball’s path is visible, is that a screen?
The stated screen definition requires both the hit and the flight path to be hidden until the ball reaches the net plane. Visibility of either means that definition is not met.
Does a referee have to warn the team first?
No warning prerequisite appears in the cited clause. The first referee is permitted to advise through the game captain when deliberate screening is suspected.
Does avoiding the screen definition prove the serve is legal?
No. It answers only the screen question. Other service conditions, including the separate hands restriction, still have their own rules.
Sources and further reading
- FIVB Official Volleyball Rules 2025–2028, Rules 12.5.1–12.5.3 and 12.6.2.3; printed pp. 32–33.
- FIVB Official Volleyball Rules index, current 2025–2028 English edition; checked October 15, 2026.
- FIVB Board of Administration approves rule tests for 2026 competitions, published February 27, 2026; test scope.