Can You Kick the Ball in Volleyball? Yes, Here’s the Rule at Every Level

By Ryan Walker. Updated November 4, 2026: checked against the 2025-2028 FIVB rulebook and rewritten with the rules for every level.

Yes, you can kick the ball in volleyball. FIVB, NCAA, USA Volleyball and high school rules all let the ball touch any part of the body, feet included. The international rule is one line long. FIVB Rule 9.2.1: “The ball may touch any part of the body.” Most legal kicks I see are a libero saving a ball they can’t reach with their arms, and it’s a save I build into my beginner defensive drills.

There are two limits. You can’t kick a serve, because the server has to hit the ball with one hand or any part of the arm (Rule 12.4.1). And a kick follows the same contact rules as your hands: the ball has to bounce off your foot, not get caught, held or thrown.

The save that came off my laces

My junior year of college, third set of a conference match, a line shot caught me leaning the wrong way. My platform was already too late, and my foot went out on instinct. The ball came off my laces, went up high enough for our setter to chase down, and we won the point.

I got lucky on the result. I didn’t get lucky on the contact. My ankle was locked, so the ball bounced off a flat surface instead of rolling off my toe. That’s the part of a kick save you can practice, and it’s most of what this guide covers after the rules.

What turns a legal kick into a fault

Legal contact doesn’t mean every kick is legal. Your foot plays under the same rules as your hands.

• Catch or throw. If the ball rests on your foot or you scoop it, that’s a catch (FIVB 9.3.3). The ball has to bounce off.
• It counts as a touch. A kick is one of your team’s three contacts, the same as a pass or a set.
• Two touches in one action. On your team’s first hit, the ball may touch two body parts in a row if it happens in one action (FIVB 9.2.3.2). Foot then shin on a hard-driven spike is legal. Two separate kicks, or a foot-then-hand touch on your team’s second or third contact, is a double contact (9.3.4).
• Back-row players. A back-row player standing in the front zone can’t send the ball over when it’s entirely above the top of the net (13.2.3). Kicked or hit, the limit is the same. A ball low enough to kick is almost never above the net, so this rarely comes up.

For the rest of the contact rules, see my guide to volleyball rules and the 2025-2028 FIVB rulebook breakdown.

When did volleyball allow kicking?

For most of the sport’s history, you couldn’t. The 1897 rules said the ball had to be batted with the hand, and for decades after that the limit moved between “above the waist” and “above the knees.” A rules history adapted from USVBA records (USA Volleyball’s old name) lists “any part of a player’s body on or above the knee” in 1994 and “any part of a player’s body” in 1996. NCAA rules have allowed the foot since 1999, according to ESPN. High school rules changed later.

So if a coach told you in the early 2000s that feet were illegal, they weren’t making it up. At some levels, that was the rule they learned. My NCAA rule changes guide covers how the college rulebook has moved since.

Can you kick the ball under the net?

This is the question I get most after the first one. You can kick a ball that’s under the net, as long as it stays on your side. Three rules decide it:

• The ball can’t cross under the net. A ball that completely crosses the space below the net is out (FIVB 8.4.5).
• Your foot can cross the center line if part of that foot stays on or above the line and you don’t interfere with the other team (FIVB 11.2).
• The ball has to go back over the net, between the antennas. If your kick sends the ball into the net, you can keep playing it off the rebound as long as your team has a touch left.

How to make a kick save

This is how I teach it. None of it is an official referee standard. It’s what makes the contact clean enough that a referee sees a bounce, not a scoop.

1. Lock the ankle before the ball arrives. Point the foot slightly, then freeze it. A loose ankle lets the ball roll along your foot, and that’s when a catch gets called.
2. Hit it with your laces, not your toe. The laces give you a flat surface, like a passing platform. The toe is a point, and a toe kick goes anywhere.
3. Drop your chest as your foot comes up. You can’t lift a floor-level ball from an upright torso. Shoulders down, foot up, like a seesaw.
4. Aim up, not out. You’re not passing to target. Height buys your setter time to get to the ball.

The drill I use: a partner stands about 10 feet away and rolls or tosses low balls to one side. Ten reps per leg, ankle locked on every one, ball up to head height or higher. It takes five minutes at the end of practice, and it’s the only way the ankle lock becomes automatic.

When to kick, and what it says about your footwork

Three situations justify a kick:

• The ball is below your knees and your platform can’t get under it in time.
• You’re chasing a ball at full speed and can’t plant to pass.
• A deflection off the block or a teammate drops at your feet with no time to get your arms down.

If you’re kicking more than once in a while, look at your footwork before you practice more kicks. When I watch film with my players, nearly every kick save starts with a late first step or a bad read of the hitter. Fix that and you’ll need the kick less. My guide to digging covers the reads.

And never kick a ball you can reach with your arms. A kick keeps the rally alive. It almost never gives your setter a hittable ball.

Kick saves at the top level

Kick saves happen in elite volleyball, but not often. In December 2017, ESPN counted them across that NCAA season. Wisconsin’s Kelli Bates had three. Oregon State setter Kylee McLaughlin had at least two, and several Kansas players had one each.

Three in a season was a lot. That’s the point. Even the best defenders in college volleyball use their feet a handful of times a year, and only on balls nothing else could reach.

Kicking in beach volleyball

Beach has its own FIVB rulebook, but the contact rule is the same: any part of the body, no catching or throwing. I see more kicks on sand than indoors, because diving in sand is slower and your foot is often closer to the ball than your arms. The ankle lock matters even more there, since you’re kicking off soft footing.

Common questions about kicking in volleyball

Keep playing,
Ryan Walker

Sources

• FIVB Official Volleyball Rules 2025-2028: Rules 8.4.5, 9.2.1, 9.2.3.2, 9.3.3, 9.3.4, 11.2, 12.4.1, 13.2.3
• ESPN, “A game-changing phenomenon is afoot in NCAA volleyball” (December 13, 2017)
• History of Volleyball Rules, 1895-2006 (adapted from USVBA)