New volleyball rules have been introduced in the current Turtles Business House competition to give all teams an equal chance at the net and to create more fun for all.
The new rules were introduced last week when volleyball players took to the courts for the first week of the Turtles tournament.
The main new rule is that men cannot spike or block at the net or front zone.
Of course this new rule was met by a few grumbles especially from high flying spikers who love smashing the ball from the net.
However, the new rule means that men can only spike from the back zone of the court giving ladies more of a leading role at the nets.
In the first round of games played last Wednesday women were certainly stepping up and taking charge of the front zone with fantastic all-female battles seen under the nets.
The men took a little while to warm up with more spikes from the back zone ending up in the net than over the net.
But no doubt the men will quickly adapt to this new rule by next weeks second round.
The aim behind the new rule is to close the gap between the top volleyball teams and the lesser teams whove joined the sport recently and still finding their feet on court.
The second rule is that only underarm serves are allowed.
This means no high flying super-duper power serves which ultimately leads to plenty of volleys between teams rather than points won on ace serves.
While there was some moaning going on about the new rules most players were open minded and used the first round of games last Wednesday to put into practice the new rules with lots of laughs generated especially as men tried to spike from the back court with more fails than successes.
With 9 more weeks of play to go theres plenty of time to adjust to the new rules.