Are Volleyball Gloves Banned? Is it illegal? (+2 Major Roles)

Every sportsperson risks getting injured, and so does a volleyball player. Since volleyball is more about how you move your hand and finger, you are more prone to get hurt. Volleyball players indulge in serving, spiking, blocking, jumping, bumping, and setting to play the game. Due to all these activities involved, the slightest miscalculation of hand or body movement might lead to an injury.

Volleyball gloves come into the picture to protect your hand or palm from injury. From my observation, I have seen that the gloves they sometimes use never cover their fingers.

In sports, gloves protect the hands from any puncture or a direct impact that can be hard and even prevent abrasion. But these problems are not usually with volleyball as the volleyball is soft enough to require extra padding.

Some players with arthritis wear gloves to keep the warmth, but even their fingers are fingerless. Other than that, particular types of setter gloves are available for the setter to practice and have better hand and palm positions.

However, these setter gloves are not allowed during competition, but you can use them in practice sessions. We have further discussed these special setters gloves in the article.

Previously players used to tape their fingers as volleyball requires vigorous physical touch, which might hurt the finger. If you want to know more about why volleyball players tape their fingers, follow the article The 1 Reason Behind Volleyball Players Tape Their Fingers.

However, if you are suffering from an injury already, consulting a doctor should be immediate action, and the doctor will advise you in the best way possible to heal your damage.

Is it allowed to wear gloves in volleyball?

Almost every player avoids using volley gloves to get better touch and feel of the ball. This allows them to master the art of manipulating the ball in the appropriate direction.

Since volleyballs have bumps to better grip and allow players to provide direction to the ball, using bare hands will help you improve your technique.

If you still are confused if gloves are legal or allowed in volleyball, then you should know that they are not entirely illegal. Some gloves are advantageous to wear as they improve technique giving the upper hand, so they are not allowed, while others that are used to protect your writing can be used.

Since there are special setter gloves that players use, but they only use them for training. These particular gloves are used to enhance and improve the stability of the hands. If you want to check the setters glove, click on the below button.

Why do volleyball players wear gloves?

Volleyball players wear gloves to look cool, just kidding. Their primary objective is to protect their hands from injuries. There are two types of volleyball gloves if you broadly see them.

The ones are called training gloves used by volleyball players to train during training sessions and drills, for example, the volleyball set glove.

While the setter uses the special setter gloves to stabilize their hand and gradually improve their game. The beginner generally uses these to get the gist of how to set a ball as they are suction bumps on the gloves which receive the ball, reducing the impact and allowing the player to gain more control of the ball.

This setting glove allows players to worry less about the stability of their hands and to focus more on other aspects of the setter. They are made of leather and rubber and may last for several years.

The other gloves, like the fingerless glove, are used mainly to protect hands. They mainly help in preventing injuries like sprains and bruises.

The player generally uses this to practice to learn and improve their technique. Beginners mostly use volleyball gloves to protect their hands from injuries because they do not know the proper technique.

Are volleyball gloves the same for every position?

Your question is evident as there are different positions in volleyball, like a setter, blockers, outside hitters, libero, and ds; they might need other gloves to perform their role better. But that is not the case as gloves’ primary objective is to protect hands, and another is to learn and improve the proper technique.

If you are interested in different positions in volleyball, I highly invite you to read our article on DS in Volleyball.

So are volleyball gloves the same for every position? Yes, except for the setter, all other positions have the same gloves, more or less.

Since the setter gloves are not allowed legally so you can say that all players can use the same gloves; on the other hand, you will not be surprised to know that most professional don’t use volleyball gloves as this restrict their hand from getting the natural touch and feel of the ball.

The player at the end always wants to play without the gloves as they want no external help or advantage. They want to hone their skills, which gained once will always help them and become experts.

2 Major Roles of volleyball gloves

There are majorly two roles

Improving ability and skills

One role of volleyball gloves can be to improve the player’s skills in handling the ball. For example, the setter’s special gloves; help the setter to keep their hand stable so that the setter can focus more, and the other aspect of the setter overall improves the setter’s game.

Although setter gloves are not allowed during a game, they are used in practice sessions by the players. They help the player to increase their other ability.

Prevent injuries

Other than the setter gloves, the remaining gloves are used by the player to protect their hand from injuries. Most beginners prefer to wear them as they have not learned the proper technique. As time passes, they know, improve and perfect their skills; they avoid using them.

Can you wear wide receiver gloves in volleyball?

There is none when speaking of rules that might permit wide receiver gloves. After going through the rules from FIVB, only the below rule felt relevant, so it is stated below;

Rule 4.5.1: It is forbidden to wear objects which may cause injury or give an artificial advantage to the player.

FIVB Refereeing-Rules

So to my understanding, wide receiver gloves are not allowed in volleyball. And it is better to use bare hands to get the touch and feel of the ball so that it becomes easy for a player to control the ball accordingly.

3 Best Volleyball Gloves

Volleyball Set It GLove

The glove is for practice and can be used during training and drills. The below button will redirect you to amazon so that you can check it out

PROS:

• It helps in understanding the technique of the setter
• It helps in stabilizing the ball
• Allows the setter to focus on the aspects of the setter at the same time.

Cons:

• It is not allowed in official matches according to FIVB rules.
• If you use it excessively; then it becomes difficult to play without them
• The sense of touch and feel of the ball is lost.

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Volleyball Spike Glove(Training Aid)

The purpose of this glove is to improve Power, Accuracy, and Topspin on Serves and Spikes. It is made of Stretchy Silicone used to train aggressive Wrist Flick.

PROS:

• Improves spike velocity
• Improves spike accuracy
• Improves top spin serve 
• Better muscle memory

Cons:

• They might not be allowed to be officially used in matches, considered forbidden objects.
• Only limited to practice matches.

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Grappz Flexible Splint for Fingers

This glove is the best alternative to finger tape. If you want to know why volleyball players tape their fingers click here.

PROS:

• Works as finger tape
• Injury Jam Protection
• It also provides grip support
• Unisex
• It can be used for Mallet Finger, Finger Jam, broken Finger, finger dislocation, finger splint, or buddy tape.

Cons:

• It might be uncomfortable.
• Difficult to find an exact one that can fit your finger perfectly.

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FAQs on Volleyball Gloves

Conclusion on volleyball gloves

You may have seen many players use volleyball player to use gloves. They are primarily used to protect their hand from injuries so they can continue playing for long.

Another reason a player wears a glove is that he might hand arthritis in his finger. So to keep his hands warm, they use gloves.

A special glove is not legally allowed during a match but can be used in practice sessions, i.e., the setter’s special gloves. They stabilize the setter’s hand, helping them focus on other abilities.

A professional player might not use gloves generally as they have already learned the proper techniques, so they don’t need them.

However, for a beginner, it is advised to use gloves since they are not perfect in there and may get injured.