In my experience in the States, volleyball was a sport played mainly by high school girls and occasionally people at the beach. My personal experience with the sport is limited to the volleyball unit in my Team Sports class in high school, which I took to fulfill the P.E. graduation requirement, and a few volleys back and forth in some sand on a beach somewhere. I grew up playing basketball and soccer mostly, which is interesting to most Thai people as these are considered “boy” sports. Volleyball is a “girl” sport, so it is often assumed that I want to get in on the rotations of friendly pick up matches.
In the requisite Sports Days that are a part of every year’s event calendar of every school and administrative office, the girls and women are most revered on the volleyball court, but it’s not unheard of for men to join in playing as well. In competitions, the genders are kept separate. There is a league for both men and women, each with eight teams from various provinces, including my own, Nakhon Ratchasima. This last season, both the men’s and women’s teams from Korat were the league champions, which qualified them for both the Asian Women’s Club Volleyball Championship, where they came in 5th place in April.
Here is a video from the first round of that tournament:
Neither the men’s nor the women’s teams have been able to qualify for the Olympics, however the women have competed in the World Grand Prix since 2002 (placing 13th last year), the World Grand Champions Cup (taking 5th last year), the Asian Championship (taking home the gold last year) and the Southeast Asian Games (taking home the gold medal since 1995). The men have played in the Asian Championship (taking sixth last year) and the Southeast Asian Games (taking home the gold since 2011).
I tried to find a way to take in a volleyball match here, but have been unable to find any current information. If you have any tips, please leave a comment, as I would really like go to a live competition.