0:00

And now it's time for who's smarted. Psst!

0:04

Hey, smarty pants, right now

0:06

I'm enjoying a beautiful summer

0:08

day. The sun is shining, the

0:11

water is cool and refreshing, and

0:14

the sand is hot! Ow

0:17

ow ow ow ow ow! Ah,

0:19

that's better. And in case you couldn't guess

0:21

where I am, I am at the beach.

0:25

Of course, the beach is always more fun when

0:27

you go with family and friends. And

0:29

I'm joined by my old pal and

0:32

ace news weather traffic and sports reporter

0:34

Chet Nickerson, who is getting to enjoy

0:36

a rare day off. And

0:39

so much for Chet not having to work. Oh

0:42

no, don't worry, trusty, that music

0:44

is just my ringtone. Hello?

0:48

What? No, I do not need a new

0:50

car warranty. Anyway,

0:53

as I was about to say, trusty,

0:55

come join the rest of us for

0:57

a game of beach volleyball. Beach volleyball?

0:59

You want to play volleyball on that

1:02

scorching hot sand? Oh,

1:04

it's not so bad, but if you're

1:06

worried, here's a pair of sand socks.

1:09

Um, okay. And who

1:11

are we playing against? Why, some other friends

1:14

of the show. Who wants meat

1:16

cake? Just kidding, no meat

1:18

cake while playing volleyball. Or 30

1:20

minutes before swimming in the ocean. Grandma,

1:23

I didn't know you played volleyball. Are

1:25

you kidding? I was captain

1:27

of the girls' varsity team at my

1:29

college. Chet, trust me the ball. Here

1:31

you go. Eh? Ow,

1:35

you just spiked the ball off my face. Sorry.

1:38

Well, at least that took my mind off the hot

1:40

sand burning up my feet. And

1:43

who else do we have? Whoa. Of

1:46

course, my niece Gia, the iconic

1:48

whoa girl. Do you play volleyball

1:50

too? I sure do. Bump,

1:54

set, eh. Ow,

1:57

sorry. That's two volleyballs

1:59

to the floor. face and we haven't even started

2:01

the game yet. And speaking of the

2:03

game, when was the game of volleyball

2:06

invented? How do you play volleyball? And what are

2:08

the different kinds of volleyball you can play? That's

2:10

easy, Uncle Trusty. I can tell you

2:13

all that. And so can I. Great!

2:15

Sit back, Smarty Pants, as we serve

2:17

up another big whiff of science and

2:20

history on... Hello,

2:22

Smarty! Who's

2:25

smarted? Who's smart? Is

2:28

it you? Is

2:30

it me? Is it science? Or

2:33

history? Listen up! Everyone,

2:36

we make smarted lots

2:38

of fun on who's

2:40

smarted! Hello,

2:43

Smarty listeners. This message goes

2:45

out to all the teachers,

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principals, teachers assistants, and school

2:49

librarians. First of all, thank

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you, thank you, thank you for all

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Smarted can even be used to satisfy

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Educators. And Smarty Pants and

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Smarty Parents, please feel free to let

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your teachers know about this. Again,

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that's who's smarted.com. Click Educators

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for free subscriptions to Who's

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Smarted Plus. Let's all

3:44

get smarted together. Okay, Trusty, it's

3:46

you and me versus the ladies.

3:49

You can serve first. All right,

3:51

here goes. Whoa,

3:54

that was not a good serve.

3:57

Yikes. It's been a while. Luckily, it's just...

4:00

You three and nobody saw it. This

4:02

is Chet Nickerson reporting live from

4:04

the beach on his day off

4:06

to share footage of a truly

4:08

awful volleyball serve. As you can

4:11

see, it clearly did not go

4:13

over the net. In fact,

4:15

it barely even reached the net,

4:17

resulting in a loss of serve

4:20

and dignity for trustee.

4:22

Chet, is the commentary really necessary

4:25

or even newsworthy? No,

4:27

not at all. But it

4:29

helps me stay in practice. And

4:31

speaking of practice, you might want to

4:33

work on that volleyball serve. Yeah,

4:36

Uncle Trusty. It's impossible to get really

4:38

good at volleyball if you don't practice.

4:41

Okay, okay. Maybe I'm not in game

4:43

shape yet. But before we play volleyball, let's

4:45

learn a little more about it. Smarty

4:47

Pants, we'll start off with the basics.

4:49

What kind of sport is volleyball? Is

4:51

it A, a team sport? B, an

4:53

individual sport? Or C, a water sport?

4:57

If you said A, a team

4:59

sport, nice job. And

5:02

if you said C, a water sport, you

5:05

may have been thinking about playing volleyball

5:07

in a pool, which you can

5:09

definitely do. But

5:13

volleyball is traditionally played on

5:15

a hardwood gym floor court,

5:18

or a sand court. Gotcha.

5:22

Now, I know what a ball is. Ow!

5:26

Whoops. Sorry, Uncle Trusty. I

5:29

was practicing my serve. If you were

5:31

aiming for my face, you are doing great.

5:34

Anyway, as I was saying, I know what a

5:36

ball is, but what is a volley? Do you

5:38

know, Smarty Pants? That's easy.

5:40

The volley part of volleyball

5:43

refers to team members hitting the

5:45

ball before it

5:47

hits the floor or ground. The

5:50

idea is to use your arms and hands to hit

5:52

the ball over the net. And then

5:54

the other team tries to do the same thing. Each

5:57

team only gets three hits to get it back over

5:59

the net. and you can't hit it

6:01

twice in a row by yourself. So you

6:03

can pass it or set up your teammate twice. And

6:06

then the third hit has to go

6:08

over the net. Gotcha. Let me try.

6:10

Set me up. I

6:13

said over the net. Not into

6:15

it. I know, I know. I

6:17

need more practice. Good thing this

6:20

is just a fun game of beach

6:22

volleyball and not the Olympic Games. Speaking

6:24

of smarty pants, when was volleyball added to the Olympic

6:27

Games? Was it A, 1896, B, 1964, or C, 1996?

6:35

If you said B, 1964, you're right. Volleyball

6:40

was added to the Olympic Games in

6:42

the 1964 Summer Olympics, which

6:45

took place in Tokyo, Japan.

6:48

It's been an official sport of

6:50

the Summer Olympics ever since. Oh,

6:53

I remember that. I made

6:55

a volleyball-shaped meat cake to celebrate. Since

6:58

volleyball is an Olympic sport, it must

7:00

be pretty popular worldwide, right? It

7:02

sure is. Did you know

7:04

volleyball is the fifth most

7:06

popular sport in the world,

7:09

coming in behind soccer, cricket,

7:11

field hockey, and tennis?

7:14

Smarty pants, do you think this sport of

7:16

volleyball is more popular among men or women?

7:19

The answer is...women. It's

7:22

reported that 900 million women and

7:24

girls play volleyball worldwide and that

7:26

women make up 78% of all

7:28

volleyball players, while men make up

7:31

22%. Stay

7:33

with me. Whoa. Nice.

7:37

Now, while volleyball was introduced to the Olympics in

7:39

1964, it had been

7:41

around a lot longer than that. Smarty

7:43

pants, any idea who invented volleyball

7:45

and when or where? Yep,

7:48

I have no idea either. A

7:50

man named William G. Morgan

7:52

invented volleyball in 1895 at

7:56

the YMCA in Holyoke,

7:58

Massachusetts. Boo! The

8:01

story goes he wanted to create a

8:03

game that needed more players

8:06

and less space than

8:08

basketball. More players and

8:10

less space? Sounds crowded. Yes

8:13

and no. Volleyball is played on a

8:15

court that is 59 and a half feet, or 18 meters long, and 29

8:17

and a half feet, or 9 meters wide.

8:23

Oh, that's pretty big. That's longer than half

8:25

a basketball court and just over half is

8:28

wide. But how many people play volleyball at

8:30

a time? The number of people

8:32

playing depends on the kind of volleyball you're playing.

8:35

Indoor volleyball teams have six players per

8:37

side or team, while beach volleyball

8:39

teams have two players on each side. Oh,

8:42

and because there's less players, beach volleyball

8:44

courts are a little smaller. Gotcha.

8:47

And the game starts with a serve, unless

8:49

I'm serving. Yes, a

8:52

player standing just outside the back corner of

8:54

the court serves the ball over the net,

8:56

and then the volleying begins. Nice.

8:58

And how do you keep score? By

9:00

counting points, duh! I

9:03

know that, but how does the scoring work

9:05

in volleyball? Relax, I was just

9:07

kidding. Tell them, woe girl. Similar

9:10

to tennis, volleyball matches are played

9:12

in sets. Each set usually

9:14

goes up to 25 points and

9:16

have to be won by two or more points.

9:19

High school and college volleyball matches are

9:21

the best of five sets. But

9:23

some matches and recreational volleyball are

9:25

usually best of three sets. Right

9:28

now, Team Meatcake is ahead of Team

9:30

Pizza Bagels. Really? I didn't

9:32

think we'd started playing yet. What do

9:34

you mean? That serving to the net you did before counts

9:37

as a point for us. Really? Smarty

9:39

Pants, is Grandma Meatcake right? True

9:42

or false? You can only score a point if

9:44

your team is serving. The answer is... False!

9:48

There was a time when only the

9:50

serving team could score a point, but

9:52

that made the game take a lot

9:54

longer. So they changed the rule

9:57

to what they call rally

9:59

scoring. Yep, and

10:01

now you can score a point whether you're serving or

10:03

not. And when you score

10:05

a point, you get to serve for the next

10:07

point. Sounds good. But for those who don't

10:09

know, what is serving again? It's

10:12

when I bring you a big platter

10:14

of meat cake. Lunch is served. Um,

10:16

I don't think that's it. Serving

10:19

is when a player hits the ball over the

10:21

net. Ooh, that's another

10:23

point for Team WoCake. Really?

10:26

I wasn't even ready. Yeah, and

10:28

I was eating some delicious meat cake. Whatever. This

10:30

is just for fun and to learn

10:32

about volleyball. Now, for our beach game, there's just two

10:34

people on each side. But

10:38

for volleyball played indoors on a hardwood court,

10:40

there are six players per side. Does

10:42

that mean there are different positions on a volleyball team?

10:45

What do you think, smarty pants? You

10:47

know what I think? I think we're going to find out

10:49

right after this quick break and a word from our sponsors.

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back to who's smarted. Ow!

14:21

Right in the face, again! Sorry,

14:23

Uncle Trusty. My serve has

14:25

gotten much better, faster, and

14:27

more accurate. My face

14:29

agrees with you. Anyway, we were

14:32

going to talk about the positions on a

14:34

volleyball team. Smarty Pants are their positions on

14:36

a volleyball team? The

14:38

answer is yes! Starting

14:41

with the server, of course. Next,

14:44

there's the libero. Libero?

14:47

What's a libero? That's the

14:49

player who bumps the ball.

14:52

I see, but I don't understand. Smarty

14:55

Pants, do you know what bumping the

14:57

ball means? Doesn't mean bumping into the

14:59

ball like my face has been doing all

15:01

day. No, Uncle

15:03

Trusty. It's when you hit the ball with

15:05

your forearms, like this. Nice

15:08

bump, low girl. Next comes the

15:10

setter. The dog? No,

15:12

not the dog. The setter uses

15:14

the second hip to put the ball

15:16

in position, like this. Into

15:19

position for what? For the attacker to

15:21

do this. Ah! Ow!

15:25

That's another point for us. Do

15:28

all these points have to be so painful?

15:30

Also, did you say attacker? Yep.

15:33

The attacker is a player positioned near the

15:35

front of the court, right in front of

15:37

the net, who jumps up and slams the

15:40

ball over the net, which

15:42

is called a... A what, Smarty Pants?

15:44

A hike? A strike? Or a

15:46

spike? If you

15:48

said a spike, you're right! In

15:52

volleyball, a spike is a hard,

15:54

downward hit over the net that's

15:56

very hard for the other team

15:59

to return. Hah! Ow!

16:02

Could you at least try hitting the other side of my

16:04

face? Sorry, Uncle Trusty. If

16:07

only there was some way to block the spike. Actually

16:10

there is. When an attacker goes

16:12

for a spike, players on the other team,

16:14

called blockers, will jump up to try and

16:16

stop the attack. But if the

16:18

ball is not blocked, a passer is ready to

16:20

dig the ball. Okay, I was with

16:23

you, but then you lost me again. What

16:25

is this digging? Is the ball going to be spiked

16:27

so hard that it gets buried in the sand? No

16:31

no no, Trusty. In volleyball, a

16:33

dig means stopping the ball from

16:35

hitting the ground after it's been

16:37

spiked. Usually you have to

16:39

get down real low and get your

16:42

hands or forearms under the ball. Ah,

16:45

now I get it. You dig? I

16:47

dig. And just so we're clear,

16:49

how do you score a point? So

16:51

far it seems like the way to score points is to hit

16:53

me in the face with the ball. Like

16:56

that! Not quite, Uncle Trusty. While

16:59

hitting you in the face can lead to points,

17:01

the real object is to hit the ball over

17:04

the net in such a way that the other

17:06

team can't return it. But there

17:08

are several ways to score points. If

17:11

the opposing team can't return the ball

17:13

in three hits, that's a point. If

17:16

the ball is grounded or hits the

17:18

ground, that's a point. If

17:20

the ball is returned but lands

17:23

out of bounds, that's also a

17:25

point. And if you serve the

17:27

ball and it doesn't go over the

17:29

net or lands out of bounds, that's

17:31

also a point. Wow,

17:34

there sure are a lot of ways to score or

17:36

lose points. True. But

17:39

so far, spiking it off your face seems to

17:41

be the most effective one for us. Ow!

17:44

I feel like I should be wearing some kind of face shield. Speaking

17:47

of, is there any special equipment volleyball players

17:50

need to wear? What do you think,

17:52

smarty pants? Volleyball players wear knee

17:54

pads to keep their knees safe when they die

17:56

for the ball, and special shoes to help them

17:58

move easily. Also,

18:01

many volleyball players tape up a part

18:03

of their body to prevent injuries. Their

18:06

faces? No. Their

18:08

fingers! This helps protect your

18:10

fingers from all the hitting, setting, digging, and

18:12

spiking you do with your hands. Ah,

18:15

makes sense. Not that I'll be doing

18:17

much spiking. That net is pretty high.

18:20

Smarty Pants, any guess how tall a volleyball

18:22

net is? Is it 6 feet, 7 feet,

18:24

or 8 feet tall? The

18:26

answer is 7 feet

18:29

or 2.1 meters tall,

18:32

and it stretches across the entire court.

18:34

What about the ball? Is the ball

18:36

always the same? Yes and

18:38

no. Volleyballs come in different

18:40

colors, sizes, and materials, and different

18:42

balls are used for beach or

18:45

indoor volleyball. But the average

18:47

weight of a volleyball is around 9 ounces.

18:50

That's how much it can of soda weighs. Oh,

18:53

and trusty narrator takes another

18:55

volleyball to the kisser. Down

18:58

goes trusty. Sorry, Uncle

19:00

Trusty. It could be worse. It could have

19:02

been a can of soda. A

19:10

special shout out to my Spotify crew

19:12

who have been clamoring for a volleyball

19:14

episode for months. There's Emily,

19:16

who loves girls volleyball. Her pal,

19:18

M&M. Mega fan Elizabeth

19:21

from Utah. Gymnastics girl.

19:23

Super fan Eva from Los

19:25

Angeles. Atticus, Chi-Chi,

19:27

Lackland, and Ainsley. Abby

19:30

and Patrick. Georgia, who wants food episodes.

19:32

Carolyn in Canada. And Lili,

19:34

she from Ireland. Thanks for

19:36

leaving us such great comments

19:39

on Spotify, and I hope you

19:41

all enjoyed today's episode. This

19:43

episode, volleyball, was written by Sarah,

19:45

BigServeSuitek, and voiced by Gia, Dig

19:48

It Out, Davis, Adam, Spikes Davis,

19:50

and Jerry Colburn. Technical

19:52

direction and sound designed by Josh,

19:54

BigHitHan. Our associate producer is

19:57

Max Crosscourt-Komaski. The theme song is

19:59

by Brian. subset, Suarez, with lyrics

20:01

written and performed by Adam Tex Davis.

20:04

Who Smarted was created and produced by

20:06

Adam Tex Davis and Jerry Colbert. This

20:08

has been an Atomic Entertainment Production.