The first time someone yelled “side out!” at me, I was a kid in a small-town Minnesota gym, and I had no idea whether it was good or bad. I just knew the older players got loud when they said it. Years later, coaching beginners, I watch the same confusion cross their faces. A parent in the stands hears it shouted every few rallies and quietly wonders what everyone is so excited about.
Here’s the short version. A side out is when the team that’s receiving serve wins the rally. That’s it. Under today’s rules, winning that rally hands you a point, a rotation, and the serve, all at once. The word trips people up because it used to mean something narrower, back when the scoring worked differently. This guide clears up both meanings, shows you where the term came from, and explains why you’ll still hear it shouted across every gym in the country.
Side out: the two meanings you’ll run into
The term carries two different meanings, and mixing them up is where most of the confusion starts.
| Meaning | Era | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Side-out scoring | Pre-1999 | An old scoring system where only the serving team could score points |
| Side-out (action) | Modern | When the receiving team wins the rally, earning a point, rotation, and serve |
Most general sports sites spend nearly all their space on the old scoring system. For a player or parent today, that’s backwards. The version you’ll actually hear and use is the modern one, where side out is an action: the receiving team winning the rally.
A side out happens when the team that is not serving wins the rally. Under rally scoring, that win gives them a point, rotates them one position, and gives them the serve for the next rally. One rally, three rewards.
Side-out scoring vs. rally scoring
To see why the word stuck around, it helps to know how the game used to keep score.
Before 1999, only the serving team could score a point. If you were receiving and won the rally, you didn’t get a point. You got the right to serve, and nothing else. To put a number on the board, you had to be serving and win the rally. Matches could stretch for what felt like hours because teams traded serves back and forth without the score moving. I grew up in that era, and I remember matches that felt like marathons, both sides exchanging serves while the scoreboard sat still.
| Feature | Side-out scoring (pre-1999) | Rally scoring (modern) |
|---|---|---|
| Who scores? | Only the serving team | Either team, every rally |
| Side-out reward | Gain the serve, no point | Point, rotation, and serve |
| Games played to | 15 points | 25 points (15 in the deciding set) |
| Average set time | Long and unpredictable | Around 20 to 25 minutes |
| Strategic focus | Endurance, grinding out serves | Precision and error management |
Why the rules changed
The Fédération Internationale de Volleyball, the FIVB, changed the scoring in 1999, with the new system becoming compulsory in 2000. The goal was to make matches run a more predictable length and to make the sport easier to follow for spectators and television. The NCAA Division I Women’s Championship used the old side-out scoring through 2000 and switched to rally scoring in 2001.
The change quietly raised the stakes on every reception. Once both teams could score on any rally, a failed side out wasn’t just a missed chance to serve. It was a point handed straight to the other team. Every pass started to matter more.
How “side out” is used on the court today
Side-out scoring is history, but the phrase never left. Walk into any gym and you’ll still hear it.
When a coach or a teammate shouts “side out!” mid-match, they’re not asking for a history lesson. They’re saying one thing: win this rally, stop their run, get the momentum back. It’s a rallying cry, shorthand for the receiving team’s whole job, which is to score, rotate, and take the serve. You’ll hear it at every level, from youth and high school gyms to the pros, and the meaning is the same everywhere.
For coaches, the word also became the name of a statistic. Teams now track their side-out percentage, the share of receiving rallies they win, as one of the clearest readouts of how an offense is performing. If you want the full breakdown of that number, how to calculate it, the benchmarks by level, and the limits of the stat, that lives in the side-out percentage guide. And if your number is stuck, the guide to raising side-out percentage walks through the drills that move it.
Frequently asked questions
Is a side-out the same as scoring a point?
In modern rally scoring, yes. A side out means you won the rally while receiving serve, which awards a point along with the rotation and the serve. Under the old side-out scoring system before 1999, it only meant you earned the right to serve, with no point added.
Does side-out scoring still exist anywhere?
Some recreational leagues and informal pickup games use modified rules, but every organized competitive level, including the FIVB, NCAA, USAV, and high school, uses rally scoring. The term “side out” survives as a motivational shout and as the name for the side-out percentage stat.
What does it mean when someone yells “side out!”?
It’s a call to win the current rally while your team is receiving serve. The person is telling teammates to stop the other team’s serving run, take the point, and get the serve back. It’s encouragement, not a rule.
The bottom line
A side out is the receiving team winning the rally, which in today’s game means a point, a rotation, and the serve in one swing. The old scoring system that gave the term its name is long gone, but the word lives on as both a courtside shout and a stat coaches live by.
Keep playing,
Ryan Walker
Hey there,
I recently started playing Volley at a local community centre. I was wondering – Do people still say side out in volleyball?
Because I have been corrected a couple of times in the last few weeks that it’s not.
hey Alison,
Nice to hear that you started playing volleyball. To answer your question – Yes, the term “side out” is still used in volleyball, though with different meaning these days. It has become more of a motivational phrase or shorthand to focus on winning the rally and regaining the serve. For example, teammates might shout, “Let’s get a side out!” as a way to encourage the team to stop the opponent’s scoring run.
Hey Ryan, Thanks for such a writeup.
My 14-year-old daughter just started playing volleyball and I’ve been trying to understand the game better so I can support her properly.
I keep hearing parents at tournaments talking about “getting the side out” but I had no idea it was different from just scoring points.
Now I understand why the team gets so excited when they win a rally while the other team is serving – they’re stopping their scoring streak!
Quick question though: my daughter’s middle school league, do they still use the old side-out scoring system, or is it all rally scoring now?
I want to make sure I’m cheering at the right moments! 😊
Hey there!
Thanks for reading! So glad your daughter is playing volleyball – having supportive parents makes such a difference.
To answer your question: your daughter’s middle school league definitely uses rally scoring (the modern system). Since 1999, virtually all organized volleyball switched from the old side-out scoring to rally scoring, where every rally results in a point.
You’re spot on about why teams get excited – winning a rally while the other team serves stops their scoring streak and shifts momentum!
Here’s when to cheer:
ANY time your daughter’s team wins a rally (they always get a point)
Extra excitement when they win while the OTHER team is serving (that’s the “side out”)
Celebrate good passes, defense, and teamwork – not just spikes!
Your enthusiasm will mean the world to her, regardless of the technical details. Keep asking questions!
Cheers,
Ryan
My club coach tracks both side-out percentage and ‘first ball side-out’ and I can’t tell them apart. What’s the difference?
Hey Chris, good question, they measure different things. Overall side-out percentage counts any time you win the rally on serve-receive, including the messy ones where you dig, rescramble, and finally put it away on your third or fourth swing. First Ball Side-Out (FBSO) is stricter: it only counts when you score on your very first attack right out of serve-receive, pass to set to kill, no scramble. Coaches track both because FBSO isolates how good your in-system offense is, while overall SO% shows your resilience when the first option breaks down. If your SO% is fine but your FBSO is low, it usually means your passing is putting you out of system too often.
How do you work out side-out percentage, and what’s a solid number to shoot for in high school?
Hey Amanda, it’s a simple formula: side-out percentage is the number of serve-receive rallies you win divided by your total serve-receive opportunities. So if you receive serve 30 times and win 18 of those rallies, that’s 60%. For benchmarks, a competitive high school team should be living in the high 50s to low 60s; strong club and college teams push into the mid-60s and up. The key point is that against a genuinely good team, if you drop below about 60% you’re handing them scoring runs and you’ll usually lose that set. Track it by rotation too, not just the match total, because one weak rotation is usually where the points leak.
I keep hearing ‘side out’ two different ways. Older folks use it for a scoring system, my coach uses it as a stat. What does it mean in 2026?
Hey Paul, you’re right that it’s two things. The old meaning is the pre-1999 scoring system, where only the serving team could score, so winning a rally on defense just earned you the serve, not a point. The modern meaning, and what your coach means, is the stat: a side-out is when your team wins the rally while receiving serve. Today it’s tracked as a percentage, and it’s one of the most telling numbers in the game, because it shows whether your offense can break the other team’s serving runs. When someone says ‘we have to side out here,’ they mean win this serve-receive rally.