The history of Light Volley in Italy
From its origins in China to its arrival in Trentino: the story of Light Volley and the three people who brought it to Italy.
The origins
"Light Volley", or "Light Volleyball", originated in China in the 1980s as a variant of volleyball designed to be a more accessible, easier-to-learn alternative for anyone. The idea behind it is to build community through a sport that doesn’t require advanced technical skills.
In recent years this sport has grown a lot, helped by the founding of the World Light Volleyball League in 2020.
How it arrived in Italy
Light Volley arrived in Italy thanks to the efforts of Lihua Ma, Maurizio Napolitano and Matteo Zingaro, who together started the first initiatives to make it known, beginning in Trentino.
The three promoters are presented on this site at the same level: no hierarchy. Each of them, though, brought a different and complementary contribution to the project.
Each one’s contribution
Lihua Ma brought materials, references and ideas from China that contributed to the project’s development, drawing on her more than 10 years as a coach in women’s volleyball and as an international player, first in China and then in Austria.
Maurizio Napolitano discovered Light Volley and helped start the process that led to its reinterpretation in Italy, bringing the experience built up over more than 30 years as a coach in women’s volleyball and as a federal instructor for coaching courses and for training club officials.
Matteo Zingaro played a central role in bringing Light Volley to the territory, proposing it in different settings and making it known, drawing on his experience as a coach at Trentino Volley for over 20 years in the boys’ youth sector.
These differences are part of the project’s historical story, but they don’t translate into a hierarchy among the three promoters: throughout the rest of the site, all three are presented with the same role of Light Volley Promoter.
Light Volley at school
Light Volley has also been proposed in several schools in Trentino, as a simple activity to introduce, suited to classes with mixed experience levels: among them, Liceo Da Vinci, ITT Buonarroti, Liceo Prati and Istituto Sacro Cuore in Trento.