Add both scores to find the switching interval
FIVB’s 2025–2028 beach-volleyball rules require court switches after every seven points played in sets one and two, and after every five in set three. The trigger concerns total points played, rather than either team individually reaching seven or five.
For an original first-set example, a score of four to three contains seven points in total. A switch is due even though neither side has seven. At nine to five the total is fourteen, the next seven-point interval. Waiting for one team’s score to reach fourteen would apply a different condition.
A deciding-set score uses the shorter interval
In an original third set, three to two produces a combined five points, and six to four produces ten. Those are successive five-point boundaries. The change in interval belongs to the deciding set; it does not mean the points are worth more or that either side has won the set.
Write the set number beside the score before doing the addition. A total of ten has a different relationship to the switch interval in set three than in an opening set. This explains why a short deciding-set clip can show teams changing ends more frequently even though its rally points are counted normally.
A court switch is not the same thing as a time-out
The rules instruct teams to switch immediately without delay. They separately define the interval between sets. A movement to the opposite end during a set should therefore not automatically be described as an ordinary coaching time-out or a completed set.
A useful timeline marks rally result, updated score and court switch as three consecutive items. The switch follows the appropriate point total while the same set continues. If a video cut occurs at that moment, the score can resume unchanged from before the movement without indicating that points have been lost.
A late switch does not reset the score
Rule 18.2 states that a missed switch is taken when noticed and that the score remains as it stands. The correction concerns the court positions. It does not roll the scoreboard back to the exact point total at which the teams should have moved.
Imagine the missed fourteen-point switch is noticed at nine to six, after fifteen total points. The teams change courts with nine to six retained. Do not replay the previous rally in your notes or delete a point solely to make the switching arithmetic line up. For an archive annotation, distinguish the expected boundary from the score at the actual correction. The official procedure accounts for that difference without needing to invent an extra scoring rule.
Questions answered
At four to three in set one, is a switch due?
Yes. The combined score is seven points.
Does a delayed court switch cancel points already played?
No. The rules retain the score when the switch is corrected.
Sources & further reading
Official references for the subjects discussed. Service terms and device software can change.