2010–12 Continental Beach Volleyball Cup – Africa entered without playing in the sub-zonal round. The top 2 of each pool qualifies to the African Continental Beach Volleyball Cup. The following countries withdrew The following teams have qualified for the women's continental final. Volleyball at the 2012 Summer Olympics 2010–12 Continental Beach Volleyball Cup – Africa Teams will compete in the sub-zonal tournaments, with all teams advancing, with each team carrying over the points it earns to the five zonal tournament, where teams not entered in the sub-zonal tournaments can enter. The top four teams in each group will advance to the second zonal round where teams are
Beach volleyball began testing rule changes to the court size and scoring system. The beach volleyball court dimension was reduced from the indoor court size of to , and the scoring system was changed from sideout scoring, wherein only the serving team can score a point, to rally scoring, wherein a point is scored on every serve. The Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP) adopted the FIVB's rule changes that same year, which upset many of the sport's purists at the time. The new rules were officially adopted by the FIVB in 2002. Beach volleyball is fundamentally similar to indoor volleyball. However, there