what every libero should be able to do… Pic:milopeng
Get Lower! One of the most common things you hear your coach say to you is to get down lower. Low in defence, low in passing, just get low. If you are low, chances are you will perform the skill better. Unfortunately it’s not that simple. Many of us struggle to force our hips through that range of motion. The good news? It is very easily fixed.
A lot of people struggle with mobility through their hips. There are a number of factors that can affect hip mobility. Generally bad range means you are tight through the structures surrounding your hips. Hip Flexors, Glutes, ITB, TFL…all those muscles. Stretching is very important, but it is also a good idea to put some functional movements in there as well. If you want to be able to get lower, then you need to get lower more often. Pretty simple really. In normal life you don’t need to get so low, so your body isn’t trained to do it and your hips simply don’t go through that range of motion. In Volleyball, it’s essential, so you have to teach your body to get there, repeatedly. Stretching, plus some of the movements I will show you in Part 2, which is basically stretching whilst moving through a range of motion, will help to get you a lot lower pretty quickly.
The Case Study
For those following my personal blog, you will notice I now have a new roommate, and teammate, Sarah, who is also doubling as our new libero. The first thing I noticed when watching her pass, was her lack of mobility through her hips. As a libero, it’s the first thing you want to develop, and one of the most important things. Being able to get low, means that you can stay on your feet more often, move faster, and are simply more efficient. You are also more likely to be injury free, and be able to perform more exercises beneficial for building power. The good news for Sarah? She’s my new guinea pig! Even better news for you, I’m going to show how I will get her more mobile.
Check out these pics. The left is Sarah (my teammate) and the right is me (the ultimate athlete). We have done a comparison, my mobility is still improving, but you can see the difference. The key here is that your heels need to stay on the ground, and your back reasonably upright.
I chose these positions because they are pretty much what you need to be in to perform skills for Volleyball. Notice in positition two, Sarah is already lower than she was in the previous picture. This is proof to you that by simply getting lower, you will get better at it. Wait till you see her in three weeks!
I struggled big time with hip mobility and had a very similar range to Sarah up until about 8 months ago when I thought it would be a nice idea to do something about it. I’m not perfect yet, but I am a lot better, and consequently, moving a lot more efficiently and I am able to perform more power exercises through a larger range of motion. Most importantly I am a lot more injury free.
Why Am I Showing You This?
Well, I thought I could document her process. I have written her a program, and seeing as we do weights together, I can monitor this easily. I think in 3-4 weeks, I can have her getting as low as me…even if I have to force her hips into that position myself. Check back to part 2 where I go through the program I am giving her and explain how each of the exercises will get you some more mobility.
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