It’s ashame I’ve discovered your blog today. Great job!

I have some idea on this post. I agree what you’ve mentioned. And I would like to use a metaphor:
Think of muscles are like springs. Take an example on biceps and triceps. Since force=mass x acceleration and acceleration is the change in velocity, we could perform a stronger hit while triceps stretched AND biceps relaxed very fast, as if a stretched spring is relaxed while a relaxed spring which has been attached at opposite side is stretched at the same time. And I think muscle strength is important on the motion or speed of stretched/relaxed. What do you think? Sorry I am not an expert on sports sciences, just love Volleyball. Cheers.

Thanks for your comment. I checked out your website too, looks great.

I think that you made some very interesting points in your article. Your conclusion to work on developing and/or maintaining balance between antagonistic muscle groups seems to be the key for me.

It is very easy for any athlete to work on the areas that produce that greatest return while sacrificing those areas that are harder to develop and don’t seem to be actively involved in his/her particular sport. However, this approach can result in injury.

Thanks for your common-sense approach.

Thanks for your support of the blog.

The key thing with the principle presented is in how it is applied. There is an endless list of things to consider when writing a program, and this is just one of them.

I agree that it is important to develop a solid conditioning base, and strength base. A program with balance between opposing muscles groups not only helps not only helps prevent injury, but it also helps develop strength and power. You are only as strong as your weakest link. For example, you may be able to reach a good level developing your quads with quarter squats, but to improve strength and power to another level you must develop the weakest link, the glutes.

In the situation of the college volleyball team, they were in-season. A lot of sport specific strength and power is developed in pre-season, with the focus in-season more on maintaining strength and power, and staying injury free. This may be why there is more of a focus on performing the opposite movements in-season.

I would be interested to talk with some of the Australian conditioning experts that you mentioned. Perhaps they would be some good people to interview on volleyball base in the future.

Cheers.

But I’d advise your readers to be VERY careful with the philosophy of ‘doing the opposite’. The point made at the end is: ‘This ensures you maintain some balance between muscle groups helping you to stay injury free.’ This is not true. It only ensures you have balance if you already have an appropriate degree of strength and power in the ‘non-opposite’ way (ie: the volleyball specific way) which few players do. Balance is absolutely critical to prevent long term injuries but you should only consider doing the ‘opposite’ after developing a solid base.

I have no idea who does the podcast that you checked but, in my experience of College S&C Coaches they are not on the same planet in terms of understanding volleyball and beach volleyball as Australia’s top people – people like Ian Riggs, Jeremy Sheppard and Lachlan Penfold. The fact that she had been ‘going to their trainings’ to get an idea of what stresses the bodies were under is good, but the fact that she didn’t already know greatly concerns me. College S&C Coaches are employed to train football and basketball players. Be wary of anything else you read – check with our experts!