Volleyball Base

Skill-Based Conditioning Games

Photo By Kashmera Written By Dave Here is an interesting study conducted in Australia on some participants in the Australian Junior Volleyball Championships. Unfortunately I can only access the abstract... According to the abstract, the results show that skill based conditioning games resulted in improvements in vertical jump, spike ...

Sorry!

Just wanted to say sorry to anyone out there who checks this blog. It has been a fairly busy time for me recently and haven't been able to put up regular content. I have just moved to Adelaide to start studying a Masters of Physiotherapy (Graduate Entry). I have also ...

Expertise: How to be an expert volleyball player

Pic: Joe Shlabotnik Written by Dave Every volleyball player that is aiming at being an elite player is aiming to become an expert. Motor learning gurus have studied all aspects of expertise, from how to obtain it to what separates experts from the rest of us. Regardless of the skill being ...

Train Movements, Not Muscles

Pic: boldsey Written by Dave A previous post Do The Opposite dealt with a principle to adhere to when planning a strength & conditioning program for volleyball. “Train movements, not muscles” is another conditioning principle that is applicable to all sports, including volleyball. The Principle A key principle when trying to improve your volleyball ...

Healthy Ankle Strategies

Photo: marktristan Written By Dave Ankle sprains are one of the most common injuries in volleyball, and no doubt a fair proportion of the readers out there have had this injury at some stage. We know that taping or ankle braces can be a good way to prevent or reduce the severity ...

Fire Up Your Butt: Part 3

Pic: cobalt123 Written By Dave Part 1 of this series looked at why the glutes are important, basically because they are a major component in jumping, and why they are often not as active as they should be. Part 2 looked at how to address this by giving some motor control exercises ...

The Place for Static Stretching

Pic: rjs1322 Written By Dave There seems to be some confusion about where static stretching fits into a volleyball program. Before training? After training? Does it prevent injuries? Just exactly what is the deal with static stretching? Studies have shown that a warm up based around static stretching can impede vertical jump performance ...

Fire Up Your Butt: Part 2

Pic: Photocapy Written By Dave Its been a while since part 1 of this series, but part 2 is finally here. The first part of this series looked at why the glutes are important, and why they don’t fire in a lot of people. Bad motor patterns and tight hip flexors are ...

Dynamic Warm Up For Volleyball

Pic: Tom@HK Written By Dave Warming up for volleyball used to be so simple. Jog a few laps, stretch for a bit, or vice versa, then get into it. This is definitely not the ideal warm up. Research has shown that static stretching can reduce the amount of power and force the ...

Max Squat and Vertical Jump

Enough with the curls, do some squats! Pic: MrBeagle Written By Dave Following on from the post on Increasing Vertical Jump, this post supports the fact that strong legs are required for a good vertical jump. Vertical jump and sprint times correlate well with max squat strength. This means that if you ...