‘Ankle braces will weaken your ankles mate, don’t stay on them too long’. I don’t know when or how this myth started, but guys, it ain’t true. We play Volleyball. We jump at the net, surrounded by many other people, land from crazy heights, into even more dangerous positions, feet are everywhere, uncoordinated idiots jumping under the net…please, protect your ankles.

What is Proprioception?

Proprioception is an important sense in the body. Unlike, sight, touch, hearing taste and smell, it focuses on only internal feedback from the body. Proprioception is the process by which you body can vary muscles contraction in immediate response to incoming information about your body in space. It is basically a sensory feedback for muscle control and posture.

Pic: hugovk

Injuries happen in every sport, and we get a fair share of them. A study was done in Australia by Monash University in 2001 on Injury rates and severity amongst Volleyball participants. There is really no comprehensive source of injury data in Australia. This study used insurance claims, and hospital admissions. They also took lots of data from previous studies. This means there are big limitations with these stats, but hey, its all we have and we are going to share them. We have summarised the massive report just a little for you, hopefully provides some interesting stats.

Pic: MightyFastPig

We all know that setters are clearly the smartest and best-looking players in a Volleyball team, and generally the most talented. But what else do we know?

Let’s do a little bit of background work to start. Somatotype refers to the kind of body shape you have, what your body is inclined to look like, what your physique is. You heard in the interview with Phill DeSalvo, that he referred to himself as an Ecto. What he meant was an Ectomorph, here is a small explanation of each type.

Stretching is great for your recovery… Pic: Tom@HK

You finish your game, you lost, the coach is mad, you are mad, some idiot tells you to stretch and have something to eat…you get even angrier, grab your bag and storm off to your car and get home as quick as possible. Sound familiar? It’s happened to me numerous times and I always regret it. Recovery is something many Volleyballers, and athletes in general neglect. What they don’t realise is that recovery techniques have many more benefits for athletes than simply rehabilitation and recuperation. This article is a bit of an overview on recovery and not so much specific to Volleyball, but we’ll start with it and do some more detailed posts later.