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 jump, speed, agility, upper body muscular power and estimated maximal aerobic power. [...]
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 performed, whether it’s a [...]
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 performance [...]
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 and power [...]
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 two of [...]
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 stretched muscles can generate. This is discussed in [...]
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 have a strong max squat you are likely to have a good vertical jump and [...]
Pic: Midiman Written By Dave What should you do in the weight room for volleyball? There is such a range of exercises and different training techniques out there it’s hard to know where to start. Well here is one principle that will give you a starting point as far a weight training for volleyball [...]
Pic: SuperFantastic Written By Dave What is one thing besides the skills of volleyball that athletes invest a great amount of time trying to improve? You guess it, vertical jump. It was only a matter of time before a volleyball conditioning site tackled the vertical jump. This is a large topic and one very [...]
Pic: Superfantastic Written By Dave Static stretching has for a long time been a staple part of volleyball warm ups. Walk into a lot gyms and you will see teams sitting in circle for several minutes performing static stretching, before they launch into their training or game. Research shows that this might not be the [...]