Springbak Volleyball Conditioning Drills: What Kind of Training is Needed?

Strength/Power Training – How to Gain Strength for Volleyball?

Beginning volleyball players are able to gain strength by working out with the body weight, but in order to get to the next level athletes need to start weight training.

One of the best methods to get strength is the basic weight training in the gym. Traditional weight lifting exercises like squats, deadlifts, clean and jerk, snatches, bench press and all the variations of them are great exercises for volleyball players.

Weight training doesn’t necessary mean traditional weight lifting. It could include training with medicine balls, kettle bells or any extra weight you can imagine.

Pure Power Alone Is Not Enough
Pure power and strength alone doesn’t carry very far on the volleyball court – volleyball players also need endurance, agility and quickness on the court.

Being Explosive and Quick Is Important
When working out it is extremely important to keep in mind what qualities is needed in volleyball.

For example being explosive and quick is important for volleyball players, therefore an athete should always have explosive power training or quickness training in the training schedule.

Volleyball Conditioning Drills – Endurance Training

What kind of conditioning is needed in volleyball?
Let’s think about the volleyball match – each rally is about 5-15 seconds long, following with 5-10 second break between the rallies. Wouldn’t it make sense to practice endurance in that context?

Therefore traditional cardio, like long distance running is probably not the best training for volleyball endurance. It will surely increase athletes’ VO2 max, but still there is a better way..

Engage athletes for example in plyometrics training (low impact jumps, footwork drills, ladder drills, dot drills, etc.), in which athlete works that 5-15 seconds intensively, then having a little 5-10 break between each rep. That kind of training makes athlete work out with the same energy levels than needed in volleyball.

Surely you could add also higher intensity interval training into the mix – making athletes taking for example 15 second sprints following by jogging/walking before doing another sprint. You could make that happen on the volleyball court by running volleyball suicides – making sure athletes have to change direction often, just like in the volleyball match.

Volleyball Conditioning Drills – Agility Training

How to get quick feet and become fast on the court?
Plyometric exercises involve usually to short and quick movements, which athlete performs often with own body weight in a circuit type of training.

Plyometric exercises are great way to improve agility and help athletes to change direction quickly.

Ballistic training is very close to plyometrics training and often referred as plyometrics. Explosive push ups, squat jumps, frog jumps, medicine ball throws are ballistic or plyometric exercises which are excellent for volleyball players.

Next week we will cover Spiking Fundamentals : by Hugh McCutcheon, head coach USA Volleyball

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