Designing Conditioning for Volleyball
Basic principles to remember when designing
conditioning for volleyball:
REST PERIODS
A very common false in conditioning for volleyball is their rest
periods between the sets are too short. Athletes don't allow themselves
to recover from the set and rush to the next set.
A rest period is important especially when doing explosive workouts or
high impact plyometrics. In order to do them explosively, an athlete
needs a complete recovery between the sets. The length of it is
depending on a person, but could be up to 3-5 minutes.
Exception! When training for endurance
(for athlete being able to repeat multiple jumps during a long match) -
the purpose is to minimize the recovery
time. For example low impact plyometrics could be used for endurance
conditioning - each set could be 5-15 seconds long and each recovery
between the sets very short - just like in volleyball match.
More Rest for Better Conditioned Athletes!!!
Better conditioned athletes may need more rest, if intensity and
training loads are high!
Usually better conditioned athletes and athletes with longer weight
lifting experience need a longer rest. Since they are able to do those
explosive exercises more effectively, they are usually more exhausted
after the set and need longer rest periods.
Rest between the Training Sessions
After explosive weight training or plyometric training an athlete needs
a minimum of 48 hour rest (some prefer 72 hours) before working out the
same muscle group.
Remember
sufficient rest
after explosive workouts.
Pay attention here, it doesn't mean an athlete needs to have a complete
rest of 48 hours - an athlete can workout other muscle groups or attend
team's volleyball practice (in which an experienced coach understands
to minimize the jumps to allow athletes to recover).
If an athlete does explosive weight training or plyometric training a
day after another, an athlete won't give muscles time to recover or the
nervous system to develop. Muscles and the nervous system need rest to
grow and develop.
Conditioning for Volleyball - PERIODIZATION
You have learned that volleyball strength training programs contains
different periods, which all focus on different qualities (power,
strength, explosiveness, endurance, etc.) needed in volleyball.
You not supposed to focus fully on one subject only, but you focus on
it more than during the other periods. It is not difficult to
categorize certain conditioning exercises you need to do for volleyball
conditioning - in fact it is really easy and almost everybody can name
exercises a volleyball player usually does for conditioning.
What is the most challenging in volleyball conditioning?
What makes conditioning for volleyball challenging is designing the
structure of the volleyball training program - like how often a player
should repeat conditioning workout and what exercises are the most
beneficial to a volleyball player.
In conditioning for volleyball it is important to understand how many
times a week an athlete should do power training, jump training or
endurance, etc.
It is extremely important to know how many hours an athlete takes to
recover from certain exercises.
Very often especially
young and ambitious athletes work out TOO MUCH: they
seem to think the more you do - the better conditioned athlete you
become.
Conditioning for Volleyball - OVERTRAINING
Overtraining among athletes is very common.
Due to
overtraining athletes are not progressing as fast as they could.
The rest between workouts is one very important aspects in
conditioning: the muscles develop and recover while they rest. An
athlete needs rest to be in full strength to practice hard in the next
session again.
If muscles don't get enough recovery time, an athlete
can't push hard enough in the next practice and the practice is not
serving its purpose. An athlete needs to be able to push that 100%
every time for the best development
Young Athletes Need Guidance!
Especially young athletes need
guidance in conditioning.
Especially young athletes need advice on conditioning since they
usually don't have experience about it, for example overtraining or
doing wrong exercises might actually hurt their development.
Conditioning is difficult subject even for experienced athletes, even
though some of them may feel when they are tired and are able to adjust
their training.
After athletes gain experience on
conditioning they understand to give themselves enough rest and know
the best exercises for the particular moment.
Our goal is to educate and provide information which helps coaches and
athletes understand conditioning and give knowledge to plan
conditioning programs. Conditioning for volleyball is not complicated
at all; everybody can master it - after learning few important
principles.
Conditioning For Volleyball Related Pages
Volleyball
Vertical Jump
Volleyball
Conditioning Drills