Roanoke Juniors - 16 Club volleyball WORKOUTS

Below, I will continuously add exercises and organize them so the are grouped together according to different types of conditioning. In this space, I will specify which sections I've added to most recently.
I will also highlight those new exercises below in yellow for a day or two after they are first added to make the new exercises easy to find.
Since this is the first time I've put in any exercises, though, I'm not going to highlight anything below at this time.

Conditioning Workouts

Updated on January 6, 2009 at 22:36.

Before you workout, be sure you always stretch. Do not only stretch the muscles you think you will be working. Volleyball is a complete body workout and, particularly when you are practicing game like movements, you should be usually all muscle groups. For example, if you only are going to have time to work on jumping, you shouldn’t only stretch your legs. You will use your arms and your abs as well (or at least you should if you are doing it correctly) and you should stretch them too.

When you are conditioning on your own, remember that you want to push yourself but you also want to set reasonable goals. The first couple times you try any exercise, start out at a low number of repetitions or a short period of time. You can always do more sets if you realize you started off too slowly. As you get in better shape, do more repetitions or longer durations per set. Also keep in mind that for a lot of exercises, you can challenge yourself even more by adding weight, be it a medicine ball, a weighted vest, hand weights or homemade weights such as water bottles. Again, though, safety is very important so know your limits and only increase the difficulty as you improve.

Focus on footwork

Quick feet are important to every position in volleyball. There are numerous exercises you can do on your own to improve your foot speed and to improve your overall condition. Below are some general exercise ideas but first, it’s always important to think about very specific, game-like movements to practice at a fast pace so your body is able to simply react once a ball is involved. These specific exercises are important for building muscle memory and while they may seem tedious after a couple sets, it is important that you do them often and you do them correctly.

The Drop-step: the footwork used in your basic drop-step is used more often than any other footwork, particularly when playing defense. Most of us are first taught this footwork in terms of a frontrow player starting out at the net in base position and dropping off the net quickly, ready to either dig a ball or get into her hitting lane (remember, the drop step is drop open, cross over and close around so your squared to the ball). In this situation, if the ball is set to your right when you are drop-stepping off the net, you should drop-step with your right foot first so that you are facing into the court and can keep your head up with your eye on the ball. Likewise, when the ball is set to the left, you drop-step with your left foot first so you’re open to the court and can keep your head up with your eye on the ball.
You also use the drop-step footwork for your blocking footwork, just moving laterally (across the net) instead of dropping off, away from the net. This footwork is especially important for middle blockers when they transition to block the opposing team’s left-side or right-side hitters. Our left-side and right-side blockers, though, should work on this footwork as well for when we double block in the middle or if the ball is set farther inside than usual.* Remember with this footwork, you should start with your feet about shoulder-width apart. If you are moving to block right, your first step should be a long open step with your right foot, then cross over with your left and close around with your right foot, squaring back up to the net. As you take these steps, your hands should not drop below the bottom of the net and you should be watching the hitter (not the ball) and see the blocker you are going to meet out of the corner of your eye. Your last step when you close to the net should also close any distance between you and the other blocker so that that a ball cannot be hit between your combined block. You should just reverse the footwork when you are going to block left, opening first with a big step with your left foot, crossing over with your right foot and closing around with your left foot, squaring back up to the net.

*All blockers should also work on quick shuffle steps to use when they need to adjust their block if they have misjudged a set by only a small distance.

As backrow defenders, you will also use the drop-steps. Left-back and right-back players who start around the 10-foot line for base will use the drop-step to get into position to cover the angles on defense. It is especially important that you practice these drop-steps while remaining low. In a game situation, you will not have time to do your drop-steps standing upright and then get down in time to cover the hit. You must remain low as you move. Middle-back players will more often use the lateral footwork similar to a middle blocker in order to cover the deep portions of the court. It is also very important for them to stay low as they move across the back row.

Passers can also use the drop-step when they are receiving a ball that is hit deeper than the position they are playing. This is true when passing deep serves or deep off-speed hits.

Setters should also be comfortable using the drop-step when a ball is passed behind target. This is the fastest way to get your body behind the ball and square up to the left-side antenna. The drop-set can be used along then net for a tight pass behind the setter or diagonally away from the net for a pass off the net.

***Please remember that you should practice these drop steps both directions. Even if you typically play on the left side of the court (either frontrow or backrow), you never know when we may have to switch up our line up. You should be comfortable moving both directions depending on your court position. Furthermore, remember that while you always want to practice this footwork with quickness and control, you should also change up the amount of ground you cover in your drop-steps. There will be times when you must use the footwork to go more than half-way across the court and other times when you only need to cover a fraction of the space.***
+++more specific movement suggestions with reminders about proper form to come. In the meantime, think about movements on your own, such as your hitting approach and block jumps that you can do outside of the scheduled practice times.+++

General Quickness Training

Jumping rope - it is a good idea to jump rope at a steady pace over an extended period of time, perhaps starting out at 5 minute intervals. You should also push yourself to jump rope as fast as you can for about 30 to 90 seconds at a time, doing multiple sets for repetition.

Dot drills – you can use imagery dots on a flat surface (doing footwork drills in your yard, for example, can be dangerous because the ground is often uneven) or draw dots using chalk on your driveway to be sure you are pushing yourself. You should start out with the exterior dots about 10 to 14 inches apart, using the same pattern that you’d find on the 5 side of dice, like this:

O O

O

O O

You can always increase the distance between the dots to push yourself more as you improve. You should start doing these drills in 30 to 90 second intervals, changing up the pattern that you follow. You should go as fast as possible while also keeping your body under control.* Here are some possible patterns:
-side to side jump, keeping both feet together and landing between the two dots on the left and the two dots on the right, going back and forth. Try to stay over the center dot each time you jump.
-front to back jump, again keeping both feet together, this time landing between the two dots at the top and the two dots at the bottom over and over. Try to stay over the center dot each time you jump.
-dice jump, starting your left foot on the bottom left dot and your right foot on the bottom right dot. Jump up to the middle dot, bringing your feet together, immediately jumping again up to the top dots, spreading your feet apart again so that your left foot lands on the top left dot and your right foot lands on the top right dot. Keep repeating this, going backward and forward again as many times as possible in the specified interval.

You can also do any of these patterns with one foot but be sure spend the same amount of time working each foot. For example, if you do the side to side pattern with your right foot for 3 sets at 30 second intervals, you should do the exact same thing with your left foot.

*If you find it hard to keep your balance or stay under control, you need to work your core muscles more. Sometimes just concentrating on your abs while doing an exercise like this will help work your abs and improve your balance.

+++more general quickness training to come+++

Updated on January 5, 2009 at 21:13.

Specific exercises and suggestions to come this week. In the meantime, keep in mind that you should be conditioning outside of practice, ideally devoting about an hour or more each day to improving your foot speed, endurance, strength and jumping ability. Vital to all of the aforementioned fitness areas are strong core muscles. Be sure to include exercises to strengthen your abs and back in order to maintain and improve your overall fitness and volleyball potential.