Strong Things Don’t Break Easily
The Importance of Year-Long Strength Training in the Development of Youth Volleyball Players
Imagine a 2024 Ferrari, with all the bells and whistles, that goes from 0 to 60 in 2.9 seconds. This is a dream car, all black, leather seats, tinted windows, and 24-inch rims to really pop out on the scene.
Are you seeing this car in your mind? Good.
Now imagine this car is driven from coast to coast, New York to LA, year round with zero upkeep and maintenance. This is driving with zero oil changes, tire rotations, brake changes, battery switches, or air filter swaps. What do you think would eventually happen to this insanely powerful, fast, explosive car? My guess would be it would probably, at some point, break down.
Now let’s compare an elite volleyball player to this Ferrari. They are explosive, powerful, fast, and play at an elite level. In the same way, volleyball is a year-round sport for many female athletes. They start with school ball in the fall, right into club and sometimes, they overlap each other.
These girls are jumping, landing, changing direction, and hitting the ball at insane speeds all the time. As the year goes on, if consistent, appropriate, strength training is not taking place, the risk of these girls’ bodies breaking down increases tremendously. Whether it be nagging knee pain or a complete ACL tear, things that are not strong, tend to break easily.
On top of that, athletes don’t want to just stay the same, but they want to improve, not only in skill but also in athleticism. The importance of strength training in volleyball is imperative to maximize skill development, as well as lower the risk of injury to the shoulder, knee, and ankles.
The athleticism starting point is genetics but increases with work. Early on, some girls can jump higher than others and have better body control when they first start playing volleyball. But as time goes on, and the body goes through physiological development, the girl who lives in the weight room will see the greatest increase in their athleticism.
A study published by the Journal of Applied Sports Science Research followed fourteen female Division 1 volleyball players that were both starters and non-starters through a 12-week, resistance training off-season program, and the results speak for themselves. Significant improvements were found in the vertical jump, 1 rep max, fat-free mass, and shoulder flexibility.
What is the science behind this?
The increase in motor unit recruitment and the rate at which that happens. In the body, the nervous system controls how much force a muscle gives off by recruiting more motor units to make that particular muscle fire. When a new stimulus of force is given to the muscle, the nervous system will recruit more motor units at a faster rate. These adaptations only happen with progressive overload, meaning, motor unit recruitment to make a muscle stronger will not grow with simply just doing calisthenics.
Strength training increases athleticism, but staying in the weight room also keeps you on the court. Strong things don’t break easily, which means that the stronger bones, muscles, joints, and tendons an athlete has, the more resistant they become to an ankle sprain, or a labrum tear.
Overuse injuries are extremely common in volleyball, and the #1 way to combat those nagging injuries or pain is to strengthen the areas either above or below. Strong quads and hamstrings are more likely to have stronger knees to withstand year-round jumping than weak ones. It also goes without saying that a female volleyball player cannot just lift during the winter, but they need a consistent, year-round program because they are playing year-round volleyball.
Now I want you to go back to that Ferrari analogy. What if there was constant maintenance, and even more work done on the car than before? My guess is that the car would run faster, for longer. In the same manner, consistent strength training in volleyball is going to allow athletes to not just stay explosive, but become more explosive while reducing the likelihood of injury not only for their school season but also leading into their club season.
Volleyball players, the time is now to start loving the weight room!
Here are some specific movements that will benefit volleyball players:
