Specific Strength and Power Training for Volleyball

Volleyball is a unique sport consisting of quick, powerful movements and lightning fast reflexes. The sport involves incredible timing by each athlete for individual skills and for team related play making synchronicity. Strength training and power training for a sport of this nature introduces a fair number of variables directed at the requirements that must be met for the different playing positions on the court. Certainly, one cannot expect a middle blocker who is primarily used for the offensive attack and net defense (blocking) to be trained in the same fashion as the libero, a player who is primarily on the court for back court defense. Different training parameters must be considered and then analyzed to develop a strength training and power training program that can be successfully applied to each volleyball playing position. Yet, there are athletes that are skilled enough to play in both the front court and back court and they must be thought of as all around players which requires them to be trained as offensive attackers and defensive blockers in addition to being trained as passers and defensive specialists.

During the off-season, strength training is the primary focus. Training for muscle hypertrophy is not usually a primary concern for volleyball players. Although, there are some players with excellent skills that are extremely thin and muscle hypertrophy needs to be the main focus before strength training can seriously be administered. Additional muscle mass is necessary for such players to handle the rigors of high level volleyball. It is essential that all players with a desire to play higher level high school, club, and especially collegiate volleyball develop strength levels that will make them superior athletes and protect them from stress injuries.

As with all power sports, a strong strength base must exist before an improvement in power can be expected. It is true that volleyball athletes must have powerful arms to be successful as attackers and servers, but it is core, hip, and leg strength which requires the greatest amount of attention. Specificity in a lower body strength program for player positions is not that necessary seeing that all players need strong core, hips, and legs to either jump well, move in a lateral direction efficiently, squat low, or quickly dive outward. An effective program must be supplied with the following key strength building exercises: