Designing Conditioning for Volleyball

Basic principles to remember when designing conditioning for volleyball:


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.

Conditioning in Volleyball

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.

Plyometics Exercises 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

Volleyball Conditioning Drills 

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?

Conditioning in Volleyball 

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

Conditioning in Volleyball 

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!

Medicine Ball Exercises 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

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