Volleyball Training

In order to be a better volleyball player you must have great jumping ability, great agility and lateral movement, and great hitting ability (unless your are the setter). At SSL we train to enhance all three of these elements.

The first thing we must address is your feet because your feet are the initiator of all three essential elements in volleyball. Take jumping for example. When you go to jump, the conversion of power that your legs can generate is transferred from your feet. If your feet are weak or your ankles don't have full range of motion then you can't maximize your vertical leap, it's just not possible.

Lateral movement comes from the ability to generate force out of your feet in a side to side motion. It's true that some you generate force from your legs, but the ability to transfer that power comes from your feet being able to push off at the perfect time. You cannot offset this by over training your legs. If you had a to makes a choice on which to over train, it would be your feet.

Your hitting ability goes back to your jumping ability. The first thing you have to do is elevate yourself. The next thing you must do is get your arms on stretch to be able to hit the ball with any type of rotational force.

The fundamental thing that distinguishes this program from all of the others is that we start by addressing your feet first. We build your foundation to be able to move and jump from the feet up. If you don't do that then there is no way to ever maximize your jumping ability ability or your lateral movement. You can't ignore the primary fundamental element in movement, which are your feet, and expect to maximize your ability in either one of theses tasks.

The next essential element to address is your shoulder mobility and the flexibility around the shoulder. Without addressing this, you can never really maximize the accelerating capabilities of your arm when you go to hit. It's no different for a baseball pitcher or quarterback in football. If your shoulders and muscles are too tight then you're not going to get the correct amount of stretch speed. You cannot generate great power without great stretch speed.

Anytime you're addressing jumping ability or hitting power you are always talking about speed of contraction. The ability to generate velocity comes from the ability to eccentrically load (which is to stretch the muscles very quickly) and then let them snap back like an elastic band. That's all hitting is in volleyball. You are stretching (eccentrically loading) the arms out and then contracting them into a full hitting motion. If you can address this, then you can maximize your hitting power.

In conclusion, volleyball has three major elements; jumping ability, lateral movement and hitting power. In order to be successful you must improve your foot strength and flexibility as well as the flexibility in your shoulders. The SSL training method enhances all of these safely and more effectively that any other training program.