Pre-Training Prep & Recovery
These exercises and drills are designed to get your body optimally prepared for an amazing practice or game, helping you jump high, hit hard, and stay free of injuries.
PHASE 1: MOBILITY
4-Minute Magic
One of our favourite mobility warm ups, we designed 4-Minute Magic to open up all the ranges most important for volleyball.
It is best done before practice time starts - outside the gym, and takes ~4 minutes on each side of the body once you know it!
PHASE 2: GAMES
After opening the body up, next we suggest some sort of movement game or volleyball warm up game to get you moving quickly, reacting, competing, and getting your body temperature and heart rate high.
We love this as an alternative to typical dynamic warm ups where you run to the net and back, etc.
The game possibilities are endless, and anything that doesn’t involve jumping or hard attacking is fair play - those skills take a little more preparation.
Bear crawl tag
Knee slap tag
Partner Passing - Sit Down, Stand Up
Partner Setting - Lay Down, Stand Up
Seated Pepper
Volley Tennis
Short Court
Fukuhara
Etc.
Some of our favourites:
PHASE 3: JUMP PREP
The goal of this phase is to prepare the hips to be the dominant driver of the jump, rather than the knees. These simple variations can be progressed as they start to feel really easy and automatic!
PHASE 4: ARM SWING PREP
This phase progresses through a variety of exercises and drills to get the body ready to master 3 keys for a powerful arm swing: rotation, looseness, and low draw back.
The 3 Keys:
Pick 2-3 of these to practice for a few minutes each, or progress through each one if you have time!
Throwing Progressions:
Attacking Progressions:
Try to develop a consistent feeling of rotation and looseness on the ground, and then try to keep up all those skills as you get into the air.
*The final drill, Spin to Win, is one option for letting everyone try their most powerful attacks, with lots of room for error.
POST-TRAINING RECOVERY
These quick exercises will help undo some of the common stresses put on the body during a practice or game, and help the body recover between training sessions!
Pick 2-3 that feel the best and practice each for at least 1 min/side, or go through all of them for a more complete recovery session!
*We show a few versions of shoulder traction exercises that can be done with either a band, or with a partner!
