Essential Volleyball Conditioning Drills

Explore essential volleyball conditioning drills - to make you move quicker, reach higher and feel stronger.

The purpose of this section is to provide “easy to understand” strength and conditioning information, which is especially made for volleyball. There are lots of books and information about conditioning, but they seem to be targeted to people with years and years of experience, and are often difficult to understand.

Our goal is to provide information and volleyball workouts which are simple to follow and easy to understand.

All the exercises are explained (almost) without any lingo - in a form which is easy to understand. Some simple scientific information may be provided to support the ideas and concepts.

Please, let us know if something is explained here with an unclear manner. We want you to understand the basics of conditioning and make your training an enjoyable experience.

Volleyball Conditioning Drills - Two Basic Elements

What do the most volleyball players dream about? Wouldn't you like to jump higher?

How to Increase Vertical Jump in Volleyball?

Don’t you think everybody would like to have the ability to jump high? Or maybe to have the quickest feet and move faster?

To get high hops or quick feet an athlete needs to develop muscles that will perform fast. In order to get those fast muscles, muscles need to be trained with two elements:

1. Strength/Power (Making muscles stronger.)



2. Quickness (Making muscles faster.)
   
   

That’s how simple it is. Really.

I hope you are getting excited about conditioning - it is the key to get you to the next level. We are very excited to know we have a possibility to help you to improve.

What other elements are important in volleyball and volleyball conditioning drills?

Stability and Strong Core - to be able to control your body. To read more about it, go to

Volleyball Vertical Jump

Powerful arms- which lift you up when you jump - and bring the ball down hard when you spike.

Conditioning (endurance) Being able to repeat multiple jumps during a long match. Being ready for each intense 5-15 seconds rally. You train yourself to recover during the short break between the rallies.

... plus

Agility

Flexibility

Volleyball Conditioning Drills - What Kind of Training is Needed?

Strength/Power Training - How to Gain Strength for Volleyball?

Beginning volleyball players are able to gain strength by working out with the body weight, but in order to get to the next level athletes need to start weight training.

 Pure power is not enough - you need
explosiveness and quickness also.

One of the best methods to get strength is the basic weight training in the gym. Traditional weight lifting exercises like squats, deadlifts, clean and jerk, snatches, bench press and all the variations of them are great exercises for volleyball players.

Weight training doesn't necessary mean traditional weight lifting. It could include training with medicine balls, kettle bells or any extra weight you can imagine.

Pure Power Alone Is Not Enough

Pure power and strength alone doesn't carry very far on the volleyball court - volleyball players also need endurance, agility and quickness on the court.

Being Explosive and Quick Is Important

When working out it is extremely important to keep in mind what qualities is needed in volleyball.

For example being explosive and quick is important for volleyball player, therefore an athete should always have explosive power training or quickness training in the training schedule.

Volleyball Conditioning Drills - Endurance Training

What kind of conditioning is needed in volleyball?

How to train endurance for volleyball?

Let's think about the volleyball match - each rally is about 5-15 seconds long, following with 5-10 second break between the rallies. Wouldn't it make sense to practice endurance in that context?

Therefore traditional cardio, like long distance running is probably not the best training for volleyball endurance. It will surely increase athletes' VO2 max, but still there is a better way..

Engage athletes for example in plyometrics training (low impact jumps, footwork drills, ladder drills, dot drills, etc.), in which athlete works that 5-15 seconds intensively, then having a little 5-10 break between each rep. That kind of training makes athlete work out with the same energy levels than needed in volleyball.

Surely you could add also higher intensity interval training into the mix - making athletes taking for example 15 second or even longer sprints following by jogging/walking before doing another sprint. You could make that happen on the volleyball court by running volleyball suicides - making sure athletes have to change direction often, just like in the volleyball match.

Volleyball Conditioning Drills - Agility Training

How to get quick feet and become fast on the court?

How to improve
agility and
become quick
on the court?

Plyometric exercises involve usually to short and quick movements, which athlete performs often with own body weight in a circuit type of training.

Plyometric exercises are great way to improve agility and help athletes to change direction quickly.

Ballistic training is very close to plyometrics training and often referred as plyometrics. Explosive push ups, squat jumps, frog jumps, medicine ball throws are ballistic or plyometric exercises which are excellent for volleyball players.

How to Organize Volleyball Training?

Add explosive training near the beginning
or the peak of the season.

To maximize the development of qualities needed - volleyball players should have specific periods in the training schedule, which each focus on specific qualities needed in volleyball.

For example volleyball player could have a strength training period, which focuses on gaining strength and maximum power (meaning athlete lifts extremely heavy loads with medium tempo wanting to get stronger).

Then when getting close to the season an athlete could have an explosive power period, which means the athlete adds explosive training (meaning faster tempo - an athlete moves the weights with fast and explosive movements) into the program and lessens strength/maximum power training.

Volleyball Conditioning Drills - the Continuous Part of Your Training

Volleyball Players Should Do Conditioning
All Year Around

We give you tips which a high school athlete can use to prepare for upcoming tryouts in four weeks. Or provide the basics of a three month training system, specifically made for the volleyball players preparing for the season. Nevertheless, we want to emphasize conditioning is a long term continuous process.

An athlete should think volleyball conditioning drills as an essential part of your training, all year around. The best results come from the continuous training with a long-term perspective.

Simple Volleyball Conditioning Drills to Lift You Up to the Highest Level

 Volleyball Players should do exercises which are
volleyball specific. Read more in the other pages.

Using conditioning ideas provided in this website an athlete can climb up all the way to the highest level.

Conditioning required at top college level or pro level takes lots of training, but it is not rocket science. It is actually very simple and everything makes common sense in it.

Take a look at the following pages, which for example provide specific exercises for volleyball conditioning.

Volleyball Conditioning Drills Related Pages

Volleyball Conditioning
Explore ideas behind conditioning drills which are exclusively made for volleyball and focus on specific needs of a volleyball player.

Workout for Volleyball
Essential workout for volleyball – examples of conditioning drills and exercises for sports specific training.

Volleyball Workout
Strength Training Basics
Find specific volleyball workout and the most common conditioning drills. Learn the basics of volleyball strength training.

Designing Conditioning for Volleyball
Check out the basic principles needed when planning conditioning for volleyball. What needs to be considered when designing volleyball workouts?

Volleyball Strength
Gaining Strength by Weights Why weight training? Volleyball strength training by weights is necessary and appropriate training method also to junior and female volleyball athletes.

Volleyball Vertical Jump
How to increase vertical jump in volleyball? The basics of volleyball vertical jump.

Volleyball Off-Season Training
Few tips how to train during the off-season.

Volleyball Weight Training
Volleyball weight training program example. Basics of volleyball weight training.

Volleyball Conditioning Exercises
Raw strength alone is not enough. Check out basic volleyball exercises to improve agility, quickness, footwork, endurance, etc.

Volleyball Exercises
The best exercises for volleyball conditioning. You find few great exercises to improve your performance on the court.

Volleyball Stretching
What kind of stretching is the best for the volleyball players?