Physical training
To improve at volleyball, two key elements are essential: technique and fitness.
Without a good grasp of the movements, it’s impossible to perform consistently. Without fitness, it’s difficult to string together actions effectively.
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Why focus on physical fitness ?
Volleyball is an explosive and demanding sport. Every rally puts strain on the legs, core, shoulders and nervous system. Repeated jumps, rapid movements and powerful spikes eventually take their toll on the body.
Appropriate physical training not only improves performance but also helps maintain a consistent level of play over time. Good jumping ability allows you to attack from a higher position, giving you greater manoeuvrability and the chance to showcase your technical repertoire.
It is also key to reducing injuries. A better-prepared body absorbs impacts more effectively, recovers faster and copes better with the demands of training.
What athletic training really is
Contrary to popular belief, physical preparation for volleyball is not simply a matter of doing traditional weight training. So-called traditional weight training is based on muscle hypertrophy, which involves building muscle mass; this will make you stronger and give you a more defined and muscular physique, but it will also make you heavier, slower and less flexible.
Football, basketball, volleyball… … to perform well physically in these sports, the aim is to develop abilities that are directly useful to the game.
Athletic training takes into account the quality of movement, not just the amount of weight lifted. Unlike a programme aimed at muscle hypertrophy (for example, 3 sets of 12 repetitions to build muscle mass), the focus is on:
power: the product of speed and force; the aim is to increase maximum strength and the ability to generate movement as quickly as possible,
coordination: synchronising arms, legs and torso,
the repetition of explosive movements without any loss of effectiveness.
In a volleyball training programme, you’ll therefore often see short, high-intensity sets, with enough recovery time to ensure that each repetition is of high quality, rather than long sets.
Functional strength
As power is the most important quality in an athlete, strength – being a component of this attribute – is just as important. Without strength, there is no power.
This is referred to as functional strength, meaning strength that can be utilised in the desired context (to give a random example: a volleyball court)
Effective training in this area enables, for example:
to generate more raw power during the jump,
to land more smoothly,
to protect the shoulders during repeated strikes,
to maintain a stable posture in situations where balance is lost.
We therefore focus on exercises that engage several muscle groups at the same time (known as ‘multi-joint exercises’) and which replicate, as closely as possible, the physical demands of the game on the human body.
Functional training tailored to volleyball is characterised by:
🏐 Pratical examples
Overall strength:
- Heavy-load squats → 3 sets of 6–8 reps
- Half-knee-bend deadlift → 3 sets of 6–8 reps
Trunk stability:
- Core stability during movement (dynamic)
- Core stability affected by an imbalance
These exercises focus not on volume, but on the quality of movement and maintaining core control, as the core acts as the pivot point for functional strength, being constantly engaged in all strength training and athletic movements.
Plyometrics
Plyometrics is a cornerstone of physical conditioning in volleyball. It is power training.
It involves training the body to transition very quickly from a phase of stretching to a phase of muscle contraction. This mechanism is exactly the same as that used during a jump or a block.
Following the same principle of athletic training, rather than doing long sets, plyometrics requires you to do:
short series,
high-intensity exercise,
a focus on the quality of movement,
a sufficiently long rest period between each set to ensure that the muscles and nervous system remain fresh.
This type of training helps players improve their vertical leap, reaction speed and agility. It’s not just the height of the jump that improves, but also the ability to repeat these jumps without losing effectiveness.
Please note: plyometrics places enormous strain on your tendons, joints and nervous system; it is IMPORTANT to take these impacts into account when planning your training.