1st Place Volleyball brings you the best way to WARM IT UP with Sports Specific Trainer, Barry Lovelace, in this week’s Drills and Skills.
Pre-game is an exciting time for athletes and coaches alike. It’s the time when we finalize mental preparations, team build and prepare our bodies for the physical demands to come. Before your team hits the court it’s important to warm up our muscles. We spoke with sports performance specialist, Barry Lovelace with Athlete Training Academy, and asked his take on this subject. This is what he had to say:
Warming up is very important. Often coaches and players alike don’t like to take the time to warm up and I can’t stress enough how much I disagree with that. Entering a volleyball game with warm, flexible muscles is not only important for injury prevention but it’s also a way of alerting our bodies that there is work ahead.
The following is a simple and highly effective way to warm up your team that is also very time efficient. Go from one exercise to the next with no break in between.
1) Jog – Start out with a nice, easy jog. Keep with this for about 2 minutes.
2) High Knee Skip- Skip forward and as you do, drive your knee upward toward your chest with each skip. Use a full-range, exaggerated arm action; the opposite arm comes forward and up with each skip. Keep with this for a minute or two.
3) Butt Kick – Run forward and attempt to touch your butt with your heels. Thighs should be perpendicular to the floor. Lean your upper body slightly forward.
4) Lateral Shuffle – Move laterally (sideways) to the right by stepping out to the side with your right foot and then bringing your left foot to meet your right foot without crossing your feet. Keep your body square and do not twist. Upper body should lean slightly forward. Move to the right for ten shuffles and then to the left for 10 shuffles. Repeat 4-5 times.
5) Lateral Lunge – Take a big step out to the right side, lowering your hips and bending your right knee until the thigh is near parallel to the floor. Keep the left leg as straight as possible. Step your left leg in to meet your right leg. That is 1 lateral lunge. Do 10 to the right and 10 to the left.
6) Shoulders Front Raise – Stand with feet hip distance apart holding volleyball in both hands, arms straight down, ball against thighs. Use your shoulders to raise the ball to just above forehead height keeping the arms straight the entire time. Lower back down to starting position. Do 20 repetitions.
7) Raise and Slam – Perform shoulder raise as above. Begin to move arms back down and when arms are just past hip height release ball to the ground. Do 12 at half speed (simply releasing the ball down to the ground) and 12 at full speed (slamming the ball to the ground).
There you have it. A complete and total body warm-up that will prepare your volleyball player for the game ahead.
For more information on Barry Lovelace and Sport Specific Training, email him directly at Barry@Training4YourSport.com
I totally agree with you Coach Barry,i had a nagging shoulder injury they say ‘over use’ but i say lack of appropriate warm up induced injury. Keep up the good work.
Unfortunately, shoulder injuries are very common in volleyball and yes, they can be avoided with proper warm-ups an proper training such as core training and proprioception (unstable environment) training. Training in a way that is similar to physical therapy is not only a great way to help prevent injuries, but a great way to improve performance
Thanks Barry for all the training tips and recommendations!
I love the active warm up compared to the old jog around the gym or court a few times and then static stretch. I think skills such as passing and setting need to be incorporated into such a warm up, here is what I have the girls do after they complete their active warm up similar to the above; partner up one tosser one receiver 10 -20 tosses then passes standing still, repeat (2nd time) passer moves side to side (l and r) passes ball back to tosser (the real key is the tosser MUST be engaged and take their job serious), repeat again (3rd time) run short pass, run long pass (when i say run I mean the shuffle step or defensive movements taught to your players and staying LOW!) , then the roles are switched. After all 3 passing sequences are done then it is time to set back and forth, and finally throw hard ball at the top of the head or slightly over the head so the girls can practice their overhand passing (hard driven balls) you can increase the intensity of these last 2 warm ups by having the tossers place the ball in such a way the passer MUST move to pass the ball back.
A personal thanks to Mr Lovelace for great advice and tutorials found on You Tube!!
Thanks PJ..:)
Great warm-up you have your team do. Great way to get the blood flowing and getting that core temperature up. Agree with the static stretching. IF a team chooses to static stretch it should be done after a proper warm-up, as you mentioned or in the post, BUT make sure to hold each stretch for 30-45 seconds each and no bouncing. Just hold…..release easy and repeat 4-5 times them move onto the next stretch.
Just an FYI – None of my clients or teams stretch and their injuries are basically zero for the exception of getting hit in the head with a ball..;)
Example: my state champion team in Connecticut has been doing our training for 4 years and the only injury they have had was concussions.
Thanks again and good luck PJ!
You should make a video with all of these warmups.
That may be possible Luis..:)
Hi Barry,
You don’t need a proper physical warm up all you need is a warmed up mind
HI Tony..
I wouldn’t say you ‘don’t need’ a proper warm-up, but I do agree a warmed-up mind is also needed
Thanks for this. I just love playing volleyball and want to get better at it.