Volleyball Conditioning

Volleyball Conditioning

Volleyball Players Hate to Run!

  

By: Krystal W. Abbott

If your volleyball athlete is serious about playing volleyball at a high level whether it is on a regional club team or on a national club team (i.e., they have a desire to play volleyball in college or at an Olympic level), you must encourage them to do more than the coach required practices. They must get in great athletic condition. This requires RUNNING AND WEIGHT TRAINING. This can be done on a routine basis on their off-volleyball practice days. They won’t want to do it! They may fight you on it! They won’t want to listen to you as the parent because you know nothing about volleyball . . . yeah right! If you need your athlete’s volleyball coach to help back you up on this advice, I am sure they will. Excellence requires extra effort. If your athlete is fine with playing recreational volleyball and is only doing it for fun and exercise, then pushing the running and weight training is not necessary. For the more serious volleyball players, it is a must. Gentle and persistent encouragement to engage in this additional training will be more effective than nagging! Your last resort should be a back handed threat: "well, since you are not willing to work hard to achieve your high volleyball goals, there is no reason for me to work hard to make these payments totaling thousands of dollars for club volleyball." Let’s see how much your volleyball athlete wants to pursue his or her high level volleyball goals now!