Volleyball Warm-Ups Gone Wrong!
I’ve pretty much shouted loud and clear the research and MODERN thought processes on stretching, but I still cringe every time I go to a national qualifier and see circles of girls get in a large circle and start to do stretching.
DO YOU WANT TO LOSE? DO YOU WANT TO GET INJURED?
Watch this video and then lets keep talking! (I don’t know Dr. Polka, but he is right on track!)
Did you see the quadriceps? Did you see how weak they got? Do you think you can jump in volleyball with weak quadriceps muscles? and yet we pull our legs behind us up to our tail and say that we feel loose after we finish stretching….right?
So now I ask the same questions? Do you want to get hurt? Do you want to LOSE matches?
Not all coaches know the same information. Does that mean they are bad volleyball coaches? Not at all. Does it mean that they might be bad volleyball performance enhancement and conditioning coaches? Most likely.
Coaches Recommendation:
Your club and/or school should have a warm-up and training routine provided by a knowledgeable professional. What does this mean to Coach Anderson? Your program must be designed my someone holding a Master’s degree or higher in the field. If you find a trainer with a CSCS from the NSCA to write your volleyball program, you are ahead of the rest. As many people of say in Master’s programs, “What I learned from my masters degree is that everything I learned in my undergraduate degree was wrong.”
See you on the court!
I was intrigued by your post and spent some extra time watching more of Dr Polka’s videos on stretching and muscle weakness. What would you suggest to put in place of stretching in a volleyball warm up? There seems to be a pervasive myth (?) that stretching will decrease the chance of injury. My team uses stretching to sooth tired or sore muscles – should that kind of stretching be limited to the end of practice?
Pervasive could be an understatement. I know of an elite running coach here in St. Louis that has runners paying up to $40 for a stretch session. That is absurd!
While I keep promising to release a training program, I still haven’t made time for it. So to answer your question in brief, warm-up and cool down should be very similar. Getting into full range of motion with each joint should be focused on.
For example: Elbow…it isn’t important to stretch your bicep and tricep, but rather to flex them. Flex the bicep to bring the forearm as close to the arm (upper arm) as possible. Then, extend your arm to as far as possible flexing the tricep until the elbow reaches lockout.
In many regards this will “look” identical to stretching, but it is the exactly the opposite.
Along with your comment, stretching post game does not help relieve DOMS (sore muscles). Increasing blood flow to the area by contracting the muscle will enhance recovery.
Hope that helps everyone!