Why is diversity of the players crucial in strength and conditioning training? Part I

2019-06-24 • 2734 views

The number of variables to be considered in planning and conducting strength and conditioning training is so big that it’s impossible to do it without specific knowledge. More and more sports clubs reach out for specialists within this specific field, who become responsible for the physical development of the volleyball player.

The description of the fact that skipping the basic knowledge of the physical preparation of an athlete together with the limitation of athlete development and in extreme situations the exposer to many injuries, I will try to describe in a series of articles.

After the initial determination of the volleyball player’s physical skills by the medical and coaching staff, a preparatory period takes place, during this time the focus is being target on the physical skill of the athlete.

Let’s forget for a moment about the volleyball coach thoughts and plans, which aim to bring the team together, as well as polish the technical and tactical elements (which is worth to mention- they are extremely important, but this is not what this article is about) focus selectively on the separate fact in the context of physical preparation for the season.

One of the key elements, that in my opinion, the trainer of physical preparation should first of all take to consideration before planning the training cycles is the diversification of the players taking into account two basic factors: quantity and quality.

(Sometimes it happens that at the beginning the trainer of physical preparation examines mobility, stability, mobility of the individual body segments, however more often this is a task intended for a physiotherapist)

Quality is a collection of couple factors, when being at a high level make the athlete impeccably moves on the court, without problems makes changes in the direction of movement, correctly leads the hand to attack, lands correctly, engaging all the necessary body segments, etc.

The game of a volleyball player, who has a highly developed quality can be described as pleasing to the eye (in terms of physical - we do not assess technical and tactical skills). You can see how smoothly the athlete moves on the volleyball court, the athlete is agile and dynamic.

What to do when our volleyball player is lacking the quality?

First of all, the cause have to be identified. Are these issues coming from previous years of training? Does the body have limitations (including quantitative) that prevent the player from moving naturally?

The most common reason for the lack of quality are the losses in the quantity, which in consequence may translate into unnatural movements of the body. Another, often frequent cause is training deficiencies at the early stage of the development of a volleyball player.

In a situation where insufficient quality determines the player's body constraints, we should refer the person to a specialist (physician, physiotherapist) who will implement the appropriate procedure.

The higher the level is represented by the athlete, the less frequently there are quality deficiencies. Nevertheless, this factor we are able and we should shaped through the entire career of the athlete.

So what should you focus on when working with a volleyball player who is characterized by correct quality? What if quality deficiencies are identified and are not related to postural defects or just poor technique (for which the volleyball coach is responsible for majority of the improvement)?

Most probably, we should focus on the second key feature in the athlete's assessment - the quantity whose specificity will be described in the next article.