Friday, May 25, 2007

Making JOGGERS out of JUMPERS


It never ceases to amaze me sometimes when I talk to sport coaches about how they condition their athletes and hear they types running they do to 'get them in shape'. First of all, I understand that many sport coaches don't have the luxury of having a strength and conditioning coach on their staff to take care of this sort of thing (and many are VERY old school in their habits)....this is why it is so important to have resources such as my website to help guide them.

I speak regularly at the Amateur Athletic Foundation (AAF) volleyball clinics on specific conditioning topics for the sport. No matter what the topic is, whether it's medicine ball training, plyometrics etc. I ALWAYS make a point to bring up running conditioning. One of the more common comments that I hear when talking about running conditioning is the fact that the one-mile test is often used as a 'test' for the volleyball athletes. I don't want to get into a whole lesson on energy system training but I did post an article on soccer-specific energy system training on my website that gives more detailed info.

Anyway, when you think about the sport of volleyball, the average play lasts about 6 seconds and the average rest time between plays is approximately 14 seconds. Now this is all out effort for 6 sec. and a VERY short rest interval.....you need to be training for this type of energy system demands. Jogging a mile won't do a thing for these athletes! By using high intensity intervals during training (things like 15-20 second line drills, 5-10 second agility drills, short less than 5sec.bursts etc.)
Moral of the story? Don't make JOGGERSout of your JUMPERS!