We also run beach volleyball classes, private lessons and training camps for adults and juniors in Hermosa Beach, CA and Salt Lake City, Utah. We run volleyball vacations in exotic locations around the world. We can even run beach volleyball clinics for your group, club or team in your hometown! Send an email to [email protected]

Beach volleyball coaches and players everywhere use the word ‘shoulder’ pretty loosely. Nine muscles are responsible for the movement of your upper arm. That movement is controlled at the shoulder joint.

If you play volleyball, chances are you’ve experienced some version of soreness or tightness in your shoulder region. If you want to last as a volleyball player and you want to learn how to hit harder, you have to learn how to strengthen and protect your shoulder joint and all of the muscles around it.

In your body, your shoulder joint has the biggest range of movement across the most planes. This...

Beach volleyball players are known for our strong shoulders and rightly so. These poor joints take a beating. Strength plays a small but important role in a player's ability to spike (or attack) and serve better. A big range of motion is definitely more important but if you're trying to spike volleyball with a limp spaghetti noodle, you'll never win a tournament. You have to find the perfect combination of range, speed, and strength. All of these things will add up to great spiking technique and harder hits.

Players will often train for strength too heavily, add-on bulk, and then lose the range of motion in their shoulders. I've seen this happen with baseball players and volleyball players alike.

When your training routine makes you move heavy things at a very slow speed, your body gets very good at just that, slowly moving heavy things.  When you get ‘monster’  big, your muscles can also get in the way of each other. We aren't even going to harp on...

What kind of upper body strength does a volleyball player really need?

To be honest, not a whole lot! Well, let’s put it this way: adding bulk to your upper body would be a mistake. It puts more stress on your back, knees and hips than you would like. Being strong only goes so far in beach volleyball. Strength without mass is key. But let’s dive into the nitty gritty.

How much should I workout my upper body for beach volleyball?

It would be hard to say that additional strength could be a bad thing. Additional strength without additional weight would be a fantasy for every beach volleyball player. It’s good to be strong but when we dedicate hours to it when there are more important things to cover, there’s an issue. For example, would you rather be very strong and suffer season ending shoulder injuries throughout your career or would you choose medium strength but be able to finish seasons with a healthy body?

Beach volleyball is essentially a...

If you're interested in this blog on beach volleyball setting, you may want to consider our comprehensive course on setting in beach volleyball. We promise that you'll be setting the nectar in no time, and that your partner will love you for it! We also run beach volleyball classes, private lessons and training camps for adults and juniors in Hermosa Beach, CA and Salt Lake City, Utah. We run volleyball vacations in exotic locations around the world. We can even run beach volleyball clinics for your group, club or team in your hometown! Send an email to [email protected]

Bump setting in beach volleyball is a skill that should come pretty naturally if you learn how to pass before learning how to set; they use most of the same keys and technique. There are a few slight differences, but as long as you keep a few keys in mind it should be a quick learn.

Keys:

1. Platform straight and hands together - This is a technique that should be the exact...

If you're interested in this blog on beach volleyball setting, you may also want to check out our comprehensive setting course! We also run beach volleyball classes, private lessons and training camps for adults and juniors in Hermosa Beach, CA and Salt Lake City, Utah. We run volleyball vacations in exotic locations around the world. We can even run beach volleyball clinics for your group, club or team in your hometown! Send an email to [email protected]

This is a long blog. But it's long because it's comprehensive: If you want to learn how to set a volleyball, this is the blog for you. You don't have to read it all in one sitting -- or two or three. It'll be here for as long as we have the internet, so take your time. 

In this blog, you'll find any drill you could possibly need to become a better setter on the beach. You'll find drills to do on your own, drills with a partner, drills with other teams, drills with lots of other teams....

We also run beach volleyball classes, private lessons and training camps for adults and juniors in Hermosa Beach, CA and Salt Lake City, Utah. We run volleyball vacations in exotic locations around the world. We can even run beach volleyball clinics for your group, club or team in your hometown! Send an email to [email protected]

A sound beach volleyball training program has to cover all of the bases, but one of the most talked-about topics is how much upper body training is really necessary for a volleyball player.

I remember in 2008, I was watching the USA men's indoor volleyball team in the Olympics with my brother. I had just finished my career at George Mason University and I was a pretty typical college male jock. I was bench pressing and doing biceps curls on a regular basis and while I told myself and everyone else it was because I was looking for high performance, it was probably just for aesthetics. Still, as a volleyball player,...

There isn’t a single beach volleyball player in the world that doesn’t wish they could jump higher. With all of the knowledge on the internet and in the world today, learning how to jump higher isn’t really a secret any more. There are lots of vertical jump programs for volleyball players and while each of them uses their own design of jump exercises, sets and reps, the principles behind the vertical leap do not change.

Here is your one-sentence crash course in learning how to jump higher:

Power = Force x Velocity 

According to this article from USA Basketball “When it comes to the vertical...

We also run beach volleyball classes, private lessons and training camps for adults and juniors in Hermosa Beach, CA and Salt Lake City, Utah. We run volleyball vacations in exotic locations around the world. We can even run beach volleyball clinics for your group, club or team in your hometown! Send an email to [email protected]

Beach volleyball players have to be explosive in order to jump higher. That is probably the simplest statement to be made and it's definitely the most obvious. It is more difficult, however, to find the best ways for volleyball players to train for explosiveness. Although being strong is a huge factor for volleyball players who want to increase vertical jump and quickness in general, without speed production we can never maximize our athleticism.

Athletes like beach volleyball players who rely on first step quickness and explosive jumps need to train for both strength and speed. We covered the importance of strength in...

If you are looking for volleyball workouts for jumping higher and moving faster, this article is going to surprise you with some crucial but completely overlooked exercises. If you’ve read our other posts on jumping workouts for volleyball, you know how important it is to first stabilize the joints and then strengthen the muscles. We’ve shown you how important it is to have a sturdy core which will stabilize the spine. A stable spine helps you move faster and jump higher because it prevents lags and reset times. Your body does not want to move fast or jump high when the spine gets out of line because it knows...