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...

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...

We also run beach volleyball classes, private lessons and training camps for adults and juniors at VolleyCamp in Hermosa Beach, CA. We are in the Beach Cities between Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach. We run volleyball vacations right here in Los Angeles but we also take our players on awesome volleyball trips to exotic locations. 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...

We also run beach volleyball classes, private lessons and training camps for adults and juniors at VolleyCamp in Hermosa Beach, CA. We are in the Beach Cities between Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach. We run volleyball vacations right here in Los Angeles but we also take our plays on awesome volleyball trips to exotic locations. We can even run beach volleyball clinics for your group, club or team in your hometown! Send an email to [email protected]

Can a strong core increase your vertical jump for beach volleyball? Absolutely! Let me tell you why.

Do you know those wacky inflatable flailing arm guys that used car dealerships use? The plastic ones that are just big tubes of flowing air. Imagine one of those guys trying to jump.Their top side would topple and flop because nothing in the midsection is holding anything stable. If your core can’t stabilize your spine so that your upper body and lower body sync up, you cannot be powerful.

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If you're interested in this blog on mobility, which is one element to getting you jumping higher for beach volleyball, we think you'd love our 60-day strength and conditioning course to get you jumping higher, hitting harder, running faster, and developing into the beach volleyball player you've always wanted to become

Beach volleyball and indoor volleyball are both highly dynamic uni-lateral sports. That means that a lot of the actions we perform are one-sided. When you take an approach, the majority of the force is stopped and redirected by one leg. When you go up to serve or hit a volleyball, you use one side. That means you are constantly training a stretch and fire program for one side of your body.

Our bodies have to get better and more efficient at these one-sided moves but we also have to prevent imbalances from hurting us. Allow me to explain that a little further. If you are a right-handed hitter for indoor volleyball and you take an approach, your footwork...

Thank you for reading! We love that you're interested in beach volleyball! And if you live in Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, or anywhere in Southern California, we'd love if you joined us for our beach volleyball classes and camps!

Casey Patterson is known for, among a wide variety of elements of beach volleyball, his personality. He dances. Laughs. Talks more than your typical beach volleyball player -- sometimes, as was the case this past year at AVP Seattle, in the middle of a swing, when he wondered, audibly, what in the world Troy Field was doing when he dared to peel on Patterson. 

It didn't end well for Field. 

This might not seem to be like strategy in the typical sense of the word. That strategy is the Xs and Os -- who to serve and where, what defense to run, where to attack and how. Patterson employs plenty of that as well, and he discusses as much in the video below. But strategy, getting into an opponent's head and staying...

If you're interested in this drill on setting and digging, you may also be interested in our beach volleyball classes in Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach and anywhere in the South Bay!

All of us beach volleyball players are looking for that one big thing -- the one lift to get us stronger, the one way to make money so we can continue pursuing this life on the beach, the one thing that'll get us hitting harder, jumping higher, running faster. Sadly, we do not have the answer for some of those things -- you can, however, take our 60-day strength and conditioning program to get you bouncing balls and swat-blocking and running around like Taylor Crabb. 

What we do have, however, is the one drill you can do every practice that will improve your digging, swinging, setting, and footwork. It's all-encompassing and, perhaps the best part, it's perfect for groups when you have a strange number of players: 5, 6, 7, doesn't...

Watch Mark Burik and Ian Satterfield of the United States battle it out with El Salvador in the Men's Beach Volleyball at the 2019 Pan American Games.

If you're interested in this practice match between Riley and Madison McKibbin and Mark Burik and Curt Toppel, we think you'd love our classes in Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach. Check out our classes and memberships at Better at Beach!

THE BEACHES ARE OPEN! Well, they're not fully open just yet. Not in Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, or Huntington Beach, anyway. Beach volleyball nets cannot yet be set up, but you can at least stroll out on the sand, jump in the ocean -- do something other than workout at home or in the garage or wherever your new home gym may be. 

In light of that, we decided to celebrate practice -- we're talkin' about practice, y'all.  In the video below, Mark Burik and Curt Toppel are playing Madison and Riley McKibbin in a practice match. 

It might not be a real beach volleyball match. It might not have any high stakes involved. It might just be practice. 

But it's beach volleyball,...

If this beach volleyball blog is of interest to you, you may also be interested in our Beginner Membership, which can be  of benefit to anyone, living anywhere. We'd love to have you take one of our beach volleyball classes in Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, and Hermosa Beach -- or you can some up for a video call with us too!

Sometimes we can't get out to play beach volleyball with our real partner -- but we still have plenty of options. We can play with the roof. The wall. The street. Those, of course, are also not our real partners, but at least they won't complain about a bad set or pass. 

Even better, however, than our ever-reliable inanimate objects and surfaces around our houses and neighborhoods, are our roommates, fiancees, wives or husbands, children -- living, breathing partners. They don't have to be great, or even good, for that matter, at beach volleyball (you'll see in the video). They just have to be there, and willing to...