Why Work on Volleyball Conditioning Drills?

Players don't always know the importance of volleyball drills geared toward conditioning. You, as a coach, know that conditioning is a very important part of a winning team. Conditioning the body to the sometimes brutal rigors of a good volleyball game is absolutely essential in order to build a winning team. These volleyball drills for conditioning will help ensure that your players are in top physical form for when they play.

Volleyball games often require quite a bit of running. To that end, creating volleyball drills that will help players become used to running is important. One of the most common ways to build this running skill is to run suicides. The easiest way to set suicides up is to get a couple of markers, such as cones or blocks of wood, and setting them about 20 feet apart from each other, with the first one about 20 feet from the starting line. The player will start at the line and sprint to the first marker, then back to the start. Then the player sprints to the second marker and back, then the third, then the last. The player then reverses the run, from the fourth, to the third, second, then first marker. After a full set has been run, allow the players to rest for a minute or two then begin the process over again. This is perhaps one of the most well-known of all volleyball drills, since almost every coach uses it.
Stamina is an important factor to build into your conditioning volleyball drills also. Games can run fro quite a while, requiring your players to give a good performance for long stretches of time at once. A good, often traditional way to build up the stamina in your players is to create long distance runs. A mile or two run, especially as a group, will help build stamina and condition the body to perform well for long periods of time. To really push your players while running these volleyball drills, you can set up a marker about 100 feet from the finish line and have your players sprint as fast as they can across the line. A run like this should probably be reserved for after the practice, so that your players aren't too worn out to give their all during practice.
Volleyball drills that help develop jumping skills go a long way to conditioning your players to be prepared to play games. One of the simplest ways to work on jumping is jump squats. You start your players out in a squatting position. You want them to really explode into an upright position. Once they hit their feet, have them jump as high as they can. Ensure that they do this in a very continuous motion. This will help build their leg muscles, and help them jump higher in games. You can, as with all volleyball drills, this as needed, especially by adding a medicine ball or set of barbells as a counterweight.
Volleyball is a very rigorous sport, demanding a lot from the body of all players on the team. Using conditioning volleyball drills, you can help get your players into shape, and prepare them physically for the games. Having a team that is physically ready is important in creating a winning team, which is the ultimate reason you run volleyball drills in the first place.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6429289