Editor's Note: This is the third in a series of strength training articles written specifically for volleyball players. Ryan Jobs B.H.K. of Coastal Fitness prepared this series with his staff and we will be posting new articles regularly. This article is written by Johann Windt (CSCS B.H.K, PN-1) and focuses on body durability. You can contact Ryan directly on the Coastal Fitness website, or send us a message on our contact page.
To help your team, you need to be on the court. Every coach in the world would choose a healthy role player over an injured all-star, simply because a player needs to be playing to lead a team to victory. Thus, a player’s durability is, in some ways, more important than skill level. Bluntly put, stronger athletes who move well are less likely to get hurt than their weaker teammates who move poorly. Thankfully, durability also happens to a trait that can be dramatically impacted by effort off the court, for a number of reasons.
Relative Strength is Functional Strength
Even though “functional strength” is an overused term in the fitness industry, it is true in a number of ways that gaining strength is legitimately functional, especially when an athlete improves their relative strength.