Volleyball has its unsung heroes known as elite setters. They play a crucial role in the game by delivering perfect setups for hitters to score. But their job isn’t just about finesse; it requires strength, speed, and power.
These setters need robust hands, fingers, and upper arms to make those precise touches. They also must be nimble and quick on their feet, demanding lower body speed and explosiveness.
Volleyball Setter Workouts: Volleyball Setter workouts focus on strength, agility, and power. These routines help setters develop the necessary skills for precise plays and efficient game strategies.
This article explores how setters can develop these essential attributes. We’ll start in the weight room, where volleyball coach Marie Zidek, a certified strength and conditioning specialist, shares ten volleyball-specific exercises to build strength and conditioning.
This strength forms the foundation for explosive power, vital to setting success.
Try a Special Volleyball Setter Training Ball
Let’s talk about something crucial for setters using a heavier volleyball. It looks like a regular one but weighs more (about 16oz).
This helps you build strength in your fingers, hands, and wrists. Training with it makes your muscles stronger. When you switch to a normal ball, your setting skills improve.
Setter Ball Drills For Volleyball:
You can use a setter ball for any setting drill you’d typically do with a regular volleyball. It makes highball setting drills more challenging.
Even something as simple as sitting with a chair, setting the ball against a wall, or practicing repeatedly can help you improve. The key is to practice a lot if you want to become a better setter.
A setter ball is a valuable tool for this, and consider a volleyball setting net for extra target practice.
Setter Strength Training For Volleyball
These exercises aim to enhance your skills as a volleyball setter. A faster and more agile setter can reach and set challenging balls effectively. Stronger shoulders, arms, and hands improve setting accuracy and distance.
Higher jumping ability benefits blocking and scoring with setter dumps. We’ll simplify things by categorizing exercises into upper and lower body, focusing on either strength or speed/power.
Volleyball Setter Workouts
Volleyball setters workouts play a crucial role in a team, as they are responsible for delivering accurate passes to attackers for scoring opportunities. To excel in this position, setters need strength, agility, and precision.
Here are some key aspects of volleyball setter workouts:
1. Performing “Good Mornings” Exercise
This volleyball workout, using two dumbbells, helps strengthen your buttocks and hamstrings, and enhances your ability to jump higher.
2. Shoulder Press Exercise
One of the best strength exercises for volleyball setters is the standing overhead press. This exercise, typically performed with a barbell, helps develop shoulder, tricep, and upper back strength.
To do it, stand with your feet hip-width apart and hold the barbell slightly wider than shoulder-width. Engage your core and press the barbell overhead while maintaining a neutral spine.
What makes this exercise valuable for setters is its biomechanical similarity to the motion of setting a volleyball. It targets the key muscles involved in setting, making it an effective upper-body strength workout for volleyball setters.
3. Medicine Ball Slams for Strength and Power
Let’s explore a different kind of exercise that emphasizes both speed and strength, often known as a power movement. For this exercise, you’ll need a medicine ball weighing 5-10 kilograms.
Start by holding the ball above your head and then forcefully slam it into the ground, aiming for maximum power. This exercise is excellent for developing strength in your triceps, rear deltoids, and upper back.
4. Angled Bench Press
The Angled bench press is helpful for setters because it targets the muscles needed for setting, like the upper chest and front shoulders. You can do this exercise with either a barbell or a dumbbell.
Just set your bench at a 45-degree angle and focus on controlling the weight throughout the movement.
5. Medicine Ball Wall Throws
Using a similarly sized medicine ball, this exercise aims to “chest pass” the ball as high as possible, either against a wall for easier catching or simply into the air.
While you don’t need to squat as deep as shown in the demonstration, bending your knees and hips to generate power is essential. Your goal is to make this a full-body explosive movement. Taking breaks between reps is perfectly okay.
6. Twisting Lunges
For this volleyball exercise, all you need is a plate. It makes your legs stronger, steadies your ankles to prevent injuries, and prepares you for single-leg jumps.
7. Volleyball Sets to Improve Height
Now, we’re moving on to a speed and jumping exercise. All you need to do is practice setting a volleyball as high as you can. You can do this with a partner or on your own, anywhere you like.
The goal is to set the ball as high as possible while maintaining good technique and accuracy, without going too wild.
8. Dumbbell Pullover Exercise
This volleyball exercise is like the side-to-side twist with the overhead press. It makes your core and upper body stronger and helps your core work together with your upper body. This is important for moves like serving, blocking, setting, and attacking in volleyball.
9. Dumbbell Snatch Volleyball Exercise
Dumbbell Snatch: Great for Jumping, Power, and Explosiveness
10. Single-Leg Squat for Volleyball Training
The Single-Leg split squat is a great strength exercise for volleyball players. It focuses on one leg at a time, helping to correct muscle imbalances and build strength without needing heavy weights.
To do it, place your rear foot on a bench and squat down using your front leg. You’ll feel a great burn in your quads! There are different ways to do this exercise, but you can aim to use a barbell or Smith machine as you progress for even more strength development.
11. Squat for Your Back
The back squat is a powerful exercise that helps increase lower body strength, especially if you want to jump higher. It’s like a vertical jump in motion.
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and the barbell resting on your shoulders.
Lower yourself into a squat until your thighs are parallel to the floor or even lower if you can. Then, push up explosively. You can choose between a low bar or high bar squat, depending on your preference.
12. Sprinting for 20 Yards
Sprinting is a fast exercise that helps your body use fast-twitch muscle fibers effectively. For setters, this is useful for quickly reaching stray passes on the volleyball court. A short 20-yard sprint is suitable for improving acceleration, which is crucial in volleyball.
13. Barbell Jump Squat for Volleyball Training
Barbell jump squats are about speed and power. The goal is to lift the barbell quickly. Start with the barbell on your back, slightly squat down, and then explode upward. It’s like preparing for a vertical jump.
14. 10-2 Drops Drill
The 10-and-2 Drop is an exercise that’s good for your shoulders and core. It makes your shoulder muscles stronger and helps them slow down when you’re doing movements like throwing or playing volleyball.
It’s useful for many volleyball actions, especially blocking, setting, and attacking.
Sets, Reps, Weight, Frequency?
For exercises like squats, overhead presses, and bench, keep the reps low, around 5-8, using heavy weights to build strength. For medicine ball work and jump squats, 4-7 reps before resting is good.
Stick to 3-5 sets for each exercise. Setters can do these workouts 2-3 times a week, depending on how much volleyball they play.
If you play a lot, limit strength workouts to 3 times a week or less for better results. Aim for a simple workout, spending no more than 60-80 minutes in the gym.
Create a Winning Volleyball Workout Plan
To help your players excel, it’s crucial to lead them through the right strength exercises and skill drills.
The Art of Coaching Volleyball provides premium coaching materials, including training videos, online courses, practice plans, and more, from top coaches in the nation. Explore these valuable resources to enhance your coaching and player development.
FAQs:
Q1: What are volleyball setter workouts?
Volleyball setter workouts are specialized training routines designed to enhance the skills and physical attributes of volleyball setters, focusing on techniques to improve setting abilities.
Q2: What exercises are typically included in volleyball setter workouts?
Volleyball setter workouts may include exercises like overhead presses, squats, jump squats, med ball slams, and specific drills to enhance agility, strength, and setting accuracy.
Q3: How can volleyball setter workouts benefit players?
Volleyball setter workouts can benefit players by improving their setting precision, strength, and agility, enabling them to become more effective setters on the volleyball court.
Q4: How often should volleyball setters incorporate these workouts into their training routine?
Volleyball setter workouts can benefit from incorporating these workouts into their training routine 2-3 times a week, but the frequency may vary based on individual needs and schedules.
Q5: Can volleyball setter workouts be tailored to different skill levels?
Yes, volleyball setter workouts can be customized to accommodate various skill levels, from beginners to advanced players, by adjusting exercise intensity and complexity.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, volleyball setter workouts are the unsung heroes, orchestrating plays with finesse and precision. However, their role demands not just skill but also strength, speed, and power.
Volleyball setter workouts are designed to address these crucial aspects. Volleyball setter workouts encompass a wide range of exercises, from strength-building with squats and overhead presses to power development through medicine ball slams and jump squats.
The focus is on agility, strength, and precision, essential attributes for effective setting. By incorporating these workouts 2-3 times a week and tailoring them to different skill levels, setters can enhance their abilities and become invaluable assets to their teams.
After reading this detailed article, we hope you have a good understanding of volleyball setter workouts. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask in the comments!