Takano Athletics

Week 2

I thought I’d re-do the sequencing of the snatch pull and snatch intensities so I came up with the following one which seemed to work out well.

Back Squat: 77 lbs.:35 kg/4 reps, 99:45/4, 121:55/4, 141:64/4, (156:70.8/3)4 sets

Snatch High Pull and Snatch: 77:35/2+1, 82:37.2/2+1, 87:39.5/2+1, 92:41.8/2+1, 77:35/2+1, 82:37.2/2+1, 87:39.5/2+1, 92:41.8/2+1, 82:37.2/2+1, 87:39.5/2+1, 92:41.8/2+1

Halting clean deadlift (4 second halt at power position): 119:54/3, (143:65/3)4

Push Press: 77:35/4, (92:41.8/4)3

A Updated Perspective on Strength and Conditioning for Volleyball Girls

Yesterday I had a chance to re-hook up with Sha Ali for some coffee and conversation.  Sha is from the other side of the hill from me.  That means he’s located south of the Sepulveda Pass near the beach while I’m in the San Fernando Valley.  His side of the hill is where one of the hotbeds of girls volleyball is located.

Sha is putting together a volleyball training complex that will include extensive strength and conditioning facilities that will eventually provide training for 500 athletes.  We’ve been communicating off and on for about the last year or so and it looks like Sha’s vision of the proper way to prepare volleyball athletes is finally coming into fruition.  He wants me to get involved in the coaching and parent education program for his complex, and of course I’m interested.

One of the points that he made to me was the importance that college programs were beginning to place on the strength and conditioning of their recruits.  I’ve been involved with preparing high school girls for college volleyball for the past 17 years and I’ve seen the whole paradigm change very rapidly during that time.  The girls that I coached in the early 1990’s and received Division 1 scholarships couldn’t even begin to be considered for today’s university teams.  The level of athleticism and volleyball preparedness has upgraded at a very rapid rate.

Just a few years ago the college coaches weren’t too concerned whether an incoming athlete had had much strength work as they didn’t see it as a factor in the successful athletic career.

According to Sha, many of the top programs are now concerned that new recruits don’t have the conditioning to handle a full blown volleyball program with five or more practices a week plus strength and conditioning sessions.  Good athletes with little background in conditioning are coming into programs and not lasting past the freshman year without significant injuries and physical breakdowns.

Ten years ago girls would return to me from college and give me reports like, “we only hit the weight room a couple of times in a season,” or “the other girls don’t know anything about power cleans,” or “the coaches don’t care if we work out or not.”

Apparently not so anymore.

Now I know what the volleyball crowd is like and so many of the parents are absolutely dead set on their daughters getting that D1 scholarship.  I’ve always tried to sell strength and conditioning on its own merits, how much it would improve performance and how much it would minimize the extent of injuries.  Now it seems that many parents may buy into it because it may be a deciding factor in the recruitment process as far as the coach’s decision is concerned.

This could be good or it could develop some other problems.  I’m sure that some less than experienced strength and conditioning coaches or personal trainers are going to run with the recruitment angle and sell the parents on paying for sub-standard training.  We’ll have legions of volleyball players entering colleges, most of them strength trained, but not all of them trained in an appropriate way.   Perhaps the trickle up effect could come into play so that just as university volleyball coaches are now looking for strength trained athletes, in the future they may be looking for properly strength trained athletes.

Stay tuned!