Every coach would like their hitter to hit harder. Here are two volleyball specific exercises designed to help your hitters hit harder and reduce injuries.
In the two clips below Reid Hall, a volleyball specific strength and conditioning coach, demonstrates to simple effective exercises that you can easily incorporate into your off season program or as part of your in season practices.
The first exercise is a thoracic mobility exercise. This exercise will help with thoracic rotation and creates stretch in the chest and shoulders. The end result will be greater rotation of the torso and thus greater power when hitting.
To begin the player should lay on their side with their hips forming a vertical line towards the ceiling.The top leg should be bent to 90 degrees and the side of the knee placed on a foam roller (optional). The athlete will push down on the foam roller and maintain that pressure throughout the exercise.
Next the athlete will take their top hand and reach forward and turn their thumb towards the ground. With the thumb touching the ground, the athlete move their arm in a semi-circle reaching as far behind themselves as possible. When they have rotated and reached as far as possible behind themselves, they will return the arm to the starting position.
The second exercise is called external rotation from the frontal plane. This is an exercise designed to work the group of muscles that make up the rotator cuff. This exercise can be done using a cable machine or a band.
The athlete begins by standing with the cable machine (or band attachment) to their side. Then with the outside arm (the one furthest from the machine) grab the cable. The arm should held in front and bent at 90 degrees. The forearm should be parallel to the ground. The athlete will slowly rotate their arm up, pulling on the cable until their forearm is perpendicular to the ground.
These are just two exercises that Coach Hall utilizes when training his volleyball athletes. He has many great ideas for training volleyball players. You can check him out at Reids-Workouts
The YouTube videos below has audio, so please make sure that your sound is turned up