Volleyball Pattern Training®, explained for parents.
Why the squat she lifts with is the squat she passes from, what the eight VPT episodes cover, and why every club practice starts with thirty minutes in the strength room.
The idea in one sentence
Volleyball Pattern Training® is strength and mobility work shaped like volleyball: the squat she lifts with is the squat she passes from, and the throw she trains is the arm swing she hits with. She gets stronger and safer in the same movements she plays with.
Why not just lift
Bad form is either unsafe or inefficient, usually both. A player who passes from her back instead of her legs gets tired and gets hurt. A player who swings with her elbow instead of her whole chain throws her shoulder. General strength work does not fix either, because it does not teach the pattern. VPT® teaches the pattern first and loads it second.
The eight episodes
Coach Andor filmed the series in the club's own strength room. They run in order on his YouTube channel, and the first one plays above.
- Scapular mobility with linked hands
- Shoulder mobility arm swing
- Wrist snap speed
- Band drill for arm speed
- The volleyball squat
- The side lunge
- Load and throw
- The two-step approach and the full chain
Where it shows up at the club
Every club practice, Gold through Elite, begins with thirty minutes in the strength room before two hours on the court. The Academy builds in more. Summer camps include an hour a day. The medicine balls on the rack in the strength room are what the series uses, which is why we tell grass-class families to buy one.
More from the gym
- The screens beside our courts replay every rep. Here is why.A player sees her own arm swing a few seconds after she made it, while the coach is still talking. What delayed video review does for a 12-year-old, and why we built it into the gym.
- Coaches, slow down. A tryout story.A coach who had never met her asked a player to move five feet and change her platform in the middle of a tryout. What happened next is why we tell players to say thank you and play their game.
- What her first club practice looks like, and why.The first five minutes on the court, in one take. What a new player does in her first practice at the facility, what the coaches are watching for, and the one thing parents can do to help.