Volleyball tryouts help the coach and her assistants select 12 to 15 players and begin to find the eight or nine most likely to play in matches. The evaluators look at your physical gifts, including vertical jump, strength and speed. Your fitness and technical skill also come under the microscope, as do your volleyball IQ and ability to learn. Look to prepare yourself in the offseason with conditioning and strength exercises to have you peaking on the day of the tryout.
Step 1
Run a mile or ride a bicycle three miles, three to five times a week, to improve your aerobic conditioning. Conduct aerobic conditioning on days when you are not performing your strength circuit.
Step 2
Set up a strength circuit that uses your body weight to perform half-squats, pushups, bent-knee situps, pullups, burpees and calf raises. You can work simply on an exercise mat with bottled water and a hand towel nearby.
Step 3
Add a second circuit, if you have access to barbells and strength machines, that includes leg and bench presses, the incline situp, chinups, leg curls, dead lifts and lateral pulldowns. Increase power without muscular hypotrophy, meaning large muscles like bodybuilders pursue, by focusing on lower loads ranging from 60 percent to 80 percent of your maximum for one repetition, or 1RM, recommends leading training specialist Tudor O. Bompa in a chapter on peak conditioning in the text "Volleyball."
Step 4
Adjust your repetitions and sets based on the total number of exercises in your circuit, your training background and how many weeks you are into your training. Typical ranges are two to four sets and 12 to 15 repetitions per set.
Step 5
Track your training program on a sheet of paper or in a spreadsheet, listing your exercises, typically six to as many as 15, in the left-hand row, and weeks one to six in the columns, noting the weights lifted, reps and sets in each cell.
Step 6
Add military presses and include dumbbells for added challenge in your half squats and lunges. Perform medicine-ball chest throws, bent-knee situps with the medicine ball held at chest level and medicine ball forward throws to increase explosiveness.
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