The swinging arms on the volleyball court are getting more powerful
The weight room can easily become a place where individuals come to work and focus on strengthening their weaknesses independently. NDSU has combated that way of thinking with something they call the 90 percent rule.
Exercise: Med Ball Blocking Drill
Step 1 – Grab a 6-to-10-pound medicine ball and stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and knees slightly bent.
Step 2 – Your first movement will be to jump up, holding the med ball above your head.
Step 3 – Once you land, sidestep to your right.
Step 4 – Jump once again, holding the med ball above your head.
Step 5 – Once you land, sidestep back to the starting position and repeat the exercise.
Exercise: Alternate Dumbbell Incline Press
Step 1 – Grab two dumbbells and adjust the bench to lay at a 45-degree angle.
Step 2 – To get into the starting position, bring both dumbbells up above your head, but slightly positioned over the front of your body, locking your elbows.
Step 3 – Lower your right arm until it’s back on your chest, just below your shoulder. Keep your left arm in the locked position above your head.
Step 4 – Lift right arm back to the starting position and repeat the motion with your left arm while keeping your right arm locked.
Step 5 – Continue to alternate the motion with your right and left arm until you reach six reps for each arm.
Exercise: Overhead Press
Step 1 – Grab the barbell and place it in front of your shoulders. You should have a slight bend in your knees with feet shoulder-width apart.
Step 2 – Lift the bar up with your arms only. Do not bend knees or arch back to help lift.
Step 3 – While pushing up, make sure the bar is slightly in front of your body to ensure a safe motion to avoid shoulder impingements.
Step 4 – Control the bar back down in front of your shoulders and repeat the lifting motion.
The “90 Percent” Rule
NDSU Athletics has a simple philosophy they follow for every team. Jason Miller, the director of athletic performance for Olympic sports, calls this philosophy the “90 percent rule.”
“If we’re going to pick exercises, 90 percent of the team is going to be able to do those exercises,” Miller said. “We want our athletes to train as a team. We want to work together, we want to work hard and we want to be able to push each other. If you’re training a group as individuals, they won’t be into it as much. So, if they’re training as a team in practice, you train them as a team in here (the weight room).”
(Photo by Kimberly Hill/NDSU Athletics) Junior Jessica Jorgensen winds up her shoulder and attacks the ball earlier this season against Fort Wayne.
The 90 percent rule goes back to building the Bison culture. The list of training principles is one of the five key factors Miller has defined for developing a successful program culture at NDSU. The fourth key inside the training principles is to make everything about the team. If you train them as a team in the weight room, they’re more likely to play as a team during competition.
Along with training as a team, the other keys inside Miller’s training principles are, believing in your own message, to remember that development is a progression, always master the simple things and to never change for the sake of change.
The Bison volleyball team introduces various types of athletes every season. Some freshmen have more experience in the weight room than others, but the evaluation of the student-athletes remain the same before every season.
At the end of the day, Miller’s goal isn’t to have all the volleyball players lifting the same amount of weight. His goal is to develop stronger student- athletes across the board and to make them better and stronger movers when they’re on the court.
Miller doesn’t want to focus on sports specific exercise, either. The three exercises shown here are popular with the volleyball team, but developing shoulder strength is a must across the board at NDSU. He says he’ll leave the sport-specific skill training for practice.
