Open gyms and conditioning runs feel productive — but they don't build the physical qualities that actually win matches. Here's what a real off-season volleyball program looks like.
Off-season is where you close the gap on teams that beat you last season.
The problem? Most volleyball programs waste it.
I've worked with volleyball teams and club athletes for years, and the pattern I see over and over is the same: the off-season fills up with open gyms, conditioning runs, and a lot of ball work. Skills are practiced. Serve-receive lanes get logged. But athletes leave the off-season approximately as strong, as explosive, and as injury-resistant as they came in.
That's a missed opportunity. The teams that treat strength and conditioning as a non-negotiable part of volleyball development — not optional extra credit — show up to the first day of preseason a step ahead of everyone else.
Here's what that actually looks like.
Open gyms are not training. Conditioning sprints aren't training. Even skill-focused volleyball practices don't develop the physical attributes that make those skills effective.
I understand the appeal. Playing volleyball feels more like volleyball than squatting does. But practicing skills in isolation means you're reinforcing the same movements with the same physical limitations you've always had. You're not improving the jumping ability behind that attack approach. You're not strengthening the posterior chain that protects knees and ankles through 300 landing reps in a single practice.
Physical development happens in the weight room. It happens with systematic, progressive programming over 12–16 weeks. It doesn't happen by accident.
Let me be direct about what well-designed strength training does:
Jumping ability improves through strength. Vertical jump is largely a product of relative strength and power output. Athletes who get stronger in their hips, glutes, and legs — specifically through trap bar deadlifts, split squats, and hip thrusts — jump higher. It's not a secret. It just requires actual loading and progression.
Injury rates drop significantly. The most common volleyball injuries — patellar tendinopathy, ankle sprains, shoulder impingement — have well-documented connections to strength deficits. Athletes with stronger posterior chains, better rotator cuff stability, and improved single-leg balance land and decelerate better. A sound strength program is injury prevention work.
Speed and power transfer directly to the court. Explosive strength work — loaded jumps, medicine ball throws, plyometric progressions — translates to first-step quickness, approach speed, and the ability to generate force quickly. These are athletic qualities. You can't drill your way to them.
A 14–16 week off-season program should move through three distinct phases:
This is where you identify and address movement deficiencies before loading athletes. Hip mobility, single-leg stability, shoulder health, and bodyweight movement patterns come first. Athletes learn to hinge, squat, press, and pull correctly. The goal isn't to exhaust them — it's to prepare them for what's coming.
Skip this phase and go straight to heavy loading and you'll get either injured athletes or compensatory patterns that limit long-term progress. Foundation isn't optional.
Now you load them. Progressive overload is the mechanism — getting systematically stronger over six weeks through planned increases in volume and intensity. Main lifts include trap bar deadlifts, front squats, Romanian deadlifts, pull variations, and single-leg work.
This is where we spend the most time with volleyball teams here in the St. Louis area. Getting athletes to move well under real load — and tracking that progression week over week — is where the physical gains that matter most actually get built.
Strength is the base. Power is the product. In the final phase, you shift toward velocity-based work: box jumps, reactive bounds, loaded jump progressions, medicine ball throws. The goal is expressing the strength you've built through the full range of explosive athletic movements.
This is also where you reduce volume and sharpen athletes for the season ahead. You're not adding another strength wave here — you're translating what you built.
Individual athletes training on their own tend to drift. Weights stagnate. Progressions stop. The accountability of training as a team is genuinely useful — and it's something I prioritize when working with volleyball programs.
More importantly, team training done correctly isn't just physically effective — it builds something that shows up on the court. Athletes who've trained and pushed through hard sessions together play differently. The trust isn't built only in practices. It gets built in weight rooms.
The South County volleyball scene is competitive. Club programs and high school teams both have real talent. What separates programs that consistently compete at the top is development over time — and that starts with how you use the off-season.
If your team is planning next season's training calendar, learn more about our [team training program](/services/team-training) and let's talk about what a real off-season block looks like for your program.
Our NSCA-CSCS certified coaches design evidence-based programs tailored to your goals. No guesswork, no gimmicks—just results.
Work With Our CoachesMost trainers won't give you a straight answer on this. Personal training done well is one of the highest-value investments you can make in your health — but it only works under specific conditions.
GLP-1 medications like Ozempic and Wegovy work fast. But without strength training, much of the weight you lose may be muscle — and that's a problem worth understanding before it happens.
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