Jump

Why Increase Your Vertical Jump for Volleyball?

A higher jump gives you a higher contact point. When you attack, that opens sharper angles and more of the court, and you hit over the block more often. When you block, your hands get over the net sooner. Most of the game's deciding moments happen in the air.

You can train your jump, and it takes less extra jumping than most players expect.

TL:DR

• Lift twice a week. Strength is the base for everything else.
• Add a small amount of plyometrics. Small programs work about as well as big ones.
• Fix your arm swing and approach. That's the fastest height you'll gain.
• Test at the start and end of each 8 to 12 week block.

What decides how high you jump

• Strength: how much force your legs can produce.
• Spring: how quickly you can use that force. When you dip before a jump, your muscles and tendons stretch and then recoil like a rubber band. Plyometrics train this.
• Technique: your approach, your arm swing, and the timing between them. Strong, springy players still lose height to a sloppy takeoff.

Steps 2 to 4 each train one of these. You need all three.

Step 1: Measure your starting point

You need a friend, a wall, and some chalk or sticky notes.

• Standing reach: Stand sideways to the wall, feet flat, and reach as high as you can with one hand. Mark it.
• Block jump: From a standing start, dip and jump straight up, touching as high as you can. Take your best of three.
• Approach jump: Do your normal attack approach and touch as high as you can. Best of three.

Subtract your standing reach from each jump touch to get your vertical. Write it down with the date. Retest the same way, at the same time of day, when you're fresh.

Step 2: Get stronger

Stronger legs push the ground harder. If you're fairly new to lifting, building strength will do more for your jump than piling on plyometrics^[1]. The strength guide has the full program.

For jumping, lift heavy weights for low reps, usually fewer than 6 per set, with 2 to 5 minutes of rest between sets. Stop a rep or two before failure. You don't need to grind out every set to get stronger.

• Squats: back squat, front squat, or goblet squat if you're newer to lifting.
• Romanian deadlifts: a hip hinge that builds the back of your legs.
• Split squats: one leg at a time.
• Step-ups: onto a box, with a controlled step down.
• Olympic lifts: if a coach can teach them, lifts like the hang power clean are a good addition.

Step 3: Add plyometrics

Plyometrics are fast, springy jumps where you spend as little time on the ground as possible. Across 14 randomized trials in volleyball players, plyometric training improved jump height in men and women of all ages. Programs with fewer than 2,000 total jumps did about as well as bigger ones, and two sessions a week did about as well as three or more^[2].

Keep it to 2 or 3 sessions a week, 3 to 6 sets of 2 to 5 reps, and only 2 or 3 exercises so you can get good at them^[3]. Beginners should start around 80 to 100 foot contacts per session.

• Box jumps: Jump up onto a box, then step down.
• Drop jumps: Step off a low box, land, and rebound up as fast as you can.
• Approach jumps: Your real attack approach, full effort every rep.

Every rep is full effort. When your height drops or your landings get loud, end the set. The plyometrics guide covers landing technique and how to progress.

Step 4: Fix your approach and arm swing

In elite volleyball players, jumping with an arm swing added about 38% to jump height compared with hands on hips^[4].

• Arm timing: Start driving your arms up as you push out of your dip. Drill it until the timing is automatic.
• Approach: Players jump higher with a run-up than from standing, so practice your approach footwork like any other skill. Film yourself from the side in slow motion, or have a coach watch. The hitting guide breaks down the steps.

Jump Routine

Use this template for 8 to 12 weeks, then retest. Warm up first (the warm-up guide has a routine), do jumps before lifts, and rest 2 to 5 minutes between heavy sets.

Off-season

In-season

• Plyometrics: One short session a week, or none on heavy practice weeks. Practice already includes a lot of jumping.
• Strength: 1 or 2 short lifting sessions a week to keep what you built. Keep reps low and stay well short of failure.
• Timing: Keep hard leg days away from match days.

Protect your knees

Jumper's knee (pain in the tendon below the kneecap) is one of the most common injuries in volleyball. Elite players already take 1,000 to 4,000 jumps a week in practices and matches, so count your extra jumps, avoid sudden increases, and treat court time as part of your jump budget.

Ankle mobility and sleep both help. The injury prevention, mobility, and recovery guides cover each one.

If you're new to lifting or plyometrics, or you're a younger athlete, have a qualified coach or physio check your form before you add weight or box height. Pain that's sharp, or that gets worse from one session to the next, means stop and get it checked.

Common mistakes

• Adding hundreds of jumps on top of practice. That usually brings knee pain sooner than extra height.
• Skipping the weight room. Plyometrics build on a strength base.
• Doing ten different plyometric drills. Pick two or three and get good at them.
• Jumping tired. When height drops or landings get sloppy, stop.
• Playing through knee pain.

Sources

1. 1

   The importance of muscular strength

   Sports Med2018Cited in text
2. 2

   Plyometric training and vertical jump in volleyball players

   J Sports Sci Med2020Cited in text
3. 3

   Plyometric exercises

   NSCACited in text
4. 4

   Arm swing and the countermovement jump in elite volleyball players

   J Hum Kinet2016Cited in text