Gold Medal Preparation.Qxp

ERFORMANCE P VOLLEYBALL CONDITIONING ANEWSLETTER DEDICATED TO IMPROVING VOLLEYBALL PLAYERS www.performancecondition.com/volleyball Olympic Gold Medal Preparation for Beach Volleyball: The Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers Program Bob Alejo, C.S.C.S., Beach Volleyball Personal Conditioning Coach Bob Alejo is no stranger to conditioning volleyball players. He has trained Liz Masakayan, Holly McPeak and Kent Steffes and is currently the Beach Volleyball Personal Strength and Conditioning Coach for Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers. In addition to his volleyball experience, Bob is Director of Strength and Conditioning for the Oakland Athletics Major League Baseball team. n 2005 Phil Dalhausser could not get into a 30-degree squatting position. He was BEG weak and inflexible. We started dead lifting out of a power rack because he was so INT inflexible we could not put the bar on the ground to do the lift properly. Over the ADV course of time he can now do heal to butt defensive stance digging balls everywhere. Not only is he a dominant offensive power but also has turned into one of the best defensiveI players in the game. We've done it periodized with basic movements-nothing "Star Wars" at all. We pull it off the ground- we press it, snatch it integrating joint stability with a lit- tle core work, very simple and all injury free! Being in Beijing and witnessing the Gold Medal victory of Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers was a great experience. Beach training for volleyball has its own unique characteristics and I get asked questions about how best to train beach players. Sand vs. Hard Surface The first question I get about conditioning for beach volleyball is whether to train and Phil Dalhausser condition on the sand or on a hard surface. I haven't changed my opinion on this issue in the last 20 years. Playing on the sand is enough to be match fit, but if I want to optimize power than it needs to be done on a surface that will allow for the opti- mization of power. This isn't accomplished on the sand. Jumping, sprints and quick court movement development needs to be done on a hard surface. That is the way I trained Liz, Holly and Kent and did the same thing up to these Olympic Games. If one conditions on the sand with the basic volleyball movement patterns, this can lead to over-reaching and eventually over-training the beach players, which is easy to do. Programming Considerations The next question might be how does one link practice in the sand with conditioning and power training. The periodization model for power Todd Rogers training can be done separately from beach play and because the stress of sand play is so great, the planning for quality hard surface power training has to be more of reaction to the volume of work the athletes are doing on the sand and react to it, rather than a set periodization plan. This includes practice and competition schedules as well as how the athletes feel and is done on the fly as coaching intuition. The strength, jumping and conditioning program I design at the first of the year is to optimize the chances of winning a Gold Medal or Worlds Championship and has nothing to do with optimizing on a practice session. Strength training itself is done to improve power or at least to keep it from diminishing. One important aspect to remem- ber in designing a program is that the athletes will retain strength longer than they will retain power. With regard to priorities of training in-season, the first thing that must be done for the beach players is to take care of life on a day-to-day basis with family, etc. In beach volleyball there are times where you can't get outside so you don't train. If this is the case, the athletes can condition by working on a treadmill, bicycle, jump train in a gym and strength train, etc. What I've always stated is that one plays volleyball and then comes back to do power and conditioning training based on the variables of everyday life, competition schedule, and the individual needs of the athletes. Beach Volleyball Conditioning Biggest Mistake One thing I believe is important for ALL volleyball players is that they jump train too much-I see this all the time. Coaches add plyometric training to their practice sessions. The mistake is that they dismiss the jumping done in practice as "non-plyometric". This just isn't the case. This practice creates an overuse syndrome with knees, back and shoulders set up for injury. I've seen plyometric programs in-season and just don't know how one does that especially when considering there are hundreds of jump responses per week just through practice. With no real control as to total jump load volume and then have a set plyometric program afterward is risky at best. Designing a Gold Medal Program Now that we have discussed some of the basic of program designs we can take a look at their applications as used in designing a program for Phil and Todd. The first task at hand was to qualify. Beginning in 2005, one has to have foresight and strategies to continue to improve. Then it transfer into preparing for the Olympics where the actual program planning starts to take place a year and a half to two years out. As we got into the season we knew that we were going to qualify. We started to prepare 20 weeks out from "the Games" themselves while the in-season was still going on and Phil and Todd were still playing. The job then became to freshen up and peak for "the Games". With the AVP and international tour we were making money. As we had to practice we didn't rest up too much for "the Games" and neglect that all important paycheck. The strategy here was to stay on our regular routine with an eye toward tapering for "the Games". The basic program is done twice a week on Monday and Wednesday with Monday being a heavy day and Wednesday a "light" day. The basic exercises we did were power cleans and snatches, squats and bench presses-very traditional types of exercises. The loads varied dependng on the workload the guys had for the week, soreness, etc., and adjusted accordingly (see the accompanying program and exercises for more detail). The tapering aspect of the program started about four weeks out from the first game in the Olympics. It's important to understand that this taper wasn't too drastic because we had four weeks of play when we got to "the Games" so we didn't want to risk a de-training effect during the final matches for the gold. The taper itself consisted of doing the strength training movements the guys were used to but lightening the load and working more on speed of movement and basic power training. In the prior four years we laid a good strength base so we weren't going to lose anything there. You have to plan that you will need to maintain strength and having that base makes maintenance much more effective. This is why a long base building investment is important to volleyball athletes. As mentioned, the movements were basically the same as before only we might reduce the load by doing sets at 70 to 80 percent of normal. At this point in time one doesn't want to experiment with new exercises or changing the routine, which could create unwanted soreness and an outside chance for injury. When we got to Beijing we knew what our schedule would be in pool play, so this made our power and speed training man- ageable. We played basically every other day, so our plan going in was that in order to have a true day off, we had to train on the day we played. Therefore, throughout the entire tournament we trained after each match all the way up to two days before the Gold Medal match. I wanted to make sure the nervous system remained hyped and we all agreed that was what we wanted to do and we did it. Todd and Phil bought into this since we had been together for five years. As a consequence, everyone had confidence. This meant that sometimes at 12 to 1 AM Beijing time we were in the weight room training. Among other things, this approach allowed us to set a routine, which a lot of great athletes like to get into. The body is not affected by wins and losses but rather by physiol- ogy. Win or lose we decided to make the commitment. The result: Gold Medals. O More Information Please! Contact Bob at [email protected] Photo Credit FIVB.

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