Fitness Testing

It has been a while since I last posted.  I delayed because I was trying to get some information from my colleagues about testing and the norms they have. I heard back so far from U of Ottawa, Dalhousie University, UBC Okanagon and Thompson Rivers University. 

As far as I know all teams do some form of physical testing with their teams.  We do this 3 times a year.  It is a good check point on where our team is physically.  A couple weeks ago we did our spring testing.

The beep test or Leger test is the one test that the girls despise the most.  It is a vo2 test.  A 20 meter back and forth jog in cadence to the beeps on the stereo.  A the level gets higher the time between beeps gets shorter.  When you miss getting to the 20 meter line twice in a row you are removed from the test and your level is recorded. This test also show determination and commitment.  It is easy to drop out but you can see when the athlete is pushing to get another level. We did some research a few years back and the NCAA expect female elite volleyball players to get between the 8-10 level.  We decided to adopt this as our standard.  With the test results that I received back from the others I would say that they would have the same norms.

Two people on our team did not make the 8 level, so in their own summer workout we are putting in more cardio with the expectation that they will reach the level by September.  The rest were in the range of 8-10. Our best was Brianna Walsh reaching over 11 on the test.  With the Mikasa ball slowing down the game  a little we are having more extended rallies and sets.  With this in mind we had to change our training from mostly power and speed to include some more cardio.  Athletes don’t feel tired during the match because there are breaks in the rallies but skill does drop off in the 3^rd to 5^th sets for athletes with lower cardio. Plus having a good acceptable cardio allows them to make fresh and smart decisions.

We do the typical jump tests that most volleyball teams do.  Spike and block jumps.

We did not have anyone on our team over 10 feet in the last testing.  But our team had the highest average ever.  We still have to test our rookies but I think they will be close to the range we are looking for..  We did have a team average of 9’7.5 inches.  We had a couple of players at 9’11” and one at 9”10” our lowest tested was 9’4.5”.  We feel that an athlete should be able to touch 9’6” at the minimum or hit a tremendously hard ball (hard is a ball with  ]velocity and spin, Heavy is a ball with no spin, there are lots of different language out there for attacking).  The athletes that fell below 9’8” we included a bit more jumping in their power phases.   I feel that they can improve their jump f they commit to the circuit, plus we will get some technical work.  Our lower touch players tend to broad jump and drift into the ball more.

All of the other teams that shared had some players that touched over 10 feet.  But in the end their average was just a bit lower than ours. We might not have as high of players but over all we are in a good range to compete in Canada West. I would say each team and league has different expectations for what will make them successful.  In Canada West we tend to have more 10 footers on teams than other conferences, but with Ottawa and Dal’s results show that every league will have some physical players that will reach that level.

Block jumping,  we ended up with a a team average 3 inches lower than our spike average.  This seems to be pretty normal.  We have a few athletes that are inside that.   With players hitting the ball at 10 feet a blocker should have to get up around 9’4” to touch the ball and slow it down.  Swing blocking does improve the block  a couple of inches, but also cause some drifting, so depending on the athlete…we will teach swing blocking or not. The block jump is no movement just arm swing and a jump.  For both jumping tests we let the athlete go until they miss two in a row.

We also weigh the girls, so we can keep track of this.  Most of our athletes probably could use to gain some weight.  It is a tough to be a strong athlete and not gain weight.  That is why research has shown that eating disorders are often found on elite sport teams.  With the research in mind we try to monitor their weight.  Very rarely will we have athletes that need to lose weight if they buy into fitness during the summer and maintain it during the year.  Often the trouble for weight gain comes between first and second year.  Athletes are old enough to go to the bar in Canada and are at home with their friends.  They work all day in mostly physically demanding jobs to make as much money as they can in the summer, some will work two jobs.  This makes it hard to commit to the fitness, plus chicken wings and beers are not conducive to fitness. (Just ask the coach). The peer pressure of friends not involved in training is intense during their first legal summer. By their end of the second full year they understand the importance of weight training then over weight usually isn’t an issue.

The T- test we run in the gym this will test agility.  I don’t have results for this one yet. 

We do an abdominal test, which is basically 5 different sit-ups.  If the athletes can do the 5 different sit-ups then they will get a 5 out of 5.  Which ever they cannot do means they need to work more on their abs.  This year  was  our best with a team average of 4 out of 5. 

Our weight coach is also a physio so she will do flexibility test on the team and determine how their range of motion is on their joints.  Most of the athletes are pretty good.  Our taller girls usually need work on flexibility.  Joining a Yoga group once a week will help with this. 

Other test we do are Squat maximums.  The athletes will pick a weight that will push them but also one they know they can handle.  They will then do reps until exhaustion.  We then punch this into a website and it will give us the athletes squat max.  This is a much safer way to test squats than throwing heavy weights and trying to lift it.

We also test chin-ups, pretty straight forward.  Our record so far is 4.  This is a test our smaller athletes will excel at, they can show the taller athletes up on this one. 

I am still trying to get more information from other coaches about results.  I also am working with the national team so I will get an idea of the University age athletes and be able to have an idea of what that level should be like. 

Awards banquet

Athletic Awards.

To me the athletic awards always feel a little different.  We spend the entire year preaching team and team first attitude and we end the year by singling out four individuals among the team. I wish we could recognize everyone on the team.  There were so many moments when everyone on the team was a star.  It might not have been recognized on the score sheet, but was still important to our development.

I believe we have an incredible team culture going now.  The athletes are working extremely hard to get better.  We see their names in the weight room book often.  The spring practices are very competitive and we are working at getting better.

When is comes to choosing the award winners we always let the team vote on the awards. This has worked well for us so far; we haven’t had to pull the coach veto on any awards. We seem to have a pretty good grasp of the different roles we have among our team. The part that is great is there is always more than one person nominated for the award.

Our athletic awards are a semi formal event, but the team chooses to dress up.  It is a fun chance to see them in a totally different situation.  Of course we were by far the best looking team there.

Each team will give out four awards.  The first award is rookie of the year.  This award has to be a first year athlete.  For this reason we only had 4 athletes eligible for the award out of the six girls that joined us this year.  The award went to Shanlee McLennan.  Shanlee played many positions for us in her first year.  She spent most of the year as the third left side player. But did play libero for a couple of matches after Lindsay was injured.  Shanlee is a very positive and happy person and her impact on the team in the next four years will be tremendous.

 

The inspirational award was next.  This award is for the teammate who goes out of her way to lead.  She finds different ways to motivate people and help people find success in BU.  This year Kellie Baker our setter won the award.  Kellie was on the leadership team this year.  She was our athlete tutor for the young players on the road.  Kellie coaches U-15 club team in Brandon and is heavily involved in fastball in the summer.  With all these activities she is still able to keep her marks up.  This was Kellie’s first year as the starting setter.  She did a great job of setting and has come along way on her overall play.  Kellie was our most effective server through the season.

 

Next is the Leadership award.  This is exactly what it sounds.  This award goes to the athlete who best personifies our team values.  Loyalty, Honour and Team first.  This award was almost unanimous. Claire Willerton who we spoke about earlier in the year was the winner.  Claire is a fifth year player who was an incredible leader for us.  Quite often it is hard for the first years and the fifth years to really connect.  One group is talking about how cool their high school grad was and the other is planning their future.  But Claire did a tremendous job of connecting with the first year players.  When Claire spoke in our team meeting it was right on.  It was definitely something that needed to be said or a different way to think about it the situation. Claire is really going to be missed by us next year.

The last team award went to the team MVP.  There were so many different people who were nominated for this award for different reasons.  We could have easily made a reason for each of the starting group to win this award.  In the end Tori was voted by the team our MVP.  Tori was top three in our team in every statistical category and always has an upbeat demeanor.  She became our go to player when the chips were down. 

This banquet is also a chance to say goodbye to some athletes who have chosen to move on.  Jenna Poole is one of them. She is seen in this photo with Larissa. Jenna was our second setter and did a great job for us this year.  She was a tremendous teammate, but for academic reason she is moving to a different school . Jenna hopes to one day be a oncologist, I am positive she will achieve her goal.  .  Laura Popplestone our redshirt is in a position where she can go to a junior college for a year or two and play.  We hope that she will be coming back to us once she has developed a bit more.  All the people leaving are going to be missed.