You Have More Potential Than You Think

This first topic might be the biggest factor that holds back a lot of athletes from ever reaching their potential.

Athleticism.

Why do I say this? That's because the general population, and by extension most people who get into volleyball, believe that athleticism is mostly, if not completely, reliant on your genetics. They don't believe that athleticism can be trained, and if they do, not to an extent that would be a game changer. I went down this path in my high school and part of my college playing days. I was never athletic growing up, didn't play sports, and volleyball was tough to pick up.

Those that have a higher starting point in athleticism, will quickly overtake the others. These athletic kids jump higher, move faster, have better hand eye coordination, better timing, better armswings, better technique, etc. They are able to improve at a much more rapid pace relatively, and it's extremely easy to fall in that mindset of "I'm just not athletic and not cut out for the sport compared to them".

Another pitfall is the way online programs advertise. I bought an Improve Your Vertical program when I was in high school, one that promised me something ridiculous, like 8 inches in 6 weeks. I did it for those weeks, and my improvement wasn't even close to the advertisement. This further cemented my belief that I won't ever be athletic and jump high. I won't stand here and tell you that genetics don't have anything to do with it however. Athleticism is a combination of talent and skill. Your genetics determine your baseline and your ceiling, and some people for sure have a higher innate ability, allowing them to reach the elite levels. Not everybody can play sports at the professional level. We can however, train these qualities by exposing ourselves to stimulus that can incite adaptations in our body. This is the basis of training, and what allows our bodies to develop. Athletes are doing their bodies and potential a disservice by falling into these pitfalls, and never end up addressing their issues.

Additionally, the way you grew up plays a huge role. There's multiple studies that explore the beneficial effects of childhood physical activity on motor skills and coordination. There's also studies that show athletes have higher levels of balance due to a more trained vestibular system. Running, jumping, change of direction are all motor skills that can be trained, and people who had a built up foundation of it in their youth see the carryover when competitive sports come in. I find that the situation becomes similar to that of "The rich get richer and the poor get poorer". Kids and teenagers that start at a higher baseline end up enjoying sports and physical activity more, while unathletic kids fall into that pitfall and don't want to participate as much. Who wants to really work on and do things that they aren't good at? Much less at that age.

Another factor is living in the digital age. According to the World Health Organization, 81% of kids between the ages of 11-17 are inactive, based on a pooled analysis that covered 146 countries and territories. A sedentary lifestyle has terrible adverse effects on the body, including higher chances of coronary artery disease, musculoskeletal disorders, and premature death. Parents also play a huge role, with studies finding correlations between a parents habits and activity levels and their children's.

Now let's compare two athletes with the same genetics hypothetically. They have the same starting point as kids. Athlete A was raised in a place where they were the most athletic growing up. They really enjoyed that feeling of being athletic compared to their peers, leading to a childhood of pursuing physical activity, backed up by their parents who loved to exercise and lived healthy habits. They played all kinds of sports, exposed to different stimuli that caused adaptations in their body. Athlete B kid started at the same level genetically, but was in a place where they were considered unathletic and weak compared to peers. Their parents were relatively sedentary and brought back processed fast food usually for dinner. They were embarrassed to participate in physical activity and sports, and just believed that they weren't meant for sports.

Let's say these two kids ended up in the same high school, with a sudden interest in volleyball. Who do you think is faster, stronger, more coordinated, with a higher vertical jump? Who do you think will improve at the sport faster? Who do you think is more likely to embrace training and figure out how to elevate their game further? Athlete A is my bet. Now who would fall in the pitfalls mentioned above? Athlete B.

This also expands to beyond just being stronger, faster, and jumping higher. Many "intangibles" that can lead to athletes being better than others and picking things up can tie back to these factors. Athlete A is likely to have a better armswing and shoulder health than Athlete B. Is this because of them being "naturally better" at volleyball? Could it be that they grew up throwing with their dad and developed better shoulder stability, as well as learning how to torque and utilize their stretch reflex to throw further and faster, that we now see translate to volleyball?

Athlete B has also been struggling on the weight room side of things, with constant back injuries when going past 225 lbs on the back squat, while Athlete A quickly shoots past them and hits 315 lbs in a full deep squat. Does Athlete B have a "bad back", and weight training isn't meant for them? Or did all the sitting as a kid cause a lot of imbalances in their muscles, leading to an anterior pelvic tilt and weak core while putting their back in a precarious position. Maybe their hips and abductors are extremely weak and doesn't allow them to open, with bad ankle mobility and knee pain as a byproduct, effectively limiting them to an inefficient and injury prone back squat. On the other side, Athlete A was in the school band, and played trumpet. They were taught how to breath with their diaphragm, which correlated a lot with bracing in lifting, allowing them to quickly figure it out. Along with their strong and mobile hips from not sitting around too much, we can now see that they are able to keep a very table trunk and squat with perfect form.

Hopefully, this hypothetical puts into perspective how our circumstances and environment play a huge role in our athleticism, and it isn't all genetics. These are all trainable qualities, and your habits growing up along with genetics determine where you are currently. In my experience, unless you have a decent foundation of athleticism and coordination, it becomes almost impossible to apply cues and technical changes, as what might be intuitive to some people might be very difficult for you. Therefore, I believe that it is imperative that all volleyball athletes who want to get better should train, and those who are behind relatively should focus even more time and energy on the physical side. Your genetics might determine your ceiling, but you'll never see what that is unless you put in the work.

This is what I mean by athleticism holding back potential. While we can't change the past, being exposed to the correct ways of training allows us to address these long standing issues in the body. My training principles will always address the foundations of the human body, and create athletes that understand the importance of these qualities. Not everything is solved by working hard. Let's work smart and take your game to the next level.