Preventing Volleyball Injuries

For the most dedicated volleyball players, the game is played year-round with indoor competitions in the spring and fall and beach volleyball in the summer. While all that time on the court sounds great, overuse and overtraining are the primary causes of most volleyball injuries. To help you stay on the court, we’ll review the most common volleyball injuries and how to prevent them.

Common Volleyball Injuries

Since volleyball is a noncontact sport, most injuries result from overuse, misuse, or lack of treatment. The most common injuries for volleyball players include:

Ankle Sprains

Volleyball requires high-intensity movements like jumping, running, and fast directional changes. As a result, ankle sprains are one of the most common injuries in volleyball. Most ankle sprains are not severe and, when appropriately treated, only require a few days or weeks of rest. If you have a history of ankle injuries, a supportive ankle brace can stabilize the joint and help you avoid further damage.

Jumper’s Knee (Patellar Tendonitis)

Jumping is a critical skill to have as a volleyball player—it’s needed to spike the ball on offense and block it on defense. This frequent jumping is why jumper’s knee, or patellar tendonitis, is another common condition among players. This overuse injury results from repeated stress to the patellar tendon, which connects your tibia bone to your knee cap.

The stress on the tendon can cause inflammation, tenderness, and pain when walking, running, and jumping. Players with the condition should rest until the injury heals to reduce the risk of a larger tear. Once healed, stretching and strength exercises can help prevent tendonitis from returning.

Shoulder Injuries

Strenuous and repetitive use of the upper extremities during activities like serving, blocking, and spiking make injuries to the shoulders (and the tendons and ligaments supporting them) commonplace in volleyball. In addition to shoulder strains and sprains, volleyball players experience shoulder conditions like labrum or SLAP tears, shoulder instability, and rotator cuff injuries.

Volleyball Injury Prevention

Volleyball players shouldn’t let fear of injury keep them from stepping on the court. With proper precautions and training, many injuries are preventable. Here are some training tips to help volleyball players prevent injury:

High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

Since volleyball plays happen in quick intervals, HIIT workouts can help players build stamina and train muscles. Exercises like burpees, lunge jumps, and box jumps help players improve their cardiovascular fitness while building the strength needed for jumps, dives, and sudden pivots.

Strength Training Drills 

Most volleyball injuries are a result of muscle imbalance and poor body control. Thankfully, strength training helps with both—not only reducing your risk of injury but also improving your gameplay. Here are some strength training exercises you can try:

• Incorporate bodyweight exercises like planks, squats, bridges, and lunges into your workout routine. These drills strengthen your core and lower body to improve balance and condition the muscles used for jumping.
• Use resistance bands or free weights, add shoulder exercises like the overhead press, standing row, front raise, and reverse fly. These exercises strengthen the shoulder’s scapular muscles—including the rotator cuff—and can help prevent overuse injuries from the repetitive motions of spiking, serving, hitting, and blocking the ball.

Proper Warm-Up Drills

Warm-ups are essential for staying injury-free with physical activity, and volleyball is no different. Warming up prepares your body by revving up your cardiovascular system and increasing blood flow to your muscles—reducing your risk of injury. You should warm-up before practices, games, and workouts.

Start with a light jog to get the blood flowing. Then, focus on warming up major muscle groups, including your shoulders, hamstrings, and quads. Your warm-up routine can mimic gameplay activities and movement patterns at a low, slow pace that gradually increases in intensity.

Volleyball Injury Treatment

When treated appropriately, most volleyball injuries respond to conservative, nonsurgical care. For sprains and strains, the RICE method—rest, ice, compression, and elevation—can relieve pain and swelling for faster healing.

If you’re experiencing pain while playing or training, be sure to listen to your body. Instead of working through it, seek treatment. Addressing an injury right away can help you recover faster and prevent more severe injuries. At Orlin & Cohen, our network of offices is open seven days a week.

Our premier team of fellowship-trained orthopedic specialists in sports medicine, foot and ankle, shoulder, and knee have the expertise and experience to help you feel better and get back in the game, faster. Request an appointment.

Want to learn more about sports-related injuries? Read our blog on common athletic injuries and how to prevent them.