For example, you know you have a history of shoulder problems, so make sure you do a couple of sets of rotator cuff exercises every week. Get yourself one of those green elastic things, wrap it around the post and do 10 on each shoulder before you hit up. If it’s a knee you are worried about, then make sure you do a few extra ham string curls, and leg extensions. That stuff is just common sense, but takes a bit of discipline and planning.

But what if you start to feel a niggle in a new part of the body… for example lower back, or ankle?

The first thing to do, is ask around. Chances are, someone you know has had a simillar injury, and knows some good exercises for it. The trick is to get on top of it before it get’s un managable. Always work in a pain free situation, (I.e. don’t go squatting 200Kg on a sore knee), but attack the injury agressively. Build the muscle around it to support the injured joint, and then ice afterwards so that the increased blood flow does not inflame the area.

Get a massage. Often a niggly injury is caused by something being out of whack in a nearbye muscle or joint. Your massuer might suggest some stretches that will help also.

The most important thing is not to ignore it. Get it fixed, before it gets bad. If that means taking a week off training, then take the week off before it becomes a month.

2 – J.Slack (SA)/A.Schacht (SA) – $1800

3 – S.Zunker (QLD)/S.Hannan (QLD) – $1200

V. Anfiloff (NSW)/B. Richardson (WA) – $1200

5 – M. Suan (WA)/P. Bourne (SA) – $600

J. Prosser (NSW)/P. Jones (VIC) – $600

7 – B.Smith (QLD)/A.Wyer (QLD) – $400

J. Byron (SA)/A. Hinchley (VIC) – $400

9 – M.Nelson (SA)/B.Tutton (SA) – $200

S. Boehm (SA)/S. Maycock (SA) – $200

K. Ces (FRA)/F. Du Grip (FRA) – $200

A. Wardrop (QLD)/S. Thomas (QLD) – $200

13 – A.Lee (WA)/A.Crook (WA) – $100

A.McCombe (NSW)/T.Boyd (NSW) – $100

J. Michel (VIC)/S. Howard (QLD) – $100

C. Burns (VIC)/H. McLeod (VIC) – $100

After playing a fairly solid day on friday to qualify, Andy and I failed to produce our best volley on Saturday, losing to the French team in the morning, and then going down to Al Hinchley and Johnnie Byron in three sets to end our tournament with a 13th place.

Looking back at the result, it is fairly clear to me, (Andy might dissagree) that we failed to produce a good enough second ball on the side out. Too often we had to stretch, or adjust on the spike approach, which created a high number of errors in hitting. This problem amplified with pressure in the final set against Hinchley/Byron, and produced some spectacularly poor VolleyBall. (Some might even call it a “choke”). We lost the set 15 – 6.

So where do we go from here?

The first thing to do is to round up the positives.

1. A solid game against the Vic guys, in our second match of the qualifier, where we played a good consistent game.
2. A great game against Pat and Lachlan in the last game on Saturday to break through the qualifiers. This game was a thrashing, and really showed that we do have the mettle to over power a lot of teams on the tour. (Especially if they haven’t played for the last 5 years, and spend all day in the losers bracket playing themselves to a stand still.)

In both these games we showed a good consistent game.

The negatives.

1. We showed an inability to side out on crucial points. We made simple errors, which can only be put down to nerves, or lack of focus. We made these errors at times in each game where we needed to make a decisive play.
2. There were a few examples of errors on opportunity poiints, where a transition play was wasted with simple skill errors.

The first point in the negatives pretty much tells the story.

We failed to perform our skills to the required level at the crucial moments.

Usually I find that after a light week, there is an imediate improvement the following week. Giving your body a chance to recover is one of the best ways to maximise training.

Other recovery tips: Eat within 20 minutes of finishing a gym session, drink heaps of water, never let yourself get hungry, sleep enough so that you don’t struggle to get out of bed in the morning.

Here are a few links with more information on recovery.

Recovery article

Strength Training article