Rally Together - North Country Region Volleyball

Today marks our final Thursday Technical Training post, and we've saved an important one for last - this one's for you, Setters!  Making time to get those reps in daily will elevate your level of play and finding that rhythm and consistency will put you a step ahead of your competition.  Grab your volleyball and check out some of these setter training videos:  Setter U shared a challenging Setter Medicine Ball Warm-Up   on their Instagram feed.  If you're a setter, definitely give them a follow - the Setter U Instagram page is loaded with tips, inspiration and training ideas - some of which include the following training tools we've posted about here on our Rally Together blog: Rebound Board & Setter Target ! Olympian Alisha Glass (and former Penn State setter!) demonstrates two at-home setting drills that she uses.  Find them on the Art of Coaching Volleyball website HERE ! Team USA setter, Lauren Carlini (and former Wisconsin setter!) walks you through some side

Summer is truly just around the corner, and the warmer weather also brings along the opportunity to move our workouts outside!  Nothing lifts our spirits like sunshine, so when it's shining bright let's enjoy it, the warmth it brings, and get moving with an outdoor condition and strength training session.  Here are a few to get you started as spring rolls into summer:  Be Tiger Fit posted a great Outdoor Stair Workout on their Instagram feed.  This workout is challenging but fun, and all you need to find is a set of stairs.  You will for sure want to give this workout a try! Sarah Pavan, former Nebraska and Canadian National Team player and current Canadian beach volleyball player shared her 25 Minute Outdoor Strength & Conditioning At-Home Workout .  No equipment needed! AVP beach volleyball players, the McKibbin brothers, shared an Outdoor Strength & Cardio Beach Workout .  Find a nice open sandy beach area or an area in your yard and challenge yourself with this wor

As we look forward to the future, a great motivator to keep us focused and driven is a vision board.  Check out the following post from our friends in the Badger Region on creating a student-athlete vision board:   "Focus on the future Create a student-athlete volleyball vision board. (From our friends in the Arizona Region of USA Volleyball) What are your goals? What are your academic goals? What are your volleyball goals? A vision board helps you clarify and concentrate on the realistic goals most important to you. Do you want to make your high school team or the region’s high performance team? Do you want to reduce errors and improve your kill percentage? Maybe you want to jump higher. Olympic athletes have used vision boards for decades to help them improve their performance. How to create a vision board: Create a list of goals Find pictures representing your goals from old magazines or your favorite websites Make a collage of your photos on a large piece of construction paper

Memorial Day weekend is upon us, and with the forecast not looking very outdoor friendly, how can we still connect and compete with all our friends and family while still complying with our socially distanced group margins?  Here's one answer: Organize a Zoom Game Night!  By now, we have all pretty much become Zoom experts, as it has been the go-to app for staying in contact while we have been staying home, and all sorts of ingenious ideas have been borne in the last several months so that we don't all have to just stare at each other on Zoom - instead, we can  play some games and compete  -  YES!    While I'm certain the possibilities are endless, we are sharing again just a few of the games that work great with Zoom to get you started: PICTIONARY : I'm certainly partial to this game, as this was a family favorite while growing up.  So fun and super simple to play on Zoom!   Divide the group into teams.   Everyone uses a website with a Word Generator, like this one fro

Thursday means the weekend is in sight, and we don't want a whole week to go by without sharing some technical training ideas or videos with all of you.  The worldwide volleyball community really has come together during COVID-19, sharing both volleyball specific conditioning training and technical skill training workouts that can be completed at home.  Here are a few skills training videos that popped up on our radar this week:    10 Solo Volleyball Drills to Try at Home :  This video was created by former Nebraska and Canadian National Team player and current Canadian beach volleyball player, Sarah Pavan, and includes some excellent ball control reps, arm swing reps, jump float serving practice, and even some blocking work.  All you need is a ball and a wall! Home Volleyball Skills Training - COVID 19 Workout :  A skills training video created by Elevate Yourself walking you through a variety of skills from passing to attacking to serving and downballs.  For this workout, you jus

It's time to get moving with a Wednesday Workout!  DePaul University Coach Marie Zidek has created a five day series of volleyball specific at-home workouts focusing on the upper body, lower body, core, shoulders and stabilization--all valuable for a competitive volleyball player!  The following workouts have been shared on the Art of Coaching Volleyball website:  Day 1: Bodyweight Conditioning and Strength     "Grab a coffee table or chair, a towel and some water, and let's get to work with this short but effective bodyweight strength and conditioning routine!  Marie Zidek leads you through a dynamic warmup to start the workout with squats, hip bridges, knee hugs, planks and jumping jacks." Day 2: Jumping, Stability and Agility "We'll start with a dynamic warm-up consisting of a few a few plyometrics to lubricate the muscles, spike the heart rate and warm up the joints.  Next, we'll work on a series of jumps using a surface to jump off of that will help