Training load: The start of the journey can determine the end

By: David GIl

A review of training periodization models in volleyball 

Absolutism aside, research literature, anecdotal and objective evidence continues to mount in support of various periodization methodologies. There will also be differences in opinion, slight strategic nuance and variations due to the unavoidable fact that each athlete is an individual, but one FACT remains: how you start the season plays a MAJOR role in how effective your future periodization will be, regarding athlete performance and injury risk. 

We may not all agree on whether a high-low model is best, or if medium days are a waste of time. Practitioners don’t always see eye to eye on acute to chronic workload ratios, whether a 7:28 day is more effective than a 7:21, or if they’re even the best option at all. 

While we will touch on those topics, the main purpose of this article is to help coaches understand the critical importance of proper, effective capacity development in their athletes. 

This article is also being written to respond to and support the new initiatives being promoted by the AVCA for the 2027 volleyball season, which aim to extend the Division I collegiate volleyball pre-season.

The current college season was not designed with the physiological needs of the athletes front of mind. With just roughly 2 weeks of pre-season preparation and training, (a little more in recent seasons), there is simply not enough time on court to properly and effectively build the tolerances and capacity our athletes need to handle all-out match performance. Oftentimes coaches use this time to get their athletes into “game shape,” ready for the first weekend of non-conference matches. The goal being, build a TOUGH culture, announce this team to the world and move into conference play with some momentum. 

The challenge is, how do we define “game shape”? Are we talking cardiovascular? Jump height capability? Jump quantity capability (vertical endurance)? What about tendon capacity? Ligament durability? Landing shape? From a science-based perspective, I want to explain the basics of tendon versus muscle development, specifically when it comes to starting a volleyball season.

In all sports, but especially in volleyball, the repeated vertical forces, often combined with lateral movement and rapid deceleration, place unique stresses on connective tissue. These tissues refer to tendons, which connect muscle to bone, and ligaments, which stabilize joints by connecting bone to bone.

Ligaments can adapt and become more resilient with training, but at a much lower rate than tendons. They can, however, be dramatically impacted by poorly adapted tendons or fatigue, but are not the primary focus here. Instead, we’ll focus on muscles and tendons.

One of the most important concepts to understand is that muscles and tendons develop at different rates.

Muscles can improve and grow stronger relatively quickly. Depending on age, training history, and experience, athletes can see noticeable gains in force production and performance in as little as a few weeks. Tendons, however, adapt much more slowly. Their structural capacity improves gradually over time as they are exposed to stress and then given adequate recovery.

This difference in adaptation speed is one of the major reasons tendinopathy/tendonitis develops in jumping sports like volleyball.

As athletes get stronger and more explosive, the muscles are capable of producing increasingly high forces. But if tendon capacity has not had enough time to adapt to those forces, the tendon can begin to accumulate micro-damage faster than it can recover and remodel.

Mechanically, part of this process is regulated by structures called integrins. Integrins act as “sensors” within the tendon, helping detect the amount and type of strain being placed on the tissue. Over time, this signaling plays an important role in collagen synthesis and tendon remodeling, both of which are critical for improving tendon capacity and stiffness.

In simple terms, tendons are constantly “evaluating” whether they are capable of handling the forces being transferred through them.

The body also has protective systems built in. One example is the Golgi tendon organ, which helps regulate force production and can inhibit muscle contraction during extremely high-force situations to help reduce acute injury risk.

But tendon adaptation itself is a slower long-term process. If training loads increase too aggressively, the muscles may become capable of producing forces that the tendon structure is not yet prepared to tolerate repeatedly.

This is why gradual workload progression matters so much in volleyball. Training volume, intensity, and jump density must increase progressively over time to allow tendon tissue an opportunity to adapt alongside the muscular system.

When that balance is off, either through excessive volume, poor recovery, or progressing too quickly into high-intensity match demands, the result is often tendon irritation, micro-tearing, and eventually tendinopathy.

In many cases, tendonitis is not simply an “overuse” problem. It is also an underprepared tissue problem caused by too rapid of an on-ramp into the demands of the season. This can be seen with the results of research with NCAA female volleyball players, which showed a 60% increase in injury risk in the preseason when compared to conference and post season play (Chandran & Morris).  

So where do we start? Whether you are more of a follower of Dr. Tim Gabbett’s acute to chronic workload model, the Banister model, the High-Low CNS Management model or any other framework for effectively managing training load, the initialization phase is still a little bit of a crapshoot. However, this is also where any system has the same philosophy. They ALL agree that initial training exposure needs to grow progressively and that too much too fast is a mistake that is very difficult to come back from as the season progresses. 

One “rule” programs have used as a starting point is the 50% “rule.” I’m using quotations for a reason here that I hope is fairly self evident. Without taking a biopsy of the athletes’ tendons, some additional blood work and other assorted rather invasive measurements, one can’t be too sure about their objective tendon capacity come day 1 of pre-season. The 50% “rule,” which does not come from any particular study or methodology, more of an anecdotal lesson that’s shown to be effective, states that you take the demands of a match (I recommend a 5 setter), cut that in half by position, and start there week one. 

A middle blocker may get up to 160 jumps in a 5 set match, so week one they’ll average close to 80 jumps per day. That may mean a low day is 60 and a high day is 90, but they’ll be close to 80 as an average. 

In my experience working with collegiate, professional and national programs for over a decade, as comically un-scientific as this “rule” seems ,it's a great place to start. 

This allows programs to grow their training load roughly 5%-15% week over week. Regardless of whether you’re having low, medium, smedium, high, or really high days within the week, or just going with a high-low model, this methodology does an effective job of allowing programs to progress linearly with their load. 

To conclude, start lower than you almost certainly want to. Look at your athletes like a steak (stay with me here). If your steak is burned, you’re basically out of luck. If it's under-cooked, you can always send it back to get a little more heat. 

How you start the season is probably the root cause of your early injuries and late season fatigue. It's certainly not the only cause, but it can be a MAJOR factor and one that can be fixed as hundreds of programs have done over the last decade-plus as technologies like VERT have allowed for objective measurements and planning. 

As always, anyone is free to schedule a call with members of our performance lab to learn more. CLICK HERE to do so.

For more information on the VERT Team System,

please schedule a demo HERE.

Join Volleyball Technology