This answer depends on if it is open volleyball (not in competition) or club volleyball (the team participates in a competition). In open volleyball players often practice for one hour every week.
In club volleyball, players generally practice for three hours every week and then they also have a match that lasts about one hour. You will make a lot more progress in club volleyball as you spend more hours on the court. Some players also perform drills at home to improve even further.
This can mean that these players are training more than 5 hours every week. Professional volleyball players often work on their volleyball game every day. This doesn’t mean that they are always working with a ball as they might be in the gym or discussing tactical situations. Let’s dig into this topic further so that you can understand what volleyball players do.
How long is volleyball practice in high school?
Volleyball practice in high school often lasts as long as it does for other clubs. There are two training sessions of about 90 minutes. During this practice, you work on your endurance, ball control, and team play. Volleyball is a team sport and you have to spend a lot of attention working together.
Most people have been playing volleyball for several years once they enter high school. Therefore the coaches often focus on advanced techniques and strategies so that the players can learn new things and get challenged by new drills. High school volleyball teams often participate in tournaments and competitions and these take about 90 minutes per week as well so you have three sessions every week in total in high school.
You can play volleyball during your whole time at high school as there are often teams for each cohort so you can switch teams once you gain more experience.
During summer, there is often a break during which there is no competition and also there are no training sessions. During this period in time, some players practice on their own to retain their ball controlling skills or participate in tournaments.
Coaches will often expect that you attend every training to make sure that you can perform well during a match. You can skip training here and there but you will not be allowed to play during a match if you skip a lot of training sessions.
Getting there, preparing your gear
You will have to spend more time on volleyball than just practicing. You also have to prepare and wash your gear. This can take 30 minutes to one hour every week. Getting to the sports arena and back home after the training can also take a few hours every week, depending on how far you live from it.
It is also necessary to dedicate time to selecting the right equipment. Every volleyball player has his or her own preferences when it comes to this so you will have to see what works for you.
This means that you might have to make sacrifices if you want to play volleyball. You might not have time to attend all the birthday parties or you can’t meet up with friends as often as you might like. Volleyball is a hobby that takes quite a lot of time and therefore you have to make a conscious decision before you start if you are willing to make this commitment or not.
Some people prefer to hang out with their friends and just play a casual game of volleyball with them from time to time. There is nothing wrong with this but your volleyball skills will not evolve that fast in this way.
Types of practices that volleyball players perform during training
Next to individual drills that focus on ball handling and specific skills, you also have team training. Next to this, it is also possible to watch footage of yourself playing and analyze the games of other players. This means that professional players are often thinking about volleyball for more than 50 hours every week.
They are not always on the court with a ball but there are a lot of aspects that need to be trained when you want to play volleyball at a high level. Some even have coaches that help them with their fight spirit. As a volleyball player, you often have to deal with failures and someone that can help you to get over these can be useful.
Let’s take a look at some drills:
You also have to spend some time with your team members after a match or training. This allows you to discuss what happened during a match and how you can improve next time. You also get to bond this way.
Professional players often spend time in the gym and they also work on their weak points to make sure that they can improve these. Every player has to be able to defend and attack in volleyball. Therefore it is necessary that volleyball players find out what skills they have to improve. They have a coach that can help them with this and find out what drill can help them with this.
They also spend a lot of time with their team members to make sure that everyone gets along and to improve the dynamics within the team. This is often done by going on an adventure together or performing other sports. You can’t win volleyball alone and having a great team is essential. This is why a lot of professional volleyball teams spend a lot of time together to form this bond.
To conclude, we can state that volleyball is an intense hobby as you need to spend quite a lot of time on it. You will have to prepare your gear, drive to the sports arena, dress up, train, change again and drive back home. All of this adds up. Some players are also performing drills at home to improve their skills. Then you also have to practice and play a match.
This means that volleyball players often typically spend 7 to 8 hours on this hobby every week, depending on how far they live from the sports arena. Overall, it is a big commitment to play volleyball if you participate in a competition.
It takes a lot of time to get good at volleyball. From controlling the ball to communicating with other players on your team, there are a lot of things that you have to learn. It should be no surprise then that volleyball players train multiple times per week so that they can win matches.
