Written by David Hardy, Volleyball Trainer (learn more about David at the end of this article)

The phrase “return to sport” might not be a concept most kids in today’s volleyball world are familiar with

Many of our kids go from club sports to school sports, then back to club—all without any time off between either. There are debates as to whether or not that is a good thing or not, but that’s a topic for another time. Today we’re talking about when you DO take an extended break and then come back. Some parents and coaches may remember the days when club sports were not as big in general, but especially not as big for certain sports. We had school sports and town sports, and while a lot of kids played multiple sports during the year, there was a significant gap between resuming each individual sport. Even having been active during their break from each sport, they’d be “rusty” when the season came back around. This was even true regarding Little League, which has both a spring and a fall season.

So what is “rust?”

The answer to both might be a bit different than what you think. Many people believe that they “lose” a skill or simply forget how to do something. The truth is that repetitive motions we’ve practiced over and over again become a part of our long term memory called “procedural memory.” Procedural memory is extremely slow to go, which is why you can hop on a bike alongside your kids after teaching them, even if you haven’t ridden in several years. There’s even a phrase, “Just like riding a bike,” that people use when they can do something decently after not doing it in a long time. So “rust” or being “rusty” is largely physiological and has little to do with your mind. However, that statement specifically pertains to your ability to physically perform certain actions, not your ability to remember specific plays, strategies, definitions, concepts, or phrases.

Why Do Players Get "Rusty?"

The simplified answer to why you get “rusty” is that as the physical demands on our body change, so too does the way it performs and functions. That is what’s known as the SAID Principle or the Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands. Basically, when you do something, your body adapts to get better at it. When you do something else, your body adapts to that too. But if you stop doing the first thing, assuming the second thing is not largely similar in nature, your body no longer has a need to stay adapted. Volleyball is different from basketball, both are different from softball, and all three are different from wrestling. While all four of the sports referenced, as well as all other sports, are challenging and difficult in their own way, they have specific and differing athletic demands on the players. So it isn’t enough to simply be active during your breaks. If you aren’t using the same muscles/joints in the same way, then you’re going to be rusty, even if you haven’t actually forgotten HOW to do everything.

A good way to put this into perspective it to imagine a basketball player that is on the shorter side, but has a nice vertical and can jump JUST high enough to dunk effectively on a standard 10-foot rim. Let’s say he practices his dunks and gets really good at it, to the point that he feels like he can do it with his eyes closed. Let’s say, just for the sake of discussion, that he magically loses 6 inches on his vertical jump overnight. He would now be unable to dunk, and it would have nothing to do with his skill or ability to handle the ball, it would have everything to do with the fact that he can’t physically propel himself high enough to complete the action. So if you’re used to performing at a certain weight, with a certain amount of strength, endurance, speed, flexibility, etc., and when you return, one or all of those areas is lacking, that will reflect in your performance. Now you’re rusty.

What Do Coaches Need to Know?

Well, we’re all experiencing the effects of the pandemic in a variety of ways. In the volleyball world, many kids have experienced (and are still experiencing) the longest break in their athletic careers. It’s safe to assume they’ll be pretty rusty when they’re able to get back to it. How rusty they get depends largely on how long they’ve been off and what they’ve been doing in the interim. So how long does it take to get rusty? Well, different areas decline at different rates of time. Missing one day of your 2x/week practices won’t do it, but after about 2 weeks, that starts to change. 

To give you an idea: Aerobic capacity can begin to decline in as little as two weeks, and muscle atrophy can begin between in 2-3 weeks with a loss in strength following 1-2 weeks after. Power and explosiveness begin to decline around the same time as strength but can go even sooner. A degree of flexibility loss usually occurs after about 4 weeks. That is not to say that everything is lost in a snap, but there is a point where things begin to decline. Continued inactivity over an extended period of time results in them declining further and further. Of course, these timeframes given are vague and have a lot of variabilities. Not just because of the outliers that I always like to bring up, but because each state, county within each state, city within each county, and family within each city are handling the pandemic differently. 

For some athletes, depending on their level of “inactivity,” the times could vary significantly. Players that found a way to seriously do volleyball drills and train would maintain more of their athletic development and for a longer period of time. In contrast, players who opted to lounge around would maintain less and lose faster. At the end of the day though, it’s a safe assumption to make that most players, however hard they’ve worked, have experienced a reduction in the physical demands they’re used to. And as I mentioned above, their body will have responded accordingly and adapted to their current lifestyle. 

Why Does This Matter? 

It’s obviously going to matter in some cases a lot more than others, so we’re going to go with the worst-case scenario and say that your players are completely deconditioned, which is to say that they’ve been off for a considerable amount of time and have experienced a negative impact in all areas of their athleticism. 

What if a player is accustomed to performing at a particular weight and with a particular level of conditioning, strength, and mobility, and they try to jump back into sport? What if they do what they’ve always done, but are now very different in all those areas? The word uncomfortable would probably be a good way to describe the way they’d feel. And what has common sense and past experience taught us happens when we attempt to do something we’re uncomfortable with? We tend to do them wrong. In some unfortunate cases, largely BECAUSE we’re doing them wrong, we tend to get hurt. That being said, you can always get hurt when practicing/playing/training, so what makes this any more dangerous or impactful than normal times? I’ll break it down in a hypothetical scenario. 

*Our player in this scenario is a 16-year old deconditioned volleyball player, formerly on the top team of her club, who hasn’t had a real break from volleyball since she was 10 years old. 

*Our coach in this scenario isn’t aware of the effects of deconditioning and jumps into practice as usual. 

Our player knows she’s good, but she’s not used to this kind of break and has never experienced going back to the sport truly rusty. She goes in hot, giving 100% in every aspect (like we all like to see), but it’s kicking her butt. Halfway through, she’s breathing heavy, and on top of being weaker than she used to be, she doesn’t even feel as strong as she did at the beginning of practice! She doesn’t feel the best, but she knows she can move faster, jump higher, and hit harder, and so she does. 

Her body, sensing the lack of strength and muscular stabilization, compensates by recruiting different muscles to complete the actions. This throws off her form, which was already compromised from the decrease in her flexibility/mobility, pushing her joints, ligaments, and tendons closer and closer to their limits. 

In a previous article, I mentioned that these things could only come so close to their limits before giving, and then they tear or separate. We also talked about the importance of the muscles in controlling the body to maintain a safe alignment. Still, with a lack of overall muscular development (strength, endurance, stabilization), our player’s muscles are less adept at decelerating the motion causing these injuries to happen. So she carries on, and eventually, she gets hurt. Now she has to take even MORE time off, on top of the time she’s already taken off, which sets her back further. That says nothing of the mental and emotional strain this adds to a child already trying to cope with living during the most significant national crises in many of our lifetimes. Needless to say, the whole ordeal would be very bad. Of course, this is assuming the worst-case scenario and doesn’t necessarily mean that any player working hard following this break WILL experience this. Still, it’s important to realize that they COULD.

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER

This article is not meant to be a downer or make anyone afraid, but as the saying goes, “hope for the best, but plan for the worst.” Understanding the dangers of something gives you a better chance of preventing it from happening in the first place, which is good! And more good news would be that while I used the worst-case scenario for the hypothetical above, a lot of players are probably much better off. Many clubs and their coaches did a phenomenal job with supplying at-home workouts, drills, and activities. When the time came, a lot of high school coaches did the same. Volleyball organizations like JVA put out at home training videos, innovative solo practice ideas, and articles. And if you’re reading this, I don’t have to tell you that Get The Pancake kept up with its content this whole time. There will inevitably be some players that didn’t take advantage of all these resources, but so many did, and that puts them in a much better position for getting back into the swing of things.

HOW DO YOU RETURN TO SPORT SAFELY?

There isn’t really a one-size-fits-all answer to this question when you consider the variables we touched on above: state, county, city/town, parents, and the individual work ethic of each athlete. That’s where your judgment as the coach comes in. Chances are you’ve had some kind of contact with your players and their parents, especially if you were giving them homework, and they were giving you updates about it. Assuming your players were specific and honest, you’ll have a pretty good idea of where each player is at, and some will be more ready than others. The various mandates and regulations may actually help in this regard if they include things like reduced practice days and times as it decreases the overall volume and stress to their bodies. From there, it’s almost comparable to starting with a new team at the beginning of the season; you likely won’t be practicing the same way then as you would leading up to State/Nationals.

Going in, have a plan, but be prepared to adapt. Take the time to warm-up well (you can check out my article on that here), and be especially strict about this with the older ones, it’s not uncommon for them to think they’re “beyond” this kind of thing. It seems easy and tedious and is nothing compared to the demand of the actual practices. So often we notice them trying to do a few seconds of arm circles, a side bend or two, a couple of hops and then they say “I’m ready, Coach!” After the warm-up, get them going and watch for a few key things like breathing and form. If they’re getting too winded too soon, telling them to just push through is only going to hinder their performance further, so they may need a water break a little sooner than you were expecting. Don’t baby them, but be mindful. If they’re doing really bad at hitting or digging, keep in mind that it might be less about them forgetting or not listening and more about a lack of shoulder or hip mobility. Yelling at them to do it the right way may not actually help, and could instead push them to do something wrong and hurt themselves. Again, trust your judgment as a coach. Don’t let them slack, but be aware that there might be a little more going on.

THE GOOD NEWS

Getting back into something is easier than starting from the beginning, especially the longer you’ve done it before stopping. And like we touched on above, the body DOES adapt, so each practice will be better, and each week will yield results as your players get closer and closer to where they were. How much time it’ll take before they’re totally “back” is hard to say and subject to a lot of variables, but if they’re progressing and not getting hurt, you’re on the right track. This is something no one in the volleyball world has ever had to deal with, and there isn’t a perfect set of instructions on how to do it the right way. We’re all just doing the best we can. So with your players’ best interests at heart, take what you can from this piece and add it to what you know, and then do your best to get them going again!

OVERALL GUIDELINES

To summarize, many players will be new to taking such a long break and haven’t truly experienced being “rusty.” While they may not actually lose their skill or forget how to play, their body will likely change in such a way that playing feels somewhat foreign, causing them to perform much less efficiently than usual. This can include a loss in strength, endurance, flexibility, and a change in the composition of their body (weight and muscularity). The level to which this deconditioning occurs varies by individual and regional circumstances. This is physiological in nature and must be addressed once again through adaptation, by doing, not just from being instructed. Failure to address deconditioning could result in injury, promoting further deconditioning. Players should be made aware, even if only minimally, of this so that they understand what’s going on and the importance of returning at a reasonable pace. By emphasizing proper warm-ups, reduced volume, gradual progression, and being mindful of some of the physiological setbacks of an extended break, players can safely work up to their normal. Depending on how long of a break each player took and what they did during said break, the time necessary to return to normal varies. Still, it typically happens much quicker than the amount of time it initially took to reach that point.

DAVID HARDY

NASM-CPT, PES, CAFS

David Hardy has been a volleyball trainer in Northwest Indiana since 2014. A staff member of Trademark Performance Corporation, David trains youth volleyball players of all ages and can often be found on weekends watching his athletes play in local tournaments. Follow David on Instagram and Facebook, or call (219) 319-0110 to book a training session with him today!