Fast Twitch Not Slow Twitch

Do you want to know my biggest pet peeve in volleyball? Coaches’ who want their players running long distances. Want to know why? It doesn’t relate to volleyball. You can argue it increases your endurance but in all honesty it is more damaging to your training then it is helpful. There is a tradition with Olympic athletes where they run to train but it is outdated. We’ve done the research and there are plenty of exercises that are a better use of time and will benefit your body as a volleyball player.

Right now we are in that wonderful two week period where coaches can’t instruct their players. I highly recommend that players put down the volleyball and simply train their body. You need a break after club season, team camp, open gyms, and individual college camps. But you should not spend these two weeks simply running long distances.

Here’s the skinny on why running long distances is harmful in training as a volleyball player. Volleyball is a game of quick changes, of stop and go. You are constantly changing direction at the drop of a hat. Running long distances doesn’t train the proper muscles for these motions. Think of cheetahs and gazelle for this. Two animals who are muscularly built differently and thus are better at different things. We’ve all heard how gazelles can outrun a cheetah if they last long enough. This isn’t because the cheetah isn’t weaker; their muscles are just designed differently so that they go faster but over shorter periods of time.

You see the same thing in swimmers. The sprinters aren't used on the long distance races for a good reason. You can train your muscles to be competitive for one or the other, not both.

Your muscles are composed of two different types of fibers, slow twitch and fast twitch. The slow twitch fibers, dark meat, are the ones that are activated when you are running a long distance. Fast twitch fibers have two different types, the first being the opposite of slow twitch muscles. The typical fast twitch muscle, light meat, is what you use when you need quick reactions and changes of movement. They act fast. The second type of fast twitch muscle can be trained to be either the standard fast twitch muscle or slow twitch muscle. So by running distances, you are actually training away fibers from being fast twitch muscles.

Exercises that help those fibers that can be persuaded include plyometrics, interval running, and lines. All of these will also increase your endurance if you do them for the same period of time at the same intensity that you would have been using if you were running. You can’t entirely convert your fibers to being fast twitch. You are born with a certain percentage of slow twitch fibers that will always be slow twitch fibers. You can encourage the fibers that can be persuaded to be fast twitch instead.

So instead of going out and running five miles to train, find a park with a tennis or basketball court. Bring some chalk with you and create a set of lines to run. A simple drill is to draw three lines, each six feet apart and start in a ready position on the middle line. Shuffle to each of the lines on the edges and touch each three times before taking a break. Bring a partner with you and alternate doing the drill between the two of you. Another drill using those three lines is to start at of the edges with your back to the other two lines. Back pedal to the middle line, staying low so that you make contact with the line with your hand and then sprint back to touch the first line, back pedal to the furthest line and then run through the first line. The key to this is to stay low and change directions quickly.

Also check out the cone drills that encourage multiple movements and repeated changes in motion.

Coaches who are reading this, please don’t make your players run distances. Make them run suicides and touch sixes instead.

Further reading:

http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/anatomyandphysiology/a/MuscleFiberType.htm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/body/factfiles/fastandslowtwitch/soleus.shtml