What Goes Up… A comprehensive review of how to teach and improve athlete landings for all jumps

The hardest impact on our athletes is their landing, be it after a serve, attack or block. In the fall season alone a collegiate athlete can jump, depending on position and training philosophy, anywhere between 6,000-11,000 times. Leading into their college careers athletes have executed countless jumps, always striving to get that much higher and jump that much faster, oftentimes without paying nearly enough attention to the action directly following those jumps. The goal of this presentation is to examine the demands of our sport and strategies both on and off the court for how we can better coach our athletes to dramatically decrease the risk of injury. Additionally we will discuss the findings of the largest youth volleyball athletes jump and landing study performed with the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) Youth Sports Safety Program, Sports Medicine Institute. Coaches will: -review tactical changes to how we teach attacks and transitioning that can lead both to more effective attacks and better landing mechanics. -learn how to work with athletes, each being their own individual, on learning how to land in a manner that provides the highest likelihood for a healthy season and longer career -discover what can be done off court, simple drills and modifications to existing drills to help athletes develop -be shown results from a study through HSS where thousands of volleyball athletes ages 12-18 were screened for dynamic knee valgus (knees caving in) on jumps and landing.