What Athletic Testing Can Tell Volleyball Players About Strength, Mobility and Injury Risk

Volleyball asks a lot from an athlete.

Jumping. Landing. Quick changes of direction. Repeated overhead hitting. And doing it all over again through practices, matches and tournaments.

That is why Buffalo Rehab Group’s Athletic Performance team recently worked with the Frontier Boys Volleyball program to take athletes through a series of athletic assessments designed to better understand how they move.

For Jake Woodrich, PT, DPT, CSCS, Director of Athletic Performance at Buffalo Rehab Group, the goal of testing isn’t to tell an athlete whether they will get injured.

It is to give athletes and coaches better information to work with.

What Are Athletic Performance Assessments? 

Athletic assessments look at different pieces of movement, strength and mobility that matter for a particular sport. 

With the Frontier volleyball athletes, BRG looked at areas including: 

• • Lower-body mobility 
  • Upper-body and shoulder mobility 
  • Single-leg strength 
  • Lower-body strength and symmetry 
  • Shoulder strength 
  • Differences between the right and left sides of the body 

Testing several areas gives the Athletic Performance team a more complete picture of how an athlete moves. 

An athlete may feel perfectly fine but have a noticeable difference in strength from one leg to the other. Another may have great lower-body strength but limited mobility somewhere that could affect jumping, landing or changing direction. 

The assessment gives those athletes a baseline they can build from. 

Using Testing to Guide Training 

For Frontier Boys Volleyball Coach Nick Pennberthy, testing gave athletes another way to see the reward of the work they were already putting in outside of competition. 

It also gave the coaching staff useful information. 

Testing can highlight strength differences, mobility restrictions or other areas that may deserve more attention. From there, coaches and athletes can make smarter decisions around training, warm-ups, mobility work and workload. 

That might mean improving single-leg strength, adding more shoulder preparation or limiting repetitions when an athlete is showing signs that a certain area needs attention. 

The baseline also gives athletes something to compare against later. 

Instead of guessing whether strength, mobility or symmetry has improved, they can retest and see how their body has changed. 

Athletic testing cannot predict exactly who will get injured, but it can help identify areas worth addressing as part of a broader injury risk reduction and performance program. 

An Entire Volleyball Program Tested in 90 Minutes 

For a coach, introducing additional testing can sound great until it starts taking away from practice time. 

That wasn’t the case at Frontier. 

Buffalo Rehab Group Athletic Performance team was able to organize the assessments so the entire boys volleyball program completed testing in approximately 90 minutes.

For Coach Pennberthy, the process was organized, efficient and required very little management from the coaching staff. 

That is exactly how BRG wants these community offerings to work: useful for athletes, easy for coaches and built around the needs of the program. 

Frequently Asked Questions 

Free Athletic Assessments for Local Teams and Programs 

Frontier is just one example of how Buffalo Rehab Group Athletic Performance team works with athletes throughout Western New York. 

These athletic assessments are a free community offering available to local teams, schools, clubs and athletic programs across all sports.

Every sport places different demands on an athlete, so testing can be tailored to the movements, strength and mobility that matter most for that group. 

The goal is simple: give coaches and athletes more information they can use to improve performance, reduce injury risk and keep young athletes doing what they love. 

Whether your program is volleyball, soccer, football, basketball, lacrosse, baseball, softball or another sport, our team would be happy to talk through what an assessment could look like for your athletes. 

Ready For The Next Step?