Jimmy Stitz on Building a Durable, Adaptable and Robust Volleyball Player

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Born and raised in Minnesota, Athletic Performance Coach for Women’s Senior National Volleyball team Jimmy Stitz has always known he wanted to become a coach. Growing up with a passion for many sports, Jimmy stumbled into the world of strength and conditioning at an early age.

Realizing his athletic career may not have been strong enough to become a high-level sport coach, Jimmy turned his sights to a different form of coaching – as a strength and conditioning coach and physical preparation specialist.

Although Jimmy has never played a single game of volleyball as a young athlete and had a less-than-basic understanding of the rules of the sport – his drive, perseverance, and passion for athleticism and sports performance eventually led him to begin working with and watching the Head Coach of the Women’s National Volleyball team, Karch Kiraly.

When Jimmy isn’t spending his time training amazing female volleyball athletes, he can often be found relaxing with his wife in Long Beach, California and preparing to become a first-time dad.

Jimmy joins me today to discuss how sports performance coaches can build a durable, adaptable, and robust volleyball player.

We discuss how he stumbled his way into sports performance and training high-level volleyball athletes and how the volleyball club season differs from other sports club seasons.

We talk about how athlete management and creating athletic programs work for national volleyball athletes and how it differs from sports like soccer or basketball.

We dive into the power-to-weight ratio, and why it’s an important quality for competing at the highest level.

And last but not least, Jimmy explains the difference between developing an athlete and managing them and how much time he spends on developing an athlete’s physical qualities compared to maintaining them and keeping them healthy.

 

Trying to get them to change the thought process around ‘bigger, faster, stronger’ into ‘durable, adaptable, robust’ is really a BIG switch for a lot of volleyball players. – Jimmy Stitz

 

This week on the Physical Preparation Podcast:

  • What led Jimmy to the world of physical preparation and sports performance
  • The difference between the volleyball club season compared to other sports
  • Managing and creating programs for volleyball athletes
  • The physical qualities that volleyball athletes need to be able to compete at the highest level
  • How Jimmy differentiates developing an athlete compared to managing an athlete
  • Why Jimmy focuses more on building a durable, adaptable, and robust athlete instead of helping them become bigger, faster, or stronger
  • Why consistency is the key to becoming a star athlete
  • Training an aging athlete vs training a young, healthy, and resilient athlete
  • What a typical day looks like for the athletes Jimmy trains
  • Advice Jimmy would give to his younger self

 

Connect with Jimmy:

 

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Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode of The Physical Preparation Podcast with Mike Robertson – your one-stop-shop for fitness trainers, coaches, and athletes.

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