Warming Up the Serve

Welcome to Rowe Strength and Conditioning. I wanted my first blog on this website to be a little of an explanation. My business is composed of two facets: strength and rehabilitation training, and volleyball. So, my blog posts will likely fall under those two categories. I also realized a number of months ago that I'm not great at writing blog posts. Mine tend to be too wordy, too technical, as I prefer to read and write in essay form. I realize that blogs are not really supposed to be written that way, so if you're reading one of my posts and it's just way to convoluted, I apologize.

A huge portion of my strength and rehabilitation is informed by principles I've learned through the Postural Restoration Institute® (PRI). These principles have so much to do with the position of our bones and joints, and with the connective tissue of ligaments, tendons, and muscles that are responsible for moving that skeleton around. It is about human movement and the patterns that we all gravitate towards based on our repetitive daily movements and posture. My strength and rehab training is based on assessing the position of my client first, trying to achieve neutrality second, and training an equal alternating pattern from left to right and back to left during gait third. Any performance based goals must lie on top of a solid foundation so as to prevent energy leaks or an increased risk of injury down the road.

Volleyball has been a passion since grade 9. I started playing in grade 8, along with basketball, soccer, and rugby. But in grade 9 is where I really started to learn to love the game, and I really credit the coaches I had during that time. From there I kept playing soccer and basketball, but after high school, volleyball took over as my main focus. I've finished my career in 2010, and previous to that I had also started my coaching career. So, as I look back, it's been over 20 years that I've been involved with volleyball − and I still love it! Part of what I want to write about regarding volleyball will be a combo of strength and conditioning and skill. Another part will be about coaching. And another part will be about skill itself. I spend all my time coaching grades 8 to 12, so all of my experience will be related to the school and club aged players and coaches. The strength and conditioning part will be geared towards high performance, but that doesn't preclude high school aged athletes.

Lastly, I chose the title Warming Up the Serve because the first thing you do in a training session is warm up, and you begin a volleyball game with a serve. This is my first blog for my site, so I'm just getting things going. I look forward to your interactions and your questions, and I do hope I can keep some semblance of coherence so I don't lose you as a reader.

I end with one of my all time favourite quotes:

"All that is gold does not glitter; not all those who wander are lost. The old that is deep does not whither; deep roots are not reached by the frost" - Bilbo Baggins.