Aquinas Volleyball Gains Edge With Off-Season Training Program

Strength and conditioning at the small college level can be challenging. Most schools do not have a position that focuses specifically on physical conditioning. At many schools the head coach of each sport is in charge of the teams strength training.

At Aquinas College, the women’s volleyball program, under the direction of head coach Ryan Campbell, entrusts their workouts to PowerStrength Training Systems.

“I started out trying to do things by myself, but I wasn’t an expert in weight training, I wanted to focus on the volleyball side of things and X’s and O’s,” Campbell, who has led the Saints for the last 5 years, said. “That was part of the big reason for going with PowerStrength was knowing that we were going to get the best weight training program, in my opinion, in the area. Proven success, all the athletes they’ve had both on the men’s and the women’s side. Working with the trainers at PowerStrength, they gear it towards that sport and I think that is so important because training for softball or baseball is a lot different than training for volleyball. Knowing that PowerStrength has worked with other athletes, not including my team, but other volleyball athletes has been a huge benefit and a trust factor when it comes to PowerStrength.”

In total, the Saints have 30 sports and limited space in the weight room and the gym. The women’s volleyball team trains at PowerStrength’s 12,000 square foot facility in Kentwood, 1 of 4 PowerStrength locations in West Michigan. The space not only includes state of the art equipment, but a large turf area for speed and agility training.

“Aquinas doesn’t have a huge space to work out, we don’t have any of the turf, this has a bigger area, a lot of athletes use it so it is nice to have a big space to be workout in,” Aquinas junior outside hitter Mel Beachnau said.

“I don’t think a lot of teams in our conference have this opportunity, and since we have a smaller gym at Aquinas, being here and having as much room as we do and the freedom to do certain things, ” Aquinas sophomore defensive specialist Chloe Hogarth said. “It’s a really good experience.”

YEARS OF SUCCESS

Campbell was the head coach at Cornerstone University for 10 seasons prior to taking over at Aquinas. He has been sending his teams to PowerStrength for off-season team training for 13 years.

“I think a big part of any sport is mental toughness and when you go through the weight training program at PowerStrength, I think it makes you more mentally tough.” Campbell said. “Usually when people struggle in competition, it’s usually when they get too tired so they are not athletic enough. I try to find solid athletes and try to make them that much better through PowerStrength. I think it helps with preventing injuries that you’ll see in other teams where maybe lifting isn’t that big of a priority, or maybe it is a big priority, but maybe the coach runs it and doesn’t know exactly the form and people end up getting hurt through the lifts. I feel very confident knowing that the trainers at PowerStrength, working with our girls, know how to motivate, but also know how to teach the correct form to avoid some of those injuries that you may see in the weight room.”

RESULTS

PowerStrength works with all of their athletes tailoring their workouts to create success in their specific sport. The training program for the Aquinas women’s volleyball team centers around movements that apply on the court -jumping higher, upper body strength, and being pain free.

“We train mostly shoulders and legs to get our vertical up and volleyball is an overhead sport so we need strong shoulders and arms too,” Beachnau said.

“They are very fast paced and I like how it is focused for our sport,” Hogarth said. “The jump training, speed and agility, it really reflects on the court when we are here.”

The team made great progress during the training program. The average improvements from the entire team were:

Got more explosive by adding an inch to their vertical jump
Improved strength by adding nearly 3 reps to their max chin-ups max set
Increased agility and quickness dropping .19 seconds from their 20-yard shuttle (that’s an entire full step quicker)

“My freshman year my vertical increased by 3 or 4 inches. From the start of PowerStrength 3 months ago, my vert has increased by 2.5 inches already, that was the halfway point (of the spring program),” Beachnau said.

“My vertical has increased, but it doesn’t apply to me as much because I am in the back row, but last year I think it increased 2.5 or 3 inches, it was pretty good. For my position it is more the speed and agility stuff, that has increased a lot, and footwork. Ankle strength too with the side-to-side movements,” Hogarth said

The Secret Weapon Behind a Decade of Results

Skyler Davis is the long-time Director of Training and Programming at PowerStrength and leads the sessions for the Aquinas women’s volleyball team. His vast knowledge and experience has helped countless PowerStrength athletes gain the edge desire, and it has led to tremendous success for college volleyball players participating in the off-season training program too.

“Skyler, our trainer, I’ve known him for over a decade now, he’s worked with all of our teams and we’ve seen some great improvements,” Campbell said. “I’ve had girls touching 9 ‘4” and leaving after 4 years touching 9’ 10.” I had another player that was touching 10’ and left touching 10’ 6” which is off the charts for NAIA. Wherever we get the girls, they build them even more and usually a couple inches, 3, 4, 5, 6 inches on their vertical which is super important for volleyball, you gotta get up there and you gotta block, you gotta hit over people. Working with Skyler, he makes it so fun for the girls, it is challenging for them, but he makes it where it’s a fun environment and turns a lot of the training into competition and games that the girls really push themselves and enjoy doing and have a blast doing all while getting stronger, getting faster, and getting more mentally tough through his trainings.”

PowerStrength has worked with many dedicated volleyball athletes over the years. From the the youth level, all the way up through college players, and entire teams. The program has proven to enhance their performance, equipping them with the skills to excel on the court.

“Volleyball, first and foremost, is a power sport,” Davis said. “It’s quick, it’s violent, you have to jump high, you have to move fast, you have to be able to cover the court. What we do from a training standpoint is we make sure we prioritize that. Many folks start with a strength deficit, we have to get stronger, we have to get stronger the right way. We’re not training like every other football player out there and we are not training like every other gym out there, we want to customize toward volleyball and what they need, getting legs strong, getting shoulders strong, to be able to jump well, to be able to cover the court, and to be able to swing violently. From that power training perspective we want to just focus on what they need and not overdue a bunch of the body building stuff too. Their reps are on the court, so we don’t need to blow out their knees and ankle and shoulders in training, we are going to choose the best joint safe training methodologies that we can, and we are going to build a whole bunch of power so they can continue to compete year-round and get their touches, but still really raise the ceiling of what they can do on the court.”

Aquinas went 31-9 last fall qualifying for the NAIA National Tournament. The Saints credit a lot of their success to their training at PowerStrength.

“(Skyler) pushes us every rep, he wants it to be our best,” Hogarth said. “It is the same mentality when you are on the court, you want to perform your best and do your best, and it is the same expectations here. It’s a really good mental focus.”

TEAM BONDING

Most successful teams start with a tight-knit bond among the players. The off-season is an ideal time for that team chemistry to form, and team training at PowerStrength is doing just that for this Saints team.

“I like how it is with the team,” Beachnau said. “I like working out by myself, but this is a great place to bond with the team without coaching being here. We can push each other harder because you may not think that you can hit a lift because it is heavier than you are used to and then your teammates cheer you on and it is easy and you can do it, improving like that over time.”

“At the beginning of the year we have a camp that we do at Aquinas and that is a really big preseason team bonding thing and I feel like it kind of drifts off when we are out of season,” Hogarth said. “Now that we are in our spring season (PowerStrength) is a good way to still see people everyday during the week and still have those stronger relationships whereas when we’re around each other more rather than out of season.”

During the spring the team practices 2 days a week and trains at PowerStrength 2 days a week.

EXPERT TRAINING

The off-season training program is beneficial to each member of the team. For the new members, the freshman or 1st year Aquinas players, many times they have not been taught proper technique prior to coming to PowerStrength. For the more experienced players, they get pushed to maximize their results.

“Skyler will teach the correct form and that is something that a lot of girls have never had,” Campbell said. “We have girls that have been through weight training programs in high school, but a lot of them have never even touched a weight, and I think he is great for the beginners and learning the form, and I think he is good at critiquing those who’ve been in the weight room and kind of know their way around, but maybe some form and hiccups here and there helps them go to the next level with their weight training.”

The off-season training is not about just going through the motions. The program is designed to make everyone better, have fun, and be in a great environment. The athletes get after it and the trainers push them to be their best.

“Most of the trainers that we’ve had are just very energetic and they will push you and challenge you if they see you have too little weight on there, they are going to let you know to bump up that weight, or you have already hit that weight, go to the next weight,” Campbell said. “The different variety is so important in weight training. You can go in and say let’s go squat everyday, but they work different muscles using different sets of training and I think that is very valuable the depth that they have in regards to training each muscle and having different exercises for the same muscle to avoid some of that fatigue or burnout that you see in weight training.”

The team took full advantage of their off-season training. While practicing twice a week, they still worked hard in the gym, got better, and set themselves up for a great summer and then into their fall season.

“The girls did a great job this winter into spring,” Davis said. “They were getting after it everyday with huge passion, huge energy, huge attention to detail and that is really important training for volleyball trying to build power, trying to build an increase in vertical and doing it on top of their spring season. I know they are busy, they have practices, they have games, scrimmages – those kinds of things – and they still come with huge energy everyday ready to train. The leaders did a really good job keeping the team on track, making sure that they are ready to attack everyday and the new girls, the freshman, the transfers did a really good job of kind of picking up and running with it and investing in the system kind of locking in and building right away and saw huge results as a result of that, which is awesome!”

SEASON PREVIEW

The 2023 season was a bounce back effort for the Saints and they are working hard at PowerStrength to try and take their game to even another level in the fall.

“Our 2022 season was pretty rough,” Campbell said. “We lost some players to injuries and various things happened out of our control and our girls worked hard the following year at PowerStrength, we worked hard in the gym and got their reps up. We got in a few more recruits, got more depth at each position, we lost some key players, but we also return a good amount of solid players, and in our recruiting class we have 2 division 1 transfers actually that are going to finish their graduate degree here, taking their 5th and potentially 6th year here at Aquinas, and both of those girls have worked out at PowerStrength. They are going to add depth to our program and I think we should be pretty solid this year.”

Mallory Keller transferred from Indiana State, she is originally from Hudsonville, and Bella Hommes is coming in from Eastern Michigan, she is a Forest Hills Northern grad.

The girls will go their separate ways for the summer. They will continue to train and build on the incredible foundation they built for several months at PowerStrength. This is very important as many have used the summer months to separate themselves from the rest with hard work and dedication.

“In the summertime we do other workouts,” Campbell said. “My preferred method is they stay local and workout at PowerStrength and a lot of them have, in fact most of my All-Americans over the years that have worked with PowerStrength have not only lifted at in the spring season, but then gone on and lifted there in the summer as well. So we are looking at 24 weeks at PowerStrength, and those are the ones where you really see a huge difference from where they started in January all the way up until August when we start playing.”

The Aquinas Women’s Volleyball team has worked very hard this off-season at PowerStrength and have set themselves up for future success.

“I’ve always enjoyed working with PowerStrength and knowing that I can trust them and not always having to be there, and knowing that they are going to get the job done and get our girls in their peak shape,” Campbell said.

“I just think PowerStrength has been a huge part of my success as a coach.”

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