Volleyball Injury Prevention Tips

Steven Khuu   MScPT
Registered Physiotherapist
Varsity and Competitive Volleyball Player
updated Feb 24, 2025

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Volleyball is an exciting and fast-paced sport, being played in many different ways. Unfortunately, like all physical activities, it carries a specific injury profile. Volleyball requires intense bursts of activity and aggressive movements such as jumping, diving, quick direction changes, and repetitive actions. These can can put stress on various parts of the body.

We want to keep you in the game; healthy and playing at your optimal level. Here are some of the most common volleyball injuries and basic tips for preventing them.

 

1. Ankle Sprains

It’s no surprise that ankle sprains are one of the most frequent areas of injury in volleyball, often caused by landing awkwardly after a jump or on another player’s foot. This can stretch or tear the ligaments in the ankle, leading to pain, swelling, and limited mobility.

Prevention Tip: Proper warm-up and strengthening exercises for the ankle muscles can help prevent sprains. Additionally, proprioception exercises, which challenge the balance and stability of your ankle in space are especially important if you’ve had a previous ankle sprain. Wearing an ankle brace can also provide extra stability when returning to play after an ankle injury. Unfortunately I know all too well these seemingly innocuous twists can linger and recur if they aren’t handled properly from the get go!

 

2. Knee Injuries (Patellar Tendinopathy)

The repetitive jumping and landing motions in volleyball can put stress on the knee and lead to patellar tendinopathy, also known as jumper’s knee. This injury affects the tendon connecting your quadriceps (front of thigh) muscle and kneecap to the shinbone and causes pain and sometimes swelling.

Prevention Tip: Building resilience and load tolerance through strengthening the quadriceps, gluteal muscles, and hamstrings, and considering a good warm up before playing, can reduce the strain on your knees. Additionally, proper landing technique is essential to avoid tendon overload (along with other, more acute knee injuries!)

 

3. Shoulder Injuries

Shoulder injuries are common in volleyball players, due to repetitive overhead motions involved in spiking and serving. Rotator cuff injuries, tendinopathy, and labrum (cartilage) injuries are all frequent sources of pain in the shoulders for volleyball players.

Prevention Tip: Building strength and endurance in the rotator cuff, a group of muscles that help to stabilize your shoulder joint, is key to preventing injury. Additionally, adequate thoracic (mid back) mobility and ensuring muscles surrounding your shoulder blade (scapula) are synergizing to properly control overhead shoulder movement will reduce shoulder strain. Players should also consider their technique when spiking and serving to further reduce your risk of shoulder injury. The high-elbow versus low-elbow technique is a controversial point of debate in the volleyball world – which you can pick my brain about in person!

 

4. Finger Injuries

The fast-paced nature of volleyball means players often suffer from sprained or jammed fingers due to contact with the ball or other players. This can lead to ligament damage or even fractures.

Prevention Tip: With the fast pace of an all-out volleyball game, sometimes you just can’t avoid a finger contacting the ball at just the wrong angle. The timing and position of your hands/fingers when performing a blocking movement will reduce the risk of a jammed finger. I can attest – a jammed thumb is easily reaggravated by seemingly benign stimulus, so getting a proper rehab plan (yes, you can strengthen your fingers and thumb) will not only help you return to play faster and reduce your risk of recurrence, but can also greatly improve your ball handling strength!

 

5. Lower Back Strain

Volleyball is filled with repetitive bending, jumping/landing, and twisting motions. This can easily lead to lower back strains and in some cases, the onset of disc-related lower back pain.

Prevention Tip: Proper and balanced hip mobility and increased core/hip strength are keys to reducing strain on your back. It’s worthwhile to take the time to work on these areas to safely be able to perform the dynamic movements of the sport and avoid excess load transferred to the lower back. A bonus effect of great core strength is more powerful spikes!

 

Final Thoughts

While volleyball is a great social sport that can be enjoyed at all skill levels, bringing you from the beach to the court, injuries can be minimized with proper preparation, technique, and load management. If you want to minimize your risk of injury or are dealing with any of the above – getting sound guidance from an experienced physiotherapist is a great place to start!