The Sports Nutrition Playbook · Amy Goodson

Ep. 66 Strength & Conditioning for the Volleyball Athlete

·33 min·2 clips

“We can't sell the injuries that didn't happen,” and seven days a week means “junky 80% intensity.”

1. The Sports Nutrition Playbook episode centers on strength and conditioning for the volleyball athlete, with Amy Goodson and Missy Mitchell-McBeth focusing on middle school, high school, club, and college pathways. 2. Amy Goodson is the host and veteran sports dietitian, and Missy Mitchell-McBeth is a strength coach, athletic performance coach, and author of Developmental to Division One. 3. The episode asks what volleyball players actually need to build a foundation strong enough for college-level play. 4. Missy says the book grew out of Byron Nelson High School’s 2019 state championship run and the questions she got afterward about programming. 5. She explains that people kept asking about volleyball-specific work even though she was training 12 other sports and 19 other groups. 6. Missy says she fought the volleyball branding for a long time before deciding to lean into it because “you don’t really get to decide your brand.” 7. The conversation shifts to a direct defense of strength and conditioning for young volleyball athletes, especially against fears about heavy lifting. 8. Missy points out that weightlifting has one of the lowest injury rates in sports and says properly coached resistance training is not inherently dangerous. 9. She cites a 50% reduction in injury rate from resistance training and says those numbers matter in a year-round sport. 10. Missy says athletes can start anytime if they have proper instruction and progression, because there is no unsafe age by itself. 11. The discussion then moves to the workload problem in volleyball, where six-week vertical jump blocks are compared to a nutrition plan built on “talkies and pop tarts.” 12. Missy argues that the modern volleyball landscape leaves little real off-season time and that taking time off is often the hardest practical solution. 13. She says athletes playing seven days a week are not training at maximal intensity and are learning in a fatigue state. 14. Amy and Missy connect that idea to recovery, noting that professional sports protect rest far more consistently than youth and college volleyball. 15. Missy frames foundation work around basic movement patterns such as squatting, pushing, pulling, hinging, sprinting, jumping, and landing. 16. She says the point of strength and conditioning is to fill gaps rather than copy the same movements already repeated on the court. 17. The tone is practical and direct, with Amy asking applied questions and Missy answering in a teaching style that uses examples from club volleyball and D1 athletics. 18. The format is interview-based and conversational, with repeated back-and-forth clarifications on training volume, nutrition, and recovery. 19. Athletes, parents, coaches, and trainers who want a volleyball strength-and-conditioning framework will get the most from this episode. 20. Listeners looking for casual sports chatter without training, nutrition, or recovery detail may skip it.

As heard by us

A clear reminder that volleyball training works best when the basics come first.

This episode argues for volleyball training that starts with the basics: stable movement, simple strength, and sound technique before anyone reaches for sport specific work.

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Why you'd press play

You want volleyball training that starts with the basics, not the flashy stuff.

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