Editor's note: Breaking a Sweat is an occasional series examining the ideal physique for various sports and fitness activities. It also looks at how the activity benefits as well as stresses the body.

If you want to play volleyball at the elite level, you better start doing abdominal crunches now.

When it comes to driving the ball over the net, a strong core, it turns out, is as important as strong legs and shoulders.

"I played a couple of sand tournaments a couple of weeks ago and that was the first thing that was sore, my abs," says Lauren Budde, middle hitter with the Washington University Bears.

As she describes it, players do what amounts to a mid-air abdominal crunch — picture the body in a V shape — that places their hands over the net and their feet beneath it when blocking and killing the ball. This allows them to transfer energy from the ground up through their body and into their arms and hands. They use the core muscles again to rotate off the net and get positioned for the next play when they land.

According to Dale Huff, owner of Athletic Republic Sports Performance in Frontenac, vertical jump is the big buzz phrase in volleyball because everyone wants to increase it.

He estimates that highly competitive male players can jump 40 inches off the ground.

But he takes a broader view of how to train, because volleyball is a full-body sport.

"We look at knee tracking to make sure the ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) is healthy, that the knees are properly aligned and that their shoulders and core strength are strong so they're able to transfer energy from the ground to their arms," he says.

He also helps players focus on nutrition, which is essential for surviving several matches in one day.

Head • Needed for strategizing, quick thinking and hand-eye coordination. Volleyball is fast-paced and requires constant and intense focus.

Hands • The fingertips hit and guide the ball when performing overhead serves, passing and blocking. Broken and jammed fingers are common.

Feet, ankles and knees • Blocking requires lateral movement. Lots of footwork drills, such as running sprints in the shape of each letter of the alphabet, train the feet to move properly without thinking and help prevent common injuries such as sprained ankles and ACL tears.

Forearms and wrist • When bump-passing and digging, the ball touches the inside of the forearms. The wrist is snapped when trying to attack by driving the ball into the ground on the opponent's side.

Upper back and shoulders • Hitting the ball hard requires swinging the arms fast, which calls on the rotator cuff, trapezoids and deltoid muscles. When blocking, the shoulders are lifted near the ears. Bench presses, shoulder shrugs, rows with free weights, pull-ups and push-ups help create speed and power. They also help prevent common overuse injuries including tears to the rotator cuff and scapular muscles.

Core • When blocking and hitting the ball down, players do what amounts to a mid-air abdominal crunch that places their hands over the net and their feet beneath it. They then transfer the power from their core to their arms. Crunches, planks and clean squats keep the core strong and prevent lower back injuries.

Hips and glutes • Must keep them low to dig balls off the floor when playing defense.

Quadriceps and hamstrings • Both need to be strong for jumping, explosiveness and to hold the body low when playing defense. Weight-lifting, jumping rope and doing squats and plyometric jumps on and off boxes strengthen these muscles.

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VOLLEYBALL TIPS

Lauren Budde

Budde, 21, is a middle hitter for Washington University Bears volleyball team. She is a senior double-majoring in accounting and finance. She has been playing volleyball since she was in fourth grade in Breese.

Strong jumper • At 5 foot 10, she's short for an university middle hitter. They're usually more than 6-feet tall. But she has a 28-inch vertical jump.

Drills • Budde and her teammates practice passing and setting to learn each other's timing and how they move. "It's more experience than anything. Practice makes perfect," she says. Coaches will also lob and hurl balls at players. Or they'll drop a tennis ball over the net and the players have to run from the back of the court and catch it before it bounces twice.

Intense focus is essential • "The hard part is staying in your own mind," Budde says. "If you make a mistake, you have to forget about it and look forward to the play at hand."

Sand courts • Moving around and jumping are a bigger challenge in sand volleyball and the nets are usually higher, because sand leagues are typically co-ed. Budde likes playing and practicing on it because it strengthens the ankles and knees.

Dale Huff

Huff is owner of Athletic Republic Sports Performance in Frontenac. He also consults with H2 St. Louis Volleyball Club.

The goal • We try to promote lean body mass so they can jump and accelerate quickly," Huff says. "Plus it's less wear and tear on the joints."

Squats, plyos • To build power in the legs, Huff has players do a lot of single-leg squats progressing into single-leg plyometric jumps, as well as pattern jumps to strengthen the gluteal muscles.

Eating is essential • Proper nutrition is important, especially during tournaments when teams can play several matches a day. "The players are at the mercy of what they have available at the concession stands, and we see a lot of athletes who break down during tournaments," Huff says. Female athletes need to eat between 1,800 and 2,800 calories a day and if they're over 6-feet tall, they need to be in the 3,000 range to promote bone density and muscle.

Getting hurt • Common injuries include ACL tears and knees strains and sprains from turning and twisting; sprained ankles from stepping on other players feet; torn rotator cuffs and scapular muscles from overusing the arms and shoulders and not building proper back strength; and lower back pain from weak core muscles.

Sidelined • Players practice safe rolling techniques for when they dive for balls, but Huff says dislocated shoulders are still quite common.