The Citadel women’s volleyball team
Background
- Founded in 1998 as part of Title IX regulations, The Citadel’s women’s volleyball program worked hard to build a competitive team.
- From 1998 to 2018, their average conference record was 1-17, ranking among the lowest in the Southern Conference.
- In 2018 The Citadel had more concussions than they had conference wins (8 versus 4)
- New head coach Dave Zelenock sought new training strategies to help his athletes build strength, resilience, and on-court readiness.
Intervention
- During the 2018-19 offseason, The Citadel integrated TopSpin360 into their training program.
- Players trained twice per week, completing three sets of 30 revolutions per session, totaling less than 5 minutes per athlete per week.
Observations
- Three consecutive ZERO concussion seasons (and counting)
- The Citadel won the Southern Conference Championship in 2021 and the Regular Season Title in 2023.
- Second last NCAA team to lose a game (24 straight wins)
- Pre TopSpin360 RPI ranking = 309/334. Post TopSpin360 RPI ranking = 94. Improvement of 215 places.
- Since incorporating TopSpin360 training, players and coaches have reported increased neck strength and stability as part of their overall performance strategy.
Note: This case study presents observations from The Citadel’s training program. While these results are promising, they are anecdotal and do not imply that TopSpin360 prevents concussions or injuries.
