Your Journey to Hitting Harder with Less Pain Starts Here
Welcome to the Arm Swing Pocket Guide – A Free Resource for Volleyball Athletes, Coaches and Parents!
You’re in the right place if you’re looking to unlock more power in your attack and reduce shoulder and back pain while doing it.
This free resource was created to give athletes, coaches, and parents a deeper understanding of the arm swing—and provide practical tools to start making real, lasting changes.
We’ll walk you through how to begin making those changes physically, technically, and mentally—so you can hit harder, move better, and do it all with less pain.
Over the years, we’ve had the opportunity to work with thousands of club athletes across North America, consult with University programs in Canada and NCAA programs in the U.S., and help over 50 National Team, Professional, and Olympic athletes refine their swing mechanics. What we’ve seen time and time again is that better arm swing mechanics lead to higher velocities and fewer non-contact injuries—yet this knowledge still isn’t common in the volleyball world.
We’re on a mission to change that.
👇 Keep scrolling to dive into the lessons, drills, and insights we’ve developed. If you have any questions along the way, don’t hesitate to reach out—we’re here to help.
Why the Arm Swing? The Story Behind the Movement
It always helps to understand the "why" behind the work. In this section, Co-Founder Nick Del Bianco shares the story of how the Arm Swing Academy came to exist in this unique space—and why arm swing development is such a critical (and often overlooked) part of an athlete’s journey.
You’ll learn what led us to specialize in this area, the patterns we’ve seen across athletes at every level, and why this training can be a game-changer for both performance and long-term health.
👇 Hit play and get to know the movement behind the movement.
3 Non-Negotiables for a Powerful, Pain-Free Arm Swings
Not every athlete’s arm swing will (or should) look exactly the same—and that’s a good thing. But over the years, we’ve found that there are three key elements that show up consistently in the most powerful and sustainable (healthy) players arm swings.
These are our non-negotiables—the foundations we believe every volleyball athlete should build into their swing if they want to hit harder with less pain.
👇 Let’s break them down and show you why they matter.
Overview
Rotation
Low Draw Back
Looseness
Making Changes Physically
The arm swing is a dynamic, high-speed movement that places serious demands on the body—particularly the shoulders, spine, and surrounding tissues. To perform it well (and stay pain-free), athletes must be able to afford the positions their body moves through.
That means having enough mobility to access those ranges, and enough tissue capacity and strength to repeatedly handle the forces involved.
To truly improve your arm swing, you need to be strong, stable, and mobile in arm swing-specific positions—and that development happens off the court.
In fact, for many athletes, simply improving the physical side leads to more power and less pain, even before making technical adjustments to their swing.
In this section, we’ll dive into the physical bucket and help you:
Assess the basics of how your body moves in ways that directly affect your arm swing
Use a pre-volleyball movement prep to clean up patterns and prepare for the demands of the game
Access weight room resources to build strength and capacity in the areas that matter most
These tools are designed to create real, lasting change—so your body is prepared to support a more powerful, efficient, and resilient arm swing.
Improve your Rotation
Improve your Shoulder
Improve your Overhead Strength
Pre-Volleyball Movement Prep
Making Changes Technically
Now let’s get on court! 🏐
With a solid understanding of the physical foundations behind the arm swing—and as you begin building strength and mobility off the court—we can now shift focus to technical improvements that make an immediate impact.
In this section, we’re diving into what we see as one of the lowest-hanging fruits in arm swing development: the follow-through.
Far too many athletes—whether consciously or not—stop their body from fully rotating after contact. This not only limits power, but it often contributes to discomfort or injury over time.
We’ll break down this concept in detail and introduce you to a series of drills that have helped everyone from grassroots players to National Team athletes unlock more fluid, powerful swings.
👇 Let’s get into it and start reshaping the way your arm swing feels and performs.
The Technical Bucket
Step 1: Standing Throws
Step 2: Standing Attacks
Step 3: Jumping Throws
Step 4: Jumping Attacks
Making Changes Mentally
You're not done yet.
You can have the best weight room exercises…
You can run the best on-court drills…
But none of it will make a lasting difference if you’re not kind and patient with yourself as you go through the process.
Real change takes time. It’s not always pretty—and that’s okay.
Mistakes are part of the path to more velocity and less pain.
If you've found this resource helpful and you're ready for what’s next, here are a few ways to continue your journey:
Masterclass Course (coming soon) – A deep dive into unlocking your best arm swing. Walking you step-by-step through the process of identifying your current patterns and beginning the process of change from there.
Arm Swing Academy App – Make changes anytime, anywhere, right from the palm of your hand.
Arm Swing Clinics – Join us in person for a live, on-court experience designed to help you hit harder with less pain.
1-on-1 Coaching – Work directly with Coach Nick in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada for a personalized experience.
Next Steps
If you've found this resource helpful and you're ready for what’s next, here are a few ways to continue your journey towards more velocity and less pain:
Individuals
Teams
1. Virtual Coaching
The Arm Swing Academy App is where we work 1-on-1 with athletes—no matter where they are in the world.
Inside the app, you’ll get personalized arm swing coaching designed to help you hit with more velocity and less pain. Here’s how it works:
📹 Monthly video analysis – You send in clips of your arm swing, and we break it down for you with clear step-by-step actions on how to make your next arm swing upgrade.
Arm Swing Physical Self-Assessment — in the pocket guide we scratch the surface with the mini self-assessment. The one inside the Arm Swing Academy is so robust we use it with our top athletes from around the world.
💬 Ongoing chat support – Talk directly with your Arm Swing Coach for real-time feedback, accountability, and encouragement.
🏋️♂️ Tailored workout plans – Built around your experience level, available equipment, and current training.
🎓 Growing resource library – Access continually updated drills, progressions, and insights to guide your development.
Join the hundreds of Club, NCAA, National Team and Pro athletes that have come through the Academy before—and access impactful changes in the palm of your hand.
2. Arm Swing Clinics
Join us in person for a live, on-court experience designed to help you hit harder and with less pain.
These clinics are not your average volleyball camp.
Each session starts with an age-appropriate education segment to help athletes understand the why behind what we do. From there, we move into physical assessments and movement prep, exposing athletes to key physical contributors that impact power and pain—along with practical ways to start addressing them before practice or games. Then we take it to the court.
Using our proven arm swing progressions, athletes learn to generate more velocity—from the ground, into the air—in a way that’s both efficient and sustainable. Many athletes come into our clinics with shoulder or low back pain—the kind of pain that usually gets worse after practices or games.
But here’s what’s different:
After just 2 hours of targeted arm swing work, those same athletes often leave feeling better, not worse.That’s because we’re not just adding more reps—we’re teaching athletes to move in ways that are more efficient, powerful, and sustainable for their body.
But we don’t stop when the clinic ends.
Every clinic attendee receives 1 month of free access to the Arm Swing Academy App as part of their registration—so they can continue their progress, stay connected, and keep building momentum beyond the session.
3. 1-on-1 Coaching with Coach Nick – Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Looking for a truly personalized approach? Work directly with Coach Nick in a unique training environment where your needs dictate the plan.
Whether you’re dealing with pain, returning from an injury, chasing more velocity, or striving for long-term durability—we’ll use a blend of on-court and weight room work to unlock your next level.
Every athlete is different. Some need more movement re-patterning on court. Others need to build strength and tissue capacity off it. In our sessions, we’ll go where the biggest opportunities for change are.
The missing link in most rehab, performance, and durability programs is failing to connect the court and the weight room. In reality, they should inform each other—your strength work should improve your movement on court, and your movement on court should guide what you do in the gym.
That’s exactly how we approach 1-on-1 training—bridging the gap to help you move better, play harder, and stay healthier.
Matt Neaves - Team Canada & Professional in Japan
“After my first pro season and doing National Team in the summer, I strained my abdominals multiple times and was feeling worried about my next season. I had other nagging pain that wouldn’t go away in other areas too. I went to work with Nick a few weeks after I arrived in Germany and he helped my abdominals, shoulders, knees, back, and basically anything I threw at him. I was able to compete at my highest level consistently, and his programming and advice was a huge factor in this. Even being 8 hours time difference away, the communication was effortless. I’m really pleased with my progress and excited to continue working with Nick.”
4. Consulting (NCAA, USport, Pro)
We consult with high-level teams to help their athletes hit harder, stay healthier, and perform at a higher level—by transforming how the arm swing is taught, trained, and supported.
Whether it’s through in-person visits, virtual team consulting, or remote analysis of individual athletes, we offer tailored support built around the needs of your program.
Our consulting includes:
Arm swing assessments for individual athletes
Staff education on coaching cues, video analysis, and progressions
Integration with strength & conditioning and therapy teams to connect off-court work with on-court goals
Injury prevention strategies focused on shoulder, low back, abdominal, and knee health
Ongoing support to help your program sustain progress throughout the season
This framework is customized to each program based on your goals, needs, and available resources.
We’re most often brought in to support two key outcomes:
Improving athlete availability – so your players are healthy and ready to perform when it matters most
Increasing attack velocity – so athletes can hit harder and open up more scoring opportunities
Whether your focus is injury reduction, performance enhancement, or both, we’ll align with your staff to deliver support that fits your system and elevates your athletes.
Matt Jones
University of California Santa Barbara
Head Coach Women’s Volleyball
Nick was a pleasure to work with. He is polite and professional and has a very specific lens when it comes to armswing mechanics. I believe individuals and teams at any level can benefit from his knowledge. He is able to upscale or downscale his level of detail to the appropriate level. I also appreciate that he can talk about these things in a very palatable way for the general group but also dive into the science and physiological details with the coaches or others who have interest. He worked flawlessly with our athletic trainer and strength coach. It felt like a true partnership for the day or two he was on our campus. He has been very responsive with follow up since returning to Canada. We have supplemented our arm swing work with many of the warmups and drills he discussed with our team. We also have some players using his feedback on some specific movement pattern work for their individual warmups. We are very happy with the improvements we are seeing and look forward to having him back with our team in the future.
Adam Schreimer
Trinity Western University
Head Coach Men’s Volleyball
Working with Nick and Athlete Wellness Academy has been game changing for our program and our athletes. His innovative training methods have significantly increased our athletes’ physical tolerance, allowing them to train more often with far less pain. His expertise in arm swing mechanics is nothing short of genius; he stands at the forefront of training high level volleyball players and modern athletes.
Brock Davidiuk
University of Alberta
Head Coach Men’s Volleyball
Working with Nick from AWA over the last number of seasons has been very beneficial for our attackers. We’ve seen significant changes in arm swing mechanics resulting in improved velocity and health through biomechanics. His understanding of the arm swing and rich volleyball history have proven to be a game changer in the evolution we are seeing in Western Canada when it comes to how athletes utilize their arm and how coaches coach the arm swing.