Haikyuu!: Hinata's Invisible Training Modes

Key things

• Hinata went beyond team practices, practicing on the streets and beaches to improve her volleyball skills.
• Hinata's invisible off-screen training regimen, including speed drills and cycling, contributed to his growth.
• Hinata's transformation during the two-year hiatus and experience with beach volleyball in Brazil had greatly improved his skills.

To become a professional in any sport, team practices are essential, but reaching the top means more than just team practices, especially for Shoyo Hinata, a 5' 4.6″ tall boy with a passion for volleyball in Haikyuu!! series. Upon entering Karasun, Hinata realized how far she was in terms of achieving professional volleyball player status.

Instead of relying solely on team training, Hinata took to the streets, the beach, and empty courts to train. Anything that would allow him to improve. With his relentless determination to improve, this schoolboy turned professional, but with many unprecedented training regimes and innovative procedures after Haikyuu!! series.

Methods of initial training

Maximum use of limited resources

Hinata Shoyo has always been very athletic, despite her height. In his early years, the young volleyball player trained most of the time alone, running and jumping to improve his already given talent. Since he had no volleyball team in high school, team practices did not exist; however, since volleyball is a team sport, Hinata would gather some of his friends who, despite their inexperience in the game, would at least help Hinata practice passing the ball. Even in competitions, Hinata's team usually didn't just serve as filler, as the young volleyball player tried to do everything by himself and compensated with his speed as he constantly ran around the court. Despite no formal training, Hinata made up for it with determination and innovation. As many mocked him for his height, he simply shut them down with his speed and vertical leap.

After getting to Karasun, Hinata began real team training. Through her team practices, Hinata learned things like receiving, serving, and even the infamous fast attack between him and Kageyama. The indoor volleyball training that Karasuno went through allowed him to learn many things. During team practice matches, defense and receiving drills were essential for a 5' 4.6″ individual who knew how to run, jump and barely score. Volleyball is about more than just scoring and Hinata had to learn at least the basics to be a team player In addition to receiving, Hinata had to learn to function as a blocker despite his height, and his high vertical jumps played a large role in him being able to successfully block the opponent's attacks, while team practices were a large part of Hinata's growth he wanted to become.He needed more than just standard and formal volleyball training, and that's where his unprecedented training regimens came into play.

Training beyond official procedures

The hidden work behind Hinata's growth

The actual training that increased Hinata's speed, explosive power, and vertical jumps was off screen. On screen, he mainly showed the results of what he had trained himself. For her speed and agility, Hinata definitely practiced cone drills, which would be weaving cones in a straight line. In addition to basic training, it helps especially when changing directions quickly and being agile enough with speed, not just fast.

Due to his sheer speed, Karasuno was often seen running long distances, and Hinata no doubt did this in addition to sprinting on her own. In addition, Hinata is known to ride his bike to and from the mountains every day, which greatly improves his muscle strength, flexibility, and balance.

For her explosive strength training, Hinata began by not looking at the ball at all. By the time he joined Karasuno and he and Kageyama launched a quick attack, Hinata simply shot the ball through without aiming or looking at where it would land. That finally changed as Hinata began targeting the area to poke the ball. Rather than simply jump and stab, a critical attack technique called approach and spike would be used. This technique emphasizes the footwork leading up to the spike in which the individual would jump and hit the ball at the highest point and direct the spike. Fans of the series have simply seen the speedy attacking duo use this move in-game, but the training leading up to it has mostly been off the courts. This simple change to the opening of his eyes improved Hinata's overall stabbing ability, if only by a little. The biggest change, however, came off-screen, during the Brazilian time jump.

Experience from Brazil

Hinata's biggest transformation event was off screen

After the Tokyo Nationals Arc, which took place mainly in the manga, Hinata felt she wasn't up to the level to compete at the world level. Instead of joining Kageyama and the others who went straight to playing at the world level, Hinata took a two-year break to practice volleyball and improve her skills. This time there was a leap where Hinata truly became a versatile volleyball player who could excel even without the court king at her side. Before the time jump, Hinata's strengths were his speed, jumping power, and endurance. However, he was sorely lacking in game sense, technique and strength.

Beach volleyball made Hinata improve all of her weaknesses, but she never exhausted them. The move to beach volleyball rather than indoor volleyball has forced Hinata to become versatile as there are fewer players, making each player much more important. Plus, with the beach comes wind and sand. Wind that changes the direction of the ball and sand that affects the agility of those who play on it. Having played in such conditions for two years, Hinata adapted to react to unpredictable factors and improved her footwork and overall technique.

Hinata's unconventional training in Brazil served a completely different purpose than what he would have learned in the official training matches. The unpredictability of beach volleyball and the many factors that go into it are very different from formal matches, but Hinata chose this form of training regimen that existed beyond simple and formal team practices. This is very similar to the difference between professional basketball and street basketball. As for the unseen training regimens, Hinata decided it would be best for him to go to the beach in Brazil to practice volleyball.

Studying the Game

Hinata's tactical growth through observation

One of Hinata's most overlooked training regimens, as much as it may seem, is simply observation. When observing, Hinata does not participate in practice matches by merely watching others practice or play. Very few people in the series consider this a form of training, seen or unseen, but Hinata has shown that he has learned a lot just by watching others. Especially during the first year of selective boot camp where Hinata crashed, he was told to serve as a ball boy and was not allowed to train in any official training.

However, Karasun's Ultimate Decoy chose to learn and train through observation. The ball boy primarily receives balls and maintains the court, but by watching the others play, Hinata discovered how the players moved in sync with each other and paid attention to the movements of their teammates. To retrieve balls as a ball boy, Hinata decided not only to run after the ball after it went out of bounds, but to be in the right place at the right time to catch any ball. This required him to keep a close eye on the ball and where it would be. In order to get to where the ball would be faster than the ball itself, Hinata used the split step technique, a technique a friend had taught him in high school for tennis practice. In this way, despite not being invited or allowed to train, Hinata created a form of training for herself, outside of the official training sessions.

Mental preparation

The quiet development of new thinking

Every successful athlete needs and will undergo enough mental toughness to become the best. However, it is not something Haikyuu!! the series actively depicts Hinata doing. As an athlete with as many disadvantages as Hinata, Karasun's would-be ace was no doubt engaged in mental training, especially developing his mindset, thinking about his mistakes, and visualizing. Hinata's growth in mind is especially evident when she declares that she no longer desires to become another Little Giant and would rather become the Ultimate Decoy. In this way, Hinata realized that while the Little Giant was cool, his skills and overall personality were better suited to becoming something else. This kind of thinking and decision had to be built brick by brick instead of suddenly realizing it because becoming a Little Giant is something he always dreamed of.

In addition to his thinking, Hinata has been known to engage in visualization exercises by playing out different scenarios in her head. This in turn allows him to anticipate what the opponent might do in the actual match and also helps him mentally prepare and calm his emotions to match the expectations in his head.

Although this form of training was not actively displayed Haikyuu!! series, it is undoubtedly one of the things that allowed Hinata to be as successful as she is today. It's safe to say that without that, he'd still be that young, inexperienced kid just running around the court hoping to be useful to his teammates without really learning the game. So this workout is definitely the most important thing for fans to keep an eye on when examining the regimen that the little man on the court has decided to rely on in his search for improvement.

Haikyuu!! is available to watch on Crunchyroll.