Who Is Alessandro Michieletto: Career, Stats and What Sets Him Apart

Alessandro Michieletto is an outside hitter for Italy's men's national volleyball team and for Trentino Volley, born on 5 December 2001 in Desenzano del Garda, in the province of Brescia. With Italy he won the 2021 European Championship and two straight World Championships, in 2022 and 2025, where he was named MVP of the tournament. He is considered one of the most complete outside hitters around, above all for how solid he is in the back half of the court.

Profile: the essential facts

• Name: Alessandro Michieletto
• Date of birth: 5 December 2001
• Place of birth: Desenzano del Garda (Brescia)
• Position: outside hitter (position 4)
• Club: Trentino Volley, shirt number 5
• Height: Trentino Volley's official profile lists 211 cm; other profiles report 201 cm. Either way, well over two metres.
• Family: son of former volleyball player Riccardo Michieletto; his sisters Francesca and Annalisa play volleyball
• Instagram: @alessandro_michieletto

From Serie D to the first team

Michieletto joined Trentino Volley's youth system around 2015 and started at the bottom, in Serie D. From there he moved up one division at a time — Serie C, B, A3 — until he reached the first team in 2020.

It's a detail worth underlining, because it says something unglamorous but true: even obvious talents spend several years playing in leagues nobody watches. There was no leap: there was a progression.

The national team

The Italy youth teams came early: called up to the Under-17s in 2017, he lined up a European Under-18 bronze in 2018 and an Under-19 world title in 2019.

In 2021 he joined the senior squad. That same year he played the Tokyo Games and then won the European Championship, where he was named best outside hitter of the tournament. At twenty.

From then on he has been one of Italy's fixed points:

• 2022 — gold at the World Championship.
• 2025 — gold at the World Championship, a second straight title, with the final won 3-1 against Bulgaria. Michieletto was named MVP of the tournament.

Italy's men had never won two World Championships in a row before this cycle.

What makes him different from a "normal" attacker

Looking at a player that tall, the temptation is to think it all comes down to height and power. That's not what the coaches who work with him say.

He does the full round

Michieletto isn't an attacker who disappears when the ball is on the other side. He passes, he digs, he serves. In a position where plenty of players specialise in attack only, his value is that the coach never has to hide him in serve receive.

Repeat jumping

In top-level men's volleyball you jump dozens of times per set, often straight after throwing yourself on the floor to dig. The quality that counts isn't the single maximal jump: it's being able to repeat high jumps in the fourth set the way you did in the first. That's built with strength, load tolerance and recovery, not with genetics.

Handling mistakes

A position 4 who passes and attacks makes a lot of errors, inevitably. The players who hold that role for a whole season are the ones who don't drop out of the match after two errors in a row.

What you can actually copy

Not the height. But three things, yes:

1. Train the whole position, not just the attack. If your passing is poor, the coach takes you off the court even if you hit hard.
2. Build strength before chasing power. Power is strength expressed fast: without the first, the second doesn't turn up.
3. Work on repeat jumping, not just the maximal one. In a match you need the fortieth jump, not the first.

The starting point: knowing how high you jump

Before you pick a program, you need a number. The feeling of "I think I'm jumping higher" after a few weeks of training is almost always unreliable.

On the site there's a free jump test: you upload a two-second video of yourself jumping and the system works out the height in centimetres from your flight time. The video never leaves your device. The method is always the same: measure first, then train, then measure again.

JHP programs for outside hitters

• Spike Revolution — 16 weeks dedicated to spiking, €60.
• Volley Powershot — arm power in attack, bodyweight only, €40.
• Jump Higher Program — 10 weeks on your jump, bodyweight only, €60.
• Volley In-Season Workout — 16 weeks across pre-season and season, €90.
• The full list is on the JHP courses page.

With the JHP subscription at €99/year you get all 13 programs, WhatsApp support and free cancellation.

You might also like: How to spike harder in volleyball · How high do volleyball players jump