Who Is Linda Manfredini: Stats, Career and What It Takes to Play Middle Blocker

Linda Manfredini is a middle blocker born in 2006. From 2026/27 she plays for Conegliano, she captained the Italy side that won the Under 21 World Championship in 2025 and in 2026 she joined Velasco's senior national team group. At twenty she already has three best middle blocker awards at European youth level.

Profile: the key numbers

• Full name: Linda Manfredini
• Date of birth: 14 May 2006
• Place of birth: Modena
• Position: middle blocker
• Height: 186 cm
• Club 2026/27: Prosecco Doc Imoco Conegliano, shirt number 5
• National team: Italy, called up for the 2026 VNL
• Instagram: @linda.manfredinii

Her club career

Manfredini came up in Emilia: Pgs Fides Casinalbo, then Anderlini, where she went from Serie C to B2. In 2022/23 she made the jump to A2 with Sassuolo, at sixteen.

From there the climb was quick and tidy, one step at a time: A1 with Casalmaggiore in 2023/24, then two seasons in Bergamo from 2024 to 2026. In Bergamo she became a genuine starter, not a young player rotated in and out, and that is the step that changed her career.

In May 2026 Conegliano announced her as the first new face of the season. Wearing that shirt means one thing: training every day against the highest level Italian volleyball has to offer, and fighting for a spot in a stacked position group.

Her national team career

With the Italy youth teams the list is long:

• Silver at the 2021 Under 16 European Championship
• Gold at the 2022 Under 17 European Championship
• Bronze at the 2023 Under 19 World Championship
• Silver at the 2024 Under 20 European Championship
• Gold at the 2025 Under 21 World Championship, as captain

In the 2025 world final against Japan, won in the fifth set, she finished with 14 points and put away the decisive ball. On top of that she was named best middle blocker at three youth European Championships: Under 16 in 2021, Under 17 in 2022, Under 20 in 2024.

In 2026 came the step up to the senior national team: her debut with Julio Velasco's Italy, the best player award at the Aia Aequilibrium Cup in Genoa after wins over Serbia, Turkey and Poland, and a call-up for the Volleyball Nations League.

What it takes physically to play middle blocker at a high level

Middle blocker is the position the crowd watches least and coaches watch most. The reason is simple: a middle blocker doesn't live off a maximal jump, she lives off timing.

Think about what she is asked to do in a single rally. She reads the opposing set while she is still moving. She shuffles or crosses over two or three metres sideways. She arrives, plants, jumps with no approach and with her arms already up. And then she has to land ready to attack the quick on the other side.

All of it on a clock she doesn't control.

The physical qualities that actually matter in this position:

• Lateral movement speed. A middle who is slow on her feet is a middle who always arrives half a second late, and half a second at the net is a free point. You train it with specific change-of-direction work, not by running in a straight line.
• Repeated two-foot standing jump. The block jump starts with no approach and very little counter-movement. It is a different action from the attack jump and it has to be trained separately. Train only the approach jump and you gain almost nothing at the net.
• Reactive strength. Ground contact time has to be extremely short. This is where well-programmed plyometrics make the real difference, as long as there's a strength base underneath and the sessions are dosed properly.
• Ankle and knee durability. A middle blocker lands more often than anyone else, often off balance, often near other people's feet. Strengthening work is not optional.

Here's a detail a lot of people miss: 186 cm is not that tall for an A1 middle blocker. Manfredini plays at this level partly because she makes up for it with timing and jumping ability, not just with her frame. It is the most concrete proof that height doesn't decide on its own.

How to measure your jump (before you train it)

If you play in the middle, the number that matters isn't only how high you jump in attack: it's how high you jump on the block, from a standstill, after moving. Those are two different numbers and they need to be handled differently.

The starting point is the same though: having data. With the JHP jump test you upload a two-second video and get your height in centimetres from flight time. Free, the analysis runs in your browser, the video never leaves your device.

Then the work. For the reactivity you need at the net, Jumping Monster is a 14-day plyometrics block. To build the strength underneath, JHP Gym Edition spends 16 weeks in the weight room. And if your knees are complaining, start with Knee Power.

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