Best Nasal Strips for Volleyball

For volleyball players, the best nasal strips are the ones built for sport: a firm spring that holds the nasal valve open and an adhesive that survives sweat through hours of practice or a five set match. A strip will not change your vertical jump or raise your VO2 max, but it lowers the resistance your nose creates on every breath, which makes nasal breathing far easier to hold onto in the pause between rallies. If your nose tends to collapse under hard effort, or you have a structural issue like a deviated septum, a strip compensates for that restriction before you even step onto the court.

I started using nasal strips for sleep after a Consultant Otolaryngologist at a private hospital in Dublin diagnosed me with a significantly deviated septum and recommended septorhinoplasty. I played rugby for over a decade and my nose took plenty of damage along the way, broken more than once in collisions. I put the surgery off to keep playing, and I built Ventriq to give myself a way to breathe properly in the meantime. I noticed the difference at night first, then during training. Anyone who plays a sport built around short explosive bursts like volleyball will know the exact moment I mean: your nose cannot keep up, you switch to your mouth, and your breathing turns ragged just when you need it calm for the next serve.

Why Nasal Breathing Matters in Volleyball

Volleyball is a rally sport. Each point lasts only a few seconds of maximum effort, jumping to block or spike, diving for a dig, sprinting to cover the court, followed by a pause while the next serve is set up. Your aerobic base is what resets your breathing in that pause, and how you breathe has a direct effect on how composed you feel by the time the next rally starts.

Nasal breathing slows your breathing rate, warms and humidifies the air before it reaches your lungs, and triggers a calmer autonomic response than mouth breathing. The nose also produces nitric oxide as air passes through it. Nitric oxide acts as a bronchodilator and a vasodilator, which means nasal breathing helps open your airways and relax your blood vessels, improving oxygen uptake at a tissue level. When you are forced onto your mouth because your nose cannot move enough air, you lose all of that composure right when you need it for the next point.

The catch is that the nose struggles to move enough air at very high effort. Part of that is a normal physical limit everyone shares. But for people with a structural issue it is worse. A deviated septum reduces the cross sectional area of one nasal passage, and combined with the nasal cycle, where the tissue inside your nose alternates which side is more congested on a roughly four hour rotation, the restricted side can feel almost completely blocked during a long five set match.

How Nasal Strips Help Volleyball Players

A nasal strip works on the outside of the nose. It spans the lower cartilage and uses a spring action to lift the lateral nasal wall outward, widening the internal diameter at the nasal valve. The nasal valve is the narrowest point in your entire airway, and it is the same spot that pinches inward if you press gently on the side of your nose while breathing in hard.

For a volleyball player with a deviated septum, the strip helps most on the side where the deviation crowds the valve area. For a player with no structural issue, the main benefit is stopping dynamic valve collapse, where the cartilage gets pulled inward under heavy breathing load, right after a jump serve or a long defensive rally. In both cases the practical payoff in volleyball shows up in the pause between rallies and in the timeouts, when holding nasal breathing keeps you calmer and more in control of the next play.

I use the Ventriq Sport Nasal Strips for training and matches. They are stiffer than a standard sleep strip, built to stay put through sweat, and the adhesive holds through a full session without peeling at the edges. That matters in volleyball, where diving for digs and wiping sweat off your face will lift a weak strip within minutes.

Our pick for volleyball

Ventriq Sport Nasal Strips

Drug free strips built to stay put through sweat and hold the nasal valve open, so you keep breathing through your nose when the effort ramps up. From EUR 20, with buy more save more packs.

Shop Ventriq Sport

Sleeping or recovering instead? See Ventriq Sleep, or read how to choose the right strip.

What to Look for in a Volleyball Nasal Strip

Not all nasal strips are built the same, and for volleyball a few things actually matter:

• Adhesive strength: standard strips give up as soon as you sweat or dive for a dig. You need a strip made for sport, with an adhesive designed to grip wet skin through a full match.
• Spring tension: more tension means more lift and a more open airway. A soft strip made for sleep will not give you the same airflow under a heavy breathing load.
• Fit and position: a strip that sits too high on the bony part of your nose does nothing. It has to sit across the lower cartilage where the nasal valve is.
• Skin tolerance: if you are training most days and playing matches at the weekend, you want a strip that does not leave your skin raw after you peel it off.

I have tried a lot of strips over the years. Most were fine for sleep but failed the moment sweat and diving got involved. The Ventriq Sport strip holds better and keeps lifting the airway open through the full match.

Does It Actually Improve Performance?

I will be straight about this. The research on nasal strips producing measurable performance gains in trained athletes is mixed. Some studies show small improvements in perceived effort and breathing efficiency. Others show no meaningful change in VO2 max or power output under laboratory conditions. A strip is a breathing aid, not a vertical jump upgrade.

What I can tell you from my own experience is that the subjective difference is real. Breathing through your nose in the pause between rallies feels less effortful and less drying, and it is easier to hold your composure before a big serve when you are not gasping through your mouth. Whether that turns into measurable output on the court depends on the player and the situation. If you want the deeper look at the evidence, I have covered it in Boost Your Workout: How Nasal Strips Enhance Athletic Performance, Benefits of Nasal Strips for Sport and Do Nasal Strips Improve Athletic Performance.

Nasal Strips if You Have a Deviated Septum

If you have a deviated septum and you play volleyball regularly, nasal strips are probably more useful for you than for the average player. You are starting every match with your airway already restricted, so anything that gives part of that width back levels the field a little. External strips work best when the restriction sits at the nasal valve rather than deep inside the nasal cavity, which is the most common pattern after a knock to the nose from a stray ball or a collision at the net. I have written more on this in Best Nasal Strips for a Deviated Septum.

If your breathing also wrecks your sleep and slows your recovery after matches, How to Sleep Better with a Deviated Septum covers what has worked for me overnight.

My Recommendation

For volleyball, get the Ventriq Sport Nasal Strips. They were built for sport and they stay on through a full match. If your main need is breathing and recovering better overnight after games, the Ventriq Sleep Nasal Strips are the right pick for bedtime, and plenty of players use both: sport strips for training and matches, sleep strips overnight. If you also play another jumping sport, have a look at nasal strips for basketball and nasal strips for netball. If heavy match days leave you snoring at night, have a look at Do Nasal Strips Stop Snoring and Best Nasal Strips for Sleeping. And if you are still working out which strip fits your face, how to choose the right nasal strip walks through it.

The Bottom Line

For volleyball, the Ventriq Sport Nasal Strips are our number one pick. They keep nasal breathing available in the seconds between rallies so you recover for the next point. A strip is a breathing aid, not a fitness gain, but it keeps your breathing composed through long sets.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are nasal strips allowed in volleyball?

Yes. Nasal strips are a mechanical breathing aid with no drug action, so they are not on any WADA prohibited list, and nothing in the FIVB rules bans them. You will see professional players wearing them during matches.

Can I use a sleep nasal strip for a match?

You can, but most sleep strips are not made for sweaty skin and will start peeling within the first set. A sport specific strip uses a stronger adhesive built to hold on wet skin through a full five set match.

Where exactly should I place a nasal strip?

Position it across the fleshiest part of your nose, over the lower cartilage rather than the bone. If you feel the spring tension lifting your nostrils when you breathe in, it is in the right place. Sit it too high and it does nothing.

Do nasal strips help stamina in volleyball?

They help you keep breathing through your nose for longer between rallies, which makes the short recovery windows feel calmer and less rushed. They will not raise your aerobic ceiling or your vertical jump, but reducing airway resistance can make your breathing more efficient at the intensities where you spend most of a match.

Do I need a deviated septum for nasal strips to work?

No. Dynamic nasal valve collapse, where the side of the nose pulls inward under hard breathing, is common even in people with a perfectly straight septum. A strip prevents that collapse and improves airflow either way.

Will a nasal strip stay on through diving and sweat?

A quality sport strip is designed to hold through sweat and diving for a full match. If conditions are sweaty or you keep wiping your face, wiping the skin clean and dry before you apply it will help it grip for the full match.