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Evaluating the Setting Performance in DataVolley
Joe Trinsey’s System
I’ve written previously that evaluating setting in volleyball is difficult and each system has its weaknesses. I recently came across a post by Joe Trinsey, former USA Women volleyball scout, on how he evaluates setting performance and it did really blow my mind (see link). After some research (possibly one from here) and experimentation, he basically got it down to this:
DataVolley Code | Name | Definition | Resulting Hitting Percentage # | Good set | Antenna to 4′ inside, 3′ to 5′ off the net | 0.400 + | Too Far Off | 5′ to 8′ off the net | 0.200 ! | Too Far In | 4′ to 6′ inside | 0.200 – | Too Wide | Antenna or wider | 0.100 / | Too Tight | Closer to 3′ to the net | 0.00 = | Error | Point Lost
Why I Like It
What I like about this is he clearly defines what a good set is and when it is too far off, in, wide and tight. This is much better than my previous approach of using attacking options (line, cross, tip) as a proxy for ball location. This was because even if the set was way off the net, you still technically had all attack options of line, cross and tip, although you know it was not a good set. You can also have all attack options on a tight set to the net because I’ve seen players swinging for the ball on those tights sets.
I really like it because it was linked to, but not measured on, hitting percentage. I moved away from measuring the setting performance based on the attack outcome, such as the “assist” system (an “assist” is when a set leads to a kill) because you are not measuring the setting on its own terms. You are essentially measuring the quality of the attack. As such, you can set perfectly but your team mates keep committing errors or set poorly and your team mates are good enough to turn them into kills.
However, it would be interesting to know what those hitting percentages would be at different competition levels, e.g. Men’s and Women’s Super League level. Also, did those hitting percentages relate to middle attacks as well?
Limitations?
I did have these questions though:
How would you code sets that are inside AND tight to the net? Or inside/ off, wide/ off, wide/ tight?
What about sets that are so bad that the attacker cannot spike the ball, e.g. so far inside they can only dig the ball over?
How would you code sets that are too far in (6′ and beyond inside) and too far off (8′ and beyond the net)?
How would you code sets that are too high or too low for the middle players in the quick attacks?
The last three are particularly pertinent to lower level volleyball, because I would imagine these happening a lot more frequently than in elite volleyball.
Use in Practice
It could be some time before I start coding setting in real time. After 6 years of using DataVolley, I only just started coding defence in beach volleyball (see what I did for the Commonwealth Games Funding tournament)(with the help of compound coding). But when I do, I would revisit this topic to see what it’s like using this system in practice.
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