My Experience At the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games

Aug 9, 2022

5 min read

Overall Experience

I volunteered my time (and a lot of money) to help provide the official match stats for the beach volleyball tournament at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham 2022. I also did some performance analysis work for Team England. It was a great overall experience. I do want to reflect deeper on the things I learned from the experience. However, I just wanted to recap on the experience for now and post some photos.

Providing Official Stats

My main role was to help provide the official beach volleyball stats at the Commonwealth Games. I basically called the stats to be recorded (team, shirt number, action, outcome) for somebody else to input them into the tablet. There was a third technical person from Longines who verified the stats. Calling out the stats sounds easy in theory but it is actually harder to do in practice (go ahead, just try it). It especially gets tricky when there’s a quick run of plays, e.g. block touches and on 2 attacks. There’s also the added difficulty that we were calling from the side of the court, rather than the usual end of the court. This means seeing shirt numbers from the side was tricky, especially with women since their shirt numbers are tiny on their bikinis. In any case, I knew I could do it since I had done it before at the London 2012 Paralympics and sitting volleyball is much quicker. I knew I was going to be rusty calling matches but I was pretty much up to speed after a practice match. I would say I was 95% correct in my calls. In hindsight, it would have been interesting to film the matches with me calling to see how good I was. It would also have been nice to see how the others have called matches.

The whole experience of calling matches was simply fine. It doesn’t relate to my regular performance analysis work as I use DataVolley to code the data rather than calling it out. So while I didn’t get too much out of calling matches, it was great to meet the stats team. It was nice to meet up with old friends and get to know new ones. Perhaps better was going for drinks and breakfast. We also had a night out in Snobs, which is apparently a Birmingham institution.

Performance Analyst for Team England

My whole venture into beach volleyball stats was to be the Performance Analyst for Team England in Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. The Men had their own Statman so I wasn’t needed there. However, the Women needed some help scouting other teams they were likely to face later in the competition and I was only happy to provide help. I did as much as I could in a short amount of time. I will write my reflection on this experience at a later date. I will write my reflection on this experience at a later date. Although I have been a performance analyst for 10 years, there were still things I learned, which included a major change in my workflow. Although I have been a performance analyst for 10 years, there were still things I learned, which included a major change in my workflow.

The final result was England got knocked out in the quarter-final stage. Although I wasn’t a part of the team that long, it still hurt that they lost. I did think they had a chance to get bronze, although I didn’t realise how many other very good teams were in the competition other than favourites Canada and Australia.

Watching Beach Volleyball

With my accreditation, I watched a lot of beach volleyball. It was great to watch Canada’s Humana-Paredes/ Pavan and Australia’s Artacho del Solar/ Clancy in person. I don’t know many beach volleyball players (excluding the English and Scottish pairings) but I know those two (not going to lie but I think most of my international beach volleyball really comes from watching and editing the InSideOut episodes). I was on a mission to get photos with them and I hope I didn’t annoy them too much. Canada’s Humana-Paredes/ Pavan and Australia’s Artacho del Solar/ Clancy in person. I don’t know many beach volleyball players (excluding the English and Scottish pairings) but I know those two (not going to lie but I think most of my international beach volleyball really comes from watching and editing the InSideOut episodes). I was on a mission to get photos with them and I hope I didn’t annoy them too much.

It was also great that the Bello brothers were able to make history to get Bronze and I was there to call the game statistically. I was able to glimpse the fanfare after they received the bronze medals as I just put on my England top and flashed my accreditation to follow behind them. I was also able to get my stupid face on the BBC stream. It was also great that the Bello brothers were able to make history to get Bronze and I was there to call the game statistically. I was able to glimpse the fanfare after they received the bronze medals as I just put on my England top and flashed my accreditation to follow behind them. I was also able to get my stupid face on the BBC stream.

3×3 Basketball

Using my beach volleyball accreditation, I was able to pop over to watch the 3×3 basketball. I didn’t know too much about 3×3 basketball but I got to say, it was awesome to watch. It’s so exciting. It was basically non-stop action with few pauses in play, which is perfect in this TikTok world. If only we can have this version in volleyball to attract players. One suggestion was a king-of-the-court competition, which isn’t a bad shout. I do have other thoughts on 3×3 basketball but I think I will write a separate blog post on this.

I was also invested in the England Women 3×3 team as I know one of the players (Shanice Beckford-Norton) and I statted the Women’s Head Coach (Stef Collins) when she was a player back in UWIC Archers. I couldn’t believe Canada snatched the gold with 2.4 seconds left on the clock but silver for England isn’t bad.

Birmingham The City

I was happy I had arrived a few days before the Commonwealth Games started because I was able to check out Birmingham as a tourist before it all went mad. My impression of Birmingham was some parts are really nice (Bullring, Brindley Place, the canals) while other parts were deserted buildings or a building site. It was crazy to see Victoria Square was empty days before the opening ceremony and how packed it was on the first Saturday when the marathon was on (I couldn’t see the finish unfortunately). I liked the canals (I often walked along the canal to get to the city centre) and I couldn’t believe you can actually canal yourself from Birmingham down to London. It also must be said that Birmingham is quite diverse. I could see myself living there but there’s only one volleyball team so probably not.