Performance Analysis Reflection | 2022-23 Season

May 9, 2023

10 min read

Introduction

I was involved with six teams that used performance analysis. This is the most teams I had to stat for by far and the most matches coded in a single season (110). With a massive injection of performance analysis use, what did I learn? Read my reflection below.

For the reflections for all my teams, click on the links below: American School of London UCL Men Flaming Six Leopards Flaming Six Coyotes Coaching Overall Performance Analysis

Competitions Report

American School of London | International School Sports Tournament (ISSTs), Champions
Flaming Six Coyotes | London Premier Women, 8th Place (Relegated)
Flaming Six Leopards | London Men Division 1B, 6th Place
UCL Men | BUCS Premier South, 5th Place | BUCS National Championships, 1st Round | Volleyball England Student Cup, 4th Place
Team SideOut Polonia London | Women’s Super League, 2nd Place | Women’s National Cup, Runners-Up
England Men National Team | Novotel Cup, 2nd Place

As the Head Coach, I had a losing season with Flaming Six Coyotes, Flaming Six Leopards and UCL Men with the bright spot being the American School of London winning the ISSTs. I won’t recap that season as you can read my full coaching reflection here.

For Team SideOut Polonia London, we got second in the Women’s Super League and Runners-Up in the Women’s National Cup. I would say we achieved the minimum expectation. If we achieved anything else, it would be a disappointment and if we achieved anything more, it would have been a huge success. It was a shame the league was effectively over by late November when we lost to Durham Palatinates away and then we had a surprise five-set loss to Essex Rebels (we only had five players available and we had to recruit two players from the London League team). This meant even if we beat Durham at home, we needed Durham to drop a point elsewhere and this was not going to happen. So we only had the National Cup to play for. We knew the Final against Durham was going to be tough. We did beat them at home in the league so we had some confidence but we were missing our starting outside hitter. We did have a good option to cover that spot but she badly injured her ankle earlier in the Finals week. We closely lost the first two sets. Durham’s second outside hitter was injured in the third set and that disruption was enough to win that set. I thought we could take it to a fifth set but Durham easily won the fourth set and it was over. Another silver medal in the collection.

It was great being back with the England Men’s Senior National Team after a three year absence (covid being a big reason for this). We played Scotland twice (won one and lost one) in December 2022 and we placed second in the Novotel Cup in January 2023. It was nice having that international tournament feel again. I also made time to visit Luxemburg itself for some sights (they have free public transport!)

Performance Analysis Reflection

Creating a Single Stat Report In previous seasons when I created a stat report, I would have to print each individual report and then combine them together using an online pdf merger. This was time-consuming as it’ll take me 15-30 minutes to do. To streamline my work, I created a single stat report (see below). It had pretty much everything that I wanted to see so I could make informed decisions to enhance performance. With statting 110 matches, this probably saved me 20 to 50 hours of work throughout the season. I also created a blog post to explain what those stats mean so players can refer to it (see link).

Find Another Way to Code the Away Team in DataVolley Ever since I’ve been using DataVolley, I’ve always used SHIFT+A to code for the away team, i.e. “a”. So if I wanted to code an action for the away team’s #9, I would have to code SHIFT+A then NUM9 to get the “a9” code, which signifies the away team’s #9 player. I am now finding that I am holding the SHIFT key too long as I am often coding SHIFT+A then SHIFT+NUM9. This doesn’t result in coding “a9” but pressing the PageUp key. This results in shifting the active window from the Scouting window to the Codes List window. This means any codes keyed in after that are not recorded since the scouting window is not the active window. This is especially annoying when you have a long rally and you see that only the first few actions are recorded.

The same thing happens when I try to code “a7”, I hold the SHIFT key too long to press SHIFT+NUM7 and it results in pressing the Home key, which brings the cursor in the scouting window to the beginning so everything you code after would appear before the first serve. This will mess up the timeline of events since the service action is now in the middle of the rally. I would just delete the events leading up to the service action, code the final point-scoring action, and just re-stat the missing actions after the match.

The same thing happens when I try to code “a1”, I hold the SHIFT key too long to press SHIFT+NUM1 and it results in pressing the End key, which brings the cursor in the scouting window to the end. It’s not the worst thing in the world since the cursor should be at the end anyway but I often find I’m not coding “1” because I’ll find codes like “aE” a lot. The “E” code means setting. So I should be pressing SHIFT+A then NUM1 then E but I’m holding the SHIFT key too long and pressing SHIFT+A then SHIFT+NUM1 then E to result in “aE”.

A way to get around it is to stop using SHIFT+A to code the away team. Joe Trinsey, former USA Women Scout, and Jeff Liu, current USA Women Scout, uses a single key. This is something I should adopt. However, all the buttons are in use and I would need another rethink on how to remap the keyboard (see link for the last major change in remapping the keyboard).

Using Shortcut Keys in DataVolley So You Don’t Need to Use the Mouse Since I know that pressing PageUp takes you to the Codes List window, I have been playing around with trying to modify codes using the PageUp key and then using the arrow pad. I found that from the Codes List window, I can pause the video (when statting from video) using the spacebar. This is particularly useful when verifying the stats as I can use the Insert key to add new codes and the F12 key to realign the timecode of the statted action. If I am able to efficiently do this then I can avoid using the mouse and save myself time from constantly moving my hand from keyboard to mouse to keyboard.

Not Missing the Live Leed Too MuchI normally have a delayed live feed so if I miss anything, especially who got the block kill, I can always check the delayed live feed. However, my webcam broke so I haven’t been using it all season. I found that it wasn’t that essential because there were not that many times when I needed it. It would be nice to have a different angle for the motivational video I edit (see this angle from the “Champion” motivational video).

Using *55F Code to Remind Me to Check the Whole Rally I found that when I was statting live and I missed something big (e.g. who got the block kill) or missed big chunks of the rally (e.g. I pressed SHIFT+NUM9), I would just insert a *55F code at the end of the rally. This error will be flagged (since there is no #55 player) w *55F code at the end of the rally. This error will be flagged (since there is no #55 player) when I verify the stats as part of my data accuracy checks so hen I verify the stats as part of my data accuracy checks so I know should check the whole rally. I know should check the whole rally.

Statting the Setting Action Although it took me seven years to get around to statting the setting action (which I thought I would never be able to do when I started back in 2015 or even as late as 2021), I managed to do it. I first practiced it during the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, which was easier to do since there were only two players. I carried it onto the 2022/23 season.

Using Your Phone to Film Matches When I coached at the All Nations London 2022 Tournament, I used my phone to film matches. I found it was so much better compared to using a camcorder as the video quality was much better and I never had to worry about power as I used an external power bank. Also, it would film as a single video file so I can immediately stat the match. The camcorder would sometimes record to a second video file when it was a long four-set match or a five-set match. This means I have to combine it as a single video file before I start statting so the timecodes are synced properly. With all these advantages, I decided to carry on the practice into the regular 2022/23 season. I did have some early issues when the phone would sometimes mysteriously stop recording mid-match. I assumed it was because the phone attachment was on the power and/or volume buttons. When I attach the phone further down, so it wasn’t on those buttons, then I never had an issue since.

Using So Much More Memory The disadvantage of using your phone to film matches is the memory size of the video file is a lot bigger. It takes around 8-12GB whereas the camcorder used around 3-4GB. When you take into account that I had six teams I did performance analysis for, this meant my 1TB laptop was constantly running low on memory.

Using a Phone Tripod and Flexible Tripod I wanted to have a monopod so there was less chance for a spiked ball to hit it. I’ve lost a few tripods that way (it would bend the legs too much). I found that I could have a phone tripod. It has a single shaft with three legs at the bottom so it does the same job. I also purchase a flexible tripod to wrap around bars for extra options. They are both pretty small and lightweight so it meant, together with not needing to carry my camcorder, my bag was light.

Uploading Stat Reports and YouTube Links on Spond We use an app called Spond so players can confirm which training sessions and matches they can attend. I have all of my teams on this app so it’s all in one place. One benefit of using this app was I could upload stat reports in their Files section. I also put links to the match video playlist on YouTube and a link to my blog explaining the match report. I’m not sure how many players go to it but it’s helpful for me because I often refer to it when preparing for matches, e.g. what’s the best starting rotation. I don’t need my laptop to check the stats.

Next Season

Create a Printable Attack Distribution Chart I did create an attack distribution chart (see below). This was because if you have a lot of data, the attack directions chart is useless because those lines just bunched up. However, I should recreate it as a printable report.

Create a Worksheet For Defence Zones I should create a worksheet for defence zones, similar to the attack distribution chart. At various times in the season, I did want to know what zones we defend best and what zones we defend worst, e.g. are we good defending the line or the cross tips? Also, I wanted to know which zones players defend best in. For example, Team SideOut Polonia London had the option to use a player as an outside (hits better on the left side and can pass) or as an opposite (hits worst on the right side but is our second setter so we have that double sub option). We knew how the two players pass and attack so the last consideration is whether that player defends best in zone 6 or zone 1.

Separate Defence into Different Categories Defence or digs are normally defined as defending after an opposition attack. Those after spike cover, after a block and from an oppositional free ball are not normally included. However, I decided to code all of it under Digs as you do have a chance to classify them. I haven’t had the chance to do it yet so this is something I can do.

Stat Setting Quality I only code setting errors (S= | Point Lost), poor sets (S- | player cannot attack), over sets (S/ | sets goes over the net) and positive sets (S+ | player can attack). However, I want to use Joe Trinsey’s system to code setting quality (see link). A quick overview is below:

Create an Excel Sheet that Automatically Ranks Players by Stats I do have a single report that shows the stats for the season (essentially the match report without the opposition player stats). However, sometimes you want to easily see the rankings of players by their stats, e.g. most aces, highest hitting %. This would be good for players to see too. This is something I want to do with the England team so I can rank players by their stats. Another thing you can’t easily do in DataVolley itself is to analyse match-by-match stats. I want to see if the team or player is improving throughout the season.

Final Thoughts

Even after 13 years of performance analysis, there are still things to learn and improve upon. It wasn’t so long ago that I thought I would not be able to stat the setting action (it was defence before that) but it wasn’t such a difficult transition. I’m not sure why I waited so long.

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