.png)
Performance Analysis Season 2019-20 Reflection
Introduction
The 2019-20 season has been crazy. I continued to provide performance analysis for Polonia SideOut London (women) and IBB Polonia London (men) for the season in addition to being the Head Coach for City University London women’s team. I also had the honour to providing stats for the England Senior Men’s National Team this season too.
A Couple of Firsts for thevolleyballanalyst
First League Championship With Polonia SideOut London
After seven seasons with Polonia SideOut London and many second places, we finally won the league! The early stats showed this was the best team I have worked with at Polonia so this was our best shot. But it also happen to coincide with the league being the best it has ever been. Six out of the eight other teams in the league were, what I call, tough teams – teams that can beat us if we didn’t perform. I even produced scouting reports on those six teams, just so we were prepared for them. Even the bottom two teams, if they had their full squad, could have given us trouble. I did put some extra work with the scouting reports and I like to think it was that got us over the line.
Statting at a CEV Champions League Match
It’s great to be involved with the highest level of European volleyball. It was only the first round and I was only involved with the home leg but it was still a great experience. It was at the Copper Box, which is such a nice venue. I think the best part was having the legendary Giba on the team list for Polonia men.
Statting at a CEV Cup Match
After Polonia men got knocked out of the CEV Champions League, we were entered into the CEV Cup. Again, I was only involved in the home leg at Crystal Palace. I was allowed to stat at my usual place on the bench so I liked that (I had to stat at the baseline in the CEV Champions League match).
Statting at the NEVZA Women’s Cub Championships
I sadly missed out going to same tournament in the 2017-8 season (I went to Barcelona to meet my newly born nephew) and to be a part of a European (although just North Europe) tournament. Polonia also went the season before I joined. Polonia hosted this year’s tournament and it was a great experience. It was over three days and the performance level was high. We got to the Finals but sadly lost in five sets.
Statting for England Senior Men’s National Team
I got the call up to stat for England at the Novotel Cup in Luxembourg. It’s like the pinnacle to be a part of your national team so it was a great honour.
Balancing Between Polonia SideOut London and IBB Polonia London
I wanted to continue to provide stats for both Polonia women and Polonia men. I liked working with Coach Kontopoulos and he was back at Polonia SideOut London (PSL). IBB Polonia London (LOP) hired Coach Koutouleas to lead the team. I’ve worked closely with him before on the beach but never indoors. I thought it would be interesting to see how he works.
Like last season, I had intended to balance my time between the men’s and women’s teams. If there was a clash, I would go to the match that needed me most. It transpired my time was fairly split equally between PSL and LOP in the first half of the season. It was lucky that the men generally played on Saturdays and the women played on Sundays. However, in the second half of the season, it worked out that I only went to PSL matches. It was because LOP was undefeated in the league and it needed something disastrous to happen for the second place team could catch up. That didn’t happen. PSL was only 2 points behind first place Durham after Christmas so there was a chance to win the league. So I put my effort there, with match reports, Polonia reports and opposition scout reports. I like to think that effort, in small part, helped PSL be league champions with two matches to spare as we beat Durham twice in the league and they couldn’t catch up to us. LOP also happened to be crowned league champions too.
Statting Two New Codes
I decided to stat two new codes this season. They were the neutral pass (R!) and block outs (B-).
Neutral Pass (R!)
Last season, IBB Polonia London was entered in the 2019 NEVZA Men’s Club Championship and I was able to swap some DataVoley scouts with other teams that entered. I’ve saw that they statted some passes with the R! code. I never seen this before or that we could done in the first place. This got me thinking that I could use this code as perfect bridge between a positive pass (R+) and a negative pass (R-). As defined by DataVolley, I feel there is a massive gulf between a positive pass and a negative pass, as seen in the diagram below.
So a pass that lands just outside the 3 metre line is statted the same as a pass that goes into the stands but is still keep in play. Both are statted as negative passes but clearly both are not the same quality. So as I said, R! was the perfect bridge between the two so any passes that land outside the positive zone could be statted as a R! code. Since I had a positive and negative pass, I decided to call R! as a neutral pass. I still had to come up with some parameters of what a neutral pass is and I settled on the diagram below. So essentially the neutral pass was a pass that could still put the team in system.
Block Outs (B-)
When writing the blog post on whether it’s worth blocking in non-elite volleyball, I could calculate the number of block-outs because I statted the type of block-out (floor, side, long) on the opposition kill. However, I didn’t know who was responsible for the block out so I had to go back and add a separate block out codes for individual players. This took a while. I’m not sure when I decided to actually stat the block out code but I started this season. Since they occurred at the end of the rally, I had time to stat it. I used the B- code for block outs.
Remapping the Keyboard
I remapped the keyboard so the “P” code, which denotes soft or roll attacks, is now the “B” button. This is important because since my right hand is placed on the number pad, I have to physically look at the keyboard for a second or two to code “P”. I could miss vital plays in those seconds. Since “B” is originally the block button, I remapped it so “L” button is the block button. I like it this way because now I look at the keyboard a lot less. Having re-read this blog post on attack combination codes and remapping the keyboard, there’s probably a lot more that can be done.
Overhauled the DataVolley Worksheets and Print Compositions
There was a couple of changes I wanted to do but with statting neutral passes and block outs, it was the push I needed to overhaul the worksheets and print compositions. Some of the changes were simple like adding titles to each worksheet and changing some of the colours. Some of the changes involved a bit more work. I created a new worksheet for reception by type (from jump or float serve), blocking and attack by situation (e.g. after perfect pass, after positive pass etc). I also had to rebuild the attack distributions by rotation and by situation print composition sheet. I had to add attack after a neutral pass and I decided to split attack in transition into attack distribution after an opposition attack and attack distribution after an oppositional free ball. I also split the total attack distribution by situation into when the setter was front row and when the setter was back row. This is so you can see what the distribution was like when the setter had three front row attackers and when the setter had two. One other thing was for the attack directions by player print composition sheet, I added some extra information such as serve direction, passing zones or blocking zones. This made it more of a player stat sheet. I also had to change all the reception rating formulas on all the relevant worksheets to take into account the new neutral pass.
Next Season
I am looking forward to next season. There are a few more things I want to change to make things better. Stay tuned.
Comments