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Statting a Beach Volleyball Match For the Second Time
Introduction
So I statted my second beach volleyball match (click on link for my first match reflections). It was the SideOut Summer Series Finals of Rastelli-Adamek (Team SideOut) versus Tokarenko-Sviridova (The “Russians”) played last Saturday (8th August 2020). The DataVolley match report can be seen below with the match video underneath that. So what are my reflective thoughts the second time around?
My Reflective Thoughts the Second Time Around?
I Could Not Code in Real Time
I had to use the delayed button in DataVolley which plays the match video at 50% speed as I couldn’t stat in real time. The things that slowed me down was:
* Remembering who’s Player 1 and who’s Player 2 – in the first match, I would assign the blocker as Player 1 and the defender as Player 2. The problem with this match was both teams split the responsibility for blocking and defending so it took a while to remember who’s #1 and who’s #2. I did get better as the match went on.
* Coding the new first and second ball contact attack combination codes – I created some new codes for the new indoor season that I haven’t practiced yet. This means I am slow to code these and it doesn’t help when these types of attacks happen fast and frequently in beach volleyball.
* The match video cut out all the time between rallies and I realised I actually needed that time to finish statting the rally as I may be a second or two behind the end of the rally and I needed to check the server at the start of the rally.
Only reps will speed me up.
Simplified Attack Combination Codes For Third Ball Contact Attacks
In the future, I may come up with an attack combination codes that can differentiate between the speed of the set (high/ slow, medium, quick), distance from the setter (close, medium, wide to the antenna), whether it’s front or back set and whether the setter is facing the left or right side. However, I think for now, keeping things simple for the third ball contact attacks, i.e. spikes, is the way to go for now (see below diagram).
A Rethink of First and Second Ball Contact Attacks
First ball contact attacks are any attacks on the first ball contact. In indoor volleyball, this usually means an attack from an overpass. In beach volleyball, there are also digs or passes that are purposely put over the net into an (hopefully) empty space in an attempt to score a point. The current attack combination codes (see below) doesn’t differentiate between the two attacks. It is the same issue with second ball contact attacks. In indoor volleyball, this usually means setter tips/ dumps etc. In beach volleyball, there are also actual spikes that occur frequently. Again, the current attack combination codes (see below) doesn’t quite differentiate between the two attacks. However, I just noted above that keeping things simple is the way to go so I should adopt it for first and second ball contact attacks too.
Clearer Definitions on the Quality of the Pass
I still went with the perfect pass (R#) being about 1 metre inside the court and about 1 metre off the net with good ball trajectory from where ever the ball contact is made from. However, I still had to figure out how far inside or off the net the pass had to be before it is considered a positive pass (R+). Those boundaries are still a bit unclear so the passing stats are probably not as highly reliable as I want it to be.
Also, I still don’t really know how to code the pass on a two-touch attack (I left it as positive pass). The England Women’s Beach Volleyball Head Coach was also telling me how I would code passes when teams would intentionally pass towards the antenna for an attack or set. Ordinarily it is a negative pass (R-) but it was pass to that zone intentionally to stretch the blocker. This is something I would need some more practice and advice from coaches.
No Good Accuracy Checks
There’s only so much the DataVolley “verfiy codes” can do in ensuring accruate stats. I developed a workflow that includes additional steps for accurate data. However, several of these steps won’t work for beach volleyball. For example, I won’t know if I correctly coded the right action to the right team or player since every player is either #1 or #2 (barring watching each individual attack attempt on video). Also, the Science Untangled’s DataVolley file validation application (see link) only detects if I coded an point ending action to the wrong team. I may make the home team as #1 and #2 and the away team as #3 and #4 so if I code the right player, I can see if I coded for the right team.
Players With Different Partners
I have created teams based on two players (see below). However, it is quite common for players to have played with different partners in different tournaments over the course of the beach season. I could simply create another team based on that specific partnership. However, the issue with this is I cannot easily compiled stats for the entire beach season for a single player who has had several partners. This is because DataVolley won’t compile stats of different teams combined. I could do it but I would have to export the season data of each team/ partnership the player has been involved in and compiled it manually in Excel (basically how I found out who were the best players in the Women’s Super League, Polonia SideOut London all time and City University London all time).
If I was going to stat for England National Team, I may simply create a team called “ENGLAND” and have all the players under that team. Although the partnerships are unlikely to change, at least I could compiled the stats of all players and see where they rank amongst each other.
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