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Statting Every Match at the Commonwealth Games 2021 Funding Tournament
TL;DR
I statted every match in the recent Beach Volleyball Commonwealth Games Funding Tournament
The stats of the two winning men’s teams (Bello/ Bello and Bialokoz/ Batrane) showed they were clearly the two best men’s teams that weekend
The stats of one winning women’s team of Grimson/ Mumby showed they were clearly the best women’s team that weekend
The stats were close for the three remaining women’s teams but the second winning women’s team of Tucker/ Keefe were slightly better in the stats that counts (point scoring and attack) – a different tournament format could have helped differentiate the teams’ performance level
Introduction
Volleyball England recently held a tournament to determine which two men and two women beach volleyball teams will each secure £18,000 funding for the upcoming Commonwealth Games in Birmingham 2022. Congratulations to the two men’s teams of Javier Bello/ Joaquin Bello and Freddie Bialokoz and the two women’s teams of Daisy Mumby/ Jess Grimson and Katie Keefe/ Isabelle Tucker for winning the tournament and securing that funding. The full results can be view here or use the download link below.
In my effort to get the Commonwealth Games as Team England’s Performance Analyst, I wanted to stat every match. It would give me more practice to stat beach volleyball matches and I really wanted to see if the teams’ performance level matched their winning/ funding status.
Press the Download Link for the Full Results of the Beach Volleyball Commonwealth Games Funding Tournament – taken from Volleyball EnglandDownload
Method
I statted the matches from Volleyball England’s YouTube live stream of the matches. The playlist can be seen below. Some of the match videos was interrupted in parts (due to poor connection) but I statted what was available. Since I was looking at team level and not at match outcome, this was ok.
I collected data on the technical skills of serve, reception, attack, blocking, free balls and defence. The operational definitions can be found on this link. The definition of serve and reception quality in beach volleyball is largely based on the graphic below (click on this link to read more).
Results
The full dataset of team stats can be found below. The top two performing teams in each technical skill are highlighted in yellow. Efficiency percentages are generally calculated as the net number of points earned (i.e. points earned minus points lost in errors), divided by the total attempts. Serve and reception are rated on a 4 point scale with 0 for missed passes and 4 for perfect passes. For more information on how the performance indicators are calculated, click on this link.
Discussion
Was the Winning Teams the Top Statistically Performing Teams?
The table below shows the performance indicators only for each team with the top two performing teams for each technical skill highlighted in yellow. You can see that the two winning men’s teams of Bello/ Bello and Bialokoz/ Batrane have the most yellow boxes highlighted (5 and 4, respectively). The winning women’s team of Grimson/ Mumby was the best team as they were actually the best performing team, rather than two top, in five technical skills.
Tucker/ Keefe and Palmer/ Snow were the top two performing teams in three technical skills each. However, Tucker/ Keefe outperformed Palmer/ Snow in the stats that really counts in Point Scoring Efficiency % and Hitting %. The reason why they are more important is based on this premise and backed up by data: to win a match you need to win 2 sets and to win 1 set, you need to score 21 points before your opponents does hence the ability to score points (and not lost points in errors) is critical to success in volleyball. Additionally, since most points are won and lost via the attack, the attack is the most important technical skill. Read more here why these are two performance indicators that are related to success in volleyball.
How Much Better Were the Winning Teams Compared to the Rest of the Field?
The stats above showed that the winning teams were top two performing teams. However, the two bar charts below demonstrated they were clearly above the rest of the field. You can see that the winning teams for the men, highlighted in gold, are markedly above those of the rest of the field. Only Sheaf/ Gregory, at 9% point scoring efficiency, was closest but is still 8% away from Bialokoz/ Batrane’s 17%.
The women’s winners of Grimson/ Mumby have a 22% point scoring efficiency, which is way above the rest of the women’s teams. You can see the second women’s winners of Tucker/ Keefe did have the second highest point scoring efficiency at 15%, but Evans/ Keefe (12%) and Palmer/ Snow (13%) are very close behind. The tournament format didn’t really help separate those teams. After the round robin, Tucker/ Keefe, Evans/ Keefe and Palmer/ Snow all ended on 1 win and 2 losses. They were all equal on sets won and sets lost too. Positions were decided on the ratio of points won and points lost. Palmer/ Snow were unlucky to be ranked fourth and had to face 1st placed Grimson/ Mumby in the semifinals. They may have fared better if they were 2nd or 3rd. As it was, second placed Evans/ Keefe played third place Tucker/ Keefe in the other semifinals. Tucker/ Keefe won the 3 match series 2-1 but over the weekend, they are actually 2-2.
You obviously can’t change the tournament format during the tournament but it would have been nice if we had a league format where every team played each other twice. It would give a fairer chance for all teams to prove themselves.
What About the Women Players Individually?
With three women’s teams being so close in level, I wanted to look at them at an individual level. You can see that the top pairing of Grimson/ Mumby both had a high 22% point scoring efficiency rate. Both contributed equally to their success. You can see that Isablle Tucker (19%) and Anaya Evans (20%) are definitely at that level too. It is tempting to say that we could simply add both players as a team but the stats are based on both being defenders. The pattern looks like defenders tend to have a higher point scoring efficiency rate in general (this is something I want to investigate further). Also, Tucker and Keefe have played together for at least two seasons (maybe longer) so group cohesion will have contributed to that. defenders tend to have a higher point scoring efficiency rate in general (this is something I want to investigate further). Also, Tucker and Keefe have played together for at least two seasons (maybe longer) so group cohesion will have contributed to that.
Conclusion
Three of the four winning teams (Bello/ Bello, Bialokoz/ Batrane and Grimson/ Mumby), that secured funding for the Commonwealth Games, were clearly the best performing teams that weekend. The fourth winning team (Tucker/ Keefe) were slightly better than the other two women’s teams but it was close. It would have been nice if they played a league format so each team played each other twice rather than going into a 3 match series of 1st vs 4th and 2nd vs 3rd. It would have given those teams a fairer chance of being a winning team.
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