Team SideOut Polonia London 2023-24 Reflection

tl:dr

• Team SideOut Polonia London had a successful season, winning the Women’s National Cup and securing second place in the MAAREE Women’s Super League playoffs

• I reflected:

  • Coding blocking and dig situations have increased the coding time after the match

  • Coding shanked passes as R/ has changed my reference points for what good passing is

  • Hudl stats have been useful in terms of scouting opposition teams

  • Adding comments, i.e. my analysis, on PDF documents (for detailed team and scouting reports) is useful

• I always find that writing a reflection post does help me think about how to improve things but also helps me reinforce things that I’ve done for next season

Team SideOut Polonia LondonTeam SideOut Polonia LondonTeam SideOut Polonia London

I haven’t written a specific Team SideOut Polonia London reflection since the 2017-18 season.  I normally write it under a general performance analysis reflection (e.g. see the 2022-23 performance analysis reflection).  Since I’ve written specific reflections for all my teams (e.g. see Hyderabad Black Hawks, England, American School of London), it only leaves Team SideOut Polonia London as the last team that I haven’t written a reflection on.  It’s around 2 months late but here goes.  

Competitions Report

Women’s National Cup | ChampionsWe faced Durham Palatiantes in the cup final.  We faced Durham twice in the league prior to the Cup Final.  When Durham came to London before Christmas, we won the first two sets but Durham made a tactical switch and they came back to win it in 5.  It was heartbreaking.  It was our first home defeat in 5 years!  When we went to Durham after Christmas, we won the match 3-0 but they were missing two of their starting players so it didn’t feel like a real win.  So it was hard to know where we stood but we had a game plan and we were prepared for it.  

The first set in the cup final was incredibly tight but we won it 28-26.  The second was a lot more comfortable.  We did fall behind early 4-6 but we got to a 12-8 lead and we maintained that to win the second set 25-20.  In the third set, we were behind most of the set and at 10-16, I was thinking about changes we could make in the fourth set as I thought that set was lost.  To my surprise, the team was able to come back and win that set 25-21.  With that, we won the match 3-0 and the Women’s National Cup!  Fun fact, I was somehow the defacto responsible for the trophy and I left it on the coach.  But we got it back.  

MAAREE Women’s Super League | First Regular Season, Runners-Up PlayoffsWe won the regular league on the final day of the regular season.  A lot of things transpired but it ended up that Durham needed to drop a set for us to win it and it surprisingly happened on Durham’s final match vs Lionhearts.  This meant we actually won the league but we have the play-off system this year so we haven’t won it just yet.  

Being in first place, we played fourth-placed Essex Rebels in the Playoff Weekend.  We won that fairly comfortably.  We faced Durham in the Playoff Final.  Durham’s middles were unstoppable in the first set and we lost 16-25.  We started what I thought was the best team statistically in the second set.  It turned things around because we won that set 25-23.  We were on fire in the third set and won 25-14.  I did feel like it was going to be a similar fate in the fourth set but then disaster struck when our setter went over her ankle and couldn’t play on.  We subbed in our second setter but it simply changed our flow state.  As much as we fought and changed things tactically, we couldn’t get it back and we lost the fourth set 20-25 and the fifth set 10-15.  It’s a real shame because I did think we were the better team (I’m sure Durham will think differently) but the record books will show we lost.  

Performance Analysis Reflection

Checking All Block Attempts After the Match Adds Extra Coding TimeWith the changes to how I code block and dig situations, I have to check them after I coded the match.  This adds around an hour to the coding time.  I search for each blocking grade to ensure the blocking code and the codes around it are correct.  See the table below for what I check for.  This process also leads to potentially seeing other errors, e.g. I might see unintended custom codes and this normally means I made a coding error.  

How Coding Shanked Passes as R/ Has Changed The Pass (and Serve) AverageMy reference point for a great passing average is 2.50+.  Because I now code shanked passes as R/ rather than R-, this will affect the calculation of the passing average because shanked passes are worth 0.5 points now rather than 1 point previously.  This means my reference points of what good passing is a bit messed up.  For ease, I will still stick with 2.50+ as great passing.  This should also change my reference points for serve average.  However, I tend to look for serve error % This should also change my reference points for serve average.  However, I tend to look for serve error % (ideally between 10% to 20%) and the serve ace to error ratio (ideally between 1:1 and 3:4) when I think about serve performance.  (ideally between 10% to 20%) and the serve ace to error ratio (ideally between 1:1 and 3:4) when I think about serve performance.  

Using Hudl Stats It was nice to have Hudl for the season.  I mainly used it to scout oppositional teams.  Hudl has the feature to exchange match videos and stats and we definitely used it to scout opposition teams.  Since the stats were linked to the match video, it was great to have the ability to view a player’s attempts.  This saved me countless hours having to do the work myself.  One downside to Hudl is the stats aren’t the most accurate but it is good enough to get a sense of the players’ strengths.  I didn’t use it for team analysis because I already had my own DataVolley stats.  However, we did have the ability for players to view their own attempts but I don’t think that option was taken up.  

Using Volleyball England’s Hudl Stats for Quick Scouting ReportsVolleyball England created a Google Sheet that collects Hudl stats to determine the Top 5 Players in each technical skill and the Team of the Month.  The Google Sheet also has team data so I would use that to write up my scouting report on oppositional teams (via copying it so I can edit it).  I usually highlight the best attackers, i.e. their threats, and their worst passers, i.e. players to target on serve.  

Comments on PDFs for Detailed Team and Scouting ReportsWhen I produce my detailed team and scouting reports using my own DataVolley data, I tend to write my analysis in the WhatsApp message with the PDF attached.  The disadvantage of this was my analysis and stats were disconnected.  However, I found that I could simply add comments on the PDF itself.  I could place comments next to the relevant stats so my analysis relates to it.  This was particularly helpful.  The only issue was Coach Mark printed the scout reports but the comments weren’t printed too.  

Streamlining the Editing of the Motivational VideoEditing the motivational video is tedious work.  Once you watch every single play in every single match to find the best highlights, you have to cut the 30 minutes worth of highlights to around 3-5 minutes, i.e. the length of the motivational song.  To streamline this work, I separated the highlighted clips to whether it was level 1 (exceptional highlight) or level 2 (regular highlight).  This means if I had enough level 1 clips for certain players (usually 5 max), I didn’t need to watch the level 2 clips.  This did cut some time off the editing time.  You can watch the motivational video below.  

Despite the tedious work, I do love watching the end result.  When I’m editing the motivational video, I tend to get obsessed with it and I would watch the video on repeat.  There could be something to edit slightly, e.g. extending or cutting a clip.  I also like filming the players’ reactions, especially when they laugh as it would give me an indication of what I should include next year.  

Final Thoughts

I didn’t think there was too much to reflect on.  The one clear thing I had in mind was how checking blocking attempts added an extra hour to the scouting process.  Otherwise, things were pretty much the same as before or I covered it on my other teams.  However, the reflection process showed me I evolved my performance analysis process, even if only slightly.  The introduction of Hudl did make my life easier, i.e. I didn’t need to stat of all those matches from other teams.  I also totally forgot that I added comments to the PDFs, which is something I will do next year. I always find that writing a reflection post does help me think about how to improve things but also helps me reinforce things that I’ve done for next season.

You can watch the full playlist of matches Team SideOut Polonia London has played.