The Big Difference between Men’s and Women’s Volleyball

Here we go, the bi-monthly VB post.  I suspect this is going to make people defensive, try and justify keeping things secret for years for competition’s sake.  Feh.  That’s crap.   

Since the title notes a difference, you’re thinking I’m going to discuss the power or physicality of the two sports or maybe even how they are officiated.  Nah.  Those don’t affect the growth of the game or its level, not really.  (Not for this blog’s purposes, anyways)

I like to do research on a lot of things about volleyball.  For that research, I can get a ton of the information I need from my own teams statistics or videos.  For basic statistics like kills, attempts, or digs, I can find that information for almost every college in the country.  That’s good to a point.  I have no problem grinding numbers for myself…sometimes it leads me to ask more questions, think about things differently even if I find no profundity otherwise.

Sometimes though, what I’m looking in to requires more technical information, things that Sports Info Directors don’t put on school websites.  These are the things that most coaches use or have heard of–things like S/R Passing Average (even if it’s using a 0-3 scale rather than a more accurate 0-1-4-5 scale), First-Ball Sideout Percentage (FBSO%), etc.  Normal (i.e. casual) fans wouldn’t look at those or don’t understand them at all–sort of like casual baseball fans not understanding IsoPower or spin-rate.  Of course, some of the advanced information is potentially useful to an opponent, so I can understand why you wouldn’t want it out there publicly during your season.  It would be bad for it to get out that your OH-1 passes 1.65 on the left in serve-receive and 2.54 on the right.  That WILL get used against you.

–And this is now where we come to the issue…

When I need information, I have no problem contacting coaches requesting that info.  I’ll send emails, make phone calls–always from my office phone and email so that there’s no question that I’m at a college level.  I explain the information I need–and also that I am happy to receive their information from last year or several years ago rather than the current season’s if they feel they could suffer a competitive disadvantage by giving me the info.  

The last time I did this, I reached out to 50 women’s  and 8 men’s programs at the NCAA D1+2 level.  (There aren’t a ton of men’s programs out there and I was only interested in the D-1/2 level at that point…)  Guess what?

• I received the requested data from 6 of the 50 women’s coaches.  (12%)

• I received the requested data from 7 of the 8 men’s coaches. (87%)

That’s not a typo.  A couple of the women’s coaches didn’t want to part with ANY information because it would help opponents (I’m not sure how…I just wanted totals of things…ugh), but mainly the women’s coaches ignored me.  That’s been the case every time I’ve requested information from women’s coaches.

The men’s coach who didn’t send the data?  He sent an email back, said they didn’t have the information–he’d just taken over the program and apologized for not being able to help.  He then asked specifically for me to let him know if I needed anything down the road when doing research.  So 7 sent the info and the 8th contacted me with an apology.

Do you see the difference?  One group of coaches willing to share information–treating coaching knowledge as ‘open source material’.  I think the logic is that everyone will move jobs, take the info with them and spread it anyways, so why not do it all openly in the first place?  Men’s VB is a close-knit community it seems to me and this is the result.

With women’s coaches, it is always much more secretive.  That’s NOT a comment on women coaching–men coaching women’s volleyball are just as unwilling to provide help as female coaches, but I don’t get why your 2014 FBSO% in Rotation 4 is top secret information.  I think this sort of secrecy stunts the growth of the sport.  Not just at the college level.  This goes on at the high school level here–I’ve talked with a few HS coaches about mentoring/helping younger coaches and had one coach, one of the 10 winningest in state history, directly say, “Why would I help her?  That’s not my program.  Making them better makes my job more difficult.”  Yup, a 55-60yr old woman refusing to help a 24yr old woman struggling in her second year of coaching….

Bwah.  This is hypocrisy on a bunch of levels.  Which is it going to be–“grow the game together” or “Screw you, I’m keeping my uber-doober secret practice strategies to myself”?  It can’t be both.  If we each work to improve one another as coaches, the sport gets better.  The old saying IS true: “A rising tide lifts all boats.”  

This is part of the reason why I decided to start blogging again back at the end of May.  If the object is to make the game better, we need to discuss it openly, have a good back-and-forth with open minds.   I want to make others better–because in that, I’m going to push myself to be better.  I want to make others better because the true value of sports (teamwork, pushing yourself to find new limits, sportsmanship, friendship) can help make the world a better place.

To that end, so that we can actually grow the sport (because I believe in that wholeheartedly), hit the “FOLLOW” button the side, so you can see what I’m thinking (50% history, 50% volleyball), share it with others.  Open minds, get coaches, players, teachers, students to go, “Ahhhhh!” with new ideas.  They may be outlandishly crazy…and they may even work.

PS.  This is something that seems to be ‘unique’ to volleyball for some reason.  Very little is kept hidden statistically in other sports.  Advanced stats/metrics are readily available for college football and basketball, baseball (college or pro), hockey, soccer, the works.  Why is volleyball different?  –it’s not just the money…metrics are available for women’s basketball.  It’s almost as if D-1 coaches have no desire to grow the game, only to maintain their position in terms of prestige.  Would that attitude change if pro ball came to the US and succeeded?

Hey–speaking of unabashed self-promotion:

If you’re interested in more stuff on volleyball designed to make you think, maybe give you some insights into your own coaching,  check outLike Heck She Isn’t a Volleyball Player available on Amazon and other internet bookstores.  It’s a collection of 27 essays on all parts of the most exciting indoor (and outdoor) sport in the world and it’s going to cost you five dollars.  Yup–five.