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The GB Women Volleyball Scout Answers My Questions | Matt Bianco
I met Matt 18 months ago after I coached a volleyball match. He first introduced me to Data Volley and at that point in my performance analysis career, I had never seen a computerised match analysis software system before. I later learnt he was the GB Women Volleyball Scout. I got back in touch with him during my time at Cardiff Metropolitan University and I interviewed him for his thoughts after his experience at the London 2012 Olympic Games.
1)What was the overall experience at the Olympics like? It was a great event to be a part of. I didn’t get a lot of down time so my experience was heavily work based, but still an unforgettable chapter of my life!
2)What was your workflow process prior to competition? I spent about 3 days a week working on videos of the opposition with the goal of preparing a team a week as the teams qualified so that we would be as prepared as possible in terms of scouting teams and having the best possible game plan devised by the coaching staff as a whole.
3)What was your workflow during competition on match days and non-match days? To put it simply, if I was not at the venue for our games, I was compiling footage for video meetings scouting opposition teams. I would generally get some time to eat and sleep a bit and that was about it…for me and all of the coaching staff!
4)What was your workflow after competition? Immediately after competition we started looking at the opposition for the next competition as we were playing in the European Championships 3 weeks later.
5)Did you feel your work was utilised effectively by the coaches and players? I feel that we used the stats as best we could. It is hard to know at what point you overload the players or even the coach. I will claim a couple of points in terms of telling the blockers where to block though 😉
6)What would you have done differently in any of the workflows? I’m not sure that there would be much I could have done differently. For the preparation that the team uses, there would not be a great deal I could have changed.
7)If you had unlimited resources, what would you have done? I would have upgraded some of the equipment that we used. A couple of the laptops were definitely a little the worse for wear but not having been funded for a couple of years (GB Volleyball Women got their funding cut in 2010, HB), it was a case of tape it back together and see if it still works!!
8)What was the biggest thing you learnt during your time as a GB Scout so far? It would be hard to pinpoint one thing. I have developed a huge amount over the 4 years that I have worked with the program. I would say that my tactical awareness and ability to effectively scout opposition would be the biggest things.
9)What was the most surprising thing you learnt during your time as a GB Scout so far? The most surprising thing I have learned is what is takes to be part of an elite program. There is little or no appreciation in the wider world for the sheer amount of work that crosses a scout’s desk right down to technical support on the odd occasion! The coaches all know what is involved but the general public tend to think that you just go on holiday every time you go abroad on tour.
10)What advice would you give to other volleyball scouts/ analysts? Don’t do it by halves. If you want to scout properly, you need to invest time into it. Being attached to a team at any level is a big commitment and will take up most of your time. The other thing I would advise is to make sure that you organise your time effectively or you will end up working some pretty anti-social hours!
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