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Using DataVolley Pro and DataVideo For the First Time
Introduction
So I was lent a licence key of DataVolley Pro and DataVideo after the London Legacy Volleyball Cup (see link). Below is some of my experiences using it for the first time.
Trial Run With a London Legacy Match
I thought it was best to do a trial run by coding the Polonia vs Northumbria match after the London Legacy Cup. It was something I will have to practice anyway if I was going to scout other teams from match video.
I still found it difficult to code in real time. After one or two actions, my mind would freeze up trying to think of what to type and then before I knew it, the rally has ended and I’m screwed. However, I found a useful button. It was a delay function which meant it played the video at 0.5x speed. It was brilliant because it gave me that little bit extra time to code everything in. Even for some rallies, I was still too slow to get everything in. I would recommend anybody learning to use DataVolley to start this way before venturing into live matches.
It would be useful if the video controls (pause, play, delay, skip two seconds) was linked to the code window. You can skip the process of using the mouse to pause or fast forward to the next serve and then clicking back on the code window. The skip button is useful to skip through time-outs and between sets.
After three and a half sets, I decided to code the last half set in real time. Amazingly, I was able to do it. There was a couple of plays where I had to go back but I coded most of it.
Live Coding
I had a number of issues/ learning experience during my first full match using DataVolley from start to finish.
I needed a delayed video stream so I can re-watch any missed action, especially point ending action. I usually use Kinovea for this job. DataVideo can do the same job and it had the added advantage that I could open up a stream in DataVolley rather than having two separate windows. So as I opened up a stream, DataVideo decided to crash on me. It wasn’t responding so I restarted the laptop. It was then it decided to update Windows which took at least five minutes. This was not ideal as it happened during the warm-up. When it restarted, I decided to use Kinovea just in case I had more issues. Hopefully, it won’t happen again but at least I know I have Kinovea as a back up if DataVideo is not working.
You need the starting rotations of both teams in DataVolley (although not in StatEasy). This means inputting starting rotations is very time sensitive because you have to wait until the coaches hand in their rotation slips. For Polonia, I can just ask the coach or see what he puts down. For the opposition, I have to wait until they hand in their rotation slips. I encountered an issue with the scorer who would not allow me to see the starting rotation. He gave me some reason I didn’t understand on why I couldn’t. This is the same scorer that wouldn’t allow me to see the team sheet of the opposition. Anyway. I asked the second referee and she allowed me to see their starting rotation. I am not sure if this is a regular occurrence but this is something to keep an eye on.
As I was coding the first set, I saw some errors. After some investigation during the first time out, I found out that it was because the players were not on the court. The starting rotation was correct but I later found it was because I inputted the oppositional players’ shirt numbers wrong. I usually just look at the scoresheet before the match or I can just look at their shirt numbers during the warm-up if I know the players. This time I look in the match day programme for the numbers, which was slightly wrong. I had to make modifications and after an update and verify, it looked like it did the job. I will just have to go back to the old workflow or checking the scoresheet.
Coding substitutions is not needed in StatEasy but it is important in DataVolley. It tells the system who is on court and subsequently flags up an error if you code an action by a player not on court. It also affects the match report on which set they played. I had issues in missing substitutions. I completely missed a serving substitution (a defensive player subs in for a middle player to serve and play defence). I only noticed when that player got subbed out. I also had issues when both teams make substitutions. I picked up on our team’s substitution but not the opposition. This is something I have to be more aware of.
I usually start filming the match after the serving warm-up. On this occasion, with the stress of DataVideo crashing and getting the starting rotations, I completely forgotten to film the match. I only realised halfway through the match. Video is king and if everything else fails, you need the match video as the bare minimum. Thankfully the opposition team filmed the match and I was able to obtain their match video.
DataVolley has an auto line-up function. This means if you code the correct server, the system knows the starting line-up after a full rotation. This has the advantage that it saves you time (or with scorer issues – see above). I decided to use this function in set 2. It worked out ok. However, in set 3, I ran into major issues. Basically the line-up looked wrong. I tried to modify it but was just a mess. I think the mistake stemmed from coding the first serve to the home team when it should have been the away team. About halfway, I decided to stop coding and deal with it afterwards. I restarted in set 4. In the future, I think I will rush to input the starting line-up before the set starts.
Except for set 3, I felt I got about 90-95% of the action. I would miss some actions that happened quickly, especially after a block, or some weird situations, e.g. the setter spiked the ball! But I can live with that.
For the next match, I also need to design an analysis window where I can see live updates of the stats. This is really why we have live stats – to affect the game in real time. If an oppositional player is receiving badly, serve to them. Look at the hitting stats and let the setter know who is hitting the best or who is not hitting enough. I now have attack directions at my disposal so now I may be able to inform the coach where the ball is generally being set to in each rotation and where they actually hit to and adjust the block-defence.
Post-Match
I was able to sync the video to the live codes. You basically sync up the first serve and then everything else is synced up. I did find some of the later sets, the sync was out by 10 seconds but you are able to resync some of the codes.
Since I had to recode set 3, I thought I would be able to go back into DataVolley and recode set 3. However, I found out I couldn’t just go back to do it. It finished at set 4 and I can’t go back and add new bunch of new codes. I could go in one or two ways: either go back and add one code at a time for the whole set, i.e. no compound codes, or redo the whole match. Although the match was five sets, I thought it was better to redo the whole thing. I thought adding one code at a time would take too long and recoding the whole match would give me more opportunity to practice. It may also teach me a lesson to code it right the first time around.
I also need to build my own set of analysis tables. I feel the standardised DataVolley match report is terrible. The match info is great (I like how they show who started in the set and the partial set scores) but the data itself is not useful for me. For example, they don’t show a hitting percentage, just a kill percentage. I also need to build some of the other analyses like the hitting directions, setting distribution, play by play etc.
Overall
I feel I am learning quite quickly. I should be able to code a match without major issues by the end of the next match or the one after. I know once I am proficient at coding the basic stats, I will have to add more data, e.g. code quick attacks, slides, crossovers, serve directions etc. I also have to build up the analyses for live and post-match purposes. It’ll be interesting to see how far I get by the end of the season.
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