Posted by Yesterday I happened across an article about the statistics a particular NBAer watched during the course of a game. It got me thinking about the statistics that I look at during the game, as distinct from those I study after the game.
The score, is the first and most important statistic. As always, the score is the only statistic that really counts. It really does give the best indication of how you are playing. The next question is why?
Sideout percentage / Breakpoint percentage shows which phase of the game is contributing how much to the score.
Attack percentage. Despite what you might read on the internet, volleyball is, has always been and will always be a game of spiking. I pay most attention to kill percentage, because I want to know how many points I am scoring with my attack.
Defensive rate / transition attack percentage. The Defensive Rating is explained here, but simply shows the number of transition attacks generated by my serve / block / defence / transition setting. Transition attack percentage shows what proportion of the attacks created are points.
Those are the statistics that I watch most closely during a match. I also follow individual player statistics, but not in great detail. The detail in the Data Volley Match Report is more than enough for during the match.
A very important note is that none of the numbers above, except the score, means anything in and of itself. The coach must know what are the specific standards for their team and for their league. If you don’t know those things, you can’t really begin to work with statistics in a meaningful way. If you want to start to understand your team and league standards, try this fantastic app from Science Untangled.
A collection of Coaching Tips can be found here.
For more great coaching tips, check out the Vyacheslav Platonov coaching book here.
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