Chad Gordon
To break down serving, we must first identify the expectations and then figure out how to quantify the results. Some may immediately think that because it's a closed loop skill, that the expectations are simply 0. We have no expectations, there's no other force acting on your ability to hit the serve. But this isn't... Continue Reading →
In other sports, the concept of expected points, goals, etc. has been around for a while. Volleyball seemingly lacks this concept on a familiar level and so I figured I'd take a shot. In basketball, expected points (xP) is a common metric. Oh, the Warriors on a corner 3? That's worth 1.3 points per shot.... Continue Reading →
To touch or not to touch, that is the question. There are a couple philosophies that I know of when it comes to blocking. First is the GMS, more hands are better than fewer hands. They know that hitting efficiency in the aggregate declines when you move from solo, to double, to triple blocks -... Continue Reading →
So I got a message a couple months ago and 100% failed to respond, so I'm trying to do it some justice now. The question is about FBSO Efficiency, Passer Ratings, and Winning. *Because the question was in reference to passing, I eliminated missed serves from the analysis. So here are the 2017 numbers for the... Continue Reading →
It's been about a year since I posted, so I figured my unpaid sabbatical from this blog should come to an end soon. I snatched the 2018 men's data, parsed it, and decided that the controversial (if you were to survey volleyball parents) topic of service error should be the first thing I dive into... Continue Reading →
Been waiting to dive into this for a while now, so let's get right to it. What you see above is the Service Error % in a given set and the opponent's FBSO efficiency: (opp. won in FBSO - opp. lost in FBSO)/total serves. The teams you see as labels are the serving teams, so... Continue Reading →
Just got access to the men's side of the data so I'm still playing around with a few things. What you see above is a data-driven visualization of what coaches might term "the key guy to stop." In recent years with a team like BYU, the common phrase was "Taylor Sander is going to get... Continue Reading →
B1G Pass Rating in W/L sets Figured I would build a similar chart for the Pac12 from 2016. It includes all conference matches, not just the big ones. As with the Big 10 numbers, there are certainly some teams where pass rating doesn't necessarily differentiate won/lost sets. By including all sets however, this may... Continue Reading →
I'm not a huge fan of using pass ratings - I don't believe they accurately value different reception qualities. That being said, every single person ever uses pass ratings, so I decided to dive into it a little. In the above chart, pass ratings are valued on a 3 point scale (R# 3, + 2.5,... Continue Reading →
