Taking Accurate, Useful Coaching Stats
Learn how to take accurate and useful volleyball statistics. Master stat tracking techniques, avoid common mistakes, and ensure your data is reliable for coaching decisions.
Overview
Using the following process will provide you with the most accurate, useful stats for coaching. There are a number of key things to remember and if you follow this process you can maintain consistently useful statistics.
The Basics
Score Errors, Not Opponent Success
Do NOT score opponents' aces and kills but instead stat the ERROR by your players. Sometimes the opposing team will make an incredible serve or powerful hit that no one can get to. But it's critical to assign this action as an error to your team.
Consistent Error Tracking
If you don't assign these errors to your team, you will reduce the error count against your team so your error % in the match will be lower. This would lead you to believe that your team is doing "better" when it is not. A consistent way of taking stats is critical to getting useful feedback.
Zone of Responsibility
No matter how impossible a dig or pass was to make, there is always a zone of responsibility and you must assign it to your team. While it may be debatable who's responsibility it was, that's less important than it IS your TEAM's responsibility and hence, an error.
Block Deflections
If a ball deflects off a block and out of reach, then charge the error to the blocker.
Key Takeaway: When you know that an error took place, you have an opportunity to practice and improve this particular situation.
Coaching Stats vs Box Scores
Box scores are designed to provide highlights for fans to review. They are typically designed to reduce or eliminate judgment so there are no "ratings" such as passing and serving quality. Box scores are typically not setup to be good for coaching feedback.
Example: The NCAA box score standard is to assign a kill to your hitter if the opponent has a net fault during the attack. This is not particularly helpful for coaching. I don't want my hitters' stats to improve based on the opponents' inability to stay out of the net.
Consistent Definitions for Actions
Digs
One of the important things to note is that when an attack by your team hits the opponents' block and comes back to your team, the ball that is brought up is NOT a dig.
Digs are only scored when: The opponent is returning the ball in an attempt to score - such as a spike, tip or dump. If the blocked ball hits the floor, then it is NOT a digging error but an attack error.
Free Balls
A free ball return is not considered an attack. So when you pass a free ball, it is not a dig.
Note: Ironically, a free ball return that scores a point is a Kill.
Serve and Receive
Passing and Serving ratings for 1-2-3 quality are up to you to decide. The basic definitions are:
Serve Receive Pass
Pass or Passing Error
Ball hits the floor, is shanked or is not brought under control enough for your team to return the ball to the opponent's court.
Poor Pass
Requires the setter to chase and put up a difficult set or must be returned as a free ball to the opponent.
Good Pass
Pass is high enough and toward the front of the court such that the setter has more than one setting option.
Perfect Pass
A perfect pass close to the net where the setter can set all attackers including the quick middle set.
Serve
Ace
Results in a 0 pass (passing error)
Excellent Serve
Results in a 1 pass (poor pass)
Good Serve
Results in a 2 pass (good pass)
Average Serve
Results in a 3 pass (perfect pass)
Serving Error
Service error
Important: It is important to set a standard for your team and have the stat rated consistently from match to match. The easiest way to do this is to have the same stat taker.
It's less important that you agree what a 2 pass is but that the stat is rated consistently. Consistent interpretation and rating is essential, otherwise, your stats will go up or down based on the stat taker instead of your team's performance. This is a fundamental weakness of stat services as they use many different stat takers and the variability can be quite high.
Acquiring Accurate Setting Stats
Assists
Assists occur each time a setter sets a ball that the attacker turns into a kill. In SoloStats, there is a designated setter for each rotation.
Example: In Rotation 1, if Megan is the designated setter (assigned in the Setup screen) and she sets the ball to Beth who makes a kill, Megan will be automatically given an assist. If however, the ball was set by someone else, then after entering the kill, press Assist, then the player who set the ball.
Setting Attempts by Setters
To provide accurate set attempts, for in-rally sets of attacks that stay in play, press Hit Still in Play if the set came from the designated setter. If the set was from someone else, press Hit Still in Play not from setter.
Stat Definitions
Our Simplified Stats Wizard provides pages of stat definitions for your edification.
View Complete Stat Definitions