When you first look at the Enhanced Insights Summary it may appear at first glance a little overwhelming, but it is in its essence an expansion of the information that SIDs and statisticians have been taking for years. There had not been a method to report those statistics and insights that were not presented in the Box Score either in the basic or the expanded form. Let’s looks at what has been added:
Total Attacking:
The first thing that is immediately noticed is “Err” and “Blk” in where you would normally see “E” in the box score. This is simply separating the “Errors” (Err), those attacks in the net or out of play from those attacks which were blocked (Blk). This gives greater understanding of how the attacker’s errors are happening, think of them like unforced errors and forced errors in tennis. Likewise we have added Kill percentage (K%), Error percentage (Err%) and attacks blocked percentage (Blk%) which represent the percentage of those events over the total attacks (TA); in providing this information we show the distribution of each and an easy visible calculation of the proportion of each within the distribution.
Attacking Phases:
Many people familiar with volleyball are aware that attacking in volleyball occurs in two phases, off of the reception, commonly referred to as “First Ball Attack,” where there is a set formation with a called attacking scheme and all other attacks, commonly referred to as “Transition Attack” (or counter-attacking), where attacking is much more reactive to the defense of the opponent’s attack. Within the transition phase we are able calculate and isolate those attacking attempts in transition for the serving team where they successfully defend the opponent’s First Ball Attack.
While on its surface this information may seem to be a bit more coaching focused than something that an SID would use, understanding how teams attacked in each phase may help bring understanding to how a seemingly close match in Hitting Efficiency was won or lost. A team could be very good in attacking off of reception, but not effective in transition; where the opponent may be less effective off the pass, but highly efficient in transition.
Digs:
Digs to Kill (DTK) is a calculation of how many digs are converted to kills. This is a defensive statistic that helps quantify the quality of digs and those which create scoring opportunities in transition. Therefore the “DTK” is the number of kills that follow that player’s digs and not the kills by that player, Total Attempts (TA) corresponds with “D” for digs on box score and “Pct” represents the percentage of that player’s digs converted to kills. Think about it this way, there is a big difference between a dig which keeps a ball in play and one which gives their team an opportunity to score in transition; think of DTK as an “assist” for the defensive player, much like the first pass in basketball or ice hockey.
For as long as there has been a Libero, there has been difficulty quantifying the value of that position to the team and in comparative terms to other players in the same position, at a conference and national level, DTK gives more granular context to this role on defense.
Blocking:
In terms of blocking, not much has been added except that we have separated out the Assisted Blocks into assists in a two-person block (BA2) and assists in a three-person block (BA3) to give insight and distribution of how block assists are earned.
Serving:
Much like blocking, we have not added much by adding service error percentage (SE%), service errors over total serve attempts, but in adding the number, it becomes a valuable quick reference value.
Reception:
The big addition in receiving is the addition of First Ball Sideout Percentage (FBSO%) or the percentage of a receiver’s passes that were immediately converted to a kill. This gives a more granular analysis of the effectiveness of the team’s offense when that player passes the serve.
Similar to DTK, this allows for a better quantification of a Libero’s contribution to the team’s performance; likewise it helps differentiate a six-rotation outside hitter’s contribution as both an attacker and primary receiver from an outside hitter who only plays front row or is protected in the receiving formation.
Phase Efficiencies:
In the lower left corner of the EIS you will notice a group of percentages along-side “SO%,” these are the phase efficiencies. First, a little explanation of the terminology, the phases “sideout” and “point scoring,” refer back to the scoring system in NCAA volleyball prior to 2001, where games were played to 15 points, but you could only score when your team was serving. Sideout meant your team won the point in reception and were now in a position for “Point Scoring” with the serve.
Now that we have defined those terms, let’s go through these phase efficiencies. Sideouts (SO) are the total points won in reception during a set or match, therefore Sideout percentage is the percentage of points won on total opportunities, in this case the opponent team’s total serve attempts, this is nothing new, as it has been reported on the box score for several years.
Earned Sideout Percentage (ESO%) is the percentage of sideouts earned on serves in play, eliminating the service errors. As was mentioned earlier in reception, First Ball Sideout is the conversion of a reception directly to a kill, therefore FBSO% is the percentage of serves in play that are received and directly result in a kill. Both ESO% and FBSO% are evaluations of the effectiveness of the receiving team to score points both in the rally as a whole and directly off of the serve respectively.
As referenced just above, point scoring is the scoring of points while the team is serving, therefore point scoring percentage (PS%) is the percentage of serve opportunities resulting in a point and another serve opportunity.