Volleyball Heat Maps

The other day a volleyball coach I follow on Facebook posted this link. It's an article talking about the gold medal match in the recent FIVB Men's World Championship, and a key difference between the teams. Looking at the statistics Brazil looks like the better team by a slim margin in almost all the stats they looked at. The lone bright spot was Polands service error percentage, where they had a slight advantage. Poland won the match, so this might be a factor in the outcome of the match.

It's an article, but it is also sales copy for an iPad app for volleyball heat maps. I am not associated with the company HeatMapApps in any way, and this article is the first I have ever heard of this. A heat map is a visual representation of data. In the case of the article/sales copy, it is a visual representation of where serves went on the volleyball court. It is broken down by team and whether there were two or three passers. A striking difference between the two teams is that Brazil served at passers, and Poland served at the gaps between passers. Combined with the lower service error percentage, this is a big advantage. Even without forcing an ace or a bad pass, this could take a hitter out of the offense.

When I read this, I immediately started thinking about how useful this tool could be for coaches. Based on the product descriptions on the website, it looks like you can separate players and different types of contacts. It could be used to track who on the other team is serving or hitting, where the contact goes, and what kind of contact it is. Shot charts are pretty handy when scouting and making adjustments during a match. I've always seen this done by writing in player numbers and drawing lines along the angle of attack. They can tell you a lot of good information about hitter tendencies and trends, but they tend to get messy. After they get messy, they tend to confuse as much as enlighten. With a coach using this app on the bench, you could show the team very quickly during a timeout how that one player is really hurting you. That creates an opportunity to make those in match adjustments that could take away a few points.

I should note that I have not used this app. A lot of my assumptions are based on what I have read on their website. I can't really speak to ease of use, or if its utility matches my expectations of its utility. It does cost about $20, and that is quite a bit for an app, but if I were currently coaching, I would get this in a heartbeat. If money weren't an issue for me right now, I would get it anyway. If anyone from HeatMapApps is reading this, I wouldn't turn down a review copy.