Back Row Defense and Collecting Data

Last month I came across this blog post about a back row defense idea championed by Gold Medal Squared. When I was working on my bachelors degree, I took a class taught by Carl McGown about coaching volleyball. The class was essentially a GMS clinic taught over a semester as a mix of class lecture and running through the concepts in the gym. Many of the other students in the class were not physical education majors, but I took a motor learning class during my previous semester. The coaching volleyball class was very close to taking the motor learning class again, but all the examples applied to volleyball. I think that enhanced my experience because I could already see where everything was coming from. Add to that being able to go to men's matches (BYU 2003 national championship runner up) and the occasional peek into their practices to get an idea of how an elite team implemented the principles.

I enjoyed the blog post because of the use of the heat maps software I recently talked about (I'm still open to a review copy), and because it was written by someone who has done what I have been wanting to do for some time. I have been using the principles I learned in that class ever since in all of my coaching, but the stats geek in me wants to collect my own data to verify those principles. In every case thus far the data supports the principles. Charting hitting is one of the things I haven't started to do yet. I have cringed every time a head coach I've watched or worked with uses perimeter defense in the back row and hits repeatedly fall in that middle-middle spot that is the GMS middle back base position. Every time the back row player gets a dig with a spectacular diving play, I sit there shaking my head at how unnecessary it all is. With a player there as the base position, the play is instead routine and easier. The ball will stay in play more often and with a better chance of turning that dig into a kill. The problem is that what I was seeing very well could be confirmation bias. Seeing the data in those pretty heat maps is validation.

I still want to collect my own data. I also want to collect data on where the hits go when they are or aren't touched by the block, and what percentage of hits are touched by the block. I have a feeling that all the teams who move back row players so that none of them are behind the block are often in actuality opening up large portions of the court to hitters. It would not be wise to force back row players to dive to make a play when the area is only going to be protected by the block a small percentage of the time. Of course without data that is either speculation or confirmation bias.