Prep Volleyball

[HandsomeHarley]

Every sport seems to have one stat that I just can't keep up with. In volleyball, it's digs.

The very least, keep the kills and blocks. Service aces are easy.

One word of caution: Some (more inexperienced, especially) coaches give you stats that say little Mary Jones had 40 kills and 15 blocks.

What the coach is counting is every time little Mary hit a kill, whether it was dug up or not, and every time she got her little hands on the ball while trying to block, whether it was still played or not.

A kill is recorded when an attack ends with a point. Same thing for a block (sometimes referred to as a stuff-block) -- a block ends the volley. If the ball is still bouncing around, nobody gets anything.

If you're quick, and if you have a good scoresheet, you can record kills, blocks, aces and serve comp-att. I also have space for play-by-play, so I can note game-changing volleys.

 

[Hank_Scorpio]

Like Rhody said earlier, a block does not have end a volley. You can block an attack and it gets dug up for another volley.


Where people get blocks wrong is if a player breaks their wrists on a successful block attempt, it actually becomes an attack.

 

[farmerjerome]

My two best friends played in high school, so I was the defacto line judge and I still get confused someti2es.
This is how my sheet looks if Team A is playing team B and Team A is serving on my left and Team B on my right.
0-0
A12 B24 block 0-1
B4 A14 kill 1-1
A8 A 6 dink/tip 2-1
A8 B 16 out 3-1
A8 short 3-2
B16 A6 carry 3-3

.....and so forth.

That being said, when it comes to digs I have no idea and my stats are so off from the coach's that I just get theirs anyway. But I guess the play-by-play is important for my gamer. :

 

[kmayhugh]

Every volleyball coach in history has been convinced that communication is the only thing that matters. What do you need to work on? Communication. What did you do right? Communication. What's the key to the next match? Communication.

If you are trying to shoot your own photos, don't go crazy trying to get net shots. They are great if they work, but unless you are a skilled photographer (and not just a reporter stuck shooting his own stuff), you will have trouble getting a good one. Dig shots are easy, it's good to get a few in right away so you have something usable, then try to stand behind or beside the team you are shooting and wait for some girl to go flailing onto the floor in your direction for a good "she's coming right at you" shot. You will need one of the highest shutter speeds of any high-school sport if you want to freeze the ball in those spots.

Watch for each team's style of play. Some teams will really attack the net and go for big booming kills. Others will put four back and try to play more defensively. At lower levels of high school VB, the team that makes the fewest mistakes will probably win.

Watch the setter. The effectiveness of the big hitters is almost entirely on her. She should be getting the ball right into the hitters' wheelhouse, preferably with low, quick sets that don't give the defense time to set up.

No matter how hard you try, most of your game stories will devolve into "One team went on a run to break open the game and win."

If you are new to the preps grind or may be covering a lot of sports you aren't familiar with, Joe Gisondi's Field Guide to Covering Sports is a great practical manual that gives you these kinds of instructions sport-by-sport.

 

[HandsomeHarley]

No staring at the players' butts.

Covered one high schooler a few years back that had an, um, pierced clit. Painfully obvious (no pun intended -- OK, a little intended).

 

[Rhody31]

Another stat you shouldn't listen to coaches about is aces.
Coaches/statkeepers generally give any serve that isn't returned an ace. According to the rule, that is not true.
An ace is an unreturnable serve. If it's a good serve and a player dives for it and the pass doesn't hit the mark, it's a service winner, not an ace. Basically, treat it like a fielder making a play in baseball. If it's a basic serve that should be returned and it's not, it's a serve receive error. If the serve-receiver has to make a great play on the ball but can't stick the pass, it's a service winner. If the serve is straight unreturnable, it's an ace.
I talked with the local coach about the rule. One match he had one of his girls with like 15 aces. I had her for like five. I told him to double check the rule and explained my interpretation of it.
Next time I saw him he told me he agreed with my interpretation of it. His stats and mine have matched since.

I'm still trying to create a nice pbp stat tracker for volleyball. It's tough to keep everything and still know what the hell is going on. I keep a running score, who serves the points and how the point ended. I track blocks, kills, assists, aces and service winners, as well as unforced errors - passes that miss targets, bad sets, etc. - and indicate when they led directly to points.

Volleyball is a great game. I played my senior year of high school, wasn't very good, but picked up a lot. The insight has helped, especially when it comes to writing stories.

 

[outofplace]

Some great stuff on here. And some tremendous ignorance.

Do not use service points in your story. It's a bull**** stat relied upon by lazy and/or clueless coaches. Keep point-by-point and kills. It really isn't that hard to keep kills. If you think you have it wrong, ask the coach for help. But if all the coach can give you is service points, you're better off going with no stats at all.

I keep kills, blocks and aces. I just can't keep up enough to do digs. I wouldn't try. Contrary to what some othes posted, these are NOT bull**** stats. They are legitimate stats often kept incorrectly, but they are not bull****.

Yes, sometimes the interviews are boring. If volleyball is a low-priority sport in your area, you can count on that. They just haven't been interviewed much. That just means it is on you to try to find an interesting angle.

Just don't ever write that the setter led the team in assists. The setter is supposed to lead the team in assists. If the setter fails to lead the team in assists, THAT you write about, and you should ask why. (Sometimes, teams use more than one setter at a time, though not often).

 

[TheHacker]

I second the notion that service points are total BS. I covered two years of NCAA volleyball when I was in college and never heard anyone talk about service points. Kills, attack percentage, serve percentage, but never service points. It's a nonsense stat that becomes necessary when you have bad volleyball, which most prep volleyball is. It can be relevant, but just because you had a long service run doesn't mean you did anything right other than make sure the ball got over the net.

But if you're stuck with bad volleyball, yeah, you write about the service runs as a way of reconstructing what happened ... the sequence of the match. To me, poorly played volleyball is more unwatchable than any other sport played poorly. And the thing is, when it's played well -- like in the Olympics -- I find it really entertaining. Lots of strategy and organization when you see a team actually running an offense.

 

[Rhody31]

Key thing you should always focus on/make note of - serve receive. Nine times out of 10, if a team isn't doing well on the serve-receive, they're not doing well in the match. Keep note of off-target passes off serves (a serve receive that the setter doesn't set) or on free balls (same thing, just when the opposition bumps it over or rolls it from the back row). Those are unforced errors, passing errors, and if they're adding up that team isn't winning. Note - if a back-row player is trying to make a dig off of a hit, dink, or jump-set third ball, it is not an error if they misplay the pass.
Service points are BS, but keep track of how many points a particular person serves. It's easy to track service errors and if a team's serve percentage is high, that's a good thing.

I basically track plays like this
H 0-0 V28-2K
2

How that reads (from left to right): Home team No. 2 served with the score 0-0; point ended on a kill by No. 2 on a pass from 28. I do my assists differently from just about everyone in every sport. It's from my basketball pxp - passer to scorer.

 

[HackyMcHack]

For this or just about any other sport, hit the NCAA website. They have the SID manuals posted in PDF format. Yeah, they follow NCAA rules instead of NFHS, but since the NFHS doesn't put out stat manuals the NCAA manuals are as close as you're gonna get.

I worked in an area for a few years where volleyball was followed fairly closely, both on the high school and collegiate levels. I picked up on a lot of the stats and how to keep them, but I still went to the coaches to get what they had in terms of numbers.

Most people that I've dealt with when it comes to volleyball are really laid back. If you explain to them that you don't know much about the sport, they probably will understand. On the other hand, I've had to deal with some high school coaches who, quite frankly, didn't know much beyond the basics of the game and were just coaching to pick up the supplemental pay. So don't get too concerned about intricate details... if you can pick up a non-technical anecdote or two from your postgame interviews, I'd wrap your story around that and worry less about the Xs and Os.

If you do want to get a little bit into the Xs and Os, here's a tidbit: A high school coach that I dealt with who is now a head coach on the D-I collegiate level was always fond of saying that serving and passing is what wins and loses volleyball matches. So look at how teams transition from defense to offense. If the back-line players are getting the ball to the setter without the setter having to move much, then that team is doing a really good job of passing the ball. If the setter is having to run around all over the place, then it's a sign that things are getting out of sorts.

I do recommend keeping a play-by-play, tracking the score, server and result of the point. I don't keep service points (they are not an official NCAA statistic, and the only person who kept them at the place I learned how to cover volleyball was the ... to put it delicately ... the school's "superfan"), but keeping track of the server allows you to quickly see if a team went on a long scoring run.

 

[I Should Coco]

Some great advice on this thread. I agree with all who say if you're keeping stats, focus on kills, blocks and aces. All three of these end points, so you should be able to jot these down.

If you are trying to shoot your own photos, don't go crazy trying to get net shots. They are great if they work, but unless you are a skilled photographer (and not just a reporter stuck shooting his own stuff), you will have trouble getting a good one. Dig shots are easy, it's good to get a few in right away so you have something usable, then try to stand behind or beside the team you are shooting and wait for some girl to go flailing onto the floor in your direction for a good "she's coming right at you" shot. You will need one of the highest shutter speeds of any high-school sport if you want to freeze the ball in those spots.

This is excellent advice about shooting volleyball -- probably the toughest prep sport to shoot other than ice hockey.

I would always get dig shots early, then try to see where the "block" sets up on defense. It's easier to anticipate that than it is to try and figure out where the attack is coming from. And the expressions on the faces of the blockers is usually pretty intense!

 

[flexmaster33]

Should we really be using the term "kills"? That should go the way of the Washington Bullets and be banned from the lexicon as too violent...kidding of course. Can you dig it?

 

[Turtle Wexler]

Just don't ever write that the setter led the team in assists. The setter is supposed to lead the team in assists. If the setter fails to lead the team in assists, THAT you write about, and you should ask why. (Sometimes, teams use more than one setter at a time, though not often).

This is obvious, but very solid, advice.

 

[outofplace]

Just don't ever write that the setter led the team in assists. The setter is supposed to lead the team in assists. If the setter fails to lead the team in assists, THAT you write about, and you should ask why. (Sometimes, teams use more than one setter at a time, though not often).

This is obvious, but very solid, advice.

Thanks. I only bring it up because I have seen it done.

 

[the_lorax]

For this or just about any other sport, hit the NCAA website. They have the SID manuals posted in PDF format. Yeah, they follow NCAA rules instead of NFHS, but since the NFHS doesn't put out stat manuals the NCAA manuals are as close as you're gonna get.

To set the record straight, the NCAA and NFHS rules both define a block as a motion at the net that ENDS THE PLAY. If it's dug up, it's not a block. Just like a kill is not a kill if it's dug up. If players are averaging more than one block a game (not match, but game), they're doing really well.
And, yes, volleyball can be a great sport when it's played at a high level, even in preps. If you've got two good teams going at it, it's as good as a high-quality football or basketball game in my eyes.

 

[TrooperBari]

I've seen high school teams differentiate between blocks and "ace" blocks (the ones that end points). Again, this is an area where you're better off doing your own stats.

And I'm with the lorax -- volleyball is a great sport to cover when it's done well.

 

[highlander]

As far as keeping track of the game. I use a regular-sized legal note bad. One each I make three columns. The columns are for who is serving, assists, and the result of the serve.
If the servers team gets a points I circle the number of server, if it was an ace, I write ace there. If there is an assist I write in the players number. In the results column I circle whatever the result is - number of the player with a kill, if it's a block for a kill I put a B by the players number, if the point resulted from some sort of error I writer SE (serve error), HE (hitting error), SRE (serve recieve error) or E (if someone just ****ed up).

 

[Stitch]

I've seen high school teams differentiate between blocks and "ace" blocks (the ones that end points). Again, this is an area where you're better off doing your own stats.

And I'm with the lorax -- volleyball is a great sport to cover when it's done well.

Coaches that don't know what a block is shouldn't coach, especially the ones who claim to know what they are doing. It's not that hard to read up on this stuff.

 

[Hank_Scorpio]

Some great advice on this thread. I agree with all who say if you're keeping stats, focus on kills, blocks and aces. All three of these end points, so you should be able to jot these down.

If you are trying to shoot your own photos, don't go crazy trying to get net shots. They are great if they work, but unless you are a skilled photographer (and not just a reporter stuck shooting his own stuff), you will have trouble getting a good one. Dig shots are easy, it's good to get a few in right away so you have something usable, then try to stand behind or beside the team you are shooting and wait for some girl to go flailing onto the floor in your direction for a good "she's coming right at you" shot. You will need one of the highest shutter speeds of any high-school sport if you want to freeze the ball in those spots.

This is excellent advice about shooting volleyball -- probably the toughest prep sport to shoot other than ice hockey.

I would always get dig shots early, then try to see where the "block" sets up on defense. It's easier to anticipate that than it is to try and figure out where the attack is coming from. And the expressions on the faces of the blockers is usually pretty intense!

A good place to shoot photos in volleyball is from above. Obviously not all gyms will have this, but if they have an upper tier of stands, you can shoot the players hitting in your direction.

 

[writingump]

I like Rhody's system on volleyball. I might have to try it next year. I echo what most posters are saying on here -- great sport, underrated as hell, fun to cover. Rarely, if ever, do I run into a raging egomaniac volleyball coach. Can you say that about covering football or basketball?