Volleyball Notational Analysis - Assignment Example

Volleyball Notational Analysis The game of volleyball is played by two teams of six members each separated by a net. Each team achieves points by the grounding of the ball on side of the opponent. The one rule of volleyball that stands out is; touching of the net is not allowed. Other actions not allowed in volleyball also include causing the ball to touch outside the court without passing over the net, double hitting of the ball by one player, hitting of the ball four or more times by members of one team and touching the net during game time. Notational analysis is the provision of objective feedback to the team players in an effort of having a positive impact on their performance. It helps the coach to keep up with the performance of each player. Notational analysis also helps the player to get to understand what happens as opposed to what he/she thinks happens. Performance indicators are used to assess the performance of a team in comparison to previous performances. The types of performance indicators include; Scoring, this is done by counting the number of times that a team grounds the ball on the other teams’ side. The current score can be compared with a score in the previous game, to assess whether the performance of the team is getting better. Scoring skills in volleyball are attacking, serving and blocking the ball. However, using scores has its own demerits; this is because the circumstances leading to the scores are not considered. This means a lot of information is left out. A score indicator is a device placed on the net. It is a translucent and opaque graphic mounted on laminated sheets. It has a common axis and is color coded to differentiate the teams’ scores. The indicator changes color when one-team scores, this offers quick reference and access by the players. Quality; this includes good ball passes as well as positioning of the players, for instance a good ball pass in volleyball should ensure that the ball should pass all the way to the other side of the net. The rallying should be done strongly. It is also the application of scientific methods in an attempt to understand fully the characteristics of the human body. This leads to proper body training and a theoretical analysis of the growth of the players. The quality of a performance can be either positive or negative. Positive quality is when, the players pass the ball easily to each other ensuring no player hits the ball twice. There should only be two hits to work up for the attack move. The attack hit should be strong and precise so as not to go out of the field. Negative quality is mostly when the players break most of the rules. For instance, touching of the net, this is not allowed. Poor ball passes which leads to the ball grounding hence earning points to the opponent team. The attack is not strong enough and the defense leading to being overpowered by the other team. However, performance indicators alone cannot be used to come up with performance criteria in volleyball because they only consider single valued variables that are taken in isolation from each other. These variables can give a distorted explanation and view of the team. Performance criteria should include tactical and technical evaluation of the teams’ performance. Tactical evaluation is the patterns of play by the players as individuals and as a team. It involves a certain level of physical ability and maturation in the game. These patterns of play are the standing position, walking, jogging, running and sprinting. It involves also how the players position themselves in the field and to what advantage that is to the teams’ performance. Tactical evaluation looks at good scoring. This means that the disadvantage of using scoring as a performance indicator is ironed out because the tactics leading up to the scores are evaluated and perfected, once the players have achieved a good physical ability with time scores increase. Technical indicators are small components of the overall performance of the team. These components include proper co-ordination between and among the players. Complimenting of each other. Technical evaluation involves the evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the players and how each player can be able to shine more in his strength without showing their weaknesses. Technical evaluation involves quality of the teams’ performance. This is because the analysis is not just done on the ball passes and possession; it looks at the various ways in which players can complement each other’s. It also involves an increase in the level of endurance. Performance indicator and evaluation for volleyball; Performance indicators Performance evaluation Tactical evaluation Technical evaluation Scores Precise shots Strong rallying Proper ball passes Quality a) Servings b) data Serves well Receives servings from opponents well Should be available for both teams Good coordination (no player hits ball more than once and a team more than thrice) Information translated should be properly used. A performance criterion also involves analysis of movement this is a detailed record of a sports’ skills. It is a biomechanical evaluation aimed at improving the performance of the team. It helps in the prevention of injuries to the players. It assists most coaches to know the potential of a player at exactly which particular skill in the game. The skill can be jumping, scoring, swiftness or even bouncing the ball. This is what helps the coach in allocating the positions of an individual player in that team. In volleyball, the upper body strength is very important. The following are the body movements expected during a match in volleyball. There are two teams; team A and team B. Move during the game. Expected body movements. First serving(rallying) by a player of team A Should be standing straight legs apart Should throw the ball up using one arm and then hit it with the other arm strongly enough that it goes over to team B’s side. Receiving the ball by team B’s players The player should have his hands tied together and the ball should hit the arms on the area just below the hands Attacking of team A by team B. this is done after two receiving hits and the third one should be the attack meant to attack and ground on the team A’s side. The player should jump high in order to reach the ball and then using only one arm(not limited to one arm) he should use his upper body strength to hit the ball hard while directing it to team A’s side. Defending by the team A from the attack from team B. This is done once the team A’s players notice the ball is about to be grounded on their side. The players come close to the net and jump up high with their arms and hands stretched up high to ensure that to prevent the ball from crossing over completely to their side. The ball goes back to team B’s side. The above process goes on repeatedly until one team is able to ground the ball on the opponents’ side. This is when the team scores. Analysis of movement is a biomechanical indicator used to show proper co-ordination of the body parts of the player. Less injuries during practice and game time is a good indicator of proper movement. These injuries also include some, which happen within the body like muscle pull on the players, straining of the muscles. The injuries are also inclusive f those caused by other players intentionally or not. There should also be a lot of scoring from both the teams competing against each other. This is part of the quality used as a performance indicator for a volleyball team. Ratio is a relationship connecting two quantities, calculated by the dividing of one magnitude by the other and frequently written using a colon. Ratios in volleyball are very essential as it gives a more real picture. This is when you comparatively look at the performance in comparison to another team. Taking the same example of team A and team B, we can compare their performance using their previous performances. This gives enough evidence to show which team is better than the other is and to predict the performance of the next matches. Lets’ say in the previous three games of the teams against each other the following performances were witnessed; then the following ratios will be concluded; Team A Team B Ratio 20 15 4:3 30 24 5:4 32 40 4:5 From the ratios, it can seen that team A most of the times performs better than team B, however there is a great potential in team B, since in the last game, it performed better than team A. Team A should also not relax since the slightest mistake means that team B can easily overdo them. Teams that are at per are those that have the same goal ratios in their performance for instance the following ratio; 1; 1. It simply means that no team is better than the other is. However, ratios can be calculated in summative form; Team A; 20+30+32=82 Team B; 15 +24+ 40=79 Ratios; 0.49: 0.51 There is also the ratio measurement in volleyball. This is a ratio of the measurement of the waist to the hips. There is a standard recommendation, whereby for men the best is 0.85 and for women it is 0.75. Ratio= hips measurement in inches Waist measurement in inch These measurements are Rate Gender Excellent Good Average Poor Male 0.8 0.85 0.90 0.95 Female 0.70 0.75 0.80 0.85 Performance criteria should involve the use of a database and model. The database should be a structured collection of data. The data is modeled to suite relevant aspects of the team. This involves a reliable set of information about each and every player and his level of improvement from the time he/she joined the team. This information should also be used to produce a good training model that should be used during practice. The data can also be used to foretell the team’s performance in the next match that they would play. This is by using the Markov transitional matrix that is a mathematical system that is used to calculate the probabilities of moving from one position to the other. It is a square matrix made up of the scores from the previous games played and can easily predict the performance in an upcoming game. It is highly trusted because numbers do not lie. The performance criteria can be used for physical education of the team members. To ensure that the players know the importance of keeping fit and which exercises are good for them. Every exercise should aim at perfecting the player’s skills in defending, attacking, serving and generally endurance. A performance criterion can be used to teach new players the moves that lead to winning and those that lead to loosing. Those that lead to injuries and should be avoided. This is because of the record available and is to be used for notational analysis. Summary Volleyball is a very intense game that requires proper tactical and technical evaluation in order to bring about success of s team. Success of any volleyball team is a combination of the following. Proper rallying, strong attacks, ready defenses, swift and precise ball passes, good co ordination between players, minimum errors and adherence to the rules. All the above can be achieved when there is a great notational that notes the improvement or/and derailing of the team. This means that the errors can be easily identified and corrected, and hence the team achieves the ideal performance criteria. References Hughes M, Franks I. The Essentials of Performance Analysis: An Introduction. London: Routledge, 2008. Hughes M, Franks I. M. Notational Analysis of Sport: Systems for Better Coaching and Performance in Spor. London: Routledge, 2004. O'Donoghue P. Research Methods for Sports Performance Analysis. London: Taylor & Francis, 2010. McMorris T, Hale T. Coaching Science: Theory into Practice. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2006. Read More