May 2002: Please note that since the creation of this text, the rules of volleyball have changed dramatically. While many of the concepts discussed here are probably still valid, specific implementations may need significant revision. In addition, many hyperlinks may no longer be available. --- Ravi Narasimhan An Introduction to Charting Volleyball Matches L. Ravi Narasimhan
[email protected] http://www.physics.ucla.edu/~oski Los Angeles, California Version 2 December 1996 Note: This document is made available under the terms and disclaimers set forth in the “Caveats” section at the end. Oski’s Charting Tutorial: Revision 2 December 1996 May 2002: Please note that since the creation of this text, the rules of volleyball have changed dramatically. While many of the concepts discussed here are probably still valid, specific implementations may need significant revision. In addition, many hyperlinks may no longer be available. --- Ravi Narasimhan Introduction: Anyone who has attended an indoor volleyball match will have noticed coaches, assistants, and even players jotting notes furiously on clipboards throughout a match. Volleyball has had a long love affair with numbers, diagrams, statistics, and trends. The people on the sidelines are, most likely, taking charts of the match in progress. And when they are not playing, they are probably scouting their competition. The result is pages of colorful notes on hitter tendencies, passing rankings, and blocking effectiveness, just to name a few. Charting is important, high-level teams all do it. Charting is also a lot of fun, any fan can do it. The sheer volume of data in a completed chart can be intimidating at first glance.