I had a funny experience at the Monument City Classic Tournament. My Carolina Juniors 16s Team played the early match on Sunday morning. Our team arrived first at the court, chose the bench, and I sat down to sip my tea. On the adjacent court, a father turned around and stared at me awkwardly.  He exclaimed, “You’re Coach Rey!”. I said, “Last I checked.” I was taken aback. He went on, “I couldn’t sleep last night. Our team was playing well yesterday, but we just couldn’t buy a win. I thought, maybe some statistical information would help. So, I started looking up volleyball statistical software online in the middle of the night and came across your blog. And POOF, now you’re here!”. He said it was a bit surreal

I have received quite a few questions on volleyball stat software and I can only offer my advice based on the software I have used. At the University of Minnesota, I used the Data Project line of software, both Data Volley and Data Video.   I loved that software, but it can be quite complex and take quite a bit of time to enter all match information.  The University of Minnesota had a great Director of Volleyball Operations that would key the match live (where I would receive the information on a computer at the bench) and key incoming opponent match video when it arrived at their office. Its easy to do as a volleyball program if you have a Director of Ops, only a few matches a week to key in, and its your full time job   Its not so easy when you are a small club program (and its not cheap software either).  I know the USA National Teams use the software as well.

At Winthrop University we use Gamebreaker software. Its a decent software that requires keying of a match, but its all Mac based. I’m a PC guy and I’m not fond of the Mac functionality.  So to me, the software is fair.

I’ve looked into purchasing a couple softwares for my iPhone, like TouchStat, who University Athlete turned me on to.  I even went as far as to download it, but I have yet to use it.  I also sat in on a presentation by the owner of Volleyball Ace at the AVCA Convention.  It also appears to be a very nice software, but again, I have never used it.

I’m still a pencil and paper kind of guy and upload it to a spreadsheet later. I take all the stats on the bench (it keeps me from getting too animated with the refs and keeps a consistent demeanor for the team, ala Russ Ross).  I keep passing stats (on a 3 point scale), serving stats (on a 3 point scale), hitting, blocking, and then I register how each point ends.  I’m then able to get a breakdown of positive and negative points from how the points end and put together the Team IPE (which I believe needs to be above 80% to win a match.  I broke down the 2009 Women’s NCAA Championship Match to find Penn State’s Team IPE of 78.4% and Texas at 69.5%.  Penn State took care of the ball better, in all aspects of the game.  Thus Penn State wins a third National Championship).

Taking stats manually takes a little time, but once the spreadsheets are set-up, it works for me. There are many workbooks within my final spreadsheet, and they all tie in together. I am able to have team and individual stats broken out from it.  Although, I am actually shifting statistical philosophies for coming matches and concentrating more on defensive stats.  A greater breakdown of blocking statistics as well as digging statistics.  I will also be taking a shot chart of the opposing teams to see where our biggest weakness is on the court.

My current stat sheet I have been using: Volleyball Stats Match Chart

The stat sheet I will be using this weekend: Volleyball Statistics Match – Shot Chart

I hope these help you and if you have experience with volleyball statistical software, please keep us informed!