the code learning the language of Data Volley

what is code? As a scoutman your job is to translate the events on the court as quickly as possible into an accessible database. This database is used to provide readily available statistics as well as to identify these events in game film. The code is the shortcuts and keystrokes you will use to input these events. It is vital that you familiarize yourself with the code before attempting to use the program.

what is code? explore your program. open a new match and locate your scouting window. this is the window that you will input code in. the code you enter is referred to as simple code

what is code? now locate your codes list window. after you input simple code, it will translate to extended code in this window.

what is the code comprised of? the code is made up of the following: Team designation Jersey Number Setter zones Skill Type/Tempo Rating Setter Zones End of Rally/Points

team designation because you are scouting two separate teams at once, you must designate which team you are referring to in the code. the two symbols used for team designation are: lower case ‘a’ used to designate the opponent team the asterisk ‘*’ used to designate the home team

jersey number to refer to a certain member of either team you must enter their jersey number. Home team’s number 10: *10 Opponent team’s number 3: a3 to refer to an entire team you would use ‘$$’ home team *$$ opponent team a$$

setter zones one of the most important parts of scouting a match. setter zones tell us what rotation each team is in, and make it easy for us to make rotation tapes post match. data project will always use the international standard for setter zones. when the setter is serving she is in right back, or zone 1. therefore, setter in 1 (as opposed to rotation 1). when her team rotates the first time they move to setter in 6 (as opposed to rotation 2)

setter zones setter zones are represented by the following combination: team designation lowercase ‘z’ number of the zone they are in by rotation following this system how would you code the opponent team setter zone? for the home team? az1 *z1

name that zone az3 *z5 az2 *z6 az5 *z1 az4 *z3 OPPONENT HOME

skill skill refers to particular actions on the court by a player. the following are the skills to input: serve receive attack block dig set free ball

the serve is represented by a upper case ‘S’ the home team’s number 14 is serving. what is the code? the timing of this code is important. you must enter the ‘S’ as the server presents the ball because it signals the start of the rally. serve *14S

recieve the reception of the serve is represented by an upper case ‘R’ the opponent team’s number 44 is receiving, what is the code? a44R

attack attack is represented by an upper case ‘A’ the home team’s number 1 is attacking. what is the code? *1A

attack combinations recall that when you set up your attack combinations you designated the starting zone and tempo for each attack. therefore, when you enter ‘P1’ the program knows the following: this is a quick tempo set the target attacker is the middle front the set will be attacked in zone 3

attack combinations for training purposes lets use the following for example attack combinations: ‘P1’quick low set in front of the setter ‘P4’ high outside set to the left pin ‘P5’ high outside set to the right pin

home team number 14 attacks a high outside set at the left pin opponent team number 12 attacks a quick set in front of the setter home team 5 attacks a high outside set at the right pin attack combinations *14P4 a12P1 *5P5

to input blocks you will use the upper case ‘B’ what is the code for home number 20 blocks? block *20B

dig to code digs you will use the upper case ‘D’ what is the code for opponent jersey number 4 digs? a4D

set to code sets you will use the upper case ‘E’ what is the code for opponent jersey number 16 sets? a16E

free ball to code free ball reception you will use the upper case ‘F’ what is the code for opponent jersey number 9 receives a free ball? a9F

type/tempo type/tempo is used to describe the tempo of the skill performed. the type/tempos are: high medium quick tense super fast other hint: think of the difference between a high, out of system outside ball and a quick low set in front of the setter. this is a difference in type/tempo

assigning type/tempo type/tempo will be attached to serves and attacks. During your pre-season setup you will attach a tempo to all of your attack combinations, so you will never enter the tempo on an attack. You will need to designate tempo for serves. high ‘H’ medium ‘M’ quick ‘Q’ tense ‘T’ super ‘S’ fast ‘N’ other ‘O’

jump float = ‘SM’ home team 9 serves a jump float. code? jump spin = ‘SQ’ opponent team 16 serves a jump top spin. code? standing serve = ‘SH’ home 1 serves from the ground. code? tempo for serves *9SM *1SH a16SQ

rating as coaches we want to know the outcome of each skill. this is where rating comes in. rating tells us when there was a: perfect pass kill hitting error stuff block ball handling error one option pass and much more

what are the ratings? Here are the codes for rating from best to worst outcome: ‘#’ ‘+’ ‘!’ ‘-’ ‘/’ ‘=‘ note: you may not use every rating for each skill. we will now go over how to rate each skill with these codes

when do we rate? we will always add the rating after the team designation, jersey number, and skill that we are rating. a14R# Team designation Jersey Number Skill (reception) Rating (Perfect)

rating a serve when using a 3 point passing scale ‘S#’ is the best possible outcome in a serve, an ace. ‘S/’ means that the opponent overpassed the ball ‘S+’ reflects a 1 pass from the opponent ‘S!’ reflects a 2 pass from the opponent ‘S-’ reflects a 3 pass from the opponent ‘S=’ is the worst possible outcome, a missed serve

rating a serve when using a 4 point passing scale ‘S#’ is the best possible outcome in a serve, an ace. ‘S/’ means the opponent team overpassed the reception ‘S+’ reflects a 1 or 2 pass from the opponent ‘S!’ reflects a 3 pass from the opponent ‘S-’ reflects a 4 pass from the opponent ‘S=’ is the worst possible outcome, a missed serve

rating serves note – later we will go over what is referred to as reflexive, compound, or progressive coding. because of this concept you will never enter the rating for a serve, but it is important to understand the relationship between service and serve receive rating (the rate of the serve is a reflection of the opponents passing)

rating a reception when using a 3 point passing scale ‘R#’ is a perfect pass. the setter has three options (including a quick) ‘R+’ reflects 2 option pass ‘R-’ reflects a 1 option pass ‘R/’ means the receiving team overpassed the ball ‘R=’ tells you the reciever was aced

rating a reception when using a 4 point passing scale ‘R#’ is a perfect pass. the setter has three options and is not pushed to either side or off the net ‘R+’ is a 3 option pass, but the setter may be pushed to a side or off the net ‘R!’ is a 2 option pass ‘R-’ is a one option pass ‘R/’ means the recieving team overpassed the reception ‘R=’ tells us the receiver has been aced

rating an attack ‘A#’ is a kill ‘A+’ the ball continues in play ‘A-’ the ball touches a block but continues in play ‘A/’ the attacker has hit the ball into the block and the ball is dead (stuff block for defensive team) ‘A=’ unforced hitting error

rating a block ‘B#’ is a stuff block ‘B+’ the ball continues in play ‘B-’ the ball touches a block but continues in play by the hitters team ‘B=’ blocking error (this can be in the net, or if you want to call being tooled an error you can)

rating a dig you may want to rate your digs. you can use the same rating system as serve receive. this is useful in helping differentiate between dig create and digs that result in a free ball.

rating a set you can assign a rating to your set, although to find an outcome for a set you generally have to backtrack and this is very difficult to do live. I recommend not rating your sets but relying on your hitting statistics to show setting ratings.

rating a free ball you can assign ratings for free ball receptions using the serve receive system.

end of rally you must designate to the program when a rally has come to an end and a point is assigned you will have a separate key for end of rally left or right according to how you set up your keyboard mapping. for demo purposes we will designate ‘end of rally left’ as ‘F1’ and ‘end of rally right’ as ‘F11’

end of rally when the ball is dead, press F1 to indicate the team on the left won the rally. press F11 to indicate the team on the right won. you will want to press this when the teams huddle – not the second the ball dies. give it a little time to make certain of the play and to let the film capture the entire rally. there are also two buttons that you can click on in your scouting window.

defaults open data volley click on the scouting options icon this window will open displaying the defaults for the program. you can change these to suit your programs needs/wants. think of these defaults as assumptions the program will make if you don’t make designations for the team, skill, tempo and rating. *note – although it is not mentioned here, the default team designation is Home (*)

defaults (continued) lets say that we type in 7 and hit enter. the program will assign the default team designation, default skill, and default rating. what are the defaults for these? 7 hit enter

note that the team defaults to home the skill defaults to attack the tempo defaults to high the rating defaults to ‘+’

lets get it together data volley is all about saving you time and energy. one of the shortcuts you will use in the program is connecting two successive skills with a ‘.’

what are successive skills? serve.recieve (S.R) When coding a serve and reception you first must designate the team, then the jersey number, then skill and tempo, just as you would normally. Home number 12 serves a jump float: when you want to use successive coding to code the reception, link the two skills by placing a ‘.’ between. *12SM.

successive coding if the home team serves, what (precisely) happens next? someone on the opponent team will recieve who passed the serve for the opposing team? what was the rating? *12SM.10# *note – this will also link the two actions on the court in the film. *note – you don’t need to input the team designation or skill with ‘.’

successive coding attack.block just as with ‘S.R’ you must first designate the team, then number, then skill followed by the ‘.’ Home team number 14 attacks, followed by a stuff block by opponent number 5 14.5# *note – remember that the default for team is home, the default for skill is attack. you don’t need to designate opponent team or skill with ‘.’ and the ‘#’ indicates the ball was stuff blocked

successive coding attack.dig an attack could also be logically followed by a dig. the only difference here is that you must designate the skill after the ‘.’ so that the program knows there was a dig instead of a block. opponent 7 attacks and home 9 digs a7.9D

directions we have the ability to state what direction the ball goes after leaving a hitter/servers hands. directions are coded two ways using zones on the court (classic) states where the ball landed using cones (new) states the direction the ball traveled

directions using directions tells us where serves and attacks start from (beginning zone) and where they end (ending zone) this is important in scouting as it lets us quickly determine hitter and serving tendencies which will allow us to prepare more efficiently for opponents

directions using zones the court is split into 9 zones you will indicate the zone that the serve or attack lands in/is dug in 9 1 8 3 4 7 5 6 2

scouting a serve you will always use zones for scouting serves the starting zones of serves must be indicated along with the ending zone the starting zone will always be 5,6, or 1. the starting zone will be entered between the serve tempo and the ‘.’ *10SM1. Home number 10 serves a jump float beginning in zone 1:

scouting a serve the serve (home 10 jump float) originates in zone 1 she serves deep middle back, into zone 6 and 23 passes the end zone is entered after the rating of the pass 9 1 8 3 4 7 5 6 2 SERVE *10SM1.23#6

scouting attacks when you set up your attack combinations you indicated what zone each attack originates from, so you don’t ever need to indicate the zone the attack starts in you must enter the zone the attack ends in/travels towards the zone will be indicated after the block/dig/attack rating depending on the outcome

attacks using zones *10 attacks a high outside (P4) a16 digs the ball in zone 5 9 1 8 3 4 7 5 6 2 *10P4. a16D5

attacks using zones a10 attacks a quick in front of the setter (P1) it is a kill to zone 7 9 1 8 3 4 7 5 6 2 a10P1 #7

directions using cones you can also code directions using the newer method, cones using the cones will give you a cleaner, clearer picture of hitter tendencies in the program based more on direction of swing than where the ball lands

cones from zones 4, 7 and 5 code using cones the same way you would with zones enter the team, number, attack combination, result or dig and then the cone it travels towards Note: the cones will be different depending on where the attack originates from

cones from zones 2, 9 and 1 5 2 3 4 1 6 7 zone 2 zone 1 zone 9 If the attack is contacted in zones 2, 9 or 1 these are the corresponding cones For a line shot from the right pin: 10P5 #1

cones from zones 4, 7 and 5 If the attack is contacted in zones 4, 7 or 5 these are the corresponding cones For a cross court shot from the left pin: 10P4 #5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 zone 4 zone 5 zone 7

cones from zones 3, 8 and 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 zone 3 zone 6 zone 8 If the attack is contacted in zones 3, 8 or 6 these are the corresponding cones For a sharp cut shot from the middle 11P1 #7

setter calls one feature of data volley is the ability to scout setter calls, or the play the middle hitter runs on serve receive, and then compare it to the first ball swing of the rally very useful scouting feature for blocking calls and shows the setters tendencies

setter calls open your tables window and click on setter calls add or modify these to reflect plays your, or your opponents' middles would run Note: your setter calls will ALWAYS begin with K, followed by a code of your choice

setter calls enter the setter call between the serve.recieve and the first ball swing after you see who passes the ball shift your eyes to the MB for the receiving team and watch where she is going the setter call will be assigned to the setter in the lineup for the receiving team

setter calls lets say that the home team 15 serves the ball, the opponent team 14 passes a perfect pass, the opponent middle hitter runs a one however, the first ball swing goes to the high outside 15S.14# K1 a26P4 Setter call First Ball Swing

order of importance if you are planning on scouting matches live, then it is difficult to scout every action when you are just beginning the program the order of importance will depend on the information that your coach deems most valuable, but the most important thing that you MUST get from the beginning is serve, receive, end of rally this is what allows you to have rotation tapes

now what? Take the time to develop a solid understanding of the code. create your own scenarios and figure out what the code sequence would be this can be done in word or on paper if you don’t have access to the program, and repetition will help you become more familiar with the code

now what? continue on to scouting your first match!