Elite coaches’ approach to quantifying technical actions and relative participation in volleyball players’ performance

Abstract

This study sought to identify elite coaches’ perception of the importance of technical actions and the consideration of relative participation to measure individual volleyball players’ performance. An instrument was elaborated to gather the opinions of elite coaches on the importance of technical actions reported by the data volley (excluding setting), as well as considering relative participation. Twenty elite coaches with at least three years of experience in national teams or top leagues participated in the study. Variables considered in the study were analysed using descriptive statistics and reliability was measured with Cronbach’s α and McDonald’s Omega coefficients (> .70). The results assessed the importance of scoring actions, which received values of (1 point). All errors (terminal and continuity) were scored with (−1). Non-scoring actions were given values [.00, .80], except for poor attack (−.35), poor serve (−.60), free freeball (−.60) and reception free (−.50). Relative participation was considered according to the percentage of points and/or contacts played by each athlete. We concluded that for the player’s points and/or contacts, priority is given to actions that win points directly or are excellent, followed by those that contribute to building comfortable attacks, while penalising errors.