I've written recently about a kills per set goal that might put a team in a good position to win the set. It has been on my mind a little since I wrote that, and it came up in my mind again while watching a college football game this weekend.
During the broadcast there was a graphic on screen with some stats for one of the teams. It showed the teams "Pillars" and showed the win-loss record when the team succeeded in that goal or standard. I couldn't find any mention elsewhere on the internet about those actually being team goals. It was a graphic with a sponsorship logo in the corner, so I can only imagine either the sponsor or the network compiled some stats and posted them for profit. I am aware of a time or two where broadcasters say something authoritatively, but speaking with the coaching staff says something different. I don't know that the coaching staff does have these standards, but the stats themselves were very interesting and best closer examination.
The first "Pillar" was to score 24+ points per game. That's pretty straightforward. The goal of most sports is to score more than the other guy. I don't know what the average football team scores, but 24 seems like a fair enough number. That adds up to the touchdowns and a field goal. Score more than that and you're doing pretty good. The team had a record of 81-12 when scoring 24+. That's a healthy 87%.
The second was to hold the other guys to 24 or fewer points. Taken together with number 1 it's obvious. 78-11 for 88% when the defense meets its standard.
Third is to score first. This one is less obvious to me, and much less applicable to a sort like volleyball where every play should end with a point. In a low scoring defensive battle in football, the first team to score might just be the only team to score. The team managed a 67-9 record for an 88% win percentage. That made me curious about how true this is with all football teams. I found this, suppressing primarily about professional football, where the writer factored in team quality. When the teams are considered equal, the team that scores first (touchdown) wins 2/3 of the time. That's a pretty big deal.
Next is to score every quarter. With the first goal in mind, this is a simple way to break that bigger goal into smaller, more manageable chunks. It also could be about consistent effort through the whole game. This one only gave the team a 43-8 record. At 84% this is the lowest of the five "Pillars", but that is still a favorable outcome.
Last is for the defense to score points. That's only going to happen with an interception run back for a touchdown, a fumble recovery run back for a touchdown, or a safety. These are all big plays, and are rare. The numbers bear this out. At 17-2 this is by far the smallest number of games, but the 89% is the highest winning percentage.
Putting these into volleyball terms and numbers might be interesting. It could be a simple goal sheet that players could use as mile posts on their way to a set win. The first two could easily be rewritten as the 13 kills per set and holding the opponent to 10 kills per set I've previously mentioned (link above). I'm pretty happy with those two as a starting point.
I'm not sure what to do with the other standards. I'm not satisfied that other stats correlate strongly enough to winning to use them as a basis by themselves. It might be good to use streaks of consecutive points. Instead of being the first to score, be the first to score 3 consecutive points. I don't have any kind of data on scoring steaks on competition, so I don't know how this will serve as a standard. Limiting opponent's streaks might be another place to go. Again, I don't have any kind of data to guide here.
I'm going to have to think about this more. I might have to add scoring steaks to the data I will collect in the future. What are your thoughts?
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