The first annual Tulane Volleyball Analytics Camp
June 26-30, 2023
Scott McKinley, Tulane Mathematics
Teresa Belt, Tulane Center for Sport
Our June 2023 pilot program is in the books!
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We dug into the data
Using data visualization techniques, we studied patterns in college volleyball statistics, finding that hitting percentage really does correlate with winning. However, the way service statistics are reported hides how strong serves can have an impact on a game.
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We recorded some of our own
Radar guns, court scatter plots, and trajectory maps, oh my!
We worked together using data-driven versions of classic volleyball drills to assess our own skills.
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We learned about our game and ourselves
The numbers don’t lie, but maybe we don’t always know how best to listen to them.
We started the week learning about how data tells stories. What story did the data we collected tell us?!
We split our time between the gym and the classroom, developing ideas theoretically and then seeing how they play out on the court.
Climbing Mount HP: our analysts explored the hitting percentage function using augmented reality
Warm-ups in the gym!
Amelia recorded the fastest serve among our analysts. And it even went in!
Recording data is a challenge, and an art, in itself
Ilayda, Makala, Maddie, and Kylie work the baseline
Experimental data sheets for our hitting percentage drill
We did it! We're on our way to being data scientists 👩🔬 🧮 🏐
Makala walks us through the NCAA volleyball stats analysis
Briana walks us through Zeno's paradox. Soon we'll see that we need a geometric series to model volleyball points
Tulane Head Coach Jordana Price stopped by!
Coach Price shared some ideas on how to innovate drills that pair volleyball fundamentals with data gathering
A peek at all our data after it has been processed
Putting it all together: data is only useful if it can be translated into real-time decisions on the court
Kylie skies for the kill
Many thanks to Tulane volleyball players Agata Beksha and Ilayda Demirtas, who helped us through the whole workshop!
Certified volleyball analysts! Molly, Selena, Amelia, Makala, Maddie, Kylie, and London were there Days 1 through 5.
The whole group at the close of the camp, both our analysts and the team from East St John!
Special thanks to our sponsoring institutions:
the Tulane Center for Sport, and
the Southeast Center for Mathematics and Biology
