$7 Study - MTP

Even more reasons to convince your team to justhittheballinthecourtwouldya

$7 Studies are a running item on SmarterVolley. I started them in spring 2023 when I took a break from analytic-heavy content on SmarterVolley to focus on more qualitative aspects of coaching. To make sure I still got you all your fix of stats I launched the $7 Study feature where once a month I include some statistical research I’ve done. The goal is to give you a concise summary with a couple clear takeaways that you can digest in 10 minutes or less.

It’s also my pitch to you free subscribers! Hey, I put out a lot of content, and a lot of it is for free. If you’re a free subscriber and you read everything I put out and listen to all my podcast appearances, etc, you’ll pretty much get a feel for my way of approaching the game. But, if you’re busy and want to get right to some core takeaways, you’ll like these $7 Studies. In 10 minutes or less you’ll get at least one clear takeaway for your team, supported by evidence.

Previous $7 Study Topics
What attack patterns are most effective?
How effective are the blockers at each position?
How do setting choices affect opponent transition efficiency?
How does Make Them Play correlate to winning?
Does serve location influence where passers pass?
Do setters influence where passers pass?
Should passers consider where the setter is?

In this edition, I’m updating and adding to the previous Make Them Play study I did with a bigger sample of NCAA teams.¹ I’m also adding information from juniors club matches; a dataset I haven’t had before. I have some articles on the way that will discuss how to build drills based off these standards, so updating the MTP study was important. Subsequent $7 Studies will add some additional detail on Sideout and Transition standards.

If you’re experimenting with Balltime, like I am, I also show how you can use that to generate your own MTP/MTRP calculations. That’s going to be really valuable for club coaches who likely don’t have the ability to DataVolley their matches.

If you’re already a subscriber, continue on. If you’re not yet a subscriber, now would be a great time to be able to knock down that paywall and get access to all this premium SmarterVolley content. Enjoy!