Sandy Sunday: Rotations

Extending the Diagnostic Panel

In the previous 2 installments of this series, I shared some of the output I use when doing beach analysis for advanced teams.

Diagnostic Panel Part 1
Diagnostic Panel Part 2

I call that part the Diagnostic Panel because it provides a quick overview of the health of that team’s game. Where are they in terms of overall Sideout Differential, Offense/Defense balance, and the various points of The Triangle. Check those articles for more details, but essentially the big things I’m looking at there are:

Point/Sideout Differential
Terminal Serves
Live Rallies
First Ball
Transition
Blocking
Digging
Creating
Serving

And, as I highlight in those articles, what I’m really looking for is information that I can use to guide training. Are we better in the Serve/Pass game or are we better once the ball is in play? Are we better in First Ball or Transition? And if so, because of offense or block/defense? Within our block/defense, which of those 2 factors is the bigger deal?

If we know our strengths and weakness, we can set up training to improve weaknesses and set up tactics to play to our strengths.

Now let’s dive deeper into some details, because with beach volleyball, your sideout and break point profiles can look very different, depending on which partner gets served or is serving. I call this Beach Rotations because you end up getting a sideout and opponent sideout for your two different servers/receivers. I shared a simplified version of this before, but let’s get into a little more detail now. Here’s what it looks like for me: