Top 10 Bad Boys (and Girls) of Beach Volleyball

Beach Volleyball has a different kind of vibe than the respectful, hushed crowds of tennis or golf. Smack talk, intimidation, flexing, and gamesmanship are fairly common. But how can we quantify the biggest, baddest players of the game? While not perfect, I judged “bad boys” and “bad girls” based on illegal actions called by referees. This “% Faults” ratio identifies the likelihood that on any given point a player might commit an illegal action which is called by the referee.

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Battle of the Sexes: Top 3 Differences in Beach Volleyball

Like me, you probably watched the latest Beach Volleyball tournaments and the epic race to qualify for the Olympics. You probably just loved watching volleyball. But I was excited about something else. I couldn’t wait to analyze a new batch of data. The FIVB doesn’t report out match stats like the AVP, so I gathered a new point-by-point dataset from past FIVB tournaments. In my first analysis, I examine the shot selection differences between men and women.

tl;dr

1. The women’s game is more “crafty” than the men’s game. Women do more

2020 Champions Cup vs. Career Stats – Who over-performed?

Last week, I compiled career match stats for players in the 2020 Champions Cup. With the completion of the tournament, I wanted to compare how player’s actually performed versus their career-based expectations.

This allows us to call out any notable performances and gives players the ability to adjust going into next week’s tournament, a continuation of the AVP summer series.

We’ll go over the same stats from last week. Check them out here to get a quick refresher.

2020 AVP Champions Cup – Who’s the Best?

With the AVP Champions Cup starting this weekend, I compiled match statistics on the best main draw players.

So, Who Has the Highest Winning %?

The 5 BEST Beach Volleyball Data Analyses from a Tidy Tuesday Hackathon

TidyTuesday, a data science and R learning community, recently published my beach volleyball match database. I wanted to take the time to share some of my favorite community made use cases.

1. Ricardo Santos is the Most Traveled Player

Ricardo Santos traveled to 14 countries in 2005 alone, being one of the most traveled players on the tour! Shows some amazing charisma going from tournament to tournament.

(credit: @geokaramanis)

Road to Hawaii – AVP Beach Volleyball Stat Trends

With the AVP Hawaii Open starting September 20th, I used my match database to examine recent player stat trends. The analysis covers all players currently scheduled to play in the tournament.

What’s the purpose of this visualization?

The intent is that players, coaches, fans, and commentators can see how different players have progressed over the last 2 years leading up to the Hawaii Open.

Players and coaches can specifically make adjustments to focus on key underperforming areas. They can also study their opponent’s strengths and weaknesses to make adjustments.

Introducing Beach Volleyball Match Charting

With the AVP Seattle Open underway, I thought it might be a fun exercise to chart a professional beach volleyball match. The process of collecting the data is manual but I wanted recreate the AVP match stats that are published online to test their validity. In addition, I track shot type and direction, which adds a whole new dimension to analyzing player tendencies.

I watched yesterday’s quarterfinal match-up of Chase Budinger/Casey Patterson vs. Tim Bomgren/Troy Field. Here was my setup during charting:

Worth Rises: Mapping For-Profit Prison Contractors

I volunteer my time at Worth Rises, a non-profit advocacy organization looking to end the exploitation in the prison industrial complex. In recent years, there has been a rise in governments using private contractors to house prisoners. However, that’s not the full picture. There are thousands of contractors that service, and profit off of, this industry, where sectors such as healthcare, construction, commissary, and phone services often go unnoticed.

2019 AVP Season Data Primer, Player Trends, and More

Beach Volleyball Data

With the AVP season just around the corner (Huntington Beach on May 3-5), I thought it would be a good time to refresh the beach volleyball match database

The database now contains matches from the year 2000 all the way until April 6th, 2019.

Let’s examine some recent trends with the data update!

My Story Growing Up Playing Tennis in the Czech Republic

 

Czech Republic (1990’s)

I grew up playing tennis on the red clay courts of the Czech Republic in the early 1990’s. I received my first tennis racket from Martina Navratilova at the same tennis club where she grew up. Almost 25 years later, I met her at the Czech Embassy in Washington, DC and she signed it for me, saying, “I hope it treated you well through the years.”