Technical and tactical analysis of women’s volleyball

Introduction: The study aim was to construct a technical and tactical analysis of women’s volleyball based on notational analysis in top-level and junior women’s European volleyball matches, to compare these two levels, and to clarify the differences between the winners and losers of a set.

Material and Methods: Four matches from the 2010 FIVB Women’s Volleyball World Championships and 2010 CEV Junior Women’s European Championship 2010 were analyzed using Data Volley software. The number and performance level of different skills were recorded in total and were grouped according to the role of the players. Methods of scoring and attacking zones were also analyzed.

Results: There were only slight differences between the two levels in terms of success in different skills. When the skill executions were compared between the winning and losing teams of a set within the levels, less successful skill executions and more errors in different skills were found for the losing teams.

Conclusions: The results seem to indicate that there are only minor differences between adult and junior women’s volleyball at the highest level. Attacking seems to be the most important skill concerning winning in both levels. The efficiency of attacking seems to depend upon the quality and versatility of the setting and also from the physical abilities of the players.