Defensive systems during the Men’s European University Beach Volleyball Championship

Abstract

The analysis of performance in beach volleyball should consider the development of the set or game systems in connection with successful completion. In this paper, we present a study of defensive system in university beach volleyball players in order to determine the evolution throughout the set and effectiveness in relation to the performance factors of the game. A total of n=937 blocking actions were analyzed by means of video recordings from 24 European men's teams from 16 different nationalities at the Ninth European Beach Volleyball Championship EUSA GAMES. The analysis of the videos was carried out using the free software program LongoMatch v.0.27 by an experienced observer. Reliability performed on the intra-observer analysis showed a margin of error lower than 5%. Both effectiveness of the game systems and frequency of winning and not winning points were annotated for each period of points. Statistical significance of the comparison of systems was calculated using the Z test to compare proportions. Results showed that the most widely used game system was 2:1 with 67.2% (n=630) with statistically significance (p<0.001). Regarding effectiveness, system 2:1 presented an efficiency of success of 30.8% (n=194), whereas system 1:2 presented a moderately low value of 25.7% (n=79). When comparing periods of points (F1:1 to 7, F2: 8 to 14, F3: 15 to 21), system 2:1 showed higher effectiveness than 1:2 for the last two periods F2 and F3. Finally, a decrease in unscored point actions was observed in both systems between periods F1 to F3 (59.63% for 1:2 and 45.35% for 2:1).