This is going to be a bit of a hybrid post, that has both the breakdown analysis of a playing tip and the opinion based rant that you'd find in some of my other blog posts. You should be able to notice that there is much more to sports than athletics. There is gambling, fantasy sports, apparel, mascots, halftime shows, and numbers. When I say numbers I don't just mean jersey numbers or point totals. Statistics are vital to just about every sport, and broadcasters don't just provide them as filler but as an essential tool that allows the fan to quantitatively critique their team or certain players. There is a famous saying about statistics which says: "What's important isn't what statistics shows but what it hides". For the most part just having numbers doesn't do much good if you don't know what they mean, but it sure beats the hell out of having no data at all, and that's where we'll start off...
What color is the number 7?
To ask this question is like asking how good Sean Rosenthal is. You can use whatever descriptors and adjective you'd like but you still don't really convey the talent of a Rosie without actually seeing him play (unless you are a synesthete, in which case I bet the number 7 is yellow). Just to exacerbate the stark contrast between beach volleyball's marketability to other mainstream sports here are some numbers for you...
In the past 11 years if you were an NFL team that started the season 0-2, then you had roughly an 8% chance (22/276) of making the playoffs that year.
Albert Pujols hit at least a .300 batting average, 30 home runs, and 100 RBIs a season for his first 10 seasons, which is a record for any such streak of seasons in a player's career let alone his first ten.
Michael Jordan is the definition of clutch. How clutch you may ask. Well, Jordan hit 50% of his clutch shots in his career where as in comparison, the league average is around 28%. For more about his Royal Airness' clutchness and how it matches up against Lebron James, click here.
Now let's switch gears...
Who had the highest kill percentage in 2009? Who had the most blocks in the last 5 years? Ok, we all know it was Phil Dalhausser but we don't know how many. Neither do we know teams' sideout percentage or their average unforced errors per game, whether teams pass better against a jump serve or a float serve or if a time zone change affects their gameplay. All of these things would be vital pieces of information to use and help players strategize, but instead they are left to just "feel" the game out. So if I bring this full circle, I must ask again just how good is Sean Rosenthal? If I were to say that he was the greatest player to ever play the game I bet that you might slap me in the face, but if I told you to disprove me I think you would be hard pressed. For beach volleyball there is really only one stat that is tracked and that is wins, which in the end is all that matters, but it would be more complex, interesting, and entertaining as players and fans to get more insight than just 21 is greater than 19.
In Part 2 I will try to describe "playing by the percentages" without actually using any numbers in a playing tip video. Hopefully the addition of statistics in the near future will make the sport more digestible for the casual fan.
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