Individual proficiency of reception by the Estonian men’s national team at the qualification tournament of the European Championship

Abstract

The aim of the study was to analyse players’ individual proficiency at serve reception and its influence on the following attack in the Estonian national team during the qualification for the European Championship in 2016.

The subjects were the players of Estonian national volleyball team during the qualification for the European Championship in 2016. To collect data, video recordings of eight games of the Estonian national team were viewed; the number serve receptions, type and zone of reception and proficiency were registered. In addition, the number of attacks following serve reception, their zone, performer and proficiency were recorded.

The results revealed that success at the reception of serve influences the proficiency of attack. At more successful reception, the proficiency of attack was higher than at poorer reception.

As a result of the study, it was shown that serve reception by the Estonian team was more proficient in sets won than in sets lost. In the case of more successful reception, the Estonian national volleyball team was more proficient at attack than in the case of less proficient reception. When types of reception were compared, the receivers of the Estonian national team were most proficient at reception from above. The receivers of the Estonian national received the serve best in zone 5.