HELP ME WITH MY THESIS ?

    Hey you guys, I'm writing my bachelor's thesis and since I'm explaining the problem it referrs to on a volleyball-related example, I thought that it would be cool to collect some real data from people who know a thing or two about volleyball. That's why I came up with an idea of posting here.


    OK so not to bore you with details what is it for etc:


    We are picking the best libero of the tournament. I want to put this choice into more "numbers-like" approach and for starters, we introduce 3 categories: R - reception, D - defense, S - setting. What I need to ask you is to decide, totally subjective opinion, how many times the factor R,D,S are more important from each other, when it comes to judging libero's performance. For example:

    Reception is 3 times more important than Defense will be written as R - D : 3

    Defense is 2 times more important than Setting: D - S : 2

    So i need you to write down 3 numbers from {1,2,3,4,5}, you decide how many times more important the components Recpetion, Defense, Setting


    R - D :

    R - S :

    D - S:


    if you would like to say that reception is 5 times LESS important than defense, write R - D : 1/5

    1 means equal importance, R - S : 1 would mean reception is as important as setting


    I would appreciate a few opinions, it would be cool to have a bit more data than my own judgement only. Just write what comes into your head :)

    Thanks in advance ;)

    R - D: 3/1

    R - S: 1

    D - S: 1/3


    Good luck with your thesis!

    Ok I hate to be 'that' person :lol: but I'm just not someone who can pick some numbers and stick with them... So this is pretty much useless but I'll still give my opinion on the matter.


    As someone who plays volleyball I believe first and main goal for a team should always be to side-out even if it is not realistic to keep doing that, it should be the main goal. libero's main role in that would be to receive the ball, receive and receive even more and better! After that I would say setting because the setter simply cannot always do that when reception/defense is shaky + in rallies sometimes, libero should step up there and take the lead. After that I would say defense as in the 'original' way of siding out that would be unnecessary, not saying defense is not important! Of course it is. Also I would say it depends on what kind of team the libero is playing in! etc. which is why its hard for me to set exact numbers.


    I know for stats this is useless xD but this is also why I almost never like these player stats...


    This is just my way of thinking as someone who also plays club volleyball. : )

    Serve reception is only 1 play in an entire point. If the team scores off of a serve receive, then it is 100, if not, then 0.


    Defense is the primary role of the libero, but they do get called to set the ball.


    Reception to defense: 1/3 (Defense is 3x more important)

    Reception to setting: 2/1 (Reception is 2x more important)

    Defense to Setting: 3/1 (Defense is 3x more important.

    beri, you we made some excellent points! I agree that this choice should not be strictly about numbers. And it will not be in this case, the results I'm looking for concern the matrices generated from the results :D so it is not about finding some golden numbers-based algorythm picking best players basing on raw numbers ;p it's about something else completely but I will not bore you with details ;P


    thank you guys for your help, other votes more than welcome ;*

    Quote from brahmin

    Serve reception is only 1 play in an entire point. If the team scores off of a serve receive, then it is 100, if not, then 0.


    Defense is the primary role of the libero, but they do get called to set the ball.

    I disagree with that. Reception is split between 3 (or sometimes even only 2) players, so the libero takes 33-50% of the responsability there. Defense is split between 6 players, I count block as part of the defense.


    For me, reception is the most important element for liberos, defense comes second and setting comes third. I'm not a mathematical person at all so I can't do "numbers" for this, but this is my ranking.

    This looks a little different from what was written about libero when discussing best libero at the WCh. Amazing Sets was all the rage. Then Amazing defense against Zhu. Amazing reception, meh.


    For me. it's all about block coverage. Because I like teams that get blocked a lot :lol:


    R - D : 1

    R - S : 1.5 (2 if it need be round)

    D - S : 2


    I'm terrible with numbers and/but I don't like it when the ball hits the floor in front of the 3 point line.

    Quote from Matthias

    I disagree with that. Reception is split between 3 (or sometimes even only 2) players, so the libero takes 33-50% of the responsability there. Defense is split between 6 players, I count block as part of the defense.


    For me, reception is the most important element for liberos, defense comes second and setting comes third. I'm not a mathematical person at all so I can't do "numbers" for this, but this is my ranking.

    Yep, I agree with this, especially considering teams have the possibility of using a 2-player reception system as we've seen with a few teams over the last few years, giving even more focus to a libero's skills in reception.

    Quote from saishuu

    R - D: 3

    R - S: 1/5

    D - S: 3


    If R is more important than D, and

    if D is more important than S, then


    it's time to edit your post :rolll:


    I was going to say I could understand your thinking but not the numbers :drink:

    I edited it right before your post lmao I'm dumb

    Haha me too, I can't understand some of your contradictory ratio. :rolll:


    My ranking

    1. Reception

    2. Defense

    3. setting


    But I won't give my numbers.

    How does this work with teams use a rotating libero? Japan had Kobata for serve receive and then Inoue for defense. So would you say that Inoue was not as good? This is a philosophical question. I prefer a libero to play both sides of the rotation, but some coaches do swap them.

    So in Inoue’s case R=0.

    I agree that things are split responsibilities, but the serve reception is only done once on a point. It is important to pass well, but after the ball is passed, there is only defense and setting for the rest of the point. In the men’s game rallies are much shorter so I would put reception higher. But in the women’s game rallies are longer, so defense is more important in my mind.

    Quote from brahmin

    How does this work with teams use a rotating libero?

    One of the two liberos is usually a reception specialist, the other a defensive specialist. I know it's not that simple in reality, but in all levels of volleyball it comes down to one fixed value - if you can't receive, you are out, otherwise you are a liability. I absolutely agree with you that reception is just the first contact in a rally, in the female game with even less significance, but if you fail to deliver that first touch, your team can't do anything. And I will have to agree with Matthias as to how many more options and scenarios we might have when a team defends. Defence is still almost as important, in my eyes. I will try to depict those in a mathematical (totally biased, as per my volleyball creed) pattern.


    R / D = 1.5

    R / S = 2

    D / S = 1.67


    The smaller the ratios, the better the libero and the overall level of the team.

    thank you all for voting, the poll is closed now xD

    maybe I could now add a bit more of information just in case anyone was curious what was it for. I didn't want to say it earlier not to influence the results.

    The perfect scenario, to consider such an subjective judgement super sensible would be an answer, where the equation R / D * D / S = R / S would hold- that would mean that 3x3 matrix I obtained from this answer is transitive. What my research is about, I compare different methods of generating the closest transitive matrices to the ones I generated from your answers


    thank you guys you did great!! It's GOOD that your anwswers didn't obey this R / D * D / S = R / S equation (except @Let's go orange and @losta - but I couldn't use your answer because 4/5 was not on the scale ;P), it's almost always like this when companies use something similar and it's OK because they are supposed to be subjective and intuitive! in fact I would be screwed if you all gave me the transitive matrices right away on the plate :D


    thx again ppl, ciao!