n Volleyball a team’s performance in skills is connected to the game result and to the team’s success in a championship. In order to identify the determinant parameters for the success in male volleyball, performance data for all teams of 12 Greek Volleyball championships from 2005-06 until 2016-17 (n=143) was used. The effectiveness of fourteen (14) parameters from 5 basic volleyball skills: serve, attack after passing, attack after defence, block and reception was examined. The findings lead to the conclusion that the best predictors of a team’s success in final ranking are serve aces, passing errors, precise pass and attack after pas sing or after defence. The relevant discriminant function has classified correctly 77.6% of the teams in positions 1-4, 5-8 and 9-12. Furthermore, among teams in positions 1-2 and 3-4 (n=48) the variables attack win and attack error, after reception and de fence have significantly higher scores and are able to discriminate correctly 83,3% of the original cases.

In Volleyball, complex 1 consists of pass-set-attack skills in this specified order. This sequence is a stable pattern to win a point. Furthermore, it is important for teams' success. Taking into account that this pattern is a first-order Markov chain, the creation of a probability transition matrix is feasible. Assuming multinomial likelihood with a Dirichlet prior on the transition probabilities a Markovian transition matrix can be constructed, and the calculation of conditional success probabilities is, thus, achievable. Data from the performance analysis of the winning team from recent world championships in three age categories (U19, U21, Men) of male Volleyball is used. Evaluation of the pass through a six-level ordinal scale is possible after the validation of the entire scale. The findings lead to redefining target pass area and to shrinking the evaluation scale at least for the teams under study. Moreover, pass accuracy is necessary because it must give at least two options for attack, but not sufficient condition for the success of attack in all age categories for male Volleyball. In U19 age category, there is a lack of stabilization in the complex 1 sequence after pass against jump spin serve.

{The purpose of the present study was to determine whether a battery of anthropometric and lower and upper body strength, speed and power tests predicted selection of young volleyball players for a Junior National Team by expert coaches. Fifty-two male junior volleyball players (14.8±0.5 yrs, height: 1.84±0.05 m, body mass: 72.5±7.1 kg) took part in a training camp and underwent a selection procedure by expert coaches' of the junior national team. Anthropometric data and fitness tests results were obtained and players were graded on a scale from 0 to 100 on the basis of their performance in a volleyball tournament. Selected players were superior in the majority of measured variables (p≤0.017) and had higher grading scores compared with non-selected players (85.3±4.1 vs. 70.5±5.6, respectively, p<0.01). The combination of spike jump and reach test (SJR) and 3 kg medicine ball throw velocity (MB3) explained 63.5% of the variance in expert coaches' grading (p<0.001). A multivariate discriminant analysis yielded a significant discriminant function (Wilk's lambda= 0.55, χ= 29.324, p<0.001, η=0.82). SJR and MB3 were the only variables that contributed to the discriminant function (standardized function coefficients: SJR = 0.68

A benchmark is a reference point for comparisons established from the value of a performance indicator. In order to create benchmarks for volleyball, we used performance data from each team of the Greek Volley League from the season 2005-2006 until the season 2016-2017 (N = 143). We considered the effectiveness of 14 parameters from five skills: serve, attack after passing, attack after defence, block and pass. The results showed that high-level teams of the Greek championship, which finished in positions 1-4, had as benchmarks: (a) in serve, two aces every five serve errors, while teams 9-12 had two aces every six errors, (b) in attack after passing one error or one passive block every four kills, while teams 9-12 had one every five kills, (c) in attack after defence one error or one passive block every three kills versus every two kills for 9-12 and (d) one error every nine passes on the target against every seven passes for 9-12. Overall, the results of this study indicate that success in volleyball can be explained with skill performance indicators, expressed as the ratio of successful to unsuccessful attempts, or with a ratio of successful attempts per set, in case of block skill. ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR