Morning everybody!

Finally got some warm weather for the first time all year, and apparently nobody could “just ditch their jobs” and play some pickup for eight hours on a Monday. Anyways, I got fired and didn’t win a game all day.

#ForTheCulture

Today, we got a banger for you. We’re talking about stats 🤓 (I failed my university stats class so we have Ryan doing the bulk of the writing today).

The rest of the agenda will be filled with another skill breakdown, and you guessed it, Quick Hits.

Away we go!

🍀 The Four Principles of Hitting

We’re talking about hitting today because if I hit another rim I’m moving to Thailand and starting another life.

Principle #1: be “in-system” as much as you can

Being in-system means being ready around the no hit zone (or at the net) BEFORE the ball is set. We don’t want to have to be running towards the net while also tracking the set, it’s much easier for us to track the set and perform our hit if we’re already at the net and ready before it’s being set.

Principle #2: be on the opposite side of the net before the ball is set

This is imperative to reading defenses and finding your kill shots. Additionally, by seeing the set the whole way, you can focus on getting the power from the hit mechanics we know you’ve been working on in your basement with your cat.

Principle #3: be aware of the three different projections when hitting

Be aware of the three primary options/angles when hitting. The roundnet court has no bounds—width AND height both are important to consider when trying to put away a point.

The three hits are:

1. Vertical Hit. Most likely what you’ll see if you watch any videos of yourself in the first few months of playing the sport. We want to avoid this one at all costs unless you’re playing with the in-laws and don’t want them to know all that work you and your cat have been putting in. Don’t give the defense time to react. 

2. Diagonal. The ball flight path on this hit looks like a check mark. It mixes speed with height and can beat the defender over and push them back. This hit is made a little higher off the net to get that angle. 

3. Lateral. This hit is at about knee height and it’s all about speed. It’s a tough touch for the defense and leads us into the fourth and final principle. 

Principle #4: the lower and closer to the net you hit the ball, the more options you have

The beautiful thing about roundnet is the 360 degree nature of the game. Therefore, when on offense, we can exploit this with the direction at which you're hitting the ball to confuse the defense. We’re not saying if you have a quick hit in a direction don’t get it off as quickly as possible. But when the defense is set, be patient and give yourself time to find the hole.

📊 Stats Chats

In last week’s newsletter, we highlighted a discussion about statistics between Ben Dantowitz and professional player, Max Model. But Max isn’t just a top roundnet player, he is also a Yale graduate. So it is needless to say, but Max is an extremely intelligent guy.

At The Pocket, we’re extremely into sports statistics/analytics as well (no, I didn’t spend four hours today researching NCAA Basketball analytics to develop the perfect March Madness bracket… why do you ask? 🙈), so as soon as I heard this podcast, there was no way I was going to write about anything other than roundnet statistics.

🤩 Max Model’s Work

No choice but to start with the roundnet stats OG.

Max’s first work involving roundnet statistics was back in 2017 when he was still in high school. And let me tell you, after reading Max’s Introducing Roundnet Player Rating (RPR), it is no surprise this guy got into Yale…

I’m not going to dive too deep into the technicalities of Max’s paper, but he developed a model to grade the performance of roundnet players in any given game. While the idea was inspired by Moneyball/Billy Beane’s Base Runs Algorithm and football’s Passer Rating Formula, Max essentially built his RPR from scratch.

But RPR was just the beginning for Max and roundnet statistics. For his next project, he developed Roundnet Stats Tracker—an app that helps you analyze:

• Serve Percentage

• Aces : Aced Ratio

• Put-Away Spike Percentage

• Defensive Skill

• RPR

• And more!

And all that was required by the user to generate those stats? Simply record who touches the ball.

After Max’s app was complete, he embarked on his biggest project yet—Roundnet Reference. For those of you who are stats junkies or fans of other sports, you’ve probably heard of Baseball/Basketball/Hockey Reference. These websites are comprehensive online databases and resources for statistics historical data, and analysis for their respective sports. Or if you prefer non-nerd speak, these websites are your one-stop-shop for any stat you could ever imagine.

And Max built the same thing for roundnet. Max put an unfathomable amount of work into building Roundnet Reference, and it has the potential to be the most valuable tool in the sport. However, for the website to provide maximum value, it needs to have as much gameplay data as possible. And the great thing is that all of us can help with that as Max’s App, Roundnet Stats Tracker, is linked directly with the website. So next time you want analyze your game, use Max’s app—it won’t just help your game, it will help the entire roundnet community.

We want to wrap up this section by giving a shoutout to Max—without your contributions to the community, the sport would be years behind where it is today.

For those of you interested in hearing the full conversation between Ben and Max, you can check it out below 👇️ 

♟️ USAR x ELO

I often find myself geeking out on USA Roundnet’s Rankings page. The rankings are a super cool resource that I recommend every roundnet fan checks out—resources like this are few and far between, as it is very difficult to find an unbiased ranking system in any sport. But what is really exciting is that it looks like the rankings are going to get even better in 2024, as USAR is working to transition to an ELO model.

The ELO rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill level of players (most commonly used in Chess). ELO is effective for several reasons:

• Simplicity. ELO is easy to understand. Highly-rated player defeats low-rated player = both player’s ratings won’t change much. Lower-rated player defeats higher-rated player = both player’s ratings change significantly.

• Dynamic. Ratings evolve over time based on match outcomes; constantly reflects current skill level of players/teams.

• Forecasting. The difference in ELO ratings directly corresponds to win probability. For example, if Player A’s ELO is 100 greater than Player B’s, Player A has a 64% chance of winning.

• Historical Context. ELO ratings preserve a record of past performance, allowing for the tracking of long-term trends and the comparison of teams or players across different eras.

• Fairness. ELO provide fair and equitable assessments of skill levels, regardless of external factors.

The next step? Develop an ELO model for all roundnet players, not just the players participating in USAR events.

👖 The Pocket

With the two of us being proud yet prototypical Canadians, hockey has been a huge part of our lives since the time we were young, and collecting hockey cards is many Canadian’s introduction to stats. We were no different.

I grew up not only collecting hockey cards, but also memorizing the numbers on the back of the card, and I have been a stats nerd ever since. Over the years, this passion for statistics has blossomed from your typical counting stats (goals, assists, points, etc.), to some more advanced stats, such as Goals For Percentage (GF%).

Goals For Percentage (GF%) is a statistical metric used in hockey to measure the percentage of goals scored by a team in a particular situation. To summarize, if your GF% is above 50%, that’s good. Below 50%, not so good. GF% is a valuable statistic because it provides some context outside of just wins and losses.

For example, Team A and Team B have identical win-loss records. However, Team A’s GF% is 51%, and Team B’s GF% is 55%. This means that Team B is probably stronger than Team A. There are many other factors to consider before coming to that conclusion, but it helps paint a picture of which teams have the best “process.”

But GF% isn’t just a hockey stat. In past newsletters where we were trying to determine the Best Men’s and Women’s Teams in Major Tournaments, and one of the stats we calculated for this was Points %, where all we did was switch the term “Goals” and “Points,” to determine which teams were consistently dominant. No Men’s team came close to Rogue’s 54.6% Points %, and on the Women’s side, towerful and TWINZ were in a class of their own, at 57.7% and 56.7%, respectively.

Ultimately, we think Points % is a stat that helps show us which teams are truly dominant, and which teams we can expect to regress to the mean. We will continue to use this statistic to provide insight into true team performance.

👊 Quick Hits

🧑‍🎓 You can now sign up for the 2024 College Sectionals

🗓️ ASL just dropped their squad tourney’s schedule 

🤝 Spikeball Chris announces exclusive distribution partnership with Buffalo INC for EU and UK

⚽️ Unlike their football club, Southampton was victorious, as the school won the UK University National Championship