Number Theory - a primer

Here’s a page with all my Number Theory posts.

Sport is awash in numbers and they have become more important to both coaches and fans alike in recent years. Regardless of what role you play, statistics and analytics are intended to help you better understand what you’re observing. In the case of more advanced metrics, they can also be useful in predicting what may happen in a contest. The simplest numbers tell you about what you’re seeing with very little explanation and the most elegant numbers use very little to tell you a great deal. But they can’t tell you everything, at least not with some help.

The purpose of Number Theory is to take a deep look at different metrics in the sport of volleyball. I invite a coach or an analyst to discuss a metric of their choosing and together we dig into how and why they use that metric. Through the course of the discussion, the nuance of the numbers and our viewpoints are revealed.

The goal of Number Theory is not to give coaches the “best” or the newest metrics available but to show them the thought behind the metrics and their application. I believe that there isn’t a single measure of performance that can tell us everything we need to know. This series of discussions is intended to not only give coaches and analysts new ways of measuring performance but also new ways of viewing what those numbers mean and how and when to use them.