7 Appendix 1: Scouting profiles

This appendix describes different scouting profiles that have differing levels of detail and are intended to be used for different purposes.

7.1 Overview

Profile	Comments	Scouting time requirements	Analytical comments
Live	To be used when scouting live. With this profile we only scout the serve, reception, first attack, and the action that ended each rally. Not all details for all actions are included.	Least	Somewhat limited, details TBD.
Video	To be used when scouting from video. Includes all actions except sets (unless they were errors).	Most

Which actions to scout for each profile?

Profile	Serve	Reception	Set	First attack or freeball over	Transition attacks or freeballs over	Digs	Blocks
Live	Only if error^†	✓	Only if error	✓	Only if error/kill	Only if error	Only if error/kill
Video	✓	✓	Only if error	✓	✓	✓	Only if error/kill
^† Scouting the reception action causes the serve action to be automatically inserted, so we only need to insert the serve action ourselves if the serve was an error.

7.2 Details

Which details to scout for each action? Entries marked (✓) should be entered if you have time (when scouting live) but can be skipped if not.

7.2.1 Serve/reception details

	Serving				Reception
Profile	Serve type	Outcome	Ball Path	Error reason	Outcome	Ball path
Live	×	Only if error, otherwise is automatically generated from the reception outcome	×^†	✓	✓	(✓)^†
Video	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	×
^† For our online apps, serve ball paths can be entered on either the serve action or reception action, and when live-scouting it is easier to enter these on the reception action. But be aware that the reporting functionality within VBStats itself will not recognize serve ball paths entered on reception actions.

“Serve type” is Jump/Jump float/Float/Topspin
“Ball path” is the path of the ball on the court diagram
“Outcome” is the serve grading (Error/S1/S2/S3/Ace) or reception grading (Error/P1/P2/P3)
“Error reason” is Net/Out long/Out side

7.2.2 Setting details

Generally we don’t need to scout the setting action, unless it was an error. The only situations in which it is necessary to scout the setting action is if we wish to know when balls are set by players other than the setter, or if we wish to know the position on court where each set was made from.

Profile	Outcome
Live	Only if error
Video	Only if error

“Outcome” is Error/Set attempt/Set assist

7.2.3 First attack details

Profile	Outcome	Ball Path	Hit type	Number of blockers	Setting zone	Error reason
Live (if first attack was error, blocked, or kill)	✓	✓	✓	(✓)	✓	✓
Live (if rally continued)	✓	×	✓	(✓)	✓	N/A
Video	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓

“Outcome” is Error/In play/Kill
“Ball path” is the path of the ball on the court diagram
“Hit type” is Power/Off-speed/Dump/Off-block. Note that we treat hits as “power” by default. A “dump” is used to indicate a setter tip, except when combined with setting zone “high” (a “high dump” is interpreted by our software as a freeball over, but note that VBStats does not use this convention)
“Number of blockers” is No block/1 block/2 blocks/3 blocks
“Setting zone” is by our convention “Quick”, “Quick behind”, “B quick”, “Slide”, or “High”
“Error reason” is Out/Blocked/Net/Net touch

7.2.4 Transition attack details

Profile	Outcome	Ball Path	Hit type	Number of blockers	Setting zone	Error reason
Live (if attack was error, blocked, or kill)	✓	✓	✓	(✓)	✓	✓
Live (if rally continued)	×	×	×	×	×	N/A
Video	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓

remember that for the “Live” profile, we don’t scout transition attack actions unless they were errors or kills (i.e. they caused a rally to end)
interpretation of “Outcome”, “Ball path”, etc is the same as for “First attack details”, above