By gregor on Sat, 02 Aug 2008 13:29:53 GMT

Following my latest post, I have found this great interview of Andre Patin, the mythical coach of  Asnieres Volley 92 (Paris, France). The video (below) is in french but here's a translation:

"What makes the difference, right at the top [of the pyramid], is the emotional stability. It's all there, that's what makes the difference. Mental skill is central. Physical skills, technical skills etc... are only accessory. Physical skills without technical skills are only the ruin of efficiency. Technical skills without mental skills are only the ruin of performance. Quote from Claude Sarrazin, former prof. University of Montreal: "Excellence comes with time, effort, discernment, and tenacity. So is the excellence of the authentic champion".

 

Now I assume that what Andre Patin means when he says "Mental skill is central" could be tied to Andrea Zorzi's concept of chunks, the cognitive ability to use memory structures as units of perception and meaning, and the learning mechanisms leading to the acquisition of these memory structures(chuncks).

Mental skills allow the player to process a huge amount of data: statistical knowledge of the opponent's team combined with information gathered "onsite" (e.g. The pass being off the net usually means no threat from the quick attack but stats from this particular setter show that he/she likes to set in the middle when far from the net). This leads to the creation of information used by the player to make a decision. Mental skills are central.

Where the two experts seem to differ, however, is on what is most important.

Zorzi seems to consider the mental ability as predominant important (see update below) :

[Having a bigger Chunk means to deal with a lot of information as a single unit of perception. Obviously, the victories depend on many other factors, as technical skills, physical conditions, right emotional approach an so on.]

UPDATE: Andrea told me by email he disagreed with the following statement:

"Zorzi seems to consider the mental ability as predominant". He added :"A champion has to be a mix of different ability and you cannot win relying only on the mental ability without physical and technical skills.Then I saw many potentially good athletes wasting their talent due to a small mental ability."

Patin seems to consider emotional stability as predominant. A note next to "emotional stability" on the top right corner of his pyramid's diagram...

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By gregor on Sat, 26 Jul 2008 12:29:03 GMT

After his coverage of the 2007 World Cup, Andrea Zorzi is back this year with more videos interviews and coverage of the 2008 FIVB events (the World Grand Prix 9-13 July in Yokohama (JPN), the World League 23-27 July Rio de Janeiro (BRA) and the Olympic Games 8-24 August in Beijing (CHN)) on his blog.

A matter of Chunks: In this post, Andrea analyses the 2008 World Grand Prix through the concept of Chunks.

If you are not familiar with this concept, here's a definition Andrea gives:

[the term chunk indicates memory structures that can be used as units of perception and meaning, and chunking is the learning mechanisms leading to the acquisition of these chunks.

*This is the Wikipedia quotation explaining the meaning of chunk in cognitive psychology and mnemonics.

Then Zorzi applies this concept to Volleyball with a fantastic example :

[Try to put yourself in the shoes of a Volleyball middle blocker, while his team-mate is serving. He’s looking at the opponent side but from the sound of the hand hitting the ball, he can identify the kind of serve. Then, just looking at the position of the opponent passer, he can cut out many possibilities, making his decision easier. The stronger players don’t need to see where the pass will arrive because they anticipate the passing trajectory just by processing the data they quickly recognize. After that, the middle blocker will focus on the opponent setter’s choice. Dealing with the information available from the previous statistical studies and the present situation, he can clearly identify the remaining possibilities. For instance, if the pass is far from the net, the threats coming from the quick attack suddenly disappear. Then the middle blocker will focus on the opponent spiker evaluating the setting speed, the ball distance from the net, the spiker approaching, the position of his blocking mate, his own position and so on … The athletes ceaselessly keep on with this process throughout the match, striving to be in the best position to reduce the effect of their adversaries’ plays. Obviously, the more possibilities for opponents, the more difficult it is reacting correctly when dealing with these extra options. Volleyball is a continuous challenge in predicting what the opponent is trying to keep unpredictable.]

Make sure to read the entire post here.

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By gregor on Sat, 07 Jun 2008 20:08:50 GMT

The AFP has released a very cool Volleyball animation with detailed explanations about rules, tactics, number of players, fouls…

 

By gregor on Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:36:53 GMT

You take stats of all your games, all your players, all your opponents. Good for you ! But really, who cares ?  That is, unless you do something useful with all that data, just collecting it won’t do you (or your team) any good.  I’ve seen too many a coach indulging in this long and painful process of taking note of each pass, each set, spike, block of their players just to find out that all this data stays hidden at the back of their drawer and never gets analyzed, much less divulged to the team.

I’ve always seen that as a CYA (Cover Your Ass) strategy. We’re in sports, we take stats. That’s what we do. That’s part of the game. 

Don’t get me wrong, I believe in stats. I believe in analysis. But as a mean to an end. Sometimes showing a player a simple number of their real effectiveness can go a long way in the perception they have of themselves. “I know you think you’re doing good but take a look at your stats: you have an average of 68% of perfect passing. I think you can do a lot better, don’t you agree ? So let’s work on that…” And there you go.

Meaningful info about your opponents can come in the simplest form: “Number 7 hits diagonal 80% of the time when she’s in position 4, and hits line 90% of the time when in position 2.”

Now replace that with: “Number 7 hits most of the time diagonal when in 4 and line when in 2.”

Admittedly not as precise as the first one but does it make such a difference ? If you’re coaching a national team in the Olympics, and your players are advanced enough to make use of that information, it probably will. Because 8 times out of 10 is different from 9 times out of 10, and this single point could cost you a medal.

But for most coaches out there, and (again) for most players, a simple trend expressed in understandable English (or insert_your_language_here) is usually enough. “Look at the setter, every time she lowers her elbows, she sets in the middle.” Your middle blocker doesn’t need to know that it is actually only 94.37 % of the time. Their job is to make a choice (to commit in the middle or to go to the wing) in a very short time. By recognizing this pattern and telling them to commit in the middle every time they see it, you take out of their way a big chunk of the uncertainty that makes it so difficult to block the middle hitter . And if they are right only 95% of the time, well that’s a pretty impressive return on investment.

Taking stats, and analyzing it is a time consuming process. So unless you have enough time and knowledge yourself (or have a committed assistant to help you) to collect that data, to transform that raw data into meaningful information, and then to deliver that information...

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By gregor on Tue, 27 May 2008 12:15:32 GMT

I used to play Volleyball, but now I'm a geek. And most of my friends and family aren't as savvy as I am when it comes to Internet or computers, so I often find myself talking about something I think everybody knows about, just to find out that it ain't true. Especially when it comes to software and online services.

So I decided to share this (old) news with you too. You can get 5 Go of free online storage ! Actually you could get more than that if you wanted to... but first thing first.



What is online storage ? Think of online storage as an additional hard drive located in the cloud, that you access through your Internet browser. It is perfect for backup, sharing your files with others or extending your personal storage capacity.

 

Why should I care ? Well online storage has a lot of advantages:

since it is "in the cloud", it is accessible from anywhere (Home, office, School, hotel...). You don't need to carry your USB stick with you anywhere you go, your data is always accessible. Your data is secured by online storage services providers : backed-up, stored on redundant, highly available array of disks. Your data is somewhere else, so if anything should happen to your computer (stolen, broken, infected...), your data is safe. The storage space is extensible to virtually infinite capacity. Most online storage services providers offer a free plan, or very competitive prices. There is really no good reason NOT to use it. I personally use two of them: Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) and Windows Live SkyDrive.

S3 is a professional solution aimed at businesses and is more scalable, powerful and difficult to use than the customer focused ones. There is no free plan but they charge 0.15 USD per Go plus bandwidth so it makes it  a very cheap and reliable solution for businesses, from startups to Fortune 100.

Windows Live SkyDrive is aimed at the average Internet user, comes with as much as 5Go of storage (1Go = 1000 Mo = 1 000 000 Ko) and is totally free. While 5 Go are enough for most people, you should check other solutions, should you need more storage power.

What I like about SkyDrive is its simplicity and effectiveness. You decide who can access the file you want to upload (Only you, your friends, or everybody) and voila! 









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By gregor on Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:06:44 GMT

The Independent comments on the latest events around the Olympic flame and goes back to the roots of this tradition.

By Andy McSmith Tuesday, 8 April 2008

There is a two-word answer to those who think the Olympic torch is a symbol of harmony between nations that should be kept apart from politics – Adolf Hitler.

The ceremony played out on the streets of Paris yesterday did not originate in ancient Greece, nor even in the 19th century, when the Olympic movement was revived. The entire ritual, with its pagan overtones, was devised by a German named Dr Carl Diem, who ran the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

Although he was not a Nazi, and was appointed to run the Olympics before the Nazis came to power, Diem adapted very quickly to the new regime, and ended the war as a fanatical military commander exhorting teenage Germans to die like Spartans rather than accept defeat. Thousands did, but not Diem, who lived to be 80.

He sold to Josef Goebbels – in charge of media coverage of the Games – the idea that 3,422 young Aryan runners should carry burning torches along the 3,422km route from the Temple of Hera on Mount Olympus to the stadium in Berlin.

It was his idea that the flame should be lit under the supervision of a High Priestess, using mirrors to concentrate the sun's rays, and passed from torch to torch along the way, so that when it arrived in the Berlin stadium it would have a quasi-sacred purity.

The concept could hardly fail to appeal to the Nazis, who loved pagan mythology, and saw ancient Greece as an Aryan forerunner of the Third Reich. The ancient Greeks believed that fire was of divine origin, and kept perpetual flames burning in their temples.

In Olympia, where the ancient games were held, the flame burnt permanently on the altar of the goddess Hestia. In Athens, athletes used to run relay races carrying burning torches, in honour of certain gods.

But the ancient Games were proclaimed by messengers wearing olive crowns, a symbol of the sacred truce which guaranteed that athletes could travel to and from Olympus safely. There were no torch relays associated with the ancient Olympics until Hitler.

 

Continue at source - The Independent



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