On October 12, 2014 the USA Women’s National Team (WNT) did what no other American team has done before – they won the World Championships.
This post evaluates the percentage of points, sets, and matches won by the WNT and extrapolates lessons learned from the data.
The data shows:
• Overall – the USA WNT won 53.1% of the points, 75.0% of sets and 84.6% of matches in the 2014 World Championships.
• Early Rounds – In the first 8 matches the WNT won 55.2% of the points, 88.9 of the sets, and 100.0% of the matches.
• Late Rounds – In its last 5 matches the WNT won 49.7% of the points, 52.9% of the sets, and 60.0% of the matches. This was enough to win the World Championships.
The lessons learned are:
• Champions win slightly more than half the points.
• Every point matters when you are only winning 53.1% of the points. Really dominant teams will win a higher percentage – 55% to 56%.
• Champions play every point as if it is the most important point of the match.
• Champions don’t get blown out. They are in every match – because every point is important.
• Champions manage team and player mistakes when they happen.
• Pre-tournament coaching makes a difference. At the USAV High Performance Coaches Clinic, Coach Kiraly talked about how he asked several players to replace their heavy topspin serves with jump floaters to increase the percentage of points won on the serve. These players began working on this change a month prior to the World Championships.
• Tournament preparation and establishing strategies make a difference. Because the WNT dominated in early matches they were able to allocate playing time across all their hitters. This meant their top hitters were rested for the final matches and opponents had difficulty scouting them.
• Understanding match data is part of the planning process for championship teams.
• Clearly, the WNT won this championships because the players worked together as a team and understood their role on the team.
Good luck to the USA Women’s National Team as they defend their title this August in Japan.
