Using social network analysis to assess play efficacy according to game patterns: a game-centred approach in high-level men’s volleyball

Match Analysis has provided valuable insights for understanding performance. Social Network Analysis has delivered powerful contributions, especially with its most recent game-centred approaches, coupled with the weighting of direct and indirect connections between game actions. The goal was to expand upon these applications, analysing whether different networks associate with distinct levels of play efficacy applied to high-level men’s volleyball. Eigenvector Centrality was used, and one network was created for each level of play efficacy: 0 (error), 1 (continuity) and 2 (scoring a point). The sample was composed by 1,618 game actions (9 matches from the 2015 World League Finals) of six functional game complexes (i.e. K0 to KV). Results showed similar networks for all efficacy levels, suggesting that game patterns may not be as relevant for discriminating efficacy as individual actions, and/or that the chosen variables were not sensitive enough to differentiate system dynamics. Overall, actions performed under non-ideal conditions were most central in almost all game complexes, which suggests that playing off-system is the rule instead of the exception. It is therefore important to promote tasks that stimulate playing under non-ideal conditions and expose the attackers to stressful conditions (e.g. cohesive blocks), potentially providing transfer from training to competing.