Summary Introduction: The study aim was to construct a technical and tactical analysis of women’s volleyball based on notational analysis in top-level and junior women’s European volleyball matches, to compare these two levels, and to clarify the differences between the winners and losers of a set. Material and Methods: Four matches from the 2010 FIVB Women’s Volleyball World Championships and 2010 CEV Junior Women’s European Championship 2010 were analyzed using Data Volley software. The number and performance level of different skills were recorded in total and were grouped according to the role of the players. Methods of scoring and attacking zones were also analyzed. Results: There were only slight differences between the two levels in terms of success in different skills. When the skill executions were compared between the winning and losing teams of a set within the levels, less successful skill executions and more errors in different skills were found for the losing teams. Conclusions: The results seem to indicate that there are only minor differences between adult and junior women’s volleyball at the highest level. Attacking seems to be the most important skill concerning winning in both levels. The efficiency of attacking seems to depend upon the quality and versatility of the setting and also from the physical abilities of the players.

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The authors’ purpose was to examine the factors associated with penalty outcomes of male elite goalball. A total of 122 video-recorded matches from two Paralympic Games (i.e., 2012 and 2016) and the 2014 Goalball World Championship were assessed using notational analysis. Individual (n = 2), situational (n = 4), and performance variables (n = 7) were analyzed with good strength of agreement for intra- and interrater kappa index values. Their results showed that penalties play a very important role in the final score, composing around 25% of total goals in elite goalball matches. Winners were awarded on average with 62% of penalties and had 66% effectiveness compared with losers (31% and 53%) or drawers (8% and 52%). Based on the authors’ findings, penalty takers should direct their throws at specific target sectors on the court, which could increase their rate of success to over 80%.

Background Some time analysis studies in men's top-level volleyball have been reported, but no studies exist from the youth boy's top-level. The purpose of this study was to conduct a time analysis in men's and youth boy's top-level volleyball to update the current data and to compare the results between men and boys. Design, setting, and methods Four men's matches (finals and semi-finals of the 2008 Olympic Games, OG08) and four youth boy's matches (finals and semi-finals of the 2009 Youth U19 Boy's European Championships, YEC09) were analyzed using Dartfish TeamPro 5.5 -software. The duration of the rallies, sets (no fifth sets), breaks between rallies (no time outs or breaks between sets) and sets were analyzed. The accuracy of the time analysis was 0.04 s. The t test for independent samples was used to compare the results between the groups. Results The duration of the rallies in OG08 and YEC09 was 5.45±4.77 s and 5.76±4.40 s (ns), the number of rallies per set 45.3±5.1 and 44.0±6.7 (ns), the duration of the breaks between rallies 23.54±5.55 s and 19.99±5.70 s (p<0.001), the duration of the sets 1582±133 s and 1412±143 s (p<0.01) and the duration of the breaks between sets 217±17 s and 213±20 s (ns), respectively. Conclusions The duration of the rallies in men's matches was very close to the previously presented values. The number of rallies per set has constantly been around 45 in the Olympic matches in the 21st century. The duration of the breaks between rallies on the other hand has increased and thus the total length of the sets has increased approximately 4 min. In the boy's matches the duration of the breaks between rallies was significantly shorter than in the men's matches and thus also the total duration of the sets was shorter.

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