Analysis of technical-tactical factors in beach volleyball: a systematic review

Introduction

Nowadays, sports performance is an important area of investigation in sports science (Andreea-Georgiana et al., 2020). This is the result of a sports practice or activity. However, it is important to consider all the different components, such as physical, technical, tactical, and psychosocial qualities that can be trained and/or learnt (Farley et al., 2020). Therefore, we must analyse the different components taking into account the specific characteristics of the sport in question.

The sport technique is a series of sequential movements made in an effective way to solve a specific motor task (Martin et al., 2007). It is one of the pillars of performance since its improvement means a rise in the movement efficacy. It also has a strong link and influence on other aspects such as tactic (Andreea-Georgiana et al., 2020). Moreover, we should pay attention to the positive link that exists between the physical qualities of an athlete and a better improvement of the technical aspects. This benefits the training process (Farley et al., 2020).

This way, the analysis of technical actions can be an important indicator of success, giving patterns and tendencies of performance, and contributing to an improved training (Liu et al., 2016). This is the reason why the analysis and evaluation of sport technique should be considered a tool that allows us to have useful information to adjust the improvement process of the requirements of a certain sport, and the athlete’s characteristics (Izquierdo & Redín, 2008).

It is therefore necessary to know and describe the intrinsic characteristics of the studied sport first, to then proceed to its analysis and have optimal results.

Beach volleyball is considered a sport where two teams of two players each, divided by a net and on a sand surface, compete (Natali et al., 2017). The court is 8x8m in size. The games are a best of three set format where the first two sets are played to 21 points and the third set (tie break) is played to 15 points (FIVB, 2016).

Beach volleyball has a sequential and cyclic character where we can distinguish two plays: complex 1 (KI) or side out and complex 2 (KII) or counterattack (Giatsis et al., 2015; Medeiros et al., 2017; Pérez-Turpin et al., 2019). Within these two plays are the six basic actions of beach volleyball: the serve, the reception, the setting, the attack, the dig and the block (Palao et al., 2019; Pérez-Turpin et al., 2019).

Because of the rapid increase in popularity of beach volleyball, the analysis of performance parameters is now an essential tool to control the athletes’ training (Griego-Cairo et al., 2016). The need to know the performance factors is even higher due to the high level seen in competitions and, this is the reason why a strong development of skills is needed to be successful (Griego-Cairo et al., 2016).

The study of each technical action in beach volleyball, will give relevant information to achieve an optimal performance (López-Martínez et al., 2018; Valladares et al., 2016). Bearing this in mind, the objective of this study was to do a systematic review of all the different works that have been published about beach volleyball and identify the criteria used for the analysis of technical-tactical components.

Methods

Study design

A bibliographic revision of different databases of sports science was carried out. For the study to have a better consistency and scientific rigour, PRISMA directions were followed (Urrútia & Bonfill, 2010),

Investigation strategy

Different search engines were used, such as PUBMED, Web of Science and SportDiscus. For the search, we used the following strategy: “Beach volleyball” AND (psychology OR decision making OR technique OR tactic OR performance OR game OR efficacy OR analysis OR game observation).

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Studies were excluded considering the following criteria: a) the language they were published in- we excluded those that were not written in English or Spanish; b) the accessibility to the whole document – we excluded those we did not have full access to; c) revision of title and synopsis – we excluded those that were not relevant to our objectives.

The main inclusion criterion was the methodology used for the study. We included those works where observational methodology was used for the analysis of technical-tactic aspects.

Works selection process

The reading of the different titles and synopsis happened first. This was followed by a systematic reading of the whole text of 134 articles (33 of these followed under the inclusion criteria and 92 had to be excluded because they were duplicated). Finally, and once conceptual, methodological, and statistical criteria were applied, 98 studies were eliminated (see Figure 1)

Results

Sample characteristics

Around 41.13 games were analysed in the different articles. The average of technical actions analysed per article was 3131.90. In terms of genders, 24 articles within the men’s category were found and 16, within the women.

Works related to the serve

In the men’s category, the power serve prevails (Buscá et al., 2012; Tilp et al., 2006), while it is the float jump serve the most common in women (Koch & Tilp, 2009a; Tilp et al., 2006) (Table 1).

Works related to the reception

The efficacy of reception has a direct influence over the attack (Koch & Tilp, 2009b; Palao et al., 2019). Palao et al. (2019) indicate that the most used type of reception was the forearm (Table 2)

Works related to the setting

Pérez-Turpin et al. (2019) suggest that female teams and those of lower categories tend to use the forearm setting more. Moreover, winning teams present more efficacy than those with less success (Simac et al., 2017) (Table 3).

Works related to the attack

Male teams tend to use the spike more often (Giatsis et al., 2015; Koch & Tilp, 2009a; Tilp et al., 2006), while the shot is more frequently seen in female teams (López-Martínez & Palao, 2010; Tilp et al., 2006). López-Martínez & Palao (2010) also suggest that the most effective attack is the one directed to the deep and side areas of the opponent court (Table 4).

Works related to the block

Tilp et al. (2006) show that the block is more frequently used in male teams than in females. It is in the later where we can observe a bigger number of mistakes in blocking (Pérez-Turpin et al., 2019). Lineal and diagonal block are very similar in efficacy (Jiménez-Olmedo & Penichet-Tomás, 2017a), while the lineal block is more commonly seen in the defence (Seweryniak et al., 2013) (Table 5).

Works related to the dig

Tilp et al. (2006) suggest that defence strategies are more commonly seen in female teams. Top players direct the defence ball to the central area closest to the net (Gea-García & Molina-Martín, 2014). This is the optimal area for defence (Seweryniak et al., 2020). Seweryniak et al. (2013) show that the most used strategy was the diagonal defence (Table 6).

Works related to tactical aspects

Medeiros et al. (2017) show that the performance of winning teams is greater during counterattack actions. Moreover, there is a better performance in matches that end in 2-0 (Giatsis & Zahariadis, 2008). In terms of defensive system, Jiménez-Olmedo et al. (2016) suggest that it is more common and effective the system where the player on the right is the one defending (sistema 2:1). Giatsis & Tzetzis (2003) suggest that on 9x9 courts the reception is essential for the performance (Table 7).

Discussion

For this study we concentrated on works from the last 18 years due to the change in rules that happened in 2001. The study mainly concentrated on identifying the variables investigated in different works. This allowed us to identify a clear difference between works analysing technical and those analysing tactical questions.

Due to the noticeable difference in the number of articles for men and women, data must be carefully analysed. The different size samples in the articles could influence the level of evidence in some of the results.

In terms of technical actions in beach volleyball, while studying the serve, we found out that the power serve prevails in male teams (Buscá et al., 2012; Tilp et al., 2006). In the research of Tilp et al. (2006), there was a contradiction, so both the power serve, and the jump float serve were equally used. The reason could be that the players analysed in the work of Buscá et al. (2012) had a higher level. The power serve needs a better technical control, since it is one of the most risky serves.

Regarding women’s teams, we found a difference in results. This could be the consequence of the game’s evolution, since the analysed works belong to different years. The most recent works by López-Martínez et al. (2020) show that the jump float serve was the most frequent, while the power serve has a higher rate of error (Gea-García & Molina-Martín, 2013b; López-Martínez & Palao, 2009; López-Martínez et al., 2020). The reason for this could be the risk that players take, trying to drive the ball with a greater strength and speed to make the reception more difficult to the rival team, or to get a direct point. This agrees with the results from Buscá et al. (2012), where it is shown that when the ball is served with a greater speed, the number of errors is likely to go up.

When serving, the central point was the most frequent destination and where teams got the most points (Gea-García & Molina-Martín, 2013b; López-Martínez & Palao, 2009). This was also in the middle between two players. This area creates a greater uncertainty in players, since they have to make a decision in a very short time.

In terms of reception, the forearm reception was the most used and efficient (Palao et al., 2019). In this technique, the player has a wider contact area with both forearms than if they were using any other technique. When the contact area is wider, there is more control over the ball. This may be the reason why there is such a tendency in the side out.

Such reception has a direct impact over the attack (Koch & Tilp, 2009b; Palao et al., 2019). In other words, a very efficient reception will result on more possibilities of getting a point with the attack. This is the result of the sequential and cyclic characteristics of beach volleyball (Giatsis et al., 2015; Medeiros et al., 2017; Pérez-Turpin et al., 2019). This agrees with the results from Giatsis & Tzetzis (2003), Palao & Ortega (2015) and Simac et al. (2017), where they show that winning teams had better efficiency values.

In works that analysed the setting, they found that women’s teams tend to use the forearm pass more than men (Pérez-Turpin et al., 2019). This could be the consequence of the difference in game between both categories. Due to the lack of studies in the female category, the real reason for this tendency is unknown. It would be interesting to analyse whether the difference in the way of playing between both genders could be one of the reasons.

Regarding the technical action of the attack, the spike was the most used by male teams (Giatsis et al., 2015; Koch & Tilp, 2009a; Tilp et al., 2006). On the other hand, in the research of López-Martínez & Palao (2010), the results were contradictory, and the shot was the most used. This could be the consequence of taking different aged athletes for the sample, since when they are older, they tend to use a wider variety of attacks (Medeiros et al., 2017)

In the female category, the results of López-Martínez & Palao (2010) and Tilp et al. (2006) show that the most used attack is the shot. These results disagree with those from Koch & Tilp (2009a), where the frequency of the spike and the shot is very similar. These differences suggest that there may be other external factors that could influence the type of attack used by female players.

Attacks directed to the deep and side areas are the most efficient (López-Martínez & Palao, 2010). These are the farthest areas from the players and therefore, athletes must move around a longer distance, and they have less time to defend those attacks.

Regarding works analysing the blocking Jiménez-Olmedo & Penichet-Tomás (2017a) found that the most common blocking is the blocking line followed by the blocking cross-court and the swing blocking. On the same line, Seweryniak et al. (2013) show in their study that blocking line is the most frequent. This could be because blocking line is easier when the player is positioning himself. In addition, the hand position is easier when they try to make a solid block.

In the female category, the blocking action is less used, and there is a higher rate of error (Pérez-Turpin et al., 2019; Tilp et al., 2006).

The reason may be because in women’s teams, there is a tendency of attacking with shots. These types of attack have a parabolic trajectory, that may be difficult to stop with the blocking (Mesquita & Teixeira, 2004). In the male category, their game has more power and explosiveness.

It was in the female category where the use of the defence action was used more frequently (Tilp et al., 2006). This agrees with those results indicating that in the female category there was a lower use of blocking (Tilp et al., 2006). Less blockings means that the importance of the K2 is on the defence.

On the other hand, the cross-court defence was the most used and most efficient (Seweryniak et al., 2013). This could be linked to the fact that blocking line is also the most used one. Therefore, since the blocker must cover the line area, the defender has to move to cover the cross-court.

Looking at the analysis of tactical aspects, Medeiros et al. (2017) showed that the winning teams are the ones that have a better performance over K2 or counterattack. This could be because the efficiency of both the winning teams and the losing teams was similar during the side out. Therefore, the performance in the counterattack made the difference.

In this work, we have seen a clear tendency of analysing final actions rather than continuity actions. The reason behind it could be that those are the actions that will give a point. The serve and the attack actions are the most well studied in beach volleyball.

Conclusions

Looking at the objectives and results, the list of conclusions for this analysis is as follows:

1. The power serve is the most used in men’s teams, while the jump float serve is the most used in women. The most frequent directions for these were the deep end of the court and the area between players.

2. The forearm reception is the most frequent and efficient. In addition, the efficacy in reception has a direct impact in following actions such as the attack.

3. Female teams have a greater tendency of using forearm position than male teams.

4. The most used attack is the spike in men and the shot in women. The most common direction is the deep and side areas of the court.

5. The blocking line is the most used. In female teams there are more errors and blocking is less used than in male teams.

6. The cross-court defence is the most efficient and most used in women’s teams. This action is more used in the female category.

7. The system where the defender is on the right (2:1) is the most frequent and efficient. The performance in K2 is better in winning teams

As a general conclusion, we have observed that there is a tendency for specific analysis of different actions, giving priority to the final actions rather than the continuity actions. Therefore, for future studies, it would be interesting to analyse technical-tactic actions. This way, we would be able to know the link and influence between continuity and final actions.

Bibliography

Author notes

Correspondence: Ruth Alvarado Ruano, ralvarado@alu.ucam.edu

Additional information

Short title: Technical-tactical in beach volleyball

How to cite this article: Alvarado-Ruano, R. & López-Martínez, A. B. (2022). Analysis of technical-tactical factors in beach volleyball: a systematic review. Cultura, Ciencia y Deporte, 17(52), 15-35. http://doi.org/10.12800/ccd.v17i52.1839

Cultura, Ciencia y Deporte
ISSN: 1696-5043
Vol. 17
Num. 52
Año. 2022

Analysis of technical-tactical factors in beach volleyball: a systematic review

RuthAna Belén Alvarado-RuanoLópez-Martínez
Facultad de Deporte. Universidad Católica de Murcia,España