ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Elite Sports and Performance Enhancement
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fspor.2025.1630870
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvances in Sports Science: Latest Findings and New Scientific Proposals- Volume IIIView all 11 articles
Tactical and Statistical Analysis of Spiking Efficiency by Type, Zone and Set Phase in Women's Volleyball
Provisionally accepted
Kiattisak Sitti1
K.ravivuth Rangubhet2*- 1sport university, sukhothai, Thailand
- 2School of Science, University of Phayao, Phayao, Thailand
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Spiking is a decisive offensive action in elite women's volleyball, with variations in spike type, court zone, and timing influencing match outcomes. Understanding tactical and temporal dimensions of spiking can offer insights into offensive efficiency and performance consistency.A total of 2,5 99 spike attempts were analyzed from 29 matches (108 sets) in the 2024 Women's Volleyball Nations League. Each spike was categorized by type (straight, deep, diagonal, blockout, tip), attack zone (side vs. central), and set phase (early: Sets 1-2; middle: Set 3; endgame: Sets 4-5). Key performance indicators included kill rate, error rate, and efficiency index (EI).Comparative statistics were used to assess performance differences across match outcomes, spike types, zones, and phases.Block-out spikes achieved the highest overall efficiency (EI = 0.79). Diagonal spikes showed significantly greater efficiency in winning sets (EI = 0.346) than in losing sets (EI = 0.147, p = 0.0198). Tip shots had the lowest efficiency (EI = 0.22 ) but the highest continuation rate (61%).Side zone attacks exhibited higher kill rates (25.2%) and efficiency (EI = 0.227) than central zone attacks (14.1% kill rate, EI = 0.106). Performance peaked during the middle set phase (EI = 0.318) but declined in the endgame phase (EI = 0.195; error rate = 0.151).
Keywords: Tactical analysis, Performance indicators, spike type, Attack zone, Set phase, Volleyball tactics
Received: 18 May 2025; Accepted: 05 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Sitti and Rangubhet. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: K.ravivuth Rangubhet, School of Science, University of Phayao, Phayao, Thailand
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