Author(s): STAMM, R., STAMM, M., ÕUEKALLAS, K., Institution: INSTITUTE OF HEALTH SCIENCES AND SPORTS, Country: ESTONIA, Abstract-ID: 922

INTRODUCTION:
Serving is the first opportunity in volleyball to attack and score points against the opponent. It has been statistically proven that it is better to achieve success with an attack than with defence. With good serving, it is possible to immediately earn a point or make the opposing team's attack structure as difficult as possible, so serving plays an extremely important role (Ciuffarella et al., 2013). The Estonian men's volleyball team achieved 20th place at the 2023 European Championship. The paper focuses on the analysis of the Estonian national team`s serving in the final tournament of the 2023 European Championship, where they played against Italy, Germany, Serbia, Belgium and Switzerland. The specific aim was to compare serving indicators in won and lost sets. Five matches were analysed from the 2023 final tournament, comprising 18 sets, of which 4 were won and 14 were lost.
METHODS:
To evaluate serving effectiveness, the Data Volley 2007 software was used for data recording, with statistics entered by the Estonian national team’s analyst. The types and directions of serves were recorded by the author based on video analysis, and the data were processed using Microsoft Excel. The Student’s t-test was used for data comparison.
RESULTS:
The results revealed that the most frequently used serve type by the Estonian national team was the jump power serve. A comparison of serve averages showed a statistically significant difference between won and lost sets, with more serves performed in won sets. Serving was statistically significantly more effective in won sets than in lost sets. Overall, the Estonian national team won 105 points and lost 267 points on serve. Differences were observed in the success rates of diagonal serves compared to serves along the sideline, as well as between jump power serves and jump float serves. The majority of the team’s serves were performed from Zone 1.
CONCLUSION:
Estonian national team men’s serving was statistically significantly more effective in won sets than in lost sets. Also, differences were observed in the success rates of diagonal serves compared to serves along the sideline. Jump power serves were statistically significantly more effective than jump float serves. This serving analysis helps to better understand the factors of serving success at the international level that influence the success of the game in top-level volleyball.
REFERENCES:
Ciuffarella, A., Russo, L., Masedu, F., Valenti, M., Izzo, R., De Angelis, M. (2013). Notational analysis of the volleyball serve. Timisoara Physical Education and Rehabilitation Journal.