Volleyball libero stats: measuring what your libero adds

Volleyball libero stats are tricky, because the usual count looks at points and a libero scores almost none. If you only count points, your libero ends up at the bottom of the list. Here you read which numbers do say something, how to read the rallies with and without the libero, and what an app can measure of all that.

Why do the usual stats say little about a libero?

The libero is a back-row player with restrictions: under the FIVB rules they may not serve, block, or attack when the ball is entirely above the top of the net at the moment of contact. Some competitions outside the FIVB rules do let them serve; that differs by country and competition, see can the libero serve. Their work is in the first ball: receiving the opponent's serve and defending against their attack. What else they may and may not do is in the libero: rules and role.

A normal match report counts points from attack, block and serve. For a libero those columns stay empty. The result: they are at the bottom of every player sheet, while they may have played half of all first balls. If you want to see their contribution, you need other numbers.

Which libero stats do say something?

• Serve receive. A rating per pass, for example from 0 (error) to 5 (perfect), and from that the average and the share of good passes. For most liberos this is the most important number.
• Defence. How many attacks they keep playable, and how well. What you count as a dig and what not is in defence as a statistic.
• Errors. A libero makes few errors, but their errors are almost always expensive: a pass that shanks away, a ball that drops between two players.
• Rallies with and without the libero. The share of rallies your team wins while they are on court. That says something about the team with them, not just about their own ball contacts.
• Plus/minus. Rallies won minus rallies lost while they were on court. See plus/minus in volleyball.

Serve receive and defence you measure per ball contact, the rallies with and without the libero and the plus/minus per rally. The first kind takes more work during the match; the second you get almost for free if you score live.

Rallies with and without the libero: how do you read that number?

In Koach, after a match scored live, you find the line With the libero on court under Stats. On the right is the share of rallies you won while a libero was on court. Below it is how many rallies that was, the share you won without a libero, and in brackets how many rallies that share is based on. For a match in Simple mode you find the line in the Momentum block; for a match with Expert ratings it is in Expert figures, next to the side-out by reception quality. The line only appears if there were rallies both with and without a libero, and it always counts the whole match, not one set.

Read the second number carefully. With Libero auto swap on, the libero comes in for a middle in position 5 or 6, and also in position 1 when the opponent serves. They go out as soon as that middle rotates to the front row, or when you serve yourselves with the middle in position 1. So if your libero plays for your middles, the rallies without a libero are mostly rallies in which your middle serves. Those are different rallies from the ones with the libero, which also include all the passes on the opponent's serve.

A worked example of our own. With the libero you win 112 of 190 rallies, almost six in ten. Without the libero you win 14 of 34, just over four in ten. That looks like a big difference, but those 34 rallies are almost all serving turns of your middle. So compare them with the Break pt column in the rotation table: how many rallies do you win on your own serve in general? If that is close to four in ten, the difference says little about the libero and a lot about the difference between receiving and serving.

You get a fairer comparison if you play a whole set without a libero in a practice match: then the group without a libero also includes passes on the opponent's serve. And if you have two liberos, know that the line makes no distinction between them. It only counts whether a libero was on court; for the difference between your liberos, look at their profiles.

What does Koach measure per libero, and what not?

What you get back about your libero depends on the mode you score the match in. In Simple you tap how each point ended, in Expert you give every ball contact a rating from 0 to 5.

In the libero's profile (Team, tap the player, Stats tab):

• Reception: the average reception rating, the number of passes and the Reception per match line. A player gets this block if their position is Libero, or if you choose them as libero under Roles in the Team tab. The ratings come from Expert mode, at the Reception step. What each rating means is in rating serve receive and serve from 0 to 5.
• Ratings 0-5: the other skills they were rated on, such as dig. For a libero, reception is not listed here; it has its own block.
• Errors: their errors by type over the season, with On court showing where they stood when the errors happened.
• Rotations and positions: per rotation the share of rallies you won while they were on court, and their plus/minus over the season. If you have two liberos, put their profiles side by side.

At the match you see the with-and-without line and the rotation table. For an Expert match, under Skill ratings there is also Per player, with each player's reception in that match.

During the match the app keeps track of who is on court. With the Libero auto swap switch the app makes the libero replacements itself; you find it in the Lineup sheet under Libero, and in Simple mode also under More. If you want to make the swaps yourself, turn it off. With two liberos you choose in the Libero on court sheet which one plays; see two liberos in the app. A libero replacement does not count as a substitution in the analysis: the After a substitution row in Momentum only looks at real substitutions.

What Koach does not see: a dig in Simple mode (there only the way the rally ended counts), a reception rating without Expert, and matches you enter afterwards or that an authorised score keeper finishes. Those last two get no rally analysis. How to read these numbers alongside the rest of your match is in understanding volleyball statistics; what Koach costs after the trial is on the pricing page.

How do you use libero stats in practice?

1. Choosing between two liberos. Only compare their reception averages once both have enough passes, for example a few matches each. An average over ten passes is an impression, not a verdict.
2. Following the trend. The Reception per match line shows whether they are improving. A dip after an injury or in a busy period shows up there sooner than in your memory.
3. Having the conversation. A libero rarely hears their name with the points. Show them their own reception numbers: that is their scoreboard.
4. Letting someone scout. Giving reception ratings while you coach is hard. Let a fellow coach score the match in Expert mode, so you can coach.

Frequently asked questions

Further reading

Two liberos in the app: the role follows who is on court Defence as a statistic in volleyball: digs per set and what is good The libero: rules, role and registration in your team

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