Data showing what Japan's men's team was lacking at the Paris Olympics

At the Paris Olympics, Japan was sadly defeated in the quarterfinals after a full set.

In this article, we will compare the data with the four countries that advanced to the final four - France, Poland, the United States, and Italy - and look at what Japan was lacking, item by item.

The data is based on the official report from the Paris Olympics (https://olympics.com/ja/paris-2024/reports/volleyball/men).

*The data for Poland and Italy was calculated excluding the data from their match against Egypt, taking into account the difference in strength between the two teams.
*The 5th set in a 15-point system counts as 0.6 sets.

	Number of matches	Number of sets	Average height of main starting lineup (Excluding libero)
France	6	22.8	201.00cm
Poland	5	20.2	202.00cm
America	6	23.2	201.50cm
Italy	5	18.6	203.33cm
Japan	4	17.2	190.83cm

attack

Japan's attack points per set are slightly higher than the top four teams. Japan's block points, which I'll explain later, are lower than other countries, so this is probably due to the fact that they had to score more points through attacks.

In terms of attack effectiveness ((goals scored - runs conceded) / number of hits), there was not much difference compared to the top four, with the exception of the United States, which was exceptionally high, but it was still a somewhat low number.

	Attack Score	Per set	Attack Effectiveness Rate
France	302	13.25	33.90%
Poland	254	12.57	31.64%
America	329	14.18	42.23%
Italy	241	12.96	35.65%
Japan	239	13.90	31.33%

Also, the fact that there was no difference in the effectiveness rate despite the high number of points scored means that there were also a relatively large number of attacks conceded. In particular, Japan was conspicuous for conceding attacks due to being blocked, so this is an area that needs to be improved.

	Attack loss	Per set
France	92	4.04
Poland	80	3.97
America	71	3.06
Italy	56	3.01
Japan	83	4.83

Looking at the attack points per set for each position, Japan does not seem to be far behind the top four. However, we can see that setters in France, the United States, and Italy also score a lot in attacks.

	OH	OP	MB	Setter
France	6.93 (52.32%)	3.73 (28.15%)	2.41 (18.21%)	0.58 (1.32%)
Poland	5.79 (46.06%)	3.07 (24.41%)	3.71 (29.53%)	0 (0%)
America	6.94 (48.94%)	3.45 (24.32%)	3.45 (24.32%)	1.15 (3.11%)
Italy	6.18 (47.72%)	4.03 (31.12%)	2.37 (18.26%)	1.13 (3.47%)
Japan	6.98 (50.21%)	4.24 (30.54%)	2.67 (19.25%)	0 (0%)

block

France had the most blocks per set out of the 12 teams, and their blocking power was a major factor in their victory. The only other teams with more than two blocks per set were the United States, Italy, and Germany (2.02), which is not included in the table.

Compared to these, Japan's average number of blocks is less than one, about one-third that of France, the winner. Even if they are short, there seems to be room for improvement in blocking.

However, the number of block touches he had was not inferior to others.

	Number of blocks	Per set	Number of touches	Per set
France	65	2.85	129	5.66
Poland	34	1.49	123	6.09
America	48	2.11	157	6.77
Italy	53	2.32	127	6.83
Japan	21	0.92	107	6.22

Serve

In terms of the number of service aces per set, Japan was on par with the other top four, except for Poland, which was a step ahead of them. However, as we saw earlier, Japan had fewer blocks and needed to make up for that with service aces, so in that respect, it seems that the number of aces at the Paris Olympics was insufficient.

	Ace	Per set
France	33	1.45
Poland	41	2.03
America	32	1.38
Italy	25	1.34
Japan	24	1.40

The top four players in terms of the combined number of blocks and service aces per set were the top four in the tournament, and it is no coincidence that France, who had the highest numbers, won the tournament.

	Blocks and Aces per Set
France	4.30
Poland	3.52
America	3.48
Italy	3.67
Japan	2.32

For reference, we calculated the number of serve errors per set and found that Japan had fewer serve errors than the top four, which shows that the number of serve errors does not significantly affect the outcome of a set.

	Miss	Per set
France	89	3.90
Poland	93	4.60
America	100	4.31
Italy	97	5.22
Japan	67	3.90

Serve Receive

Japan's serve receive success rate was not bad compared to the top four, and their point concedement was better than the top four.

However, as can be seen from the fact that Italy, despite having a very low success rate of serve reception, finished in the top four, it is more important to win by making subsequent attacks and getting side outs than by having a high success rate of serve reception.

	SR success rate	Points lost per set
France	56.50%	1.05
Poland	50.51%	1.19
America	54.43%	0.91
Italy	43.82%	0.99
Japan	52.10%	0.78

In the case of Japan, if the opponent has two or more blockers set up, it becomes more difficult for them to score than with other countries, so the key when it comes to serve reception will be to avoid reducing their attacking options more than with other countries.

Dig

The level of Japanese digging was indeed the best in the world.

The number of digs per set was higher than the top 4, and the percentage of times they continued playing without losing points was also higher than the top 4. This is something that Japan would like to continue as a strength.

	Number of digs	Per set	Non-conceding rate
France	365	16.01	68.22%
Poland	332	16.44	65.06%
America	380	16.38	68.16%
Italy	322	17.31	65.53%
Japan	315	18.31	71.43%

Team Error

The official records of the Paris Olympics included an item called "team errors," and errors that were difficult to include in other items, such as when a receive returned directly to the opponent's court and a direct spike was scored, resulting in a loss of points, were counted as a "team error."

Compared to the top four, Japan's numbers were very poor and, along with the goals conceded in attack, I believe this was a major factor in Japan's poor performance.

	Team Errors	Per set
France	41	1.80
Poland	41	2.03
America	53	2.28
Italy	33	1.77
Japan	58	3.37

I had the impression that there were more uncharacteristic mistakes than usual from Japan in this tournament, and this was reflected in the numbers.

Points by position

Finally, let's compare the points per set for each position. Compared to the top four, Japan had more points for opposites and lower points for middles and setters in this tournament.

	OH	OP	MB	Setter
France	8.29	4.47	3.82	0.96
Poland	7.13	3.61	5.25	0.30
America	7.97	3.84	5.26	0.56
Italy	7.42	4.62	4.25	0.86
Japan	7.73	5.17	3.55	0.06

The opposite side scored more points, probably because Nishida had been scoring more points with his spikes and serves since the first match compared to the struggling outside hitters.

On the other hand, the low number of points scored by middle players and setters is probably not a trend limited to this tournament.

There was not much difference in the middle scores when comparing attack scores, so the difference was due to block and serve scores. In particular, Poland and the United States had many serve aces as well as blocks in the middle, which resulted in the high scores shown above.

As for the setters, the top four teams' setters scored many points through blocks and serves. The setter with the most aces on the winning French team was Brizard.

summary

Looking at the stats from the above, there were three main areas where Japan was lacking compared to the top four teams at the Paris Olympics:

• Attack effectiveness (especially the number of goals conceded during attacks)
• Block points and service aces
• Team Error

However, even though they were short, the difference was really small, so there is no doubt that Japan is one of the top teams.

However, top-level competitions are a tough world where even the smallest differences can make the difference between winning and losing.

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[Distribution date and time]

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(Quoted from TBS TV release)

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Photo: Volleyball World