Participation in terminal actions according to the role of the player and his location on the court in top-level men’s volleyball

The objective of this study was to determine the probability of success of the different players who execute the terminal actions according to their role and location on the court at that time, differentiating between the 2010 World Championship and the 2011 European Championship. 23 matches of the World Championship (n=5790) and 29 of the European Championship (n=7640) were analysed, differentiating by the roles of the players (setter, receiver, middle blocker, opposite and libero), type of terminal action (serve#, serve=, attack#, attack=, block#, block=, reception=, set=, defence= and others) and location at the time of the action (front court and back court). The descriptive analysis showed greater participation in final actions by the receiver (39%) and the opposite (25%), with no differences between the two championships being found Logistic regression analysis carried out by the player’s role and location at the time gave highly significant results (p<0.001). The opposite was the player with greater probability of success in his actions in both championships (World Championship; European Championship), followed by the receiver (OR: 0.723; 0.662), middle blocker (OR: 0.553; 0.612) and setter (OR: 0.250; 0.242). Execution from the front court showed greater success than from the back court, both for the World Championship (OR: 3.271) and the European Championship (OR: 2.809).