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The computer age has bestowed some unforeseen blessings on the sports world. Math whizzes are now using the personal computer to track game results to a level never before possible, and sports are the better for it. The book "Moneyball" chronicled the way Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland Athletics used obscure statistical analyses to scout and deal for talent. Now, a variation of this method has spilt over into basketball with a number of NBA teams using statistics in a similar manner. These methods were described in a recent Sports Illustratedarticle titled Measure of Success. Described as simply as possible, these statisticianstrack how well a team does when a player is on the floor, versus how well they do when theyarent.

These measures disregard a players contribution as represented by their scoring, rebounding and assists totals,and simply asks, "Does the team do better or worse when this player is on the floor?" They also in many casescontradict the conventional wisdom concerning the relative worth of certain players. Jason Collins, a fifth-year center for the Nets of little renown gets ranked as the fourth best defensive center in the league. Conversely, high-scoring Michael Redd of the Milwaukee Bucks issuch a disaster on defense that his teams tend to lose with him on the floor, and win while he is on the bench.

While amateur coaches are sure to find these analyses interesting, is there any way in which theycan employ these metrics for their own use? Amateur coaches might be able to get team assistantsto gather the data needed to maintain these stats, but there is a much better way these conceptscan be applied.

Virtually all teams rely heavily on scrimmage play as part of their practice routine. By adoptingwhat I call a Roster Round Robin format during scrimmage play, coaches can get a much clearerpicture of how and when individual players perform better than others. The format simply requiresthat sides be set to 3v3, 4v4, or 5v5, depending on available players. Players are issuedreversible jerseys, and score is kept for each side. Stages are set to 3 or 4 minutes, and atthe end of each stage, a team score is recorded, with each player earning points for themselves on the basis of their team result. Two players are then directed to exchange sides by flipping their reversible jersey, and a new stage is played. This pattern is continued until all possibleroster combinations have been used.

For a 3v3 contest, this would equate to 10 possible combinations, thus requiring a 30 to 40 minutegame. Each player earns a plus/minus score across all stages. As everyone plays under all rostercombinations and points can only be earned on the basis of team results, an individuals resultreflects their team contribution across all stages. In order to maintain game continuity andensure rapid roster rotations, the roster rotations are predetermined and printed on a grid usedfor scoring.

Some may notice that the one thing seemingly not taken into account in this format is positionplay. A roster rotation schedule that disregards position play will likely result in some oddlybalanced sides think 5 guards versus 5 forwards and centers that wouldnt reflect anythingresembling a real-game matchup. This difficulty can, however, be overcome by taking positionsinto account when devising the roster rotations. For a 4v4 game, with players restricted toeither a center/forward or guard position, there would be 9 different roster combinations required.For a full-sided game, a center position could be added, but 18 stages would be required. With three minute stages, this would be a 54 minute scrimmage game. Coaches may wish to splitthis size of scrimmage across multiple practices.

Would the results from any particular scrimmage mean much? For one game, probably not, as we allknow the ball can bounce funny for a time. But if this format were used on a regular basis, theresults should reveal which players are contributing the most to their team. These results willeither confirm or deny a coachs sense of who his best players are, but there are two even biggerbenefits that can come from the use of this format. First, as players come to understand thisas the new measure of their play, they will be more receptive to a coachs instruction on teamplay. As well, players will intuitively respond to the demands of the game, and adjust their playaccordingly. Simply put, the ability to measure team play translates to a better ability to teachand learn it.

The second benefit may be even more important. A system that clearly and demonstrably measuresa player on the basis of their team contribution fosters team chemistry better than any other.The talented offensive player who lets down on defense can be brought to the table when the impactof his lackluster defense can be shown. Players who are frustrated because they think theyshould be playing more can either makes their case in the round robin practice, or be showntheyre not there yet. Regardless of the case, team chemistry is advanced.

The only real barriers to this practice format are logistical. Running this practice formatrequires pre-numbered reversible jerseys, and scoring/rotation grid sheets.

posted by eyidzgl  # 9:07 PM 0 comments

U.S. pairs skaters Rena Inoue and John Baldwin made history by landing the first throw triple axel in Olympic history.

Read about the Americans jump at http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/torino/figureskating/2006-02-11-pairs-skating_x.htm.

Midori Ito in 1989 was the first woman to land a triple axel in a major ice skating championship (the Worlds). See http://www.mountaindragon.com/midori/mistats.htm.

So what are triple jumps and what is a triple axel?

"The Axel is a jump in figure skating, named after the Norwegian skater Axel Paulsen (1855-1938) who was the first to perform it in 1882.

A single Axel consists of 1 1/2 rotations in the air. For a jump with counterclockwise rotation, it has a takeoff from the left forward outside edge and a landing on the right back outside edge; this can be reversed for a clockwise jump.

The Axel can also be done as a double jump with 2 1/2 rotations, or as a triple with 3 1/2 rotations." See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axel_jump.

The above article states, No skater has yet accomplished a quadruple Axel.

To read a fun article on figure skating go to http://www.slate.com/id/2136701/fr/rss/. Even the best skaters take there turn (for the worse) on the ice.

Sasha Cohen is the only woman skater in the current Winter Olympics who can do a quadruple jump. She did not attempt it last night. She didnt need to. But she may give it ago. Keep watching. Read about Sasha at http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/olympics/260243_olyfig21.html.

A number of men have performed quads in these Olympics.

Here are some hints for watching women ice skating at the Winter Olympics (Dont watch men skating. They make the jumps look too easy,):

1.Dig those old skates out of that box of junk in the garage. Put them on. Stumble into the room where you have a television set and plop yourself down. Now, dont you feel better all ready?

2.Before you put your skats on, turn the thermostat down to 50 degrees Fahrenheit. To make it more authentic for the Olympics, make that 10 degrees Centigrade. Have some heavy quilts ready.

3.Have your spouse brew up a big pot of hot chocolate. Dont go stumbling out there in the kitchen by yourself on those ice skates. You might get scalded.

4.While your spouse is out in the kitchen anyway, have her (or possibly, him) fry up a bunch of scones. A scone is fried bread dough. Just pic up the dough at the grocery store and plop sections of dough into the grease. Biscuit dough is fine. The scones should be served with butter and honey. (If you must run down to the store to get the honey, for gosh sakes take off the ice skates. You'll look pretty funny wrapped up in a steering wheel.)

5.While you are watching the ice skating, suck the honey off your fingers. Dont try to wash honey off with cocoa. You might burn yourself. Well, you can wait until the cocoa cools a bit like I do. Then you have some yummy sucking to do.

6.Here are some words you will need for ice skate competition watching:

Ohhhhh! Use this when a jump goes awry and the skater lands on her poduka with a thump. The bigger the thump, the bigger the OHHHHH!

Yeah! Scream this at the top of your lungs when a scatter performs a trivial move effortlessly.

Wow! Say this when a scatter makes a routine triple jump.

Holy Cow! Yell this when a triple axel is made and the skater makes a good landing. If the jumper falls on her paduka with a thud, say Holy S

My wife cut me off there.

Now that you know the elements of watching womens Olympic ice skating, do as Red Green says, Keep your stick on the ice!

Oh, Nuts! My wife says that only applies to ice hockey. Well, keep your paduka off the ice!

On reflection I looked up the word paduka in the Hindu dictionary (see http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/Ri_paduka/id/62126). It means sandals of the venerated leader.

When I say lands on her paduka, Im not talking about sandals.

The End

Ice skating, triple, quadruple, lux, axel, Olympics, Torino, Winter Olympics, paduka, Hindu, Midori Ito, Sasha Cohen

posted by eyidzgl  # 12:54 AM 0 comments