Match Analytic Timetables

While dodgeball doesn’t lend itself to easy statistic reporting, there’s a few different ways we can easily gather statistics without dedicating staff to be exclusive statisticians, or increasing the burden on the Officiating Crew.

By recording match-wide events and not individual player actions, we can gather valuable data about the pace of the game and other simple events that cause a stoppage of play. This Stoppage of Play usually gives an ordinary official a chance to quickly record the time, event, and possibly object that occurred.

Read more about match reporting

Composite of a Timetable

Each Event has a Time code. Some Events have Objects. Any Event may have a Comment.

Events (Object) {Comment}
Start Half; Half Expires; Start Overtime; Overtime Expires
Point (Team that scored) {Running Clock waived/enacted}
Timeout (Calling Team, or Officials) {relevant comments}
Violation (Team that forfeits balls)
Yellow Card; Red Card (Team) {Player #, Rule Infraction}

Objects: Either participating Team or the Officials

Comments: Anything useful. For Cards, player # and rule infraction. For an Officials Timeout, a call confirmation, popped ball, blood timeout, or other useful reason.

Recording

By Staff – If an extra person is around, they can be put to use crewing a Scoreboard and a notepad. The Staff member can handle starting/stopping the Game Clock on the Referee’s signal, then record the events in a timetable. This is very beneficial as long as they pay attention to the game and signals.

By an Official – If there aren’t any extra persons available, shorthand timetables are still easily recorded by a Referee whenever a stoppage of play occurs. Reading the Clock and noting an event should take no more than a handful of seconds.

Short notation for Points (Pt), Timeouts (TO), and Violations (V) are also welcome shortcuts. Each submitted timetable has a human formatting and entering it into the database so it can be analyzed later using formulas. It is preferred that they end up close to that, but it’s great if they just get recorded.

Half Duration – Always include the timecode for Start Half. Some tournament events might shorten halves, and this is a must to properly calculate point duration. Always indicate how long the half is.

Missing Events – It is preferred that all Events noted in the above section are recorded, which includes Violations, Timeouts, and Cards. Sometimes that isn’t the case. Best practice would be to note if these events did or did not occur in the match so we don’t have to follow up and categorize the table differently.

Officiating Staff – It is generally useful if the Officiating Crew is noted along the table. Common approaches including the initial and position of each official.

Event Timetable Sample

Time Event Object Comments
0:25:00 Start Half
0:16:17 Timeout UWP Sub #7 for #19
0:05:16 Yellow Card UWP #19 Unsportsmanlike
0:03:15 Point UWP
0:03:15 Half Expires
0:28:15 Start Half
0:18:08 Violation DePaul
0:12:05 Point DePaul
0:05:18 Timeout Officials Call confirm
0:00:00 Half Expires
0:00:00 Start Overtime
0:04:03 Point UWP
0:04:03 End Overtime

In this sample match timetable, everything recordable occurred except a Red Card (see the Yellow Card event as a sample event). This is how any sheet ends up recorded in the database, regardless of how it was submitted.

In this example, a Point was scored during the rollover period (<4:00); note that a Half Expires event is noted with 03:15 and that time was applied to the Start Half timecode for the second half. This is important for time calculations.

For reasons, there is a leading zero representing Hours in the Time code of this timetable. This is a constraint in Google Sheets regarding proper formula calculations. It shows up when posted to the website. It can be left off on submitted tables.

Plain Text Notation

Using the above timetable above, here is what a potential plain text submission might look like:
UWP def DePaul 2-1 OT
25:00 Start
16:17 TO UWP – Sub #7 for #19
05:16 YEL UWP #19 Unsportsmanlike
03:15 Pt UWP – Halftime Rollover
28:15 Start
18:08 V DePaul
12:05 Pt DePaul
05:18 TO Ref – Call Confirm
0:00 Half, go to OT
04:03 Pt UWP

Expansions (10 Second Count)

These timetables initiated with only one tracked event: point duration. It has since expanded to simple, recordable events that instigate a stoppage of play, which give a Referee a chance to jot notes down.

If a dedicated staff person is running stats, they can include an valuable extra Event: when that team dropped down 10 second count, or when they return a sixth player to bring back the 15 second count. An extra staff person is needed because the game clock is rolling while these events occur.

Time Event Object Comments
0:05:16 Yellow Card UWP #19 Unsportsmanlike
0:05:16 10 Clock UWP Yellow Card drops UWP to 5 players. Drop to 10.
0:04:17 15 Clock UWP UWP catches in a 6th player, return to 15.
0:04:17 10 Clock DePaul DePaul throws catch, drops to 5 players
0:03:15 Point UWP UWP wins the point.
0:03:15 Half Expires Half Rolls over

In this example, I’ve created a story in the comments for the benefit of the example. It just explains the acts that caused the Events of their row. Most of the time, these comments would be blank. It is also an example showing that the comments section can be useful in recapping the match.

Future Expansions

It is not likely we’ll be able to include any more wide ranging statistics without explicitly needing a dedicated person to record the time events. With a technology aid, we could see statistics for when outs, catches, or team catches were made. Due to the generic impracticality of individual stats in dodgeball, we are left to rely on Team based stats.

Any suggestions?