How Fast Was That?

So how hard did that guy hit that spike? Ever want to know? Well, your not alone. Recently, a request was posted to rec.sport.volleyball for figures for spike velocities. This simple request sparked an enlightening conversation among volleyball enthusiast and professionals.

It seems that during the Summer Olympics in Atlanta, a group from MavRen Marketing attempted to try and use a system that used a radar gun (link no longer available) to try and gauge the speed of the ball. Unfortunately, unlike baseball, the nature of volleyball and the ball's lack of cooperation precludes the ball from always passing right in front of the range of the gun.

Also, the ball has to travel directly towards the radar gun to get an accurate reading. Although it is possible to get accurate readings by taking the radar reading and multiplying it by the cosine of the angle between the line of sight and the actual trajectory. But, I don't know allot of guys that can take a compass and measure angles of trajectory in the middle of a volleyball game. Well, at least no without interrupting the game.

The solution to radar guns is the use of video cameras. Video cameras film at 60 frames per second. Given that a volleyball court is a known distance, you can measure how far a volleyball traveled each frame. This method not only allows the measurement of the top speed of a volleyball when spiked but also how much the velocity varies throughout the flight of the volleyball. Unfortunately, this method takes time and will not satisfy the "Need to Know NOW!" fans of volleyball. In other words, good for the record books but not for the televised games.

So, how does one go about measuring ball speed accurately and fast enough to use during volleyball television and radio broadcasts? I have not been able to find the answer to that one. So, if you know a way, or know a list of statistics about spike velocities email me.

So now you know.

Bump, Set, Spike!

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