Game Theory – Volleyball (Setter Perspective)
As a setter in volleyball, I have needed to strategically choose which player to set based on the who on the court is available to hit, the opposing team’s layout (where people are on the court), the position of blockers, and more. Game Theory has helped me to understand decision making and analysis of situations in a more effective way. There are many options for what the setter can do (if these players are available and able to hit):
- The setter can tip the ball over the net, without setting anyone up (this is called setter dump).
- The setter can set the outside side hitter.
- The setter can set the left side hitter.
- The setter can set the middle hitter.
- The setter can set the libero (back row).
If the pass to the setter is good enough for the setter, the setter chooses either one of these attacks onto the opposing team depending on the skill and positioning of the opposing team. For example, if there was a tall, skilled middle blocker blocking the middle of the court, there would be less likely of a chance that I would set my middle hitter. Due to rotation, if the blocker had to sub out of the court, it would be more likely that I set my middle hitter. If a blocker is expecting a hit, playing a setter dump would be unexpected to the opposing team.
This relates to what we discussed in class about Game Theory because there are 5 sets of strategies (S1, S2, S3, S4, S5) and 5 payoffs (P1, P2, P3, P4, P5). Given, the situation I have presented does not consider many other factors such as a certain hitter having a more effective hit, and more, but there are certainly pure Nash Equilibrium that would give strategies that are more advantageous to a play (every time the ball comes to a team’s court) in a game depending on many factors. Additionally, before the team knows about the opposing teams’ strong and weak skills and main plays, teams should find the mixed Nash equilibrium until they are used to the opposing team’s playing style.
http://opensourcevolleyball.blogspot.com/2015/05/game-theory-and-volleyball.html