Coach's Derblog

Breakin’ It Down!

My dear readers!  How I have neglected you.

Its been a minute since the last entry on this blog.  The regular season ended last month and the league has been steadily preparing for the playoffs.

From my perspective, playoffs are a whole different game.  This is the point at which you take the play you’ve exhibited all season long, and bump it up a notch or two, or ten. Yeah, ten.  Each game could be your last.  I think that’s worth bumping it up ten notches.

Playoffs are ahead of us, but for the sake of this entry, we’re gonna take look back at the inaugural regular season that was.

By now you know that I’m a sucker for numbers.  I’ve kept track of every jam and every point that was scored this season.  They’re fun to keep and they provide a wealth of information that can’t be seen by just watching the game.

We know where the teams ended up in the standings, but how did they fair against each other statistically?  That’s the question Coach is about to answer for you.

For the most part, the statistical standings fall in line with the regular season win-loss standings, but their were some variances depending on what your talking about.

So without further delay here’s the break down of Daniel san’s Season 5 Team Stats for the regular season.

Total Points Scored

1. Schoolyard Scrappers – 436
2. Coffin Draggers – 398
3. Bombshells – 383
4. Runaway Brides – 307
5. Brutal Beauties – 277

Total Points Given Up

1. Schoolyard Scrappers – 238
2. Coffin Draggers – 265
3. Bombshells – 331
4. Runaway Brides – 444
5. Brutal Beauties – 523

Average Points Scored Per Bout

1. Schoolyard Scrappers – 109
2. Coffin Draggers – 99
3. Bombshells – 95.75
4. Runaway Brides – 76.75
5. Brutal Beauties – 69.25

Average Points Given Up Per Bout

1. Schoolyard Scrappers – 59.5
2. Coffin Draggers – 66.25
3. Bombshells – 82.75
4. Runaway Brides – 111
5. Brutal Beauties – 130.75

Totals are fun stats, but to me they’re not as sexy as averages.  Averages tell a deeper story.  If stats were a derby girl, totals would be the garter belts, fishnets and and make-up, averages would be the ability that lies under all of that.  I base most of my analysis on averages because they reveal consistency or lack there of.

As you can see, the Scrappers pretty much owned it this season both averaging the highest amount of points and giving up the least.  They’re not 4-0 for no reason.  That shows awesome balance in both of their schemes as they’re scoring almost twice as many points as their opponents on average.

AZDD Fun Fact #1:  The most points scored in a single bout this season was by the Schoolyard Scrappers.  They scored 148 points against the Brutal Beauties in Bout #1.

AZDD Fun Fact #2:  The least amount of points given up in a single bout this season was by the Coffin Draggers.  They held the Runaway Brides to 44 points in Bout #2.

One of my favorite stats is ppj. (points per jam).  Now, there are two sets of numbers that I want to feed you because they bear greatly on the stats to come depending on what school of thought you’re from.  Here’s what I mean:

Lets say Team A plays in a bout where there are 40 jams.  There are two ways you can calculate ppj.

The first school of thought is to take their score and divide it by 40, because that’s how many jams there where.  Strict and simple.

The other school of thought takes Team A’s score and divides it by Team A’s “point eligible” jams.  Point eligible jams are those that Team A was actually capable of scoring points in.  So when Team A has a Jammer in the penalty box they’re not eligible to score any points in that jam.  Lets say Team A gives up 3 Power Jams.  Then you’re dividing there total score by 37 and the result is a different ppj average than the one above.

Personally, I like the first school of thought.  Jams are jams and if you’re not eligible to score any points, that’s your bad.  Your Jammer is in the box because she was caught breaking the rules and part of the consequence is having that reflected in your points and averages.

Nevertheless, I give you both.

Here’s how many jams each team played this season from most to least:

1. Bombshells – 166
2. Runaway Brides – 164
3. Schoolyard Scrappers – 162
4. Coffin Draggers – 159
5. Brutal Beauties – 153

Point Eligible Jams

1. Schoolyard Scrappers – 157
2. Bombshells – 153
3. Runaway Brides – 152
4. Coffin Draggers – 150
5. Brutal Beauties – 137

AZDD Fun Fact # 3:  The most jams played in a bout this season was 44.  It happened twice; in Bout #4 Schoolyard Scrappers v. Runaway Brides and Bout #5 Schoolyard Scrappers v. Bombshells.

Points Per Jam Scored (points per point eligible jams in parentheses)

1. Schoolyard Scrappers – 2.69  (2.77)
2. Coffin Draggers – 2.50  (2.65)
3. Bombshells – 2.30  (2.50)
4. Runaway Brides - 1.87  (2.01)
5. Brutal Beauties – 1.81  (2.02)

The points per point eligible jams is a weak concept, but I give it to you anyway.  I’m gonna throw it away for now and stick to the strict interpretation of points per jam.

Points Per Jam Given Up

1. Schoolyard Scrappers – 1.46
2. Coffin Draggers – 1.67
3. Bombshells – 1.99
4. Runaway Brides – 2.70
5. Brutal Beauties – 3.41

I’ve always thought that holding your opponents to less than 2 points per jam was a good gauge of a  solid defensive team.  The league’s top three teams did that on the season.  I like this stat because my philosophy as a coach is to win games not by scoring more points than the other team, but by NOT letting the other team score more points than you.  You’ve heard the phrase, “The best offense is a good defense.”

AZDD Fun Fact #4:  The highest ppj. scored average in a single bout was 4.  The Schoolyard Scrappers finished with that average against the Brutal Beauties in Bout #1.

AZDD Fun Fact #5:  The lowest ppj. given up average in a single bout was 1.04.  The Coffin Draggers held the Runaway Brides to that average in Bout #2.

Lead Jam Percentage basically shows how often a team is able to get their Jammer out of the pack first.  The reason this number is so important is because the strategic advantage Lead Jam gives you for those 60 seconds is indisputable.  Lead Jam gives you control over the clock, control over the potential points scored by the opposing Jammer, and just overall control of the jam.  The stat below tells how often each team was able to get their Jammer out of the pack first to acquire the Lead Jam.

Lead Jam Percentages

1. Schoolyard Scrappers – 63 pct.  (103 total Lead Jams)
2. Bombshells- 50 pct.  (84 total Lead Jams)
3. Coffin Draggers – 49 pct.  (78 total Lead Jams)
4. Runaway Brides – 40 pct.  (66 total Lead Jams)
5. Brutal Beauties – 40 pct.  (62 total Lead Jams)

Now, its not always enough to just get the Lead Jam.  You have to know how to use this weapon in order to get all the benefits that come with it like those just mentioned above.  That comes with effectively calling off the jam.  If the Lead Jam is the gun, calling off the jam is the ammo.  The following stat is how often the teams are calling off the jam after acquiring or stealing the Lead Jam.

Call Off Percentages

1. Bombshells – 66 pct.
2. Runaway Brides – 65 pct.
3. Coffin Draggers – 52 pct.
4. Schoolyard Scrappers – 51 pct.
5. Brutal Beauties – 45 pct.

If you’ll notice there is a slight correlation between the ranking of the number of jams played by each team and the ranking of these call off percentages.  The Bombshells played the most jams this season because we were calling off jams more frequently that the other teams.  The more jams being called off, means more jams in the game.  In the grand scheme of an entire bout, you can prolong the bout and create more scoring opportunities by calling off jams.  If you want to run the clock down to shorten the game, you probably don’t want to call of jams as much.

AZDD Fun Fact #6:  The Brutal Beauties’ Lead Jam Percentages improved every bout.  From first to last bout their percentages were: 27 pct., 32 pct., 51 pct., 51 pct.

AZDD Fun Fact #7:  The highest call off percentage in a single bout was 100 pct.  The Runaway Brides called off every jam (13 Lead Jams : 13 Call Offs) in which they possessed the Lead Jam against the Schoolyard Scrappers in Bout #4.

AZDD Fun Fact #8:  For the season, the Bombshells stole the most amount of Lead Jams from and opposing Jammer who acquired the Lead Jam first with 11.  The highest number of Lead Jams stolen in a single game was 6 by the Bombshells against the Brutal Beauties in Bout #3.

AZDD Fun Fact #9:  For the season, the Schoolyard Scrappers lost the least amount of Lead Jams with 4.

Power Jams are where you have the opportunity to stack up some real points, uncontested by an opposing Jammer.  From an offensive standpoint, I believe that if you don’t score at least 10 points in a Power Jam, you failed on an opportunity.  From a defensive standpoint, a 5 point Power Jam means you got off easy, but the goal is to keep the opposing Jammer to 0 points, if not keeping her from even getting into scoring position.

Most Offensive Power Jams (Team has a Jammer on the track)

1. Runaway Brides – 14
2. Bombshells/Brutal Beauties – 13
3. Schoolyard Scrapper – 8
4. Coffin Draggers – 7

Most Defensive Power Jams (Team has no Jammer on the track)

1. Brutal Beauties – 16
2. Bombshells – 13
3. Runaway Brides – 12
4. Coffin Draggers – 9
5. Schoolyard Scrappers – 5

As you can see, the Runaway Brides had the most opportunities at Power Jams and the Scrappers Jammers kept it real clean only giving up 5 Power Jams the entire season.

Average Points Per Power Jam Scored

1. Runaway Brides – 7.50
2. Bombshells – 7.46
3. Schoolyard Scrappers – 4.37
4. Coffin Draggers – 3.28
5. Brutal Beauties – 2.61

Average Points Per Power Jam Given Up

1. Bombshells – 3.50
2. Schoolyard Scrappers – 3.60
3. Coffin Draggers – 3.77
4. Runaway Brides – 6.58
5. Brutal Beauties – 7.31

Its quite impressive to see that the Runaway Brides had the most Power Jam opportunities as well as the highest average of points scored per Power Jam.  The anomaly in these numbers is that the Scrappers are the highest scoring team in the league in just about every category yet they were hardly able to squeeze a little over 4 points on average out of their Power Jams.

AZDD Fun Fact #10:  The Bombshells broke even on their Power Jam totals.  We had as many Power Jam opportunities as we gave up but we had the best differential in the league this season.  On average, we scored 7.46 points and gave up 3.5 points for a difference of +3.96.

And there you have it, derby fans.  These are the Team Regular Season Statistics for AZDD’s 2010 Banked Track Season.  These stats were a lot of fun to keep, catalog, compute, analyze and share with you.

I wish that I could incorporate complete season stats into these regular season stats to see how teams fair over the course of an entire season.  But the way the league rules mandate, its just not practical in my mind.  My crazy OCD tendencies won’t allow me because of all the inconsistent variables that are introduced by our Playoff/Championship Policy.  This is as true as they’re gonna get.  All teams played an equal amount of games in an almost equal amount of time.  Once we get into the playoffs this weekend the winning team of the tournament will have played in more bouts than the team that’s already in the Championship.  Additionally, the tournament is composed of 36 minute mini bouts which is an entire quarter less than a normal bout.  Furthermore, the league switches back to its normal format for the Championship.  This would cause major inconsistencies in the totals and averages which will make the statistics deceiving and inaccurate to analyze.

As such,  I’ll likely have 3 sets of stats for this season: one for the regular season, one for the playoff tournament, and one for the Championship.

These are the most significant stats that I could pull from this season.  If you don’t see something you’d like to know as it pertains strictly to TEAM STATS, leave your question in a comment below or shoot it to me at daniel@derbycoach.com.  Let’s play a little game of stump the stud.

Later skaters!

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