Modeling the Volleyball Serve
IB Math Studies Internal Assessment
Sir Winston Churchill Secondary
Word Count: 1,917
, Introduction
Volleyball is a team sport that is played all over the world and is ranked one of the top ten
most popular sports in Canada (Ifedi). In order to play the sport at a competitive level one must
master a few basic skills that are essential to the game: the bump, set, spike, serve and block.
According to the American stats organization, in both women and men’s volleyball the most
important skill, which leads to the most point accumulation, is the serve (Fellingham). Being a
volleyball player myself, I understand having consistency and control of a volleyball serve can
change the pace of the game and therefore I began to question: what is the average placement of
my serve on the court? I then decided to film my serve multiple times to determine a model for
the path of my serve.
Statement of the Task
The main purpose of this investigation is to determine the average pathway of my
overhand volleyball serve and using these data points, create a quadratic equation that models the
pathway and placement of my serve. The type of data that will be collected is the height of the
volleyball at different meter intervals. This will be collected by videotaping my serve ten times
and pausing the film to measure the height of the volleyball at specific intervals. To measure the
height of the volleyball from the film, a scale will have to be used. As the court is 18 meters in
length, I will measure the height of the volleyball after every meter and therefore have 18 data
points.
Plan of Investigation
I am investigating a quadratic model that best represents the average pathway of my
serve. I have collected data from ten serves that are relatively consistent, using video footage.
With the collection of data I acquired, a number of mathematical processes were used to analyze
the data: an average of the data points; a scatterplot of the data; and calculation of a quadratic
regression model.
IB Math Studies Internal Assessment
Sir Winston Churchill Secondary
Word Count: 1,917
, Introduction
Volleyball is a team sport that is played all over the world and is ranked one of the top ten
most popular sports in Canada (Ifedi). In order to play the sport at a competitive level one must
master a few basic skills that are essential to the game: the bump, set, spike, serve and block.
According to the American stats organization, in both women and men’s volleyball the most
important skill, which leads to the most point accumulation, is the serve (Fellingham). Being a
volleyball player myself, I understand having consistency and control of a volleyball serve can
change the pace of the game and therefore I began to question: what is the average placement of
my serve on the court? I then decided to film my serve multiple times to determine a model for
the path of my serve.
Statement of the Task
The main purpose of this investigation is to determine the average pathway of my
overhand volleyball serve and using these data points, create a quadratic equation that models the
pathway and placement of my serve. The type of data that will be collected is the height of the
volleyball at different meter intervals. This will be collected by videotaping my serve ten times
and pausing the film to measure the height of the volleyball at specific intervals. To measure the
height of the volleyball from the film, a scale will have to be used. As the court is 18 meters in
length, I will measure the height of the volleyball after every meter and therefore have 18 data
points.
Plan of Investigation
I am investigating a quadratic model that best represents the average pathway of my
serve. I have collected data from ten serves that are relatively consistent, using video footage.
With the collection of data I acquired, a number of mathematical processes were used to analyze
the data: an average of the data points; a scatterplot of the data; and calculation of a quadratic
regression model.
