PassTrackerVolleyball Digs: What Counts, and How to Track Dig Percentage
A dig is a defensive touch on an opponent's attack that keeps the ball in play. Digs are the box-score stat for defense, and like most counts they say more once you also count the misses.
What counts as a dig
- The ball was attacked by the other team (not a serve: a serve received is a pass).
- Your player touched it and the ball stayed playable: your team got another contact.
- The quality of the dig does not matter for the count. A perfect dig to target and a frantic one off the arm both count.
Not a dig: a pass of a serve, a free ball or down ball received easily (most stat crews count those as passes), and a block touch (that is the blocker's).
Dig errors
A dig error is an attacked ball your player touched but could not keep in play. Official college stats do not record them, but they are worth counting yourself: digs alone reward the player who gets to the most balls and hide the one who touches them and loses them.
Dig percentage
Dig % = Digs ÷ (Digs + Dig errors)
It answers "when she gets to the ball, does she keep it up?" As rough bands: 85% and up is excellent, 75% to 85% solid, 65% to 75% fair, and under 65% needs work. Read it beside the attempts: 2 of 2 is 100% and means almost nothing.
Digs per set, for comparisons
College box scores report digs per set, because matches vary in length. That number tells you about volume (how many balls your defense touched), dig % about reliability. A libero with many digs per set and a low dig % is busy and loose; one with fewer digs and a high dig % may simply be in the wrong spot.
Use digs with where their kills land
Digs show where your defense succeeded. The other half is where it did not: where their kills land. If most of their kills land deep in zone 5 and your digs in zone 5 are few, the defender is a step too shallow, or the block is funneling the ball there. Tagging each of their kills on a court diagram, even roughly, turns "we can't stop their outside" into "move the zone 5 defender back a step against #12."
Count digs in one tap
Every court card in PassTracker has Dig and Dig error. Stats shows digs, errors and dig % per player, and the Map shows each player's digs and misses on the court beside where the other team's kills land.
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