Metrics glossary
What impact, stability, momentum & co. actually mean.
The analysis surfaces values that say more than "goals". Here's how they're calculated.
Action polarity
Every tracked action is positive, negative or neutral — depending on whether it helped the team (goal, save, turnover won) or hurt it (missed shot, turnover, goal conceded). Many metrics build on this.
Team
| Metric | Formula | Tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Goals/match | total goals ÷ matches | attacking output on average |
| Conceded/match | total goals conceded ÷ matches | how much the defense allows |
| Difference/match | (goals − goals conceded) ÷ matches | average goal difference — the short form of the record |
The trend arrow on these three compares the average of the last 5 matches with the 5 before that (shorter with fewer matches) — it shows direction, not significance.
Player
| Metric | Formula | Tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Shot rate | goals ÷ shots | accuracy |
| Error rate | negative actions ÷ recorded actions | share of failed actions — per action, not per possession |
| Stability | positive ÷ (positive + negative) | share of successful actions — reliability |
| Impact | goals·3 + assists·1.5 + positive − negative·1.5 | overall effect in one number |
| Impact/min | impact ÷ playing time | effect per minute — fair for players with less time |
Impact/min and playing time need well-kept substitutions (match clock & lineup). Without snapshots, only the raw impact remains.
Attack
| Metric | Formula | Tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Shot rate | goals ÷ shots | pure accuracy |
| Attack efficiency | goals ÷ (shots + turnovers) | stricter — also penalises bad passes and technical errors |
| Fast-break rate | goals ÷ fast breaks started, per wave (1st/2nd/3rd) | how often a fast break leads to a goal |
| 7m rate | your own 7m goals ÷ your own 7m shots | accuracy from the spot |
| Assist rate | goals with a recorded provider ÷ all goals | how often a goal was set up — also measures tracking discipline at the sideline, not just the passing game |
| Errors/match | your own errors (turnovers + missed shots) ÷ matches | how many errors happen on average, plus a trend by type: missed shots, bad passes, technical faults |
The distance classes for shot analysis: close ≤ 6.5 m, medium 6.5–9.5 m, far > 9.5 m.
Fast-break outcome isn't tapped separately: the first offensive follow-up action of your own within 15 seconds of the fast-break tap counts as the result (success = goal, otherwise no goal, nothing in the window = no shot taken). Later corrections are factored in automatically.
Secondary stats: assist rate and actions/min (your own actions ÷ playing time) are deliberately a second tier next to the main KPIs — actions/min mainly measures how much was tracked, not just the pace of the match.
Defense & goalkeeper
| Metric | Formula | Tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Defense efficiency | stopped opponent attacks ÷ opponent attacks | share of opponent attacks that don't end in a goal conceded — the counterpart to attack efficiency |
| Save rate | saves ÷ shots on goal | how much the goalkeeper saves |
| Goals conceded | opponent shots on goal that went in | goals let in |
| Shot outcome (goalkeeper) | every shot in three stages: missed · saved · goal | the full picture per goalkeeper — for yours and the opponent's |
| Opponent goalkeeper saves | own shots saved ÷ own shots on goal | how strongly the opponent's goalkeeper performs |
How is defense efficiency calculated? Since attacks in handball strictly alternate, the opponent has (almost) as many attacks as you do — so the denominator is your own attack count (shots + turnovers). Every opponent attack that doesn't end in a goal against counts as stopped: a save, a miss or a turnover — even if the turnover wasn't tracked. Saves, misses and recorded turnovers won still show up as a breakdown, but don't necessarily cover the stopped attacks completely. Possessions aren't tracked — the denominator stays a proxy, but no longer depends on tracking discipline for opponent actions.
What counts as a save? An unsuccessful shot counts as saved — unless the goal pattern says missed (zone "missed left/right/over"): then it's a miss by the shooter and counts neither as a save nor as a shot on goal. Without goal-pattern recording, missed can't be told apart from saved — then unsuccessful counts as a save. If you want the distinction, record the goal pattern (zones or exact) for missed shots too.
Trend & momentum
- Momentum — action-weighted swing: goals count ±2, other actions ±1. Positive = with you, negative = with the opponent. Live over a rolling 3-minute window, per 5-minute block in the analysis.
- Run — an ongoing goal streak by one side without conceding.
Lineup
| Metric | Formula | Tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Plus/minus | own − opponent goals while that lineup was on court | how well a lineup performs |
| Plus/minus /60 | plus/minus normalised to 60 minutes | makes short and long spells comparable |
Special phases
Every 2-minute suspension (and red card) creates a real strength window of 120 seconds of playing time. Parallel suspensions stack: two opponents out = 6v4, one on each side = back to even. From your perspective, the windows are called 6v5 (power play), 5v6 (short-handed), 6v4 and so on.
| Metric | Formula | Tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Power-play rate | own goals ÷ own shots in power-play windows | are we using the power play? |
| Short-handed goals conceded | goals let in during short-handed windows, also normalised per 2 min | how costly is a suspension? |
| Time in power play / short-handed | sum of window seconds | how much of the match happened in special formations |
Plus the weakness analysis while short-handed: from where and to where we concede then (zone heatmaps), and who's making the errors.
Timeouts
Every tracked team timeout is measured against a ±5-minute window (playing time):
- Before/after — goals by both sides in the 5 minutes before and after the timeout.
- Run stopped — if the opponent had a run of ≥ 2 going into the timeout, it counts as successful if the run's side doesn't score next.
- Swing — goal-difference change from the timeout-taker's perspective: (after) − (before).
Opponent (team view)
Five KPIs on the opponent profile, "Attack" tab — calculated from your own matches against that team, with no player reference (who shoots is in the shooter profile):
| Metric | Formula | Tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Shots | opponent shots against you, total | the opponent's shot volume |
| Goal rate | opponent goals ÷ opponent shots on goal | how accurate the opponent is against you |
| 7m goals | opponent's recorded 7m goals ÷ recorded 7m shots | the opponent's strength from the spot |
| Fast-break share | share of opponent shots whose immediately preceding event was one of your own missed shots or turnovers (at most 10 seconds earlier) | how often the opponent counter-attacks right after your turnover |
| Turnovers/match | recorded opponent turnovers ÷ your matches with at least one opponent event | how turnover-prone the opponent is |
More on the opponent profile: Opponents.