Perth Trip Day Four

Perth Trip Day Four

Coaching Clinic @ Salvado Rd, Wembley

This was our second coaching clinic at Wembley, third one overall in the trip. Coach tracey was laying out all the cones and markers for her first drill when we arrived. The netballers slept early last night to prepare for a full day of training, fun and then match play (really a 'rojak' mix of emotions...serious, then fun and then back to serious mode). Well, after the clinic, we will be heading for the theme park, Adventure World.

As usual, the netballers were asked to jog round the entire width of the 30+ netball courts as warm-up. Pepe and Isabel sprinted back first nearing the end (they are the fitter ones I guess). Next, Coach tracey started a sort of a circuit training (3 stations) which is kind of what Mr Njoo always did for his physical part of the training. The first station was a sprinting + footwork station. The netballers had to learn how to take off quickly, overcoming a series of wooden planks placed on the ground from small steps to bigger steps which is kind of like an airplane taking off. Then, they have to negotiate the cones in front by jumping with both legs together. Coach Tracey explained that this drill helps the girls to accelerate more quckly, a much needed skill in netball matches where change of direction and speed is key to winning games particularly if we have no 'height'. Station two was a ball-handling practice and the third station was a skipping station. After that, the netballers were taught weaving in and out. Mr Njoo was particularly interested in this drill as it offers him another tactical option of attacking. Then, the girls were put into two groups and were playing this game 'Traffic jam' which focuses on timing and leading to receive the ball. Good drill! The netballers had fun as the losing team had to do suicides. Next, the girls got to play against each other. Team A vs Team B, although it was a foregone conclusion as to which team wins, Coach Tracey added that Team A have to win by 10 points to win the game. Did team A do it?

Immersion Activity - Adventure World

Adventure World , here we come! We really could not wait to hop off the bus once we noticed the huge sign 'Adventure World' ahead. We rushed out of the bus, almost knocking down the Aunt Josephine, our toue leader, off her feet. Our first ride as a 'team' was the Viking. Compared to the one in Sunway which turned 360 degrees, this one wa a piece of cake. Yet, not all the netballers took the ride...Next, Mr Njoo brought us to the next one, POWERSURGE. Af first, I thought nothingof it as it was so close to the ground. Little did I know that this ride would scare me out of my wits. It went up and down, left and right, and 360 degrees forward and backward. I honestly felt like puking after that. ?If you thought that we had experienced the scariest ride, the next one was even worse. It was the RAMPAGE! The worst ride ever possibly imagined. Again, like the the previous one, it goes into various movements, but much worse as it goes alot faster! I could see the horror of those who took it even Mr Njoo's facial expression was contorted into a look of fear and exhilaration. To cool us down, we next took a slow ride up to the highest point of the theme park for the roller coaster. It was a slow and scenic ride up, allowing us to cathc our breaths and enjoy the wonderful view of the the theme park has to offer. The roller coaster was a mild frightening at some parts. Just nice for my already shaken body! Our last ride as a team was a water slide called the Tunnel of Terror. We had to sit in pairs on a float and slide down the pitch-black tunnel. We were screaming in the dark until we reached the last part where there was an opening and SPLASH! We fell out of the float into the freezing cold water! We had lunch after that and Mr Njoo gave us permission to go have fun on our own while he looked after our stuff with Ms Ng. We ventured into other rides especially the wet ones. It was definitely the best day ever!

Matchplay @ Wanneroo District Netball Club

Back to serious mode, it was time to play some matches with the netballers from the Wanneroo District Netball Club. The club was having selection trials for the past week and there were about 100 over aspiring girls from the various age-group wanting to be part of this club. We were fortunate to take part in their trials for the Under 12 age group. First, the girls were to have a one hour developmental training before TKP A and B challenged the rest of the girls in two matches.

Finally, the mathces began, it was seven in the evening but it still looked pretty bright although it was getting colder for me by the minute. I was practically freezing while taking the video for the matches. The Wanneroo Distrct netballers were slightly much better than the Joondalup district netballers we played yesterday. Again, Team A did the school and country proud, defeating both the opposition with good scores. Team B played gallantly but with many newcomers in the team, they were not expected to beat the opposition. Some of the players thathave caught Mr Njoo's eye other than those in Team A are Pepe, Isabel and Josephine. Hope the three of them can give the team A a good fight for the first 7 places next year!

Perth Trip Day Three

Perth Trip Day Three

Morning Training

To start the day of netball matches, Mr. Njoo brought us out to the park near our hotel for an early morning jog. We walked past many brick houses. They were gigantic compared to the shoebox we lived in Singapore. Upon reaching the park, I stared at the wide green field around us. “Wow!” was all I could say. The view was fantastic! We are going to jog along the Swan River which overlooked the CBD in Perth City. We placed our tumblers at a bench and the netballers set off leaving me behind to look after their tumblers and towels. After a few minutes, they were out of my sight. They were supposed to jog for 15 minutes from where we were, do some core muscle exercises and then jog back. My job was to stay at the bench and ‘guard’ our stuff. I waited for 30 plus minutes before the netballers started appearing on the tracks again. Their cheeks were flushed and you could hear them panting from afar. I was so glad I did not take part in the exercise even though Mr Njoo invited me to.

Coaching clinic and Matchplay @ Joondalup Arena

Next, we were off to Joondalup for our first netball match of this trip. The netballers looked focused and were not as chatty as before. They wanted to start off with a victory and like what Mr Njoo has mentioned to them the night before at the debrief. We were not just playing for the school but for the reputation of our country! We had 14 players so Mr Njoo split us into Team A and Team B.

Team A (Green) (basically the team that played in the victorious National Final)

GK - Jeraldine Lee, GD - Jamie Wong, WD - Fatin, C - Rukmini, WA - Xing Hui, GA - Seak Im and GS - Corrine Kwek

Team B (Red)

GK - Anna Marie, GD - Josephine Yeh, WD - Chalisa, C - Pepe, WA - Vanessa, GA - Isabel and GS - Syazana

After a short coaching clinic focusing on agility and more core muscles training by coach Carrie, the matchplay began. TKP A vs Saints and TKP B vs Balmoral. TKP A started the match badly. As usual, they failed to score in their first centre pass. I could see the disgust on Mr Njoo's face when Seak Im threw the stray pass. Jeraldine was at the top of her game and gamely intercepted the Saints attack. Soon, TKP A began to rain attack after attack on Saints. Their tactics of defending very tightly at the opponent's goal paid off. TKP A began to lead by 9 goals after the game. TKP B played gallantly against the stronger Balmoral team (Yellow jersey). Though they gave their best, they were not able to defeat the more superior and faster Balmoral team and lost the match.

For the second game, Team A was going to play the tougher team, Balmoral. Again, they had a rocky start, due to losing the centre pass again. This time, it was not as easy to get back as Balmoral were just as good as them. It was like playing against St. Margaret’s. The GA (a malaysian) was very swift and accurate often giving Jamie a torrid time trying to guard her and the GS was very accurate. But their defense was not as good as their attack and it was easy for Seak Im and Corrins to take advantage of that having played together for quite some time now. Their understanding was somehow telepathic, each of them knew where the other would be and it was easy for the midfielders to find them in the 'D'. TKP A won the match but the difference was only about 5 goals. Team B got to play with the easier team, Saints. They started quite well, managing to get their centre pass all the way to the shooting ‘D’, but our inexperienced GS missed. For the first quarter of the match, Team B didn’t catch their rhythm so Balmoral overtook them by leaps and bounds. But after Pepe, the captain for Team B, pointed out their mistakes, they improved a lot in the end, only losing by a few points.
So, final review. Team A did their thing and won all two games while Team B lost all two games but tried their best.

Immersion Activity - Hillary Beach

‘Everyone change into your wet clothes because we are going to the Beach!’ that was what everyone was thinking as we arrived at the beach. That was what kept us going for the whole day. Unfortunately, it was drizzling so I held a sandcastle competition under the tent. The winner would get an ice cream for free! After hearing that, everyone immediately got to work. Unfortunately, they were distracted by two trays of fries bought by Mr Njoo. Only Xing Hui and Josephine didn’t stop building so I crowned them the winner. Then suddenly I was carried to the water and they threw me into it! I felt like I was turning to ice! The water was freezing cold. To make matters worse the wind was so chilly. I had to stay in the water to stay warm. I threw sand balls to those who threw me into the water. I finally got my revenge. Tee Hee! Once the hot sun came out, all of us emerged from the water and played Frisbee. My team kept losing because the wind was blowing the opposite direction . Grrr… Still, it was just a game. When we almost had to go, we had a big sand war to end the day off.