Progress in training (day 3)

 I have to get used to the local weather conditions. Waking up at 3 am, getting a cold shower and try to absorb the heat, well it's good that days near the equator are short and getting to bed early is easy when you're tired.

So one very very positive this (please listen carefully High School students in Bennekom) - morning session of training at 7 am. Beautiful weather conditions and players who arrived on time are already practising theire distance shot. Our track & field coach Maria prepares a short warming up, 15 minutes, some dynamic stretching, core, balance all very much focussed on the korfball moves. We added some ball handling to this session and I am sure we're able to make a good show once we add music and synchronity. During the break we talked about a couple of dance moves so I hope in 2-3 years we can write a new capitol on game preparation :)

In the 7 am session the team focussed more on korfball skills, using every posibility to score as many of your attempts. Being free to involve whatever kind of move. A mixture between European style korfball and the Asian style. Players are free to explore their abilities. We had fun and worked hard. Scoring more than 50 goals in a 64 minute match surprised me the most. Of course together with coach sir Rod and Robin we studied our gameplan, always counting the risk and the award factor.

During the break in the morning the players surprised me again with some local food. Fresh coconut and dim sum, in the evening lovely followed by "halo-halo" (mixed-fruit dessert with macapuno, nata de coco and fresh cantaloupe, evaporated milk and shaved ice).

During lunch we dicussed some video's watching games of The Netherlands, Czech Republic, PKC Papendrecht, AKC Blaw Wit, DVO Bennekom and De Meeuwen. Surprisingly players were able to recognise different style and choises. The goal of the afternoon game was preserving the ball using more long passing and prevent ball loss on short basketball like passing. Despite the roof outdoor, we were facing some short and heavy showers and thunder, limiting the match on two division but perfectly giving half of the players some resting time. More focussing on quality shots and a lower pace of the ball. We were happy to see the blue team defeating the red team by one point. Although the last shot near the red korf was temting to go in, we missed our second overtime and the players could follow their captain on their cooling down. This time with a shooting competition where the Philippine girls defeated their male counterparts!!!

Tired but with a good laugh at the end the players finished their second day of training. We know we would prefer to take the last 4-5 days prior to the tournament in a resting phase, but the presence of the staff, some additional assessments and the overwhealming enthousiasm of the players makes it a very nice oportunity to stay active for another two days before we leave to the tournament on Friday.

Kami ay nasasabik; hindi namin mahintay.