Frontliner(ess) outnumbering Frontliners.

Happy Chinese New Year to all floorballers in the globe. Due to interference by the CNY holidays, the management has been busy, thus our postings have been postponed to this week.

Anyway, last week during the CNY eve, we conducted a heterogeneous mini-training session incorporating both the boys and girls together. We were supposed to cancel training but due to popular demand(by many players), the management had been persuaded to carry on the training.


We finally had a record of 16 people on the training. Based on the photo above you can see that the population of the "Frontliner(ess)"(for female) have outnumbered the "Frontliners"(for male) . With a ratio of 2:1, there were 10 girls and 3 boys plus 3 guests from other clubs joining us that week. The Malaysian National Goalkeeper, Kao Lin Ken whom was our guest of honor was impressed. Lin Ken wondered,"How did you all(referring to Frontliners floorball club) manage to get so many girls to come for training?".


Frontliners were privileged to have the experienced goalkeeper, Kao Lin Ken to visit us. No doubt that this man speaks and eat floorball. After coming back for CNY reunion, he decided to join us for training.

Lin Ken said"Can I join you all for training? I need to do something with my floorball training. Haven't been training for some time". It was a win-win situation for both the club and Lin Ken.

"It is a good experience for Frontliners to have the flamboyant goalkeeper as our guest. The players finally got a chance to see a goalkeeper after we've started training this year. We are now having problems looking for a goalkeeper. I believe all clubs are facing that too. Lin Ken's dynamic movement on the goalpost makes goalkeeping looks so simple yet elegant. His charismatic presence will make a way for us to inspire and challenge the young ones to pick up goalkeeping. We also love his ethics on the court. He is always giving his best in training. We want to thank him for setting an example for all of us to follow." says coach Jason.

There was other reasons for Frontliners to celebrate that day. The club has expanded with 4 newbies, Jasmeeta, Anis and Jasly(photo right) and Sarah Aida. Asked how they felt, Jasmeeta said "Floorball is fun." Jasly said "I used to play floorball last time. Now I want to pick it up again."

With the arrival of these newbies, Frontliners can now think of sending more girls into the Youthwave tournaments soon. The club already has big plans for the girls.




One of our young player, Pei Li(picture left) has finally returned to training after having some minor injury on her knee. The doctor has pronounce it safe for her to resume training.

"That is another boost for the girls team. She is progressing well. With her athletic abilities and natural aggression on the courts, the Frontliners girls will have additional horsepower on the flanks. We are looking to develop her as the next transport system for the team. We will see how it goes." Said coach Jason.



May the girls start to rise up as a floorball force to be reckoned in the island. Perhaps we will be able to see a Jill Quek(Singaporean Woman Floorball Star) in Penang one day?

Bersatu kita teguh, bercerai kita roboh !!!

Chinese New Year is near. Not surprising the attendance is also very low. This week we have 5 boys attending the training. The boys training has always been physically more demanding. We did a lot of physical conditioning this week as there was not many people around. Amongst the things that was done includes Sit Ups, Burpees, Push Ups and even the 5 sets of continuous suicides.

The boys then proceeded the same thing as the girls, a special dedication towards ball control. Coach Jason suddenly had a stomach attack. It was later diagnosed that it was due to his lack of sleep and pushing too much without breakfast. Kuan Yang came to the rescue and took over the training temporarily while waiting for Jason to recover. The boys proceeded with the initial training plans.

Asked on what he thinks about the boys, Kuan Yang comments "San Jeevan's ball is the hardest to steal because he shields the ball well. But he is a little bit stiff. Daniel is natural with shielding the ball, only thing is he's got to work with his ball controls. As for the other 2 Kannan and Ilaya, they've got to learn to the proper posture and work on their ball controls."

After resting for a while, Jason recovered and joined the boys for a game of floorball. "I like the spirit here. Someone came and pray for me as my stomach was aching."says Jason.

The boys were reminded of keeping the team spirit tight. They were also reminded of the quote by Phil Jackson," Strength of the team is the Individual. Strength of the Individual is the team".

Coach Jason stressed " The team is always bigger than the individual. If your personal agenda is more important than the team. Then get lost. I don't want you in the team. I can afford to lose a player, but I'll die if I lose the team." Team spirit was high.

The players were also requested not to ever speak foreign language which is not common to everyone. This includes Tamil and Hokkien. English and Bahasa Melayu is the only language permitted. "I'm not being racist here, but if we don't understand what each other is speaking, how can we be united? its like chicken and duck talking" says coach Jason.

Being a Frontliner is always about being united. Very often teams experience self destruction due to lack of unity and team spirit. Coach Jason is aware of it. And he's doing his best to counter it. Up till now, the players are very united and committed. Hopefully the team will grow and be ready for the challenges ahead.

Control the key to possession.

The girls attendance were higher than last week with 4 floorballers this week. It is encouraging to see 2 new "old" faces appearing this week. We want to welcome Miss Alice (picture top right, the one with white and blue t-shirt) and Miss Sarah Ng to our team again. Miss Alice seems to be caught with some injury due to a recent accident. But that did not stop her from picking up her floorball career once again. She's back in action.

The team advances with a focus on ball controls.

"You control the ball, You control the opponent. You control the opponent, You control the game. You control the game, You are on the way to victory" quotes coach Jason.

The girls did their basic ball control. They were taught on the 3 different levels of ball control, the basic(on ground), off the ground and were exposed to the "Indian" dribble technique.

Coach Jason comments,"Most of them are quite fresh on ball controls. You can't expect much from them as this is their first time being exposed to it. Don't forget that they aren't seasoned players. As for Sarah, not surprising that she can do it competently being the most experienced player around having played in international tournaments. I'll have to give the girls credit for their enthusiasm in training. Its really encouraging to see them that way."

The training progressed from the introduction, to playing in circle and later progressed to the "Big Bad Wolf" drill. They seem to be having fun when the wolf appears. Some loss possession of the ball when the wolf got aggressive.

The girls were later exposed briefly on sports psychology. They were given a short lecture on the "4 levels of competence" in skills acquisition.

Overall, the girls are progressing well, keeping in mind that the YouthWave tournament is around the corner. May the girls get better to challenge the other teams around in Penang soon.

RED ALERT !!!

The training on the 3rd of February was the first ever time our most experienced player, Kuan Yang (pic) took charge as the caretaker coach of that week as coach Jason is on leave.

Unfortunately, as enthusiastic as he can be, the attendance was the lowest of all throughout the year. Only 2 girls(Nadia and Roselyn) and 4 boys(Kai Tarng, Kai Yann, San Jeevan, Kannan) attended the training. The blame for the low attendance is the Thaipusam celebration and replacement for chinese new year holidays in schools.

Low attendance however did not stop this man from advancing the team's progress. Due to the small number of people, Kuan Yang changed the training plan to suit the player's needs. The girls were able to receive personal attention from him. Mr Kenny Khoo dropped by and helped him out as well.

As for the boys, Kuan Yang went on to teach them on how to do a proper blocking in defensive position. "The 2 brothers seems to catch it well. But the other 2 seem to be afraid of the ball" says Kuan Yang.

Asked on whether the caretaker was proficient in his job, San Jeevan comments " Kuan Yang is very serious in teaching us. He is very good lah. But the training is quite scary. I'm afraid of the ball". Kai Yann says "The training is good. I learned how to block a shot today".

Looks like Kuan Yang passed the test of being a coach. Perhaps he will be taking up more prominent roles in the future? Only he knows the answer.