Training: Between Balls and Blades

Spot who doesn't fit in. Number 9 of the club, Mekananth, was welcomed back, apparently unaware of the club's new ruling. Grace was given, however --no 20 push-ups for Happylegs.

Attendance vastly improved by 100% from seven to fifteen, including Coach Jason above, who, having seen the recent post, actually posed for the camera (and blaming the unfortunate photographer for 'taking too long'). Notice the ball...

Training started off with the players pairing up and running forward and backwards facing each other, up and down the court. This was to train the player's running, though poor Roselyn was suffering going backwards as fast as possible due to Pei Li's longer stride.

The players then did a drill they did two weeks before: run up, receive and pass back, run to the centre and shoot. The pace was slow at first with balls being misplaced and passes all over the place so Coach Jason called the players together....and demonstrated how to do the drill again, placing importance on always holding the stick with two hands (something Kuan Yang also demonstrated but in a more stylish way below).

So the players started again, and it went better, Coach Jason even joining in the fun and getting a goal.

The seniors and juniors then split again, this time however, with Coach Jason taking the juniors. The seniors were made to do passes mainly -- Cpass, line pass and star pass; with some competitive edge to it. The first team to reach 30 passes for each player would win. It would, of course, often get frustrating, as when a player had nearly reached the target but the ball would suddenly skip off course.

The juniors did a pass-run-pass-shoot exercise and also star passing.

Now to the fun part. The ball that Coach Jason was part of another awesome drill. Sort of a captain ball-floorball fusion, the Juniors would be the captain ball attackers and the Seniors, the floorball defenders. This was to train the players' positioning in offence and defence, where to run and what to do.

It was interesting at first, with Megan nearly breaking his stick trying to stop the ball (the sticks weren't supposed to be used-- the defenders were only supposed to track the opponents) and the Juniors having to pump 20 everytime the ball was judged too high, for lobbing the ball high overhead was not allowed.

The teams then switched: Seniors and attackers and Juniors, defenders. The Seniors considerably had more fun, though Megan, in all excitement, threw the ball high and cost the whole team 20 push-ups.

Coach Jason was left bemused at why Pei Li knew where to run in this drill but not in floorball.

Game time, a 5v5. The battle was mostly in the middle, with no goals scored either side. Coach Jason and Kuan Yang bossed the field with their dribbling skills, but Kenny, with no Nicholas or any of his Gang of Four around, was a little lost.

Mikey did well, learning from the captain ball drill, intercepting several passes.

The match ended, and Roselyn was left to rue the super sweat-absorbing PFA floorball shirt.