Training?Playing?Technique?Tactics?
This issue has been bothering my mind since the 3 on 3 tournament in the beginning of the year and now the Youthwave tournament.
Jason's guys lose in the quarters while mine lose in the semis and then in the 3rd-4th placing. The spirit is not so lacking as the boys drove themselves through out the court but the frustrating part comes when we have the ball.
The seniors have all at least 1-2 years experience in floorball and has join a handful of tournaments. Not really lacking in experience and pretty well taught in the basic although not yet fully mastered them. So, the question: Why are we struggling in tournaments??
Looking back at the winners, The champions, Torch Bearers, the only recognisable floorballer is Oliver, a long time player and the other probably Edwin who actually plays keeper. The rest are new faces to me. For Salibandy, you have Deswyn, arguable the best player in Penang if not Malaysia. The rest too are pretty new.
Looking at how Salibandy plays really amazes me, makes me so frustrated that having train the players for so long yet we are nothing compare to their team play. Man to man, i reckon our players (or at least the seniors) are definitely technically better than them(other than Deswyn of course). but we struggle when we have possession. All those hard work in training our players in ball control, shooting and passing, on the court it they turn out to be handling the ball to long; shooting all over the place and failing to find a receiver. Compare to Salibandy, it was all about movement and runs with without the ball, lacking the proper basics.
From info gathering, it is said that the Salibandiens play almost everyday on out door courts which explains thier superior attacking moves. Whereas Frontliners focus on basics basics basics in an indoor hall.
Back to the title, Train or Play? Techniques or Tactics?
Individuals win games but teams win championships. We need both. The think is which first?? Take the Salibandiens, they play and they play and they really play! On the court, with their movement, they always look threatening, and graceful. Yet, threatening but not deadly enough. Good passes are delivered but poor receiving cost a chance, Good position to shot, a bad shot and a glorious chance gone.
For ourselves, we train and train and we got better in out techniques. Through out the tournaments, the players handled themselves better and received praise from other parties. However, there is still no team play, instead there were loads of individual displays. On our day, we win but against organised teams we struggle to organise a proper attacking move. Through out the year in all those tournaments, there was rarely threatening goals with passing and movement. It is so so frustrating on the court when your players fail to get into position for dustrubutions. Direct shoot and rebound is all the team can muster as a whole. Sad.
Realising this, the focus for this years training has been change to Tactical Movement with the aim to bear fruit in next years league, Penang League 2009. 4 months into training, rate of improvement seems to be at low as the drill was kept simple to cater for our players level of understanding. However, the drills seems to have little effect as training matches still lacks cohesive attacks. To complicated the drill or length the drill was a consideration but this would undermine the growth of junior players as they still lack in basics and might cause the drill to lack flow doing it with the seniors players.
The alternative is to lengthen the time for training matches but there are always commitment issues amongst players, hence not enough players of the same level to play with and it is not viable to place the juniors and seniors. One will never gain confidences while the other will gain nothing. Commitment issue and parents comes in force again when considering to push players for state training where it can act as an extra training ground playing with better players and train harder drills.
Looking at Contact, a textbook example of slick team play. It took them almost 2 years to become League Champions. Most goals scored with 3 players in the top 5 of Point statistic. Thats a team we want to become. Yet, the question is stull not answer. Train or Play? Techniques or Tactics? I do not know. There is no right or wrong I think but the first step is always needed to keep you going. Then persevere. Be secure the master said. And we must! For now, we'll just have to think long term, get rid of frustration, keep training and training, hopefully next year will give Contact a run for their money. Till then, MORE TRAINING!!!
This issue has been bothering my mind since the 3 on 3 tournament in the beginning of the year and now the Youthwave tournament.
Jason's guys lose in the quarters while mine lose in the semis and then in the 3rd-4th placing. The spirit is not so lacking as the boys drove themselves through out the court but the frustrating part comes when we have the ball.
The seniors have all at least 1-2 years experience in floorball and has join a handful of tournaments. Not really lacking in experience and pretty well taught in the basic although not yet fully mastered them. So, the question: Why are we struggling in tournaments??
Looking back at the winners, The champions, Torch Bearers, the only recognisable floorballer is Oliver, a long time player and the other probably Edwin who actually plays keeper. The rest are new faces to me. For Salibandy, you have Deswyn, arguable the best player in Penang if not Malaysia. The rest too are pretty new.
Looking at how Salibandy plays really amazes me, makes me so frustrated that having train the players for so long yet we are nothing compare to their team play. Man to man, i reckon our players (or at least the seniors) are definitely technically better than them(other than Deswyn of course). but we struggle when we have possession. All those hard work in training our players in ball control, shooting and passing, on the court it they turn out to be handling the ball to long; shooting all over the place and failing to find a receiver. Compare to Salibandy, it was all about movement and runs with without the ball, lacking the proper basics.
From info gathering, it is said that the Salibandiens play almost everyday on out door courts which explains thier superior attacking moves. Whereas Frontliners focus on basics basics basics in an indoor hall.
Back to the title, Train or Play? Techniques or Tactics?
Individuals win games but teams win championships. We need both. The think is which first?? Take the Salibandiens, they play and they play and they really play! On the court, with their movement, they always look threatening, and graceful. Yet, threatening but not deadly enough. Good passes are delivered but poor receiving cost a chance, Good position to shot, a bad shot and a glorious chance gone.
For ourselves, we train and train and we got better in out techniques. Through out the tournaments, the players handled themselves better and received praise from other parties. However, there is still no team play, instead there were loads of individual displays. On our day, we win but against organised teams we struggle to organise a proper attacking move. Through out the year in all those tournaments, there was rarely threatening goals with passing and movement. It is so so frustrating on the court when your players fail to get into position for dustrubutions. Direct shoot and rebound is all the team can muster as a whole. Sad.
Realising this, the focus for this years training has been change to Tactical Movement with the aim to bear fruit in next years league, Penang League 2009. 4 months into training, rate of improvement seems to be at low as the drill was kept simple to cater for our players level of understanding. However, the drills seems to have little effect as training matches still lacks cohesive attacks. To complicated the drill or length the drill was a consideration but this would undermine the growth of junior players as they still lack in basics and might cause the drill to lack flow doing it with the seniors players.
The alternative is to lengthen the time for training matches but there are always commitment issues amongst players, hence not enough players of the same level to play with and it is not viable to place the juniors and seniors. One will never gain confidences while the other will gain nothing. Commitment issue and parents comes in force again when considering to push players for state training where it can act as an extra training ground playing with better players and train harder drills.
Looking at Contact, a textbook example of slick team play. It took them almost 2 years to become League Champions. Most goals scored with 3 players in the top 5 of Point statistic. Thats a team we want to become. Yet, the question is stull not answer. Train or Play? Techniques or Tactics? I do not know. There is no right or wrong I think but the first step is always needed to keep you going. Then persevere. Be secure the master said. And we must! For now, we'll just have to think long term, get rid of frustration, keep training and training, hopefully next year will give Contact a run for their money. Till then, MORE TRAINING!!!
