Boo Hui Min and Karen Tham, both members of the Touch Football Singapore Coaching Panel and Women’s Open team, have just returned from a very intense 3 days with the Australian National Training Squads - Men’s, Mixed, Women’s, and Referees.
It was a very excited but extremely nervous pair of Touch Players who landed in Sydney on Thursday evening. After booking into our accommodation (check with Karen for her "glowing" recommendation) , the girls needed food, so Sydney was the place to go. After a leisurely dinner and a walk under the "Bridge" and around the Sydney Opera House, it was back to the accommodation to discuss the expectations of the Friday session with the Australian Mixed Open Squad.
The girls were unsure of how they would be accepted by the players and coaching staff. Arriving at the Randwick Labour Club for the DVD / whiteboard session the girls were met Ryan Pollock and Christian Frost (part of the players leadership group within the Mixed) and were made to feel welcome immediately. As the balance of the players arrived, along with Coach Bernie Morrison and captain Tony El Tachi the girls were impressed how readily the group accepted them into what was for the players a very intense session on technique and skill
The first session for the Mixed involved a very detailed analysis of the physical technique used in the International game, both from an attacking and a defensive perspective. This was supported by photos and DVD footage of past International games. Boo and Karen were impressed with the depth of research and preparation on the techniques needed to compete at the International level along with a detailed analysis of particular players abilities.
The second session, at the fields after lunch, started with the Mixed team skills warm-up and then into a practical session of Line Defence practice. The girls were able to complete the warm-up drills at a very acceptable level, but then became spectators as the squad was put through its paces on defence. The players and coaches made themselves available for questions and discussions on all aspects of what they were doing and why. Tony El Tachi gave both girls a very detailed skills session, applicable both as a player and a coach.
From this session we travelled to Tempe (via a taxi "uncle" who came from Boo's home town) to watch the Vawdon Cup games. It was fantastic to arrive at a night venue and see a number of games of Touch in action. The only drawback to the high quality games on offer was the temperature - FREEZING!!! If it wasn’t for Boo's heat pads we would have frozen to death - memo for Scotland - thicker, warmer clothes!!
After the last game ended at 10.00pm we headed 2 hours north to the Sydney Sports Centre at Narrabeen and the cabins that would be our home for the next 2 days. It certainly didn’t get any warmer!
After breakfast on Saturday the girls joined the Women’s Open Squad for training. The squad opened their training with a fitness / agility session. Both Boo and Karen performed reasonably well with all aspects of the training drills - Boo was struggling a little with a minor hamstring problem while Karen showed she was one of the quickest in group over the 40 metres.
Kelly Woods (aka Wood Duck) took the girls under her wing and made them feel welcome, as did all the squad.
After the agility / fitness session the squad started on their game skill preparation running training grids and then leading into running set sub-unit and team plays - again the Aussie girls were only too happy to have Boo and Karen take part in all their plays.
After lunch we spent the afternoon session watching the Men’s team run their skill drills and move onto their Line Defence.
During the afternoon and evening spent a lot of time discussing programs with Cathy Gray, Australia's Elite Programs Director, Wayne Grant Australia's high Performance Manager, Tara Steel TFA Technical Manager, along with coaches Kerry Norman (Women’s Open) and Bernie Morrison (Mixed Open), and leading players Jason Stanton and Tony El Tachi.
Sunday morning saw another long car ride to the western suburbs for the Men’s Open training session. During the session the girls had individualised coaching from Kerry Norman, Wayne Grant, and Jason Stanton demonstrating coaching techniques for teaching the basics of the Sport to both beginners and elite players.
At the end of the morning session, we were headed back to Sydney airport with Boo driving and sharing the van with the New Zealand referee contingent and Kerry and Ray Grieshaber. After the trip Kerry was convinced she wouldn’t drive in Singapore. (I have no idea why Boo?)
All in all the trip was fantastic not only from the amount of information the girls collected, but also the fact they had found they could train with these elite players and at least hold their own.
The welcome and camaraderie shown by everyone the girls came into contact with was fantastic, and a special thanks needs to be extended to a number of people but especially Wayne Grant and Tara Steel for allowing us to attend and for their support over the 3 days.
A special thanks to Christian frost, Ryan Pollock, Bernie Morrison, Tony El Tachi, Kelly Woods, Kerry Norman, Jason Stanton, and simply everybody who made the Singapore girls welcome.
Website Editor