MGCNL's volleyball team starts training face-to-face as the school looks to bring back its pre-pandemic prowess.
Training every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, the team continues to be led by Coach Thelma Rojas and team captains Jamina See and Peach Diño. In addition, joining the team this year are Coach Rodd Rojas and thirty-five other players.
Advantages
“We were able to physically practice in a court which allowed us to work on our strength, stamina, teamwork, and ‘gulang’, as Coach says, which we are not able to do during online training,” says the team captain See.
While virtual training was convenient for most, the players weren’t able to work on their skills and communication fully. Since volleyball is a team sport, communication with one’s teammates is crucial to succeeding on the court.
During face-to-face training Coach Thelma always tells the team, “Do your part on the court.”
Besides working on skills and communication, the coaches are able to handle the team better since explaining activities are clearer and mistakes are corrected faster.
“It’s easy to execute and teach activities and coaches can personally orient drills,” says Coach Thelma.
Challenges
After the two-year gap of in-person training, the team was bound to face challenges such as following health protocols.
“The health protocols are probably the hardest to comply with, especially having to wear a mask,” says See.
Coach Thelma also agrees that training with a mask is difficult for the athletes since it may compromise their stamina during training drills.
Furthermore, the players have to adjust to investing more time and effort during training sessions. Since the team trains after classes, training becomes more draining, not to mention having to travel home.
See says, “We have to put in more work to train in comparison to online training. Face-to-face classes can be tiring which is why in-person training could feel more tedious than online.”
Training Program
With the adjustment, Coach Thelma had to strategize on how the court will be used. Since there is limited space for the players, senior high school players along with some high school athletes train separately from the others.
The younger batch starts with using the court for stretching, drills, and ball handling while the second batch works on their warm-up and physical fitness training. Afterward, the older batch uses the court while the younger players finish their physical fitness and get dismissed.
Due to the lack of space, the older batch stays longer during weekdays to be able to work on their plays and communication on the court.
Goals
The decline of the pandemic not only presented the opportunity for face-to-face training but also joining tournaments. Coach Thelma hopes to participate in at least five tournaments this school year. However, no specific competitions are planned at the moment.
“I plan to have rigid programs to make up for the time missed during the pandemic,” says Coach Thelma.
While the team waits for possible tournaments, Coach Thelma plans to prepare well and continue to work on producing a competitive team.
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