3rd season with VJnet: A Division 2014

May 05, 2014

I always blog about my climbing achievements but I think this "achievement" is worth documenting and thinking about. I've been coaching A Div netball for the 3rd year in a row. I havent been able to produce results and it is a frustrating yet growing process. When you put your heart and time into something like this, it can be demoralising and yet uplifting in different situations, depending on how the wind blows. Unlike climbing, I am no longer involved in netball anymore, and all my teachings stem from my brief 10 years of playing experience. I have since improved on drills and taught up of ways to teach certain concepts, thanks to my PESS experiences. Sometimes I really hope we get a coach instead, because I cannot bear to spoil the "JC experience" of the girls I coach, by not being able to bring them into the next round time and time again, despite our hard efforts. But that story, is for another day.

Training for the 2014 season started really early this time around. We began coming together for training as early as September. And if you count the number of months, you can say that we have trained for 8 out of 12 months in a year, with the intensity and quantity amounting to almost 12 hours a week.


This season, I focused on different things. Mainly more court play, and lesser on basics. More on fitness and movement as well. We had a good pool of talented girls this year. The number of year 1s, thanks to the remaining IPs made up most of the team.

Celebrating birthdays with VJNB
We had a good bout of training and schedule going, with improved drills and I managed to work on some concepts this time around. However, training for 8 months for just 2 weeks (or even lesser!) of competition does cause burnout, needless to say. So, for one of their holiday trainings, I brought them to sentosa to do some sand and resistance work on the beach! It worked towards team work, as well as pushed them to dig deep and run a little harder! Would consider doing this again next year!

Drama queens
I had the help of some of my ex-VJNB girls coming down as well. Without them, we would not have enough players to play the game and to work on concepts and game play. Really appreciate the time these girls sacrifice for their juniors. Hope to build more girls of this positive character and belongingness to vjnb! :)

With the senior girls
Some may say that it is enough, some may argue on the quality and effects of training on the girls. But somehow, this still wasn't enough to get us onto the next step.

Our draw this year was together with HCI once again. With arch nemesis SRJC and NJC on the groupings as well. It is with unfortunate circumstances that we had to battle against SRJC for the first game, the team who killed us last year, but also the team we knew were of equal strength as us. It was truly a mentally and physically daunting task. We had back to back 3 games every alternate days, and I was worried that the girls would not recover in time. Prepared an ice bath for them after SRJC's game as we would definitely be playing hard for this first game.

We lost eventually, 37-47, just 10 goals short, given that we were leading 12-10 and then tied at 21-21 for the first two quarters. It was disappointing surely, but perhaps not as much as the previous year as we fought as hard as we could. With this loss, we had a tough fight against HCI next. We lost to HCI 11-66, a score difference that bested last year and eventually SRJC against HCI. It spoke alot to the girls, who's motivation ran low initially, but picked up again for our last match against NJC. we won 56-14, an even bigger score difference as compared to SRJC. Statistics can really speak alot, as it tells of how a team plays, the mood, the flow and the overall performance, quarter by quarter.

While we may be out of the round once again, I believe we can only go higher from here. It's time to lift our heads up and high, grit out teeth and train even harder. This season has opened my eyes to even more factors and contributing skills and concepts that needs to be worked on at this A Division level. We may have had strong players, but we needed more confidence, more fitness, better passes and awareness of the game (important!) in order to take control like how the other seeded schools have done for the past few decades. It is indeed a pity to see such a hardworking team be let off from the season so early. I hope that this will not cause anyone to give up hope or mindset towards training hard further. 

Team photo! With Ms Lim as well, who has helped us along the way so many times!

VJ boleh!
Our fixtures for 2014
Training a team is a more daunting task than individual athletes. Theres always a need to look ahead, pre-ampt possible team combinations and how the game strategy will work out with different players. Skills and techniques are not much of focus, but essential. I believe it is just a balance between these. And it is the balance that proves the hardest.


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Climbing is a way of life. It has become something that I truly seek after constantly. It has brought me to places with walls as high as the sky and ridges beyond my reach. It has made me love the outdoors, showed me the canvas of a night sky full of stars, and made my feet walk across nations.

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