Soccer `~

Saturday, October 11, 2008
12:41 AM

Today was a bright and very very very sunny day.
And at 4:30pm today, we kicked balls.
I started earlier, at 3:30pm because of keeper's training.
Everyone stretched, everyone kicked, everyone cramped.

So to put it this way, training today was more of physical, running, and yes, brushing up on our footwork skills.
We started out with everyone standing in a straight row, and another person will go down the row, doing passes, volley, heading, trapping etc.
Coach was all geared up, as usual.
And it didn't help much under the sweltering heat, but everyone persevered.
We sweated, salivated, got dehydrated and yet, we survived the ordeal.

And Chai was there!
Thank you for coming, Chai!
Our seniors have all disappeared for the A Levels and we really miss them.
You know, having to look at Xian Wen all the time, it gets boring. (U'oh)

I learnt ball handling during keeper's training today.
My ball handling skills are still not up to standard, but I shall work hard.
And like Sze Ting said, I have the potential to be a Number 1.1 Keeper, because Yiting is our Number 1!
(:

Coach says that he has a new job at a HDB place, as a legal loanshark who calls people up to settle flat debts.
He says that he work with many aunties.
May he hook up with an aunty and live happily ever after.
We shall all wish for his happiness.

After the footwork drill, we drank water.
And then the real fun comes in.

Coach created 3 stations:
1) Dribbling 6 balls within a distance under 40 secs.
2) Continuous shooting of 8 balls into a small corner of the goalpost.
3) Continuous running and touching of many many discs for about 2 mins plus.

One station took us about 5 minutes, or maybe more than that.
The dribbling was quite butt- cramping.
I don't know about the running and touching discs, but it looked like a major killer.
The continuous shooting was fun, but very challenging because you have to drag the ball straight in between your legs, face your target properly, position your leg well, thighs lifted, lean back, and KICK!

YEARRRGHHH!

There was a touch rugby match just now and we cheered loudly when our rugby team scored.
Let's all hope that we'll have such avid fans supporting us for our match too!

Soon, it was nightfall, so we packed all the equipments and went up to the grandstand for some light exercises.
We did about 60 times bending of both right/left leg, 50 push ups, squats and about 100 cruches/vampire thingy.
Coach started talking gibberish, which was not surprising of course.
Something about Jia En and watermelon and Jam and her Indian issues.

Then we had a de-briefing.
Coach gave a talk about practically everything, and truthfully, it was very uplifting and motivating, and personally, I feel that it boosts my morale.
I think Coach is putting in so much effort, and we should too, because as a team, we support our team mates, don't we?
And yes, it's good that Coach pointed out the roles we play in the team, like how our Captain is working very hard for the whole lot of us.

A very big thank you to Sze Ting, and from now onwards, we shall all work together to help her.
Sze Ting, don't be afraid to nag/scream/scold us, okay.
At most we'll just give you hate tags in this blog.
Just joking, la (:

I am very happy today, because I think that some people have started to slowly open themselves up, warming to us.
Thank you Candice, I really appreciate your offer to help keep the equipments just now.
It was very helpful of you, and we hope to hear more of that sweet voice of yours often, okay?

Basically, everyone did well today.
And I am very, very proud of my dearly loved team mates.
Like Coach said, these are just the "Appetizers", therefore, no matter what, let's just focus, look ahead and anticipate what's to come.

Training officially ended with Coach's famous "Adios, Amigos!" farewell bid.
And Sze Ting suddenly became pervetic and started to carry Sharron.
I didn't know Hamsters can fly.

Thank you everyone, for helping Jing Wen and I to keep the balls, and yes, I almost fell into the bag when I tried to reach out for the balls that were at the bottom.
):
It felt scary.

So YUPPS, we SHOWERED, I didn't. And we left afterwards.

And basically, here's my post for tonight, to sum up today's training.
I apologize for being very long winded!
And yessaa! Let's all look forward to the next training's post (:

"Failure happens all the time. It happens every day in practice. What makes you better is how you react to it."
- Mia Hamm (American female soccer player)

Rest well, sweethearts, and drink salt water.
Stretch!

And Iezah signs off here (:

WE love soccer