I have so much to say that I'm afraid I'd forget about it if I leave it till tomorrow! So, here are my thoughts..

1st - I think Mr Bok is right in asking us what we want from joining this club.. Everyone has their own reasons for joining this team - that is an undeniable fact. For some people, like me, we are not able to say why we want to join the team, we just want to! I want to believe that there is this underlying love for the game that keeps us coming back, although alot of people come and go, we are the ones who are still here. That is what is important! We are very much alike - more alike than you would believe! We should be working closely together with one another to bring out the TEAM factor in netball. Right now, we may all be talented players, but we are not playing as a team - this could explain why we were not able to perform just now! It is not that we are not good. I am sure everyone has their own hidden talents, just that we are not able to bring out these talents at the moment. We have to believe that we are able to complement each other with their individual talents, and work together as ONE TEAM. Only then we can achieve performance (of course, there is FITNESS to consider as well...).

2nd - how are we going to work as ONE TEAM if all of us are going to just come for training, traing together, and then leave after that? How many sentences do we speak to one another during training? I think we should start having the practice of having a short team talk after every training - doesn't have to be long, but we should be able to get everyone's input on what they have learnt during the training. We need to reinforce what we have learnt and put it to practice. Take the posture of making a pass for example, we know that we have to change our posture when making a pass, because we have learnt that! But, what is keeping us from changing? If you really think about it, it is due to the lack of practice! Why the lack of practice? We are not internalising the thought that we have to change our posture. And why is that so? All of us simply go home after training, without thinking about what we have learnt during that session. To put it simply, we may have had a futile training session in that case. Isn't that right?
Same thing with the holding of space of the shooters. I have the same problem with WenQi (hi-five!), but we have to keep reminding ourselves to get used to the new way of changing sides when we hold our space. It is only with constant reminder that we will be able to change and improve ourselves, don't you agree? The mind is more powerful than we can imagine it to be, and we have to fully utilise that!

3rd - still something to do with communication, and working as ONE TEAM. We are too quiet on court. Is it because we are not familiar with each other and their style of play? If so, why are we not familiar? Is it because we do not talk to each other outside of training? Why do we not do that? Because we are not familiar with each other? You may realise that I'm going around in circles - I hope you realise what I'm trying to say! We are going through a vicious cycle, and if we do not break out of that, we will NEVER get to know one another better, and we will not be able to perform as ONE TEAM! Right? So, we should all make a promise to ourselves to talk to people whom we are not too familiar with in the team, so that we can understand each other better and from there, we can work together better when we are on court! Keeping quiet is not going to help the situation. We have all gone through that and we should do something to improve! If keeping quiet does not help, why not try making some effort to make some noise and try to influence one another to be more positive and alert when we are on court, so that we can help to cover each other's mistakes! That's right, I'm not saying that if we manage to work together, we will be a perfect team, DUH.. BUT, we can be a BETTER team! We can be better players and together, we can achieve what we expect to gain by coming to this club - to play netball, be it good netball or just netball. Netball is a team game, if you love the game, you have to LOVE the team!

LOVE may come as a strong word to many of us. I am not used to using the word love myself, but we need to feel more strongly about the club, be more fired up about our passion, so that we can actually take steps to improve the situation. Remember, all of us who are in the club now have a common motivation, to be a better netball player. And of course, in order to show that you are improving as a netball player, you need your team to help you shine on court. That's why we need everyone in the team to help one another to achieve each other's dream!

OK, I think the length of thoughts that go through your mind increases as your age goes up. I'm not trying to preach anything, or say that I do not have the problems which I have listed above, but.. I am aware that we have these problems and I hope that I have made you more aware of those issues as well. With awareness, we can now make a choice to either keep quiet still, and stagnate, or open yourself up and let other people gain access to YOU as a person, so that we can better understand everyone in the team, so that we can play better together as a team, so that we CAN BE SCOLDED LESS BY MR BOK AND CHUN JIE! (maybe that's the main point behind all this.. =P)

Anyway, Stella, thanks for taking so many arrows from Mr Bok. You shielded many of us! Not trying to make fun, but I seriously think that we have to open our minds in order to see what he is trying to say. I had the same problem last year and was very biased against him (sorry Mr Bok), but now, I feel that the fact that he is willing to actually point out your mistakes for you and point you in the right direction means that he still cares for you. We should thank the coaches for being willing to spend so much time on us, without expecting any compensation in return. To be fair to them, it is only right that we put in the same amount of effort as they do, if not more, and achieve the level of play that awaits us.

Once again, netball is a team sport, Stella's situation may have been caused by Santa's performance also. What happened out there? They probably haven't worked together for very long, and when they come together, there are bound to be mistakes that happen, because we are not familiar with each other's play. The more worried you are about not being able to partner well with another person, the more you will try to do to compensate for that. In this case, I think Stella's efforts were more obvious than Santa's. Not to say that you did not try, Santa. But this just means that Stella was very positive in working harder so that she can work better with Santa. Right? Not too sure if I'm saying the right things, Santa please correct me if I'm wrong! Sociology skills! =P And of course, I'm saying this because I was at the opposite end of the court, and was able to observe what went on more clearly. Anyone has anything to say about how the shooters worked together please feel free to do so! Personally, I didn't feel that I communicated with my co-shooter when I was on court. I merely assumed I knew what they were going to do and simply went ahead with what I thought was correct! Of course, that is not right, but no one is perfect, and we can try to make it right!

Both Mr. Bok & Chun Jie have more experience than many of us combined, and I think that we should humble ourselves down, open up our minds, and accept their criticism. Remember that at the end of the day, it is the passion that both parties have for the game that keep us going. Maybe like-minded people repel each other. We have more in common than you think.. Even Sharon who is so far away in New Zealand checks back to this blog regularly. Why? She still loves the game, and it will not be the same, being alone in a foreign country.. So many memories with the team, why can't we be more like her?

Not sure if you feel the way I do, but I hope that I am able to reach out to as many people as I can with this essay that I've typed. Let's all work together towards a better Extremes! So much for my two cents' worth..

Love,
-ade-

netballux10n