BACKGROUND
Hello to all you coaches out there. We (Jenny, Allan, Karl and Chau) would like to share with you our experiences on tour with the Australian Junior Women’s Team at the Asian Junior Women’s Volleyball Championships here in Taipei.
This is the third, and final year of the 90 Junior Women’s Program. Over the past three years there have been two Trans Tasman series, one Asian Youth Champs, one Arafura Games and 6 training camps all up. Prior to this tour 33 athletes represented Australia as part of this age group.
Here in Taipei there are three surviving members from the first Trans Tasman (Katie, Loren and Jo), and three from the Asian Youth Champs (Taylor, Beth and Rowdy), two from the Arafura Games (Katarina and Karley) and two from the last Trans Tasman series (Kirsten and Kat). Taliqua and Xanthe will be playing their first international matches here in Taipei.
It has been very important for this program to be able to continue to develop emerging talent through the use of multiple international opportunities.
So here we are with 12 of the finest junior women in Australia about to be put to the test against their Asian peers.
OUR STYLE OF PLAY
Our game has continued to evolve as the athletes develop in strength and ball control. We are now playing a style of game that puts the ball back on the opposition as quickly as possible so that we are able to disrupt their system of attack, and also allow us to use our strength; blocking. We rely on a power game played very high above the net. The skills of the athletes allows us to multi task, providing us with greater flexibility with regards to positional play and hitting options.
WHAT WE EXPECT TO MEET
Given our experiences at Asian youth last year we are expecting to play against teams that are well drilled defensively, disciplined, with very few unforced errors, who play a very fast attack. The serving will be fast flat and floating and the blockers will be very intuitive (what looked like a seam one second, disappears the next). But not unbeatable.
WE ARE HAPPY TO HEAR FROM PEOPLE WITH COMMENTS, AND TO ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS YOU MIGHT HAVE ABOUT THE PROGRAM, THE TEAM AND THE TOURNAMENT.
Hi Jenny,
Great to see the Girls have been very competitive so far in the tournament, I have no doubt they will continue to improve as the week progresses.
Do you have any stats from the girls games with regards to our kill and error percentages?
How are we comparing to the other teams in Attack and Block stats?
Have the girls adapted to blocking their fast Asian opponents? – I imagine we must be scaring a few teams with the size of our girls. The Taliqua, Loren, Karlie front row looked particularly menacing in the photos. Cant wait to see some of the match videos. Any chance of posting some plays on U-tube?
Oh and I didnt know we were also taking on the international teams in Krump dancing, but Kat looked like she was giving them a show they will find hard to forget for some time.
Keep up the good works Guys.
Go Aussies.
Dan