SPECIAL OLYMPIC FLOORBALL

In today’s blogpost, we are privileged to feature Peili, coach of our very own Special Olympic Floorball Team.

The Special Olympic Floorball Team was formed when the Special Olympics Singapore decided to cease the Floor Hockey program. The team consists of players from the Floor Hockey outreach program, players from Special Needs schools like Grace Orchard and Delta Senior School. This Floorball outreach program started weekly since December 2016 after the decision that floorball will be making their debut in the Special Olympic World Winter Games 2017.

Coach Peili started coaching the Special Olympic Floorball team when the Special Olympics were looking for volunteers and sparring partners, and it all started when her team mates signed her up as one of the volunteers. She took a short break from her coaching due to clashes with her club trainings days, but it did not take her long to re-join the team. With prior experience in floorball coaching and teaching in a Special needs school, she started coaching the athletes.

We also asked Coach Peili on the team’s preparation for the Special Olympics World Winter Games 2017 (SOWWG). She said that the time given was short to prepare for the SOWWG, “We had 6 months to prepare the team from the start of the first official training till the competition but thankfully, the players are committed to training and we had the courts available so disruption to the trainings are minimal.” Some of her team mates also signed up as volunteers and helped out at the training sessions.

Even though the team only had 6 months to prepare for the SOWWG they managed to bring home a silver medal. Coach Peili mentioned that the improvements from the players were tremendous taking into account that none of the players have had any experience in playing at a major competition such as SOWWG.

Coach Peili also shared with us that there isn’t much difference coaching this team or any other team. The only difference is that it takes this team a longer time to fully understand a drill or tactics. She believes in tweaking the coaching method so as to simplify it for them, nothing is impossible in coaching. She is also thankful that the athletes were all committed, hardworking and willing to learn.

Something we can learn from the athletes is their determination and tenacity. “During the divisioning games, the team lost quite badly in a match against their opponents and didn't really perform well in that particular game. Most players do not have much experience playing competitive games and the coaches were afraid that the game would affect their mind set badly. However, the team was able to pick themselves up right after the game and began to make adjustments to play a better game after” said Coach Peili. The players also showed their spirit of determination by the high level of commitment they made to the team. A lot of the players have their own full time job, they have to shift their work schedule just to make sure they are able to attend training.

One main take away for Coach Peili is the coaching experience she gained as she journeyed through the trainings and games with the team. She also share with us “I learned to be more patient and also the adjustments that I have to make to trainings and drills to make some of the concepts more understandable for the athletes.” And one of her goals is to see more special needs athletes in the local floorball fraternity and taking up the coaching position.