Taekwondo at SCOOP and Nat?l Softball Open
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 01 May 2010
Adjusting to new rules in fighting is what the Philippine taekwondo team is concentrating in its preparations for the coming Asian championship late this month and the and Asian Games in November.
Precision and accuracy in delivering blows and kicks, for instance, rather than power, are the order of the day in the Filipino jins three-hour a day training, especially when the Asian championship is just around the corner on May 20-23 in Astana, Kazakhstan.
Reason for the change in tactics cropped up after the implementation on the use body electronic armours, a new scoring device which will only register points in the score board if hit squarely by sensors attached on the jins? socks.
?We are now focusing on mastering the athletes? head kicks because it would be an easier chance for us to score points,? RP team assistant coach Dax Morfe said yesterday at the SCOOP sa Kamayan Forum in Padre Faura.
It would be the second time that an electronic armor will be used in the Asian Championships, and the first time that it will be introduced in the Asian Games slated Nov. 12-27 in Guangzhou, China
Morfe said head gears will not have sensors and head blows will be scored manually by judges.
?Three points will be given to head blows, two points for a turning kick to the body and one point for a simple body kick. So if our athletes will have that advantage on getting points through head kicks, we?ll have a good chance of winning.?
Athletes like welterweight Marlon Avenido, Nicole Mapilisan (fly), Camille Manalo (light) and Karla Alava (bantam), who joined Morfe in the weekly session, admitted it was hard to adjust with the new technique since the team did not have the said equipment for training, but they soon get used to the hard training.
?Mahirap sa umpisa, pero kailangan mas masanay na kami sa bagong techniques dahil feeling namin mas mahigpit na ang labanan,? said the 17-year-old Mapilisan, a University of Santo Tomas student.
The four athletes are part of the 12-man squad that will compete in the Asian Championships, where it will serve as one of the venues for the selection of their athletes going to the Asian Games. Also competing are Japoy Lizardo (fin), Jeffrey Figueroa (bantam), Alex Briones (heavy) and Butch Morrison (feather) for the men?s squad, and Jyra Lizardo (fly), Olympian Toni Rivero (welter), Elaine Alora (middle) and Michelle Monterey (welter).
The coaching staff decided not to enter veteran Tshomlee Go to ?surprise their opponents? since the two-time Olympian can either play in the featherweight or the bantamweight depending on the gold medal chances.
The team is slated to leave on May 16, to give time to acclimatize to the cold weather conditions, which could affect their performances.
?Weather in Kazakhstan is expected to hit around negative 10 degrees Celsius. We?re training in the summer heat, where temperature reaches to 37 degrees, so it?s going to be a big adjustment to the weather conditions,? Morfe said.
The team already put its preparations from twice a day to three times a day in time of the Asian Championships, while the team eyes a three-week training stint in South Korea in July.
RP Open softball tourney on today in Baguio
BAGUIO CITY ? Defending men?s champion Philippine Air Force opens defense of its Cebuana Lhuillier National Open Softball Championships when it raises its curtains today with a heavy 10-game schedule in two separate venues here.
The Airmen, who are actually seeking a third straight Crown Jewel test the mettle of BMRP-Benguet in the 9:30 a.m. second game of a five-game bill in the men?s side of competitions heavily favored to set in place its title campaign at the Baguio Athletic Bowl.
Last year?s runner up Rizal Technological University starts proving its title victory in the recent Pilipinas Softball first conference is no fluke, tangle with RnR of Benguet in the opening action at 8 o?clock.
Rounding out the inaugural day?s hostilities are the encounter between MS-Marikina and La Trinidad Valley at 1 p.m, Dasmarinas of Cavite against host Baguio City at 2:30 and Cavite Province-Philippine Navy combine against S. Louis University at 4 o?clock.
In the women?s play over at the nearby Melvin Jones Park, 2009 losing finalist Adamson University, the top favorite in the absence of last year?s winner Pampanga Legends, takes on dangerous Rizal Province at 8 o?clock, while the Mama Sita?s-University of the Philippines combine tangles with the Besao-Benguet Selection at 9:30.
Other opening day games pit Bulacan State University against RTU at 11 a.m., University of Cordillera against Polytechnic University of the Philippines at 1 p.m. and Adamson versus Bulacan State U at 4:30.
The 12 teams in the men?s division play were bracketed into two groups with RTU heading the Division A campaigners that also include MS-Marikina, Dasmarinas of Cavite, Baguio City, La Trinidad and RnR of Benguet.
PAF, Cavite-Navy, Bulacan State U, St. Lois BMRP-Benguet and the Philippine Blu Girls fall under Division B.
The Blu Girls, who are carrying the Cebuana Lhuillier banner, are playing in the men?s category to hone their skills in the absence of international exposure.
Bracketing in the women?s side will see Adamson campaigning in division A along with Mama Sita?s-UP, University of Cordillera, PUP, Besao-Benguet and Rizal Province with Adamson-Cavite, UAAP champion University of Santo Tomas, RTU, Bulacan State U and Kabenguetan of Benguet playing in Division B
A brief and simple opening rites to be jointly presided over by Baguio City Mayor Rey Bautista and Amateur Softball Association-Philippines president Jean Henri Lhuillier will be held at 7 a.m. at the Melvin Park. Also gracing the opening rites are ASA-Phil secretary general Danmny Francisco and board members Randy Dizer and Ato Rivera.
In the interest of balanced competition, members of the national men?s and women?s teams have been distributed to several competing teams with RTU getting Blu Boys Leo Barredo, Jerome Bacarisas, Apol Rosales and Oscar Bradshaw and MS-Marikina reinforced by Emerson Atilano, Marlon Pagkaliwagan, Darius Bacarisas and Mrk Rae Ramirez.
Air Force has Blu Boys Anthony Santos, Isidro Abello and Roger Rozxas in its lineup, Cavite-Navy got Jasper Cabrera, Orlando Binarao, Ben Maravilles and Vic Enriquez.
Blu Girls Dione Macasu and Joy Lasquete will beef up Mama Sita?s-UP. Adamson had the privileged of tapping Chequa Valenzuela, Sarah Agravante and Jocel Aguilar, while Esme Tayag, Gina Salvador and Jeanette Balite found themselves playing for UST.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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