Asia warm-up tour for Indonesian SEAG basketball teams

Asia warm-up tour for Indonesian SEAG basketball teams

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian men's and women's basketball teams
will leave for a series of overseas tryouts in China, Hong Kong
and the Philippines to warm up prior to the Southeast Asian (SEA)
Games in Kuala Lumpur in September.

Women's team coach Wang Chang-yu of China said on Monday that
the 14-strong team would warm up in China between Tuesday and
Sunday. They would also play friendly matches with Hong Kong from
July 31 to Aug. 4.

Meanwhile, men's team coach Tjetjep Firmansyah said his team
would have an overseas stint in the Philippines from July 28 to
Aug. 4 and would compete in the Fung Seng Cup in Hong Kong from
Aug. 6 to Aug. 14.

Both coaches told National Sports Council (KONI) chairman
Wismoyo Arismunandar that their teams had shown great progress
during the Games training program.

"The players are improving their physical fitness, strength
and teamwork," said Wang as interpreted by Anton Sugiarto,
formerly the assistant manager in the 1997 SEA Games here.

Wang, who also coached the 1997 Games women's team, has called
up four seniors to join his squad. They are Puspa Indah P.S.,
Theresia Ninon Salemon, Megawati Halim and Dwi Nofiriana.

Megawati laid the progress at the door of Wang's new training
method, which he learned in the United States before starting to
coach Indonesia.

"We are improving our technical skills and are not afraid to
have body contact during the match. Our fitness is also better
than was previously the case," she said.

Indonesia is aiming to reach the final as the team only earned
a bronze in 1997 and nothing in 1999 as women's basketball was
not featured.

"We are optimistic of reaching the final. We have lots of
juniors in the team and they are highly motivated. They are
persistent, especially in chasing the ball," said Megawati.

Men's team captain I Gede Agus Wahyudi said senior players
would help boost Indonesia's chances of reaching the Games final.

"We are targeting taking home the silver," he said.

Indonesia took the bronze in 1999 Games in Brunei Darussalam.

Tjetjep said the players' VO2max (oxygen capacity of the
blood) had improved during the five-months of training.

"In February, the players' average VO2max was 51 but it has
increased to 54.6 in June."

He also said that the players' shooting skills had improved.

"When entering the second phase of training in June, the
players managed to reach 36 percent in three-point shooting. The
results are now closer to the Philippines players' skills, who
are able to shoot 37 percent of three-pointers.

"The players can also already score 47 percent of field goals
while we are targeting them to score 50 percent of the goals.
They also score 74 percent of free throws or six percent closer
to our target. Hopefully, after the overseas training the players
will be able to reach the targets." he said. (ivy)