Monday 29 September 2014

Rich's Blog: My First Ever Weekend Of Sport

I took up korfball last year having played no sport for a decade. None. 

Getting out of bed early on a Saturday to spend most of my weekend running around was, frankly, ridiculous. But this weekend I did just that. My still-aching legs are proof that it wasn’t a dream.
On Saturday, I got up early and joined a happy band of City korfers on the trip to Bristol for the Bristol Thunder indoor tournament. However, no tiredness was in evidence as we won 10-2 in our first match against an energetic Bristol University side. We followed this with a 16-3 win against Bristol City 2 to top our group and secure some tough afternoon matches. 

I also shared glove tips with a girl who suffers similar finger troubles (see any of my other blog posts!). Honestly, this time next year everyone will be wearing them…

But even a pair of magic gloves wouldn’t have helped in our next match, against southwest regional champions Bristol Thunder and their team that includes several internationals. We managed to score two but were well beaten, to leave us looking at a best finish of 5th.

Sadly, that wasn’t to be as we suffered our most disappointing result of the day: a 5-4 loss to Cardiff Celts despite leading for most of the match. I know I learnt a big lesson: focus on the fundamentals and don’t try to rush things, especially when you’re in the lead.

We bounced back in our final match with a 7-6 win against Cardiff University, to finish 7th out of 14 overall, and headed home with aching bodies but heads high.

On Sunday, the bravest of us turned out at St Greg’s for the first weekend of the new OKA season for two matches against local rivals Isis. 

First, City 3 (aka ‘Team Awesome’) played Isis 2 and rushed into a three-goal lead, with a lead of 5-3 at half time, including a great debut goal from Theo.

The second half was more cagey with little ball-in-hoop action. I know I was feeling the effects of the Bristol tournament as my attacks could at best be called ‘glacial’. Even so, we kept calm, kept finding space, kept putting shots up — and kept missing them! But solid defence from Andy, Captain Blaze, Laura and Niall saw us to a 6-4 win.

And then City 1 played Isis 1. I know we won 12-6, but don’t know anything else about the match because I sloped off home to see my daughter. After a weekend of korfball, it was a relief to spend some time chasing around after something that isn’t purple and yellow.

- Rich Heap, web editor

Monday 1 September 2014

Rich's Blog: Dragons Tournament Has Fired Me Up

Never let it be said that we at Oxford City are not intrepid. It is in this adventurous spirit that we made our way to our final outdoor tournament of the summer — just up the road, in Didcot.

Now, I must confess I’ve been feeling a bit down about my korfball in the last few weeks. This is partly because I aggravated one of my recurring finger injuries a couple of weeks ago; and partly because the prospect of stepping up to regional training is scary. Will I be able to hack it?

Thankfully, the Didcot Dragons tournament has gone some way to dispelling those doubts. We may not have rocked the Harwell Recreation Ground with our final position (I never found out), but it was a great chance for our newer players — me included — to get experience against strong opposition.

Here are the two main lessons I took from Didcot and my other two tournaments:

Players at higher level aren’t superhuman: International and regional players are usually taller or faster; definitely more experienced; and better at scoring than opponents I’m used to. That doesn’t mean they’re unplayable. Tournaments have helped shed some of this fear.

Get the right mindset: I don’t think of myself as sporty or competitive, and that’s probably one of my big problems. It turns out that I can be both if I want to be. My unusually angry and belligerent defensive showing against Bristol City was a highlight; and showed me the benefit of taking an irrational dislike to my opponent, at least while I’m on the pitch.

That doesn’t mean I think I’ve got this whole korfball thing sussed. I don’t. But, with effort in training in matches, it does give me the confidence that one day I might. And there are plenty of City matches to learn in this season, from League 2 to regional.

So after a tough few weeks, there’s only one way to greet the new season: bring it on!

Rich Heap, web editor