With five games into the 13th Shakey’s V-League Reinforced Conference, the University of the Philippines Lady Maroons have went through lots of ups and downs recently.
The Lady Maroons opened their campaign against Bureau of Customs. But BOC’s experience overcam UP’s youth as the young volleybelles dropped their opening game.
UP then bounced back with a victory against Coast Guard. However, they fell into the hands of UST and Pocari Sweat consecutively, sending them to a two-game skid.
But Monday night, the Katipunan-based Lady Maroons have made it once more into the win column, ending their slide against the Laoag Power Smashers in four sets.
UP head coach Jerry Yee said that he and the team have been sorting things out for the Lady Maroons to play freely and to provide quality outputs in every match.
“We’ve been discussing kung ano yung recent struggles namin,” said Yee in the post-game press conference moments after UP earned their second win of the conference.
“Pinag-uusapan namin na hindi naman sinasabing bawal magkamali. Kasi kung di ka naman magkakamali, ‘di ka naman matututo.”
Yee admitted that their inconsistency in their last five outings stems from the players’ extreme eagerness to play the right way by disregarding miscues, which only adds burden and pressure to each player’s mindset.
“Before kasi, yun nga, parang ‘pag nagkakamali, naiinis agad tayo sa sarili natin. Naiinis tayo sa sarili natin,” Yee stressed.
“But then, that’s part of it eh. Part of the growth yan.”
And as their head coach, all that Yee is telling his players is to just play their game without any unnecessary pressure to themselves.
“We were trying to explain na ‘wag masyadong i-pressure ang sarili,” added Yee, regarding the coaches’ advice to their players.
With an open communication between him and the players that helps them scalp out creases, Yee is thankful for such that it helps them eke out better results.
“We had three separate talks discussing some issues. So meron tayong mga na-clear out, and positive naman.”
“If this game [against Laoag] is an indicator, then thankful kami,” he said.
The veteran coach is also grateful that this kind of struggles is happening right now, for it only gears them up to develop into better players and into a better squad.
“Buti ngayon namin napagdadaanan ‘to. Hopefully may time pa kami para matuto,” he lamented.
