A8 Sunday, April 30, 2017
Sports BusinessMirror
CURTAIN RISES ON PVL
Enriquez sizzles, nails three titles in Koronadal tilt
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AVORITES Pocari Sweat and Creamline try to live up to expectations as they open their campaign today in the Premier Volleyball League (PVL) Reinforced Conference women’s volleyball tournament at the Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan City. The Lady Warriors, grand-slam champions of the former Shakey’s V-League Season 13, take on the young Power Smashers at 4 p.m., while the Alyssa Valdezled Cool Smashers face fellow expansion team Perlas Spikers at 6 p.m. Balipure, meanwhile, tests its new-look roster against a veteran-laden Air Force at 2 p.m. The Water Defenders are parading a basically new team after its former players— ex-Ateneo Lady Eagles Amy Ahomiro, Ella de Jesus, Jem Ferrer and Dzi Gervacio—transferred to Perlas. Balipure will be now composed of Coach Roger Gorayeb’s wards at San Sebastian College, led by National Collegiate Athletic Association Most Valuable Player Grethcel Soltones and National University’s Jasmine Nabor, Risa Sato, Aiko Urdas and Jorelle Singh. The Balipure girls take on the veteran Lady Jet Spikers powered by Wendy Semana, May Ann Pantino, Jocemer Tapic and Joy Cases with the help of imports Patcharee Saengmuan and Taj Chupungco. But all eyes will be on the three-time V-League Most Valuable Player Valdez as she sees action on local soil for the first time after her stint with 3BB Nakkornont in Thailand. “The Thailand stint was very memorable and I learned a lot not only in volleyball but also off the court. I hope I could share it to my teammates and we’re hoping to give our best,” said Valdez, who is expected to carry the cudgels for the Cool Smashers with imports Laura Schaudt, a 6-foot-5 American middle blocker, and her teammate in Thailand, Kuttika Kaewpin. Valdez will also be teaming up with seasoned spikers Pau Soriano, Aerieal Patnongon and San Beda’s
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YDNEY EZRA ENRIQUEZ upset top seed Carlyn Guarde twice in the higher age group to complete a rare threetitle feat in the Palawan Pawnshop-Palawan Express Pera Padala (PPS-PEPP) Koronadal leg regional age-group tennis tournament at the Koronadal Sports Complex in South Cotabato on Friday. Janus Ringia, meanwhile, sustained his win run, sweeping the boys’ 16- and 18-under crowns to share the Most Valuable Player honors with Enriquez in the Group 2 tournament, held as part of the Mindanao summer tour sponsored Palawan Pawnshop and presented by Slazenger. The 14-year-old Enriquez stamped her class over Chloveay Pulido, scoring a shutout 6-0, 6-0 title romp in her age group then stunned Guarde, 6-1, 6-2, in the 16-under finals before out-steadying the fancied Sultan Kudarat bet in a thrilling duel, 7-5, 7-6(4), to clinch the 18-under diadem. “Winning two titles in the higher division speaks well of Enriquez’s caliber. Her rare feat should also inspire the other young players to work and strive harder in pursuit of their lofty goals,” Palawan Pawnshop President and CEO Bobby Castro said. Ringia, meanwhile, posted a pair of abbreviated victories to make it back-to-back, scoring a 4-0 (ret.) win over Nicole Gorospe in the 16-under finals then the Sultan Kudarat ace stopped Steve Sonsona, 6-0, 4-1 (ret.) for the 18-under crown, matching his two-title feat in last week’s General Santos City leg of the circuit backed by Asiatraders Corp. and the new Unified tennis group, led by PPS-PEPP, Cebuana Lhuillier, Wilson, Toby’s and B-Meg. Top seed Brent Cortez from Tubod, Lanao lived up to his billing to thumped Michael Padao, 6-0, 6-2, to pocket the boys’ 14-under plum; Digos City’s Andrei Padao repulsed No. 1 Al Rasheed Lucman, 6-0, 6-0, in the semifinals then turned back second seed Rey Napala, 6-4, 6-4, to snare the 12-under crown; while top-ranked Shieloh Ripdos crushed Mae Melendres, 6-0,6-0, to bag the girls’ 12-under diadem. Lucman, from Malaybalay, Bukidnon, earlier bested Anthony Galvez, 4-2, 4-0, to annex the 10-unisex title.
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Francesca Racraquin, as well as Coleen Bravo and Jamela Suyat of Perpetual Help. Creamline will face an Ateneo alumni-laden Perlas Spikers, who will parade imports Rupia Inck and Naoko Hashimoto. The team is also composed of Kathy Bersola and Nicole Tiamzon of University of the Philippines, as well as seasoned players Amanda Villanueva, Sue Roces and Sasa Devanadera. Pocari Sweat, on the other hand, lost Michele Gumabao, one of the team’s stalwarts in its V-League title run last year. Gumabao is now playing in the Philippine Superliga. But the Lady Warriors stayed intact with Myla Pablo, Elaine Kasilag, Gyzelle Sy and Melissa Gohing forming the core. The new recruits include Jeanette Panaga, Jessey de Leon and former Ateneo ace Fille CaingletCayetano. They will be powered by imports Michelle Strizak and Edina Selimovic. Pocari Coach Rommel Abella warned his wards to be wary of the young but aggressive Power Smashers, who are handled by seasoned tactician Nes Pamilar. “We’ll do our best because Power Smashers has a solid team despite the fact that they are young, and they have a legendary coach in Nes Pamilar. So we really need to prepare,” Abella said. Pamilar will call the shots for his team composed of collegiate stars led by Arellano University’s Jovielyn Prado and Eunice Galang, University of Santo Tomas’s Dimdim Pacres and Alina Bicar and San Sebastian’s Vira Mae Guillema and Katherine Villegas. They tapped Thais Amporn Hyapha and Kannika Thipachot as reinforcements. The former Spiker’s Turf, now called as the PVL men’s volleyball tournament, also opens today with Spikers’ Turf Season 2 champion Air Force taking on Instituto Estetico Manila at 10 a.m. Lance Agcaoili
Vítor Frade’s great contribution to the sport is tactical periodization, an approach to management that is often characterized—much to his evident frustration—as a coaching style. NYT
NBA, FIBA to bring program to Israel S the National Basketball Association (NBA) prepares to bring its Basketball Without Borders program to Israel this summer, league officials hope that the first trip to the country can help bring children together during a time of increasing tension. Basketball Without Borders has visited countries across the globe since 2001, using the sport to promote cultural understanding and active living. The first camp was held in Italy, but brought together Vlade Divac and Toni Kukoc, teammates on the former Yugoslavian national team that grew estranged during the political turmoil that ensued as the country fractured. Now the NBA and FIBA are going to Israel, a nation that has long had a great passion for basketball, during a time of unrest in the Middle East. “We’re looking forward to the chance to bring all communities together for this program,” said Kathy Behrens, NBA president of social responsibility and player programs. “This is going to be about bringing the Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Druze and other communities together.” The camp will take place from August 13 to 16 in Netanya. The top teenagers from over 30 countries, including Israel, Spain, Germany and France, will get coaching and tutoring from NBA and Fiba players, coaches and former stars, including former Spurs All-Star David Robinson. The teens will also perform community outreach in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Israel has a strong basketball community, and several professional teams from the country have traveled to the United States to play NBA teams in exhibition games. “It’s a country that loves basketball,” Behrens said. “I think they will be a great host. It has an extraordinarily rich history. So I think the people who are going to be at the camp participating will learn a lot and certainly appreciate that aspect of it.” Behrens said the league has been talking to active players about participating in a program that has visited 25 countries on six continents since its inception. “It’s really become part of what the NBA is about in terms of trying to grow the game on a global scale,” Behrens said. “And we think this program, because of everything that it does in terms of bringing people together, bridging cultural divides, language barriers, it really has cemented itself as a key part of our calendar.” AP
Editor: Jun Lomibao | mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph
ALYSSA VALDEZ will don Creamline’s jersey in the league formerly known as the V-League.
SOCCER’S MOST
MAGNIFICENT MIND By Rory Smith
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New York Times News Services
ORTO, Portugal—There is an office at the end of a quiet corridor on the ground floor of the sports faculty at the University of Porto. It is not the sort of place that attracts much foot traffic, and it is not decorated as if it is intended to do so. The room’s occupant, Vítor Frade, is retired from the teaching post he held at the university for more than three decades. He keeps the office, though, as a convenient place to receive the steady stream of visitors that come from across the world to pick his brain, seek his advice or simply hear him talk. During the course of his long career, Frade achieved no little academic success, but he could not be described as famous, not in the sense that soccer usually means it. Fans do not sing his name in stadiums, or ask him for autographs
in the street. He was not a player of any great note. He has never managed a club. Instead, Frade, 73, is that rarest of things: one of soccer’s most noteworthy theorists. His great contribution to the sport is tactical periodization, an approach to management that is often characterized—much to his evident frustration—as a coaching style. “It is not a method,” he says, almost as soon as he sits down. “It is a methodology. You have a methodology so that you don’t need methods.”The last word is issued with disdain. To Frade, his approach is a management philosophy, a personal dogma and a belief system rolled into one. It is a way of thinking more than a way of playing, one conceived and crafted in this office, at this university, but that can now claim devotees around the world. Its most famous evangelist is José Mourinho, who
THE National Basketball Association and Fiba are going to Israel, a nation that has long had a great passion for basketball, during a time of unrest in the Middle East.
deployed it to considerable success at Chelsea, Inter Milan and Real Madrid, and who now hopes it can revive Manchester United. But Mourinho is not alone. Most of the great Portuguese coaching diaspora carry some of Frade’s imprint: André Villas-Boas and Vítor Pereira most directly, from the time they spent at FC Porto, but also Monaco’s Leonardo Jardim and Hull City’s Marco Silva at one or more removes. Then there are the foreign adherents, the managers and coaches whose ideas draw to a greater or lesser extent on Frade’s work. Brendan Rodgers, the coach of Celtic, became convinced of the approach’s value while working under Mourinho early in his career. Eddie Jones, the Australian coach of England’s rugby team, is a convert, too. In recent months alone, Frade has welcomed, among others, visitors from Australia, Brazil, England and Scandinavia. Every so often, with the help of a friend, he puts together an e-mail blast for anyone who has expressed an interest in his work. It goes out, he said, to 542 people, including Mourinho. The e-mails contain poems composed by Frade—Pepijn Lijnders, a former Porto coach now working at Liverpool, shares them with the Brazilians Philippe Coutinho and Lucas Leiva—but also “articles I have read, interviews with interesting coaches, book recommendations and summaries.” Frade is as likely to include a paper on robotics or neuroscience as one on soccer itself, the product of a brain fizzing and whirring, its synapses forever fusing links between unrelated thoughts. His answer to the question “What is tactical periodization?” for example, starts with a discourse on the structure of a cell, takes in cesarean sections, where alligators might live in the Mississippi, chameleons, quantum mechanics, and ends, no small number of hours later, with a discussion of the principles of cybernetics. “He is a living, breathing genius,” said José Tavares, the head of Porto’s youth academy and a student of periodization drafted now as Frade’s hard-pressed translator. “He does not think like the rest of us.” All of it is relevant, though, to the system that Frade created. “Whenever I read something, I am always thinking how it applies to football,” he said. “That is true whether it is something on biology or epigenetics. It is always football.”
Periodization, he said, draws on everything, because it is an attempt to account for everything. “Football is not a linear process,” Frade said. “It is not a sum of things: If you do this, plus that, you will achieve this.” Instead, “the coach must consider every aspect, of the individual, of the team. Football is not two-dimensional. It is multidimensional.” It is an imperfect parallel, but the game, as Frade envisages it, is not unlike a Rubik’s Cube: Every thing a manager does, every single turn they make, has a consequence elsewhere. It does not work if they try to fix one side alone; the problem must be considered in its entirety. That is why Frade’s methodology—as employed by Mourinho and the rest—decrees that there should not be specific physical, tactical or technical training sessions, no separate fitness coaches or artificial skills exercises, such as the rondo, the one-touch passing game that forms the basis of Pep Guardiola’s approach. Because every aspect of the game is interconnected, Frade argues, they must be treated as such. That is not periodization’s only calling card. Everything is related to possible in-game scenarios: no running to build up general stamina; only running to build up the exact sort of stamina that might be required at given moments. No practicing passing; only practicing what pass is needed and when. Training is never gentle, with all sessions carried out as fast and as hard as the number of players on the field allows. And it is not scripted. Players are not told what to do; they are given a problem and encouraged to solve it for themselves. “What matters is the process,” Frade said. “They have to work out the answers.” The week’s training is governed by what Frade and his disciples call the morfocycle. Throughout the season, each day is devoted to a specific aspect of play: Tuesday, for example, might always be what to do when in possession, Wednesday when out of it, Thursday to the opposition’s strengths, and so on. The exercises can vary from week to week, from opponent to opponent, but must always be designed to reinforce the coach’s guiding principles: A team’s identity must not be compromised to stifle a given opponent. “A chameleon changes color,” Frade said, “but never forgets it is a chameleon.”