B Div friendly: Fajar vs Chua Chu Kang

It was a game that showcased Fajar's strengths and weaknesses.

CCK has some tall and skilful players. They are strong too. In the first two quarters, they played well, and showed sharp passing and clinical finishing.

In contrast, Fajar was hesitant and lacked the courage to punch through their defence.


In the final 2 quarters, CCK's stamina and strength began to wane. It became easier for us to outrun them. We managed to clinch the game through a series of lethal fast breaks. The CCK players were simple too tired to catch up with us.




Fajar players, please take note of our observations:

1. The Coach gives very simple instructions to you all before every game. Do you listen and execute his strategy? If you do, you should be winning many matches.

2. Fajar is most frightening when we play fast breaks. For that to happen, our outlet - centre movement must be done perfectly. At the same time, the Fajar players must be sprinting away, ready to receive the killer pass and score the basket. So please understand this: Fajar is most deadly when we play the fast break game.

3. Against CCK today, an ugly side of Fajar showed again: we keep dribbling the ball aimlessly, while the other 4 players shuffle and move around. You pose no threat. The opponents did not fear you. You did not show any killer instinct to win the ball and to score the basket.

4. Our box-out (a very basic and very important skill) is very inconsistent. Only Xinyu showed consistent box-out. He applies what he practises during training into matches like this. If we don't box out effectively, we will be in deep trouble.

5. So, to sum up, Fajar has the potential to be a top 6 or top 4 school in the West Zone. The coach's instructions are very effective and his training is vigourous and challenging. To win matches, we need a very strong and sound defence.

6. The only way for us to win is to communicate, defend stoutly, and 'kill' the game with unstoppable fast breaks. Nothing is more demoralising than to have Ziting, Hao Ming, Ben etc etc speeding away and scoring baskets.



So even though we 'won' today's game, the result is not the most important, as always the case for all friendly matches.

In fact, friendly matches are completely useless, unless Fajar players reflect and review their performance, and see their mistakes and strengths when they play in the 4 quarters of the game.

A team that reflects regularly and communicates consistently is going to be very hard to beat, because we become thinking players.