2010 AIS Development Tour Update
The Australian Institute of Sport Men’s Volleyball Team is presently in Varese, Italy preparing for the second leg of its annual development tour in the coming days with matches against the junior teams of ‘Serie A’ clubs, Verona and Monza, and provincial club side, Tenate.
On Monday, 4 January the team departed Australia following a brief training camp after Christmas before embarking on the three week tour to Japan, Italy and Sweden. The tour itself will provide much wanted international experience for all the athletes involved especially those presently in the ’92/93 Australian Youth Boy’s Team as they continue in their development with matches against club and representative teams from each of the visited countries.
The first leg of the tour was in Japan where the team played against the Japan Junior Men’s Team and Asahi University in a series of friendly matches in Tokyo and Gifu Prefecture. In what was always going to be a hard and hectic series, the young AIS side lost to their more experienced and cohesive Japanese opponents having to play five matches in five days and in three different cities.
06/01/10 AIS v JPN Jr. Men 2:3 (23-25, 15-25, 25-20, 25-23, 12-15)
07/01/10 AIS v JPN Jr. Men 0:3 (11-25, 22-25, 21-25)
08/01/10 AIS v JPN Jr. Men 0:3 (23-25, 21-25, 15-25)
09/01/10 AIS v Asahi Univ. 2:3 (23-25, 25-20, 19-25, 25-21, 12-15)
10/01/10 AIS v Asahi Univ. 2:3 (25-15, 23-25, 31-29, 21-25, 16-18)
The AIS team improved throughout the 5 matches in Japan as they came to terms with the fast paced style of play employed by their Japanese counterparts. The AIS boys improved their efficiency in attack significantly over the series, reducing their attack error rate to below 15% in 3 of the matches whilst killing the ball consistently over 40%. The teams’ goal is to see this error rate remain below 15% but to raise the attack kill percentage to 50% or better.
The key differences between winning and losing matches came down to consistency under pressure and closing out matches at key times with 3 of the matches being hard fought 5 set losses that could easily have gone the Australian’s way except for a lack of consistency at end of sets and converting opportunities at key times. As expected, one of the strengths of the AIS team was their tall block, out blocking their opponents in every match of the series but also learnt the value of controlling the ball in defence which their Japanese counterparts did exceptionally well.
The coaches were happy with the competitiveness and improvement of the team during this first leg of the tour against one of the top junior teams in the Asian zone and along with the players are focussed on continuing to improve with every match in the second leg of the tour in Italy.
The travelling team for this tour is comprised of athletes from 16 to 20 years of age and includes three new scholarship athletes. AIS/AVF Development Coach, Dan Ilott, is heading the tour and will be well supported by Russell Borgeaud, AIS/VTAM Head Coach.
Unfortunately, Craig Lowe’s tour was abruptly finished due to a knee injury sustained in the third match of the tour and Craig is now back in Australia for treatment of this injury. Corey Leathart of Queensland has subsequently joined the team on tour as a replacement passer-hitter.
Athletes:
• Nicholas Barry (AIS/WA)
• Jacques Borgeaud (ACTAS/ACT)
• Brendan Clewes (AIS/SA)
• Rowan Cook (AIS/QLD)**
• Luke Hill (VIC)
• Corey Leathart (QLD)**
• Andrew Lillywhite (AIS/WA)
• Craig Lowe (AIS/NSW)
• Harry Peacock (AIS/SA)
• Luke Smith (AIS/WA)
• Joel Tyrrell (ACTAS/ACT)
• Rory Welsh (AIS/SA)
• Lincoln Williams (AIS/QLD)**
Staff:
• Head Coach: Dan Ilott
• Assist. Coach: Russell Borgeaud
• Physiotherapist: Fiona Gutschlag
• Manager/Stats: Phong Nguyen
