Interview with the coach

1. What is your perspective on petanque?

Using elbow hard can stimulate the strength of elbow. When you guys were playing, your control on the strength was not that good, so you should play more petanque to improve it.

2. What did you think when your players lost in a competition? Did you blame on yourself?

I would encourage them to participate in more competitions, since there are always winners and losers in a competition. When they lost, I wanted them to find out the reasons why they lost and improve themselves in next games, such as the control of the strength. Most of the time, there are two to three players in a team in a competition or practice. If a teammate made a mistake, I did not want them to blame on one another. I wanted them to encourage each other, since their emotion could affect their ongoing performance.

3. What encouragement will you give your players if they win a competition?

I would give them material encouragement such as buying them some drinks. For other encouragement, I would verbally praise them. However, there were a lot of such kinds of competitions, one competition in each semester, so basically I did not give them any special award. I offered them some cookies and dry noodle normally once every month or every two months. I rarely offered them good prizes for the wining of a competition. If they lost, of course, they got nothing. I feel that I would still like to encourage them at ordinary times.

4. How long have you been a coach?

I have been a coach for one full year, and this year will be the second year.

5. Why would you like to be a petanque coach?

The school needed three PE teachers last year. After Teacher Chih-wei Chen, Teacher Chih-chun Chen, and Teacher Rong-rui Hsieh (the petanque coach) joined the school, everyone chose a sport team coach position according to personal interest. Teacher Rong-rui Hsieh chose to be the coach of the Petanque Team, since he felt that the size and skills of petanque was similar to his favorite softball.

6. What difficulties have you encountered during the period of being a coach? What was the happiest thing in the period?

Yes. I could not practice under the sun for too long. It was very tough for the team when it was hot. We needed to continue to practice every morning and noon. The happiest thing was when I saw the improvement from the players.

7. Is there any grade requirement for joining the Petanque Team?

My recommendation for joining the Petanque Team is the third grader or higher, since the ball is heavy, and is not suitable for the first and second graders.

8. Was there any player who performed very well but wanted to withdraw from the team?

Yes. There was one in the seventh class of current fourth grade. He came to practice in his third grade, and did well, but he did not come in his fourth grade. It might be caused by many factors. I have heard that he will come back in his fifth grade.

9. Are you satisfied with the performance of the Petanque Team players?

Basically, I am satisfied, but they can improve in many areas. For example, there were fewer players before, only 4, and there were only 10 in the beginning of last year. Now there are 14 players. I hope that I can encourage everyone to do more sports. Not all 14 players can go to the competition, but it is important for students to find out their own goals during the elementary school stage.

10.Are you confident with the players you coach?

Of course! However, my confidence is not for them to win every competition. In the November Sport Events, both brigade relay and petanque are team sports, and I hope that they can actually learn team cooperation from these sports. I am certainly confident with them, but the confidence is not for them to win places in a competition, instead, I want them to enjoy the process of practice.