The Netherlands is of course the absolute top in korfball sports. The large amount of training hours, strength exercises and the heavy Korfball league competition; korfball is top sports. But how about other countries? Are they as fanatical engaged with this sport as we are?

With the Dutch National team we spend some intensive months in preparation of the big tournaments. There were weeks where we trained and played matches for about 25 hours a week to work up for a European or World Championship or World Games. Sometimes people ask us: ‘why do you have such an intensive programme, you win any match anyway, so why the hard work? Is it an idea to train less hours....maybe the matches will come more spectacular and the results more exciting’. That would indeed be an idea, but that isn’t our definition of top sport. And we’re then not role modelling our best practices like we do in e.g. our promotion tour to Taiwan.

Last year I travelled to Taiwan, accompanied by Tim Bakker, Jos Roseboom and Marijke van den Berg to give training courses to the Taiwanese team with the leadership of Ben Crum. The team’s objective: improve and deliver good results at the World Games in Kaohsiung (2009).

The Taiwanese players had an internship to prepare themselves thoroughly for the World Games. Far away from their friends and relatives, they stayed in a special institute for top athletes. Rooms were shared with 5 players, furnished with beds and a table only. I noticed that my hotel room was bigger, for me alone. Their balconies were used to facilitate the cloth lines where the training outfits were drying. And that was a substantial amount of laundry as the Taiwanese team trained three times a day. Every morning we were collected around 10 am at the metro station with a touring car crowded with players. Our eyes were caught by sleeping Taiwanese, so we asked them about the quality of their night rest. They said: ‘Oh that’s fine, but every morning at 7 am we do a one hour running training, before we get into this bus heading for the next exercise’. Suddenly I understood why they slept during the bus ride.
The tour was a great success. Ben Crum appeared to be an excellent coach for the Taiwanese and also our tips and explanations were positively received. The Taiwanese team was very grateful, and they enjoyed training with the Dutch Internationals.

At the end of the tour I had a conversation with Fang-yi Hsieh ('The Bird') who is the trainer/coach of the Taiwanese team. I asked her why they trained that intense and what their aim would be for the years to come. She explained to me that the Dutch National team is a role model for Taiwan. And if we exercise more, they will do the same, both in strength exercises as well as with the usage of video registration, and other countries will follow the Dutch example as well. And that is exactly the reason why the Dutch National team needs to continue their intensive training programmes and promote korfball as top sport. Taiwan is an example of such a professional follower, with more countries to go. Within a few years ‘The Bird’ is hoping for the finals against the Dutch National team. And who knows what Taiwan is capable of. They proved it already in the match against the Dutch team under the age of 23, during the tournament in Apeldoorn.

To conclude:

We all need to fight to realise our goals, without battle no victory!

Kim Cocu