THE Northern Mariana Islands Volleyball Association conducted its second high school volleyball clinic from July 19 to 23 led by Guam Indoor Volleyball National Team Coach Mike Rabago.
During the clinic’s last day on Friday at the Agape Christian School gym, Rabago focused on movement, placement and transitioning from offense into defense.
The clinic participants are U18 players.
Rabago said the training session was less intense than what he usually provides. “It’s a different game-style from what I’m teaching. It’s hard to teach something new in two days but if the coaches pick up any feedback from me and implement it, when I come back I could up the caliber of the drills.”
On Wednesday, the CNMI men and women’s national teams held scrimmage matches that Rabago observed.
He then shared a few tips with the players on how to refine their skills.
“The scrimmage was good,” Rabago said. “For the women’s I introduced some blocking drills and how to pull off and it was fun to watch the shorter players block balls. At the end of that session they were all happy. They learned two new skills which they needed to refine: blocking and pulling off.”
Rabago will conduct more clinics on Saipan to continue to “refine” the CNMI team and take a look at what the local coaches are doing.
Shawn Davis, an NMIVA board member, said the clinics teach them, among other things, “to appropriately move on the court, when to move on the court and how to move on the court.”
Davis added, “We have some drills for that, but to work at it at this pace is like a higher level that [local players] could bring back to their schools. Coach Rabago is willing to share the different drills…for us to be able to use, articulate and move it forward.”
Really surprised
Eighteen-year-old Andrew Camacho, who recently graduated from Kagaman High School and is a new player, was impressed with Rabago’s teachings.
“I was really surprised about how he connected all the practice drills. We had our first receiving practice and then near the end we combined it with all the other drills. Then today [Friday] we practiced on blocking. I was, again, surprised on how he connected all [the drills] into the session.”
Jakey Deleon Guerrero, an upcoming 16-year-old junior at Marianas High School, said the clinics were “very convenient because school is coming back with a new volleyball season. The training sessions were quick but also very efficient in the way Coach Mike expressed the drills to us. He taught us, for example, how to adapt from offense to defense. Overall it was a good experience.”
An experienced player, Deleon Guerrero said the clinics were also a good way to introduce new players to the sport.
Coach Mike Rabago explains a drill to the U18 men’s group during a training session on Friday at the Agape Christian School gym.
NMI Volleyball Association president Somia Quan and coach Mike Rabago share a few words with the volleyball clinic participants.
