Game reading is still a big problem, says sitting volleyball coach

Rwanda national women sitting volleyball team assistant coach Jean-Marie Nsengiyumva has said the team has a task to improve their game reading ahead of this year’s Rio Paralympic games set for September 7-18, Brazil. Nsengiyumva made the remarks yesterday after the team registered their worst performance at any international competition, losing all their matches at the Dutch Para-volley tournament that ended at the weekend. The three-day event, which was hosted in the city of Assen in Netherlands, started on July 1 and ended on July 3 attracting seven countries, including China, USA, Russia, Ukraine, Slovenia, Rwanda and the hosts Holland. Debutants Rwanda lost all the six matches 3-0 failing to get a single set something Nsengiyumva attributes to poor game reading and naivety among the youthful squad. “Actually most teams apart from Slovenia and the Netherlands that will compete at the Paralympics have improved significantly compared to us, however our biggest weakness is game reading,” said Nsengiyumva. He noted that, “If you analyze the scores, we could play well in the first set but lose out on the last three simply because switching the game depending on the opponent’s tactics is still an uphill task but good enough we have two months to work on that.” In their first game against Netherlands, Peter Karreman’s side came close to winning the first set but lost by 24-26, 11-25 and 6-25. In their second game, Rwanda was humiliated by Russia; 25-16, 25-6 and 14-25. Rwanda’s nightmare continued against Ukraine, losing 11-25, 9-25 and 13-25 before being thrashed by world’s top ranked team, China 25-4, 25-10 and 25-11. Slovenia defeated Rwanda 25-21, 22-25 and 18-25 before losing to USA, 25-13, 25-8 and 25-9. The team will resume non-residential preparations next weekend at NPC gymnasium. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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Game reading is still a big problem, says sitting volleyball coach