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Artist: Huang Youwei
A doorway in China
I think these are watercolours - it's hard to tell. They look almost like photographs!
I love the bright scarlet of the door in the grey stone, and the dusty greens of the peony plant topped by the bursting pink of the peony flowers.
--
*sigh*
Hockey team is imploding again. We're in the semis, and at training last night, there were some unsettling rumbles.
The first half was pretty good (game against the Golds - other team in our division) but we ran into some trouble when we started practising short corners.
On the field, short corners usually use about half the team in attack, while the defenders stand back in case the opposition defence get the ball out of the circle and head back up for their goal.
In training, we usually assign the attack half of the team to get the ball out, and the defence half of the team to defend. However, our two defenders are pretty strong in attack, and so the coach assigned them to the attack half of the team for the purposes of practising where the ball was to be passed.
Which left half our attackers and our mid-field doing nothing at training for about 30 mins. They got annoyed, understandably, at the coach's neglect of them, but then got huffy when he tried to include them as well - switching who was running in the game.
There was grumbling. And complaining. And the more they grumbled and complained, the more stubborn the coach (and the captain and vice-captain) got that they were being obstructive. And the thing is, some of the core people grumbling are the kind who'll take offense at the drop of a pin. And their grumbling is affecting others and...
I've been in the position where I got left out of the attacking corners during training. And, yes, it's annoying to have the ball go past you a dozen times and not be called upon to do anything. But I know that's the way the corners go at training - it's a structure that only uses half the team. And I know a few times when I got left out of whatever was happening, I've taken a ball and practised running it down the sidelines. Or dribbling. Or something to keep me going and keep me warm, even if it wasn't structured or overseen by the coach. I've even left training once, because I wasn't doing anything. (It was after 'end of training' time.)
It's a cumulative thing, I think. Some players feel annoyed that they don't get as much field time as others - one woman fully sulks when the coach calls her off, and drags her feet. Another player has to hire a baby sitter to look after her kids and resents the 'dead' time she spends at training or at a game. And I think there are a few players who are annoyed that they don't get as much rest time off the field as others during the game.
The coach is certainly a convenient focus for that resentment. In a way, it's more acceptable to let loose on: a) one guy out of a group of women, b) the person who's structuring things, and not the way you like them.
On the other hand, the subbing in the game, the focus of training, and the 'coach favourites' is also an issue. That has been brought up before, and sort-of-briefly-for-a-while dealt with. Just not as much as the coach would like, I think.
And at least two of the people complaining (and spreading the discontent) are pre-disposed to grumbling in the first place. T - the woman who sulks when she's called off? Last year, she kind-of migrated up to our team because she felt she was too good for the next team down (the selectors didn't entirely agree). We didn't have enough players; T was willing and eager, she made friends in second, so she kind of got adopted in 2nd grade. And earlier this year, she did some...not quite trash-talking, but certainly sneering at one of the other players (L) over a matter of weight - and did it with other members of the team. L is a mother with two kids - the one who has to hire a baby-sitter to look after her kids, and brings it up very regularly in her complaints about both field time and training. She has a habit of over-sharing and grumbling and interacting with her isn't always a pleasant experience.
I would like to play a full game, but I'm aware that there's someone else also working my position who's good at it. I can accept being off the field with reasonable grace, although I'd much rather be on. I would like to have something to do every moment of training, but I'm aware that sometimes the coach (or whoever) focuses on just one aspect of the game and I'm not part of that aspect.
Mostly, want to play hockey. I want to have fun. And, yeah, winning would be nice. Because we can and if we push ourselves and don't implode, we deserve to.
It's the "not imploding" part that's worrying me right now.
A doorway in China
I think these are watercolours - it's hard to tell. They look almost like photographs!
I love the bright scarlet of the door in the grey stone, and the dusty greens of the peony plant topped by the bursting pink of the peony flowers.
--
*sigh*
Hockey team is imploding again. We're in the semis, and at training last night, there were some unsettling rumbles.
The first half was pretty good (game against the Golds - other team in our division) but we ran into some trouble when we started practising short corners.
On the field, short corners usually use about half the team in attack, while the defenders stand back in case the opposition defence get the ball out of the circle and head back up for their goal.
In training, we usually assign the attack half of the team to get the ball out, and the defence half of the team to defend. However, our two defenders are pretty strong in attack, and so the coach assigned them to the attack half of the team for the purposes of practising where the ball was to be passed.
Which left half our attackers and our mid-field doing nothing at training for about 30 mins. They got annoyed, understandably, at the coach's neglect of them, but then got huffy when he tried to include them as well - switching who was running in the game.
There was grumbling. And complaining. And the more they grumbled and complained, the more stubborn the coach (and the captain and vice-captain) got that they were being obstructive. And the thing is, some of the core people grumbling are the kind who'll take offense at the drop of a pin. And their grumbling is affecting others and...
I've been in the position where I got left out of the attacking corners during training. And, yes, it's annoying to have the ball go past you a dozen times and not be called upon to do anything. But I know that's the way the corners go at training - it's a structure that only uses half the team. And I know a few times when I got left out of whatever was happening, I've taken a ball and practised running it down the sidelines. Or dribbling. Or something to keep me going and keep me warm, even if it wasn't structured or overseen by the coach. I've even left training once, because I wasn't doing anything. (It was after 'end of training' time.)
It's a cumulative thing, I think. Some players feel annoyed that they don't get as much field time as others - one woman fully sulks when the coach calls her off, and drags her feet. Another player has to hire a baby sitter to look after her kids and resents the 'dead' time she spends at training or at a game. And I think there are a few players who are annoyed that they don't get as much rest time off the field as others during the game.
The coach is certainly a convenient focus for that resentment. In a way, it's more acceptable to let loose on: a) one guy out of a group of women, b) the person who's structuring things, and not the way you like them.
On the other hand, the subbing in the game, the focus of training, and the 'coach favourites' is also an issue. That has been brought up before, and sort-of-briefly-for-a-while dealt with. Just not as much as the coach would like, I think.
And at least two of the people complaining (and spreading the discontent) are pre-disposed to grumbling in the first place. T - the woman who sulks when she's called off? Last year, she kind-of migrated up to our team because she felt she was too good for the next team down (the selectors didn't entirely agree). We didn't have enough players; T was willing and eager, she made friends in second, so she kind of got adopted in 2nd grade. And earlier this year, she did some...not quite trash-talking, but certainly sneering at one of the other players (L) over a matter of weight - and did it with other members of the team. L is a mother with two kids - the one who has to hire a baby-sitter to look after her kids, and brings it up very regularly in her complaints about both field time and training. She has a habit of over-sharing and grumbling and interacting with her isn't always a pleasant experience.
I would like to play a full game, but I'm aware that there's someone else also working my position who's good at it. I can accept being off the field with reasonable grace, although I'd much rather be on. I would like to have something to do every moment of training, but I'm aware that sometimes the coach (or whoever) focuses on just one aspect of the game and I'm not part of that aspect.
Mostly, want to play hockey. I want to have fun. And, yeah, winning would be nice. Because we can and if we push ourselves and don't implode, we deserve to.
It's the "not imploding" part that's worrying me right now.
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Now I'm wondering if I could afford his art. Because I WANT.