LIKE most of the other PBA teams, Terrafirma has completed the initial stages of its PBA pre-season preparations.
It’s now a matter of where the Dyip and the rest would be holding a more important phase in the next few weeks.
“Sana sa Manila na tayo,” Terrafirma coach Johnedel Cardel confided to Malaya-Business Insight shortly after concluding what were mostly conditioning sessions in Batangas City.
“Kasi sa Batangas, mahirap ‘yung pabalik-balik ka,” added Cardel. “Willing to sacrifice naman mga players, pero siyempre iba ‘yung sa mismong Manila ka nag-pa-practice. Less stress at ‘yung travel time na lang hindi ganoon kahaba.”
Terrafirma and the rest of the PBA teams are now waiting for a government announcement expected as early as today regarding the quarantine status to be implemented in Metro Manila and its surrounding provinces.
The area, which includes Laguna, Bulacan, Cavite and Rizal and collectively called NCR Plus, are currently under GCQ with heightened restrictions. Such status, in effect on May 15-31, prohibited the opening of indoor sports venues and forced the PBA teams to go to other areas to start their practices.
Nine teams chose Batangas while TNT and Meralco went to Laoag and NLEX opted for Clark.
Those two-week practices dealt mainly with conditioning aimed at getting the players back in game-shape after a two-month layoff, to be followed by sessions involving full-contact, 5-on-5 scrimmages in the teams’ usual practice venues within the Big City — if the government would downgrade the quarantine status or at least delete the ‘heightened restrictions” clause in the NCR Plus bubble.
“Siyempre, mas comfortable ka kung doon ka sa usual gym mo,” said Cardel, whose team has its own gym inside the vast Azure Urban and Resort Residences in Bicutan called “The Hardcourt.”
“Kung papayagan na kaming makabalik doon, it would be easier for us to better prepare the team.”
The PBA plans to kick off the season by June 25 at the earliest and with the Ynares Center in Antipolo as venue for all its Philippine Cup games.
That should give the teams enough time to whip themselves into full fighting shape with chemistry only a minor concern.
More so for Terrafirma, which wound up dead-last in last year’s Philippine Cup bubble due to what Cardel said was lack of preparation.
“We’ve learned our lesson from that experience kaya nga we’re focused on conditioning and, in the next few days, mental toughness,” said Cardel. “Sabi ko nga sa mga players, ‘Ayaw ko nang natatalo tayo ng two, three points. Gusto ko tayo naman nananalo ng two, three points.’”
