Monthly Newsletter - TnT, August & September 22

Summary

Player of the Month - August & September 22
TnT 2022
Referees
Training
Touch'n'Tulips volunteers
New members
Feature articles: tournament season
Sign ups + 2022 club calendar

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August's MVP

The comeback kid, this player has returned after a long spiritual retreat and yes he did find himself. But was he really gone? No folks, he's been lurking in the background performing administrative duties for XXX, punching out some hectic excel spreadsheets and preparing for Touch n Tulips. You probably also saw him up at tournament control that day with Barbs and Kate making sure the teams and refs we're able to focus on the game. What a valuable volunteer!

We hope to hear more "open the gate" echoing through the Sparks fields in the future. This months MVP is:

🎖️ Edouard🎖️

Ready Steady Eddy

It's also his birthday today.

This month's award includes a travel voucher from our club sponsor Stoke Travel Company and a temporary tattoo.

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September's MVP

Some know this player as The Professor (sorry Jay but be better), some know him by his ability to have a good chat (something which gets him in trouble sometimes - rumour has it he is still in "the bus" from the TnT court session). Besides all this, he's a continually developing player both on the touch side and the reffing side, recently achieving his level 1 badge!

He's also become a valued organiser of Saturday Social, you've probably seen his poll's in their various forms, making sure we have the playing power on Saturday mornings. Representing the Irish-pod, this months MVP is:

🎖️ Kevin🎖️

The Professor

His birthday is also very soon..

This month's award includes a travel voucher from our club sponsor Stoke Travel Company and a temporary tattoo.

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Touch 'n Tulips 2022 - Team work always pays off!

- Feature article, written by Barbera Shop Quartet

2022 has been a flourishing year for XXX Amsterdam Touch - and it's only September! This does not come as a surprise: team spirit has been building up since the pandemic and our decision to move social touch to Sparks United. Numbers have been growing steadily, we have a very strong women's side and consistent training is paying off. This was all on display during our home tournament - Respect, Unity, Progression!

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TnT, the Tournament

It could be said that this year's event was a team effort. From people offering a couch to referees, to food shopping and packing, line marking, logistics, serving the BBQ, player refs etc. We did it, and we did it together as a team!

The amount of help offered was higher than the help needed. Coach Masayo took over the task of buying the snacks and she did not disappoint. However, when she asked for help to carry the fruits and snacks, everyone was ready to help out! And this can also be applied to field marking, several players were hands on getting those fields ready on time.

`*Fun fact I* We realised that the storage room had no ventilation so we were hoping that the bananas would survive 3 days without becoming “banana-bread-ready” (If you don't know what that means, for banana bread, you need overripe bananas, the ones that you will throw away otherwise). It is fair to say that they were just ripped enough for the day, thankfully.

*Fun Fact II* Maria took some bananas home after the tournament and made peanut butter, banana sandwiches:

If you don't follow her already, you are missing out @marugarciae is our Kitchen Queen!

To stay in the food topic, as mentioned before, we were shocked to learn that food prices skyrocketed. We were already planning to upgrade the food from 2021´s event (do you remember? That sad white bread with ham and cheese?!?!) but we did not expect everything to be so expensive! Nevertheless, we managed to bring costs down, not only with the snacks, but also by helping out during the BBQ. Every single player was ready to help and that is the pure definition of teamwork. Well done to all of us!

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Referees and referee upgrades

*Quiz* How many referees do you need for a 14 teams tournament with a 3-way-ref system?

The answer at the end of this part…

It goes without saying that this year has been the most successful in terms of referee development and that is thanks to all of you who have made the time to do the course, take the very odd-worded-french-referee-translated-L1-exam, prepare for it and finally go for the big assessment. After Fon´s achievement in Berlin, we got three other Amsterdammers who got their L1: Doug, Irvin and Kevin! You all did amazingly and the team is very proud of your achievement! Kev said that Phil’s hard poker face after he “fucked up his 7s” made him think he didn’t make it, but hell yeah he did!

*Fun fact III* The badge that they are holding in the picture is only for the picture, they don't get to keep it as Touch NL does not have enough badges to give to all players going for their L1. Badges need to be ordered through the EFT (European Federation of Touch) and there is a shortage of (global supply chains are hitting the touch community hard). Hopefully next year, fingers crossed.

*Special thank you* to Fon and Mae who refereed during the event alongside playing.

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Quiz answer:

The correct answer is: it depends on the number of fields! You need 6 refs per field, so that would make answer C correct. Referees need a rest between games, so with 6 refs, 3 are refereeing and the other 3 are resting and vice versa. Usually 15 refs is a good number, as many of them double up and can take on one more game. Referees, just like players, do get injured - this happened during TnT 2022 and Rob, the referee coach, put on his boots and went for it!

*FYI* We had 13 refs plus a referee L2 coach (who was not supposed to ref). Their levels were:

2 Level 4, both from England
4 Level 3, one from France, one from Spain and two from Belgium
4 Level 2, two locals, one from Switzerland and one French
4 Level 1, two from Dubai, one from Switzerland and one from Belgium

Like many tournaments around Europe, we offer the touring referees food, a paid incentive, the option for accommodation and the potential to get an upgrade or coaching - something to think about if you want to tour as a ref! All the Level 1’s this year got upgraded to L2.

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Team performance

Written by Coach Masayo

Dear XXX Amsterdam Touch,

Looking back on our very successful performance at Touch ‘n’ Tulips based on our values - Unite, Respect and Progress.

Dear Foxes,

Great progress you have made individually and finished very well as a team.

Tough pool (3 out of 5 teams who ended within top 6) but you defended well especially against Tea smugglers (the winner / 0 - 6) and DHT (4th / 0 - 4 ), kept tight in the middle of the field and many scores were outside as we planned. Against Asafa (13th / 10 - 1), you kept your composure, game quality which is really difficult thing to do! The last pool game was against Berlin (6th / 2- 5), you really showed the improvement & strength of our team. Stayed positive, supporting each other, trying to execute our game plan fearlessly and high 6 touch completion. That, followed by the tough fight for 9/10th place. Every moment, you all were there, lifting each other up, I believe you all felt “empowering feel” within the team.

Everyone knew what to do and truly tried executing the tasks with their best abilities, we ended with a close game 3-4, the result was 10th.

Dear Badgers,

3 clean convincing wins in the pool stage showed why and what we have worked for in the past 1 year. Everyone in the team knew what to do to create 7 holes against 6 defenders - we were simply better than any of them! We ended up the top of our pool stage, went into semi final where the real challenges were waiting for us.

Against Tea smugglers (the winner), one of the toughest games of the day. We fought well by forcing them to score outside but they were a really good side - especially execution of the little details was just better which made them exploit on our defence line effectively. (The good news is that we are on the right track to get there!!)

The result was 3-6 to Tea smugglers which led us to 3rd place play off against our good old friends DHT.

Against DHT was the best performance from Badgers. It was a very close game but our team composure was excellent - very strong defence and they had hardly any gaps to score. We scored with good plays 32 set up, log balls as we planned. We are again better but most importantly we kept our composure - positively pushing each other & performing as a team which is basically what the touch team should be!!

We closed the game 4-1 and earned a well deserved 3rd place.

Both teams showcased what & who XXX Amsterdam Touch is to the world and it was very inspiring to see what a small touch club in a small country can do.

Very well done team, I am so proud of everyone in the club and cannot wait to build on our strengths and make our club better and stronger together!

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Survey

In order to keep on improving, we have created a survey for all of you. Please take a few minutes of your time to reply to it. It is very important to us as we need to keep on delivering the best tournament possible. Thank you! Here is the link.

https://forms.gle/zVzbQBfgcWa4pssA9

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Thanks again from the tournament committee for helping make a great day for us and all the touring teams. Aedan, Eliki, Eddy & Barbs

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Referees

Progress on the reffing front:

Kevin, Doug and Irvin achieved level 1 badge at TnT 2022;
Irvin is heading to Grenoble to try for his level 2.

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Training

Recap:

32 short: hit your holes. Can't remember what your holes are? Ask around :D
33 back door. Keep trying it out in a game style environment (under pressure).
These were implemented in the tournaments and are beginning to become second nature.
2nd phase play off the above moves;

Upcoming:

Teams are made! the foxes and the badgers. Preparation for Touch and Tulips 2022 is beginning, your teammates need you at training.

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New member protocol

Get them on board with this info:

End of year discount now live!
First session is a trial session and lasts for 1 week. After that they can decide to sign up as a paying member;
Always welcome to try social Saturdays - keep an eye on the instagram for announcement;
Sign up to training/social events via website calendar (to avoid unforseen cancellations);
Membership options and payment on the website.

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