Interview

Q::Can you give us a brief analysis of our national representative team in terms of their weakness and strength?

A:: If the men team does not look down on their competitor, they definitely will win the championship. Even if so, we still need to develop and learn more advanced skills to cope with the up coming games. For general skills are well known by every team, new skills help our team be more competitive.

I am concerned about our woman team though. There is a gap between university and high school in Tchoukball development. Those recommended male high school students might be given entrance admission to some universities. There are even no high school Tchoukball female teams in Taiwan. This is a serious problem which needs government's assistance to solve. I estimate that our female team probably will lose to Switzerland's female team for two reasons. First is what I mention the gap problem of Tchoukball development. Second is the aggressive way how Switzerland's female team plays the ball. They take their competitor as male players, so they even throw their body to catch a ball. They are even tougher than male teams.

Q::Which teams do you think will probably win the prizes in the Tchoukbal matches of World Games 2009?

A:: As we all know that the teams, selected from Intercontinental Cup held in this year, are the best team from Asia, Europe, and America respectively. If my estimation is correct, Taiwan men team is going to win the championship, and then follows the Canada (Canadian team learns a lot form Taiwan), Switzerland, Britain and Singapore. One thing we should be cautious is that now the development of Tchoukball sport has been vigorously promoted all over the world. The development of Tchoukball sport in Asia is steadily growing. There are 15 countries actively promoting all kinds of Tchoukball activities in Asia. Among these countries, Singapore shows great ambition to improve their Tchoukball team, though they are second to Taiwan at present . Therefore, they invite our teams and coaches to help with their national training programs. I try to persuade our coaches to share experiences with them and not to be reluctant to teach them techniques or skills we have. I think sharing makes progressing.

And I think, for female teams, Switzerland is going to win the first prize, and then comes with Taiwan, Canada, Britain and finally Singapore. But there is still some time until the World Games 2009, Singapore still has the chance to beat the Britain based on their new way of training. Now they have 4-time training a week. It's rare and you can see how ambitious they are.

Q::Can you talk about your tasks involve in the Tchoukball matches of World Games 2009？

A:: I work as TD(technical delegates) of FITB(International Tchoukball Federation). TD represents FITB to ensure all the matches follow the regulation approved by FITB. I also assist in conducting the international games. I do learn some experiences from hosting several internal games and these experiences are probably precious to those who are in charge of the World Games but not familiar with the arrangement of international sport events.

The principal Yuan-Chong Elementary school is experienced in hosting Tchoukball games. He organizes a committee in charge of all the affairs relating to the games. Last time, we got a reputation and good response from many countries after hosting a successful Warm-up Tchoukball game of 2009 World Games. Hopefully, we can reach another climax in holding the Tchoukball sport events.

Q::Which country do you think is effectively promoting the development of Tchoukball？ Is there anything we can learn from?

A:: I think Swiss is the best. They recognize the educational purpose of Tchoukball and have several promoting groups. They have more than 20 Tchoukball clubs. The government endows instruction fun if they participate in Tchoukball games. This sport will prevail in the world in the near future. I hope our government could totally subsidize the national team for participating overseas competition. Once we participated in an international game in Switzerland, but are forced to stay in an air-raid shelter due to insufficient subsidy. We can't afford to stay in hotels. We had to bring food cans and rice cookers to cook by ourselves. You can see how poor we were.

Besides, we may also learn from Canada. Almost all the enterprises in Canada support the Tchoukball development. The Canadian delegation team is consisted of school teachers. They help the enterprises make money by promoting Tchoukball development at school, and the enterprises donate to subsidize the teams and sport events. These are all precious experiences we can learn from.

Q::What do you expect for the future Tchoukball development in Taiwan?

A:: When I promote Tchoukball development, I get a vision. Many people join me and come to my assistance when they see how I am dedicated to this sport. For example, after the president of Hong Kong Tchoukball Association visited my website and viewed the electronic newspaper I have issued for three years, which has had five or six hundred issues until now, he is so impressed that he talked to me and show great enthusiasm to boost the Tchoukball development in Hong Kong. Then he started to promote this sport by asking handball players and teachers to learn Tchoukball and hosted a Tchoukball competition. At the same time, he invited Macao players to watch this contest and try to introduce Tchoukball to Macao. A professo r of Pingdong Normal University saw how I am promoting the Tchoukball, he would like to hold a Tchoukball workshop, a short-term training for referees and coaches and even a Tchoukball academic seminar.

Mr. Chen Guangxiong, the professor of physical education department in Tainan University also gives me a lot of help because he knows how much effort I am devoted to the development of this sport. I also appreciate those staff that helped me with the preparation of Tchoukball International Tournament Championship. I was so touched by how voluntary and enthusiastic they were when they came to assistance because they are as well affected by my devoted effort. Therefore I think that Tchoukball must have given those who are into this sport a hope. I can see there is a bright future for Tchoukball. That's the drive that keeps me going so far. As long as people in FITB, in Taiwan Tchoukball Association work attentively and diligently in every aspect, our achievement will be witnessed and recorded in the history of Tchoukball development.