VIDEO: Gilas Pilipinas’ Guiao says twice-a-week training not enough for World Cup

Gilas Pilipinas men’s national team head coach Yeng Guiao admitted that having only two practice sessions per week won’t make the cut for a event with such magnitude like the 2019 FIBA World Cup.

“We are going to need more than twice a week to be able to make the players run the system by heart and instinctively. That requires a lot repetition and a lot of time,” said Guiao.

Eleven players suited up for practice last Thursday: Andray Blatche, Beau Belga, Poy Erram, Raymond Almazan, Troy Rosario, Gabe Norwood, Marcio Lassiter, Matthew Wright, CJ Perez, Roger Pogoy, and Kiefer Ravena. Japeth Aguilar and Stanley Pringle were present but were in street clothes.

“Meydo nararamdaman na namin yung pressure to get the team together with the players getting to know our patterns by heart,” added Guiao.

With the PBA Commissioner’s Cup still on-going, Guiao is wary of the problem they have, and they are just making the most out of the situation.

“Nagkakaproblema pa kami if we have twice a week practice. What we practice monday, we start over on a Thursday kasi nakakalimutan. Alam ko ung focus ng players nasa playoffs pa, nasa mother teams pa nila. it’s really difficult getting them to focus,” bared the NLEX Road Warriors mentor.

“Masyadong madalang yung twice a week for such a big responsibility.”