We’re on the last leg of our countdown towards the SEA Games! I’ll be flying off to KL this Saturday with my teammates and the rest of our hockey contingent – our first match will be on Monday!

When I started this blog series three weeks ago, I felt pretty calm when thinking about the upcoming Games, since this wouldn’t be my first regional competition. But right now, it seems like the nerves are finally setting in. I’m feeling the heat, since we’re only a few days from departing for KL.

In these recent weeks, my team and I have gone on training trips for friendly matches, to give ourselves as much game time as possible. Even when we were in Singapore, we’d play with local clubs and teams to give ourselves more practice. These friendly games helped us to hone our gameplay and teamwork, and also looks to provide us some momentum leading up to our opening game in KL.

With practice, matches, and training trips, our schedule is packed and I would be lying if I said it hasn’t been taxing, especially since many of us are working and studying full-time while training for the SEA Games.

Photo: Instagram.com/Lauratsr

As a team, we haven’t openly spoken about our performances recently, but I can tell that everyone is feeling the pressure as we draw closer to the Games. We’ve been keeping positive on and off the pitch though!

Since our competition at the SEA Games works in a round robin format, we’ll be playing with every participating country - Myanmar, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. To me, all the teams have medal potential, which makes this SEA Games even more challenging.

Frankly it’s a little more unnerving personally for the matches against Myanmar and Indonesia because we rarely compete against them in competitions, so I’m not entirely sure what to expect. For Malaysia and Thailand though, we’ve played against them multiple times, so we are more familiar with their strengths and weaknesses.

Photo: Instagram.com/Lauratsr

With younger players joining the squad this SEA Games, I think we have a good chance of performing well on the pitch, and hopefully we’ll be in good form when opening day comes.

To my team - I’m confident that we’ll be strong and put in our best against our opponents next week. Let’s show them the #OneTeamSG fighting spirit! We’ll be playing Myanmar next Monday in our first SEA Games match, and I hope everyone back home will be supporting us!

Thanks for reading my blog entries over the past few weeks, and following my preparations for the KL SEA Games! For the latest updates on our fixtures and results in KL, follow the @Team Singapore Facebook page and my Instagram account (@Lauratsr)!