IFF GoGirls! Ambassador Amanda Yeap (SGP) – 23.10.2017

Amanda Yeap is 23 years old and plays for the NUS Titans Floorball Club in Singapore. She has been playing floorball since 2011 and is pursuing a full-time degree in Accountancy at Singapore Management University while working part-time in school.

How does Men’s Floorball and Women’s floorball differ in your country?
- To be honest, there’s not many differences. The only difference is probably that the men have one more division in the league than the women.

How do you practice floorball?
- Currently, I am playing floorball about 5-6 times a week due to school/club/national trainings and games and that comes down to about 12 to 15 hours a week.

How did you become a national team player?
- In 2014, I went for the open trials held for the Singapore Women’s Floorball Team in anticipation of APAC 2015. Even though I did not make the team at that time, I stayed on in the national training squad to work on the areas I was lacking in and recently represented Singapore at AOFC 2017. 

What has been the most peculiar situation that has happened to you during a floorball match?
- The most out of the ordinary thing that happened to me was when I got hit directly in one eye by a ball. The player was going to lift the ball and I think I was about 1-1.5m in front of her when she lifted and (bam!) I fell to the ground clutching my eye. It became really purple after that and I bet strangers who saw me on public transport might have thought I was abused or punched by someone (haha!).

How will you prepare for the WFC?
- Individually, once the Singapore University Games and Singapore Floorball League ends, I will have more time on my own and will be clocking in time for stick work, taking inspiration from the videos I see on social media, as well as individual runs to build up stamina.
As a team, we are currently making sure that everyone stays injury-free amidst this intensive period of multiple trainings and competitions. We will also be having a local training camp coming up soon.

Gary Wong from Singapore Floorball Association also told us a bit about Women’s floorball in Singapore. It´s important to Singapore Floorball Association to increase more participation from the female players and to give an equal opportunity to all.
- Currently, we have the league tournament that comprises 3 Women’s Division to encourage more female players. We could be looking at expanding more division to cater for the growth of female players. Apart from the league, we do have schools’ tournaments that encourages female players. The age group of female players at schools’ tournaments are from 10 – 25 years old.
We do cater to leisure group as well. We have a couple of floorball academy set up to target the younger group of players. We introduced the sport to companies too and get them involved with the sport, including the female players, to get them be active outside the working hours. Carnivals and mini competition are also being held to increase the participation rate.

Do you have coaching or referee programmes for women and girls?
- At the moment, both these programmes are open to all gender. We do not restrict the gender participation. We believe it works well as different genders may view the game differently and through sharing sessions, both parties could benefit and improve the sport.