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nowing that Thailand is still one of the teams to beat in Southeast Asia, Indonesia’s volleyball teams are doing their best to make one of the top-three podium positions during the 26th SEA Games, which will be held in November in Jakarta and Palembang, South Sumatra.

Dadang admitted that outclassing Thailand and their solid teamwork was a tall order for his team.

Thailand recently finished fifth place in the 2011 Asian Men’s Club Volleyball Championship in Palembang last month. Indonesia took sixth place after Iran (gold), Kazakhstan (silver), China (bronze), Japan and Thailand.

“Thailand is still above us. Vietnam is on the same level with our team, while Myanmar is slightly below us,” men’s team assistant coach Dadang Sudrajat said on the sideline of the opening ceremony for the Sentul volleyball national training camp’s newly-renovated hall in West Java on Thursday.

“However, we can’t predict anything just yet for the Games, as we will have to see them [Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar] playing in Iran,” he added, citing the 16th Asian Men’s Championship in Tehran on Sept. 21-29.

The Indonesian men’s team is currently at 120 percent capacity, with 14 players in the isolated national training camp in Sentul since February. The team will reduce to 12 by end of August.

Dadang said his boys would fly for Tehran on Sept. 18 to get ready. The Iran championship will be the second tryout for the men’s team after the Palembang championship.

“Currently, we are ranked sixth in Asia after Japan, Iran, South Korea, China and Kazakhstan. Hopefully we can finish at least in eighth place,” he added.

Dadang said that his boys’ poor performance in Palembang was due to limited training.

“At that time, we had very little time to practice because the schedule was so close with Proliga league and the President’s Cup tourney. We also just welcomed several new players, so we did a lot of adaptation instead,” he added.

After the Iran event, the men’s team will have another test in China, which is probably set to be held in October.

One of the principal members of Indonesia’s men’s team, Andri, said that he and the boys learned a lot at the Palembang event.

 “We still need to improve our blocks and receiving, as we did it poorly in Palembang … As for the Iran championship, I think the competition will be tighter because all of the participating teams are national squads, unlike the club-level Palembang tourney,” he added.

In the women’s side, coach Viktor Laiyan said he would push his team to take at least the bronze at the Games by defeating either Vietnam or the Philippines. However, he also hoped that being the host nation would somehow give his team a miracle boost for a run at the gold.

“Thailand is way past us. We have to have some extra fight for Vietnam, because we once beat the Philippines 3-1 in a recent tryout match,” said Viktor, former player men’s national team.

Viktor added that the first thing that needed to be done was solid cooperation among players.

“Our team will consist of both senior and junior players,” Viktor said, adding that his 14-player team would be reduced to 12 by end of the month.

Viktor hoped that all 14 players would have a chance to tryout at the Asian Women’s Senior Championship in China-Taipei from Sept. 15-23, as well as at the Asian Championships in the Philippines from Oct. 2-13.

“But I still don’t know whether it would happen. I really wish that the junior players can have an opportunity for the Philippines event, as it would boost their morale in international events,” he added.