The Philippine volleyball teams are gearing up for the 31st Southeast Asian Games in Hanoi, Vietnam in May by setting up training camps in Qatar for the men's squad and Brazil for the women' squad.
Philippine National Volleyball Federation (PNVF) president Tats Suzara bared the development during the contract signing of a partnership deal between the PNVF and PLDT in the hopes of bolstering the teams' gelling for the SEA Games as well as future campaigns of the federation.
Suzara said the Philippine squad is on the way to "changing its landscape" by moving out of their comfort zones, citing that the national team had been holding training camps around Asia only.
"We are going towards a different direction on bringing our national teams on different parts of the globe," said Suzara. "We on Asia -- Japan, China, Thailand -- but this month we're focusing on different countries."
The men's team, led by team captain John Vic De Guzman, will travel to Qatar next week while the women's squad, spearheaded by Aby Marano, who also suits up for F2 Logistics, will hold its training camp in Brazil after concluding the 2022 Premier Volleyball League next month.
In the 2019 edition of the SEA Games here in the Philippines, the men's team captured its historic silver medal after yielding to reigning champions Indonesia in straight sets while the women's squad fell at the hands of Indonesia in the bronze medal match.
Indonesia also placed third in women's play while Thailand bested Vietnam to capture the gold medal in the women's campaign. The men's Thai team also followed suit at third place.
"We go to Europe and South America to make a change. Hindi na 'yong puro Asia. For them to experience what the European way of playing volleyball and the South American way of playing volleyball," added the PNVF chief.
Meanwhile, the Philippine beach volleyball teams are currently training in Brisbane, Australia in preparation also for the SEA Games. Both the women's and men's team settled for the bronze medal in the sands.