Day 60

Day 60.

Today we started at 2:00, our first session being at De Waveren. We managed to get a nice lay in till about 9:30 and then just planned for our day ahead.

We found a nice scenic walk to the station which we came across by chance! We hopped on the train to Wellington via Stellenbosch and made our way to the support office.

Our first session was at de Waveren secondary school which is a 5 minute walk from the office! Happy days. We had been told that the Ruyterwacht and Sakkabula action soccer teams had been invited to join in so we planned session for around 30. However, none of the action soccer players turned up so a only had 16 players to do a session for! No worries though, still a nice number! We did the chicken or hero warm up which we did last week! This was their choice and as soon as they saw us they asked "are we doing chicken or hero today?". We let them have their way and decided to change our plan and do what they asked. They're quite a rowdy group so we tried to start the session off well by letting them take part in something they enjoyed. However, to make it a bit more difficult.. The catchers in the middle had to dribble with a ball trying whilst trying to catch the runners. We did this because our session was based on dribbling!

Our exercise session was a game called 1v1 gladiators. Just like in the TV show gladiators you have to try and get past the 'defenders' without getting caught. In football relation, we changed to if you got tackled you were caught! Each defender had a zone. If you get past the first defender it's 1 point, the second was 2 points and then if you got past the third and final defender.. 3 points! After a while we progressed it to 2v1, same format but you're in pairs! Whoever gives the ball away out of the two.. swapped with the defender that tackled them and then the defender who left grid would now be the other persons new partner. If that makes sense..! It was quite a frustrating session as the boys aren't the best behaved bunch and argue about anything and everything!

Our second appointment was in Brooklyn at Atlantic soccer club who have training sessions every day. We have been there quite a few times and have trained a variety of age groups. Today we got to train the under 16's who are our favourite group! Some very talented players and very respectful players too which is always nice for a coach to have a well mannered group. We did an attack vs defence drill where we was constantly changing the amount of defenders and attackers. For example 4v4, 2v1, 3v2 and so on and so on! We had planned to do a game called risky business but ran out of time. So to finish we did a crossbar challenge. That was hilarious and the reactions of some boys when others scored or miss was good to get on film. I tried to film each person to see if they would get it and I promised i would put them on YouTube! Both Jeff and I had a go at the end. Both hitting it just over, which obviously  resulted in a lot of slating and banter being given out! Another awesome session at Atlantic, never fails to disappoint! Back there on Thursday.

Arsenal v Bayern Munich tonight! Come on you reds. I think it's on ETV so hopefully we'll be able to watch it at home.

All the best

Luke