Day 64

Day 64

Soccer clinic day!!

Joe picked us up by Berghof at 7:45 to make our way down to Italian club for the soccer clinic!

We arrived and instantly set up our exercises we had planned out. Shooting on the astro, dribbling on the grass and control also on the grass! Our coaches today were Jeff,myself, Dourey, Keith and Alex. I took the shooting with Dourey, Jeff took dribbling and Alex took control with Keith alternating between control and dribbling.

8:30 was the designate registration time and it came around very fast! We had some of the kids from the local area of Brooklyn however the boys who were coming from Gugulethu were not here yet and the 9:00 start time soon crept around! We had arranged for 60 kids to attend the session, 30 kids from Gugulethu and 30 from Atlantic soccer club and the local area. So the thought of not having them there and the transport being unreliable was quite frustrating! I felt for the boys especially, quite sad. The Boys kicked around and kept themselves entertained up until about 9:30 before we had heard that the man who was meant to be transporting them from Gugulethu to Brooklyn had not done so. We had a count up and saw we had 35 boys to work with. Not bad, 11/12 in each session. Still workable!

We cracked on with the soccer clinic at 9:45 after we had organised groups, spoke to the boys about how the day would go and generally told them to enjoy the soccer clinc! Each coach took the warm up of Arsenal command on their pitches. Arsenal command is a warm up that involvs stretches and movements relevant to arsenal player names. For example.. Mertesacker is a tall defender so you do a big jumping header, Walcott is fast so you do a sprint on the spot and so on and so on. This lasted 10 minutes and it was now time to crack on with our sessions!

Each session took around 40 minutes and everything seemed to be going well despite the hiccup. The 35 boys we had soon turned to 63 though as a big bus of boys from a team, who's name I can't remember, turned up! So at the end of the day if that team AND the Gugulethu boys turned up potentially we could have had 93 boys! Good job we didn't, it would of been crazy and would of thrown things in the air big time! This was brilliant as they came just at the end of the first session. This meant they could still join in the first session and take part in the remaining two! Nice!

After all the boys took part in the sessions it was 12:30 and we had all agreed to scrap the end of day tournament we had planned to do. Throughout the day jeff, myself and Dourey had been keeping an eye out for boys who had showed good team work, effort, skills and solid participation! We would then ask their names and they would be the boys who would win some arsenal merchandise as a prize! Lucky boys! Jeff and I thanked all the boys for coming down, thanked Italian club for allowing us to use the facilities, thanked the coaches who helped us and wished them all the best In the future! Afterwards we were mobbed by the participants asking us for photos and to sign their boots, shirts, hats, bags and all sorts! It was madness, I felt like a celebrity! Prior to the talk at the end I signed 65 certificates,which the boys got for attending the clinic, so my signature was autonomous at that time!

After a long day we headed to the restaurant in the Italian club who supplied us with heaps of amazing tasting pasta! Much needed.  

Joe took us to his house an hour or so later where we was then offered to go to Vinolia's dad's neighbourhood to visit him and his family! I think the place was called Macassa, excuse me if I've got the name and spelling wrong! More importantly though, it was time for Jeff's big moment!! A HAIRCUT! It was 3 months since his last one and he couldn't wait to get it cut. His choice of haircut was "bald around the sides and leave the top". It led to a shambolic result in the eyes of the Africa and Kemp family but both jeff and I think it looks pretty cool. He had a quiff thing going on earlier and he looked like Zayn Malik from one direction or Coutinho from Liverpool! I did my hair in a Nicklas Bendtner pony tail for the first time today. Or as Lourens described it.. A "David Beckham!" From 2003! My hair is super long but I had been aiming to do that kind of hairstyle for a while. A new country, a new hairstyle.. Might aswell!

An awesome day today, really enjoyed it. The soccer clinic was a huge success despite a shaky start and I enjoyed my time in the outskirts of Cape Town with Vinolia's family! Surfing tomorrow with Louren and a family friend called Bruce. Can't wait!!!! Could be potentially going to do a cheetah experience afterwards took! YOHHHH! (An Afrikaans way of saying wow or gasping in amazement kind of thing)

All the best

Luke

PS thanks to mum and dad for sending over a pack of goodies and treats for me! Got it yesterday morning.