Australia- ASSV- Blog 2

My time with Arsenal Soccer Schools Victoria has come to an end, what an experience!

I spent my last 3 weeks coaching at the holiday programmes. Our last week working in Victoria was our first holiday programme in Altona in Melbourne. After the week was done it was time to say goodbye to our host families in Geelong and off we went to Newcastle in New South Wales where we ran 2 back to back holiday programmes. 

The holiday programmes were a totally different coaching experience to what we had been doing previously at clubs and schools. Unlike the soccer clinics where we would only be working with a group for one session or so, here we were allocated to one group for the whole week. As we had around 22 hours worth of coaching with our group it allowed me to understand each players game a lot more and give individual coaching points.When you’re working with a group for this length of time its not always easy to keep the intensity up. This is why it’s important to be flexible and adapt to what’s working or not.

Each day of the week there was a different footballing focus: Dribbling/Turning, Passing and Receiving the Ball, 1v1s and Shooting. I bet you can guess which days were their favourite. On friday we quickly re-capped what we had done throughout the week and this gave us the opportunity to repeat the kids favourite sessions. It’s important to run sessions which the kids enjoy, of course you need to do sessions which will improve their game, but it’s just as important that they want to come back each day!

I found that throughout the week the boys and girls grew a lot in confidence and their funny characters really came out. We loved teaching the kids a few chants- ‘SUPER, SUPER JACK….’ or ‘OHHHH SANTI CAZORLA’ always Arsenal players off course. Although, it does have to be said that we did come up with some good ones for the coaches, ‘Armando Sosa baby, Armando Sosa woooaahhhhh’ or the kids favourite ‘SEAN THE SHEEP’. I’m not mentioning mine!

Across the 3 weeks I was very fortunate with my groups. Each week I had a different age group. Firstly it was 10-14 y/o, then 8-10 y/o and in my final week it was 8 and below. This meant each week was a different challenge, both in terms of coaching and behavioural management. Thankfully though I had players that brought a lot of energy and wanted to learn.

One of mine and the kids favourite days was in Newcastle on the final day of the first holiday programme. The rain had turned areas of the field into mud baths- it looked like a typical Sunday league pitch in England!I knew the boys wouldn’t be as used to playing in these conditions as I am and I didn’t know how they would react to it. THEY LOVED IT!!! A rule in the match was that a goal only counted if a knee slide celebration followed. The presentation at the end was pretty funny!

Our final day in Newcastle had a great end to it. Every year the Arsenal Foundation organise a fun run to raise money to support their partner charities. These include charities such as Save the Children and the Willow Foundation. The run takes place all over the world and we decided to organise one ourselves  involving the kids on our programme in Newcastle! The kids ran for the first couple of laps around the pitch and we ran the whole 5K which was 17 laps around the pitch. This wasn’t easy considering my current fitness levels, but it was a fun way to finish our week off with the kids and of course all for a good cause. 

You can still donate to the just giving page here. Any donations would be really appreciated!

Whilst in Newcastle all of us coaches lived together (both the gappers and the ASSV coaches) in an apartment. This was a lot of fun and a great way to finish off our placement over here in Australia!!!

Whilst on this topic I would like to thank all the coaches we have worked with over here including: Sean, Thomy, Dickie, Jack, Aiden. I learnt a lot from you guys and it was a good laugh. 

I also want to thank Halil, Jamie and Beige for the opportunity to coach for ASSV. It was an invaluable experience for me as a coach and I hope to work with you again some time in the future!

A final mention also to my fellow gappers, Armando, Michael and Kerstin.  It was a great placement together, I’ll miss the car journeys and coaching with you guys!

After 12 incredible months in 3 different countries coaching thousands of children my placement with the Arsenal Gap Year Programme has come to an end. I’ve met so many people along the way, learning and experiencing so much- it is definitely a year I’ll never forget.

Thanks for reading!

 

Australia -ASSV- Blog 1

A month later and finally I have got round to blogging about my placement in Australia. Better late than never I guess!In our Stage 3 Placement we have come over to Australia to work with Arsenal Soccer Schools Victoria!!

Travelling with me was Armando again,(also with me in Mozambique) Arsenal just don’t want to separate this incredible duet. Also on the journey with us was Kerstin who we know very well from Stage 1 in London and the final man in our team Michael from the November intake of the gap programme was already in Australia!

In Africa on our Stage 2 placement we endured a couple of stressful and uncomfortable journeys, so our plane journey to Australia seemed like paradise for me. After a couple of films, drinks and a decent night sleep, the journey was over. We then met our main contact out here Halil, the next day he got us involved straight away as we took our first session at a community club. Afterwards he drove us down to Geelong to meet our host families . Each gapper has their own host family they live with during our time in Victoria. All the families have kids involved with Arsenal Soccer Schools and all live in Geelong, a big city about an hour south of Melbourne!

My host family are brilliant, they have been so welcoming and they honestly couldn’t do anything more for me. Parents Keith and Lesley are great, interesting people who always make sure I have everything I could ever need, there is always a dinner waiting for me when I come home from coaching. The youngest in the family is Annabel (9), a very sweet young girl, who is a lot of fun and could chat for Australia. Older brother Callum like Annabel plays for ASSV. Callum is a football fanatic, despite playing football for a little over a year, he has developed as a brilliant goalkeeper and the sky really is the limit for his football career. Callum is a Sunderland supporter due to his Dads background (at least you can’t say he’s a glory hunter) and loves a game of FIFA. Older brother Hamish (16) has a sporting background in AFL (Aussie Rules). Hamish is a great guy and it’s nice to be living with someone of a similar age to myself.  My host family have made the transition to living in Australia very easy for me.

I will give you a quick description of what Arsenal Soccer Schools Victoria does: ASSV runs weekly coaching programs in 3 different locations in Victoria: Berwick, Geelong and Springhills. In addition to this in the school holidays ASSV runs holiday programs. Furthermore it has a lot of connections with community clubs, sometimes taking up a technical directors role to improve the quality of the coaching sessions at these clubs.

We have been getting involved in a lot of the work that ASSV do!

In the day time we are often at primary schools running soccer clinics, helping to advertise the programs that ASSV run. These sessions are a lot of fun. Despite the fact that a lot of the kids are beginners to what we call football they call soccer (this is a constant battle), they always bring a lot of energy and effort to every session. I have found here that in general kids have a much better attitude towards sport than kids do in England. It also helps that their behaviour is mostly excellent and the equipment and space in the schools is much better than what I experienced when coaching in London.

In the evenings we are either coaching at one of the ASSV weekly programs or we are coaching at a community club. Because of our differing schedule, one of the challenges I have found is that we often will only coach a team once or twice. This can make it hard to prepare for sessions because we don’t know the ability or concentration levels yet of the players. What I have learnt to do is to arrive to a session with a focus e.g dribbling and have 3 different sessions plans based on that focus but of different complexity. Once I have assessed the group in my warm ups I will then select the most suitable session for the group.

I am trying to maximise my experience out here and learn as much as possible. Being in such a professional environment where parents are paying for the service ASSV provides, means there is no room for complacency. Every session has to be well planned, well executed and well reviewed to ensure that our next sessions are improved further. I have been picking up a lot of tips from the ASSV coaches. I have learnt how to structure my sessions better, as well as making my sessions look more professional. I would definitely say the experience is improving the quality of my coaching.

When coming out here I was a bit sceptical about the standard of football as Australia is more known for its sporting credentials in AFL, Cricket and Rugby.  But I have to say that the standard of football has impressed me a lot and I think the next generation of Socceroos will be much improved. More and more kids are making the switch from AFL to Football, parents are definitely encouraging their children to play what is considered as the safer sport. Because of this growth, way more opportunities are now becoming available for young players. I am really enjoying the opportunity to work with so many club teams and coach players who are determined to improve their game.

We have one more week of work in this format before we start the holiday programs, with the first one being held in Altona in Melbourne before we head off to Newcastle the following weekend where we will run two back to back weekly programs!

I don’t want to give the impression that it is all work out here, some of the things that me and the gappers have done outside of our schedule include:

• Driving down the phenomenal Great Ocean Road and exploring the nearby beach towns of Torquay and Lorne, unfortunately we are not at the right time of the year for it (as they are in their winter) but it is really cool to check out some of these gorgeous beaches.

• Exploring the city centre of Melbourne; the Vic Market, the South Bank, shopping in South Wharf, Hosier Lane, the big sports complex and going up 90 floors to the Eureka skydeck which gave us incredible views of Melbourne at night!

• Going to Anglesea Golf Club, where hundreds of Kangaroos chill out on the golf course!!!

• Watching 2 AFL games. The first one was at Etihad Stadium where Carlton blues inflicted a shock defeat on local team Geelong Cats. My second game was at the world famous MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) where the Collingwood Magpies got smashed by Adelaide Power. The sport has a very historical, popular recreational feel to it, with 36 players on at a time and the gigantic oval pitch. I understand most of the rules now and its a great watch. The athleticism of the players is beyond impressive!!

• Spending a weekend at Phillip Island, where we visited the Penguin Parade, Koala Conservation Centre and watched the waves crash against the famous Nobbies rocks!!

I have to say a big thank you to all the host families for making it possible for us to do all this in our spare time.

That’s all from me for now on the other side of the world!!!

Our Final Week In Mozambique!!!

I am writing this blog sitting on a nice comfortable couch in South Africa, and I can tell you that it is extremely weird being outside of the Mozambican life that we have become so accustomed too. Our last week was a perfect send off.

On Monday we started the week off by running a coach education session for the community coaches here. Deano would have been proud. We wanted to leave them with a few ideas and theories we learnt from our time in England. The attendees are very passionate about their coaching, and they were very attentive as our English was translated into Portuguese. We also gave them all copies of many coaching sessions to try out. I am sure they will try and use this information. After all it is their responsibility to produce a talented generation of Manican footballers.

The highlight of our last week for me was our final coaching sesssions with the kids. We finished them all with tournaments. In each session there were 4 teams in the tournament, and in every session they picked the exactly same set of teams to be; Real Madrid, Barcelona, Arsenal and of course Desportivo De Manica. I got mobbed by team Arsenal at the bull ring.

(Here is Renard noting down the scores of the tourament in the dust)

I was very emotional to say goodbye. I will miss their smiling faces as they play the game without a care in the world. This is where I truly realised the power of football, it doesnt matter how much money they have, the kit they have or where they play, if they have a football to run after with their mates they are happy. I will never forget these sessions. I had built a strong relationship with the kids. I loved arriving at the ground and seeing all the kids rush over to me as we messed about with the football before the start of the session.

From Arsenal In The Community I had a few small Arsenal shirts to give away. The look on their faces as I handed the the boys the shirts was truly priceless. They ran around the pitch as if it was the best thing that had ever happened to them. These kids are always wearing the same clothes and I know how much having a proper football shirt to play in will mean to them!

I just wish I had enough kit to give them all some. Over the years I have collected so many posters of Arsenal players from matchday programmes. Thankfully I was able to give everyone one. So it was nice to leave them with something, even such a small thing like a poster. The sessions all finished with a dance and a song, as my time with them finished in perfect African fashion

Of course this was the last week we spent with the first team. I will miss the players a lot, we had a lot of fun with them and I learnt so much from coaching them every day. I really hope that GDM goes onto have a strong season and that this team sticks together and goes on to do some great things!!

We had a brilliant last day as we played football at Futecho for the final time. I am really going to miss that pitch and the ridiculous view of the surrounding mountains. As we drove back from the pitch on the back of the truck, me and Albin watched the sunset for the last time in this beautiful country, it was as impressive as it had ever been!

We then had one last glorious feast at the clubhouse before we said our goodbyes. I will miss so many people here. I want to thank everyone at the club for making our time in Mozambique such an unforgettable and inspiring experience!

I have to say I will miss the warmth of the people in this country. It will be weird not saying hello to everyone we pass on the street. Being a part of a collectivistic community like this has been an experience I will keep with me forever!!

We made our trip back yesterday. Thankfully it was a smooth journey as it only took us a couple of hours to get through the border into South Africa. Making the total journey time 24 hours long, about 10 hours less than what it took the other way.

Today we have been sleeping and chilling as we gain our energy before we head to Kruger National Park tomorrow with our hosts here in South Africa. What a perfect way this will be to spend our last few days in Africa!!

 

 

 

 

 

Week 9/10: Malaria and our final Match Day Experience!!

Because I don’t want this blogpost to be a miserable read I won’t blag on too much about Week 9. This is because I had malaria.

After a restless night on Sunday, I knew with the symptoms showing, that I had malaria on the Monday morning. Thankfully I took the tablets needed to kill it straight away.This meant that I was able to destroy the malaria before it reached its peak.

(Armando’s problem a few weeks back, was that he didn’t take tablets straight away when symptoms showed as he wasn’t sure it was malaria. This meant malaria was at its peak before he started to treat it. Because he was very weak the recovery was then a lot tougher).

I spent a few days doing very little other than lying in my bed and feeling pretty crap, but by Thursday i had finished the medication and by the weekend I was feeling much better. I am very thankful for the quick recovery and to be fit and healthy now.

Having malaria was a big issue for me, but here it is extremely common. Every week a new player has malaria. Other than sleeping under a mosquito net they take no other precautionary measures. In most cases malaria isn’t a big problem because the medication is free and within a few days they will have recovered.

Malaria at infancy is a very different story though. Infants smaller bodies will find it harder to fight the infection, then if they do get sick hospital provision is very limited. This combination is extremely dangerous. Mortality rate of children under 1 year old is 73 in every 1000.

I was heartbroken a few days ago when I found out that one of the workers and a good friend of ours here called Liberty had just lost his very young child. How do you greet someone who has just had their world turned upside down?
This has truly made me realise how lucky I am to have the living conditions we have back home in England.

Anyway. Week 10 was a much more enjoyable week.
This week we gave Arsenal kit away (provided by Arsenal In The Community) to a range of different people we have met at the club. The workers here are always so welcoming towards us and most of them have a shortage in clothes, so we were delighted to be able to give them all an Arsenal shirt. Here is Armando and Albin with a few of the workers.

I was very happy to be back coaching again ahead of GDMs last game that we would be here for.

On Saturday we would do the GDM match day experience for the last time. The opposition was Pipeline FC from the nearby town of Chimoio.

Players arrive at the club house nice and early. Food is served, coaches and players tuck in to their chicken and spaghetti (very different to the usual food we eat here) to provide them with the energy needed.

Shortly after, we have a meeting with the players as we go over tactics and reveal the starting 11. After the team get their kit on, we walk together to our home ground, a short 10 minutes walk away.  During the warm up the players all wore the Arsenal shirts that we gave to them. I have to say that the squad was looking good. A final team huddle is the last thing we do before the first whistle.

After a first half where we played well and if more clinical would have seen us take the lead, we kept it nice and positive at half time. Soon after the restart, a through ball is over struck to our striker Datia but he somehow manages to nip in front of the goalkeeper and take a touch past him. CRASH, the goalkeeper wipes him out. Penalty!! New signing Mario calmly slots the ball into the right corner, sending the GK the wrong way. The crowd behind us went crazy. Kids sprint up to the players who are celebrating by dancing next to the corner flag, in a typical African football style!!!

Fans watched the goal from many different vantage points!!

Unfortunately after this goal instead of pushing on, we sat back. This invited pressure from Pipeline who eventually managed to get an equaliser. The game finished 1-1 and we wouldn’t leave with a win, but the performances are getting better as the team prepare for the start of the season. 

We invited the players to come out for a drink (not too many of course) at a nearby bar in the evening. Some of them can dance as well as they play football. This was a great way to finish off our last match day here in Mozambique.

We finished the week on Sunday by helping to run a tournament for local kids at Futecho. My job was to organise the fixtures, results and tables. This tournament had a slightly different twist to it though. Three points were available if you won the game, but three points were also available in each game for fair play. After a group stage we had a final between Real Madrid and Argentina. Both teams got 2 points in the game for fair play, but Argentina came out winners as they won the game 2-1.

We have less than a week left now in Mozambique. I am going to do my best to soak it all up, and enjoy the last few days with our African friends!!!

Week 7-8

Today I think I should tell you a bit about what we do outside of our coaching sessions.

Of course football is often involved. We play 5 a side matches with the guys who work here at the club. It’s never just a friendly kick about with them, but that’s just fine with me. It reminds me of the matches we used to play at the end of our coach education sessions in London .This location is a bit different though:

Week 5-6

It has been a couple of weeks since I last blogged. A lot has happened. Armando has beaten malaria and made a strong comeback, we said goodbye to fellow visitors Jake and Kinvara with a proper African send off and I have even been doing some DIY!!!

Week 4- Mozambique

It has been a tough week for us here in Mozambique.

Week 3- Mozambique

We have come to the end of week 3 now and I feel very much at home.

The 6.30 coaching starts, the barely bearable heat around noon, the sadza and fish for lunch, being called muzungu (white) by surprised kids, the rice and beans for dinner. All seem like the norm now.

Match Report- GDM 2-1 Depois Da Vitoria

We’re under a month away now from the start of the season here in Mozambique. After a couple of weeks of fitness and tactical training sessions we hoped we would see our plans start to come together in this friendly match.

Week 2- Mozambique

It’s been a great past week. We’ve really settled in to the Manica lifestyle and are enjoying ourselves more and more.

I think I should tell you in a bit more detail about the club and what our role is whilst we are here for the next 3 months.