Yesterday was easily one of the most enjoyable days of my long time in the sport when I conducted a coaching clinic on attacking skills at the GIF tournament in France. The players had played an all day tournament then backed up for the Sunday sesh with me :) What made the session so memorable & enjoyable for me was the wonderful enthusiasm & eagerness to learn & willingness to work from the different nationalities I was privileged to meet & work with. I have been working with the Switzerland Touch Association since I arrived last week & the clinic was primarily targeted to assist their teams in the preparation for the upcoming European Championships in July. To their credit the Swiss opened up the clinic to all players who wished to attend & I was particularly taken with the players from Spanish based club Valencia. These guys & girls are doing it a bit tough financially & the night before at the after party they were selling touch badges to help pay their way to the Euros. In an awesome show of goodwill Swiss touch allowed the Spanish contingent to attend the clinic for free & these guys just lapped it up. They are a very disciplined & hard working group who were just so coachable & wonderful in learning new techniques & putting them to use effectively. We needed to stop occasionally to allow translation of feedback & instructions (& my bad jokes of course) from English to the Spanish language to occur, but these guys took the opportunity to learn with both hands - coaches were furiously writing down notes and recording drills on their iPhones & asked more questions of me than Jonno Thurston asks a defensive line on a sticky Saturday night in the Ville :) It was a very warm morning in GIF & we has a lot to get through in a 2 hr block & all the players gave so much effort that it made me remember just why I love coaching so much :) The big smile when they get it right or correct perfectly a pass or a line they were running, the gentle banter between the Spaniards & the Swiss players in mini games & fun challenges, & the commitment to learning & enjoying the game was just gold :) The Spanish mens open coaches Jose & Federico (who are very switched on coaches & students of the game) would forgo their drinks breaks just so they could ask more questions of me & Jose was hustling around the field & saying to his players over & over Vamos! to hurry them along during & between drills so they didnt waste any of the time they had to learn. Both the Swiss & Spanish crew had these massive smiles on their faces all session - taking every bit of encouragement & feedback on board & it was just was such a brilliant experience :) I never take for granted the opportunities I have to work with any player or coach - whether they are Under 10s or Internationals, I respect them all the same & love coaching & helping people & I will always share & give generously of my time, my knowledge & my love of the game. The brotherhood of coaching means a lot to me. No one writes the book on anything & everyone has something to offer you so thats why its important to share our methods & ideas with others & put them forward so we can all grow & develop. This session showed me the value of this coaching philosophy & the need to share to make the sport truly global. These guys also reminded me that there are a lot of awesome people out there who value what you bring, respect your talent & appreciate your efforts. At the end of the session the boys hung around & I kept answering their questions & they said when are you leaving, our train doesnt leave until 5pm - we would be out here all day if you wanted us to, we have just learnt so much & want to work more & more with you I would have gladly spent all day with these gorgeous people if we were not needing to leave to catch the train back to Paris. I was just buzzing at their love & passion for learning & I am very much looking forward to continuing to help these guys & everyone else out whenever they need me :) Federico Black Jose Delgado
Posted on: Mon, 09 Jun 2014 13:47:18 +0000
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