TODAY WAS OUR FIRST DAY ON THE FIELD WITH THE GIRLS!! You cannot begin to comprehend my excitement... Literally I spent the entire night tossing and turning, completely and utterly restless with the anticipation of the day ahead! Along the entire drive to El Alto and as the girls began to congregate at the registration table I could feel the tingling of enchantment from my fingertips to the pit of my stomach anxiously waiting for the training session to begin. All of the student coaches spent the first 15 minutes post arrival at the fields cleaning up, mainly focusing on getting a lot of the largest rocks off of the field. It is shocking the situation this community has been in when it comes to the surface and facility they are forced to play upon. Even though clearing their pitch was a small, nearly effortless act, I think that if each day we put a few minutes aside to toss a few rocks off to the side, we could make a pretty positive difference in their playing situation.
Obviously the first day of any program, or any day for that matter, will have it's hiccups, ultimately Day 1 was a HUGE success! How this works is of the 8 student coaches, we were each split into pairs and assigned two different training sessions with a different technical focus and life lesson to base the practice around each time. If you are not the leading coach a specific day, your job is to perform demonstrations and assist all else that needs to be done so the practice runs as smoothly as possible and all information is conveyed correctly. The main focus for today was dribbling, however, our thematic priority was confidence. After a full day with these girls I can already see how beautiful they are as people and I am thoroughly looking forward to getting to know them, at least a few, on a much more personal level.
Obviously the first day of any program, or any day for that matter, will have it's hiccups, ultimately Day 1 was a HUGE success! How this works is of the 8 student coaches, we were each split into pairs and assigned two different training sessions with a different technical focus and life lesson to base the practice around each time. If you are not the leading coach a specific day, your job is to perform demonstrations and assist all else that needs to be done so the practice runs as smoothly as possible and all information is conveyed correctly. The main focus for today was dribbling, however, our thematic priority was confidence. After a full day with these girls I can already see how beautiful they are as people and I am thoroughly looking forward to getting to know them, at least a few, on a much more personal level.
After sitting down to lunch with the campers (keep in mind up until this point we have only been able to communicate in the Spanish Language, we split into two groups and made our way into adjacent classrooms to begin daily ESL (English as a second language) classes. Within this forum, each student coach is assigned two days in which they will assist either Craig or David, the LPF co-founders and head ESL instructors. Today went really well! The photo at the left of your screen was today's lesson. We kept things pretty simple today, surface stuff, but will continue to immerse them more in depth in the upcoming days.
In addition to all this excitement, we had a match scheduled against a local women's footsaul team who are currently training in preparation for the national competition here in Bolivia. I won't go into too much detail on that subject considering the result, however, I will say that we have a rematch scheduled for Thursday and are playing for keeps this time!
In addition to all this excitement, we had a match scheduled against a local women's footsaul team who are currently training in preparation for the national competition here in Bolivia. I won't go into too much detail on that subject considering the result, however, I will say that we have a rematch scheduled for Thursday and are playing for keeps this time!