Going into my upcoming soccer season. Sheesh, I can't remember how many seasons I have coached already. Maybe a dozen or so. I dunno. They were all fun and full of hard work. Monkey is getting a head start on her fitness part, which I stress very hard. I stress fitness, effort, teamwork and communication above skill. We work on skill too, but I focus on the other stuff and making sure the girls have fun while working their tails off. So monkey has been running, hiking and trail running. This morning was a hiking/trail running combo. And she does some body weight exercises at home. Monkey is fairly fit. Monkey is resting near the top with a friend who sometimes hikes and trail runs with her. Crashed near the helipad. So on our first practice this Friday, Indian runs, suicides and ladder drills before playing some games.
Ugh, I haven't thought of suicides since I played soccer. Tell her to hang in there, it will all be worth it when she scores. Since you like soccer-
Wife is wimping out on me. "It's raining, windy and cold! Shouldn't you cancel practice, Mr. Coach?" Me: "No." Weather like this will not cancel a game, so we practice. It has served us well before. We had a couple of games over the years with massive rain. And we were able to pull it out, when we fell behind in clear weather.
Nice day at practice yesterday. Monkey has been really helpful. With my plantar faciitis flaring back up and my old knee injury swelling up, she has been great in keeping the other girls going with drills and demonstrating things that I want them to do. But our team is grossly short handed and inexperienced. So I am focussing heavily in conditioning and communication. Hopefully, that will help with our teamwork. MUCH work to be done.
We have been practicing really hard and the girls' fitness and endurance is high. We are short handed every game and have no subs so they have to be. Monkey wiped out after practice. Very proud of the girls. We have been able to outrun the teams we have have played. We actually wore down the team we played today even though they had subs. Monkeys had yogurt afterwards. My post game snack. Leftover prime rib, lomi sea asparagus and Molokai sweet bread.
Monkey was really aggressive, even when she played keeper. She even came out of the penalty area to attack the attacking player quite a few times. Glad that didn't backfire!