New Country . . New Home!!

Week 1 Augusto 20 - 25

I am now in Cornella (Barcelona) Spain staying at the tennis academy dormitory. I have adjusted well to the Spanish style of play. It was kind of hard to adjust to the type of foods they eat but it has slowly gotten better.

I have met many new friends in the dorms and on my team.  Some training sessions have been very difficult while others are easy.  For warm ups we run for many many laps for at least 10 minutes and after that we stretch after every exercise. 

 

We have had training sessions where we run for 20 mins rest for 5mins and then run another 20mins, rest and finally run a last 20 mins session. This run is around the RCD Espanyol Stadium which is right next to the Cornella Stadium.  To finish off we have sprint contests against each other. It is so hot here in Spain and we are forced to take lots of water breaks.  Comparing it to BAA all  I can say that all my teammates give 110% and are very good.  Everyone on the team has technical ability and are really tactical in their play. 

 

Sunday Agosto 26

I  played my first pre-season games today. Lucky enough I was chosen to play on the "A" team and then play on my regular "B" team. We played against older opposition and the score was 3-1 to the older guys. It was very hot and I did get a bit tired, but it is training once again tomorrow. . . no rest!

 

Week 2 Agosto 27 - Septiembre 2 Monday - Friday

Training again at 10:00am till 11:45am.  We worked on our positional play and then worked on a few shooting drills. After training we usual go back to the dorms and rest before lunch.  When we are not training we hang out with my dorm friends Tyree,Tom (tennis player), Arturo, Knory, Enrique, and Jahkari playing football on the tennis courts or paddle tennis, or swimming in the pool.  There is always something going on at the tennis academy.  Just this week there was a tennis tournament and there was so many people playing in the tournament.

 

Saturday & Sunday

Played my second game for Cornella and we lost 2-0 to a team that was older and bigger than us.  I came on in the 2nd half and played in the midfield. It was really hot but after a few minutes the heat was not on my mind any more.  They had some really big guys on their team and they were really fast.  I had two shots on goal and the keeper made good saves of both of them. I think I played well but I know I can get better!

 

Sunday we travelled to another field and played our 3rd pre-season game against a team called IIdefons.  I started on the bench and came on the 2nd half.  When I came on I was in the midfield and played pretty well.  We ended up winning the game 3-0 our first victory of the pre-season and all of my team mates were so happy!  I feel that I am getting stronger and fitter with all this training. The seasons starts in 2 weeks, so I have plenty of time to get even better!