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.
So GDM are a professional football club here in Mozambique and play in the 2nd division. However, it’s very different to other professional football clubs. The motto of the club is Vida Real, which means ‘real life’. In order for players of the club to earn a salary, they have to do much more than just train and play matches. The players are given a responsibility to help improve the lives of those in the local community. This is often through providing free community football sessions, (which take place all over Manica every day) after they train, but also through other methods such as helping at the clubs gardens. The club want the players to develop as people as well as players, as they develop life skills which they can continue to use once finished with their football career.
Furthermore the club provides lessons to the community in different subjects such as English, IT and other life skills. There is also a social hub which the community can use, this place is best when it’s packed out and buzzing for a big football game that is being shown. To find out more about what the club does visit their website at: http://www.fcmanica.com/.
Our role is to help the club with all their projects as best as possible. In the mornings tuesday-friday, me and Albin have been coaching the u17s who have sessions at 6.30-8. Also this week Pingy, the head coach has given us a lot of responsibility of the first team sessions which start at 8.30 and finish at around 10. 30. Last week we were giving him advice about the sessions and the team. However, this week we have been given the task to plan and carry out the first team sessions with help from the other coaches with translations. This opportunity to implement some of the knowledge we have learnt in coach education in London to a high performing team is brilliant. This week we have been working on build up play and pressing.
After a few hours of coaching in the morning, in the afternoon we do more coaching but this time it’s for kids in the community. We have been given a schedule and each day I go to a different session along with one of the first team players. Here we normally lead the sessions and the first team players take note of our sessions and other ideas we have, to use when we are not there as they coach the same kids every day. These sessions can be challenging as sometimes equipment and space is limited, but the kids play the game in great spirit and it’s great fun. These sessions are a great way to explore the area as they are spread out in all the different villages here, which are often up in the mountains. I love it at the end when the coach will lead a song and the kids respond by joining in and dancing. Apart from when they make me dance, which certainly isn’t one of my strongpoints, I think I need a bit of practise on that front.
When not coaching we will often be helping other projects at the club. Most days I have been leading English lessons that are provided at the club for the community. This has been harder than I would have anticipated but nonetheless an experience I am sure I will gain a lot from. We have also helped at the clubs garden, which provides food for those that live at the clubhouse.
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this snapshot of what we are doing to help this great club. I will continue to blog about our adventures and some of the memories we are collecting whilst here. Tomorrow I will provide a quick match report of how GDMs first friendly game of pre season went.
That’s all from me for now!!