Four Footie camps, 3 walking football sessions and a new temporary venue ( for one night only)
Frankly last week was fun.
Mind you most weeks at Enjoy Football are fun, but last week we met more new people than we could have imagined. We've seen some old faces, most not old old, but some well yes older. You get the drift and if not then I could be in trouble. But we've seen lots of new faces.
We started the week at our footie camp at Evelyn Street. It's great to coach the kids who have been to previous camps as we get to see how they are developing but it's fantastic meeting some new players and seeing if we can help them in any way to develop their skills. We got
quite a few newbies on both days and it seemed like everyone had know each other for ever.
Tuesday as well as footie camp, we had our usual Walking Football session at Birchwood. This is always good for a laugh and this week was no exception, with a couple of new/older faces added to the equation. This venue is growing each week which is pleasing to see so we must be doing something right.
Wednesday took us to Winwick with part 2 of our footie camps. It was pleasing to see that we had a full list of new players - bar 1 - to coach and help. I must confess it was a bit muddy on day one and with 2 keepers rolling around in the mud it was quite messy.
Wednesday night was a bit of a change as we held our usual Walking Football session at a different venue as the normal one is having a revamp. The venue is a little smaller than normal and it was like turning the clock back 40 years as this was at my old school an the gym hadn't changed. In fact it still smelled of the same sweaty jockstrap wooden flooring polish smell. however a couple of new faces to us. ( I didn't get to take pics as I was playing but I thought add to the description with a pic of the said gym). One convert new to the game and one from games past. Fast and furious is not a description I would have given a game of walking football, but it was.
Thursday we returned to Winwick for day 2 of camp. A couple of players from our first camp there had returned, together with 6 from the previous day, and it was wonderful to see them back bringing enthusiasm and a little maturity with them. We had children from aged 5 - 10 playing in teams with the older kids encouraging and involving the younger ones in the play. There is hope in humanity after all.
From Winwick I lurched over to my other coaching job which is my under 13 team at Whittle Hall JFC. They get a mention here although not part of Enjoy Football, some of them did do a bit of futsal with us, they added to the frantic nature of the enjoyable week by probably having one of the best sessions they have had for a while. It's hard trying to get out of a rut of getting beaten each week sometimes heavily and confidence is low, but hopefully we can keep the momentum going from the session.( rider : at the time of writing this was the position but I'm pleased to say that we won on Sunday).
Lastly onto Friday and our Wargrave Walking Football session. This has been a hard nut to crack and has been slow burning over the last 6 weeks. But with some new blood, literally as one new convert turned up fell over and cut his arm, we got a game going and had a good laugh.
I really enjoy our Walking Football sessions as they are played as it should be played, with good humour, honesty and a bit of good footie thrown in, We don't take ourselves seriously and play to enjoy.
So there we are, great week all around.
Looking forward to the near future and 2018, we are aiming to have coaching sessions for the younger kids Women's only Walking Football sessions, football parties, more walking football venues and more football Camps. So if any of these take your fancy, let us know and we'll try to sort something for you because of course, we're here to Enjoy Football.
See you soon
Dave